The Eastern Invasion since version 1.18

[Traumflug]

Hello!

there's an Eastern Invasion walkthrough in the wiki and an older forum thread for discussing this campaign. The latter is linked in the wiki, but also locked, can't add more recent experience. That's a bit unfortunate, IMHO, as these campaign threads appear to have kind of an official status and are quite helpful if one gets stuck.

Anyways. This campaign changed drastically with version 1.18, replays from earlier versions are barely recognizable as being part of the same campaign. Which makes me feel I should add a couple of remarks and replays here.

All replays were played with Biased RNG (experimental) and difficulty Invasion (5x enemies) ( = Hard). I hope you don't mind all replays are in German (excellent translations, BTW!).

Scenario 11: Evacuation

This is one of the scenarios where enemies are so plentiful that fighting them makes no sense. I tried and even managed to kill the southern leader. At that point own troops are exhausted, there is no opportunity for healing, enemies are still in a vast majority and turns run out.

Key here is to provide 2 or 3 troops with a strong defence as fodder. Iron Maulers are ideal for this, as they can take a lot of hits and are not crucial in the upcoming scenarios. This slows down these Wolves coming from the north east. Remaining troops should run as fast as possible the towards the bridge, still keeping the line. Let no enemy appear in the west of your troops; which is why this fodder is crucial, Wolves can outrun almost every human unit.

The number of collective hits isn't defined by the number of enemies around, but by length of your line towards this enemy. It doesn't matter whether enemies pile up in 2, 3 or 4 rows in front of that line. Killing a number of enemies doesn't change that (un-)balance either, so don't kill. A fact which is important to recognize later in scenario Weldyn Under Attack as well.

At the bridge, send over beaten troops first, reducing your presence on the eastern side turn by turn. Not even flying enemies follow to the western side. For entertainment you can deliberately run out of turns, losing this way comes with a beautiful spectacle.

EI-Evakuierung Aufzeichnung 20250418-034820.gz

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Scenario 13: The Drowned Plains

What the wiki walkthrough doesn't mention here: there are not only numerous Undead in all these swamps, but also Ghosts flying around everywhere, seizing almost all the villages. These Ghosts flee from you, so it's hard to catch them. Which means, collecting villages is pointless. Ending up with negative gold is most likely, even taking bonus gold into account (and not a problem in the next scenario).

This scenario is huge, so bring along a good chunk of patience for just walking from one enemy castle to the next (10-15 turns). Fastest way is to start in the south east, then south west, ending north west.

EI-Die überfluteten Ebenen Aufzeichnung 20250419-074131.gz

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Scenario 15: Weldyn Under Attack

This is the scenario why I registered here, because the wiki walktrough is quite bit off from the actual scenario.

Super ambitious: Kill all the enemy leaders, possibly with a strike force of fast Paladins and Magi to break through at the south and then sweep clockwise.

Uhm, no. That's not ambitious, that's impossible. There are just 19 turns, which aren't even enough to walk to all the castles, let alone fight any enemy. Doing so on Hard would require like 1200 gold and 60 strong troops on the recall list, to go into at least 3 directions simultaneously. Such a recall list was made impossible in scenario 11: Evacuation.

I tried, killed the southern leader, and eventually ended up with losing most of my troops.

Medium ambitious: Just hold the lines of Weldyn, keeping your allied generals alive (…).

Not possible, either. A bit math: there are 6 enemies with a keep of 6 places each, and (near) endless enemy gold. One had to kill like 30 enemies on every single turn to get close to this. These generals kill 2-3 each, so one had to have troops for killing at least 25 (per turn!). Again a requirement for 50-60 strong troops on the recall list, which one can't have.

Conservative: Just hold the inner island of Weldyn, abandoning the allied generals completely. This is really easy to defend, and Konrad will be able to fight here, but you lose out on some upside.

Yes! Not sure which "upside" one can lose here, but that's doable:

• Do nothing before first enemies appear near Garard's Hold, which is around turn 9. Literally. Just click End Turn and wait. To mitigate the boredom, seize these villages near the general's keeps.

• When enemies appear, recall defensive troops you don't need in the next scenario (The Duel). In lack of such, recruit heavy infantrymen. Two Mages of Light are helpful.

• Do use Konrad II's quite strong leadership, he doubles(!) the strength of your nearby units. Fight for minimal own damage.

• Fight only strong enemy units. Keep weak ones, like Ghosts, untouched. With some luck they keep their place near you, holding off stronger enemies from attacking you. Don't fear not fighting at all with a unit. As mentioned above, it doesn't matter whether you're surrounded by 2, 3 or 5 rows of enemies.

With these simple remarks, this seemingly impossible to win scenario is suddenly pretty simple. Just a number of standard actions and patience to wait for these countless enemy movements.

EI-Der letzte Tag Aufzeichnung 20250421-231810.gz

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Scenario 16.1: The Duel

Actually more a chess game than a battle. Again the wiki walkthrough is a bit wishful thinking.

you should be able to eliminate two or three enemy units

Not possible with just 7 units (Dacyn + 6 others). Every enemy level 3 unit spawns 2-3 lower level units when killed, so one needs 3-4 own units to attack each of them. Killing one enemy per turn is about the most one can expect. It has to be done with keeping the arrangement strongly defensive, which is a nice challenge. It's amazing to see how an enemy unit kills its self by attacking, spawns, attacks again, and again, until nothing is left. Only strong units survive 6-8 enemy attacks in a single turn.

Owaec's hammer should make short work of him [Mal-Ravanal].

Actually I tried like 20 distinct arrangements for attacking Mal-Ravanal with Owaec. He would never hit. Not a single time.

Other units like a Mage of Light can't hurt him either. While they do like 26 HP damage, he'd drain 24 HP back in the same operation. Dacyn can hit only once, doesn't survive the counterattack. The only way to win was to hit with a Great Mage (18x4 magic fireball), then run away for healing, to do so later again. All while Mal-Ravanal recruits more and more units out of the floor. Only when Mal-Ravanal was down to 45 HP (of 130), Dacyn could finish the job. Luckily, Mal-Ravanal stays in his keep and doesn't self-heal.

EI-Das Duell Aufzeichnung 20250422-023404.gz

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Conclusion

With the above knowledge, Eastern Invasion is a quite interesting and enjoyable campaign. Scenarios 13 and 15 are oversized, too much waiting. I hope this writing and these replays help those who're tempted to give up, I was close to doing so multiple times.

All other scenarios in this campaign are nice and can be mastered with some experience. Big THANK YOU to the makers of The Battle of Wesnoth!

[gnombat]

Hello!

there's an Eastern Invasion walkthrough in the wiki and an older forum thread for discussing this campaign. The latter is linked in the wiki, but also locked, can't add more recent experience.

There is a new Eastern Invasion forum thread here. (I've updated the link in the wiki.)

[Traumflug]

There is a new Eastern Invasion forum thread here.

Excellent, and thanks for the link update. Will continue there.