Help request for Siege of Elensefar

[blurrr2]

What I did my first time beating the Siege of Elensefar was to recruit a crapload of horsemen (it hurt the money bags but I couldn't beat the scenario without them) and then run them and Conrad into the orcs, letting the thieves pop out behind for a backstab. Conrad should take the keep when the first skeletons are reaching the top of the city. Fight down the skeletons with magic from their. Crude, simple, expensive, but effective tactics.

[oaq]

I'm at my wits end with this mission! I've tried for a 2 weeks to complete it, searched and tried all the different tactical approaches.

You are right. The Siege of Elensefar is no easy scenario.

After numerous tries and after listening to advice, the writer now knows of two ways to beat the scenario, both of which can work even on the hard level, neither of which asks you to cheat in any way (these two ways can even work if you have declined the expedient of restarting failed scenarios on the way to Elensefar, even if you have disciplined yourself to restart the campaign after each defeat from the beginning of The Elves Besieged).

The first way to beat Elensefar is by an immediate, daylit charge of horsemen. Except that you should save a little gold to recruit spellcasters later, recruit as many horsemen as you can afford to recruit, as soon as you have room in camp to recruit them. Recall veteran horsemen and knights, too. Mass your horsemen near the southern bridge, just out of range of the nearest orc; and, depending on the orcs' disposition, maybe send an advance horseman or two around to threaten the eastern bridge, as well. As soon as Konrad has done recruiting, send him north with all possible haste personally to aid the charge. Charge with all available forces before the daylight fails. Be bold. Be reckless. Spread your front across the southern quarters of the city. Hope for good luck. You must take Elensefar's keep before the skeletons arrive and, once you do, you must recruit shamans and/or mages as fast as you can.

Though this charge-by-horsemen strategy can indeed work, admittedly, personally, the writer does not care for it. On the hard level, the strategy seems to have about an 80 percent chance of failure. Much depends upon whether your horsemen happen to hit the orcish leader during the few, desperate lances they can pass at him, for the city will be crowded and most of the horsemen who would like to attack the orcish leader will probably find themselves cut off from him by the general press of the crowd; yet even killing the leader with lucky lances is not unlikely to leave you too weakened to fight off the skeletons. Nevertheless, the charge-by-horsemen strategy can work and is interesting when it does.

Fortunately, there is a second way to beat the scenario, a way rather more likely (though on the hard level still far from certain) to prevail. The second way is to let the enemy come to you.

This, second strategy observes that (a) you have favorable terrain south of the river, (b) elvish fighters and shamans are cheaper to recruit than are horsemen, and (c) if the battle is south of the river, the slow skeletons will have further to go before they can join it. It is probably not necessary to fight the orcs on the riverbank, itself, but rather at the first line of trees. You can deploy one higher-level archer in the fight if you have such an archer; but you should prefer shamans to archers, since archers will be of little use later against the undead. Preserve the lives of your elvish fighters where you can, but do expect some of them to perish at the line of trees, and plan accordingly.

The greatest trouble with this, second strategy lies in persuading the orcs to attack during the first night, before the skeletons begin to arrive. You improve your chances of persuasion if you formally accept the thieves' offer to help you to infiltrate the city and then, before the first night falls, if you slide some of your quicker forces around somewhat westward to begin to threaten the city's seaward flank. You probably will not actually cross the thieves' ford (though you can do so if an unusually good opportunity presents itself), nor even advance right up to it; but in sliding some forces generally toward it you will thin and extend your line. To thin and extend your line has two, desirable effects in the present circumstance. First, it forces the orcish leader to thin and extend his own line, since he will not wish you to flank his right, when he would rather be pouring all available forces across the southern bridge. Second, your line's very thinness will tempt the orcs to cross the river as soon as night falls.

It is necessary for you that the orcs cross the river during the first night, alarming though this seems. If the orcs do not cross during the first night, then you will face certain defeat when soon skeletal reinforcements arrive. You cannot beat a full force of orcs plus a full force of skeletons at the same time. You must defeat each in detail. Therefore, you must find a way to induce the orcs to cross early rather than late. Yet orcs are unlikely to hazard such an attack during the day. At night is the only time.

Assuming that the orcs have crossed, defend patiently in the south as long as night lasts, dropping wounded survivors back and replacing them with fresh reserves. At dawn, ruthlessly eliminate all badly wounded orcish grunts, use shamans to slow healthy orcs, and generally maneuver to surround the foe and to cut off his retreat. When full daylight arrives, attack with everything you have. Except maybe one or two badly wounded units of your own, hold no forces back because, when the second night falls, if the orcs still have substantial strength, you're doomed. During the day, kill all orcs south of the river and then, about dusk, fall back to take the charge of the skeletons.

The skeletons will come as the second night approaches, but you will not have to lure them across the river. The skeletons will come directly to kill you. Fall back to the line of trees. Fall back even to the camp. Recruit an extra elvish shaman and/or mage if you have the gold. From dawn on the third day, destroy all skeletons within reach.

It is preferable to kill the orcish leader before the third night, but this may not be possible. Otherwise, mass your forces, bring your archer up if you still have one living (you probably should not have more than one), and kill the orcish leader during the night. Use shamans to slow late-arriving skeletons. Interpose whatever fighters and even horsemen you have available to blockade and disrupt the skeletons' relentless advance, though you should remain reluctant actually to attack skeletons with fighters and horsemen at night. Raise red flags during the night over as many houses as you can safely capture. Install Konrad in Elensefar's keep and let him recruit spellcasters -- shamans and mages -- with whatever gold he can glean. Immediately from the fourth day's dawn, again destroy all skeletons within reach, raise red flags over any remaining houses in the city, and push hard across the northward bridges.

The last disadvantage of the present strategy now grows apparent: Konrad is running out of time. However, if you advance northward with energy, sending some of your faster troops (including two quick spellcasters or so) ahead to flank the sorcerer on the west, mopping up the last skeletons as you go, you will still have enough time to win the scenario. It will be tempting to leave Konrad behind in Elensefar's keep to spend his newly lush income on a large wave of spellcasters, but remember that (a) spellcasters are slow, (b) a spellcaster who arrives late at the sorcerer's cave does your army no good, and (c) you can only cram so many spellcasters through the cave's narrow entrances, anyway. Therefore, recruit a few extra spellcasters in haste, while wounded stragglers are briefly resting in the city, and then press northward.

Having reached the cave several times on hard level, this writer has never then failed to win the scenario but once, and that once was only because he reached the cave too late and ran out of time. Overwhelming the cave is easier than it seems. The cave's defenses look formidable, the defending terrain most hostile, but, somehow, after slaughtering the first three units or so you send in (alas!), the cave's defenders usually seem to fold. Maybe the defenders simply do not have enough room to maneuver in there; but, be this as it may, the defense usually seems to fail sooner than it should. Plan to lose two or three of your least experienced spellcasters on the first wave of attack. Press in. Don't give the defense room to maneuver. Very soon, victory will probably be yours.

Some general remarks:

• You must enter The Siege of Elensefar with sufficient gold. About 280 gold should suffice, though more would be most welcome. You cannot defeat the orcs if you lack the units to defeat them with.
• Whichever strategy you choose, it pays to send a quick elvish scout immediately to the far southwestern village and, thence, streaking northward across the river's mouth to capture villages in the far north. The sorcerer will find such a scout most irritating, and also most hard to corner. Remember that not only does every village the scout holds earn Konrad 2 gold pieces per turn, but that the scout also denies the sorcerer 2 gold pieces per turn, a net gain of 4 per turn per village. If the scout can hold an average of 2.25 villages at a time, and if it is remembered that the scout himself costs 1 gold piece per turn to maintain, this represents a net gain of 8 gold pieces per turn. Over, say, a day and a half, that's a net gain of 72 gold pieces, or two elvish shamans and two mages. You can do a lot with two elvish shamans and two mages. Send that scout.
• You must think about gold during the preceding scenarios. This writer lacks a firm opinion as to whether it is better, during the immediately preceding scenario, to have approached Elensefar by land or by sea; but the writer personally prefers the sea route because
  
  Spoiler:

  it ultimately makes the future scenario The Valley of Death a little easier. (The Isle of the Damned, to which the sea route takes you, is quite beatable, incidentally, once you have discovered its trick: mermaid initiates.)
  If you too will approach by sea, then you must have filled Konrad's treasury very full at The Bay of Pearls, which means risking the use of mermen there to capture and hold the three villages on the island as soon as it is reasonable to do so. It also means letting Konrad leave his keep at The Bay of Pearls on turn 4, not turn 5, for Konrad cannot afford to overrecruit during that scenario.
• Speaking of mermen, unless you are trying the charge-by-horsemen strategy, it pays to let the merman with the lightning trident participate at Elensefar. Don't get him killed. Keep him generally in the west and, since he is lawful, try not to make him fight at night. You will find however that, even if you take no grave risks with this merman, he destroys enough skeletons to earn his pay. You can recruit a second merman or mermaid too, if you like: this is a matter of preference. However many mermen you choose, introduce them on turn 1 and let them go west to the sea. They'll be a little slow to round the cape and join the battle, but you will be glad of their help when they finally do arrive.
• Remember that archers and horsemen are of little or no use against skeletons, though knights are of some limited use. You'll need an appropriate balance of forces to beat the orcs, but don't forget that your survivors against the orcish wave will face a skeletal wave the next day. Especially, avoid the use of squads of archers at Elensefar. A single archer should suffice.
• For Konrad to have achieved level 3 before reaching The Siege of Elensefar is rather helpful. For Konrad to have achieved level 3 is also quite possible on the hard level, which will have presented Konrad with a bounty of foes to kill. Get Konrad to within 25 XP or so of level 3 -- the closer, the better -- by the close of The Bay of Pearls, then let him lead some daytime sorties near his camp at The Isle of the Damned (if he goes that route). Such an approach is likely to confront the orcs at Elensefar with a level-3 Konrad to lead your army's assault.

Good luck.

[SBak]

I've only done SoE a few times and I'm a newbie (I'm stuck on that Princess of Wesnorth, so please don't take this as a holy grail).

For me I found that how many you have on Level 2 is critical for getting into the city, I found that having Konrad on lvl2 with two Rangers, a Hero, a Captain, two Mermen Warriors (one with that Storm Trident), two White Mages and two Knights made the difference.

You recruit two keeps of a mix of Mermen, White Mages, Rangers/Marksmen/Heroes/Captains and Knights (try to save enough gold for one or two Scouts or Riders later for the remaining villages - which you will need for the mages you will need to recruit later for the skellies).

My opening strategy has been developed from playing cat and mouse with the orcs on the Isle of Alduin with one Scout. You start out by using your horse units (Knights or Horsemen) to escort the Mermen up to the river (north) followed by your infantry units and Konrad. This should draw the orcs down to the bridge north of your keep, mainly Orcish Warriors and Assasins. Send your Mermen west of the bridge into the water. You then send your horse based units over the eastern bridge and your infantry into the city over the bridge north of the keep. Half the orcs have by this time already jumped in the water after the Mermen. By the time they reach the bridge after Konrad and the infantry the horse units are there waiting behind them.

For some reason in the SoE the orcs have overcome their fear of Konrad and they are out to get him (I lost the first attempt when they all dashed over the bridge and killed him when he was still in the keep, so be careful - the SoE is the only game I lost before Turn 4, which came as a bit of a shock). But using this strategy twice has got him levelled up to Lord by the time he enters the city.

[Faello]

My 2 replays of SoE from 1.9.6 are still working under 1.9.9, they were played under such circumstances:

- no saves/reloads
- hard difficulty level
- 184 gp (I've chosen Isle of the Damned before, so anybody that went with Muff Malal Penisula should have easier time)

You can dl them both, click "yes" when the game will ask you if you want to run a different version game replay and have fun watching (there's one insignificant WML error information connected with 1.9.6 but it doesn't affect the replay/gameplay anyway). Whole tactic is based on deep area defence.

Horsemen assasination is possible on the lower difficulty levels, but it's a poor, luck dependant approach - using it won't make you a better player. This is the better one of the two replays I've posted:

[beetlenaut]

Nicely done--especially the use of leveling to heal badly wounded units. I always fought in the city because I didn't think you could make it in time if you fought from the forests. It works better that way though. You got pretty lucky a few times with units that didn't quite die. I'm sure you still would have won, but some of those losses would have hurt.

[Faello]

I dont see myself lucky in that game, in fact I was slightly below EV in decisive part of that game (until turn 12 -5% iirc). At turn 13 EV went to +1/0 iirc and then slightly up, but at this point it didn't really matter anymore since game was won already

btw. if you meant 6,21 assasin dying from 5,21 thief on turn 9, I'd like to point out that assa should be already dead and fortuna just gave me the justice I needed

Anyway, hope that will help with this scenario problems. I'm pretty sure I've posted replays from every scenario of HttT in it's feedback thread, in case anybody needed some more hints for this campaign scenarios.

F.

[beetlenaut]

I dont see myself lucky in that game...if you meant 6,21 assasin dying from 5,21 thief on turn 9...

That, and the archer in the keep on turn 6, the mage on turn 14, and a thief again on turn 23. Each of them could have died if one more hit had landed. Konrad could have died on turn 6 as well. He got hit on just 2 out of 6 swings, when 4 out of 6 would have done it (a 15% chance). So, you weren't lucky overall, but you were a little lucky when it counted most.

[Faello]

Ehh, I really don't like when people imply something and then don't put enough evidence because they "feel" they're right.

You cannot assess my luck correctly by giving a separate examples of unit vs unit situations (which aren't even that good, as I'll prove in the second part of the post) and negate other situations simultaneusly (like my shaman sitting on 60% and dying from single Orcish Warrior attack in turn 5, Thief lvl2 receiving 3/3 from skel when standing on 60%, AI assa surviving some attacks when he sit in water etc.) because single unit vs. single unit luck is only a part of global statistic.

...and global statistic says I wasn't lucky between turns 1 to 13 I wasn't unlucky either (around -5% to around +5% is usually considered a balanced luck), my stats were quite even and that's why I lost only 2 units in that game. My luck past turn 13 that build up to +8% until turn 17 was irrelevant because my army total damage output allowed me to deal X times the damage I needed to do at that point, thus I could deal even with major bad luck.

Good player is the player that knows how to build a line to minimize the risk of unit deaths vs. opponent, not prevent it entirely from happening (it's often impossible, espescially vs. other skilled players). I just made sure that my most important units were always as safe as possible (that's another thing you're wrong about - not a single of my most important units had a decent chance to die in this scenario - lvl1's had minimal to slight chance to die sometimes (with few exceptions like the archer you've mentioned) and that's why I went through it with only 2 losses. Lvl1's are usually meant to be used as a shields sometimes.

If I'd be "pretty lucky in few situations" as you imply, my losses, considering game mechanics, would have to be higher than that.

Regarding situations you've mentioned:

Konrad could have died on turn 6 as well

45hp, standing on 60%def with decent ranged (so AI is afraid to go vs. it with assasins unless it can be killed in the result of the attack). Would need to suffer from 2/3 from Orcish warrior and another 2/3 from Orcish Crossbowman. Would even survive 3/3 from crossbowman and 1/3 from orcish warrior. Sorry, but surviving something like that isn't lucky, it's predictable.

If I'd have bad luck at that particular situation, I'd lose (which is, kind of, logical when bad luck comes into play ). Still, this game was played in top difficulty conditions, thus taking such a risk wasn't a mistake at that point.

That, and the archer in the keep on turn 6

I think you mean turn 7. I agree that this unit was in danger - his ctd was prolly around 50%, but it was only a lvl1 unit that could have been replaced - sure that loss of the xp would be regrettable, still it wasn't a unit that was crucial at that stage of scenario (orcish army was basically defeated and I was supposed to face the skeleton wave).

It wasn't also a unit that destruction would break my defensive ZoC too.

the mage on turn 14

Surviving 12,5% ctd isn't considered lucky in wesnoth. In life - sure!

btw. my chance to kill assa before he had a chance to kill my loyal theif was much, much better

Orcish Warrior had better chance at turn 13 (21,6%), still it doesn't happen often.

thief again on turn 23

Again, surviving 8.4% ctd isn't lucky (altough thief died in the 1st replay in this situation)

That was just an unnecessary risk on my side/small mistake (thief luring the revenant at that point wasn't crucial to the whole scenario).

btw. I've never provided this replay as "unlucky SoE passed on hard diff! for the first time w/o restarts", just as an example of how SoE should be played.

Also, the reason why I provided 2 replays in the feedback thread, was to show that I could it w/o save scumming, on hard, after Isle of the Damned and it has nothing to do with luck whatsoever. I just can do it.

I wanted to evade the discussions like this one too

cheers & eot

[DreadCraft]

On normal difficulty, here's what I did. I made it through without losing anyone particularly important.

In the beginning, I immediately summoned about 1.5-2 full castle full worth of troops including a druid, white mage, sorc,some elven heroes, an elven ranger, and a couple of the lev 2 bandit guys(don't remember what they're called), and one scout/horseman. I had the horseman go up the east side and start capping villages as much as possible while avoiding heavy combat. The rest of the group goes to the west bank to meet up with the thieves that are scripted. I make it to the west island just as the theives pop up if you chose the first option. Then you blitz the orcs at their castle and take the castle. Times right, 2/3 of the orc force is caught chasing you and having to cross the water the same place you did. So you have about 1/3 of the orcs down, including the leader when the first wave of undead come. Finish them quick as you can and prepare to absorb the remaining orcs. Then restock your army and march north steadily. For me, the key was fighting from inside the castle with your healers on the inside keeping the heaviest units up.

Throughout, that single elven scout or horseman is zipping around, taking villages. This will attract a few enemy units at a time, stringing them out a little so they don't all hit your main force at once.

[Subutai]

Here's my replay of the Siege of Elensefar on hard, with 276 starting gold. Of the 15 initial recruits, only 4 lvl 2's (and 4 lvl 1's close to promotion).

I didn't do a knight rush, as I've never seen one work on hard difficulty. However, I did manage to kill most of the orc troops by turn 8 (10 of the 14 he recruited). By turn 9 I pretty much won the game, for a big part because the orc AI overextended big time in their 8th turn.

Guidelines:
- Neither orcs nor undead have a scout unit at their disposal. Not a big deal for the orcs, but you can easily use it as an advantage vs the undead. Basically, I used a lvl 2 elvish scout to go grab the 4 north west undead villages (on the way also getting 2 other villages and delaying a few skeletons at another). There's no way a unit with 10 movespeed will ever get caught by skeletons and it makes quite a huge difference long therm gold wise.
- Always ask the thieves to help cross the river and send a few units to help them.
- You don't have the luxury to wait for daylight. Go full offense against the orcs once they cross the river, even though it's probably night time.
- You need a lot of meatshields vs the undead.

My recruit list:
- 5 elvish fighters of which 2 near promotion (+2 recruits in middle keep)
- 2 druids and a shaman (+1 druid and +1 enchantress in middle keep)
- 1 archer near promotion
- Haldiel + 2 horsemen, 1 of which near promotion
- 1 scout and 1 rider
- 1 mage (near promotion, became white mage soon) and 1 red mage.

Killed the undead leader on turn 22.

TL;DR: send a rider/scout north west, don't understimate the value of stealing some villages (and, if the AI is stupid, delay a few skeletons) with just 1 unit. Otherwise keep your eyes open for opportunities.

[vodot]

All, if interested, there has been a poignant and parallel discussion occurring in the Mainline Campaign Feedback section. Please see Faello's excellent replay in which he loads my save and then proceeds to show me, without using tricks, that I should stop complaining and just learn to play better.

[stegyre]

You are right. The Siege of Elensefar is no easy scenario.

Quoted for truth.

After numerous tries and after listening to advice, the writer now knows of two ways to beat the scenario, . . . .
The first way to beat Elensefar is by an immediate, daylit charge of horsemen. . . . On the hard level, the strategy seems to have about an 80 percent chance of failure.

That sort of "success" rate is not the mark of a good strategy.

This, second strategy observes that (a) you have favorable terrain south of the river, (b) elvish fighters and shamans are cheaper to recruit than are horsemen, and (c) if the battle is south of the river, the slow skeletons will have further to go before they can join it. It is probably not necessary to fight the orcs on the riverbank, itself, but rather at the first line of trees. You can deploy one higher-level archer in the fight if you have such an archer; but you should prefer shamans to archers, since archers will be of little use later against the undead. Preserve the lives of your elvish fighters where you can, but do expect some of them to perish at the line of trees, and plan accordingly.

This does work. My own preference is to spam shaman: almost as cheap as fighters; better defense in forest (which essentially compensates for the HP difference); and the invaluable slowing attack.

The greatest trouble with this, second strategy lies in persuading the orcs to attack during the first night, before the skeletons begin to arrive.

Maybe it's just me, but I've yet to see the orcs at all reticent about charging to the attack, once night falls.

Whichever strategy you choose, it pays to send a quick elvish scout immediately to the far southwestern village and, thence, streaking northward across the river's mouth to capture villages in the far north.

Yes, yes, yes! (I always do this. I wonder if that SW village placed precisely ten tiles from the edge of your starting fort is a subtle hint.) If the scout also serves to distract some of the skellies in their southern march, so much the better.

You must think about gold during the preceding scenarios. This writer lacks a firm opinion as to whether it is better, during the immediately preceding scenario, to have approached Elensefar by land or by sea; but the writer personally prefers the sea route because

Spoiler:

it ultimately makes the future scenario The Valley of Death a little easier. Who wouldn't want two additional, leveled, loyal units?? (The Isle of the Damned, to which the sea route takes you, is quite beatable, incidentally, once you have discovered its trick: mermaid initiates, a netcaster, and your storm-trident (victory is doable with just the initiates; good merfolk from the Bay of Pearls just make it downright easy).)

Presumptuously fixed your spoiler info for you.

If you too will approach by sea, then you must have filled Konrad's treasury very full at The Bay of Pearls, which means risking the use of mermen there to capture and hold the three villages on the island as soon as it is reasonable to do so.

Not necessarily. I have even left those villages until quite late in the scenario to "farm" XP for the merfolk off the additional recruits the sea orc can make.

It also means letting Konrad leave his keep at The Bay of Pearls on turn 4, not turn 5, for Konrad cannot afford to overrecruit during that scenario.

+1. IMHO, if you are recruiting/recalling more than 12 units (i.e., until turn 4), you're overdoing it, and this will negatively impact starting gold in the Siege.

Speaking of mermen, . . . it pays to let the merman with the lightning trident participate at Elensefar. Don't get him killed. Keep him generally in the west and, since he is lawful, try not to make him fight at night. You will find however that, even if you take no grave risks with this merman, he destroys enough skeletons to earn his pay. You can recruit a second merman or mermaid too, if you like: this is a matter of preference. However many mermen you choose, introduce them on turn 1 and let them go west to the sea. They'll be a little slow to round the cape and join the battle, but you will be glad of their help when they finally do arrive.

Backed by a (loyal) priestess, possibly accompanied by a netcaster, and camping out by the northern bridge or in the nearby swamp, these can put a substantial dent in the skellies.

Remember that archers and horsemen are of little or no use against skeletons, though knights are of some limited use.

And one or two loyal paladins are downright fun! (As long as they don't get over-enthusiastic and over their heads. No, no! I've never made that mistake. )

Bottom line: it is a tough scenario. You will take losses. Accordingly, have plenty of fodder (shamans), so you can take your losses there, rather than in levelled/loyal troops.

[icerom]

This scenario almost led me to quit the game, so now that I've won it several times, I decided I'd come back to the forums to share my experience on what has worked best for me.

First, a few general pointers:

* You will need to go deep into the help section and learn about terrains, time of day, and the specific strengths and weakness of units
* You will need a lot of units with magical attacks, as the skeletons will otherwise be invincible during the night
* Knights/Lancers (2 at least) will be very helpful against the orcs, who once engaged must be dealt with quickly
* 3-4 mermaids may be a big help for getting control of the bridge to get into the city, especially the one with the storm trident
* If you had, say, 600 gold, you could simply recruit a huge army and go in tough and dirty. If you have 200 gold, you won't be able to recall enough units to win. You'll have to make plans according to the gold you have

My specific strategy is much like what has been said by others:

* hold the line in dry land
* your point man should be in the northern-most part of the forest and, ideally, be close to leveling up so he can draw multiple attacks and survive
* the key is to distract part of the orc force so they don't cross the bridge in strength. To do this I use two riders to distract the orcs on either side of the island when/as needed -one turn in the western island and one turn in the eastern-most village should be enough to divide the orc army
* If you succeed in distracting enough orcs, the orc force that crosses the bridge will not be strong enough to withstand your counter attack. If you don't, well, hell. It just means crossing into the island will be more costly
* Keep a rider in the water to the east, ready to take a village and give the signal to the thieves. The thieves will distract the skeletons for a couple of turns, so time this right. This is key to give your main force enough time to finish off the main orc force and make themselves strong in the main island
* Once you're strong in the main island the battle is won and all that remains is to clean up. Ironically, this is when you may suffer the heaviest losses. My best advice is to be patient and to keep your most expendable units in front

[Rico]

This took me several attempts as I only had one level 2 eleven marksman to begin the scenario. My winning strategy involved just over 300 gold, a trio of mermen (one of each - all of which were half leveled), a majority of elven fighters, a scout, a horseman (half leveled), about half as many archers as fighters and roughly six shamen (all level 1 with no XP). I also had two level 1 mages.

This strategy uses the river advantage and judicious use of your shamen (slow/healer). To be able to withstand the Orc onslaught it is imperative that you employ your shamen's "Slow" attack on every Orc melee unit as their great swords can take your army down quick. "Slow" cuts the damage down to a sustainable amount allowing the healing power to get you through the next turn. I begin by sending the mermen north to occupy the river and create a supporting line at the riverbank of squads consisting of two fighters, one archer and one healer. I sent the scout along the west to meet with the rogues (grabbing villages along the way) and Konrad (level 1, 50% XP) east with a Mage and healer to grab the village across the eastern bridge. The Orcs LOVE Konrad and will split their forces to keep an eye on him. This is key to surviving with minimal leveled units.

With good positioning you can rotate wounded units behind the main line and weather the Orc wave with minimal casualties. Once you break through the main southern bridge/towers (around second day) push units into the city and occupy as many villages as you can grab. Use the rogues to grab the western houses of the city and Konrad's squad to occupy the east. By this time my half XP units had all leveled giving me a knight, two heros, a white Mage, a priestess mermaid, a net caster and a warrior merman. Konrad was now level 2 and my marksman advanced to sharpshooter.

I used the rogues as fodder for the skeleton rush. Without them to occupy/impede the undead it will be difficult for Konrad to get a clear path to the Orc keep. Expect to lose all rogues with this strategy. Clear a path for Konrad to the keep. Don't worry about killing the Orc leader (who is most likely in the thick of battle outside his keep). Concentrate on getting Konrad into the fortress so he can start pumping out mages... LOTS of mages. Once Konrad has the keep it's time to dig in and clean out the city. The Orc leader should be pretty easy to handle without his supporting troops. You will most likely have the majority of fighting on the northern wall of the Orc keep against the skeletons. Keep units positioned with their ZoC to prevent anything getting south of the wall. This will allow you to rotate wounded units back to safe villages or protected healers. Victory is almost yours! Your newly recruited mages should be turning the tide against the undead. Advance whatever mermen you have along the west bank to grab houses and support the western flank of the final liche battle. Once the city is under control advance north to the liche fortress. Once one of your units enters a tile near the fortress a squad of skeletons and two über baddies will spawn. Use the choke point entrances to manage who takes the brunt. Send a squad to flank the western entrance. Victory should be yous within 4-5 turns!

[Kaiserdrache]

After reading all these helpful tips and strategies I'd like to add my two cents to the discussion.

In general I take a far more defensive approach to Siege of Elensefar than most players tend to do. Furthermore I never play Muff Mala's peninsula, instead I always go for the Isle the damned, because it has a couple of advantages:

1) You get a level 2 loyal white mage for free
2) You get a level 2 loyal outlaw for free
3) You can recruit thugs which are incredible useful for the Siege of Elensefar
4) You can level up your mermaid initiate to mermaid priestess
5) You can level up your merman unit with the storm trident

That may sound obvious, but is crucial for my approach to Elensefar. First of all, you get two incredible useful units which don't need financial support each round. Moremirnu, the white mage, is a healer, has an first class attack against the undead and tops his package off with an superb meelee atack. Your outlaw comes with an impact attack that is useful against undead and has an additional range attack that might come in handy. I tend to recruit 3-4 thugs during Isle of the Damned, always thinking ahead to Elensefar. If there was ever a unit made against skeletons, it's thugs. Four attacks of impact damage each round makes for an huge offensive potential. The skeletons never stand a chance against them. Even more important, they are useful later on in the campaign when underground warfare occurs. Next, we have the mermaid priestess. She comes with healing ability and a fine anti-undead attack that's magical and arcane. Wow! Your merman unit with the storm trident is even more useful as a double hit usually always kills a skeleton.

Now into medias res. Siege of Elensefar isn't by far a complicated scenario if the player is able to keep orcs and undead apart. A combined assault of both of them is nearly always deadly and will cost you dearly, so our prime target on the tactics board is to cut off the undead support from the north. That's were the merman come in. Often players tend to use them in the middle river resulting in dead merman and an overwhelming assault from the north later on. So, recruit your merman priestess and the storm trident wearer in the first round. Send them westward until they reach the water and then head north. They only have one job to do - cut off the undead. Position them in the water north of Elensefar and wait for the skeletons to come. Always attack with the storm trident first and finish the skeletons of with your priestess' magical attack. That results in less damage for the priestess and if you place her adjacent to the other merman he will be healed in the next round. Win-win situation, really. There will be "silent" rounds where both your merman don't have anything to attack. Don't use them to attack the orcs in the city! Instead, capture some villages (more income) and heal them properly.

Next part of our strategy is a elvish sout/ranger. We also recruit him in round 1. His job is to annoy the hell out of the orc leader and to secure some income for you. It's up to you to decide wether you recall one from previous scenarios or wether you recruit a new one. Personally I prefer to recruit one from previous scenarios. Use him to lure on the northwestern most edge of your own southern territory. Use him whenever possible to take one of the two villages on Elensefars' western island. That results in two things. First, two gold pieces are added to your treasure chest and the orc leader looses two for this round. Effectively four gold for you. Second, and far more important, the orc leader usually dispatches 1-3 units to deal with your scout. That releaves some pressure on your troops defending the river. Of course, your scout retreats from the island before anything serious can happen.

Flanking: Recruit two further troops in round 1 - a knight and a red mage (you should have those by now, both loyal). Keep them on the eastern edge of the southern part of the map. Their job is to distract the orc leader further by sending some troops over the eastern bridge of Elensefar. He usually only sends one or two archers, but that further releases the pressure from your main battle group. Have them carefully retreat during the night just staying outside from enemies range. Once you have the archers/assasins on the plains charge with your knight and finish them off with your mage. Don't forget to capture the village from time to time as it adds to your meager income during this scenario.

Main battle group: This ist the group that has to hold the river for several turns and it needs to be chosen carefully. First of all - elves suck here. They are by far the worst choice to take. You probably do have a couple of elves by now in your core army, but most of them are not worth recruiting. Bring in druids, at least 1, better 2 if you have them. You should have an elvish captain / hero from the start, so there is no need for further elvish melee recruitments. Don't bother with elvish archers unless you have at least a sharpshooter, even rangers aren't worth the gold. Instead, recall your thugs from Isle of the Damned, your loyal outlaw and all mages. Poachers and trappers might be worth recalling, but I usually go for some additional riders if I have gold left. This combination offers some advantages. First of all, you have troops that can both fight during night and day. Thugs, the outlaw and possibly poachers all fight better during the night. Your cavallery fights better during daylight. Mages are at least neutral. Even more important, you have the better ground standing on plains while the orcs have to fight in the water.

Additional information: If the thieves appear choose to have them support you once the orcish lines are broken. The turn in which you finally storm the city is a crucial one and you need every troop you can get. Even better, the thieves appear in the northern part of Elensefar giving you a pletora of chances to use their backstab ability against the orcish leader.

Tactics: The first turns are simply boring. Use your fighters to hold the river while Konrad (and maybe an elvish captain) support them with leadership. Keep your healers near your thugs as they tend to die extremely fast when they have to go against orcish archers. Rotate your troops! It is possible to move units many times per turn and if you know how to use that to your advantage, holding the river is far easier than it seems. Remember Verdun? Don't play the germans and keep your troops on the frontline until they die. If a unit is wounded and not fully healed by an healer, withdraw it to one of the two villages. Be the french and rotate fresh troops to the front whenever possible. Use zones of control and check wether some orcs could possibly make it to the plains. If that could happen, rearrange one of your units. Contrary to popular belief it is NOT possible to block all skeletons off from the north. Your merman are simply to slow to stop the first wave of skeletons from advancing. These are prime targets for your thugs. After turn 12, you usually don't see anymore skeletons on your border, because they are kept at bay by your merman. If you have the opportunity, try to distribute the experience gained by killing on your thugs to level them up to bandits. Take your time, there is plenty of it.

Around turn 15-20 the orcs will be strongly reduced. Now it's up to you to find the perfect turn to massively assault them. But don't be a fool and storm into the city like a madman! Position two strong fighters (maybe Konrad and your elvish captain/hero) on the battlements at the southern bridge giving you once again the high ground. Support them with a healer from the back. Bring in your reinforcements, so that you can storm the city during the next turn with everything you have. Bring your knight and your red mage into position at the eastern bridge to outflank the orcs. And then, when you are in a good position to attack with superior numbers, use one turn to rush the city with everything you have. If you have an opportunity to go for the orcish leader - do so. If not, reduce his forces to nothing and deal with him later. And remember to occupy at least on village, so that the thives will trigger. Their backstab attacks come in very handy.

Elensefar is taken - what now? First of all, heal your units! There are plenty of villages to use, so restoring their health is a first class idea. Then it's time to deal with the undead. Use three battlegroups to achieve the following:

1) Take all remaining villages ASAP! Your elvish scout, knights and other fast units are weapons of your choice for this. Even your merman can make themselves useful here.
2) Take some fast units to advance to the caves' western entrance. Position them in the mountains, but don't attack directly.
3) Position a group with 2/3 thugs, your outlaw, Konrad and Moremirnu at the southern entrance.

Depending on the time left you either have to storm the cave (bad decision as you will probably loose something) or you can carefully advance towards the leader. Remember that your main damage should come from impact weapons.

So far my approach to this scenario. Have fun!
KD