Need help with "The Rise of Wesnoth" campaign

[mamadu.bwana]

Hi,

I was playing "The Rise of Wesnoth" campaign with great success until I got to the "Temple of the Deep" episode.

Besides Prince Haldric, I have two L3 Master Bowmen, a L2 Outlaw, one L2 Longbowman and one L1 Mage. Since I have 208 pieces of gold and my income is at +6 I could recall one L2 Lancer and one L2 Knight, but they are not effective in caves. Other than that I am given the choice to recruit thieves, thugs, poachers or footpads or bowmen, horsemen, spearmen and mages. None of them are particularly good at dealing with the Undead opposition.

I have various times succeeded in destroying the first wave of attackers, but then I run out of money and combatants and I do not have the resources to explore the cave further.

What would be my best mix of forces and best tactics to complete this episode?

Thanks!

[michchar]

i believe that thugs are (really) good against skellies, horses ( or any strong melee unit) can be used to counter adepts, and use strong ranged to get rid of ghouls. though, you dont want to use horsemen in caves, and bowmen are pretty much useless against skellies, no matter what lvl they are.
footpads arent really a bad alternative to thugs, as they have ranged and higher movement.
if that still doesnt help you, go back and get more gold/higher lvl units (like bandits, red/white mages, outlaws, and a paladin if you can)

[mamadu.bwana]

thanks! I will try to thugs and foodpads combo!

[Dodgy Tactician]

You need some tough units that do impact damage to soak up hits and dish out some big hits themselves, the best four in my opinion are the Shock Troopers from the second scenario and Burin the Lost (in the house by the signpost) from the third scenario. You can add some Thugs as well, but your enemies have strong Bladed and Pierce attacks (except the Lich), Shock Troopers and Iron Maulers have 50% resistance to Blade and 40% resistance to Pierce damage as well as a lot more HP. Burin has 30% to both and 40% to Blade if he is Level 3, as a dwarf he also has good defence in caves. Low level Thugs don't really have enough HP to stand up to them and Footpads are weak to physical damage, so only a few hits will kill them outright. Also, keep the Shock Troopers away from the Lich, they are weak to his Cold attack.

Back them up with Haldric's Leadership (if they are Level 2 and he's Level 3), White Magi and Magi of Light for healing and illumination (if you only have one Mage of Light, then send Burin with the Fearless Shock Trooper and the Mage of Light with the two that his illumination will benefit) and various other Magi for levelling up against the various undead enemies. There is also some Holy Water, which changes your melee attacks to Arcane (excellent vs. Undead). A Swordsman or Pikeman can make great use of it (a Spearman is too weak to make sufficient use of it in my opinon but if he's about to level up, then it's a good option because he'll get free healing), you can give it to Haldric if you don't have any other obvious options. If you went throught he Swamp instead of the Midlands, you should have found the Loyal White Mage.

I would say that you have levelled the wrong units so far, you really need White Magi both for healing and because you are fighting Undead so much. I don't recruit many archers in TRoW, because I find that Magi are more useful, but having a couple of levelled archers is useful later on. I tend to prefer Poachers to Bowmen though, because they can be levelled into Hunters at Level 3, which have the Marksman ability, making them like tougher but less damaging Magi for whittling down the HP of a Level 3 Orcish leader on his keep. You also need some damage sink units, your four impact units do this well, but having a few levelled Spearmen is also a good idea, both as Swordsmen and Pikemen. Javelineers have good flexibility, but they are constrained by a lack of a third level and their flexibility can be equalled by good use of archers and Pikemen.

I would typically recruit something like this:

• Haldric
• Burin the Lost
• 3x Shock Trooopers (usually one has levelled up to Iron Mauler by then)
• 1x Pikeman (for the Holy Water)
• 3x White Mage or Mage of Light (including Minister Edmond)
• 2-3x Mage/Red Mage/Archmage

The tough "damage sink" units go first to take the hits and shield the Magi while the Magi do the main killing and do lots of healing.

[zookeeper]

It's definitely going to be tough if you don't have Burin, any of the shock troopers, bandits/highwaymen or more high-level mages.

You indeed may want to consider replaying some earlier scenarios and try to build up a better recall list.

[Feldegast]

You should have two White Mages (one plus Minister Edmond). These two are enough to support your fighters. It is very helpful to use at least two lvl 3 Footpads at the left and right side of the lake. They are not easy to hit and have enough hitpoints to survive a few hits in one turn. Withdraw them to heal them, move Burin and Royal Guards to the front in exchange. Wait and defend against the first big wave of undeads right north of the lake, only then proceed onwards. Don't move on too early. It's a lost cause if you try to fight your way through the narrow corridors.

[Trau]

Now that thugs, footpads, and thieves can level up to 3, there's really no reason for you to not use them extensively.

[mamadu.bwana]

thanks for all the advice. I have finally and *barely* managed to complete this episode by only recruiting footpads and by making darn sure that not a single one was a allowed to die (or he would join the opposing undeads...).

thanks again for all the pointers!