campaigning guide for beginners (appendix 1 out now)

[docrock]

disclaimer: this guide is mostly intended for the beginning campaign player. advanced tactics and strategies may actually differ. it is being based on BfW 1.4.6 and unit stats, AI, campaigns and scenarios mentioned may be changed over time. through the course of writing this actually a lot of animals, monsters and other factions have been harmed. also, this guide may contain nuts and is in no way complete.


1) analyzing objectives and the map, reading the limits

that's the basic thing. read what the characters say before each scenario and look for hints there. check yourself, are you fully understanding objectives? look at the map. where are chokepoints? where are possible points of interest, like skeletons on the floor, abondened mines, barred doors, hexes with red stars on them, flags, signposts (yes, those are really important, lol) and so on.
then take a decision, what units are you going to use? which will be best on the terrain given? that is one of the most important decisions for campaigns. terrain can be a bringer and a taker. with which units can you move fast and/or have good defense? check out your unit profiles and decide.
check turn limits, starting gold and income. and finally, check out the status table every turn. if it is not disabled by scenario code it can tell you so much. how much gold do your opponents have? how many villages? how many units? which base income? basically, it gives an impression of how good your chances are and helps in decisions like "should i run for it or should i fight it out" or "better to get experience or to quit early" and "should i make a defense first and try to attack later or should i go for an all-out victory from the beginning". the beginner campaigns are good for that as they don't change maps during seasons or contain hidden parts or stuff like that.


2) recruitment and recalling

the second most important thing. after having decided about the overall character of a scenario you have to bring the units in to actually do it. therefore you have to analyze what composition of units does make the most sense for the scenario. generally it will be a mix of tanks, blockers, hard-hitters and special units. for advanced campaigns this does of course not always apply. here a more specialized selection can be good.
what you normally always want are units with good resistances and hitpoints to soak up damage, some real damage dealers for the attack and after you left the "just slug it out with them"-level of gameplay some special units for the surgical and supporting tasks. healers and assault units or skirmishers and units with leadership are good examples for that. think about the use of their special abilities and you will know why.
planning recruitment and recalling can also be very important. why recruit the first turn useless units when in the second you know what the enemy is going to field? it just takes upkeep and can (like in SOTBE first scenario) make a difference of two units. the first thing you normally want to field are scouts (especially with fog-o-war and hidden map parts and so on). know the map, know your enemy, know where he is going, what he is doing and be able to outrun him. that is a basic for all decisions afterwards. don't hesitate to recruit just two scouts on a five hex castle if you're staying in positive income and therefore have the advantage of knowing what the enemy is going to field.
furthermore, don't overrecruit, a good point to stop is when you are no more able to get a new/recalled unit the next turn. check out what you can recruit. not all campaigns always tell you that there are new unit types available. generally, try to level up your veterans as much as possible to build a good core army and fill up with cannonfodder as you see fit. if one of them levels, the better, if not, no great loss.


3) seizing the initiative and deciding a strategy

one of the hardest things in BfW for me actually was to develop a playstyle, which is also very important. as a newcomer you would not believe how many options for solving certain circumstances there are. this is one of the things that makes the game fun after all but for someone not used to it this can surely be confusing. at first you should try to decide which playstyle you like. are you more defense or offense? the patient type or like to rush for it? do losses matter to you or do you just think in which hellhole to recruit the next volunteers for another assault?
just one thing to consider, in BfW movement and superior terrain win games. so, just look that you have the movement-decision of where you will sit next turn and you will be fine for 90% of all campaigns. whether being front-shortening (on the runs so to say ...) or attacking, make sure you have the decision of terrain, Time-of-Day and conditions (like melee vs. dark adept, ranged vs. non-ranged unit and so on) and you will in the long term be the winner. having a good view of the scenery (scouts, remember?) and being in decision is what wins campaigns. furthermore, get used to using a prime strategy for all the "common" slugfest scenarios of a campaign. like for example i like to use the "hammer and anvil" approach. having a group of really tough blockers, tanks and retaliators on good terrain hold them while running around the enemy with a fast and hard-hitting group and then rip him from behind or the sides on the next good Time-of-Day and/or using backstab (where available).


4) using levelling, traits, auras and specials

levelling, yea, very misunderstood at times. for campaigns, levelling is a must. the higher a unit can advance, the better generally it is(exceptions apply of course, like we will see). just, what unit to advance which way? for certain factions there are no big decisions to be made, for others it is pretty complicated. first of all, understand traits. mark a unit and check out on the unit info what the certain traits of this unit do. then think of what to make of it. learn about the different development trees of units (from the wiki). hmmm, it is so much easier to get a lvl4 great mage if he is intelligent ... a silver mage is so much more deadlier with quick ... a marshall would be nice ... and so on. generally the higher the level you want a unit to level up to, the more important is the "intelligent trait". generally, strengthen the strengths and try to get over the weaknesses. if a unit has a strong attack/defense bonus by trait, use it. level it that way. even units that stop at lvl2 do have a meaning. check them out with "leadership" or their specials behind them in mind. killers mostly.
also, i can only cite from the several guides here already, decide wisely whom to give the kill and the xp. this can turn a battle by levelling.
furthermore, things like "marksman", "magical", "aura of light", "aura of darkness", "nightstalk", "ambush" and "leadership" are good. if used wisely, those give advantage to that very unit or even to other units in it's sphere of influence. learn about them from the unit info and from the wiki. important.
also, order does matter. especially for certain factions. like, let's just say Ukians. they are not mainline so you will not meet them anytime soonish if you are a starter, but they perfect the principle of auras and leadership (imho) which to a certain extent applies to other factions too. think about what is better in terms of damage, attacking with or without leadership? leadership is always better, so, think again, with or without that aura of light? oh, that killer-unit is chaotic by nature, so i attack with leadership for him but not with aura-of-light, then bring in the officer, have him attack (or standby for further movement along the lines, hex by hex) and then bring in the dude with the light-aura and make him get the final hits. this also implies placement. a hex more or a hex less can make a hell of a difference if on attack or on defense and on what time of day. "Bad Moon Rising" is a campaign showing this dramatically (with the Ukians). it's the difference between (spoiler alert) that skeleton dragon being killed in one turn or not.


5) military tactics and strategies do apply

yep, you can kill an enemy by attrition. just let him build his lvl2 or lvl3 army. fall back, take good defensive positions, feed cannonfodder and wait for him to stop recruiting due to high upkeep. war is mostly a logistics problem.
also, like i said before, the basic strategies do apply. give em hell when in advantage, retreat before it is too late. pincer them. make the hammer and the anvil. just always remember that the base of all strategy is good supply, which equals income in BfW. use scouts, use flyers if you can. not all places with villages or bonus gold are accessible without them.
and always remember: never split forces. well, actually, there might be the saying "hey, let's split, we can do greater damage that way" but even if this applies, you also go a greater risk of being swarmed. so, even if you split forces, split them coherently. never let a non-scout unit go out alone. sure kill. and always try to check that your army-parts (which should not be more than two normally) consist of everything they need (specials, healers) or have villages in reach to which they can outrun the enemy in fallback. and look for coherent specials too. no use for healers if they can't keep up with the advancing commando group (remember, levelling?).
also, keep in mind that there always are two options: "attack where the enemy is weakest" - that goes for gaining terrain which can be advantegous if you're on the winning road anyway, or: "attack where the enemy is strongest" - that goes for killing enemy groups of superior forces which would else rip you deeply. for both might be a price to pay and a player has to learn the cost of each decision.


6) movement and formation, ZoC

movement: move in waves, attack wave, specials, defense. three hexes deep you will be on the safe side of things. normally attack wave advances, kills enemy, takes territory and is being overrun or supplemented by the defense wave. behind them sit the healers and the specials which advance accordingly to give best benefit of auras, healing ... and of course the leadership dudes going hex-by-hex behind the lines to ensure maximum damage on the front.
exception: run-like-the-sh**e scenarios
form a hedgehog here. healers in the middle, strong defenders to the side. check for all units having equal movement.
exception2: fighting skirmishers
they are a pain. especially the saurians. no ZoC with one or two hexes of distance can withstand them. so best against them are many units forming a hex-by-hex-ZoC and sacrificing themselves for the greater good of the counterstrike next turn, also going for maximum retaliation if possible.
exception3: fighting a superiorly mobile enemy (like gryphons)
make a 2hex-distance ZoC with strong units. cycle them for adequate agressors to be able to hit (like ranged vs. non-ranged in the case of gryphons), advance with strong units again and fall back next turn. kills em.


7) usage of mage-type units
there are three basic uses for magic units:
- finishers: use your low-level (example: mage, dark adept) or potential magical units (example: ukian archer) for that, never let them stand on the frontline after the kill if they can be reached by enemy forces
- healers: wherever possible try to get healers with you behind the frontline, they will save you at least one turn for the units adjacent to them to get some healing so you don't have to retreat to villages so much
- breakers: higher level magic units are the ones you want to make sure to get that encamped enemy from a village or a strong defense hex. let them attack first and finish the enemy with units which have a lower chance to hit, then occupy that hex, secure it with ZoC and protect the hp-weak units.

comments on this guide are more than welcome and will be worked in over time.


appendix 1:

whom to recall/recruit and why

so, i just played through TRoW on 1.5.6 to get a grip on things coming when i noticed that in the previous chapters i did not explain some things about recruiting/recalling:
- don't be afraid to throw away a whole army of useless units and of leaving them in the recall list for a set of much better suited units that you can recruit. a wonderful example in TRoW is that scenario with the drakes. you can either recall all those useless fire-mages and impact units, or you can recall and recruit mermen and spearmen. starting something new in that scenario proved so useful and those spearmen were giving them drakes hell like nothing before, coupled with the mermen which were a sure kill everytime out on the lake it reduced their monetary superiority to nothing in 10 turns. and best of all: i managed to keep my upkeep low. coupled with 3 healers this is one hell of a team and extremely hard to beat. furthermore, i managed to keep all three HI alive earlier, and still they go for free because they are loyal.
- so conclusion: recall the loyal units wherever possible and useful, they soak up damage for you for free and get xp on the way. then recall/recruit the units doing the most damage to the enemy in the given scenario (be it drakes take pierce or cold, all others accordingly to the unit info and help system) and fill up with healers or potential healers. and well, maybe you can take those units later in other scenarios as potentially-levelling cannonfodder again. having reserves on the recall list, or in other words, having a dynamic, always increasing recall list with lots of units at your choice is a tremendous advantage, primarily because of the "loyal" ones and the opportunities for optimizing damage it gives.

[docrock]

so, here you can see a rather creative attempt at shameless bumping. telling from the views of my post and the lack of rather (may you excuse the wording) nubbish posts i'd say i hit a spot. i'd just wished for some critizism. oh well, a bump is a bump. *grin*. and hell, it wasn't THAT bad, was it?

[claudya]

May I propose some easier campaigning guide?

1. Start the scenario
2. Have fun!
3. reload auto saves if neccessary (noone will ever know how often you had to reload)
4. continue having fun.



*running for cover*

[docrock]

actually, shameless bumping seems to be working. hah. besides that: some very good ideas, lol.

[claudya]

I didn't intend to disrespect your work.

It's just that I would never have done that much strategy consideration when I started playing campaigns. It's been more a trial and error learning. And a lot of fun about my own mistakes.

[Corvvs]

Heh. My strategy: get two to four high level, very powerful units on the offense (assassins or knights, preferably), put them behind your fodder, and charge. Once the combat starts, don't attack at all with the other troops, just let them sit; this will increase their longevity slightly. rush the elites around the battle where the enemy is bogged down, and into the leader's castle. It's critical that you have enough strength to kill the leader in no more than two turns. Save/reload until victory. works like a charm for me most of the time. If done adeptly, you don't even have to save/reload.

Nice guide, though. It seems to be a very fool-proof way to play well in campaigns.

[docrock]

Nice guide, though.

thx. i tried to put something up to end the most common questions. errr, yea, i hope it worked
besides that: both of you are so right. in most campaigns you just have to stand the first waves of the attacks. after that .... hah ...
oh well, it seems that i can't really finish a post in one attempt. so, i just wanted to state that i thought of doing something that reduces frustration of the newcomers (and gives 'em a good chance to play through mainline campaigns).
ah hell, while i'm at it, one more edit:

I didn't intend to disrespect your work.

no insult taken.