HttT help, Valley of Death

[Bad boy30]

with 321 gold hows the best way to survive the 12 turns? I usally choke up and turn 11 when all my elves are killed and my leaders are at the edge of dieing. I'm using only fighters and i have no other lvl +2 units other than the elf guy who hasn't done squat for me yet. what units sould I get and where should I put them?

[drachefly]

You have no level 2 or higher units except for the three starters?

This is bad news. I would suggest going back a bit... did you have higher level units but lose them in Crossroads or The Princess of Wesnoth? Try plaing Crossroads a little less aggressively.

[scott]

Try moving. Send your entire army SW to attack the Lich. His army not so big and it brings you furthest from the wraiths. Use mages to weaken/kill the skeletons and use fresh fighters to protect the mages.

Alternately you can go due west, deal with the wraiths, and wait it out there or go SE and fend off the walking corpses, but without some strong upper level units the wc's might be a problem.

[js138]

Hmm. Everyone seems to advise a rush somewhere. I've always managed to win this one staying put, and even use the flow of corpses to level stuff.

I put a fighter (ideally not a strong one so that he doesn't kill corpses in one turn too often) in each of the villages to the east and another in the village to the south.

I recall any druids I have the white mage I always make sure I have by now and a shaman if needed, maybe one hero or ranger to go run for the holy water to the west and send Kalenz for the holy water to the southeast.

Then I fill up my keep with fighters and mages (this is often where I recruit most mages in the entire campaign).

The wraiths coming down from the north can be a nuisance, but between Delfador and the odd mage they can be seen off. The big bony guys coming up from the south will usually kill a guy or two, but as long as they don't get into the keep itself it's not so bad. The corpses rarely manage to kill the isolated fighter in the village nearest the woods until they upgrade him.

On easy you can turn this into an xp-farming expedition.

This plan works less well on medium, but it still worked for me last time I tried it.

[DemonSax]

Playing though on Medium (0.8.9), this was the first map that really stopped me cold. After getting stalled on Bay of Perls the first time though, I ended up restarting from the beginning with a much larger focus on leveling up an army. When I arrived at the Valley I had a large number of leveled units and a good amount of gold. I was feeling very confident and was amazed at how quickly my mighty army was torn apart.

I ended up replying the map close to a dozen times in an attempt to try and defeat all three leaders, but in the end I decided there just wasn't enough time. I ended up merely rushing the SW leader with a strike force and holed up there until dawn.

Some of my less successful strategies included:
- Create three separate armies, one for each leader.
My first attempt and least successful. Trying to split my army three ways made me far too weak to mount a successful offense against any of them. I didn't survive the first night.
- Create two armies heading north and south.
My second attempt and most bloody. Ultimately possible if you have a good number of leveled units and a pile of gold to spend, but it cost me an excessive number of level 2 and 3 units.
- Rush East.
I simply could not kill zombies fast enough. This was back before the zone of control was removed from walking corpses, so this should be much easier now.

[Doros]

I don't think you'll be able to beat this level with only 300 gold and one leveled unit.

That being said, if you do have some money to burn, a fun strategy is to send a flock of thieves to the east. The corpses refuse to move until all of them are dead, and it can take forever, as a thief won't usually kill a corpse it attacks (meaning only one per hex per turn), and thieves have great evasion.

For a serious strategy, if you don't think you can beat all the undead, try just beating the southwestern leader and hiding in his keep (like scott said). If you have red mages (or "that elf guy" ), you can use fire to kill the skeletons, and then put a few fighters in front to soak up damage.

After you've taken the keep, it's pretty easy.

[gabba]

Just a suggestion: try to put some (leveled-up?) mermen in the ditch around the castle, they'll have 70% defense and they resist cold. The guy with the lightning trident can do a lot of damage, but is hard to keep alive. Of course it's only a little help, I had already a lot of high-level units when I beat that level.

[Elvish_Pillager]

If you can get a Merman Hoplite with a Storm Trident, it can be pretty nasty.

[saskganesh]

I stick a squad of elves in the forest to the the east of the keep. with a captain, a healer and Kalenz as backup, they gain much experience and few if any losses destroying waves of zombies.

the skeletons and wraiths are more worrisome.

[Elvish Leader]

Best thing you actually can do is back to Isle of Damned, and try to defeat all enemies with Moremirmu (White Mage) alive. He will then come to you in turn 7 as Mage of Light and bring you several White Mages.

[Elvish_Pillager]

Best thing you actually can do is back to Isle of Damned, and try to defeat all enemies with Moremirmu (White Mage) alive. He will then come to you in turn 7 as Mage of Light and bring you several White Mages.

This will NOT happen if you defeat all the enemies. If you do, you may recall him. If, on the other hand, the time runs out with him still alive, then he will show up in the valley of death.

[saskganesh]

i tried the rush to sw castle at start. works much better, much fewer casualties as you face one enemy alone at first and then two enemies, later, but on a single front.

turtling in central castle invites a three way attack and nowhere to retreat. passive doom.

[Tux2B]

Try at least to kill te southern leader. Zombies are easy to kill with mages.
Try to get some lvl 2 or 3 mages there.
But zombies can also be very nasty little things. I had an elvish champion I put on a village. Zombies surrounded him (they were about 20), and all tried to kill him. The first 18 all were defeated, but at the end they managed to kill the lvl3 unit (he had but 5 HP left, or something like that).

[Attila]

What I do is rush Kalenz to the holy water, after that he can destroy huge horse of walking corpses. Send him to the eastern castle with either a Elvish Champion or a Knight, together they can easily cut down the walking corpses and kill that leader, if there's still som etime, and depending on his health, you can send him against the southern castles also.

[kangounator]

with horsemen i go behind the mountains to kill the sw Lich