Siege of Elsenfar

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wandering_rogue
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Siege of Elsenfar

Post by wandering_rogue »

Is it just me or is Siege of Elsenfar a particularly hard scenario? I'm playing on normal and I have about 300 gold and several lvl 2 units to recall. I've gotten through it once by sacrificing most of my recalled lvl 2 units in a blitzkrieg attack on the island just to see if the strategy would work. But now I'm trying to play it and actually level up new units to lvl2 and some recalled ones to lvl 3 (like a paladin and an outrider).


Side question #1: Is it worth recalling a sorcerous and/or merman fighter with the trident?

Side question #2: If I just get through it by sacrificing lvl2 will I still be able to finish later scenarios?

side question #3: I just started playing BfW but it seems that this scenario is suddenly way harder than the previous ones. Does anyone think this needs rebalancing (if that's the correct term for it)?
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Tux2B
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Post by Tux2B »

It is a very common fact that people who begin playing Wesnoth have troubles with this scenario.
My usual tip is to play the campaign from the beggining a second time.
1. Mermen are very useful in SoE because you need to defend the southern river against the orcs during the night (attack them during the day)
2.Do not sacrifice any of your level 2 units. Try anything else, but if you have only a few of lvl2 units, which I guess is the case, you must keep them all alive.
3.I do not think it needs balancing (it has already been changed a lot since version 0.8.11). There is a challenge in this scenario, as it is the first one where you have to beat two ennemies.
"There are two kind of campaign strategies : the good and the bad ones. The good ones almost always fail because of unforeseen consequences that make the bad ones succeed." -- Napoleon
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Re: Siege of Elsenfar

Post by Yogibear »

wandering_rogue wrote:Is it just me or is Siege of Elsenfar a particularly hard scenario? I'm playing on normal and I have about 300 gold and several lvl 2 units to recall. I've gotten through it once by sacrificing most of my recalled lvl 2 units in a blitzkrieg attack on the island just to see if the strategy would work. But now I'm trying to play it and actually level up new units to lvl2 and some recalled ones to lvl 3 (like a paladin and an outrider).


Side question #1: Is it worth recalling a sorcerous and/or merman fighter with the trident?

Side question #2: If I just get through it by sacrificing lvl2 will I still be able to finish later scenarios?

side question #3: I just started playing BfW but it seems that this scenario is suddenly way harder than the previous ones. Does anyone think this needs rebalancing (if that's the correct term for it)?
Yes, this is one of the harder scenarios.

Q#1:
Yes, it definitely is worth it, if the merman has got the magic storm trident. While fighting the orcs, he can safely attack the units without range attack (like orc warriors). Keep him in the water, where he has good defense. Even enemy units with a good range attack will think twice about attacking this guy. Later on, he is useful in fighting the skeletons. If he goes on land though you need to cover him very well.

Q#2:
You will run into problems, if you sacrifice most of your level two units, although you get Delfador and Kalenz as reinforcement. Unless you have a lot of gold.

Q#3:
No, the scenario needs no rebalancing, IMHO. But you will need some money, 300 i think is the fewest you need to win. You just have to choose the right strategy. There is basically two things you have to master:
1.
You have to get into Elensefar and finish most of the orcs, before the skeletons arise there in numbers. To do that without sacrificing your army you need to find a way to outnumber them at the point of contact.
2.
After you finished the orcs, you need to take care of the skeletons. There is your next problem: Skeletons are very resistant against pierce (horsemen, elvish archers) plus they have a good resistance against blade (elvish fighters, thiefs, konrad). That is most likely a very good resistance against almost your whole army. What you need here is magical power. Now the merman comes in again and you should also have some mages. It makes things a lot easier, if you manage to level up a mage (which is not easy, try to prepare that in the previous scenario). Make him a white mage then who is superior against all undead. Two white mages is even better. With these you should be able to fight the skeletons efficently, without too many losses. Their healing ability is a very nice side effect. Make use of that and always take care of keeping them covered.

Doing that, it is still not easy but manageable at last. I did it on hard with 350 gold, though i have to admit i needed some saveloading.

Good luck!
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wandering_rogue
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Post by wandering_rogue »

Thanks for the tips. They helped a lot! I used a 3 prong attack strategy for the orcs: main bridge with my main strength, right bridge with knights and elvish riders, and the rogue path with a few first levels.

I finished the scenario with all my level 2s intact, leveled a few new ones, and I leveled up to a white mage, a grand knight, an outrider and an assasin. Admittedly, too I did save load once or twice but I mostly learned how the AI reacts a bit more by doing this.

One weird thing I noticed about the necro part: I had drawn out most of the undead, then tried to attack the necro head on with high movement units. I crossed the boundary with several and nothing happened. Then I crossed the boundary just one hex in with a Captain and that triggered the message from the necro (and 3 new undead).

Is this a bug or a feature of the scenario?
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Elvish_Pillager
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Post by Elvish_Pillager »

It is a(n extremely bad) feature of the scenario.
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Faello
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Post by Faello »

I passed this scenario on normal difficulty level without loading - it's more then possible, but key to the success lies in maintaining army core after this scenario - I managed to do it with acceptable losses ( 1 elven captain, lot of 1 lvl units and, unfortunately, merman with the magic trident :cry: ), I've still powerful core of 2nd level units ( including 1 elven shyde, elven dryad, elven champion, few rangers, knights and captains + other 2nd level units ) + cash for the next scenario.
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Post by Sly »

There is a rather cheap (in term of units lost) way to win : pack your army at the end of the south bridge with a strong unit in front (supported by a healer) and use a horseman/knight (preferably a knight if you have) to distract the enemy on the other bridge (he probably won't die : only one enemy unit can fight him well, the others will be in the water).

And at dawn, empty the castle tiles at the other end of the bridge with mages (or even a sharpshooter if you have one) then take position at the had of the bridge with strong units supported by a healer ...

Killing the orcs is now a pleasure.

The undead is more annoying to get rid of : the skeletons will fight you in the cave were there stronger. Rotate your units to only present fully healed ones and he'll run out of gold and units.
purki
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Elensefar

Post by purki »

Hi all!

I've played the level by killing the orcish leader very quickly.
I recalled knights and elvish riders first and killed him immediatly.
But I had luck!!! :D :lol: :D
Elwynd
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Post by Elwynd »

The first time around, I thought it was impossible, but then I did only have 1 red mage and a blue one and mostly elven archesr. I ended up with all the baddies in the middle at once - not good.

After I restarted, I wondered if I'd accidentally changed the difficulty level to 'easy'! A few more mages made a difference, but the biggest difference was making the other choice with the allies.

I've just finished the Hordes of WCs, whatever it's really called. :p
needhelppls.
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Post by needhelppls. »

siege of elensefar is not that hard if you have alot of horsemen available for recall. Just kill the orcish leader and then you have the city. then just send the rest of your army to kill the undead use only melee attacks.
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Post by Elvish_Pillager »

Using melee only against Skeletons is very stupid. Using Horsemen overly against the orcs wastes experience. (Although one of the challenges I want to try again is an all-horsemen strategy - that could be fun, it would be cool to have tons of Grand Knights...)
It's all fun and games until someone loses a lawsuit. Oh, and by the way, sending me private messages won't work. :/ If you must contact me, there's an e-mail address listed on the website in my profile.
Pythagoras
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Post by Pythagoras »

needhelppls. wrote:siege of elensefar is not that hard if you have alot of horsemen available for recall. Just kill the orcish leader and then you have the city. then just send the rest of your army to kill the undead use only melee attacks.
Horseman vs undead?!? wowza
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Faello
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Post by Faello »

Pythagoras wrote:Horseman vs undead?!? wowza
Actually, It's not so stupid ( especially when horsemen advanced to paladin 8) ).

One paladin can kill dozens of undeads, especially when they're charging - one hit of paladin, when chocobone is charging means instant dead for chocobone :shock:

I know what I'm saying because I managed to survive Princes Revenge mission ( you in the centre and dozens of undead ) with only 160 gp's or so at the beginning, with no losses and NO LOADING - I had a little luck with the blue player, but it was hard to not slaughter half of his army in 2 turns ( he was attacking my paladin with melee units - it was pure slaughter of undeads :P ) - generally it was good battle I can give a replay if anybody is interested ...

If it's going about Siege of Elsenefar - cavalry can be slayed easily by the 2nd lvl orcs, so I consider striking with infrantry/archers/mages as more efficient tactic against orcish commander and his army - if it is going about undeads - real problem is the cave - majority of player units has small defence ability in the cave so skeletons are much more dangerous then ever - I forgot about it and I lost my merman with triton - one of the most foolish losses I suffered in the whole campaing :x
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unsung
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Post by unsung »

Elvish Pillager wrote:Using melee only against Skeletons is very stupid. Using Horsemen overly against the orcs wastes experience. (Although one of the challenges I want to try again is an all-horsemen strategy - that could be fun, it would be cool to have tons of Grand Knights...)
early on all horsemen served me weel for much of th ecampiagn. not msny levelled units-correction, many, but I didn't preserve them like they were my own children-but a crapload of gold.

and they say wesnoth can't be won by rush. :roll:

it IS stupid though... DO NOT DO IT UNLESS YOU ARE ME AND ARE LUCKY IN EVERY WAY.


yes, that includes lucky to be alive. if you are not lucky to be alive, but just are, do not do this, you will fail. miserably.
Oh no look out its a ray gun.
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if you are hit by the rays
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the rays are fast so you should be fast to
can you win against the fast rays from the gun?
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Post by Tux2B »

In Httt, the best units against undeads are mages and cavalery (cavalery against skeleton archers). Make cavalery advance to paladin quickly and you'll have (with a white mage if you choose to advance mages on white mages) the best units against them.
But mages and cavalery are enough in SoE
"There are two kind of campaign strategies : the good and the bad ones. The good ones almost always fail because of unforeseen consequences that make the bad ones succeed." -- Napoleon
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