Stuck on infested caves

Share and discuss strategies for playing the game, and get help and tips from other players.

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Bikerbob
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Post by Bikerbob »

bert1 wrote:Yup! That'll be all the save-reloading I did, especially near the start.
Well your replay helped!

I have now done it.. but sorry to say I am still playing this on easy. SO .. i will get through it once.. and then try again harder.

I am SHOCKED how well footpads work.. in most games they are the lowest of the low.. but the trolls were really having a hard time hitting them.

I was able to hold the green troll whelps on the bottom off the ENTIRE game with 4 footpads rotating.. and the funny thing is.. when they level up to an outlaw.. they are WORSE.. because they become much easier to hit?? whats up with that??

James
bert1
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Post by bert1 »

Bikerbob wrote:Well your replay helped!
Glad I've managed to do something useful on the forums!
Bikerbob wrote:I am SHOCKED how well footpads work.. in most games they are the lowest of the low.. but the trolls were really having a hard time hitting them.
Yes, there's plenty of 70% terrain to exploit, and as trolls only have two attacks the footpads often escape unscathed.
Bikerbob wrote:I was able to hold the green troll whelps on the bottom off the ENTIRE game with 4 footpads rotating
Yes, that's quite easy once you discover it, and frees up the rest of your force.
Bikerbob wrote:.. and the funny thing is.. when they level up to an outlaw.. they are WORSE.. because they become much easier to hit?? whats up with that??
Are you sure? I thought they retained their normal defense percentages when they level up, but I could be wrong. I can't check it at the moment because I've gone back to the 'stable' version temporarily. What sometimes happens with a more powerful unit is the enemy suiciding units, scoring one or more hit before dying, and then being replaced by another unit, thus getting more attacks in, which might make it seem like your higher level units are suffering/dying more than they should be.

Also, in this campaign, footpads have a level 3, whereas in multiplayer and most (all?) other campaigns they can only reach level 2. The level 3 guy is very powerful, especially with his ranged attack.
Good is simply that which is willed. - Eugene Halliday
bert1
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Post by bert1 »

After half a dozen attempts, I finally did this scenario (on impossible difficulty, version 1.3.12) with no reloads at all! Wowzers! So where is the replay? It's corrupt! Bugger!

In this attempt the green leader was the last to die on turn 41.

The strategy was as before:

Send some (6 or so) footpads to grab the villages in the top right corner (avoiding trolls) before white skellies block the way. It's tight but you can do it if the lead two footpads are quick. Hold off green with rotating footpads for entire duration. Use another quick footpad to get the mage and then blast through blue, open secret door, and then kill white. Move your leader to the middle keep as soon as is safe and come down with the mage to tackle first orange and then green through the secret entrance. At the same time swarm the troll leader with footpads (your income should now be pretty good) and then go after the grey skelly.

This level depends somewhat on what the trolls and the skellies get up to. This time the trolls killed a lot of skellies for me, thus making the level do-able. It's somewhat possible to herd the trolls towards the skellies with footpads/outlaws. If you stay on good terrain, and make sure none of your weak/low defence units are in range of the trolls (using ZOC), they will leave you alone and go after the skellies instead.

NOTE: Only the enemy leaders have to die. You don't have to wipe out every last straggler for victory.
Good is simply that which is willed. - Eugene Halliday
Tigertown84
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Joined: October 12th, 2007, 5:02 am
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Re: Help on Infested Caves/My kingdom for a footpad

Post by Tigertown84 »

OK, so I made it through the first map of Northern Rebirth(Breaking the Chains) with the difficulty set at Swordsman/Normal. Came out in decent shape about 3 turns early, with a couple level two pikemen and almost 300 gp.

Then came the dreaded Infested Caves. Ouch.

This map has kicked my arse for almost 3 weeks. I've tried every strategy I could think of but ultimately can never quite get past the narrow gauntlet/passage in the southeast corner to reach the grey skelly leader in time. The AI on this scenario is quite unpredictable(which I must say is very refreshing) and while it has been enjoyable trying to figure it out, the nights of 3 hrs of sleep are wearing me out....lol.

So finally out of desperation I am came to this forum for some "hints" on getting past these bleeping infested caves. Reading through these 3 pages posted so far(good to know I'm not the only one in therapy due to this TBfW campaign) there are some great ideas, many of which I have tried. However I am confused by a common thread that appears in all of the successful solutions that have been posted: FOOTPADS

For some reason I did not get the ability to summon footpads after completing the first map. I can summon either peasants, poachers or thugs. And no there is no scrollbar, just those 3 options.

Am I missing something? It would be awesome to have some footpads to send racing up the corridor to the red mage, to send to grab those elusive flags in the NE corner, and most importantly to get down into that SE corridor before the grey skellys turn it into L.A. style gridlock.

Soooo, are the footpads only available on certain difficulty levels or did I miss something on Breaking the Chains--such as a hermit/recluse footpad hiding in the mountains--that is the reason I cannot summon them? Thanks for any help you all can provide.

(and HUGE kudos to the developer of this scenario...even though I've been battling Infested Caves for umpteen million hours, it's been a blast)
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Post by thespaceinvader »

Which game version are you playing on? I believe that footpads were only added late in the development process, and as such, i don't think they appear in the stable release.
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Tigertown84
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RE: Infested Caves

Post by Tigertown84 »

Yes, Space Invader, I am playing the stable version(1.2.6).

So without the footpads, is this map beatable?

Seems like only with sheer luck could anyone get to the grey skelly leader in time. I have no problem destroying the other leaders in a timely manner.

I guess maybe that's why footpads were added to later releases.

Any ideas anyone?
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Tigertown84
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Joined: October 12th, 2007, 5:02 am
Location: Palatine, Illinois

RE: Infested Caves

Post by Tigertown84 »

I just downloaded stable version 1.2.8, didn't realize I was so far behind on the releases.

Hopefully the footpad will be available so I can beat this scenario now.
Wife: "So how late were you up LAST night playing that stupid game you're addicted to?"
Me: "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....."
zarak
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Joined: September 10th, 2007, 11:36 pm

Re: Stuck on infested caves

Post by zarak »

Now that 1.4 is out and this is an official campaign, I decided to give it another try. I am playing on nightmare or whatever the hardest level is called, although for some reason the replay shows as hard. Anyway, I finished up the infested caves this morning. It was pretty easy this time actually. I used the same strategy to take out the north and south trolls first, and get all the flags in those areas to generate income. I intentionally did not get the two that open the secret doors, so I would not have to defend those areas. Instead, I brought everyone back down to the starting point and went out to the main area. I got lucky this time though, because A) the brown trolls and two skele armies had beaten up on each other a lot, and B) the dwarves had broken free on their own so were able to provide assistance.

I ended up clearing the caves, which it said I would get a bonus for, but I didn't notice a bonus at the end of the scenario. I don't think this was an option last time I played, as I had to make it down to the dwarf HQ. I do have over 1000 gold to start the next scenario, which should help.

Replay attached.
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NR-Infested_Caves_replay.gz
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bert1
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Re: Stuck on infested caves

Post by bert1 »

This scenario has got considerably easier in 1.4. The main difference I noticed is the green troll leader does one recruit and then vacates his castle and runs up to the end of his tunnel to hide. I guess making the scenario easier is probably a good thing to bring it in line with the other scenarios and campaigns, but I did like the absurdly hard version. It was like a puzzle.

A new strategy I tried for this level is to zip a footpad or three down the dwarf tunnel ASAP, and with a bit of luck you can stop the grey skelly leader returning to his keep and recruiting. Then the dwarves have a better chance of fighting their way out.

Here's my replay (1.4 impossible, no reloads).
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zarak
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Re: Stuck on infested caves

Post by zarak »

Yes, it has been a lot easier than I expected. What happened to the nightmare challenge? I haven't really had trouble with a scenario yet. The one after infested caves was easy, since I had about 1000 gold instead of the 300 I had when playing prior to 1.4. I'm up to the first scenario after you leave all of your gold with the dwarves.

I want to try the evil Tallin path too...has that been scrapped with this being an official campaign in 1.4, or is it still under development for later? I tried to follow that path and it just said I was defeated.
AI
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Re: Stuck on infested caves

Post by AI »

From what I can see, it's still unfinished and it's a bad idea to put an unfinished branch in mainline.

I don't know if it's still being developed though. (doesn't look like it, in trunk the entire option is commented out, you automatically pick 'good')
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Drake General
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Re: Stuck on infested caves

Post by Drake General »

For those who haven't seen it, I have said something about that earlier...It's going to come veeerry slowly. I'm still learning.
http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=21000
So yeah, be patient.
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How can I rock the world if I don't understand all of it?
icerom
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Joined: November 3rd, 2011, 2:03 am

Re: Stuck on infested caves

Post by icerom »

Great scenario. Maybe the best I've played. Very difficult, though. I couldn't have passed it without help from the guide.
alluton
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Re: Stuck on infested caves

Post by alluton »

This is not general feedback thread for Infested caves. Just to offer some tips for it. Feedback thread may be found from here : http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=20356
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