Ye Compleat Walkthrough To "Heir To The Throne"

[Gandledorf]

YE COMPLEAT WALKTHROUGH TO "HEIR TO THE THRONE"

This project aims to be a complete guide to play of the Wesnoth campaign "Heir to the Throne" on Medium difficulty.

My goals: to make this a rich and accessible resource for Medium players. I will include tactics and strategies, snapshots of battles in action, and general commentary on the game.

Warning: This walkthrough contains some plot spoilers. If you want to keep your Wesnoth experience spoiler-free, don't read each walkthrough until you've played the scenario.

I have no experience with editing Wikis but give permission in advance for any material posted here to be transferred to that format. All the images in this Walkthrough are hosted on Imageshack. I also readily give permission for this material to be used in other formats with proper attribution.

I will release the Walkthrough in "Chapters" of several scenarios each, covering major campaigns in Konrad's quest to regain the throne of Wesnoth. There will be five Chapters altogether.

The first Chapter starts with Konrad's escape from the Orcs and ends with the liberation of Elensefar.

I invite commentary, criticism and discussion so that this Walkthrough can be more than just my opinion, but a synthesis of the experiences of many Wesnoth players! There will be a gap of up to a week between the release of Chapters so that discussion can take place.

With no more ado, here is

Chapter One of Ye Compleat Walkthrough to "Heir to the Throne."

[Gandledorf]

SCENARIO ONE: The Elves Besieged.
Background: The evil queen Asheviere has sent Orcs to subdue the Elves. Delfador and Konrad, who are hiding among them, must flee along the northwest path through the forest to the coast. Two Elvish allies will help delay three Orcish forces coming from the northwest, northeast, and south.
Victory conditions: Move Konrad to the signpost at (1,1).

HOW TO WIN
Eventual victory is assured as Konrad can run behind the battle lines and escape easily. Your main goal, rather, is to milk as much experience as you can out of your troops for the coming scenarios. You will often be frustrated by “allied� troops stealing your kills. The key to avoiding this is establishing your turf. Examine the following diagram:



Many players choose the eastern route because it is faster. But this will get your troops mixed up with Galdrad’s, leaving the AI nonplussed as to your intentions. An alternate strategy is to pull far to the west, crossing the river at the narrower fords, not the bridge. Galdrad’s troops will then almost always turn east to face the yellow Orcs, leaving you to fight alone. Here‘s what one play through ended up looking like:



The western route sets you up for a clean one-on-one battle with the green Orcs in the Mountain Valley. But this has its own disadvantages. Do not move into the open, and definitely do not move into the hills - you will be slaughtered, since you close battle after Dusk. In Wesnoth, both terrain and time of day are vital. When fighting Orcs with Elves, you must endeavor to always confront them in daylight and/or in the woods.

Remain on the forest’s edges sniping at orcs who advance into the clearing, and fight conservatively (pick the battle option with the least enemy damage potential, not the most potential for your own damage dealt). Until dawn arrives your troops will be fighting handicapped even on the defense; it will be very helpful if you can use your first level-up on Konrad. His new leadership bonus can somewhat counteract the Orcs’s night bravery. You will level up much faster if you give Konrad the final death-dealing blow to most units. A killing blow is worth 8 times as much experience as one that leaves the enemy alive.

Delfador will never level up, so don’t give him any kills. He can be useful as a soaker (toss him into the battle lines to absorb damage) or as an assister (use him to almost kill a unit, then move in with a recruit for the level-up).

Your ideal goal is to level-up five units plus Konrad (I can usually level three or four). Since your recruit space in the next scenario is five, the sixth unit can be expended without much harm. I like to recruit 3 fighters, 2 archers, and a shaman; one of the fighters can be thrown away if necessary to protect other units.

Do not neglect the two villages immediately south of the valley; these are very useful for rotating your troops out of harm‘s way, and they will heal your units. A shaman placed between the villages can support the front lines as well.

After the Green Orcs are wiped out, do not immediately advance to the signpost. Experience is much more valuable to you here than extra gold (you should not waste time grabbing out-of-the-way villages either, since you will not be recruiting after turn 1 and you have no chance to finish over 100 gold). If the Purple Elves have done their job right you should now be able to rush a Quick Archer or two east and slaughter the Yellow Orc leader for a level-up. In the meantime you can gain experience skirmishing with the Blue Orcs until time runs out. Konrad should stay with your troops to give them leadership, but make sure you can get back to the signpost on turn 16.

[Gandledorf]

SCENARIO TWO: Blackwater Port.
Background: Konrad must survive two days at Blackwater Port until a ship arrives. Humans will help Konrad hold the town, and you gain a loyal Horseman with the ability to recruit companions for him.
Victory conditions: Survive until the end of turns or kill the Orc leader.

HOW TO WIN
This is another relatively easy experience-building scenario. Since you have little chance to finish over 100 gold and have no recallable troops except your original five (the sixth is surplus), villages are again not relevant for money purposes (and you should not keep Konrad back recruiting unnecessary extra troops, I believe - just one keep’s load of units is enough). You should kill the Orc leader only after destroying all his recruits; this is usually around turn 10 or 11.

I like to feint at the southern villages anyway to distract the Orcs (use the loyal Horseman, but make sure he has an escape route!) As night falls, your main force should be crossing the Road (14, 23). Keep them in a tight formation, with Konrad and the Elvish Druid in support positions.

Let’s examine the terrain:



You will immediately notice two disadvantages you did not encounter in the first scenario. First, you will have to fight partway through Orc-favoring hills; second, the Orcs have a healing station and your own is quite far from the scene of action. If you stay in the forest to wait out the night, you give the Orcs control of the West Hills. If you seize them, your own ability to defend is compromised.

My own strategy here relies on feinting into the West Hills (drawing enemy troops south) then muscling through the Forest Gap from the east, bypassing the Hills entirely, and hopefully seizing Haven by around turn 7. Notice that Haven is a “salient� - a point in your line which can be attacked from three or more different enemy hexes, including the tail end of the North Hills. Thus, even though it is a village, do not let wounded units or Archers end their turn there - they will be massacred. Shock absorbers - Delfador and leveled fighters - can be rotated in every turn until you fill in the flanking positions.

Taking Haven quickly requires blasting some enemies out of the way with the wizard instead of milking them for experience points, so ration the remaining enemies carefully. Two units you definitely want to level to if you haven’t already are the Elvish Druid and the Captain; these will help enormously with further level-ups. I like to keep the initial levelups diverse - you have enough units for a Captain, Hero, Marksman and Ranger. Then I add more Heros and Rangers in the coming scenarios.

Do not become complacent about battling the Orcs in the open in daylight; the AI excels at using the Zone of Control rule to blockade the castle while the spoilsport enemy leader flees to the top left corner of the map, running out the clock. The following save (from the first time I encountered this tactic) was appropriately titled “Oh Crap�:



You will have two or three allied Horsemen; let them handle the remnants (with your wounded units sneaking in for kills) while your main force engages the castle. I like to let the loyal Horseman take the final kill for a promotion to Knight.

[Gandledorf]

SCENARIO THREE: The Isle of Anduin.
Background: Konrad must recapture the Isle of Anduin from the Orcs. A loyal mage appears to battle at Delfador’s side, and you can recruit more Mages throughout the game.
Victory conditions: Kill the Orc leader.

HOW TO WIN
Finally, a scenario where you can make gold! Of course, your goal remains to kill all enemy units (leader last) as quickly as possible. But if you maneuver wisely you can be making 30 gold per turn by the end. I finished with 268 gold not counting the bonus.

Should you recruit more troops here or not? It depends on how much you’ve leveled up in Blackwater. Enemy troops are surprisingly scarce in this scenario, especially if you‘re stealing their villages. I was barely able to fulfill my leveling priorities (the Mage is a huge XP drain) so I concentrated on the units I already had. If most of your units were leveled in Blackwater, on the other hand, go ahead and recruit another Horseman and a few more Fighters.

Notice that recruiting Horsemen and Mages is never a bad idea even if they get little or no experience, because it costs the same or less to recall them as to recruit them and you’ll know their traits in advance next time.

Now, take a look at the battlefield:



This is above all a battle for the villages. The enemy will send almost all his forces north into the rich western half of the island, and so should you, using the narrow ford at the lake’s mouth. Your loyal Horseman can collect villages in the eastern half of the map and battle the two or three Riders who will challenge him. Skip over every other village and follow up with Konrad - if you can get him into battle, level 3 is always nice.

The key in the West is to keep your main force organized. Amphibious landings are tricky. Resist the temptation to send Elrian or Delfador village-gathering in the northwest corner of the island - rather, bring them up to support positions until the first wave is defeated. Scatter your heavy fighters across the arc of forest and use ZOC to keep the wounded units and Druid safe. Your leveled forces are now superior to the enemy’s, so after the initial wave breaks on your front you can start to move into the hills. The Mage moves very slowly and takes forever to level up: careful husbanding of enemy XP is needed. Enemy units like to flee into the mountains or even the lake itself - and these take forever to hunt down. So keep a fast unit, maybe an Avenger if you have one, going down through the mountains in parallel with your forces.

As you come out of the hills, your Horseman will be crossing into the western half of the island. Surround the enemy completely, kill every unit, and once the leader can no longer recruit, rush the castle in a single turn. The sixteen XP were just enough to promote my magic-user to White Mage:

[Gandledorf]

SCENARIO FOUR: The Bay of Pearls.
Background: Konrad must free the enslaved Mermen and defeat the Orcish force here. You may use freed Mermen, but you can’t recruit more. Delfador is unavailable.
Victory conditions: Kill both Orc leaders (technically you can get away with only killing one).

HOW TO WIN
After the tactical challenges of the first three levels, this is a disappointingly luck-driven and choice-devoid scenario (I generally dislike sea fighting). You start with 5 Mermen, get a total of 12 throughout the level, and will be lucky to finish the level with seven or eight. Your healing opportunities are very limited until you kill the Sea Orc - this should be the first priority. The Mermen then push east to assassinate the Land Orc around turn 16. You can recruit more units, but the main purpose for this land army is to gain XP beating up on the trolls.

A wise strategy is to send three Mermen to open the northeast cage, with the two western Mermen rushing up to the northwest cage and the Storm Trident. In the west, simply use one Merman to occupy the guardians and dodge around with the other; a freed slave should immediately seize the Storm Trident, a powerful weapon. In the east, two Mermen cooperate in killing the guardian and the third moves in to free his comrades. Then close in with the two forces to kill the Sea Orc. Make sure to kill the loudmouth Orc - he has his own little subplot!

At sea, the only long-term benefit you’re getting out of this level is that Trident-wielding Merman. Make sure he gets both leader kills, and a few minions, and he should level up to Warrior status.

So much for that. On land, you want to be recalling only - Level Ones are no match for hordes of Trolls. Let’s have a look at the tactical situation:



Notice how scattered your forces are. Do not be afraid of this - unlike the past scenarios, your initial meetup with the Trolls should occur around Morning of the second day (turn 8 ) and the forces of evil are at a severe disadvantage without the cover of hills or mountains. You can weaken the enemy further by luring them into the shallow waters with a wounded Merman (just out of view in this snapshot). Kill all the trailing Orcs and form a battle line across the two southern Green villages pictured. At night you will have a much harder time as the Orcs return to land. Don‘t forget that your White Mage has healing abilities! And always resolve land battles before sea battles; you can still get some nice kills on the same turn as your Trident-bearing Merman shish kabobs the Orcish leader.

Timing your recalls can be a hassle; if you recruit units in a pair of fast and slow then one can use the island to its full effect. Recalling the Elvish Druid and Knight to be the fast units works well for me. The White Mage comes last - remember that it takes forever to level again, so giving him too much XP right now isn’t a good investment.

[Gandledorf]

SCENARIO FIVE: Muff Malal’s Peninsula.
Background: Konrad must defeat his first undead leader and clear the peninsula of enemy forces. Delfador is still unavailable.
Victory conditions: Kill Muff Malal.

HOW TO WIN
Yes, I nearly always choose the land route and I would certainly advise it if you are playing for the first few times. The Isle of the Damned still isn’t attractive enough. The prospect of another White Mage (IF I kill both enemy leaders, quite difficult) and the ability to recruit a few weak sauce chaotic units pales alongside the leveling opportunities on the Peninsula. Besides, you will be getting thieves and other chaotic units later in the campaign.

This level is where you start to build your second cadre of high-rank units. What to recruit? I go with two or three Fighters, one or two new Horsemen, and two or three more Mages (very important!). Notice no Archers - that’s because undead are resistant to Pierce damage, and the HP is too low unless you get Resilient.

On this level you will learn the true meaning of conservative formations. The terrain is AWFUL - that single Forest hex is there to taunt you, trust me. Let’s have a look:




Do not go down the Pass, no matter how enticing it looks. You will be very far from healing villages, you’ll have to fight through the hills and your formation will be extremely inflexible because of the surrounding movement-restricting mountains.

I generally like to send a Knight gathering villages up by the signpost, then bring him down the west flank into Foolhardy (great for distracting Dark Adepts). Meanwhile your main force has formed up in Hasteful and is advancing through the East Hills.

Let’s talk formations. You will never be able to keep your level-1 units alive AND level up versus undead if you don’t have good support. By now you should have a Captain and Lord Konrad for leaders, with the White Mage and Druid for healers. It’s a simple matter to line these up as support. Here’s a simple formation where healing and leadership are put to good use:


A famous strategist once said “No plan survives contact with the enemy.� Learning how to advance while remaining FLEXIBLE is one of the key lessons of this scenario.

Here is our formation somewhat later in the game:



Yes, you can survive in the open at night versus undead… with good leadership and healing skills. If you see a way to advance your front line past the entire swamp in one turn, so that only supporting units are in the bog, do it immediately. Otherwise you will be advancing down a narrow front - between the Grove and the western mountain chain.

Of course, sometimes you’ll have to make sacrifices. The best units to leave without leadership are the mages - they are already quite powerful against undead. If you have to leave a unit without a healer, with all else being equal, make it a horseman. They have high HP and can easily make it back to village next turn.

As long as you remain aggressive in your play but conservative in your support, you shouldn’t have problems. Sweep down on the undead leader from two sides (remember the knight!) and wipe him out. Use the same tactics when you get to the southern swamp - grab Hacksworth, then jump across in one turn. You can use the Knight to distract most of the undead away.

[Gandledorf]

SCENARIO SIX: The Siege of Elensefar.
Background: The city has fallen! Konrad must recapture it, defeating the Orcish occupiers, then fight off an allied undead army. You’ll have the help of Elensefar’s Thief Guild in throwing off the Orcish yoke.
Victory conditions: Kill both enemy leaders.

HOW TO WIN
Yes, this is what you’ve been waiting for. Elensefar is the big test - have you leveled up enough units? Have you learned the right tactics? If so you should be able to pass the final level in Chapter One of Heir to the Throne. Nobody said it would be easy…

Time is key. By turn 10-11 at the very latest you should have destroyed the Orcs. Now you must fight through a horde of skeletons, get through the cave bottleneck and defeat the undead leader.

You can defeat the Orcs MUCH more easily if you get a beachhead on the island without being challenged. Otherwise you’ll have to fight in the moat. Some players recruit mermen. That’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. I don’t find mermen intimidating and neither do most Orcs.

My initial recruit on a good campaign was 1 Avenger, 1 Captain, 2 Heroes, 1 Druid, and 1 White Mage. I followed up with 1 Marksman, 1 Knight, 2 Mages, an experienced Horseman and Fighter duo, and Lord Konrad. This force represents a total of 10 level-ups, or only two per scenario - you can definitely do it. If you don’t have at least 6-7 level ups, I would replay the campaign.

You’ll need at least 240 gold just to recall your initial force, and you‘ll be recruiting more in the Orc Keep. I sent my two weakest units, the (quick!) Fighter and the Horseman, to collect the 3 villages on either side - seizing these early can make a big difference.

By the end of turn three, marching straight forward, I had seized the south fort and was in a credibly defendable position:, without fighting the enemy:


The Orcs wanted nothing to do with this army in the light of the Afternoon, and shuffled their troops around out of range. If you have a really good force (such as this one!), the Orcs will retreat to their Keep and the West Fort, leaving the East Fort completely vacant.

Around this time you will get an offer from the Thief Guild. They will either show you a ford (identical to a bridge for gameplay) onto the western island, or give you a flanking reinforcement of four units. You should already be on Elensefar Island - take the reinforcement. The question is when to activate it (by taking a enemy village).

Generally, but not always, it’s better to wait a turn until the first watch to move your thieves out of their hiding places. During Dusk you took the East Fort and then withstood the first Orcish onslaught, as shown here. Notice the good arrangement of the healers. The Elvish Captain, on the other hand, should have been switched with the Hero southwest of him.



Now that you have the Orcs engaged, you can carry out a few nice kills by backstabbing them with your thieves. In this game, Konrad (my least valuable unit on the island!) took the free village just west of this screenshot. Then the mayhem began. Here’s what the end of the turn looked like.

Notice several things. The thieves (who haven‘t taken their turn yet) are in prime backstabbing position. The mage protects the front-line units, who are in turn using ZOC to protect Konrad. The newly-promoted Shyde is in a great healing position. On the other hand, the Orcs are terriby misplaced. Since they split their forces, the disorganization of the first battle can’t be taken advantage of - by the time the second battalion crosses back over to the main isle, I will have reformed my lines. And next turn Konrad will already be in the keep, recruiting units for the skelly battle.





Well … OK, but what if it doesn’t go as well as this scenario shows? The important thing to remember: don’t listen to common wisdom, don’t be timid, and DO NOT fight in the moat. Just four units can hold the South Fort: a healer, a leader, and two fighters (the actual units depending on what you‘ve leveled up). Place the fighters in the forts themselves, with the leader completing the arc and the healer adjacent to all three units. If you have these units there is no excuse for not using them to hold the fort overnight. In the meantime send the rest of the units around to the East Bridge. If you are losing the battle, the thieves are totally expendable and provide a great distraction - bring them in at Dusk and use the skirmisher ability to the fullest extent possible. If you’re doing well, on the other hand, I would use the thieves at night, and try to preserve them - they are loyal, after all, and they will continue to be useful in later scenarios.

So you won against the Orcs? Great. But there’s still another force to battle. The skeletons are a totally different type of unit and you MUST use the Orc Keep to recruit a new force (you can still use the first battalion in support and cleanup operations). Skeletons are heavily resistant to blade and pierce, so Elves and Horsemen will not do the trick. On the other hand they are very vulnerable to holy, impact, and fire damage. What does this mean? Paladins, mages, these are the way to fight skellies. During the Orc battle, you should have hopefully upgraded to Shyde and Paladin, along with a Mage level-up if you’re lucky. The Shyde and the White Mage are terrific against skeletons - just remember that they’re a bit fragile and you don’t have healers to waste. I like to recruit 3 or 4 mages and a second shaman to be the spearhead of the skeleton fighters; then I have the Shyde, the White Mage, a Paladin and at least one Knight ready to level into either Paladin or Grand Knight. In this particular playing I also got a Mage to Red.

The tactics are simple - you want to contest both bridges, but getting ashore at the central bridge is more important because you can grab the healing station and completely outflank the remaining East Bridge skeletons, forcing them into the swamp. The second bottleneck arrives when you have to get into the cave. Contest both entrances, but the central one is where you’re most likely to break through. Rotate mages into the battle lines and heal from behind with the Shyde and Shaman.

When you finally defeat ol’ Muff Janaal, you’ll hear a story from Delfador about a mystical Sceptre of Fire that you need to ascend to the throne. The quest is on! Now that you have a core of battle-hardened troops, the next chapter shouldn’t be as difficult as it looks. But battles and challenges still lie ahead, and you’ll still need the help of wise advice.

That’s for another installment! Good luck and good playing... And thanks for reading.

Thus ends Chapter One of Ye Compleat Walkthrough to "Heir to the Throne."

[Dave]

This really looks nice. Great work, and I look forward to seeing the rest of it.

Perhaps you would like to consider putting it in the Wiki -- old threads on the forum tend to get 'lost', while the Wiki is far more permanent.

David

[ott]

Added a link to this from the existing walkthrough page http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/HeirToTheThrone which also has additional content and links to other articles.

[Marvel]

You should not use the word "ye" in place of "the".

Dictionary.com explains why:

Usage Note: In an attempt to seem quaint or old-fashioned, many store signs such as “Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe� use spellings that are no longer current. The word ye in such signs looks identical to the archaic second plural pronoun ye, but it is in fact not the same word. Ye in “Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe� is just an older spelling of the definite article the. The y in this ye was never pronounced (y) but was rather the result of improvisation by early printers. In Old English and early Middle English, the sound (th) was represented by the letter thorn (þ). When printing presses were first set up in England in the 1470s, the type and the typesetters all came from Continental Europe, where this letter was not in use. The letter y was used instead because in the handwriting of the day the thorn was very similar to y. Thus we see such spellings as ye for the, yt or yat for that, and so on well into the 19th century. However, the modern revival of the archaic spelling of the has not been accompanied by a revival of the knowledge of how it was pronounced, with the result that (y) is the usual pronunciation today.

[Elvish Pillager]

That doesn't constitute a reason not to.

[Glowing Fish]

You don't seem to like Elvish Scouts much.
Not that that is a terrible thing, many people don't like them, but you don't even mention them.

[superabo]

You should not use the word "ye" in place of "the".

Dictionary.com explains why:

Usage Note: In an attempt to seem quaint or old-fashioned, many store signs such as “Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe� use spellings that are no longer current. The word ye in such signs looks identical to the archaic second plural pronoun ye, but it is in fact not the same word. Ye in “Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe� is just an older spelling of the definite article the. The y in this ye was never pronounced (y) but was rather the result of improvisation by early printers. In Old English and early Middle English, the sound (th) was represented by the letter thorn (þ). When printing presses were first set up in England in the 1470s, the type and the typesetters all came from Continental Europe, where this letter was not in use. The letter y was used instead because in the handwriting of the day the thorn was very similar to y. Thus we see such spellings as ye for the, yt or yat for that, and so on well into the 19th century. However, the modern revival of the archaic spelling of the has not been accompanied by a revival of the knowledge of how it was pronounced, with the result that (y) is the usual pronunciation today.

The same website also says:

ye1 P Pronunciation Key (th, y)
def.art. Archaic
The.

& citing dictionary.com makes you look dumb (or at least unscholarly) since that text is acquired from the American Heritage Dictionary.

[Marvel]

I mentioned dictionary.com because people can look it up there for themselves.

My Oxford dictionary says:

ye (pseudo-archaic) =THE (ye old tea-shoppe [var sp. due to use of y-shaped letter THORN in 14th c.)

My houghton-mifflin dictionary says
ye. Archaic The. [Incorrrect transcription resulting from the close resemblance between the runic letter called thorn (properly transcribed as th) and the letter y in certain Middle English manuscripts. See thorn.]

My point was that the word 'ye' was never used in place of 'the' in old English.

The bottom line is that I'm right and those arguing with me should quit. Furthermore calling me dumb and unscholarly for giving people a URL instead of an original source is quite unnecessary.

[Elvish Pillager]

"Ye" is pronounced "ye" and means "the". It is an English word. Its origins need have no import on its usage.