We just want our throne back Wesnoth SG 2

[Ranamar]

Hmm... looks like I'm up! I have some prep for diving a diving class I'm taking to do, like buying/renting equipment, but I should be able to get to it today or tomorrow easily.

Uhhhh.... Not seeing it, really. The adept is scary? We took one of those apart last round without much trouble. If green doesn't move to fill the spot I expect it to attack the paladin since it would be an unopposed ranged attack.

I worry a lot more about the bone shooter. Nasty ranged attack, decent melee attack, fair number of HP, blade/pierce resistance. And the wraiths, mostly because of those draining melee attacks to heal themselves.

Adepts are scary for a L1 because, IIRC, they're slightly stronger than L1 Mages. Also, they do a magic-accuracy attack. I'd be a lot more worried if there were several of them, because then they could probably dogpile our units. Us not having many L1 units of our own makes them somewhat less scary, but they could severely injure someone for the rest of the scenario.

I'll post more thoughts once I've actually thought about the save (probably when I've looked at it...) but I agree: the really worrying stuff is the smattering of L2 units coming in amid the wave of L1 stuff. I want to see if Kalenz can do for the Chocobone in the hills, though.

[Amelia]

Adepts are pretty much the strongest damage-dealing unit the undead have, with the exception of chocobones (which cannot be recruited in MP). Of course, with great strength comes horrible defenses, but that 2 shots alone is enough to punch a hole in your defenses most of the time.

[haphazard1]

I still don't really see the adept as all that threatening. It does get magical accuracy, but it is still a level 1 unit that has 10-2 ranged. Against a line of level 2 and level 3 units, it is just one more attacker. One threat among many.

[Ranamar]

T10:

I couldn't help being aggressive... it was too tempting. I tried to restrain myself a bit, though.

Kalenz lands three hits in a row on the Chocobone with support from Konrad, netting a kill there.
Delfador, who I sent to the front lines because he has HP barely managed to kill a wraith, hitting the first and last of four shots with his magic lightning. (Thankfully, being 13-4, that's all it takes to kill 25 HP.)
Our red mage and sorceress throw fireballs at walking corpses, but the Elvish Rider does not fire any shots. He's got 1 xp left and I want him to do a level up heal if he gets screwed.

IBT, it turns out I managed to roll lucky but he got screwed in a truly spectacular way: The other Chocobone managed to charge him because there weren't enough zombies to fill the gaps. However, only one stab hit, and he managed, in revenge, to get the chocobone down to 3hp using a holy-water sword... and then level-healed, of course! :neenernee

T11:



The citadel is secure, but I may need to concede the hills in the north. Doing so will prevent the L2 undead from attacking for another turn while they get stuck in the hills.

I can get the other Elvish Scout to L2 cleaning the chocobone up, too, assuming any one attack hits.
Better yet, our newest rider is at full health, so I can throw him in the line in the north, where I'll need to retreat.

I just thought that escapade was worth sharing immediately.

T11, being the second to last turn, initiates operation Get Pho. Everyone runs for the soup off the bottom of the map.
The exception is a few units doing a holding action in the east of the keep. Amusingly, I eventually decide to put the Shyde on the pointy end, because I figure she's harmless enough that she won't kill a zombie and she also has good defenses.

IBT, the walking corpses continue to provide an exemplary meatshield for us against the actually dangerous units.

T12:

Operation Get Pho goes into phase 2, with everyone running as fast as they can. The Elvish Sorceress gets another on a Wraith that got a little too close, but otherwise people just run. There's a bit of a traffic jam, so I leave units who can take it in a position to see if they can possibly get a kill on a walking corpse. A couple of them do. Oh, and the Dark Adept, which you said was so not scary, hit both its attacks, at night, against the Elvish Sorceress. She got redlined, between that and two walking corpses, and she failed to kill him, too.

After zombies attack one last time, everyone talks about how glad they are they survived, and how now we need to cross the Great River to the north.

What that is, we'll learn soon...

... Or not, because the next thing we do is wander by the fabled Gryphon Mountain, where the Gryphons live. Konrad, being the official carrier of the idiot ball, wants to steal some eggs to hatch pet Gryphons.

I'm still failing to get pictures of the map, despite finding the "full map" hotkey (Maybe it requires a restart to activate? That would be odd, though...) so, here's the quick summary:
You need to kill the mother Gryphon and a human General. The Gryphon is in the middle with a ton of mountains, doesn't recruit units due to a lack of a keep, and probably hates anyone who gets near the sleeping Gryphons. The General is at the other end of this very tall and narrow map.

Oh, and Gryphons are weak to impact, of all things, for some reason. I keep wondering if someone missed by a line and meant pierce. That's not much help to us, so, between that and lacking a ranged attack, mages are going to be worth their weight in gold... again.

[haphazard1]

Nice work, Ranamar! We escape the valley of death.

IBT, the walking corpses continue to provide an exemplary meatshield for us against the actually dangerous units.

Green moving before purple was certainly very helpful.

Oh, and the Dark Adept, which you said was so not scary, hit both its attacks, at night, against the Elvish Sorceress. She got redlined, between that and two walking corpses, and she failed to kill him, too.

But even with the Dark Adept hitting both attacks, at night, it took a couple walking corpses also hitting and the sorceress still did not die. So...still not scared.

... Or not, because the next thing we do is wander by the fabled Gryphon Mountain, where the Gryphons live. Konrad, being the official carrier of the idiot ball, wants to steal some eggs to hatch pet Gryphons.

Konrad is always the carrier of the idiot ball.

You need to kill the mother Gryphon and a human General. The Gryphon is in the middle with a ton of mountains, doesn't recruit units due to a lack of a keep, and probably hates anyone who gets near the sleeping Gryphons. The General is at the other end of this very tall and narrow map.

The toughest aspect of this map is that the enemy has an easier path to the mother gryphon, and you have to move really quickly or they will kill her and you don't get the gryphon eggs. When I replayed this campaign recently, I did not manage to get the eggs, so no gryphonriders for me. Still, it was not that big a deal. Gryphons have their uses but are not really all that important.

Oh, and Gryphons are weak to impact, of all things, for some reason. I keep wondering if someone missed by a line and meant pierce. That's not much help to us, so, between that and lacking a ranged attack, mages are going to be worth their weight in gold... again.

I doubt mages will work for killing the mother gryphon -- too slow. Shydes could help, and I would send some elf riders (any that we have). Horsemen can not enter mountain tiles so they are out. Maybe archer-line elves, especially if we have any with the quick trait? Gryphons have no ranged attack, so you can massacre them with ranged units of any kind. Arcane ranged would be great if we can get them there in time, as gryphons get very high defense in mountains. Marksmen or sharpshooters would be perfect, but I don't think we have any.

For the sleeping gryphons, the first attack will do no damage and just wake them up. So don't waste your best shot, use whoever in range is weakest. Once woken up the gryphons' behavior is unpredictable -- they will often attack the other side. Frequently the enemy will wake them up and then they will move across the map and hit the player, even as the enemy butchers the mother gryphon.

[Mardoc]

I should be able to play tonight. As I seem to have gotten the 'recruit our whole army' turn, if you have any opinions on what you want to fight with, speak up!

[haphazard1]

I should be able to play tonight. As I seem to have gotten the 'recruit our whole army' turn, if you have any opinions on what you want to fight with, speak up!

Well, our usual assortment of loyal units, mages, healers, etc. is pretty much a given I think. There will be the Queen's forces to deal with, which means plenty of units like we faced with Li'sar a map or two back: ogres, swordsmen, fencers, maybe some red mages. So we want plenty of ranged attack capability, plus some tough units to absorb heavy melee damage. Paladins or knights will work well for the meat shield role.

For the gryphons, I have already noted we need at least a handful of units which can move fast into the mountains and take out the mother gryphon. Scouts/riders/outriders are a possibility, along with flying shydes and maybe quick units from our mages/archers/etc troops.

Recall the fast units first and get them on their way to the mother gryphon on turn 2 -- if we want the eggs for later recruiting of gryphon riders we must move immediately.

[Mardoc]

Do we want some cheap expendables along? And similarly - what are the holes in our force we should work on, in the event some of those expendables manage not to be expended? I'm thinking yes, archers/shamans, but I'll be interested to hear other people's take on it.

And yes, every loyal unit, and our mages/paladins

[haphazard1]

Archers and shamans are always welcome if we can get them some XP. Maybe if you are feeling lucky a new mage or two as well? It never hurts to have more promoted mages.

Our core army is doing quite well, I think. Soon we will get the chance to start recruiting and leveling up dwarf units, which can provide some very nice front line units to soak up tons of damage while dishing out plenty themselves. A lot of comments on the wiki really like dwarf guardsmen, but I am rather fond of the fighter/steelclad/dwarf lord line myself. Of course, nothing says we can't have both.

[antisocialmunky]

Recruit a massive shaman army.

Failing that, recruit a massive stalwart/steelclad army. My feeling is that the low level stalwarts are really good for holding the line but the high level steelclads can actually do damage and can almost tank just as well. We'll want about 50-50 since stalwarts are quiet good against horses and have ranged.