Karel's Route:
Karel's Route 1 - In the name of Marcus! (S01)
This is one of the most difficult missions to get hard/gold on in Siege. In
order to get the gold you must complete all the additional quests within 15
turns, including killing the Veteran Fencer who starts across the bridge from
Arzen fortress (marked by the green quest arrow). This is a complicated
mission with enemies coming from several different directions. Choosing the
right units to move to the right place at the right time is vital for
hard/gold. There are 46 enemies and it can get overwhelming near the end.
You do not get to keep any units from the Sincerus monastery, so feel free to
sacrifice them when needed as long as it doesn't fail the 50% defenders alive
quest. There are 6 monastery defenders so you can only let 3 perish.
Starting out, place your mounted units in front row, archers in back. On turn
1, send your mounted units and eagle north to take out the 3 conscripts, then
on turn 2 use your archers and Karel to kill the conscripts by the Temple and
grab the Temple artifact. After that, send everyone north towards the
garrison, then head east towards Arzen. There will be fencers and archers
incoming from the south so keep your archers safe and expect one of your melee
units to get beat up, hopefully not killed. Use your non-mounted units to
cover Arzen while your mounted units deal with other threats as they
approach. Every 2 turns more reinforcements will be arriving - they are
separated into 5 waves that starting moving on even numbered turns. There are
20 enemies across the river and 15 enemies far to the southeast in the forest.
On turn 5 Deer Riders and a Skyship will be arriving from the north across the
river and Elven Spears will be arriving towards Arzen across the river. Send
your mounted units to deal with the deer riders while your archers/eagle take
out the skyship. On turn 6 you will get 3 reinforcement knights who will
encounter 2 fencers and 2 archers coming west from the temple. Send 1-2
mounted units to assist them in fending off the attack. You get to keep these
3 knights so keep them alive. 2 fencers will also be coming north towards
Arzen. Keep holding the elven spears back at Arzen, preferably using your
heroes to tank and rest. Turns 5-9 are a good time to move one of your non-
monastery units up to grab the Horror spell.
On turn 10, 3 fencers, 4 archers, and 1 veteran archer with a dragon summon
artifact will start moving from the south towards Arzen. On turn 12, 4 elven
spears, 2 archers, and the veteran fencer (quest target) will start moving
west. There are two strategies you can try here. The easiest strategy is to
fall back to the monestary, sacrifice a few monastery units (but not too many)
and lure in the Veteran Fencer to kill on the last turn. It's ok to lose Arzen
because the quest still counts as complete even if it gets overrun. The more
difficult strategy is to keep holding your position and face off against the
16 incoming enemies at once. Barge in past the bridge using the monastery
units and Karel, kill the quest target, then fall back so you don't lose too
many monastery units. The rest of your units should be focused on holding off
the incoming force from the south - you can slow their advance by staying out
of their sight range.
Lightning Bow - kill Veteran Fencer (quest target)
Cloak of Saint - Temple
Learn Horror spell - Execution Spot
Reward:
2x Knights of Marcus
Karel's Route 2 - On Approaches (S02)
If all of your units survived, you should now have 15/12 for the mission. You
can buy halberdiers if you don't feel like carrying around a lot of knights.
This map has lot of artifacts and recruits but limited time to grab them all.
Even though you get some knights of marcus, you might consider keeping the
feudal knights instead if they have a decent amount of XP built up. You can
always upgrade them later.
Don't split up, instead mass up on the left side and kill quickly to the goal,
then send a few units east across the map to grab the artifacts before ending
the mission. As soon as you move north the 'reclaim villages' quest starts.
For every village on the left you visit during the quest time you'll get a
recruit (see list below). If the quest fails you won't get recruits from the
villages you didn't visit. There's also a quest to chase down some fleeing
elves - they might start moving towards the bridges and make it more difficult
to get the Lightning Bow. Use standard tactics to tear up the enemies in the
way and reach the main goal with a couple turns left till gold. Try not to
provoke too many of the 5 deer riders at once or they may go on a rampage
along with the elven spears and fencers guarding the towns - it won't be
pretty. Send a heavily wounded (useless) unit south to grab the amulet of
fanatic and head east to grab the artifacts. You should have about 3-4 turns
left to charge east and grab the Lightning Bow before ending the mission - use
a level 2 mounted unit that has the +1 movement perk, and use the inventory
screen to give it the Sphere of Cold so it can cross the river and grab the
artifact on the last turn. You won't be able to reach the Desecrated Relic,
but it's not that good anyway.
Recruit Foot Knights - visit Petrer Fort
Recruit Swordsmen - Visit Abidiche village
Recruit Ballista - Visit Archena village
Recruit Tamed Eagle - Visit Kellin village
Lightning Bow - Ruined castle
Amulet of Fanatic - Stone troll
Desecrated Relic - Witch circle
Sphere of Cold - Water mill
Reward:
Shield of the Ancients
Crossbowmen
Bonus Mission 1 - Quiet Night (S_B1)
Wow, this is the easiest bonus mission in the entire series. All you have to
do is bring the slightly less sane Sagittel from point A to B without screwing
up too badly, and you win. A token amount of dwarves stand in your way, but
if you've had any experience playing as the elves, this is cake. Don't be
afraid to pass Sagittel's elixir of life off to an injured unit that needs it,
and of course pick up Heal. Even doing the side quests you can finish 5 turns
ahead of gold, so whatever. This bonus map sucks!
Power Stone - Dragon bones
Reward:
Chain of Justice
Karel's Route 3 - Take by Storm (S03)
You should have 22/15 units now. You'll be storming a castle that's jam
packed with fencers and archers, so ranged units are preferable. I recommend
immediately assaulting the castle from over the river. You might consider
replacing an archer with a crossbowman just because their perks are much
better - armor piercing, slayer, crippling shot, siege shot, and heavy
crossbow. If you want to maximize your XP, leave one bowman unupgraded and
don't pick his perks, then go to Hills of Hope (S05) on the next mission and
upgrade him to a crossbowman. That way you don't have to waste time leveling
up the lv 0 crossbowman you just got. You might also consider getting another
Ballista (not catapult) - they also get slayer and they can get a permanent +1
range. Halberdiers are pretty good too with their attack leaders buff but you
might just want to stick to the Foot Knight that can take more punishment.
My army for this mission: 2x heroes, 5x mounted units, 3x archers, 2x
ballista, 2x war eagle, 1x foot knights.
Establish your ranged units and start firing away while your ground units ford
the far end of the river. This method is far faster than either running
around the map trying to get to the bridge, or trying to activate the portal.
Don't be afraid to use whatever magic you've got (Horror, Lightning Bows).
Once a free castle hex is open, start moving in - the best tactic is to move
in but don't attack. Keep pelting with ranged units and counterattacking
during enemy turn so you don't incur the wrath of enemy support attacks.
Eventually you'll want to have everyone over the river because enemies start
coming in from the east and you don't want to get caught. Take your time and
kill everything instead of forcing into the 3 spots, because you have plenty
of time, and you'll get lots of gold for visiting every castle hex.
100 XP - Place of power
Drop an AOE on the elven city - Move Morcius to the Temple.
Learn Second Wind spell - Visit Dragon bones
Rewards:
Axe of Madness
Royal Knights
Karel's Route 4a - Steppes Tremble (S04)
The Resurrect spell is great for any unit that's suffered a lot of deaths.
However you don't get to upgrade your knights and you miss out on the Wings of
Chaos spell.
Firkan's Map - Broken Zeppelin
Night Stone - Witch Circle
Learn Resurrect spell - Church
Reward:
Relics of Marcus
Royal Guards
Karel's Route 4b - Hills of Hope (S05)
If you take this route you can upgrade your mounted/archer units which isn't
possible heading into the other route. If you left any bowmen un-upgraded,
you can now make them into crossbowmen who have much better perks, although
they have more trouble with difficult terrain. You should have about 3000
gold after selling some unneeded units, which you should use to upgrade any
level 2-3 Feudal Knights to Knights of Marcus.
This is a fast paced mission where you have to keep moving if you want to get
hard/gold and finish the quests. Enemies will quickly swarm the first elf
village so move forward quickly to avoid them. You will have to spot them
with an eagle to start the optional boss kill quest to give Karel 100 XP.
Your Knights of Marcus should be trampling all over the enemy - this mission
is pretty easy.
Karel earns 100XP - complete optional boss kill quest
Learn Wings of Chaos spell - Visit Hermit's house
Ring of True Sight - Ruins of swamp castle
200G - Dead Tree
Reward:
Staff of Eternity
Arbalesters
Karel's Route 5 - River Crossing (S06)
You can now access Royal Guards and Arbalesters. The unit cap here is 17
which is the highest I've seen so far. If you don't have enough units I
suggest picking up a Royal Guard and maybe hauling out one of those lv 1-2
archers/mounted units that got left behind.
You have a long slog here through a bunch of orcs. Take the right side which
runs by a quest point and both artifact locations. It's straightforward until
the bridge, where enemies will start pouring in from the west near the Broken
zeppelin. Leave a small force behind to hold off enemies in the woods while
everyone else goes off to kill the boss. Use Ballistae, Crossbowmen, and
Morcius all with Slayer to kill the boss quickly. Since you have 20 turns for
gold you can kill every enemy on the map for lots of XP. It's unfortunate
that this expansion started out strong but is only getting easier.
Karel earns 50XP - complete optional help quest
Nephrite Wasp - Cave
Feather Boots - Broken zeppelin
Reward:
Lance of Glory
Champions of Marcus
Karel's Route 6 - Storm of Tersia (S07)
Current army: 2 heroes, 5 champions of marcus, 2 war eagles, 2 arbalesters, 2
yeoman archers, 2 ballistae, 1 royal guard, 1 foot knight
There are two ways to approach this map. You can head west into the field and
take on a ton of enemies at once (all nearby enemies plus 10 riders coming
from the north and east), or you can take the long way around the road and
face less opposition at once. I recommend taking the long way because you can
grab the artifact and optional elf quest along the way. Either way, be ready
for the 5 riders coming west down the road. The castle siege is pretty
standard - provoke enemies to leave their defensive spots, use defense buffs,
AOEs, summon distractions, etc. With 17 turns you can afford to take the long
way and still kill pretty much everything on the map.
Tooth of Dragon - Dragon bones
Reward:
Night Stone
Foot Knights
Bonus Mission 3 - Inquest (S_B3)
This is a bugged mission where once you spawn the "Mage's Shadow" unit, your
own mage gets a 5 turn timer on it at which point he despawns and the game
ends. In addition once you summon a Mage's Shadow the game doesn't register
your mage stepping on any quest hexes, which means even the act of summoning a
Mage's Shadow immediately makes the mission impossible. However, even with
this limitation, it's still possible to get hard/gold on this mission without
modifying the game files. The strategy below gets you a gold medal without
using Mage's Shadow, so no need to modify the game files. Getting a gold
medal requires a bit of luck and reloading for battle outcomes, but you can
still get a silver or even bronze with this strategy with no problem and still
get the same rewards.
First, for perks: Battle mage, Summon Spectral Warriors, Water Walk, Magic
Armor. Move towards the first beacon while veering to the left to avoid the
village. You want to stay at least 3 hexes out of any stationary units sight,
or the whole town will aggro on you. Kill the spearman stationed there and
grab the beacon. Move up to the next beacon and kill the archer and
spearman. Again hug the mountains to avoid aggroing the nearby village.
Rest, head northwest into the woods and summon a spectral warrior to distract
enemies by the third beacon while you flee east. You could also try casting
Tornado if you hit lv 5. Either way, head east and mess with the
halberdier/arbalester standing in the way but flee east as soon as you get a
clean break. Note: You are not grabbing the third beacon or completing the
beacon quest (unless you don't care about getting a bronze), just run away
east. You still should not have aggroed any large town groups - if you do
you'll know it because your mage will be stuck or dead. Head east/northeast
through the woods, rest up, grab the artifact at the place of execution,
summon a spectral warrior, and attack the battle priest on top of the main
quest hex. He should be killed or flee, at which point you can step onto the
hex. You still need to spend 2 more turns running back to the place of
execution. The two nearby battle priests will probably not attack your mage -
if they do try distracting them with the warrior or try to get the warrior to
despawn on the same turn that you're on the quest hex.
Relics of Marcus - Place of execution
Reward:
Silent Hammer
Power Stone
Karel's Route 7 - Outargue a Dwarf (S0
You have a unit cap of 18 here, but the next mission has 17, so don't worry
too much about the 18th slot. You can use the new Foot Knight you just got,
upgrade one of your old mounted units or archers, or just buy a new unit - you
should have thousands of gold to spare at this point.
Unlike Adrian's version of this map, you can't just mass everyone on one side -
you need to join the armies up on the west side and proceed north. There is
a one swamp hex where the water meets the mountains which Karel's army can
cross over to the west side with. Place 3-4 strong units and both eagles on
the east side with Karel, because the group of dwarves is a pain to clear
out. If you put too many units on Karel's side it will take too long to move
them all across the swamp. You will have to face the dwarves near Moricus'
start point, since you can't just run north and leave them in the dust. The
whole delay in merging the armies together means you'll have a tighter
schedule to reach the boss. Moricus should have some amazing heal spells at
this point, so keeping everyone alive shouldn't be an issue.
Actually the quest is bugged so you only need to bring one person to the goal
for it to register, so you could leave Karel stuck on the east side and still
complete the mission.
Once everyone is back together on the west side, proceed north and kill
everything up to the castle. Stag Riders are squishy, hit up the archers
first, stick heroes in front to absorb damage, use healing spells, etc. Once
you reach the village near the castle (meeting point), 3 dwarves each will
come out of the 2 caves on the map. Take out the 3 that pop out of the west
cave quickly, then position a tank to the east to handle the 3 coming from the
east cave. AOE bomb and summon spam Yanrock into submission, put defensive
units up front, etc. It's possible to kill the ogres for the quest if you
are fast with clearing out Yanrock. Both Karel and Moricus should have the
Slayer perk so sending them in should do the trick.
Karel learns North Curse - complete ogre kill quest
Firkan's Map - Shipwreck
Stone troll - Red Plate of Azurnash
Blessing Ring - Sacred hammer
Reward:
Sign of Sacred Hammer
War Eagle
Karel's Route 8 - The World's End (S09)
Even though you can get near the castle in a few turns, you shouldn't rush
it. Instead take your time killing all the elves on the map, because
eventually they all start moving and you don't want to be caught from behind.
On turns 1-5 head north to take out the phalanx of 5 stag riders and a
skyship, then head east and take on the wardens southeast and northeast in the
woods, and some more incoming stag riders from the north. The mission is made
more complicated by the reinforcement temple quest - for every turn Moricus
doesn't stand on the temple, a dark dragon spawns by the castle. You want to
camp Moricus there until turn 10 when a boatload of orcs show up, at which
point he should flee east. You'll just have to handle the spawning dragons
every turn as you take the castle.
On turns 6-11 head east and take out the 2nd phalanx of stag riders and 3
archers, along with whatever wardens are left. Don't be afraid to drop an AOE
or a summon to save someone, but save the majority for the castle assault.
Things will get hairy by the temple around turn 10 when a bunch of orcs show
up - at this point you should just move Moricus east off the temple and
abandon it. At around turn 12 you'll want to be assaulting the castle - drop
lots of AOEs, summons, move in at any cost, doesn't matter how many units you
lose. You should have about 5-6 turns to claim the city, and it's possible to
barge in, kill Sagittel, and grab the quest hex with 4-5 turns to spare.
Depending on what Sagittel does, either kill him to reach the quest hex, or
ignore him if he moves off it then kill him later.
Learn Archmage's Shield - Ruined temple
Learn Word of Death - Witch circle
Adrian's Route:
Adrian's Route 1 - Thousands of the Damned (S21)
The only way to get through the level quickly is effective counterattacks vs
the zombies with melee in front and archers in the back. This is a pretty
basic strategy but it's vital here because you won't get the gold if you don't
place melee in the right positions to counterattack. Stick Adrian in front
often to absorb damage. The Mad Arbalester on the quest city is particularly
nasty due to his large terrain bonus. He can't be lured off the city but he
also doesn't attack during enemy phase. It will take a a full turn of
attacking to get rid of him. Ignore the optional quest, it's impossible to
complete while aiming for hard/gold.
After grabbing the city on turn 7, about 6 battle priests will come charging
in from the north. The priests may target either your units or the undead -
either way they are bad news. Retreat from the quest city and head southwest
to the far end of the mountains, then proceed north towards the bridge.
Ignore any of the undead near the quest city - the battle priests will tear
them up anyway and it will slow them down giving you time to run away. Grab
Shooting Protection for your footmen as they reach level 1. Priests and
undead will be chasing you from the east while two mad arbalesters, two
traitors of bows, and about 6-7 zombies stand between you and the bridge.
Position your units on the hills around the mountains to start luring in
enemies for killing. Your strategy now should be pushing up against the enemy
units between the mountain and city near the bridge, then knocking a hole
through the wall of zombies at any cost and running a unit onto the bridge
square, which will end the mission.
Eye of Eagle - Shipwreck
Elixir of Life - Ruined church
Reward:
Yeomen Bowmen
Helm of Saint Publis (+1 def)
Adrian's Route 2a - Runaway Baron (S22)
Learn Pathfinder skill - Hermit's house
Sphere of Cold - Witch circle
Reward:
Standard of High King (+willpower, +def to nearby allies)
Rangers
Adrian's Route 2b - Laridian Heresy (S23) This route choice has more/better
artifacts than Runaway Baron.
If you kept all your units alive in "Thousands of the Damned", you'll have to
leave a scout in reserve. First off, upgrade your 3 Bowmen to Yeomen Bowmen.
This will bankrupt your 600G funds, but it's worth it. Yeomen Horsemen suck
so don't bother with those things.
This map is jam packed with loot - getting to the goal is easy, what's more
difficult is grabbing all 4 artifacts and the Horror spell while still getting
hard/gold. Start by running north and knocking the mage off of his altar,
then stepping onto the altar. He will become controllable and you should get
the claw of dead wolf artifact. If you accidentally kill him, you can still
capture the swamp mage, but it's not feasible to capture the forest mage.
Proceed northeast to the swamp mage - this guy is hard to reach so summon
spectral wolves and golems on him to help. Keep moving your main force NE
while sending 2-3 scouts (not the ranger) NW towards the forest, with archers
pelting the enemy from across the river. Summon another set of creatures to
help out with the forest mage while your main force continues towards the
goal. The captive mage will turn on you once you bring him to the quest spot,
so don't do it until you're ready to kill him. During the last few turns, run
your ranger down to the witch circle to learn the Horror spell before the map
ends - its possible to send a scout or some other unit down there but the
ranger will have the easiest time since they have invisibility.
To top it off your favorite overpowered ranger Cornelius joins at the end of
the mission. But don't worry, the next mission is more difficult.
Claw of Dead Wolf - Dark Altar by the River
Burning Sword - Dark Altar by the Marsh
Wand of Flare - Dark Altar by the Forest
100 XP - each Dark Altar
Altar Stone - Bring captive Altar by the River mage to quest spot. The Altar
Stone doesn't have a very useful effect, but you can spam it to get big chunks
of XP for free.
Learn Horror spell - Witch circle
Reward:
Ancient Crown (+3 melee, -1 def)
Eagle Rider
Adrian's Route 3 - Fire in the City (S24)
You have 12 turns to take out a fortress packed with enemies and you'll need
every turn to do it. Bring the eagle rider along to help and leave two scouts
in reserve. Ignore the optional quests and head straight for the fortress.
Avoid the enemies off to the sides and they won't aggro. Once at the
fortress, kill the archers first, then tear down each of the guards. You need
about 6-7 turns to kill the mage and 3 knights. Kill the mage first since
it's squishy and annoying - summon spectral wolves, bomb it with your eagle,
and hit it with archers and Cornelius from the water. Try to establish a
foothold then cast Horror on the knights and grind them down. Around turn 11
3 mounted units will arrive from the north - just hold them back while you
finish off the last knight or two and claim the castle. The Bang Mold spell
is a good idea to pick up using your stealthy ranger or Cornelius but forget
about the Nightstone or Desecrated Relic.
Firkan's Map - Shipwreck
Learn spell Bang Fungus - Witch circle
Nightstone - Place of Shipwreck. Way too far out to bother with.
Desecrated Relic - Complete optional renegade mage quest - once you KO the
mage on the fortress he will flee north.
Reward:
Red Plate of Azurnash
Catapult
Adrian's Route 4 - Wrath of Yanrock (S25)
You finally get to upgrade your Scouts into Rangers and Spearmen into Yeomen.
Yeomen aren't that great but that's all you can get for now.
In this mission you either have to take out Yanrock with Cornelius and some
magic spells, or rush a couple of Yeomen, Eagle Riders, and Adrian over to
help. First make sure Cornelius grabs the nice artifacts hanging around. If
you want to kill the boss with Cornelius, he will need Slayer and you'll need
Horror, spectral wolves, and damaging magic spells. Start by destroying one
of the mobile forts so Cornelius can get in on the boss. Attack the mobile
fort with Cornelius then use ranged magic/spectral wolves to help finish it
off. Next use Horror on the boss and move in with Cornelius - hitting him
once should cause him to surrender and disappear, then you can walk Cornelius
onto the goal hex to complete the mission. Adrian's army should focus on
killing as many dwarves as possible and racking up gold/XP. If Cornelius
needs help, you'll need to rush towards the fort instead of poking around.
Hammer of Gods - Temple of the Anvil
Bow of Doom - Stone troll
Reward:
Barrel of Church Vine
Elite Rangers
Bonus Mission 2 - Menace of the Mountains (S_B2)
Another pretty easy bonus mission. Once you take over the village, the mage
you have to kill is by the Dark altar. Send your army over the bridge while
fending off human units - your dwarf melee units are very hardy and the
opposition is pretty weak. Send Yanrock and one other unit northeast towards
the Dark altar while the rest of your army holds back nearby enemies. Feel
free to purchase another dwarf noble to keep up the pressure. Give Yanrock
the force march and movement bonus perks to help get there. Approach the mage
from behind and kill him in one turn before any units around him can
retaliate. The untranslated quest objective is 'Yanrock must not die.'
Elixir of Life - Cave
Learn Dead Bones spell - Altar
Reward:
Power Stone
Adrian's Route 5 - Poisoned River (S26)
Current army: 2 heroes, 3 yeomen, 4 rangers, 4 royal archers, 1 catapult, 1
eagle rider
There are quite a few enemies on the map and you only have 13 turns, so you
can't kill everything this time. Avoid aggroing the large group of enemies
near your start point. Head to the first quest town and claim it while
killing nearby enemies. Afterward, send Cornelius towards the river quest
point in stealth while others head SW to grab the Staff of Meteors. You can
choose to ignore the optional quest to kill the ogres, but engaging them is
worth some good XP. For some reason the hexer and two flying units by the
Staff of Meteors will attack the goblins/ogres so if you can aggro both at
once they will probably fight each other, which will take a lot of pressure
off your own units.
Staff of Meteors - Dark altar
200G - Dead tree
Reward:
Nephrite Wasp
Royal Archers
Adrian's Route 6 - Gates of Tersia (S27)
I recommend replacing one of your low level Rangers with the Foot Knight you
got in the last mission. Your army should be mostly lv 4-5 with a few 2-3.
Cornelius has to step onto the 3 quest towns within 10 turns or 8 enemies will
spawn around the map. You can't really stop to rest because it's a lot of
ground to travel, and it helps to have Firkan's Map. Whether you succeed or
not, your next objective is to capture the front gate (main quest objective).
You have infinite turns to complete the objective, so you can so stupid things
like get Cornelius up a few levels by picking on enemies around the map. You
might even consider failing the optional quest just to have more enemies to
beat on for XP.
There are two ways to get the Battle Orc off the quest objective. One is to
aggro an enemy that will spot you close enough to the gates that the Orc will
leave the quest hex to attack Cornelius. A good way to do this is attack the
group of Orcish Riders, who will scatter around near the gates. The second,
more stealthy method involves fearing the Battle Orc off the front gates.
First summon a spectral wolf or spectral dragon, use Horrific Attack and hit
the Battle Orc which will break it, then attack with your summoned unit to
make it flee in terror. You can then step Cornelius onto the hex.
After siezing the gates quest the gold timer will start up and you can deploy
your main army to siege the castle. However you could play cheap and keep
soloing the castle with Cornelius at least until he hits level 10, since the
gold timer doesn't start until you step onto the castle hex. The most
annoying part of the castle siege are the zeppelins and skyship that have
shooting protection. Use your magic attacks and dragon tooth summon to take
them down. After Cornelius steps on the front gate hex, move him across the
river and summon the dragon tooth, then use AOEs to bombard the skyship and
zeppelins to death. Summon a spectral wolf in the way of the quest elf and
cast Horror on it. Stepping onto the castle hexes across the bridge starts
the optional elf retreat quest and spawns a bunch of elves. You get the
Flameguard Token that makes any high defense unit nearly invincible.
Flameguard Token - complete fleeing elf quest (unit must have free artifact
slot!)
Tooth of Dragon - Dragon Bones (SE of map)
100 XP - Place of power
Reward:
Sword of Wrath
Foot Knights
Bonus Mission 3 - Inquest (S_B3)
This is a bugged mission where once you spawn the "Mage's Shadow" unit, your
own mage gets a 5 turn timer on it at which point he despawns and the game
ends. In addition once you summon a Mage's Shadow the game doesn't register
your mage stepping on any quest hexes, which means even the act of summoning a
Mage's Shadow immediately makes the mission impossible. However, even with
this limitation, it's still possible to get hard/gold on this mission without
modifying the game files. The strategy below gets you a gold medal without
using Mage's Shadow, so no need to modify the game files. Getting a gold
medal requires a bit of luck and reloading for battle outcomes, but you can
still get a silver or even bronze with this strategy with no problem and still
get the same rewards.
First, for perks: Battle mage, Summon Spectral Warriors, Water Walk, Magic
Armor. Move towards the first beacon while veering to the left to avoid the
village. You want to stay at least 3 hexes out of any stationary units sight,
or the whole town will aggro on you. Kill the spearman stationed there and
grab the beacon. Move up to the next beacon and kill the archer and
spearman. Again hug the mountains to avoid aggroing the nearby village.
Rest, head northwest into the woods and summon a spectral warrior to distract
enemies by the third beacon while you flee east. You could also try casting
Tornado if you hit lv 5. Either way, head east and mess with the
halberdier/arbalester standing in the way but flee east as soon as you get a
clean break. Note: You are not grabbing the third beacon or completing the
beacon quest (unless you don't care about getting a bronze), just run away
east. You still should not have aggroed any large town groups - if you do
you'll know it because your mage will be stuck or dead. Head east/northeast
through the woods, rest up, grab the artifact at the place of execution,
summon a spectral warrior, and attack the battle priest on top of the main
quest hex. He should be killed or flee, at which point you can step onto the
hex. You still need to spend 2 more turns running back to the place of
execution. The two nearby battle priests will probably not attack your mage -
if they do try distracting them with the warrior or try to get the warrior to
despawn on the same turn that you're on the quest hex.
Relics of Marcus - Place of execution
Reward:
Silent Hammer
Power Stone (note - if you already have a power stone, you can't get another
one)
Adrian's Route 7 - Outargue a Dwarf (S2
You get Elite Ranger upgrades and some new units to purchase. I suggest
picking up a War Eagle and using the 2nd Foot Knight you just picked up. Your
unit cap is 18 here, but 17 in the last mission, so don't worry too much about
the 18th spot in this mission.
There's no way to cross the long stretch of water and mountains, but you can
still pull the old trick of massing everyone on one side. In this case you
want the west side because the elves are easier to deal with and the artifacts
are better. Charge after the Dwarf Noble in front and ignore the axemen -
just leave them in the dust and they won't chase. Just use standard tactics
to carve up the elves in the way. Stag Riders are squishy, hit up the archers
first, stick heroes in the front to absorb damage, etc.
Once you reach the village near the castle, 3 dwarves each will come out of
the 2 caves on the map. Take out the 3 that pop out of the west cave quickly,
then position a tank to the east to handle the 3 coming from the east cave.
AOE bomb and summon spam Yanrock into submission - throw everything at him.
It's possible to kill the quest ogres after taking out Yanrock, but you'll
really have to run for it. Cornelius is most important for killing the Ogres
because he should have the Slayer perk and he can one shot them. As long as
you have two turns for Cornelius to run in there and smack them around,
they'll die. But you don't really need to stress about it, since it's not
necessary at all for the final mission.
Cornelius learns North Curse - complete ogre kill quest
200G - Cave (there are two of them)
Firkan's Map - Shipwreck
Stone troll - Red Plate of Azurnash
Unit learns Dust of Time - Elven camp
Blessing Ring - Sacred hammer
Reward:
Sign of Sacred Hammer
War Eagle
Adrian's Route 8 - The World's End (S29)
Even though you can get near the castle in a few turns, you shouldn't rush
it. Instead take your time killing all the elves on the map, because
eventually they all start moving and you don't want to be caught from behind.
On turns 1-5 head north to take out the phalanx of 5 stag riders and a
skyship, then head east and take on the wardens southeast and northeast in the
woods, and some more incoming stag riders from the north. On turns 6-10 head
east and take out the 2nd phalanx of stag riders and 3 archers, along with
whatever wardens are left. Don't be afraid to drop an AOE or a summon to save
someone, but save the majority for the castle assault. Take it slow and
steady, it's easy to hard/gold this map with 5-6 turns to spare. You should
have about 7-8 turns to AOE bomb and summon spam the city to claim it.
Depending on what Sagittel does, either kill him to reach the quest hex, or
ignore him if he moves off it then kill him later. Don't worry too much about
casualties since this is the last mission.
Learn Archmage's Shield - Ruined temple
Learn Word of Death - Witch circle
6. Elven Legacy: Magic Walkthrough
The final Elven Legacy expansion, Magic, is another campaign split between two
heroes. Both heroes can summon a variety of units, so this is a very summon
heavy campaign, far more than any of the other campaigns. You'll even be
summoning units that can summon other units. You don't have much of a
standing army to speak of and most of your units are disposable. The main
campaign missions are average in difficulty, while two of the bonus missions
are quite demanding if you want hard/gold.
Khrand's Route 1 - Return to Ofris
If you want hard/gold you can't do either optional quest. Head north to the
hammer sanctuary, then southeast to the Anvil, then finally assault the Forge
with lots of summons.
Elixir of Life - Mercenary camp
Sphere of Cold - Goblin's village
Reward:
Dwarven Crossbowmen
Firkan's Map
Khrand's Route 2 - The Secret Cradle
You have a short amount of time to get Khrand to all 3 main quest locations.
Nobody else can activate them. First buy 3 dwarf axemen. Use runes of speed
and summons to head east to the Cave, then north to the Cradle across the
swamp and finally north to the Altar. I suggest going east from the start
point rather than north because the stealth goblins and woods make it slower
and more dangerous, while the east path only has melee grunts.
Create summons ahead of the group to clear the way ahead with counterattacks.
Veer to the south while heading east so you don't aggro the stealth goblins in
the woods. Runes can take a bit of punishment and they deal a bit of damage
too so use them liberally to absorb hits. You should only have 1 rune of
speed out at a time to make sure you have enough for the whole mission. Once
you have the Circle Attack rune, head towards the cradle and drop one there
along with summons. Hopefully you can kill the orc quest target - surrounding
it with runes helps. While Khrand steps over the swamp to continue north to
the Altar, summon lots more stuff all over the place to clear out the
goblins. You might be fast enough to grab the Feather Boots.
Wand of Flare - Ruins
Feather Boots - Broken dirigible
Horn of Fury - Kill orcs quest
Big Banner of Ugrum - kill boss orc quest
Reward:
Dwarf Nobles
Night Stone
Bonus Mission 2 - Long Way Home
First, take Cornelius' perks: Firestarters, Chilling Attack, Slayer, Fast
Poison, and Horrific Attack. Head north and use Horrific Attack on the guard
in front of Morcius' cave then step onto the hex. With Morcius, take Armor
Piercing, Force March, Heal, Strike of Marcus. Use Force March and run ahead
to aggro the dwarves, then make Moricus Heal himself and run around the
dwarves to get Adrian and the catapult on the nearby castle hex. Use the
catapult and heroes to push east and grab Karel. At this point you need to
get all heroes to the exit. Pick up Mass Heal with Moricus when he hits lv 5
and pick up Karel's Heal when he levels up. Grab the Forge artifacts then
push south to the exit. Don't worry about killing every dwarf, just keep
making progress, casting defensive buffs, and grouping up for Mass Heal.
Sacrifice the catapult near the end when enemies are closing in on all sides.
Reward:
Power Stone
Khrand's Route 3 - Ticsus
Unlike Brennok's route, you're allowed to start building a small army here, so
pick up another Dwarf Noble. This is a survival map where you need capture
the church and witch circle to get gold.
Clear out the humans without using too many spells - you have 5 turns to do it
and the counter doesn't start until you capture Ticsus. Next move south and
throw up tons of totems and summons - don't worry too much about grabbing the
two quest spots yet. Go totem crazy because the map is small and the main
enemy force is right in front of Khrand. Once you've got both quest
objectives and you run out of runes, it's best to fall back until time runs
out because the last wave is 4 elite rangers.
100 XP - Water mill
Claw of a Spectral Wolf - Witch Circle
Cloak of a Saint - Church
Reward:
Dwarven Mobile Fort
Sign of Sacred Hammer
Bonus Mission 3 - Demon's War
Shaman perks: Vengeful Spirits, Quiky Mold, Summon Boars, Horror, Dead Bones,
Summon Eye, Tornado
You have three objectives in this map - guard Sugman with the hexer, possess
the Flame Guard and Dragon units then get them killed so they turn into totem
units that must be kept alive, then slay Glendarin. You get 13 turns but
there's little chance you'll hold out against the incoming enemies for more
than 9-10 turns, so you have to finish it faster than the gold time. Use
Farrakh to possess units then step onto the forest hexes to refresh the
possession spell while waiting for the Flame Guard to show up. The Flame
guard is in the NW corner of the map and the Dragon is in the NE corner - both
of them start moving eventually so you don't have to chase them, they will
show up in the middle of the map eventually. Move the Hexer and allies inside
Sugman to protect it and do everything you can to defend. Don't even bother
attacking unless there's no point in resting or casting a defense spell.
Once you possess the Flame Guard or Dragon, you must let them die so that they
turn into a totem unit that must be kept alive. If a totem dies the game ends
so you have to protect it. You need them both to die and turn into totems for
the mission to continue, but as totems they are very fragile and have low
movement, making them vulnerable to attack. And since they need quite a few
enemy attacks to die, they will be in a very vulnerable position once they
turn into totems. Don't let the possessed Dragon and Flame Guard die and turn
into totems until you can get them both turned into totems on the same turn,
to avoid any risk of the totems dying. This strategy is a careful balancing
act between holding back the enemies from Sugman and getting the Flame Guard
and Dragon killed on the same turn so you can finish the mission without
risking the totems dying. The Dragon has shooting protection so it'll take
two turns to die, while the Flame Guard has ressurection, so they will have to
die in one turn or they will be restored to full health. After both the Flame
Guard and Dragon die and leave behind totems, Glendarin appears. Kill him
with Faraakh in one hit to finish the mission.
Reward:
Nephrite Wasp
Khrand's Route 4 - Master's Smithy
You should have 7/6 units here, so I suggest leaving one of the Axemen
behind. Even though dwarves are slow you need to move pretty quickly here (15
turns) so place the runes of speed well and if you have feather boots use
them. Like most Khrand missions, only he can activate the quest points. The
shortest route is east across the bridge to the 1st altar, south through the
mountains and across the river, northwest to the 2nd altar, south to the 3rd
altar, then east to the forge. You'll be running into the usual assortment of
elven units - dump summons and runes liberally on them and march onward to
victory. You can recharge all of Khrands summons at each altar for 100g which
will allow you to spam lots of totems, AOEs, and summons for an easy gold with
about 6 turns to spare.
You might as well stop for the lightning bow since you will encounter quite a
few enemies at that point of the map and will need to slow down a bit. The
Summon Golem spell is also very useful since golems are pretty powerful units.
Flameguard Token - kill elven units quest
Lightning Bow - Broken skyship
Summon Golem perk - Move any unit past or on top of the Stone troll
Reward:
Dwarven Mobile Stronghold
Blessing Ring
Khrand's Route 5 - Dwarven Master
The final Khrand mission is fairly easy. You should have lots of artifacts to
toy around with including the Flameguard Token, and Khrand should have a giant
list of spells. You can skip the optional quests, although it's possible to
complete them both and still get hard/gold. Don't kill every foot knight on
freiburg, just enough to get through and complete the quest. Use some AOEs
and magic on Freiburg to kill the boss and AOE down archers, and some on the
temple of marcus to take out the catapults. You want to kill most of the
catapults by the temple with AOEs before they can do anything.
Summon Crystal of the Doomed - Freiburg
Banner of High King - Punish general Schielt quest
Reward:
Dwarven Mobile Stronghold
Dwarf Nobles
Brennok's Route 1 - Marshes of Shadow
Brennok's perks: Freeze, Magic Armor, Magic Flare, Lightning, Tornado, Magic
Boots, Meteor Fall, Archmage's Shield, Word of Death, Summon Golem.
Definitely pick up Firkan's Map, it makes the mission a lot easier. You can
get both artifacts, Segmented Movement, and one of the 50 XP bonuses and still
get hard/gold. Use the swamp terrain shortcut to the NE of the dragon portal.
Learn Swamp Foxes perk - Ruins
Learn Segmented Movement perk - northmost Elven Portal
50XP - Southeast and southwest Elven Portals
Staff of Eternal Flame - Dragon bones (left)
Firkan's Map - Dragon bones (right)
Reward:
Amulet of Fanatic
Elixir of Life
Brennok's Route 2 - Visit to Quendaylon
Head for the Dragon's nest then head north to Ildanor. Distract the guards
with your summons then sneak Brennok north. At this point the guards should
just stand around south of Ildanor giving you time to visit the dock and build
more XP. Very easy mission. If you really want to max your XP gain get
Gylven to step onto a place of power, then pick up Second Wind and cast it on
Brennok so he can keep building XP.
Elven Bowstrings perk - Harbor
Altar Stone - Dragon's nest. This artifact is good for earning XP when
Brennok can't do anything else that turn.
100 XP for any summoned units (not Brennok) - Place of power
Reward:
Ring of True Sight
Staff of Meteors
Brennok's Route 3 - The Old Inquisitor
Strong Gylven has Dragon Slave so try to get her killed so you can cast
another Gylven and cast another Dragon Slave. You'll need to carefully place
all 3 dragon slaves to kill enough orcs and get the gold. You don't get to
keep any units here, even the ones you purchase, so feel free to treat
everything as disposable. In order to get gold you have to kill the hexer and
39 orcs, which means you have to kill pretty much every enemy on the map -
play aggressively and don't miss out on too many chances to attack. If 2 or
more villages are captured the game ends. I suggest you abandon the northmost
village and focus your efforts on the middle and south ones, then head back to
the north one after you've secured the other villages.
Purchase one or two Swordsmen and place them at the middle village. This is
not necessary but it makes the mission easier, and you don't need the gold
anyway. Move the spearman and archer south towards the middle village and
abandon the north village. Move Brennock southwest towards the elven grave
and summon Gylven near the group of orcs in the corner - you want her to spot
the two hidden goblins otherwise Dragon Slave won't damage them. Cast Dragon
Slave which should kill 5-6 units including the zeppelin. Summon Glenderin at
the middle village and have Glenderin summon fencers at the middle village.
Move Brennock onto the elven grave then head northwest towards the middle
village while leaving the 3 goblin riders behind.
Once Gylven dies, summon her again at the middle village. Focus on securing
the middle village by killing the goblins in the woods and the 3 goblin riders
now heading towards the mid village. Drop a Dragon Slave on the hexer and his
group then clean up whatever's left, while sending Brennock north to the Altar
for 100 XP then northeast to the grave there. After that, head to the north
village and drop the third Dragon Slave on the grouped up enemies there. Hand
the Nephrite Wasp to Brennock for more AOE destruction.
Nephrite Wasp - kill hexer
300G - Dead tree
Night Stone - swamp castle
100XP - Dark altar
Reward:
Staff of Eternity
Sword of Wrath
Bonus Mission 1 - Memory of the Dragons
Teya perks: Heal, Magic Armor, Rejuvenation, Guarded by Woods, Magic Flare,
Order to March, Regrowth, Expert Arcanist, Nature Intervention, Dragon Slave.
Teya's briefing says she's bad in a melee, but her defensive stats are
actually very good especially on a forest hex with Guarded by Woods. Place
her in front on forest terrain often and she will absorb a lot of damage.
Stick Teya and the Flame Guard in front to absorb hits. Head south towards
the forest to take on a bunch of goblin riders, goblins, and a quest objective
hexer. There are 3 goblins in the woods right next to the Dark altar, try not
to aggro them and let the hexer come to your party instead. Aggroing them
wastes a turn and you don't have many to spare on this mission. Once the
hexer is dead, head west towards the castle to claim it. Claim all 4 castle
hexes and you will get 800G and control of the castle to deploy units.
Purchase and deploy a Flame Guard. Use the castle/forest hexes to wear down
and kill the incoming riders and orcs. Teya or the Flame Guards should be
taking most of the damage.
After clearing out around the castle, head towards the fortress - there are 17
enemies in and around the fortress. There's no way you can possibly kill them
all in time so you have to use distraction instead. Lure enemies out of the
east gate with your fencers and archers while Teya, two Flame Guards, and the
dragon move around around through the south gate. What you want to happen is
to lure a large mass of enemy units out of the fortress while your force of
Teya and Flame Guards should be be barging into the fortress from the south
gate to clear a path to the quest hex. There will still be a bunch of goblins
and the shaman in the fortress, but they have low willpower so you can scare
them off and clear the way for Teya. Your fencers and archers will die but it
will give you enough time to finish the mission.
100XP - Place of power
Big Banner of Ugraum - Broken zeppelin
Reward:
Flameguard Token
Brennok's Route 4 - The Master's Secret
Equip Brennok with the Flameguard Token. The Dragon is invisible and it moves
around between the three Dragon's Nests on the map. Even if you spot the
dragon early I recommend sticking around and building Brennok's XP, you can
get a good 2-3 levels out of the map and reach lv 6-7. Make sure you grab the
Horror perk since it's a useful spell.
Tooth of a Dragon - Dragon's nest
Learn Horror perk - Witch Circle
Learn Dead Bones perk - Dead mage
300G - Cave
Reward:
Red Plate of Azurnash
Staff of Meteors