Will of Asha Campaign Done

[Angelspit]

Our walkthrough writer maltz has completed the Will of Asha campaign series of articles, which you can access with the links below (the last two are new):



<a href="/711">Last Soul Standing</a> | <a href="/712">The Grim Crusade</a> | <a href="/713">The Bull's Wake</a> | <a href="/714"><b>Beasts and Bones</b></a> | <a href="/715"><b>Heart of Darkness</b></a>



The <i>To Honor our Fathers</i> campaign is already under way. Thanks to all the Round Table members who share tips in the forums. There's nothing like getting a good advice when we are stuck on a nasty scenario.

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/714

[Angelspit]

Two new articles will be posted within the next few hours. Stay tuned.

[ThunderTitan]

I can't wait that long... anyone know if Arantir's talk about parley with the yellow orcs leader leads to anything or should i just finish Beasts and Bones without bothering with the nigh unconquerable yellow Stronghold?!

[ThunderTitan]

Oh, nevermind, it seems that all those links are broken.

[maltz]

Sorry I don't fully understand your question. Is there some thing not clear in the walkthrough that I can rephrase? Now all of my drafts have been submitted and I probably won't be updating anything after this weekend.

[aaelgr]

You don't parlay with the Yellow Stronghold player, but with the Blue one in the top left. Once you take the town, Arantir talks to Kujin.

[ThunderTitan]

yeah, i saw that when i finished the map... stupid unclear dialogue...


@maltz

nah, i didn't read the walkthrough then because the links in the forum thread are wrong... i just assumed that Arantir was talking about some yellow Orc leader because he started his rant after meeting the yellow orcs and that town being so heavily defended.

[danhvo]

ThunderTitan, you probably finished this scenario by now, but I thought I should let you know that the yellow Stronghold is very conquerable. I did it with 46 archliches and 62 vampire lords. What I used were Frenzy at Expert Dark Magic, Catapult at Expert War Machine, and of course, Raise Dead at Expert Summoning.



Catapult is important because you want to control it so that it can destroy the center tower but leave the rest of the walls pretty much intact. With judicious use of Frenzy, you can get the cyclops to wipe all of their brethren. In the end, you'd end up with your vampire lords and the cyclops (you might have to raise the VLs once or twice). Cast Slow on the cyclops so that your VLs get two actions for every one of cyclops', and have them do hit-and-run (hit, then jump over the wall, repeat). The VLs regenerate fast enough to compensate for the damage from enemy hero. It's tedious, but you will prevail at the end.



I waited till there were only a few cyclops left, then raised my archliches, finishing the battle with no loss. None. You'll earn enough experience to go from level 20 to level cap. It is probably the most rewarding battle in this campaign.

[Angelspit]

I didn't hit the cap with Arantir in this mission. Will I be fine for the next one anyway? My build is decent (if not particularly original).

[jmgarth]

When I attacked the Orc stack at (2) with Arantir, the game froze at the end of the cut scene, and I had to kill it with the task manager. I reloaded and attacked with Ornella instead, and this time there was no freeze, although Arantir gained the experience bonus even though it was Ornella who won the battle.

[okanek]

Thank you, I had become focussed on "negotiate with Orc leader" thinking it must be the Yellow player. Nice to clear the level.

[ThunderTitan]

>ThunderTitan, you probably finished this scenario by now, but I thought I should let you know that the yellow Stronghold is very conquerable.<

Not to sound rude, but unless they get free troops that exceed what the player can get under any circumstances all towns are pretty take-able... and even then with the right skills/magic you still have a chance (my final fight with Biara in TotE comes to mind, when i switched to Light instead of Dark Magic the battle was many times easier).

Nigh unconquerable just refers to the insane amount of effort the battle would require... especially since i don't think i had Frenzy...


Also, that's how you make a post that's tardy...

[csarmi]

I took the yellow town too, but I had no catapult skill. I just made the cyclops stack kill everything else (yes I had frenzy, I am supposed to have it by then: I visited so many mage guilds), then I simply killed that stack with my almost intact army (blind, wasp swarm, phantom forces, ammo cart, GHOSTS (when they die: raise them they have 50% to live through any attack)). Took quite a few turns, but the cyclops stack never got to attack anything important.



I did have mass slow as well, of course. I did NOT have mark of the necromancer however, so my mana was limited to 270 or so.
Edited on Wed, Feb 04 2009, 04:47 by csarmi

[eh007h]

First I want to say thanks to Maltz for these walkthroughs which I have used extensively while playing the campaign. I found a much easier way to take the yellow Orc Stronghold. I was playing on Hard, so I'm not sure if it would work on Heroic. The strategy is basically the same as his, with one key difference: leave the Slayers alive, and use them to kill the Cyclopes. I used Puppet Master for this purpose but I suppose Frenzy would work as well. The reason this is easier is because the Slayers take out 30-50 Cyclopes every time they attack. My level 21 Arantir Phoenix and Avatars only take out 1 or 2. I lost this battle so many times after I had a perfect setup using Maltz's strategy just because after an hour of swiping Cyclopes I would zone out and attack with the Avatar when the Cyclopes still had a retaliation. The Slayers are much quicker. When all the Cyclopes are gone you just polish them off with your summons. At that point you can use Puppet Master rather than the Ghosts to eliminate their retaliations (which you couldn't with the Cyclopes).



It is important NOT to cast mass slow and banshee howl during the battle. These will negatively affect the Slayers, and make it much harder to use Puppet Master effectively. Slow the Cyclopes individually. Also I had the Ring of Sar-Issus which made my spells a lot cheaper and helped me get past the initial stage of the battle before I could start the infinite mana loop attacking the Cyclops.

[dlebeau]

Thanks for the walkthrough, I just took town B with one stack of Specters though, you don't need more than that.



You need around 400 to survive 1 Cyclops toss and possibly Centaur shot, but that is the last danger you will face in capturing the town. 4 spells are mandatory. 1) Raise Dead (duh), Puppet Master, 3) Blindness, 4) Mark of the Necro. Frenzy can be useful for a couple of tasks, just remember you can only Puppet Master one monster at a time.



Right off the bat, PM one of the Goblin stacks and use it to attack the Cyclops, you need to get rid of them quickly because the Cyclops throw them for big damage. Whatever you do, do not destroy the ammo cart.



This means you will take a Centaur shot, and probably a goblin toss, but that's the last danger you will face. PM the Centaurs and shoot the other Goblin stack, they should die. After that, blind the Centaurs while you PM and Frenzy the rest of the troops onto the Cyclops.



The key for a quick victory is to lead the Cyclops closer to the Centaurs. Then just liberal use of blindness on the Cyclops, and PM on the Centaurs. Remember you can wait a PMed mob until the initiative would get you to act before the Cyclops after they are shot, but for safety you can move your ghosts all over the map.



If the Cyclops are Marked at some convenient time, there is no problem at all. Hardly an epic fight.

[dlebeau]

Got double posted somehow, sorry.
Edited on Sat, Jul 25 2009, 00:29 by dlebeau

[Grail Quest]

At the first yellow orc hero you encounter, there should be a stack of dragons nearby guarding a wimpy artifact.

Here's a cute trick to try:

(1) Give one hero wimpy troops to take the mines. Charge west with the other, but raise NO creatures until you get to the dragons. With the undead set that gives you a discount on raising undead, you can raise maybe 2 shadow Dragons and 2 bone dragons. Give these to Arantir.

(2) After the orc dialogue, there was a bug (or me, anyway) where other hero who got teleported in for the cutscene didn't get teleported back. Voila, instant travel. So right after you raise some dragons, you can redistribute your troops. Arantir does nicely with the dragons since they are hardy and can be easily raised. Ornella should now get the undead items set because you want to focus on getting Vampires (killing lots of succubi or champions should do it). At the end game, she had 127 Vampire Lords (including about 20 from town) and with that single stack cleared the Blue castle.

[Wheeler Dealer]

I finally appreciate wasp swarm! I tried the yellow city with Ornella rather than Arantir because she had mark of the necromancer and he didn't. I was playing on hard, not heroic and had completed everything except the final confrontation with blue. I gave Ornella all the best artifact sets and all the army. It was still only like 24 Spectral Dragons, 91 Lich masters, 80 Wraiths, 120 Vampire Lords, 400 Specteres, 340 plague zombies and 800 skeleton archers.



I made several poor choices early on but soon arrived at a fight against just the 450 cyclopes. With slow and banshee howl the cyclops' initiative was way down and I basically used the Vampire Lords, the two stacks of shooters and wasp swarm to kill 'em all without the cyclopes ever getting another turn. Must have taken an hour! But She got 163K experience!

[Wheeler Dealer]

sorry, i don't know how that double posted.
Edited on Mon, Aug 31 2009, 14:19 by Wheeler Dealer

[Maciek]

A thing to keep in mind if u want to relay on avatar and phoenix to do the damage while capturing yellow stronghold:

Blood rage cuts down damage they receive by half, which is quite a lot. Avatar slowly replenishes their rage with spells(like +10 per attack). Damage u can do drains it just as slowly if not slower. Therefore, It's a good idea to get rid of the last stack's rage fast to speed up their destruction. Blind is quite good at this: they loose 100 rage every turn of your hero. And remember, that u have the valnerability spell. (u have it, right?) And yeah, wasp swarm is just a wonderfull spell.