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Magic Items List and Strategy Tips
Fellow commanders,
Below you will find a slightly updated magic item list. I also collected
various recommendations for mission strategies from the net, which I have put
in some order. They are appended to the list (without asking for permission).
However, this time, I managed to save the authors names. If you want your
stuff to be removed for some reason, please drop me a note.
There have been requests for setting up a FAQ list recently.
Unfortunately I cannot spend too much time for that because my working
schedule is quite full. If someone wants to create an official FAQ with
regular postings, feel free to use my very preliminary attempt but please keep
the credits for the various contributors.
Karl
Entries for the magic item list were stolen from postings of:
Teck
S.P. Gallaty
Nan Wang
Huang Shze Jiun
It seems that items lying on the ground can be identified usually by a slowly
blinking white glint (like every 10-20 seconds). If you want to be a masochist
and find that stuff yourself, don't read further. However, be warned that it's
quite tedious and boring.
Protect Schnappleburg -------------------------------------
Sword of Might - Between trees in north east of deployment zone and road (west
of road).
Capture Otto Hiln ------------------------------------------
Dragon Blade - In the snowman behind the house at the northeast corner of the
map.
Rescue Ilmarin --------------------------------------------
Shield of Pthlos - Behind the trees on the western edge of the map.
Slave Train ------------------------------------------------
Sword of Heroes - in the cemetery right next to the chapel in the north east.
Shattered Pass --------------------------------------------
Potion of Strength - north of the deployment area in the north east corner of
the cliff.
Squatter's Rights ----------------------------------------
Talisman of Obsidian - near house on middle right side
Surprise Attack ------------------------------------------
Potion of Strength - at a rock to the upper west
Banner of Arcane Warding- ???
Rat Trap ------------------------------------------------
+1 Chain Mail Armour - after winning the mission units with armour below 2 get
it
Slave assault -----------------------------------------
Banner of Might - at rocks north of deployment area
Bandit Hideout -----------------------------------------
Armour of Meteoric Iron - west of the camp by some trees.
Extermination -------------------------------------
Banner of Dread - lower right corner of the battlefield
Skaven Tunnels -----------------------------------------
Potion of Strength - near two rocks in the centre of the map
Banner of Arcane Protection - northwest of deployment zone
Troll Valley --------------------------------------------
Potion of Strength - in the east near the lava falls
Banner of Wrath - in the west near the 3 lava pools
HERE ARE THE MISSION STRATEGY TIPS:
Save Carlson's Family ==================================================
From: "S. Patrick Gallaty"
This was my strategy...
Ceridan and the mage on the far left
crossbowmen in the middle rear
gb cav center
gb inf right center
black avengers far right
My first move was to charge the units flanking the dwarves with the GB cav to
relieve them. I charge ceridan at the biguns to the far left as a delaying
tactic and allor casts curse on em, then spears em until they break (luck!) I
focus the crossbows on the biguns at first and then move on to the unit behind
them, depending on opportunity.
The black avengers move up the left side of the screen and attempt to engage
units moving to attack the gb cav which by now is probably running down its
first opponent. The gb inf you should hold back until you get a flank shot at
something good.
The battle rages on for a while and if you are fortunate, the dwarves who are
now relieved of the pressure of an enemy on their flank kick some serious ass
and orc units start shattering. I recommend holding the hero button on the GB
cav and using grudge bringer as often as possible. You need those orcs to
break fast.
The challenge on the left side is that you have to keep allor alive which
means that he may have to retreat and be relieved by the crossbowmen who you
may have to engage the remainders of biguns (hopefully not) or the orcs behind
them. If you break the center, send the gb cav around the stand of trees on
the left side of the screen and attack the lefternmost orcs from rear.
Like most of the missions, it requires a lot of luck and great deal of skill
to pull off. You have to execute your moves almost flawlessly and have the
wind and sun to your back to boot. If you don't, you'll end up getting chewed
to death quite mercilessly.
-------------------------
From: russ
Thanks for your post. You're strategy sounds a little better than the one I
finally used. What worked for me was to use the valley on the far right as
trap for the group of black orcs on the right. The bait was the black avengers
(BA) who I placed back in the valley deeper than the trees in the center,
behind which I placed the Grudgebringer CAV and Inf (GC and GI). Their job was
to pounce on the black orcs going after the BA. I placed my crossbows to the
right of the clump of trees on the left and next to them I placed Allor. In
the center I placed Ceridan. As soon as the battle opened up, the black orcs
at the bottom of the hill, started to advance up the hill towards the
crossbows. By then, the dwarves had already got themselves surrounded and had
routed one group of ORCs. I had Allor curse the black orcs advancing on the
crossbows and then I had crossbows and Allor pick them apart until they routed
and were wiped out. The remaining set of orcs backing up the now defunct black
orcs on the left was then turned on by the crossbows, Allor, and ultimately
Ceridan when they got too close to the top of the hill. After several minutes
they too were eliminated. The dwarves, having routed and damaged one group of
orcs, took a severe beating at the hand of combined ORC units and under fire
from orc archers. They eventually routed and were severely beaten on their way
off the map. They fought a good holding battle for me. I used them to buy
time.
On the right, the black orcs charged up the valley after the black avengers,
who held fast until the absolute last moment. The Orcs then seemed to pause,
slightly, perhaps the AI realized that the GC and GI were poised to stike at
the orc rear, which they did simultaneously with the black avengers frontal
assault. The result? Black Orcs were eliminated to a man. No survivors. I then
moved the Black Avengers, GC, and GI to the center and charged down the hill
while the crossbows held the orc archers at the foot of the hill at bay. The
Orc units at the foot of the hill were not at full strength, as the dwarves
had severely mauled them. The Black Avengers, GC, and GI crushed them one at a
time and then ran down and destoryed the orc archers. The unit guarding
Carlsson's family was also eliminated quickly by these three units.
My overall strategy was to use the dwarves as a deversion, and to crush the
powerful black orc units in the right and left as quickly as possible, and to
rely on magic and crossbows to slow other units attempting to scale the hill
to get me. It may be questionable to let the dwarves serve as cannon fodder,
but at least it gave me the time to overwhelm the more powerful ORC units by
surprise. I am sure the dwarves are pissed off, but such are the fortunes of
war.
----------------
From: opus@marconi.ih.att.com (Robin Kim)
Try to engage only at 2:1 odds if you can. Keep your infantry regiments close
together for mutual support. Use Curse of Anraheir on one of the Black Orc
regiments to slow them down. They are your biggest threat, and the longer you
can postpone having to deal with at least one of them, the better.
-----------------
From: nicholas.john@pop.srv.ualberta.ca (Nicholas John)
On this mission I used the above tactics but used the cavalry plus some other
regiment (Celidan..who's fast and doesn't die easily and is there afterward
even if he does, and maybe some other regiment too) to rollup the left flank,
hitting the biguns hard and fast. I had 7 cavalry and otherwise more or less
full tho the Grudgebringers infantry were a little low. The BA and GB infantry
held the centre with the dwarves. I used the wizard as above (his spells are
very important in this one) but positioned him southish at first, and had to
withdraw him as the Black orcs and others closed...it was a necessary
diversion of their attention I think. Oh yes..I also had to replay it many
times to be sure the dwarves didn't rout and to be sure that casualties were
minimal...the usual.
Rescue Ilmarin =========================================================
From: hean@pop.jaring.my (Ong Boon Hean)
Ok, main problem for me was the Rat Ogre guy b/c he kept chopping up my melee
troops, so deploy your crossbowmen and Alorr near him. Place the infantry and
calvary to defend against the Skaven troops which will charge...When combat
starts, curse the Rat Ogre and keep hitting him with Amber Spears and
crossbolts...When it finally kicks the bucket, use the Calvary to slay the
elite Skaven troops, and infantry + crossbowmen against the others...With
Alorr's help, you'll easily dispatch the others.
-----
From: greyjack@macatawa.org (Greyjack)
From what I recall, I found that telling Allor to start chucking spells
full-speed at the rat-ogre was what did it for me. Once it was dead, the rest
of the enemy regiments fell pretty quickly.
To give a spellcaster that order, click on the spell button; when the list of
spells comes up, click the spell button _again_, then choose a target. The
mage will then attack the target repeatedly with spells (of his own
choosing--in this case, he first cast the Curse of Anraheir, followed by
Hunting Spear over and over until it died), pausing of course when he's out of
spell points.
Shattered Pass =========================================================
From: kak@ipp-garching.mpg.de (Karl Krieger)
Here is my solution, which however depends on your amber mages experience.
It's based on using the spell "Tangling Thorn", which becomes accessible for
him after the first 1000 experience points.
Place your two mortar units, which should be available at this time, in the
south east corner of the deploy area. In front of them just at the eastern
cliff position the crossbow men. Just for security, place the Carlson guard in
front of the mortars. If all goes well you won't need them. Place the amber
wiz at the north west corner of the deployment area but make sure that he is
not in the line of sight of the orc's doomdivers. Place cavalry behind him
(south) just in case...
Now let em come! DON't let the wiz cast anything else than "Tangling Thorn".
You must direct the spells so that the foremost orc hordes block the advance
of the following. At the same time, use your mortar units and the crossbow men
to shred the pinned enemy to pieces. Again, DON't let the wiz cast any other
spell because he'll need all magic energy for those Tangling Thorn spells.
The only monster coming through to my lines was the troll and he got his ass
kicked by the mad axemen (Ragnars Wolves) because their leader got the sword
of heroes with special abilities against big monsters in an earlier mission.
After you have destroyed all advancing units that way, use your cavalry to mop
up the doom divers. It helps if they have the shield of Ptolos to protect them
from the remaining archers. You can use the wizard to disturb these guys a bit
until the cavalry is ready to take care of them. Ah, don't forget to switch
off the AI of the guard units. In my first attempt they happily charged toward
the pinned enemy and committed suicide :-)
-----
From: russ
I have beaten this scenario several times by putting my morters at the very
bottom of the ravine (side by side) where the setup is at the start of the
mission, and my cross bows to the right side along with Allor. The Cavalry
units should be to the bottom left, next to the morters as a qick response
team. In front of the morters, yet very close to them should be all of your
infantry units. When the attack comes the orcs will tend to pile up at the
bend leading to the place where your troops are. Keep the morter and crossbows
going. Do not assualt but attack only those units which get close enough to
attack your front line, when they do, hit them will ALL of your CAV and Inf.
This will rout them. Use Allor to curse large groups so the morter can destroy
them. I have completed this scenario several times this way with only a few
dead. Try it.
Escort Dwarves to Fortress =============================================
(this is the first Zhufbar mission)
From: "S. Patrick Gallaty"
Curse of Anrahir is the key. Since the orc mage is mounted, the curse will
break his will. Then you can run him down at your leisure.
I just found this one out - previously I had been suffering mightily at the
hands of this loser.
Grumm's Gate ===========================================================
From: Huang Shze Jiun
I solved this problem by trapping the night goblins when they are coming out
the pass with a tangling thorns spell. I then move my two crossbow units,
cavalry, and dwarf warriors to the north. I have the crossbowmen and allor
whittle the wolf warriors as they circle around the night goblins. Then attack
them with my cavalry and dwarf warriors. Important points are: Kill the wolf
warriors completely, Don't go too close to the night warriors to avoid
fanatics. Don't put anybody in the path of the caravan. That is don't fight or
leave any units blocking the caravan. Make sure the units you use are safely
inside or at least near the gate. I manage to pass this mission losing only
the last horse and cart right behind the last mortar. Therefore I did not lose
any units.
Fellow commanders,
Below you will find a slightly updated magic item list. I also collected
various recommendations for mission strategies from the net, which I have put
in some order. They are appended to the list (without asking for permission).
However, this time, I managed to save the authors names. If you want your
stuff to be removed for some reason, please drop me a note.
There have been requests for setting up a FAQ list recently.
Unfortunately I cannot spend too much time for that because my working
schedule is quite full. If someone wants to create an official FAQ with
regular postings, feel free to use my very preliminary attempt but please keep
the credits for the various contributors.
Karl
Entries for the magic item list were stolen from postings of:
Teck
S.P. Gallaty
Nan Wang
Huang Shze Jiun
It seems that items lying on the ground can be identified usually by a slowly
blinking white glint (like every 10-20 seconds). If you want to be a masochist
and find that stuff yourself, don't read further. However, be warned that it's
quite tedious and boring.
Protect Schnappleburg -------------------------------------
Sword of Might - Between trees in north east of deployment zone and road (west
of road).
Capture Otto Hiln ------------------------------------------
Dragon Blade - In the snowman behind the house at the northeast corner of the
map.
Rescue Ilmarin --------------------------------------------
Shield of Pthlos - Behind the trees on the western edge of the map.
Slave Train ------------------------------------------------
Sword of Heroes - in the cemetery right next to the chapel in the north east.
Shattered Pass --------------------------------------------
Potion of Strength - north of the deployment area in the north east corner of
the cliff.
Squatter's Rights ----------------------------------------
Talisman of Obsidian - near house on middle right side
Surprise Attack ------------------------------------------
Potion of Strength - at a rock to the upper west
Banner of Arcane Warding- ???
Rat Trap ------------------------------------------------
+1 Chain Mail Armour - after winning the mission units with armour below 2 get
it
Slave assault -----------------------------------------
Banner of Might - at rocks north of deployment area
Bandit Hideout -----------------------------------------
Armour of Meteoric Iron - west of the camp by some trees.
Extermination -------------------------------------
Banner of Dread - lower right corner of the battlefield
Skaven Tunnels -----------------------------------------
Potion of Strength - near two rocks in the centre of the map
Banner of Arcane Protection - northwest of deployment zone
Troll Valley --------------------------------------------
Potion of Strength - in the east near the lava falls
Banner of Wrath - in the west near the 3 lava pools
HERE ARE THE MISSION STRATEGY TIPS:
Save Carlson's Family ==================================================
From: "S. Patrick Gallaty"
This was my strategy...
Ceridan and the mage on the far left
crossbowmen in the middle rear
gb cav center
gb inf right center
black avengers far right
My first move was to charge the units flanking the dwarves with the GB cav to
relieve them. I charge ceridan at the biguns to the far left as a delaying
tactic and allor casts curse on em, then spears em until they break (luck!) I
focus the crossbows on the biguns at first and then move on to the unit behind
them, depending on opportunity.
The black avengers move up the left side of the screen and attempt to engage
units moving to attack the gb cav which by now is probably running down its
first opponent. The gb inf you should hold back until you get a flank shot at
something good.
The battle rages on for a while and if you are fortunate, the dwarves who are
now relieved of the pressure of an enemy on their flank kick some serious ass
and orc units start shattering. I recommend holding the hero button on the GB
cav and using grudge bringer as often as possible. You need those orcs to
break fast.
The challenge on the left side is that you have to keep allor alive which
means that he may have to retreat and be relieved by the crossbowmen who you
may have to engage the remainders of biguns (hopefully not) or the orcs behind
them. If you break the center, send the gb cav around the stand of trees on
the left side of the screen and attack the lefternmost orcs from rear.
Like most of the missions, it requires a lot of luck and great deal of skill
to pull off. You have to execute your moves almost flawlessly and have the
wind and sun to your back to boot. If you don't, you'll end up getting chewed
to death quite mercilessly.
-------------------------
From: russ
Thanks for your post. You're strategy sounds a little better than the one I
finally used. What worked for me was to use the valley on the far right as
trap for the group of black orcs on the right. The bait was the black avengers
(BA) who I placed back in the valley deeper than the trees in the center,
behind which I placed the Grudgebringer CAV and Inf (GC and GI). Their job was
to pounce on the black orcs going after the BA. I placed my crossbows to the
right of the clump of trees on the left and next to them I placed Allor. In
the center I placed Ceridan. As soon as the battle opened up, the black orcs
at the bottom of the hill, started to advance up the hill towards the
crossbows. By then, the dwarves had already got themselves surrounded and had
routed one group of ORCs. I had Allor curse the black orcs advancing on the
crossbows and then I had crossbows and Allor pick them apart until they routed
and were wiped out. The remaining set of orcs backing up the now defunct black
orcs on the left was then turned on by the crossbows, Allor, and ultimately
Ceridan when they got too close to the top of the hill. After several minutes
they too were eliminated. The dwarves, having routed and damaged one group of
orcs, took a severe beating at the hand of combined ORC units and under fire
from orc archers. They eventually routed and were severely beaten on their way
off the map. They fought a good holding battle for me. I used them to buy
time.
On the right, the black orcs charged up the valley after the black avengers,
who held fast until the absolute last moment. The Orcs then seemed to pause,
slightly, perhaps the AI realized that the GC and GI were poised to stike at
the orc rear, which they did simultaneously with the black avengers frontal
assault. The result? Black Orcs were eliminated to a man. No survivors. I then
moved the Black Avengers, GC, and GI to the center and charged down the hill
while the crossbows held the orc archers at the foot of the hill at bay. The
Orc units at the foot of the hill were not at full strength, as the dwarves
had severely mauled them. The Black Avengers, GC, and GI crushed them one at a
time and then ran down and destoryed the orc archers. The unit guarding
Carlsson's family was also eliminated quickly by these three units.
My overall strategy was to use the dwarves as a deversion, and to crush the
powerful black orc units in the right and left as quickly as possible, and to
rely on magic and crossbows to slow other units attempting to scale the hill
to get me. It may be questionable to let the dwarves serve as cannon fodder,
but at least it gave me the time to overwhelm the more powerful ORC units by
surprise. I am sure the dwarves are pissed off, but such are the fortunes of
war.
----------------
From: opus@marconi.ih.att.com (Robin Kim)
Try to engage only at 2:1 odds if you can. Keep your infantry regiments close
together for mutual support. Use Curse of Anraheir on one of the Black Orc
regiments to slow them down. They are your biggest threat, and the longer you
can postpone having to deal with at least one of them, the better.
-----------------
From: nicholas.john@pop.srv.ualberta.ca (Nicholas John)
On this mission I used the above tactics but used the cavalry plus some other
regiment (Celidan..who's fast and doesn't die easily and is there afterward
even if he does, and maybe some other regiment too) to rollup the left flank,
hitting the biguns hard and fast. I had 7 cavalry and otherwise more or less
full tho the Grudgebringers infantry were a little low. The BA and GB infantry
held the centre with the dwarves. I used the wizard as above (his spells are
very important in this one) but positioned him southish at first, and had to
withdraw him as the Black orcs and others closed...it was a necessary
diversion of their attention I think. Oh yes..I also had to replay it many
times to be sure the dwarves didn't rout and to be sure that casualties were
minimal...the usual.
Rescue Ilmarin =========================================================
From: hean@pop.jaring.my (Ong Boon Hean)
Ok, main problem for me was the Rat Ogre guy b/c he kept chopping up my melee
troops, so deploy your crossbowmen and Alorr near him. Place the infantry and
calvary to defend against the Skaven troops which will charge...When combat
starts, curse the Rat Ogre and keep hitting him with Amber Spears and
crossbolts...When it finally kicks the bucket, use the Calvary to slay the
elite Skaven troops, and infantry + crossbowmen against the others...With
Alorr's help, you'll easily dispatch the others.
-----
From: greyjack@macatawa.org (Greyjack)
From what I recall, I found that telling Allor to start chucking spells
full-speed at the rat-ogre was what did it for me. Once it was dead, the rest
of the enemy regiments fell pretty quickly.
To give a spellcaster that order, click on the spell button; when the list of
spells comes up, click the spell button _again_, then choose a target. The
mage will then attack the target repeatedly with spells (of his own
choosing--in this case, he first cast the Curse of Anraheir, followed by
Hunting Spear over and over until it died), pausing of course when he's out of
spell points.
Shattered Pass =========================================================
From: kak@ipp-garching.mpg.de (Karl Krieger)
Here is my solution, which however depends on your amber mages experience.
It's based on using the spell "Tangling Thorn", which becomes accessible for
him after the first 1000 experience points.
Place your two mortar units, which should be available at this time, in the
south east corner of the deploy area. In front of them just at the eastern
cliff position the crossbow men. Just for security, place the Carlson guard in
front of the mortars. If all goes well you won't need them. Place the amber
wiz at the north west corner of the deployment area but make sure that he is
not in the line of sight of the orc's doomdivers. Place cavalry behind him
(south) just in case...
Now let em come! DON't let the wiz cast anything else than "Tangling Thorn".
You must direct the spells so that the foremost orc hordes block the advance
of the following. At the same time, use your mortar units and the crossbow men
to shred the pinned enemy to pieces. Again, DON't let the wiz cast any other
spell because he'll need all magic energy for those Tangling Thorn spells.
The only monster coming through to my lines was the troll and he got his ass
kicked by the mad axemen (Ragnars Wolves) because their leader got the sword
of heroes with special abilities against big monsters in an earlier mission.
After you have destroyed all advancing units that way, use your cavalry to mop
up the doom divers. It helps if they have the shield of Ptolos to protect them
from the remaining archers. You can use the wizard to disturb these guys a bit
until the cavalry is ready to take care of them. Ah, don't forget to switch
off the AI of the guard units. In my first attempt they happily charged toward
the pinned enemy and committed suicide :-)
-----
From: russ
I have beaten this scenario several times by putting my morters at the very
bottom of the ravine (side by side) where the setup is at the start of the
mission, and my cross bows to the right side along with Allor. The Cavalry
units should be to the bottom left, next to the morters as a qick response
team. In front of the morters, yet very close to them should be all of your
infantry units. When the attack comes the orcs will tend to pile up at the
bend leading to the place where your troops are. Keep the morter and crossbows
going. Do not assualt but attack only those units which get close enough to
attack your front line, when they do, hit them will ALL of your CAV and Inf.
This will rout them. Use Allor to curse large groups so the morter can destroy
them. I have completed this scenario several times this way with only a few
dead. Try it.
Escort Dwarves to Fortress =============================================
(this is the first Zhufbar mission)
From: "S. Patrick Gallaty"
Curse of Anrahir is the key. Since the orc mage is mounted, the curse will
break his will. Then you can run him down at your leisure.
I just found this one out - previously I had been suffering mightily at the
hands of this loser.
Grumm's Gate ===========================================================
From: Huang Shze Jiun
I solved this problem by trapping the night goblins when they are coming out
the pass with a tangling thorns spell. I then move my two crossbow units,
cavalry, and dwarf warriors to the north. I have the crossbowmen and allor
whittle the wolf warriors as they circle around the night goblins. Then attack
them with my cavalry and dwarf warriors. Important points are: Kill the wolf
warriors completely, Don't go too close to the night warriors to avoid
fanatics. Don't put anybody in the path of the caravan. That is don't fight or
leave any units blocking the caravan. Make sure the units you use are safely
inside or at least near the gate. I manage to pass this mission losing only
the last horse and cart right behind the last mortar. Therefore I did not lose
any units.