Need Strategic help

[Move2Bastyon]

I'm a new player so bit of a noob and learning the game.

Playing the first campaign and on the third map as Reskar Scapeshaper.

I have Urlagh the Unchained surrounded in his city, but no matter how i approach i can't siege it and win. He has 5 stacks all around it with high level units.

Is there any way i can weaken him enough to create an opportunity for an assault ?

I've tried Sunburst, and Insect plague, but it just doesn't do enough. What is the strategy to beat this defense as a Draconian ArchDruid ?

This is his defensive setup: http://prntscr.com/f4d45t
How do i break it ?

[Gloweye]

My advice is to stop the campaign and play random maps first. The single worst part of the game is calling the campaign for beginners. It is not, campaign is a challenge.

If you do want to try tho, first requirement is a good understanding of the adjacent hex rule. First of all, you can discount the ships. They won't help defending. This opens up a nice weakness in his defenses - the left stack is adjacent only to his main army. You could put three stacks around it and fight a siege battle where you outnumber (you can use four stacks if you embark one). Remember, only stacks directly adjacent are pulled into the battle.

After that first battle, all his morale is down 100 because you killed his leader, and if you take that city (which is his throne) in that amount of time, you'll have defeated him.

After winning that battle, there's three stacks left in a row. If you attack one on either side, you'll only face two in combat, which is perhaps winnable, depending on the units in these stacks and your army.


However, you probably just took a bit to long getting there. If you're playing lower difficulties, this looks like turn 100+ where it should be like turn 40 at the latest you take that city. By which time you should own the north half of the map, and everything west of this city.

[Move2Bastyon]

Thank you for the advice, fortunately i didn't have to do it the hard way.

He moved out 3 of his most powerful stacks in response to some of my maneuvres and blocking of his resources, or because i built the first dragon in the north east, as they were heading in that direction. Perhaps the ai wanted to recapture the Dragon den back, i don't know.

But i swiftly took my 4 stacks that were sitting around in the north just a couple of hexes away from his base, and surrounded his 3 powerful stacks out in the open and took them down. He lost his leader. So then went back to my position outside his Stronghold, he was able to put together 4 more stacks to defend, but they were of inferior units. Plus i had blocked his income.

So attacked with my 4 stacks of Tier 3 and 4 Units and won finally.

http://prntscr.com/f4dk8g

Yeah it's turn 111. Now i have to deal with the humans in the east with their Canons and Tanks, any advice to deal with them ?

[hiliadan]

Also Gloweye is too modest to say it himself but he has written a campaign guide here: http://age-of-wonders-3.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Gloweye/Elven_Court_-_Promised_Lands
(it was not written with the current version of the game so some info may be a bit outdated, but still a good read)

There are similar guides for other scenarios of the campaigns.

[Gloweye]

If you've dealt with Snaga and Urlagh, you've basically won. As long as you stay away from the human, his AI is actually turned off. And even if not, you'll be able to insanely outproduce him. I'd take your time and explore every treasure site you see. For example there's a Ziggurat that's got (a chance for) some pretty powerful items, and you can bring items with you to the next level.

[Sam Hotte]

A bit late to the party, but still:
Dealing with heavy fortifications, it's always a good idea to play the "blitzkrieg" strategy: bypass the fortification at first and keep pressure on easier targets. This lures the defender to come out of this city with a part of his army, to counterattack and/or attack things in your back.
Now you can turn your main forces either on the weakened city or on the counterattacking army (as you see fit), having to deal only with half of the initial defenders at once ...

However, in the campaigns you generally have to play a b it more offensively in the beginning, constantly keeping the iniative and pressure on the AI, because they have more troops and economy at the start of every single scenario. If you want to avoid such large defending armies as depicted, that is.

[Move2Bastyon]

This campaign mission has been amazing, have experienced many ups and downs. When I first went out to meet the two elven cities, it split my forces and the ai took advantage, they took one of my key cities and fortresses back at home, and i almost lost, they had underground cities that were constantly producing threats. Had to create armies from my two base cities to hold up my home territories, because my main forces were isolated out east.

And the east forces were under threat to be crushed, there were stacks much bigger and stronger coming at them. Ended up running away, they re captured the elven settlements, and i actually tried to wander my way back with my leaders two armies. I razed two cities on the way back, and managed to avoid being surrounded, even though was in the heart of enemy territory.

This backward pressure alleviated my homefront, and was able to capture one of the largest cities to the east from my starting position, and was able to re secure my base to the south.

Once i was able to join my forces in the center, i was able to push through. And my southern forces made another push down to the south east to recover the elven territories through the portal. After doing so, they once again took them back. Again took those forces and abandoned that area to join up all my forces again and get reinforcements. That is when i finally took the advantage and really weakened them. And ended up taking the Elf lands back for the final time. And arrived at the position you see me at the start of this thread.

What a wonderful tough strategic game this is, really had to endure some adversity. Did have to reload a couple of times, due to making mistakes and trying to correct them. Probably one would have cost me the match. One time at the start, when i had little defenses at home, and didn't know the teleporter was one way, so had to reload to adjust to that. Although i didn't reload prior to the main army going through the portal, so it was still tough to deal with the challenge at home. The second time was when i attacked those red stacks head on and realized that wasn't going to work, so had to retreat, but just reloaded.

And had some tough battles along the way. Now i am finally in a position of power and almost ready to finish off the humans. Just following your advice and going around the map getting all the treasures first. This game is amazing.

I do find it difficult to understand all the pros and cons of spells and powers at times though, they can be confusing.

[Slashimus]

Random maps is still where this game really shines. Creating your own leader and getting to understand the sheer variety of options and combinations is what makes the game stand out for me. Campaigns are still, at the end of the day, scripted affairs.

[Move2Bastyon]

I am yet to try a random map game. So have that to look forward to. Might try it after finishing this campaign map. But already experiencing the variety and liking it. Like digging tunnels underground and building cities there, and finding awesome loot like new mounts, has been awesome, one of my heroes is travelling on the back of a huge dread spider and it has the ability to traverse on top of water. And my silver dragon mount just hatched so going to have one of my heroes ride that, and another dread spider egg will hatch soon :) so good!

...and so concludes this campagin map: http://prntscr.com/f4pxga
enjoyed this more than some of the epic total war and civ5 campaigns. Only thing that would make it even better is if every few turns there were random events that brought about things like raiders and attacks on your lands, once you have become super powerful.

What are the main differences between the random map games?

[Sam Hotte]

The random maps are basically maps that are generated to be played in any mode available, so everybody - meaning you and the up to 7 other players (if human or AI doesn't matter) starts under the same constraints.
Whereas in the campaigns, the one human player is put against other AI players that already have several cities and armies and scripted events and such.

If you have the DLCs you may enable "cosmic events" in a random map which is exactly those random events you are looking for. E.g. there's an event called "raise of the Trolls" or similar, sending armies of ravaging Trolls all over the map ...

[Slashimus]

Sam is correct. In fact, depending on the campaign you play, additional features that were added in the expansions will not be avaiable due to balance reasons. Random maps are the only options to be able to play a game with everything turned on.

Cosmic events got added in Eternal Lords I think.

[Move2Bastyon]

Tried a random map thinking it would be easier, so built my first two bases, then while i'm still using mostly tier 1 units and only just researched some tier two units and only just started producing them, i get attacked by a tier 4 dragon with a tier 2 army. Not to mention they are immune to anything i can do lol. Gameover. So much for the game being easier on random maps. Didn't have this much trouble in any of my campaigns so far.

[Mulzaro]

Originally posted by Multifaced:

Tried a random map thinking it would be easier, so built my first two bases, then while i'm still using mostly tier 1 units and only just researched some tier two units and only just started producing them, i get attacked by a tier 4 dragon with a tier 2 army. Not to mention they are immune to anything i can do lol. Gameover. So much for the game being easier on random maps. Didn't have this much trouble in any of my campaigns so far.

Sounds like a high tier roaming army. You should tweak the settings. I like to play with few roaming units for example because I only see them as a nuisance that doesnt really add anything interesting to the gameplay. Cosmic happenings are also mostly annoying in my opinion.

[Gloweye]

It's a haunted boneyard stack. Those exist after turn 30, spawned by the boneyards. It's often recommended to clear them asap - they're weaker than the stacks they spawn.

That said, they don't heal. Generally, a couple pikes can take down a dragon, and some other units together can take the rest. If you have 2 stacks of T1/ T2's, it shouldnt be a problem.

That said, at turn 30 you should be having some T2's at least to help deal with stuff.

[Slashimus]

In random maps you need to step things up in terms of expanding. Scout the areas around your first settlement thoroughly and make sure that any spawn points like bandit camps, necromantic circles and monster dens are cleared.

You should definitely have some tier 2 units by turn 30. Actually your starting army generally has a couple. Don't neglect researching higher tier spells and units that can turn the course of battle.

Also pay attention to the heroes you recruit. Some classes will fit your race and leader class better than others (also based on the spell schools you have chosen).

[Sam Hotte]

Nobody said random maps were easier ... :p
But you can adjust most things to your liking and the AI players don't start with more things on the maps than you do.