Wind of Thorns

[Wheeler Dealer]

Wind of Thorns, Expert, Journal

Waking the Dead, nothing goes forward.

Week 1, Put together my two heroes and the Efreeti to hurry ahead. Whoops my trailing army was ambushed by 1000 ghosts.

Let's try again, put the slowest troops with the hero carrying the Gloves of Travel and send the Efreeti ahead to scout.

There are wandering groups of undead too strong for your best army. They won't wander into your vicinity until late in the first week. There are lot's of wolves you should kill for the story line, if you like. Basically, you follow the only path east, then north until you get near Galladon. Galladon is captured before you can get there and Asha advises to flee to the east. The revised goal is a hut near the center of the map.

Take a strong army, w/o the ballistae and take out small groups of undead and companies of wolves, as it pleases you. If the trailers get cauget, too bad.

Finished at 2,1,2.

Sothoryon Monastery (Max 8)

Week 1, We start with a L4 mage and only Magic Fist in our memory banks. On day 3 a L4 barbarian joins. On day 5 Meltemi has to fight 3 battles, winning the first two isn't the problem, having enough mana for Bind Wounds in the third is.

Week 2, Melteni found a temple that gave her four extra days.

Week 3, Cartaya pulled levers and got 2 Genies to join. Meltemi went back to the Ogre Magi after gaining a level and a Potion of Strength and beat them acquiring Gloves of Travel. For me the number for the gate was 6. (Stand between the pillars.)

Week 4, Be sure to use "v" often to spot artifacts, Chataya missed Explorer's Boots near her gold mine and lost a couple of turns going back for them.

Week 5, Cataya reached L8 on 2,1,1. Meltemi got to L8 on 2,1,3. Chataya passed through a gate (2,1,5) and her army vanished. Soon after the same thing happened to Meltemi. Based on the questions earlier and the options offered Chataya became a Wizard gaining 6 Chaos Magic skills and Meltemi became a paladin acquiring 6 Life Magic skills. I like it!

Finished on 2,1,7

Kalaharu Max 16

Week 1, just exploring

Week 2, first battle, company of bandits, surprisingly difficult.

Week 3, found Jared Slynt in a cabin near the center of the map. Meltemi should heed SE to find a stronghold, Cataya goes north looking for a tunnel to contact dwarves.

Week 4, Chataya found the dwarven village and they joined. Meltemi has to recover the mines.

Week 5, Meltemi killed the thief and flagged the mines, Skendi (town) joined.

Week 6, tried to join my heroes, can't. Getting hard to find battles where I can even make a serious dent before fleeing.

Week 7, Chataya having more success. Meltemi is going to need a big army but that is So far away.

Week 8, won the Amulet of Fear, allows Meltemi (with another hero) to Hit & Run on the Ogre Magi guarding the Learning Stone. Traded 150 Dwarves for a Golem Factory. Can trade 300 dwarves for a Golden Pavilion, not sure I want to. Want Genies in future scenarios.

Week 9, Meltemi and 3 other heroes fought the Faire Dragon test, only Meltemi got the reward.

Week 10, Freed access to the Veterans Guild. Meltemi can use another hero to flee when needed while she rips the neutrals before she dies. Chataya casts Slow, Haste and Flight to take all stacks w/o magic or ranged attacks.

Week 12, Chataya Maxed. Found two gates that will allow my heroes to join for the finale, but they can't cross into the other's territory. Gave some artifacts to Meltemi since she is having more trouble.

Week 13, Meltemi achieved L14, so with 2 accessible ToK she will max out. Now, what else do I need to do before finishing? Meltemi beat the 8 Black Dragons and 18 Nightmares losing 100 berserkers. There was a glitch that made it harder. My sniper's Crossbow wasn't working and Meltemi had been getting 3 melee attacks per turn but in this battle, she only got one. Received the Apprentice's Notebook to deliver. Chataya has battles that look to tough and she can't put together much of an army.

Week 14, Found a Dwarf Market, can buy 15 dwarves for 1000g, they only build 15 a day. Meltemi is done with her side. I think I'm going to give the barbarian army and all the best artifacts to Chataya so she can finish up her side.

Week 15, zzzzzzzzzz

Week 16, I found a third level Order Shrine that taught Forgetfulness!!! So much for those 61 Cyclops (Chataya fought alone). Didn't lose anything but berserkers in the other battles.

Week 17, Chataya's side almost finished, a lot more to do but most of it wasn't as hard, especially with the barbarian army. Mass Precision is great when you have 4 shooters. Gave up 150 dwarves for nothing. If you bought the golem factory you don't get the magi.

Week 18, Going for the final push into the Druid's lands. Lost 186 berserkers taking the garrison. We win!!! (5,3,1)

Burning Foliage, Max 32! I think there were 26 Dream Teachers!!! This scenario took me a week real time. I'm retired and play about 4 hours a day. Have fun. FYI, by the end of this scenario you want to have
grandmaster magic resistance for both heroes.

I'm told Chataya's reckless spending has deprived her of her force of dwarves.

Week 1, Once again Chataya and Meltemi are forced to split up. Trying to pick battles I can win without serious casualties. Two towns joined me when I got close.

Week 2, Got a big shipment of resources, lots of reinforcements, not that I'm using creatures just yet.

Week 3, Recruited a L8 Cardinal, Rescued a L8 Fireguard. More resources received and more reinforcements.

Week 4, Hired a death knight on each side. my two necropolises are almost built out. Time to start hiring armies and sending my heroes to the universities.

Week 5, A Green army appeared in the NW of Chataya's territory. She engaged just long enough to kill the hero. Now they can't attack my town.

Week 6, Purple showed up in Meltemi's North. Chataya defeated the wounded but still powerful Green army. Chataya is leading a large army with two supporting heroes. Meltemi has added a death knight.

Week 7, Yikes, Meltemi attacked by an overwhelming Green force and retreat takes her to Chataya's town. Don't know if I can win from there!!! Well, the caravan between my cities works but it takes 12 days. I'll give it a try but don't feel good about it. OK, you can get around in the NE.

Trading the 7 BDs gets you the Angelfeather Cloak which carries forward.

Weeks 8-9, lots of long slow marches, not much fighting. Lots of xp for supporting heroes, 18 Dream Teachers and 4 Learning Stones (89,000 xp if you could hit them all!).

Week 10, no more reinforcements, my income from heroes is over 5,000g per day. Got the Teal Key but as I approached the town, I ran into a Purple army with 54 Level 4 creatures. The only creatures in my current army are halflings and gold golems. I could hire 28 Bone Dragons if I could afford them and get them all together.

Week 11, Running my heroes around the map while growing the creatures to make up a competitive army. Meltemi and Chataya won a level at the Coliseum of Magic.

Week 12, Holding my breath hoping these big armies don't find my towns before I'm ready. Shucks, you can get either the Steadfast Shield or the Wand of Ice but you have to give up the Scroll of Mass Slow. Purple took my SE Town. I evacuated via caravan.

Week 13, Took a preserve from Purple in the NE. My army now is Chataya, Meltemi, Jhogo, a L15 General, 51 Bone Dragons, 84 Vampires and 99 ghosts. Took a haven. Got some help from the seminary. Purple took back the preserve.

Week 14, Took another preserve. Massive open battle. My heroes controlled the enemy while the GDs and Vampires killed them. Lost 16 ghosts. Found the puzzle prize.

Week 15, Started the week by taking another preserve. I've taken 5 towns but lost one back. Lost two more towns but got two back. Some really big armies to fight but my magic carried the day, losing just a few ghosts.

Week 16, four Green armies invaded, beat all four on day 1, had to try the largest one twice. On 4,4,2 I hold 5 of the enemies' towns, I'm told there is a portal to the core in the NW corner. I own all the above ground towns.

Week 18, Took the Purple Portal. No nature creatures allowed. There are three ToK. I was able to get Chataya to L29 and Meltemi to L28 w/o the trees. There were hard battles involving 30+ Faerie Dragons, lots of strong shooters and L40 heroes that were 100% immune to magic. Used Displacement, Song of Peace, Cloud of Confusion, Forgetfulness and Teleport to control the FDs and shooters. ASAP used Teleport to send in the BDs or Vampires to take out the L40 hero. Got through all 3 battles with no casualties.

When I approached the last town there was a long dialogue that built up to a choice that determines the final scenario. I chose what I perceived the noble choice but saved so I can go back to try the other.

Finished on 5,3,2

Asangers Splinters, just move a bit and you're into the next scenario

The Frog, the two heroes you get at the beginning carry over. Max 39

Week 1, Meltemi had a lone combat with 1194 troglodytes and 882 orcs. It went something like this, Slow, Slow, Poison, Poison and Flight. Now it was just a matter of creating space, casting blessing spells, repeat until she was ready to engage. Blue Cucumber got 8 levels at his personal quest.

Week 2, Wow, double attack by Purple and Red on The Frog!!! Chataya (she was being Disintegrated before she could get a turn) and her Evil Sorceress's evacuated and Meltmemi prevailed (losing all creatures)!

Week 3, The attacks keep coming but it appears that Chataya can handle these. In the hero training area, there are 9 Dream Teachers, but they are hard to see.

Week 4, when Yoshi crosses the location just south of the south corner of The Frog he gets over 100,000 xp. Wow, that defensive battle took 1 & 1/2 hours, but I got out clean!

Week 5, Meltemi killed all three stacks of 300+ Gargantuans, around 150K xp each. Once you cast Forgetfulness and Mirth, the Hideous Mask should make the rest of the battle trivial, trouble was, despite her GM Melee, occasionally the Gargantuans would get the first attack. Never figured out why.

Week 6, once Meltemi returned to the surface, the citizens built a Caravan in The Frog.

Weeks 7-8, Finished most of the quests, using Town Portal to hurry home as enemies approach The Frog. My army is strong enough other armies are reluctant to attack me in my castle. I now have 13 enemy heroes in my prison.

Red and Purple seem to have an infinite supply of troops and high-level heroes. Split my army and took the western Red town. I thought Meltemi and 22 Angels could take one of these big armies, but the general had such good tactics that the Black Dragons got first turn and all the way across the battlefield on the first turn.

Week 9-10, Took 2 Purple towns. Delicate moves to attack and still use portals and Town Gate to defend.

Week 11, Took my 4 heroes to fight the huge neutral guards at 76,136, tough battle but once I eliminated their hero it was over. Traded my Tiger Armor for the 3-piece Bard's set. Took the SE Red town and hurried home to defend The Frog. Eliminated Red.

Week 12, eliminated Purple. Now What? Over! Reload to go hit the ToK I was saving. Won on 4,3,1. Meltemi L39 and Chataya L38 with the other two L30. Never got Meltemi into her special hero training or solved the uncertain mission.

Cleaning out the Closet

Week 1, Sent Meltemi and Yoshi north and Chataya and BC to the center. Took two towns. Purple appeared on the 7th day.

Week 2, Purple menacing my academy. I have mines for everything but Sulphur and gold. I have 4 Order Lords generating rescores.

Week 3, Meltemi killed Nimbus

Week 4, Nimbus with HUGE army in south central, the first Nimbus wasn't real, but I get my reward anyway. Well, part of my reward.

Week 5, I managed to Town Gate all 4 of my heroes into my academy just in time to face Nimbus. Nimbus was a L40 Illusionist (100% magic immunity) with 15 Bone Dragons, 35 Dark Champions, 112 Vampires, 478 gargoyles, 485 evil eyes and 1,102 Orcs against my L40 Paladin, L39 Archmage, L32 Pyromancer, L31 Paladin, 8 Evil Sorceresses, 20 Genies and 131 Halflings. Both Paladins knew Devine Intervention and had to raise Yoshi 3 times during the battle. Once I killed Nimbus the balance tipped in my favor. Magic over Might again!!! I lost 109 halflings but resurrected 54.

Well, this wasn't the real Nimbus either.

Week 6, Chataya and BC won (easily) in the Coliseum of Might. Hurried Chataya and BC home to defend my academy against yet another version of Nimbus, lost one of my Evil Sorceress.

Week 7, Meltemi and Yoshi won in the Colosseum of Might. Destroyed all 3 Mausoleums.

Week 8, took a Purple asylum, then the other two Purple towns, I don't think Purple has any heroes left? There should be one more Nimbus.

Week 9, Found him (alone), Chataya and BD took him out using lots of illusions and Cancellation/Dispel. Meltemi and Yoshi took down 124 Dark Champions, largely due to Yoshi's Quicksand. Yoshi got a level and they went back to the Coliseum of Might to get L42 and L35. Claiming the last prize for killing Nimbus I was given access to an area with 3 ToK and several Altars and Gems giving boosts.

Week 10, 11, Almost ready, bringing my armies to Asangar!

Won @ 3,4,4. Attacked with my 4 heroes and Gargantuans, Cyclops and Catapults (indirect attack and Bow of the Elf King). Chataya only had 80% MR and got disintegrated! We Prevailed with no more casualties and the temple resurrected Chataya. Meltemi and Chataya were L46 and L45.

Lots of fun, Think I'll go back and try the Evil choice!

[wimfrits]

Wheeler Dealer, thank you for sharing this weekly journal/guide. Great to read you\ve been enjoying the campaign
And with some sound tips!
When you say you found the puzzle prize, do you mean the extremely secret puzzle prize involving wands?

On a small note, could the gargantuans unexpectedly getting the first attack be (good/bad) morale related? The first strike ability works once per full round. E.g. if the enemy attacks in round 1 after getting bad morale and attacks again in round 2 (w/o morale effect), less than 1 round has passed between attacks

Have fun playing the Evil side!

[Wheeler Dealer]

Thank you for a Great campaign.

Sorry, it's been three Weeks since I finished that scenario. I save on the first day of each week, overwriting when I move to the next scenario. As it happens, I have M4W3 from Burning Foliage but what I'm looking for would have been in M4W2. One of my heroes has 3 wands. You could email me at wes_irby@hotmail.com if you don't want to put spoilers in the forum.

One of the spells I routinely cast in those type battles is Myrth to prevent the creatures from getting consecutive attacks, but I never thought about the possibility of bad morale creating a short round even though we were alternating attacks. I'll watch for that in the future.

I just finished the Evil Side and will post that journal later today.

Got any recommendations for my next campaign.

Thanks again.

[Wheeler Dealer]

Lots of fun, Think I'll go back and try the Evil choice!

Once you accept, you immediately have to defeat Galyeon and capture Mezumiiru, no problem.

Asangars Splinters

Week 1, once again Chataya and Meltemi are forced to split up. Chataya immediately found a battle she couldn't win against 134 Fire Elementals and 72 Water Elementals. Screech, a L8 Field Marshall (does not continue) and Asangar join on Meltemi's approach. Hired a thief to explore. Three Frenzied Gnashers joined, sent back to Asangar to breed.

Week 2, Chataya wanders in the south, I could bring Chataya home with Town Gate, but I don't know if I should. Meltemi and Screech fight in the north, a purple army w/o a hero appeared in the north. They did steal two chests before Meltemi eliminated them.

Week 3, Took a necropolis from Blue.

Week 4, Lost back the necropolis, Chataya, Meltemi and Screech hit & run twice and finally beat a large army. I was run out of Really Scary Town (RST) again!

Week 5, after a couple of failed attempts on RST, I shifted my attack to Morat and took it. Then turning back north I took RST. Found a Blue Garrison in the NE and beyond that a portal to the surface. This seems to be the only way to get back and forth to the surface so remember it well. I suppose there are some situations where Town Gate or fleeing might move you between levels.

Week 6, Seems as soon as I portaled to the surface, enemies came from everywhere to attack my cities. Town Gate back to Morat to save that town. then headed east to track down some enemy armies and I found the asylum town of Paendrag. First attempt failed, Town Gate out after inflicting some casualties. The problem was a magic-immune ranger with a powerful, exploding ranged attack. I have a Ring of Greater Negation but wasn't using it since it takes away my magic immunity as well. Tried again using the ring and killed the ranger before he got a turn. Managed a win after that. Now, can I get home in time to protect Asangar?

Wow, a L3 Order Lord fled from a battle and picked up several Life Magic skills in addition to 130,000 xp lifting him to L21! Bug or feature? I've seen this kind of bonus before but never more than a few thousand xp.

Week 7, Enemies never got to my strong garrison. I hold 4 towns with an income of 10,850 gold/day. I have 17 Frenzied Gnashers but haven't used them. Maybe with the Ring of Greater Negation and the Guardian Angel spell they might be worth the trouble.

Week 8, Blue has 2 towns left, I hold all the rest.

Week 9-10, I'm playing with my food now, Green and Purple are out and Blue holds one town. Bought Dark Champions for future scenarios (Green Portal).

Week 11, Hmmm... I had two L3 Order Lords with only Advanced Nobility and Master Estates skills go to a veteran's guild and they were unable to purchase training!

Feel like there should be more, there were several artifacts I couldn't reach and a couple of quests I couldn't complete. Chataya L37 and Meltemi L36,

Won on 3,3,6

The Frog, just go to the next day.

Full Circle. If you aren't playing at Expert or Champion, you may come up short one set of explosives.

Week 1, I gave Meltemi the chaos troops and Chataya the death creatures. That didn't work well. When Meltemi attacked the neutrals were split up and I took casualties. I'm not giving up Black Dragons and Nightmares if I don't have to. Meltemi and her doggies handled the first two battles just fine. The Frenzied Gnashers occupy the enemy while Meltemi casts her choice of spells and then she wins the battle and the FGs come back to life.

No towns in sight. Lots of interesting battles but nothing that will get either hero a level anytime soon. Meltemi and her doggies are great, but she needs more mana. Chataya does best with 3 stacks of Dark Champions, vampires, venom spawn and medusas.

Week 2, Meltemi found explosives in a tunnel in the SE corner. She had to beat 55 Behemoths, Meltemi fought this battle alone. Each spell affected all the Behemoths, and it was easier to evade one stack than two. I used Slow followed by Raise Ghosts (1 is enough) to reduce their speed twice. Captured a stronghold and was immediately counterattacked by 2 large, Purple armies. I was afraid Meltemi was going to run out of mana.

Week 3, Chataya discovered an underground passage that led north. She captured an academy and eliminated Purple on 1,3,6.

Week 4, I'm lost, just exploring with 7 armies looking for my next step.

Week 5, Right under my nose, a bit SE of Godan was a Green BG blocking access to the Teal Keymaster.

Week 7, I got into the underground beyond Teal Gate, won in some Coliseums of Might but found no access beyond the one-way gate.

Week 8, Wandering unable to find the passage to Dukendale. Ah, there it is, on the north edge of the cavern nearest the one-way gate.

Week 9-11, Got in, got my ass kicked, Town Gate saved me. This may be a very long set of Hit & Run attacks. I can bring in some minor heroes and recruit a few black dragons if that will help. Oh, if you approach the one-way gate from the inside the guards abandon their post.

Week 12, This is one of the most difficult battles I can remember. Three H&R with the sisters followed by a full assault where I lost 12 Black Dragons, 13 Dark Champions and 66 Thunderbirds before using Town Gate to get to safety. I replaced the lost troops with 2 minor heroes 69 Cyclops (I had 40 Titans that survived the prior battle). Tough final battle.

Won on 4,2,5. Chataya and Meltemi were L42.

Cleaning out the Closet

Win in 5 days??? I got to think that's a mistake, this is a 2-level, extra-large map. It's the same map as this stage of the "Good" choice and that one took me nearly 4 months.

Well, it wasn't a real scenario. Just one battle against a peasant and 2 Leprechauns!

[wimfrits]

Congrats! Finished both sides and got a decent challenge on both occasions. Great to read how you used different strategies and applied new tactics to win!

Indeed I had to resort to some 'sudden' endings to allow for the choice scenarios

As for recommendations.. I played and enjoyed the ones listed below. But here I'm selling short all the great campaigns I have not played (or the ones I played but forgot). E.g. some great new techniques were used in some of the newer campaigns that I would surely want to experience.

Dragon's fate
Lamentia's story
The hundred years war
The science of darkness
The Saga of Depierrelles

Or you can just restart aWoT on champion level