Spellforce 2 walkthrough
by tarbandu
version 1.0 (August 2006)
Disclaimer: Spellforce 2 : Shadow Wars copyright2005 is developed by
Phenomic Game Development and published by JoWood Productions Software AG,
Technologiepark 4a, A-8786 Rottenmann, Austria. This walkthrough is not
sponsored or endorsed by either Phenomic Game Development or JoWood
Productions, and is solely the work of the author, James Higgins ('tarbandu').
I assume no responsibility for errors or defects in this document when posted
in any websites other than Game FAQ !
I'm always willing to incorporate new strategies, hints, and gameplay
suggestions into this walkthrough. Contact me at tarbandu12@juno.com, and be
sure to include your 'true' name or username for purposes of proper
attribution, along with your suggestions.
What does and doesn't this walkthrough offer ?
This walkthrough was compiled as I played through Spellforce 2 and is
designed to help players who may be stuck or frustrated with combat required
for a particular mission, or seeking information on completion of a quest.
What this walkthrough does NOT offer is an exhaustive listing of all
available weapons, armor, rings, charms, minerals, coins, gems, and other
items. Locations for items critical for the main quest, and the more
important side quests, are given in the individual map chapters, but there
is no central directory telling you that item A can be found at X location
in map Y.
If you need more detailed information on the location of a particular item,
or detailed instructions on solving a particular puzzle, try checking out
the Spellforce 2 Forums at: spellforce.jowood.de/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=3
The odds are, someone has posted the info you need. Also available at the
Forums are alternate strategies to many of the RTS segments of the game.
Walkthrough Synopsis
In the absence of a Table of Contents and pagination, I've listed the order
of the maps and side quests in this document so you can get some idea of
where the individual map walkthroughs are, located relative to one another:
1. Iron Fields / Intro 16. Firefangs
2. Norimar 17. The Gate of Swords
3. Rushwater Downs 18. The Magnet Stones
4. Sevenkeeps 19. The Crater
5. Side Quest: Westguard 20. The Gate of Swords
6. Sevenkeeps 21. Side Quests: Westguard, The Crater
7. Underhall 22. The Tuscari Desert
8. Sevenkeeps 23. Dragh' Lur
9. Dun Mora 24. Side Quests: Westguard, Stones, Crater
10. Sevenkeeps 25. The Crystal Wastes
11. The Needle 26. The Song Glass
12. Side Quest: Westguard 27. Side Quest: Westguard
13. The Iron Fields 28. The Crystal Forest
14. The Gate of Swords 29. The Steel Shore
15. Uram Gor 30. Miscellaneous Sevenkeeps Quests
It's important to note that there is some degree of leeway in the order in
which you can go to side quest maps such as the Westguard. The order given
above is simply that which I used in playing the game.
Gameplay Hints and Tips
1. How do I resurrect fallen party members ?
2. How does my avatar summon heroes ?
3. Party inventory and management
4. Troop allocation and resources
5. Establishing a base
6. Building defensive towers
7. Destroying enemy structures
8. You cannot 'game' the RTS segments of Spellforce 2
9. Where can I find the four Storm Blade orcs ?
10. What do I do with the all the coins, tiles, and other items found
throughout the game ?
11. I have plenty of stone, silver, and lenya but I can't build structure
XXX !
1. How Do I Resurrect Fallen Party Members ?
This is rather poorly covered in the tutorial and in the manual. When in the
gameplay a character, either your avatar or a party member, is killed,
you'll notice their small portrait in the upper left-hand corner of the game
screen darkens, and a set of numbers in white- a 'death timer' - is
superimposed on the portrait. Simultaneously you'll get a 'heartbeat' sound
to notify you that a party member is dead and requires resuscitation. If the
timer for a fallen party member counts down to zero, and you fail to revive
that member, then the game ends.
There are two ways to resurrect a fallen avatar or party member: one
involves the innate resurrecting ability of the avatar and party members
endowed with the 'Shaikan' bloodline; the other involves use of the Altar of
Life structure.
To revive a party member using the innate Shaikan spell, simply click on the
portrait of the fallen member and you'll see bronze 'face' icons appear
under the portraits of the other, surviving party members endowed with the
Shaikan bloodline. Click on one of these icons, and that party member will
seek out the corpse of their dead comrade and cast a resurrecting spell on
them. This takes a few moments, so don't wait until a 'death timer' is in
the single digits to do this ! When the fallen party member is revived, be
careful they aren't exposed to enemy attack, since their health and mana
will be very low at first.
To revive a fallen party member using the Altar of Life, just click on the
Altar and a portrait of the fallen member will appear on the building's
interaction screen; select the portrait of that character, and he or she
will momentarily spawn at the Altar. Be aware that using the Altar for this
purpose costs 250 lenya per resurrection of a party member, and 500 lenya
for your avatar. Also, the Altar costs 500 stone to build, making it a
relatively expensive structure. On some maps (such as Sevenkeeps, or The
Crater) you'll be provided with a pre-constructed Altar and maybe even some
lenya, particularly if the map does not involve a RTS segment. On other maps
you'll have to build the Altar on your own, and harvest the lenya needed to
employ it.
I rarely found myself constructing or using an Altar throughout most of the
game. There are some maps where it can be useful and I've noted this in the
walkthrough. But most of the time, with some careful watching of the 'death
timer' and attention to combat, you can revive fallen members and keep them
alive long enough afterwards to where they regain their full health, and can
participate in the action in a prompt manner.
2. How Does My Avatar Summon Heroes ?
I was chagrined to (re)discover this feature only after playing thru 75% of
the game ! It's not described in the Manual, and cursorily dealt with in the
tutorial, when you teleport Lya from her position at the bottom of the
ravine. It's easy to forget you ever used this ability, and when much later
in the game it becomes key to completing Quests, you can experience some
real frustration if you can't recall it exists. In fact I only discovered it
again after visiting Phenomic's Spellforce 2 Forums on the web.
In more than a few maps you will find areas that are only accessible to your
avatar via Journey Stones. These areas are usually mountain peaks or monster
lairs. While your avatar can teleport to them, your heroes / party members
will not by default teleport with the avatar; you have to summon them to
your new location one by one. This is done by clicking on the portrait of
the hero; you'll see a small icon appear under your avatar's portrait. This
icon is of a 'screaming face' with a left-pointing arrow superimposed on the
face. Select a party member by clicking on his portrait, then click on this
'screaming face' under your avatar's portrait, and the selected hero will
teleport in alongside your avatar. All members of your party can be summoned
this way.
In a lot of these 'Journey Stone Only' areas, the Stone will not permit you
to teleport out until the quest is completed - this usually means killing
all the monsters in the area. If a party member dies, you can try to
resurrect them on-site. If things are too dangerous to attempt this, and you
have an Altar of Life available elsewhere in the map, you can revive the
deceased member there and then Summon them back to the area where your
avatar is located.
3. Party Inventory and Management
I would suggest that you manage skill point allocation for characters
yourself rather than having the AI do it automatically. This is accomplished
by de-selecting the 'automatic' skill point assignment option in the
character's level-up screen.
I devoted Lya, a rather weak fighter, to a Healer role from the beginning of
the game. With a healing Staff she can extend the survival of the other
party members; just be sure to keep her on a 'defensive' AI routine, which
is done by clicking on the shield icon (which alternates with a sword icon)
just below the character's 'paper doll' image on their inventory screen.
When it comes time for her to level up, try and select the skillpath that
trains the character in healing spells, particularly area effect healing
spells, to augment her Staff abilities.
HINT: you'll want to have at least one of your mages follow the World Magic
- Elemental Magic - Chromatic Shield spell (level three, 15 points
allocated) skill path ! This spell will be VERY useful towards the end of
the game ! (courtesy ozambersand)
Jared, and later Mordecay, make good archers and since you will be
encountering flying units regularly throughout the game, they will be useful
in this regard. I had my avatar and Bor concentrate on melee combat.
There are some points in the game where your avatar and heroes will have to
fight without benefit of an accompanying army against some powerful
opponents, so it's a good idea to see that each party member learns to use
at least a few healing spells.
Finally, note that leveling for the avatar caps at 30, and once reached,
neither he nor any party members will level up any more regardless of how
many quests you complete.
4. Troop Allocation and Resources
Be aware that many units, regardless of being Realm, Clan, or Pact, take up
two or even three Slots in your total troop number allocation. It's up to
your own playing style to decide if two slots are best used for one Paladin,
or two Soldiers, or if three slots should be apportioned to one catapult, or
alternatively three crossbowmen. For some maps you'll be required to create
catapults, so there's no debate there. But when resources on a given map are
scarce, you'll need to think a bit about how to get the most benefit from
each slot. A good example is the Dark Elf Necromancers, who take up only one
slot and can summon skeletons, and thus temporarily increase your melee
combat units on the field.
5. Establishing a Base
For all but the first few maps, you'll find yourself in a race to construct
a base, build an army, and launch an attack before the AI overwhelms you
with enemy forces.there's no real chances for 'turtling' in Spellforce 2 !
It's critical, therefore, to get your base up and running as fast as
possible. Whenever you begin the RTS segment, you should first see if
Phenomics has given you something of a jump-start by having some buildings
already constructed. If so, then focus on creating only those buildings that
you need in order to carry out your mission. So for example, if an HQ and a
few defensive towers are already in place, focus on getting a smelter and a
stonemason up and running for efficient harvesting of these resources. In
Spellforce 2, stone is used for buildings, and silver and lenya (often both)
for creating troops. So an Alchemist is often among the first batch of
structures you'll want to spend stone on for construction costs.
In the first stages of the many of the RTS missions, you will be exposed to
intense pressure by enemy attacks and it can lead to real frustrations and
resentment when you see your base overwhelmed before you can create much of
an army to defend it. Keep in mind if this is happening to you, that you
really won't need more advanced (and more expensive) buildings and units in
order to mount a good defense and initiate spoiling attacks on the enemy.
For example, it's better to get a lot of low-grade troops like Pact Shadow
Blades up and into your force, and on the offensive, then dawdling while
you go thru the more involved machinations needed to spawn Death Knights or
Arachnis.
The priority is to get a decent, defense-oriented force up and running, and
blunt the enemy attacks. Once you've reduced the pressure on your base,
you'll have the time and resources to craft the more expensive units and
bring them into play when you go on the offensive.
6. Building Defensive Towers
Unlike in Spellforce One, where you could cram ridiculous numbers of
defensive towers close together and use this feature to create actual
physical barriers to attacking troops, in Spellforce 2 placement of towers
is more restricted by space. You're going to find that amassing 'fields' of
towers and using this tactic to severely weaken attackers while you turtle
in your base, isn't going to happen. While in Spellforce 2 you can upgrade
towers with various augmentations, like the ability to heal friendly units
close by, or deal more damage to attackers, towers are more vulnerable to
being destroyed, so on some maps you may need to have some troops aid in the
defense. You'll also find it's a good idea to keep some workers close to the
towers to get them repaired as soon as they suffer damage.
7. Destroying Enemy Structures
Every RTS map in the game will, at some point, require you to destroy an
enemy camp or base. Some troops are better at this task than others, so you
may want to create detachments of these troops and, once you assault an
enemy camp, Group them and have them used expressly for this purpose. A good
example are the Troll Devastators, who have 200% damage to buildings, or the
Pact's 'Ravage' unit which can take down a building with one strike.
When assaulting an enemy camp some Spellforce player may rely on the
strategy of immediately rushing to the enemy HQ and concentrating on
leveling it as soon as possible. While this can often fatally cripple the
enemy ability to spawn new units, it does expose your army to intense attack
while it has its attention on the destruction of the HQ. You may or may not
want to go with this strategy, depending on the size and composition of your
army and the strength of the enemy defenses.
8. You Cannot 'Game' the RTS Segments in Spellforce 2
Many Spellforce One players discovered they could make what were mandatory
RTS missions quite a bit easier, by exploiting the AI regulating the
spawning of enemy forces. Phenomics set it up so that as soon as the player
activated his or her HQ and created workers, they initiated the RTS segment
of a given mission. In response, the AI would start spawning larger numbers
of enemy troops at the enemy camps scattered around the map, and begin
sending them to attack the player's base.
However, if the player avoided activating their HQ when first arriving at a
map, they found they could send their avatar and party out on 'seek and
destroy' missions, in which the enemy camps, spawning just one soldier at
long intervals, were weak enough to be attacked and eliminated by the
player's Party. This could often be a tedious thing to do, but it meant that
when the player finally entered into the RTS portion of the mission, there
was usually just one or two very large and well-defended enemy camps
surviving to spawn attackers. The player could defend these attacks without
too much trouble while they 'turtled' in their base and leisurely built up a
huge army that sallied forth and wiped the map clean.
Phenomics was NOT happy with this 'gaming' of their RTS AI, and in the
expansion packs they made it difficult, if not impossible, to pull off this
stunt. This holds true for Spellforce 2 as well. With the exception of the
beginning of the Gate of Swords map, where the Dark Elf camp is feeble
enough to be taken down by your party, every map in the game has a large,
well-defended enemy camp (or two or three) that simply cannot be overthrown
by your avatar and heroes. You're going to have to grind thru the protocol
of creating a base and then an army, and that's the only way to win the
missions.
9. Where Can I Find the Four Storm Blade Orcs ?
This side quest is given by Undar in the camp of the Iron Lord in the Gate
of Swords map. There are four orcs, formerly of the Storm Blades unit, whose
heads you must bring to Undar to get some Respect for your own orc
detachment.
Tzang is located close to the Burning Towns Journey Stone in the Uram Gor
map. Killing him will trigger the formation of a Portal on the ground near
his corpse. This Portal will send you to Orog's Lair, located in the NE of
the Uram Gor map; this Lair can only be accessed by the Portal.
Itza is located in the eastern half of the Magnet Stones map. Note that if
you haven't yet received the quest to kill him from Undar he will not be on
the map, so you may have to return to the Magnet Stones at some point to do
the dirty deed to him.
Shar (27) is located close by the NW rim of the Crater in, logically enough,
the Crater map.
10. What Do I Do With the All the Coins, Tiles, and Other Items Found
Throughout the Game ?
-As you play thru Spellforce 2 you will want to pick up every little item in
a chest, or dropped by a defeated enemy. You have an 'infinite capacity'
Inventory so there is no Encumbrance Penalty in the game.
-The skull and star coins can be used to open chests in the lizard territory
of The Crater map. Kubi at the Spellforce 2 Forums has more info on this.
-The King, Dragon, Knight, and Jester tiles (not to be confused with the
eight tiles needed to solve the Mosaic puzzle in the Crystal Forest map) are
used in playing against the Drakkar gamers infesting Sevenkeeps. Ieldra and
IanPolaris at the Spellforce 2 Forums have some postings about where to find
tiles and how to best use them; suffice to say that the more tiles you have,
and the greater variety of these tiles, the better your odds at winning. If
you can defeat Carla, the Drakkar Champion, you are very good indeed.
- The pieces of limestone and clay will be needed to complete a series of
building side quests in the Westguard maps. Ieldra at the Forums has a
comprehensive listing of locations for these substances.
11. I have plenty of stone, silver, and lenya but I can't build
structure XXX !
This is another quirk of the base building tree that isn't covered in depth
in the tutorial or the manual. To gain permission (so to speak) to erect
some of the structures of the different races in your alliance, it's not
enough to just follow the building 'tech' tree sequence for a given race.
You'll also have to Select your HQ and, in the bottom margin of the
building's interaction screen, look for a trio of 'Upgrade' icons
represented by the silhouettes of various weapons (see for example p. 15 of
the manual for the US release of the game). Each upgrade icon represents a
particular race comprising your current alliance. For the Realm forces,
these will be: Human, Elf, and Dwarf; for the Clans: Orc, Troll, and
Barbarian, etc. These will be grayed out if you've not purchased them. Click
on an upgrade icon to purchase the desired upgrade, and then wait a few
minutes for the exterior of your HQ to be automatically remolded to reflect
its upgraded status. Then you should be able to proceed with the
construction of the buildings peculiar to that race's tech tree.
-Note that in some maps, you won't have access to certain upgrades no matter
how plentiful your resources are.
-Also note that purchasing the HQ Upgrades also increases your troop slots.
You don't necessarily have to fill these new slots with units of the race
whose upgrade you purchased.
-Finally, you can at most purchase three 'race' upgrades for your HQ, which
gives you the maximum number of troop slots available in the game: 80.
THE WALKTHROUGH
The Iron Fields: Acquiring a Party
After the cutscene plays, your avatar and Bor will set out on the trail.
This first map is mainly a tutorial. You'll fight some wolves, then spiders.
Continue along the trail and when it goes uphill a bit, towards a cabin that
has been attacked, you'll trigger a cutscene. It turns out Lya has been
killed, and her corpse lies at the base of a nearby ravine. Revive her using
the innate ability of the Shaikan, then use the Summon skill of your avatar
to teleport her from the ravine, and to your side at the cabin lawn. The
three of you will continue on the trail, killing more wild animals and soon,
some Dark Elves of the Shadow Pact. [This first map is really the only one
where you'll get any kind of XP simply by killing enemies]. You'll come upon
the chain-mail bikini wearing, dark elf woman Nightsong, featured on
Spellforce 2's box cover. After she is killed, use your Shaikan ability to
resurrect her, and she'll join your party. Have the four party members
continue on the path; you'll see that more Dark Elves are laying waste to
your village further north, and you must Raise the Alarm by lighting a fire
tower. Go into the ruined area where the tower is located; kill the dark
elves; and click on the 'gear' icon to light the fire.
Further on down the trail you'll encounter Wulfger, a soldier of the Realm;
he's not too pleasant towards the Shaikan, but you can persuade him to have
the Realm aid your people. After the cutscene with him ends, in the large
field just past him you'll see some buildings, and now the game will go into
a tutorial on base building and unit creation.
Creating An Army
Your HQ comes with 5 workers; get them busy harvesting silver from the
nearby field. When you've got enough silver, start creating new workers, and
have these workers get busy harvesting stone. When you have accumulated 100
stone, detach some workers to construct a Blacksmith. When this building is
completed, you can click on your HQ and begin creating Soldiers. Crank out 5
of these units, then spend more stone (150) to upgrade your Blacksmith to a
Workshop. When the Blacksmith exterior has finished its transformation you
are now able to spawn crossbowmen from the HQ. Create 5 of these and you
have more than enough troops to complete the map. Group your party, the
soldiers, and the bowmen into one army of 14, and set off to the besieged
Shaikan village to the north.
Defeat the Shadow Pact Troops and Speak With the Patriarch
When you get to the village, send your troops into battle against the dark
elf Shadow Blades and Sorceresses. When the enemy infantry are defeated, be
sure to loot the chest they leave with their corpses, and destroy their
towers. When all the Shadow Pact forces are killed, keep an eye out for
Thora to run onto the scene and proceed after her onto the nearby bridge, to
the closed gate leading to the Shaikur Fortress. Speak with Thora and then
the gate will open. Go thru the fortress grounds all the way to the NW
corner where Ur, the Patriarch of the Shaikan, is located (indicated by the
yellow diamond on your minimap). Ur is actually a talking dragon; speak with
him and learn you will have to accompany Nightsong on her journey to the
human kingdom of Norimar, where you will find Baron Ortbrandt and ask him to
provide aid to the Shaikan.
The Portal to Norimar will now be indicated on your minimap, again with the
yellow diamond symbol reserved for Main Quest critical locales. Walk back
down the hill and approach the Portal. If the 'gear' symbol alongside it is
red, back your avatar up a bit and you should trigger a cutscene, taking
place elsewhere on this Iron Fields map.
When the cutscene ends, Kolar, a soldier standing by the Portal, will want
to speak with you; talk with him and receive a rather cryptic word of
warning. Then approach the Portal; the gear symbol should now be colored
gold, which means the way to the next map is clear. Step thru the Portal and
on to Norimar.
Norimar: To the Castle of the Order of the Iron Falcons
When emerging from the Portal, take care in proceeding up the road; there
are patrols of skeletons nearby and you don't want to battle all of them at
once. Use your avatar as 'bait' to lure small batches of them towards you,
and have Lya stand back and supply healing spells, and if possible Flash
spells, as needed. Search the corpses for loot. A little ways up the trail
you'll trigger some cutscenes of marauding Undead dispatching Castle of the
Falcon troops, and you'll eventually reach Rottgar and his band guarding the
road.
He'll tell you that nearby signal fire Watchtowers need to be ignited to
warn the Castle; however, the towers have been captured by Cult Adepts and
skeletons and he is unable to light them. Agree to light the four towers.
Each tower has an adept and some skeletons to deal with; as well, ghouls
called "frenzies" patrol the paths leading to the towers. A good way to
clear the towers is to have Lya creep close enough, without triggering an
assault, to hit the Adept with a preliminary Flash spell, then have her
retreat to Heal mode while you and the heroes battle the skeletons. Once the
Adept and his skeletons are dead the tower will automatically light; check
the Adept's corpse for loot. Return to Rottgar after igniting the first
tower, and he'll be so pleased that he'll give you his men to help you clear
the remaining towers. You'll also be able to pick up a sidequest from
Rottgar involving the delivery of a letter to Solveig, a woman in the
Castle.
Make your way around the surrounding landscape and clear the Undead from the
towers. Try to avoid timing your assault on a tower when wolves or skeletons
are on their patrol route nearby, since they'll be attracted by the fighting
and you'll find it makes sense to save as many of the Castle guard assisting
you as possible. At the eastern edge of the map there is a small fortress
standing a bit off the path; this is guarded by a sizeable force of Undead,
including a powerful mage, and attacking it is very challenging.
After lighting all the signal towers, you'll hear a voiceover by Ortbrandt
declare that the Castle gates are to be opened to you, so continue up the
path, taking on the wolf packs scattered along the route. Be sure to examine
the corpse of a dead Norimar soldier for a letter related to Rottgar and
Solveig. Also note the location of what appears to be an enormous horn
mounted on the rocks overlooking the trail on your left as you ascend
towards the castle.
At the Castle Falcon
When you reach Castle Falcon, you can check in with the merchants there to
sell your excess equipment. It's worthwhile investing in some protective
headgear for you and your heroes. Speak with Solveig, then Uland to give him
the dirt on Rottgar; he'll let you have a weapon as a reward. Then go see
Baron Ortbrandt. He'll tell you that the enormous horn mounted on the side
of the trail was created by the dwarves for the purpose of causing a
landslide that will block the path to the castle, and thus deter the
attacking Pact army. It's imperative that you get to the horn as soon as
possible and trigger the landslide; he provides some mounted troops to aid
you. As soon as the cutscene finishes Save your game, then send the mounted
troops rushing down the trail to the horn. There are already some Dark Elf
attackers scattered along the road, but ignore them for the moment and have
you and your heroes following the mounted troops. When you arrive at the
horn have the troops and your heroes deal with the attacking elves while
your avatar right-clicks on the 'gear' icons near the horn. This will
trigger a cutscene in which the horn blows, and a massive rockslide closes
off the path. Have your avatar join in the battle with the surviving Pact
Dark Elf force, and clear the trail leading back up to Castle Falcon.
Speak to Ortbrandt again; your efforts with the horn have given him
confidence in you, and he'll ask you to escort his son Falkmar and a supply
train down the trail to the portal to the Rushwater Downs. After getting the
quests from Ortbrandt, go see Uland again and get the side quest to find
his missing Wards Inga and Rolf. You'll also want to speak to the mage
Magistra Hedwig standing at the end of a sidestreet near Ortbrandt's
compound. If you choose the "I'm listening" option in the dialogue, she'll
ask you to kill Uland's wards and take a wand that belongs to her from the
corpses for your own use.not the most genial of NPCs, Hedwig.
Norimar: Escorting the Supply Train
Head out the SW exit of the Castle and you should see Falkmar standing on
the cobbled path waiting for you. As soon as you approach him he'll begin
walking downhill on the twisting path; follow him and you'll wind up at the
encampment where you will create the army required to escort Falkmar and the
pack horses to the portal.
Since this is the first 'real' level in the game proper, most of the
buildings required to produce troops conveniently are already constructed
for you. Click on the headquarters (HQ) and summon workers to begin
harvesting the surrounding silver and stone. As soon as you have enough of
these commodities, you'll want to detach a few workers to build a smeltery
and a stonemason hut to improve the efficiency of the gathering process.
You'll need to make some relatively expensive mounted crossbowmen to
accompany Falkmar, so wait until you've accumulated enough resources, then
click on the Castle (your own, not the Order of the Falcon structure !) and
create the maximum number of troops you can for the time being. Once you
have a force of 10 or so, you'll get an announcement from Falkmar that
things are ready to go, and he and the group of packhorses will leisurely
exit the camp and start out on the trail to the portal.
If you lose too many packhorses to enemy attack you'll fail the mission, and
if Falkmar gets killed the mission is a failure as well, so get your avatar
and heroes, and the mounted bowmen, out in front of Falkmar's party. Use
your force to temporarily block the trail, and prevent him from continuing
further, as needed throughout the rest of the level.
As you head down the trail you'll encounter camps of Undead, usually with
annoying Pain Towers and skeleton archers overlooking the trail. They'll hit
your army with ranged attacks, so once you come upon the edges of an Undead
camp, rather than try and deal with the archers one by one, force your army
to rush down the trail and into open areas near the camp entrance, to put
some space between you and the archers. Keep Lya close by to deal out
healing spells, let the enemy come to you, and patiently take down the
skeleton swordsmen and archers. Then move into the camp area proper. Once
the enemy troops are eliminated, detach some of your force to eliminate the
pain towers and crypts and mausoleums that are responsible for spawning the
Undead, otherwise the stray skeleton will be regularly loosed to attack the
pack train as it descends the trail. There's usually a signal fire
Watchtower on the grounds of the camp, guarded by a Cult Adept; take him
down to get some loot.
Once a camp is dealt with, Falkmar will announce that the area is cleared
and he will proceed down the trail. If you need to, block him from doing so
until you have a chance to create some troops to replace those you've lost.
Closing the Vault of the Undead
There are several Undead camps you'll have to 'run the gauntlet' on and
clean out as you make your way further down the trail. Once you've cleared
the second or third one, it's useful to bring some workers down the path and
have them erect a castle and some farms on the grounds of the former camp;
by now resources gathered at your base camp should be plentiful, so this
shouldn't be a problem. You can now create replacement horsemen and other
troops and have them travel a shorter distance to your force; also,
producing more farms will enable you to expand the size of your army. A
total of 15 - 20 troops is a good number for this level.
Occasionally Cyclops the dog will bark, letting you know that you're on
track to rescue the lost Wards, but don't pay too much attention at the
moment; concentrate on getting the Undead camps eliminated.
You'll eventually reach the main Vault of the Undead, and the necromancer
responsible for maintaining it; taking him out, and the skeletons in front
of the vault, is relatively easy. Take the bag of salt from the dead
necromancer and interact with the '?" symbol in front of the vault to learn
how to permanently seal the vault; also search this area for some loot.
Looking for the Missing Wards
It's now smooth sailing for Falkmar and his pack train to reach the Portal
at the end of the trail. See him off, then search the nearby spur of the
trail SE of the Portal for the missing Wards; Cyclops should be barking as
you get closer to the knolls where the first of the Wards is hiding . There
are some spiders here, but your troops should be able to handle them without
breaking a sweat. When they are eliminated, the first Ward, Rolf, will
materialize. Assuming you are not on Magistra Hedwig's side in the quest,
tell him to run back to Uland and get some XP and her wand as a reward.
Continue on down the trail to a larger open area with bears and other
monsters lounging around a campfire; eliminate them and approach the knoll
with large boulders on it at the very end of the trail to trigger the
appearance of the missing Ward Inga; send her back to Uland and get another
reward of XP.
When you're ready, activate the Portal to Rushwater Downs and step through
to the next level.
Rushwater Downs: Escorting the Supply Train to Lyraine
First, activate the nearby Journey Stone. Then with a small detachment of
Norimar troops that should have accompanied you thru the portal, head down
the road to Lyraine. Bands of trolls and orcs of the Clan will attack, and
there's no way to block Falkmar and the pack horses from venturing out ahead
of you, so try and keep in front of them and take on the trolls at the same
time. You'll get a brief rest from escort duties in order to take out some
troll archers atop a canyon, then it's on to the gates of Lyraine to provide
relief to the defenders there.
After the cutscene with Helger, get some XP and enter the village. You can
sell and buy goods from the merchants there. I would put off talking with
Matricus until you take some time to explore the other areas in the eastern
half of the map. Acquaint yourself with the village of Connacht in the SE
(where an Orc named Osal is caged in the town square); the bridges leading
to the large troll and orc camp of the "Iron Storm" clan in the northeast
corner of the map; and the Order base just downhill from Lyraine.
When you're ready for some RTS gameplay, go up to the castle just to the
west of Lyraine and speak with Matricus, who will tell you to take command
of an army and defeat the Iron Storm camp, as well as prevent Osal from
being rescued by orc war parties striking Connacht.
Rushwater Downs: Base Building Under Pressure
This portion of the level can be a bit hectic, particularly if you decide to
do the side quest help the villagers in Connacht hold onto Osal, which will
require some multitasking and bouts of jumping from one spot on the minimap
to another. [I essentially blew off the defense of Osal's cage, and instead
concentrated on the main mission of taking down the Iron Storm camp.]
Head to the Order base along with your heroes and be sure to add the
detachment of bowmen, already present at the base, to your group.
Get some workers started on gathering stone and silver and to some extent,
lenya (for creating Paladins). Get a smeltery and stonemason hut up and
running.
All the while you're building your base and creating an army, troll and orc
patrols will be coming from the camp in the NE, as well as to a lesser
extent from the east. If you're new to Spellforce or the RTS genre, dealing
with this aspect of the gameplay can be frustrating and difficult to deal
with at first. But you'll need to get used to it, because the game will
simply not permit you to 'turtle' up a huge army while sitting unmolested by
the AI:
Station your avatar and heroes and bowmen near your base and be prepared to
rush hither and yon defending against these raiding parties. If a building
is set afire, have a group of workers handy to repair it. Once you have some
resources accumulated, get your workers busy erecting defensive towers at
the narrow Pass leading out from your base, located to the NE (and just
below the bridge to the Iron Storm camp). Keep your defense force nearby
while doing this because Clan raiders will try to destroy the towers as
they're being built. Once you have 4 or 5 towers up you can relax a bit,
since they should be able to deter attacks without a lot of assistance.
Get another 3 towers set up to block the road leading east out of the Order
base, just in case some small parties mount attacks from that direction, and
then you can focus on getting some paladins (30 %) and mounted bowmen (70 %)
produced. About this time a raiding party should be on the verge of freeing
Osal, so if you like, you can try sending a detachment to Connacht to
prevent this.
Taking the Fight to the Enemy
Once I had about 20 - 25 paladins and mounted bowmen, I made my move on the
Iron Storm camp. Head over the bridge leading to the NE and try not to let
your troops rush off on 'suicide' attacks by liberal use of the 'Hold' key
(H). Let the bowmen deal with the orc and troll attackers from long range,
while your avatar, heroes, and paladins do the melee combat. As always, Save
often, keep Lya at a safe distance from the fighting, and be prepared to
resurrect fallen heroes before the allotted 'time limit' expires and forces
you to reload a Saved game.
Once you've destroyed the portion of the Iron Storm camp near the bridge,
hook to the NE and mow down the smaller detachments of Iron Storm troops
guarding the roads in this area. Crank out replacement troops back at your
Order base, but take care in sending them to join your force in case orc and
troll patrols are wandering the area, and ambush your reinforcements en
route.
Once you've eliminated the Iron Storm outguards, and activated the Journey
Stone for the Iron Storm region of the map, head for the camp proper. In
addition to towers casting fireballs that are stationed on the approaches to
the camp, you'll discover that your attacks will provoke sallies of orcs and
trolls from the interior of the camp. Be ready to pull back and whittle down
these sallies using bowmen and spells. When you've eliminated the Iron Storm
attackers, carefully move back into the campgrounds and destroy the
structures.
The Iron Storm's main camp is surrounded by a palisade, but its outskirts
have relatively undefended workers and buildings such as alchemists, farms,
stonemason huts, and smelteries. Keep an eye out for sallies from the camp,
and concentrate on wiping out the logistics of the Iron Storm force. This
will weaken their ability to spawn new troops and buildings. Keep your
bowmen back from the palisade and cut down workers as they come out to
gather resources. When you've depleted the camp's labor force and army, head
thru the entry in the palisade and go after the buildings and what orcs and
trolls remain.
Once all the structures have been leveled, you'll get a voiceover from
Matricus congratulating you, and asking you to use a Journey Stone to return
to his castle.
Rushwater Downs: Retrieving the Portal Stone
Matricus will tell you that you need to retrieve a 'portal' stone from some
Order ruins in the northern portion of the map, in order to activate the
Portal proper to Sevenkeeps. He'll also tell you that there are four books
written by Rohen (of Spellforce 1 fame) that are thought to lie somewhere in
the ruins as well. Before setting off on this quest, head down the trail
into Lyraine; you'll find that Alwin, father of the Wards, is now present;
talk to him about Berengar the blacksmith, and give him the letter from Inga
and Rolf to receive some armor in return. Use the journey stone to go to
Connacht and see Berengar; he'll give you a stolen armor side quest. You can
also get the Letho Grey side quest here (if you follow Letho after
conversing with him, he'll walk all the way over to the portal located in
the NE near the former Iron Storm camp; this portal is not active for your
avatar).
Once you're ready, go north out of Lyraine. One trail will lead you past
some wolves to a deserted still (?!) and some loot. Another trail to the NW
will bring you to some bears and Dr Mauser. Fighting with Mauser triggers
the appearance of an eccentric man named Professor Twiddle, who vanishes
almost as soon as he arrived. Grab the letter from Mauser's body and use the
nearby Journey Stone to travel to Berengar and get the next step in the
stolen armor quest. Then return to the area where Dr Mauser died; on a
hillside nearby is a chest with loot. Also close by is the (currently
inactive) Portal to Sevenkeeps.
Now head north on another trail, kill some bears, and you'll arrive at the
Order ruins. Activate the Journey Stone near the entrance, then go in and
deal with the small teams of skeletons scattered around the ruins; their
corpses will carry the four Books of Rohen. [Note: I had a very hard time
finding one of the books, and in fact I only found it when I returned to the
Ruins after finishing the Main Quest some 55 hours later on in the game.
Poking diligently around the ruins without success, I finally stumbled
across a fallen skeleton lying under some trees, on a cliff some distance
from the ruins proper, and he had the last book in his possession. Hopefully
you'll have an easier time getting your hands on the four Books]. You'll
need to see Askan, a teacher at the University in Sevenkeeps, to learn more
about the mystery of the Portals and the role the Books can play.
A 'killed' mage here in the ruins has the Portal Stone; destroy him, grab
the stone off his remains, and head back to the Portal to Sevenkeeps to
proceed to the next level.
Sevenkeeps: Meet with the King
This map is essentially one huge city: Sevenkeeps. It's a larger and more
gorgeously rendered version of Greyfell from Spellforce. Like Greyfell it
will be your 'hub' city in terms of Portals to other islands, as well as
containing several side quests of its own, and a large variety of merchants.
As you move around the map, take note of the large, gold 'gears' icons
stationed at various places and right-click on them to obtain a whole
library of odd herbs and artifacts. Hang onto these for the time being.
When you step out of the Portal, you'll need to take on an 'exterminator'
job and rid the area of various spiders and hornets. At the end of a winding
trail in the SW corner of the map is a Spider Lair with multiply spawning
spiders; you may want to hold off on tackling it until you have higher-level
characters; also, there's a Sevenkeeps sidequest involving this area you can
pursue a bit further on into the game.
Once you've completed this session of hack n' slash, enter the city and make
your way to the King's palace. A long cutscene will play and you'll lose an
NPC from your party. Talk with Einar and Utrecht to learn more about your
next moves, including the need to speak with Jandrim Windhammer in the
dwarven compound in the northern area of the city.
Head over to the University a short distance away from the King's palace,
and talk with Undergant to complete the Beregon / Stolen Falcon Armor quest.
Professor Twiddle will also be at the University, so check in with him to
get two more quests ("The Right Twist" and "Lela") that take place later in
the game.
You'll also want to chat with Askan and turn the four books of Rohen over to
him; he muses on Portal lore and gives you a Ring of the University for your
trouble.
Take some (lengthy) time to explore Sevenkeeps, keeping an eye out for herb
deposits, and chests with loot, and activating Journey Stones in the various
neighborhoods - they'll come in handy for the upcoming 'FedEx' quests. Some
of the merchants may have one or two things you can afford to buy, but most
of them have items you're still too low on the Experience ladder to use.
Make your way to the northern part of the city and speak with the dwarf
leader Jandrim Windhammer. After the cutscene, Jared will give you a quest
to fetch potion ingredients.
Sevenkeeps: Get the Potion Ingredients
The Journey Stones you've activated now come in handy. Teleport to the
priests' compound and speak with Alastar, who tells you to ask another
priest for a task to complete in order to earn a gift of the Bitter Lye.
There are two priests nearby: Calius will ask for a collection of herbs, and
Sephis will request you go to a tomb to the NW and take care of some Undead
defiling it. If you're fortunate in your herb gathering on the Sevenkeeps
map, you may well have all the herbs Calius needs, so turn them over to him,
and then go see Alastar for the Lye. However, if you haven't got the herbs,
you're going to have to do Sephis's quest. [ Later in the game if you do
succeed in collecting all the herbs, it's worth seeing Calius; then go to
Alastar for a coin and 200 XP.]
Head out the West gate of the city; since you're down to three party members
now, be careful with the wolves and hornets that lie on the path to the tomb
in the NW. If you're overwhelmed by the beasts, run back to town and let the
Sevenkeeps guards help out in the battle. If you find all three of your
party die in combat, remember you can use the Altar of Life shrines
elsewhere on the map to spawn your avatar and heroes and thus avoid
reloading a Saved game.
When you get to the area around the tomb, activate the Journey Stone nearby.
What appears to be a lone skeleton adversary will quickly spawn a succession
of skeletons each time you defeat him. Grind your way thru several spawnings
and eventually you'll destroy the last spawn and free the tomb of Undead
influence. Teleport your avatar back to Sephis and speak with her; if you
pursue the conversation she'll give you a side quest about Sevenkeeps
residents who are suspected to be members of a cult. More on this later in
the Walkthrough.
For now, go and see Alastar and he'll reward you with the Bitter Lye. Next,
teleport to the crafter's compound and speak with Cardogan, who will tell
you to solicit a quest from a nearby crafter. Thoya is a good choice; she'll
request that you go to a quarry in the dwarven compound and eliminate some
stone golems that have disrupted operations there.
Join up with Bor and Lya at the dwarven compound. There are 6 stone golems,
each with 6 hit points; they are tough to take on all at once. Try to soften
them up with some ranged spells, then back off and retreat when the combat
gets too one-sided (they won't pursue you very far). Heal up and return for
another round. Once you've whittled away all six golems, teleport back to
the crafter's compound and give Thoya the good news. Then speak with
Cardogan and receive the crystal vial. Teleport back to the dwarven
compound. You'll discover Jared is gone; Asha tells you he's near death from
the plague. Agree to use your dragon blood to revive him. After the cutscene
you'll find that a grateful Jared will now be a member of your party. He's
not the strongest fighter of the party, but you can allot his XP and thus
steer his development according to your desires.
Now have everyone assemble at the dwarven compound and you'll find Jandrim
the dwarf ambassador is revived. Speak with him about the portal to
Underhall; follow him around the corner to it, and use your portal stone to
activate it.
Before stepping thru to Underhall, you may want to do some other quests
associated with the Sevenkeeps map, and bulk up on XP and earn some nice
weapons in the process. I suggest the Westguard map.
The Westguard: Red Plague and Reconstruction
When you first meet with the king in Sevenkeeps, he will give you the
territory of the Westguard as a fiefdom, and Bailiff Utrecht will tell you
to consult with him when you choose to come to Westguard. The Portal to
Westguard is near to the king's palace in Sevenkeeps, so when you're in the
mood to check out your 'prize', head thru the portal.
You will arrive in Westhome, the capital town of the province, and it
becomes clear that your fiefdom is pretty much of a down-at-the-heels, seedy
place, in ruins and under attack by demons ! Speak with Bailiff Utrecht to
see what needs to be done to get the place in better shape, and he'll give
you the 'Red Plague' and 'Reconstruction' quests. After you talk with
Utrecht, head over to the merchant's quarter to buy and sell. Master Builder
Warrad will give you a side quest to look for his daughter, a girl named
Kara, in Sevenkeeps in the marketplace area.
Arm Bor with a bow and your avatar with one (if he's capable), and set out
to shoot down the demons, which are gargoyle-like flying creatures that can
only be hit with ranged weapons and spells. They're not too tough to
eliminate.
After you clear the town of demons, make your way south and kill the demons
responsible for damaging the farms. As each demon succumbs, workers will
exit the buildings, repair the farms, and then become available. Send them
to the nearby smeltery and stonemason hut and get them busy collecting stone
and silver.
To the SE is a lair of swamp spiders. These are high-level (10 and above)
and your party can't really handle them at the moment, so move on to the NE
corner of the map, and take care of the demons there. This will also free up
workers. Have them follow your party back to Westhome. Speak with Utrecht,
and you'll complete both quests. He'll now request that you construct
several buildings (blacksmith, Altar of Life, and alchemist); assign the
workers you have tagging along with you to build them. By this time your
smeltery and stonemason hut in the south should have plenty of resources to
make this an easy task.
The Westguard: Adventuring for Fun and Profit
Now, instead of going back to Bailiff Utrecht, you may want to send your
party up to the north-central part of the town and to the HQ located atop
the stone platform. Summon some workers and build a castle and a stronghold
near the HQ. When you've got a decent force of mounted crossbowmen and melee
fighters, team them up with your party, and go north and northeast, up the
mountain trails, where there are lots of chests with loot, and lots of level
10 and 12 bears and wolves guarding them. With your army to aid you, getting
rid of the animals shouldn't be too difficult.
You'll notice that the western margin of the map is mostly mountains, with
the occasional gateway, blocked by boulders, with skeletons and trolls
laboring away on the other side. You can't interact with this portion of the
map at this time, so once you've cleared the northern area of the map of
bears and wolves, send your force all the way to the SE and the swamp spider
lair. This will be a tougher battle but you should emerge without too many
losses. Search the spider lair for some nice loot.
When you're done with your Treasure Hunting expedition, return to Utrecht;
he'll coyly hand over some items to 'reward' you for constructing the
alchemist, blacksmith, and Altar of Life, but then he'll ask you to erect at
least five defense towers around Westguard. By now you should have more
than enough idle workers to make this easy to accomplish. As far as
placement of the towers goes, it's very interesting to see that Phenomics
has placed two large enemy camps on the northwestern and southwestern areas
of the map. So it's a good idea to place 4 -5 towers just to the northwest
of your HQ, on the trail that leads up to the entrance to the skeleton camp
(which at present is blocked by a big pile of boulders). You'll want to cram
another 4- 5 towers across the trail that leads southwest, along the lake,
towards yet another enemy camp- this seems to be a Beastmen one- also walled
off at the moment by a rockslide.
Back to Utrecht; now he wants you to go ask Warrad the Builder about
constructing a well ! Warrad will agree for the price of 1000 stone and 100
gold, which you should have at hand.
That's it for the Westguard missions at the moment, if you were wondering if
you had been playing a city-building sim instead of an RPG. Take the portal
back to Sevenkeeps.
Back to Sevenkeeps: Miscellaneous Quests
Upon your return to Sevenkeeps, go see Baru in the marketplace; ask her
about Kara, Warrad's daughter, and you'll learn that she's gone off to the
East; you'll get the continuing 'The Girl and The Clans' quest as a result.
Now talk to Trader Jorge, who can't open his chest. Volunteer to go see the
chests' maker, craftsman Firin, in the craftsmens' quarters; he'll open the
chest, but for a fee. Teleport back to Jorge with the news. He won't be
pleased with the requirement to pay Firin money, and he will allow you to
try and open the chest yourself, triggering the 'Craftsmen or Traders'
sidequest. Opening Jorge's chest on your own involves solving an algebra
puzzle.. ! If you're like me and you hate these puzzles, just go back to
Firin and tell him Jorge is willing to pay to have the chest opened. Firin
will be happy and you'll curry favor with Cardogan, head of the craftsmen's
guild. [For instructions on the algebra approach, I advise consulting the
Spellforce 2 Forums. ]
Back in the marketplace, talk with Trader Odger, who wants some spider silk:
gray, black, white, and silver. He recommends you obtain it from the spider
lair south of town. Hopefully by now your party is a bit stronger than when
you first entered the map, so head to the lair in the SW corner of the map.
There are LOTS of spiders here, keep the spells and swords going and you
should eventually whittle them all down and get the silk, as well as some
nice loot from the chests in this area. Go back to Odger for a reward of XP
and the good graces of the marketer's guild.
The Cult Suspects Quest
The 'Cult Suspects' quest requires some running around, and can be done in
between other quests and comings and goings as long as you're careful to jot
down the identities of the suspects, since the Quest Log won't give all the
important details for your convenience. The suspected cultist's homes are
indicated on the minimap of Sevenkeeps by small yellow diamonds; in front of
each house is a small signboard that you can right-click on to learn the
identity of the homeowner. Also in front of each house, inlaid into the
pavement, is a large symbol. You have to station your avatar in front of a
given house, wait till night falls, then have them walk close to the inlaid
symbol. This will trigger the spawning of the cultist from the symbol and
give you an on-screen note regarding their identity. Scrutinize each suspect
to see if they are dressed in ceremonial robes and masked; you can also
place the cursor on them to discover if they are a 'male masked suspect',
etc. As best as I could tell you could not use party members to trigger this
spawning segment, only your avatar, which means you'll have to spend time
having him / her discover the identity of all 8 of the suspected cultists.
It may be possible to do this all in one night, but it took me two.
Once you've identified a suspect their diamond symbol will disappear from
the minimap. When you've investigated all 8 suspects, return to Sephis; go
thru the dialogue tree and state that Olar, Gunnar, Freja, Betha are all
innocent, and the other suspects are indeed cult members. Sephis will thank
you; go and see High Priest Alastar to get a coin and 180 XP.
Underhall: Quests in the Mine
When you are ready to continue with the Main Quest, step through the Portal
to Underhall in the NE of Sevenkeeps, and arrive in the Dwarven town outside
the mines, along with Jandrim. You'll trigger a cutscene, and then receive
the 'Ruler of the Mine' and "Through the Mine' quests. Explore the area and
loot the chests, activate the Journey Stone, and as you approach the
northern end of the town, you should trigger a voiceover by Jandrim, and see
a glowing portal at the entrance to a tunnel. Enter the portal to be
teleported to the interior region of the mine. Here you'll encounter the
ghost of Jandrim's father, who is contesting the mine with the ghost of a
dead mage named Iuan. To end the conflict in the dwarves' favor, you'll need
to retrieve an artifact called the Heart of Niethalf. You'll pick up a group
of 5 dwarf warriors to assist your party, so head out and clear the
immediate area of skeletons and mine ghosts (lure the latter away from their
green crystals so they can't automatically regain hit points, and they
should be easy to eliminate). There are 8 crystals, each guarded by a squad
of mine ghosts, here in the Mines of Underhall. Be sure to pick up each
crystal after the ghosts are eliminated, because they can be used later in
the game to forge a nice weapon, the 'Lightfist' Hammer effective against
the Undead.
There are two levers indicated on the map, which need to be activated to
allow you to go further into the mine where the Heart is guarded by the
mage.
You'll eventually come upon Lela, Professor Twiddle's assistant, who is
locked in a cage and guarded by an invincible minotaur of Dr. Mauser's
design. The minotaur is asleep nearby, lying atop the key to Lela's cage, as
well as some dwarven records she was researching. Lela is hardly grateful to
see you, but she will admit that the minotaur can be driven off by a...
kitten, of all things. The minimap will indicate the location of the kitten
all the way over at the western edge of the map, back in the dwarven town.
Use the 'Lela's Prison' Journey Stone to teleport there, activate the
kitten, and teleport back to Lela's prison. Stoll over by the sleeping
minotaur, activate the kitten with a right-click, and watch the cutscene. As
the minotaur is running around in terror, free Lela for some XP. Be sure to
head back to Sevenkeeps University at some point to consult with Dr Twiddle
about your freeing of Lela.
Now you will want to venture into the previously closed region of the mine;
the enemies here are more powerful, so try not to get exposed to attacks
from marauding skeleton patrols and mine ghosts at the same time. Collect
some loot, then battle your way to a nook of the mine where Iuan's Herald
guards the Heart, along with a group of mine ghosts. The Herald is level 9,
so expect to lose some dwarf sentries in the battle to defeat him, but you
should emerge victorious. Get the Heart and some XP, then go back and talk
with Windhammer's ghost. After the cutscene, follow Jandrim and the ghost as
they go and battle Iuan and his sentries; you can join in the battle, and it
shouldn't be too difficult to finish off Iuan. Talk with Windhammer's ghost
and then Jandrim, receive the Heart for your own use, and then walk over to
where the Eastern Gate out of the mine is located. There is a small group of
skeletons barring your way; defeat them, then enter the Gate.
Underhall: Eastern Region
Your party will emerge aboveground on the Eastern portion of the map. Some
stone statues nearby will have "?" icons associated with them; right-click
to activate the Resurrected Giants, who will join your party. There are four
statues total in this area. Have your party methodically clean out the dwarf
town of the assorted beasts. Also located in the town are some Defenders
imprisoned in jails that you can free and incorporate into your party; there
are a total of four in this immediate area.
Eventually you'll come to a group of humans battling beasts near an Altar of
Light and an HQ; help them out and Sergeant Ardan will advise you to head to
the dwarf encampment in the far NE corner of the map, and join forces with
the Thane in charge there. Your combined forces should then be powerful
enough to take down the Ice Witch, who is located in the north-central
portion of the map.
Start pumping out workers from the HQ and have them harvest the stone and
silver nearby. Have Sgt. Ardan's small troop join you, and continue heading
along the eastern border of the map, wiping out beasts as you go. Note the
location of an inactive Portal and the 'Outpost of the Realm' Journey Stone.
Take care when Rock Towers appear on the map, since they and the beasts are
a tough 'combination' fight; try and have your avatar lure the beasts away
from the towers, then, when the beasts have been eliminated, focus on the
towers.
[Throughout this map, be ever-ready to use the 'hold' command to keep your
troops from straying off on suicide attacks on nearby towers, and batches of
enemy troops loitering near the towers.]
You'll eventually come to a long, narrow bridge or viaduct in the central
part of the eastern half of the map. Station your party here and stave off
enemy assaults directed at your base, while you concentrate on building up
your army. Be sure to make at least 5 crossbowmen, because soon you will
face attacks from flying harpies, and also spellcasting beast 'queens' as
well as the beasts proper. You may also want to arm Jared and Bor with bows
to help out with the ranged attacks. If you select the Dwarven Upgrade, you
can now create Defenders and Elites, which are good melee units.
Once you have a decent force (25 or more) of infantry, bowmen, and of course
your party and the Giants, clear out the enemy camp near the bridgehead and
explore the area.
Now start heading north, and eliminate the snow cats on the trail. Batches
of harpies, beast queens, and beast men will come down the trail to defend
their camps, so be prepared to battle every few hundred yards. There are
also quite a few Rock Towers to whittle down; I found it best to have my
Heroes go out to take on the Towers, with some archers to back them up in
case of attacks from beasts rushing to defend the Towers. As long as you
take care to block the trail, no enemy forces should be able to slip past
and attack your base in the SE.
It's a bit of a grind, but you'll eventually arrive at the dwarf camp in the
NE and the Thane will agree to join forces with you. Note that you can take
possession of his dwarf troops, as well as six catapults, which move a bit
slowly and tend to have mediocre pathfinding AI, but are ideal for
destroying those annoying rock towers, as well as raining boulders onto
enemy troops. These catapults cannot be replaced, so be sure to keep them
back behind a screen of troops and be ready to fend off attacks on them from
enemy forces.
By taking the route directly to the Ice Witch's forces, you should prevent
any of her raiding parties from getting downhill and attacking the Thane's
camp, but you still may want to have some defensive towers at the approaches
to the camp. Note that once you exceed 40 or so troops (the exact number
depends on whether you're creating mounted troops or not), you cannot create
more, no matter how many new Farms you build. But 40+ troops should be more
than enough to finish off the Ice Witch.
Underhall: Eliminating the Ice Witch and Her Army
Replace fallen troops, level up as needed, and then send your army after the
Ice Witch's encampment. Take the westbound trail leading out from the
Thane's camp, and patiently pick off beats and raptors coming down the trail
to stop your advance. As best I can tell, when rocks launched by your
catapults hit a group of your forces and those of the enemy, your forces
will not take 'collateral' damage, while the Ice Witches' troops will, so
put the catapults to use as you see fit.
It's a wearying slog, but eventually you'll pass thru the beast camps'
various outlying defensive forces, and start heading directly west. Large
numbers of raptors, beasts, and harpies will come flooding down the trail to
prevent you from getting access to the main camp. They all have relatively
low hit points, however, so just patiently grind them down. When you reach
the main beast camp, have the catapults tear down the structures and put an
end to the spawning of the enemy forces.
There are small patrols and guard points in the northern area of the map, as
well as around the approaches to the Ice Witch's palace, so for extra loot
and to be thorough, you may want to hunt them down and eliminate them.
The trail leading to the Ice Witch's palace is a bit tricky to find;
basically, you have to go around the ice palisade that protects the beast
camp, onto a narrow trail that may be hard to see unless you rotate the map.
Activate the Ice Palace Journey Stone, get replacement troops into position,
and then get ready to take on the Witch. She is level 10, and protected by a
squad of level 8 Frost Golems. Both the Witch and the Golems will use freeze
spells to immobilize your troops and heroes, so have the catapults stationed
a bit back, along with your bowmen, to use ranged attacks when your melee
fighters are unable to attack. The Witch and the Golems will require a bit
of drawn-out combat, but eventually you should defeat them. Watch the
cutscene, be sure to grab the dropped items, and then it's back to
Sevenkeeps.
Back to Sevenkeeps: Find the Elf Ambassadress
Talk with Einar, who will tell you you'll need to recruit some elf bowmen
(bow-women ?) to team up with the dwarven catapults to destroy the Bulwark.
He tells you to look in the Silent Glade for the elven 'Ambassadress'.
Before doing this, you may want to go to the University and see Professor
Twiddle; he is grateful you saved Lena in the mines of Underhall and will
give you a choice of two weapons made of 'twiddleinium'; the bow has added
efficacy against flying units. You may also want to visit the merchant's
quarter to sell your accumulated loot.
Make your way west to the Silent Glade and meet with the elven
representative Idara, who tells you that the ambassadress is missing, having
gone to consult with a mage named Hagard about a cure for the plague. Hagard
is master of a castle named Springs Keep in the north of the map. A Journey
Stone near his location then will be activated, but I caution against
sending your avatar thru alone; there are lots of wasps and wolves on the
trail leading to Hagard's castle and they can readily take down a lone
avatar. Have your avatar and heroes team up instead, and you shouldn't have
any trouble with the wasps.
[Note that the Sevenkeeps map will respawn various new monsters and loot on
the territories outside of the town each time you return to the map].
Hagard the Magician
Hagard seems like a strange character; he says the elf Ambassadress had
wandered off looking for an herb named 'snake nettle', and he suggests you
ask the various faction and merchant leaders in the town for clues as to
where it may grow. Dutifully have your avatar teleport to some of the
leaders of the guilds, and it will become clear they have never heard of
snake nettle. There will be some voiceovers from the Sevenkeeps Jester while
this is going on; finally, while talking with Cardogan at the Crafter's
Guild, I questioned the Jester standing nearby and learned that snake nettle
is a phantom ingredient.
Head back to Hagard and tell him you're on to his act, and a cutscene will
play in which the captive Ambassadress, Ylia, yells out that Hagard is in
fact responsible for the plague. He is protected by some tough monsters, so
she tells you to recruit some help from the magician's guild and the
militia.
[You're now going to have quite a few options for Side Quests associated
with the various factions and organizations in Sevenkeeps. Those side quests
I undertook to further the Main Quest are listed below. To keep the
Walkthrough from getting too bloated, I have listed the other Sevenkeeps
side quests in a section all of their own, as the very last chapter of the
Walkthrough. You can of course select any set of them, rather than the ones
I performed, to complete and thus recruit help from the Militia and the
Magicians]
Have your avatar visit with Alyre at the mage's guild, who insists you
perform a task for one of her members before aiding you. I selected a quest
from Talienne to find a lost glass harp. This meant exiting the city by the
Farmer's Gate in the south; follow the sound cues from the glass shard in
your possession to a field where what seems to be an outcropping of crystal
protrudes from the grass. You should get a right-clickable icon to appear
once you're close enough to it. Return with the harp to Talienne, then see
Alyre and receive five elf druids to help with the attack on Hagard.
Next you have to recruit some militia; see General Redmond, who, like Alyre,
will demand a favor before providing assistance. I selected a quest from
Lieutenant Falida to kill 10 ogres scattered around the outside of
Sevenkeeps. Have your heroes help out your avatar with this hack-and-slash
quest because the ogres are rather tough (note that the druids you received
from Alyre are not helpful here).
Once you've dealt with the 10 ogres, report back to Falida, then Redmond, to
receive 5 militia troops to go along with your 5 druids. Now you're ready to
take on Hagard; travel north to his castle. He has a force of summoned level
9 demons to defend him, but after a prolonged battle you should destroy them
all with the loss of few, if any, troops of your own. Hagard will flee when
you emerge victorious, so go speak with Ylia. After the cutscene, use your
Portal Stone to activate the Portal to Dun Mora and proceed to the next
segment of the game.
Dun Mora and the Depressed Elves
When you arrive you'll encounter your sister Shea, who will now join your
party as another spellcaster. [For the first two-thirds of the game Shea is
a good addition to your combat capacity, but after that, her vulnerability
to enemy attack makes her best kept out of anything but the easiest of
fights]. Follow her to a meeting with the elf queen Sansha. It seems the
entire nation of Dun Mora are in a state of depression due to the presence
of ghosts of fallen elves. You'll need to deal with the ghosts, as well as
fend off attacks from demons spawning from a series of bases in the northern
portion of the map, in order to get the elves to support your forthcoming
assault on the Bulwark.
The ghosts are represented on the minimap by five white diamond shapes. Go
visit each of them; two can be killed after a brief fight, but the
"Frightened Mourning Ghost" and the "Lonely Mourning Ghost" require quests
to other areas of the map, while the Furious Mourning Ghost requires a
particular path thru the conversation tree in order to be persuaded to
leave. Focus on taking down the two ghosts that offer a fight, because this
will free some elf troops to join your force. If you're lucky and you can
solve the conversation tree of the Furious Ghost in time to add her forces
to yours, so much the better. Ignore the Frightened and Lonely ghosts'
quests for the moment, because by now, the demons you saw at the beginning
of the level will return; have your heroes armed with bows and ranged spells
and take on the demons. After an extended fight they will retreat, and you
will receive word to go speak to Sansha. But first you should go back to the
Furious Ghosts' dialogue puzzle, solve it, and get the extra troops.
You should now go retrieve the lost message for the Frightened Ghost, and
solve the side quest for the Lonely Ghost, to get those troops into your
army as well: Have your forces rush down to the south portion of the map and
eliminate the golems and demons guarding the missing letter of the
Frightened Ghost. Then rush over to the monsters guarding the corpse of the
Lonely Ghost, and take them down to be able to bury her corpse. Now you have
increased your army still further.
Return to the main elf encampment and speak with Sansha. Along with some XP
you get for completing the Ghost quests, you'll also see a cutscene in which
Io, the elf archer, leads a team of human workers thru the portal from
Sevenkeeps to help you construct a base.
Defending Dun Mora
Sansha will tell you that another, larger wave of demons and swamp lurkers
will be coming to attack the camp, and you must erect defenses to stop them.
A timer will start counting down from 17 minutes, until the attack occurs.
Here's my strategy: if you've solved the five Mournful Ghost Quests, you
should have an army of 20 or more elves, plus your avatar and heroes.
Instead of embarking on base-building just yet, send your force out into the
swamp surrounding the camp to the east and west and liberate all the ore and
lenya deposits (highlighted on the minimap as white diamonds). There are
usually just a few golems, mist elementals, and dream stalkers around the
resources, so you should be able to acquire each patch one by one without
losing a single elf soldier.
There should still be plenty of time for you to head back to the elf camp
and prepare for the oncoming attack by the demons. When they do hit, it will
be in force, but just keep your heroes casting area-effect spells like
Lightning and Caustic Cloud. After several waves of monsters come thru the
assault should finally peter out and stop altogether. With luck you should
have 50% or more of your initial army still intact.
Now station them near the north-central part of the elf camp, and get the
workers busy harvesting resources. Since you've already cleaned out the
monsters guarding the stone, silver, and lenya, the workers should be able
to harvest without being molested for a good period of time. I would not
expend too much effort on collecting lenya or producing elf combat units,
but instead focus on getting the ability to create human archers and
soldiers. I would avoid investing in mounted troops, and stick with cheaper,
but nonetheless effective, foot soldiers for this map.
By now four yellow symbols should appear on the northern section of your
minimap; these are the Nests that Sansha wants you to destroy in order to
drive the demons "back into the ground". These are all well-defended, so
you'll need an army of thirty-five or more troops to have the best chance of
beating them down.
Sooner or later groups of golems, elementals, and later demons and swamp
lurkers, will start coming at your camp from the north, east, and the west.
Have your growing force get busy stamping out one attack and then the other.
The more isolated ore fields will be a chore to defend, but you'll want to
keep them going as long as you can, since the resources close to the elf
base are rather small in scope.
Destroying the Demon Nests
When you've finally got a force assembled of 35 or even 40 troops, with a
good portion of them archers or crossbowmen, you can start constructing
towers at the 'neck' of the camp leading north, to deter demon attacks.
While this is going on, send your force north to begin eliminating the demon
nests.
Try and halt just outside the perimeter of the nest and lure some demons and
lurkers in range of your bowmen; once they've been eliminated, move in on
the nest's center and grind your way thru several waves of attackers until
you have cleared the area and can focus on destroying the portal-like
structures at the heart of the nest. Check for loot in the aftermath of
destroying the nest. As always, keep the 'hold' (h) key in regular use,
otherwise your troops will rush off on suicide attacks on their own.
You should be able to wipe out two of the four nests, but still have 20 or
more troops left. Have your army retreat a bit, fend off attacks from the
demons, and feed in reinforcements. Attacks on your base should dwindle by
this point, making things a bit easier. When you're back up to strength, go
for the last two nests, grind away the opposition, and destroy the portals
to complete the destruction of the enemy forces.
If there are unexplored areas of the map, particularly in the south, now is
the time to check them out for remaining loot. When you're done, return to
see Io back at the elf city and after the cutscene, you get the help of the
elves and 1000 XP. You get "The Battle Begins" quest, and so now it's back
to King Ulf at Sevenkeeps.
Sevenkeeps: Rescue Nightsong
Talk to King Ulf, trigger a cutscene, and get 1000 XP. You'll also get a
quest to find Nightsong, who, it seems, has disappeared.. ?! Visit General
Redmond in the Militia quarters to learn she was abducted and carried away
to the NE portion of the map. A Journey Stone in that area is now activated,
so send your avatar there. Have your heroes Summoned to join him or her.
Also, remember the elf and militia troops you were given to attack Hagard a
few quests back ? They're still in Sevenkeeps, probably right next to the
Portal to Dun Mora, so have them join your avatar, too- you will need them.
Explore the NE, killing various level 13 - 15 wild animals and looting
chests. Eventually you'll come to a glade where some dark elves of the Pact
are protecting.an old friend ! The battle here is intense but with the aid
of your militia and druids, you should emerge victorious. Be sure to get the
mind shard from the corpse of the dark elf, then head up the trail and talk
to Nightsong. After the dialogue is exhausted, she re-joins your party.
Clean out some nearby skeletons to liberate some loot, and use the Mind
Stone to eavesdrop on the thoughts of Sorvina, the 'Queen' of the Shadow
Pact .
There is a Portal nearby; activate it and travel on to The Needle.
The Needle: Defend your Camp and Matricus
This is the hardest and most lengthy level in the game so far, mainly
because so much is going on at once. It may take a few tries to get things
right, particularly at the start, so just be sure to Save often !
You will come thru the Portal and trigger a cutscene. It seems that some
hotheads, including griffons ("Magicians"), went out looking for combat and
as a result got themselves surrounded by the Pact army; they are on a
hilltop in the southern portion of the map, across the river that divides
the map roughly into 'west' and 'east' halves. Matricus, Einar, and Karan
are all waiting to have your avatar take command and bring the battle to the
Pact forces guarding the approaches to the Bulwark. [The Bulwark is on the
eastern half of the map and it is an enormous, very well-defended fortress
with five tiers, each loaded with fire towers, fire catapults, and lots and
lots of orcs and trolls].
Just downhill from the portal is a base camp that you will use. North and
south of your camp are separate camps of Einar and Karan, but you cannot
control those camps, or the troops they spawn, directly. If you talk with
Matricus he will fill you in on the situation, and essentially dump command
of all the Order forces in your lap. Once you finish talking with him you'll
get some workers spawned, and receive messages advising you to get some
archer units up and running to defend the fords over which the Pact forces
will make their way to attack your base.
Soon after activating your camp, you'll have to deal with a wave of attacks
from Pact archers and melee troops. Have your heroes and avatar bear the
brunt of it, and throw in any rangers you've created so far. You should beat
back the attack and get a bit of breathing room. Matricus will participate
in this attack but you can't control him, so keep an eye on him and make
sure he doesn't get in over his head and die. [Note that If Matricus dies at
any time, the mission ends, so make sure he stays protected.]
Luckily there's an Elven Fortress in your camp, so get the first batches of
your workers busy collecting lenya and stone, and make the first 5 - 10
units you create elf rangers. Pump out the workers as soon as they can spawn
and have them hard at work collecting resources. Don't waste stone on
building defense towers at this point.
While this is going on, marauding Pact forces will be coming primarily from
the North, across the ford there, and winged Pact units- Spiritists- will be
flying southwards from The Needle, a mountain peak in the north of the map.
They spawn there on a continuous basis, and because only flying units can
access the peak, you will ultimately have to construct Magicians to carry
the fight to the Needle.
Once the initial attack on your base is over, move your avatar and heroes to
the Northern ford and prevent the Pact forces from crossing it and attacking
your base. This is not easy, but keep Lya and her healing staff going and be
sure to resurrect any fallen heroes. As soon as you get five elf rangers
created, have them join your 'ford force' and help with its defense.
You'll need to move the camera around the map constantly during this very
hectic phase. Keep an eye on your production and unit creation; get some
farms up and running, periodically scan the HQ to activate the unit numbers
Upgrade whenever it becomes available, and create more rangers and Hold them
near your HQ to shoot down spiritists, and attacking trolls. Get some dwarf
Defenders up and running as a good, cheap melee unit to complement the
rangers.
Endure the Pact assaults for what seem like a long time and eventually
you'll get word from Matricus that you can order Einar and Karan's forces to
attack the enemy. Send your avatar back to the HQ area and talk with each
general. I asked both of them to attack the northern Pact camp first; this
concentrates your forces on one target. Once they go off, ignore them; their
own camps will regularly spawn new troops to replace those lost. Check out
their battle from time to time but for the most part, work on assembling
your own army.
Once Einar and Karan have eliminated the Northern camp, Pact attacks coming
across the northern ford should dwindle and then cease, but the spiritists
will still come southwards, so move your party back to the HQ and have the
rangers at hand to deal with the spiritists. You'll get a voiceover
announcing that the northern pact camps have been eliminated, so now you can
order Einar and Karan, standing near the HQ, to attack other targets; I
ordered both to take down the southern Pact camp. Let their forces go off
and do their thing.
At this point you should invest in a dwarven Forge and then make catapults;
five or more is a good number. If resources are getting low, send some
workers to the northern part of the 'west' side of the river; a Pact camp
here should have been leveled by Einar or Karan, and there should be some
lenya fields you can safely harvest. There are other stone and silver
deposits south of your base that you can exploit as well.
By now you should have a force of 35 - 40 troops: mostly rangers, three or
four druids, to heal your troops; five or more catapults, and some dwarf
melee troops. By this time, too, Einar and Karan should have succeeded in
destroying the Pact's southern camp. Now it's time to go on the offensive.
On the Offensive Against the Pact
Move your army south (but not too far south just yet !), cross the ford, and
then go slightly northwest to where two Order buildings- a Citadel of Wisdom
and a Castle- are being guarded by some trolls. Wipe out the trolls and you
will have two Magicians now at your disposal, and the ability to create more
as you prefer.
You will also now have the ability to order Einar and Karan to attack
another target; I selected the large Pact force in front of the Bulwark.
Each general will complain this task is impossible without some form of aid,
so have them team up and attack together.
Once you've liberated the Citadel, have your army move north along the
eastern shore of the river and assist Einar and Karan in wiping out the Pact
bases located there. As you approach the Bulwark be careful of getting too
close to its walls, because Pact catapults, defensive towers, and archers
will hit you with deadly ranged weapons. [These structures and troops are
often not rendered until you're very close to them, which means that if you
try to send your own catapults to destroy them, they will be able to hammer
the catapults all during their slow approach to the palisade, while you will
not see any targets to return fire upon until your force is almost
completely wiped out. This will influence the gameplay later in this level,
see below].
Wipe out the troll structures just outside the Bulwark's walls. You will
encounter a mercenary named Mordecay who, in exchange for his life, will
reveal that the old mine, located in the SE portion of the map, has a
Journey Stone on its path that will allow you to circumvent a blocked
segment of the trail, and thus get close to the inner sections of the
Bulwark.
With the Pact structures outside the Bulwark eliminated, tell Einar and
Karan to gather resources for the time being.
Exploring the Other Areas of The Needle Map
Now it's time to take care of other areas of the map. First, upgrade your HQ
and expand your farms and create a total of 6 or more Magicians. Send them
to the far northern border of the map to the camps on the Needle, to take on
the Spiritist Patriarchs responsible for spawning the spiritists attacking
your base. Watch out for the troll archers in these camps, and focus on
eliminating the patriarchs first. Once you've killed both patriarchs, the
attacks by the spiritists will cease. You can have your flying units explore
the area here, just keep them away from concentrations of Pact axemen, fire
towers, and archers.
In the meantime, have your heroes, avatar, and ground troops cross back over
to the western side of the river and explore the far southern bank; there is
a camp of skeletons here, all high-level, who will put up a stiff fight.
Grab the loot they drop.
As a final preliminary mission, you can have your avatar and heroes explore
the old dwarf mine in the SE corner of the map. There are ore carts with
precious minerals for the taking, as well as some chests to loot. As you
advance along the northern portion of the mine path you'll come upon a
segment that has been filled with collapsed timber and cannot be traversed;
on the opposite side of the timber is the Mine Path Journey Stone, which
will be active. You can have your avatar teleport there, but don't go too
far up the trail, because Hong, a level 12 orc, will be guarding the trail
along with several level 11 veterans. They can easily kill your avatar, so
if you want to explore the trail further, have some magicians come up; Hong
and his troops are defenseless against attack from the air. Alternatively (I
didn't try this) you should be able to have your avatar Summon your party to
join him, then you can have your party go after Hong and his crew.
After the Hong Force has been eliminated, cautiously advance north until the
trail ends and you can see the rear echelons of the Pact forces guarding the
Bulwark. It's tempting to speculate if your party can assault the Bulwark
from this 'back door' entrance, but sadly, this is not feasible. The Pact
camps here are simply too powerful.
Storming the Bulwark
So you have no real alternative except to Storm the Bulwark, so now move
your troops to a position safely outside the range of the Bulwark's first
wall, bring some workers up near them, and start building troop-spawning
structures like the elven fortress.this will make reinforcements spawn
closer to the upcoming action. Note that at this stage I had maxed out my
troop slots at 80.
Have your avatar speak with Einar and Karan and tell both of them to storm
the Bulwark. Then return to where your troops are, and..find something else
to do for the next 30 to 45 minutes. Seriously. Read a book, have a snack,
do some laundry. If you try and send your troops into the Bulwark along with
those of Einar and Karan, they will get wiped out with dismaying speed. Just
sit tight and let the continuously spawning Paladins of Einar and Karan
grind their way through each of the five palisades that make up the Bulwark.
If you can't stand sitting idle, you can try sending your dwarf catapults up
in support, but make sure they are targeting Pact buildings and troops
already under attack from Einar's troops, so your catapults will escape
direct enemy attention. Be sure to Save a lot, so if you blunder and get 6
or 8 of your catapults destroyed in a minute or two, you can reload rather
than re-build.
As Einar and Karan clean out each tier of the Bulwark, cautiously have your
army advance behind it. After what seems like a long, long time, the top
tier will be breached and you'll get some voiceovers letting you know that
the Pact and the Norcaine are fighting among themselves, and you can use
this to your advantage. Now you can get your force involved in the fight;
take down the Pact camp at the center of the top tier. [Be ready for some
framerate drops, even on powerful PCs, because there a lot of objects being
rendered here.]
Turn your catapults and archers loose on the Pact camps scattered along the
top ridge of the Bulwark; you shouldn't have too much trouble wiping them
out without losing much of your own force. Have some free workers travel up
to this part of the map and erect troop-spawning buildings, so
reinforcements can be close at hand if needed. Be sure to check the camps
for chests with loot, including some nice pieces or armor. Work your way to
the east and you'll come upon a camp where Kara, Warrad's daughter from
Westguard, is held captive; free her to partially fulfill the side quest
'The Girl and The Clans' (you'll need to go see Warrad to complete the
quest). There is a Portal in the eastern half of this ridge but it cannot be
activated.
Once the camps are eliminated, you'll notice that a new batch of enemies
have spawned to block your access to the Portal to the Iron Fields in the
western side of the ridge. These include four trolls at level 9, two Titans
at level 13, and a level 15 Titan. These are tough opponents, so have your
army set up out of range, array your catapults nearby, then trigger an
attack. When the Titans come running have the catapults target them. You'll
eventually win, but expect to see as many as 50% of your troops killed in
this encounter. Be sure to loot the corpses for the Portal Key.
Next you'll trigger a cutscene showing bad blood between Orc and Norcaine.
Then you'll find your avatar and heroes facing Sinistron Kaziz, level 15,
with a closed gate at your back. Just have your party bash away at Kaziz; if
you have flying units still in action, they can attack over the gate. The
death of Kaziz triggers another cutscene; after the Orc Chieftan Kor is
revived and recruited to your cause, you are free to go thru the Portal to
the Iron Fields. Whew ! That's it for the Needle / Bulwark map.
Detour to the Westguard
Prior to the Iron Fields missions, why not take some Light Refreshment and
detour to the Westguard ? There are lots of XP to be earned for relatively
minor tasks. When you arrive, speak with Bailiff Utrecht to get the
inevitable building quests, and some loot as a reward. You'll also see
Jandrim Windhammer nearby; he has come from Underhall to hang out with your
avatar at the Westguard, instead of King Ulf's palace in Sevenkeeps. He'll
give you some side quests associated with forging high-powered weapons; the
ingredients will be found on upcoming maps and levels, so be sure to collect
them and then return to Jandrim to have them forged. If you remembered to
collect 8 crystals from the mine in Underhall, he'll forge the Lightfist
hammer for you; this weapon is particularly effective against the Undead,
whom you will be facing quite frequently as the game unfolds.
Near the center of the map, alongside a grove of lenya, is Ylia the elf
ambassadress. Talk to her, and she mention making Westguard a welcoming
place for elves, and she'll volunteer to bless your well with healing
powers.
Also on the map, in an enclosed 'arena' area in the east accessible only by
a Journey Stone, you'll come upon your old friend Magistra Hedwig from
Norimar. Talk with her and she'll give you a magic ring. Also in this area
is the Captain of the Cult you spied upon back in Sevenkeeps; it turns out
his group was responsible for setting the demons on Westguard in the first
place. It you so desire you can fight him; he'll summon some female cult
members to help out, but even solo your avatar should be able to defeat all
of them handily.
Go into the merchant's area and sell the loot you've accumulated; you should
also talk to Warrad to get the final XP due from the "Girl and the Clans"
quest.
Have your workers build the required Elf and Dwarf structures, as well as
upgrading the towers you've previously placed at strategic locations around
Westguard. It's a good idea to have at least one tower in the bunch with an
elf upgrade; also note that you can apply human, elf, and dwarf upgrades to
the same tower. You should also seek out the patches of lenya and silver on
the map and make sure they are being harvested; it will come in handy later.
See Utrecht after all the requested construction is completed to get XP and
loot. This will also trigger him to announce, rather abruptly, that Undead
from the camp in the ruins in the NW corner of the map are now attacking
Westguard ! This is not a Quest proper, but you will get some XP out of it
and some nice level 14 loot.
Stopping the Undead Attack on Westguard
A small party of skeletons will attack your farms in the NE corner of the
map, so have your party rush up there and eliminate them. The main assault
of the undead will come down the trail in the NW that leads to the stone
platform where your HQ is sited. Of course, if you've placed some defense
towers across that path, the undead will be deterred. Remember the paladins
or other troops you created to go 'monster hunting' when you first arrived
at Westguard ? They will now be very helpful in repelling the undead
attacks, so have them participate in the defense around the HQ.
Hold off the undead attacks (by level 10 enemies such as skeletons, undead
animals, and spellcasters) while you crank out 5 or more catapults, some
druids, and perhaps some dwarf or human melee troops. When you have 30 +
troops and the catapults ready, move up the trail into the undead camp. The
pile of boulders that used to block access to it is now gone. The undead
resistance within the camp will not be that tough, but there are a lot of
defense towers and buildings to destroy. You'll need to work the 'hold' key
often to keep your troops from scattering in all directions. Have your
troops repel skeleton attacks, while the catapults methodically destroy all
the undead structures. When you've wiped out the camp, be sure to search the
chests for loot.
Move your army out of the remains of the camp and station them in the
central part of the map, because later in the game you'll have to go and
deal with some other troublemakers here in the Westguard . Return to Bailiff
Utrecht for a reward and yet another 'construction' task; this time it's a
monument (he'll also ask you to create at least 60 troops but you may
already have reached, or exceeded, this number in the course of playing the
earlier segments of this map). Go see Warrad, who will charge 1000 stone,
500 gold, 10 boulders of limestone, and 10 lumps of clay. Hopefully you've
been dutifully collecting the last two minerals over the course of the past
levels with the hope that sooner or later you may be putting them to use; so
give them to Warrad and he'll tell you the next time you come to Westguard
the monument will be in place.
With our diversion in Westguard completed for the moment, it's time to
proceed with the Iron Fields level (you might recall this was the very first
map of the game and when you departed, Sorvina and Toth Lar were just
arriving with their army). Teleport to the Needle map, and step thru the
portal to the Fields.
The Iron Fields: Recruiting Treants
This can be a confusing and rather poorly communicated mission. To
summarize, while you can build a base if you like, you are basically
prohibited from creating any troops, and so instead you must rely on RPG-
type quests to assemble a force. You then have to methodically whittle away
some sizeable Shadow camps on the southern half of the map, somehow find a
way to access the northern half, and then grind thru yet more dark elf
outposts to finally arrive at the ruins in the far NW corner of the map
where your pet dragon Ur is in bad shape.
After the cutscene ends, ignore both Falkmar and Io and instead send your
party rushing eastwards, towards a HQ and workers that are being attacked by
dark elves. Along the way you'll pass some human and elf troops and some
magicians ('griffons'). Add them to your force and kill the dark elves. Then
have all your troops trot back to the area near the Portal. Let the workers
die, and let the HQ get destroyed; it seems bizarre, but that is the way
Phenomics wants this level to be played. If you do try and set up a base you
will discover you are prohibited from creating new troops (notice the
warrior number field along the top of the game screen is colored red). Note
too that Sorvina's Shadow Pact army has the ability to station invisible
groups of demons at any location on the map; you won't see them until they
materialize and begin to attack. These invisible Shadows, and a constant
spawn of dark elf attackers, will make base building futile.
Talk with Io and Falkmar. Io will tell you that the best way to combat the
'invisible' shadow pact demons is to recruit some Ents ('Treants', to avoid
being sued by the J.R.R. Tolkein estate), who have an innate ability to
reveal the demons. To do so, you will have to send your magicians to the
Realm base in the far NE corner of the map, kill some Shadow Pact gargoyles,
and allow the workers in the base to collect 1000 lenya.
Have the magicians travel along the margins of the map to avoid running into
shadow armies; they can fly to waypoints stuck in the water, on cliffsides,
or even sometimes the 'ether' surrounding the solid terrain of the map. When
they arrive at the base in the NE, have them take out the three gargoyles
and get the five workers busy harvesting lenya. Then have your magicians
carefully fly back along the edges of the map to join up with your force.
Reload a saved game if any die on the way back, and try a different flight
path.the magicians are going to be needed !
While the returning magicians are en route, have your avatar, heroes, and
army march around the Journey Stone near the Portal to the Needle, and
follow the uphill trail past the Stone to double back to the NW, so that you
are overlooking the Portal from a hilltop. Keep going down the trail and
you will find the Elder Grove where the treants can be summoned. Station
your force here, and beat off marauding dark elf parties if any come by.
Have your party bear the brunt of the attacks and the human and elf troops
back up with ranged weapons.
When the workers in the NE get 1000 lenya harvested, offer it as a sacrifice
on the altar and you will have Grimroot and some treants spawn. They will
immediately reveal some shadows lurking in the Grove. Beat down the shadows
and then incorporate the 8 treants and Grimroot, their leader, into your
force. Your total force, including elf, humans, treants, and party members,
should be around 40. This is all the troops you will have to clean out the
entire Iron Fields map, so Save often, keep the druids back out of the fray,
and be careful about letting the troops run off on their own to attack Pain
Towers or spellcasters.
It may seem like a drag of a mission to try and eliminate all the dark elf
camps and troops with such a small force, but the dark elf troops are
mediocre melee fighters, even at level 15 and above. I remember playing the
'Breathing Forest' level in Spellforce One, where an army of 30 dark elves
and my avatar would take on just a few Kithar and come away with 4
survivors. And in the Firefangs campaign in The Breath of Winter expansion
pack, I found myself cranking out ridiculous numbers of dark elves just to
handle a few spawning Shadows, and as for the final battle against the
Crimson Angel.I didn't even get that far before giving up in frustration !
So, the moral is, numbers don't tell the story here.
Eliminating the Shadow Pact Camps
There are two sizeable dark elf camps that you must eliminate en route to
the northern half of the map.
Move your army out from the Grove; lead with the treants so any shadows are
exposed for the attack. After each battle with the enemy, rest and have your
druids heal everyone. Advance eastwards and take on the first dark elf camp.
Watch out for spawning Titans, and be prepared to have the whole army drop
their destruction of buildings to gang up on the Titans. You should be able
to destroy the first camp and have your force at 37 or more.
Continue moving east, and you'll come upon the second dark elf camp; again,
keep an eye on your troops and patiently whittle away the buildings,
workers, and spellcasters. With luck you'll have at least 34 or more
soldiers and party members still in your army.
Now advance up the road on the far eastern border of the map. A force of
spellcasters and some gargoyles stands in front of the boulder pile blocking
the route north. Draw some of them away to attack your force; after they're
eliminated, take out the remnants at the boulders. Watch the cutscene as the
treants crush the boulders. Now the way is clear to the north and the
captive dragon.
Invading the Northern Iron Fields
With some luck, you should still have as many as 30 people in your army.
Your avatar and heroes should have leveled up at least once by now (mine was
at 18, and the party members at 15) so re-equip them with better weapons
(remember the dark elves are resistant to fire-based weapons), get some good
spells in your spellbook, and prepare to grind up the trail to the NW. There
are no dark elf camps on this route, just a lot of small forces running
aimlessly around the map or guarding intersections. Have your party initiate
contact, and then bring up the human troops, magicians, and treants to pitch
in on the mayhem.
When you come to a crossroads, head due north, and forget about the dark
elves in the western side of the map for now; you'll need to husband your
strength for the upcoming final battle. You should be able to plow thru the
dark elf guard posts and the forces in the ruins of the Iron Eagle castle
without losing more than a few of your army. Laugh with glee as Toth Lar
whines for his mommy to come save him !
Head up the trail to the ruins in the far NW corner where a large demon
named Golgalath is gloating over the remains of your friends. He will spawn
winged demons while you wait, so gear up with your best spells and make a
run at him as soon as you are ready for the showdown. After the cutscene
have everyone pile on him and take him down. I had about 28 people
altogether at the start of the fight and less than 10 surviving to the end,
but that's all you need.
After the cutscene, you may want to assemble your party (whatever surviving
troops and workers you have now will be removed from the map) and go clean
out the dark elf remnants in the western portion of the map. They can be
tough, but if you use a divide-and-conquer strategy you can succeed. There's
not much to pick up in terms of loot; in one section of ruins there are
levers to activate but all they did for me was provide a cutscene of the
burning farms of the Fields, so I'm not sure what Phenomics intended with
them.
When you're finished with the Iron Fields, head to the SE and the Portal to
the Gate of the Swords . Talk with Einar, who is standing near the Portal,
to get some nice level 20 armor.
Meet with Chieftan Kor , Pass Through the Gate of the Swords, and Get A Lot
of Side Quests
After exiting the portal, you may want to have your party take on the nearby
dark elf camp alone, or, you can go to the west and see Chieftan Kor at his
camp, receive some troops, and eliminate the dark elves with their
assistance. In any event, don't spend a lot of time building up a big orc
army of any kind. Wipe out the dark elf camp, kill a clay golem in the field
nearby, and eliminate the dark elves scattered elsewhere around the map for
random loot. Check Kor's camp for a chest or two as well. [Get familiar with
this region of the map because later in the game you will be searching all
the nooks and crannies for special side quest items]. Once the area is
cleaned out, with Kor in your party, approach the Gates. After the cutscene,
follow him into the Orc camp and speak with the orc leader, the Iron Lord.
You'll have to redeem Kor's defeat at the Bulwark by fighting on his behalf
against the dark elves, before the orc leader will consent to aid your
battle against Sorvina.
Speak with Nightsong to get a side quest about her mourning her dead father.
Elsewhere on the map is a encampment established by the Grey Family, from
way back in the Rushwater Downs map, where Letho Grey exited the map
concerned about a deadly curse on the Grey family. Near to the Greys is a
camp of Free Traders; Nightsong suggests the traders may have some arcane
knowledge about how to visualize the Shadows. Go see Zanza of the Traders;
she will only help if you rescue her brother, Mordecay, the mercenary from
the Bulwark battle, from his lethal punishment at the hands of the Iron Lord
of the orcs. Go see the Iron Lord; Mordecay's mutilated corpse is lying in
the circle in his camp. Revive Mordecay and he'll join your party as an
archer. [If you prefer, be sure to de-select "Automatic" for Mordecays'
leveling stats]. Return to a grateful Zanza and she'll tell you to talk to
the Messenger idling in the Free Trader camp. The messenger is a Rune
Warrior (from the Shadow of the Phoenix expansion pack ?) who has retired
from adventuring; he has no Shadow Ring but says there must be one around
someplace for the taking.
Also hanging out with the Free Traders is Professor Twiddle's assistant
Lela, whom you rescued from Underhall. It seems the Professor has gone off
looking for explosive powder in Dr Mauser's remote sanctum near the
Fireforge; tell Lela you will look for him, to get a side quest.
Now investigate the Grey family. Turns out the curse they are afflicted with
is about to come due, and each of the five of them wants a last-minute
chance to seek forgiveness, or obtain a worldly good. Letho wants you to
give h 
Walkthroughs 
