In this guide im going to teach you how top win a normal Wood Elves Campaign on Very Hard or above. In my opinion its one of the easiest in the game. Im going to go over my preferred Army comp and the general approach to the campaign.
Contents
Guide to Wood Elves Campaign
All credit goes to Rastelli!
How to Approach a Wood Elves Campaign
In contrary to other campaigns, its completely unnessesary to expand in this campaign. To win the Campaign you only need to upgrade the Oak of Ages and fight a final, suprisingly easy Quest Battle against the Beastmen. Since your economical base is very weak in the beginning, you will only be abled to afford 1 army. So make sure it packs some punch. Additionally, your focus should lie on the diplomatic game, allying as many powers as possible and maybe capturing one or the other strategic province to keep the enemies of allies at bay.
But to make your campaign as easy as possible, there are a few steps in the early-game to give you a strong position from where to send your armies.
The First Conquests
Both the Talsyn and Argwylon campaigns start of very similar. I usually start as Argwylon, because Durthu kicks ♥♥♥ (and i usually dont use Cavalry, so Orions buffs are kinda meh), but with both of them you should move to the positions closest to you first conquest without leaving your borders. After that, spent 1 turn recruiting Glade Guards and upgrade your starting province. Dont forget to build Grape Vines for at least some income in the early game, additionally i would recommend building a Glade Guard Camp, since Deepwood Scouts, the second Archer Unit, makes up the core of my Army. Embed your hero into your Army and prepare for your fist battle.
Since Orions army starts far towards the south, you need to spent 1 more turn recruiting while moving north. Dont forget to start your research. After researching Morai-Heg, we are going for the upper route to get all the diplomatic bonuses with the other factions. In turn 2 (while playing Argwylon), jump next to Karak Norn using the Worldroots. The big dwarf army gets destroyed immediately by the Goblins of the Crooked Moon.
So start sieging them in Turn 3 so that they cant rebuild. Meanwhile, get another Lord and Recruit for 2 more turns. These additional units are not nessesary, i usually need them to take the Dwarf hold. After that, get back to your main City and recruit more Units until your Lords Army is filled all the way up. Since “The Cycle of Rebirth” the debuff you get for having multiple armies is insane on higher difficulties, delete your second Lord. After that head our for the Skaven Clan living in the ruins of Fester Spike. You can use this early Amber influx to build up your Capital and get the Techs that improve relations with the other races, mostly the “Isha” and the “Ladrielle”-Tech. After that, go for the Crooked Moon. After this Province is secured. You can just sit back and do nothing. But there is one more conquest that will make your life a lot easier down the line…
The difference between the Argwylon and Talsyn Campaign is mainly the little delay between your fisrt move and that you dont need to recruit a second army to beat the Skaven in Fester Pike. Additionally, you could skip the conquest of Karak Norn and go for the Crooked Moon first, but that doesnt really matter.
Fighting Clan Skryre
Clan Skryre will beat Estalia very soon into the Campaign. Since they can become quite the nuisance to you (but mostly your allies in Bretonia) in the future, i would recommend to take them out as soon as you have a decent army to fight with. Get military access through Carcassonne and take Bilbali while moving further South until you reach Skavenblight, conquering the Provinces in your way. Since the first 3 of them are ports, they also provide a decent income with your “Mathlann”-Tech. After Skryre is dead, play the waiting game.
The Midgame + Army Comp
After you beat the Skaven, try to ally as many powers as possible. Go for alliances with all of Bretonia, the Empire, the Southern Realms and the Dwarfs. Its relatively easy to ally them if you join one of their wars after you made friends with them. But make sure not to get involved in internal wars between the aforementioned Factions, since that will only drag out your Campaign. Confederate the other Wood Elves, but even that is not a necessity. Just upgrade the Oak with all the Amber you get through your Alliances and you can win the Campaign in 90 Turns, even on Very Hard (probably on Legendary as well, but i only tried to rush on Very Hard so far).
Army Comp
The difference between Durthu and Orion is suprisingly big. Since the Elite units that cost Amber for maintenance differ, and we need all the Amber to win ASAP, avoid these Units if possible. As Durthu get 2 Branchwraiths, 4 Treemen and 13 Deepwood Scouts. With their Vanguard deployment, place them in a giant line in front of the enemy. Since they can shoot while moving you can easily kite the enemy. Run with your Hero and Melee Units into the enemy line. They hold out foreve, and with them you dont need to run around the battleline with your Archers. Since friendly fire is not a concern with them you can just autoskirmish.
With Orions Army you need to focus a bit more on movement. Since the Treemen Units require Amber, stick with the Melee Unit of your choice. Remember, they dont need to win the fight, they just need to hold out. Eternal Guards with Shields work the best for me. As they can recruit Waywatchers without Amber, get them as fast as possible.
The best way to Upgrade this Army is by adding 2 Units of Cav or a few Forest Dragons to run down retreating units or fight bigger foes.
Its incredibly easy to fight with this comp against Skaven, Beastmen and everything that is not that Armoured. Dwarfs are a bit more tough, but even they will die eventually.
“The Cheese”
If you want to win as a conqueror, no problem. You can easily circumvent your monetary problems by researching the “Estreath”-Tech. This will make all of your Armies Immune to Attrition. So you dont need to pay any upkeep. Recruit as many Armies as you can with your saved up money, they wont lose any men due to bankrupcy. Since that would normally stop you from saving up any money, get a few lords in your home provinces and que up a few units through global recruitment. They will only recruit after a few turns (if you pick up the expensive and better units, like the Forest Dragon or Treemen). So you can cancel the recruitment every round and reque them immediately after. By doing this you can have quite the reserve. Dont forget to save up all the money you get through fighting, sacking and raiding this way, otherwise it will only go to waste.
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