The Radiant Guard Strategy

[Kolath]

In order to keep the feedback thread clean, here is a thread to discuss strategies for winning the Radiant Guard scenario.

When you write strategies, be sure to list your difficulty level and game speed options.

Important! Use the spoiler tag to discuss specific story choices, ending text, etc.

Post your tactics and positioning of units.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

So far all my winning strategies for this scenario involve worldbuilder.

 

[euripides]

Played it on prince and standard speed. the winning move is use ur mages (and never loose them):

Spoiler :

Archmage goes for summon (took water elemental), one mage took body 2 for regeneration (your only heal, cause there are no priests) and after this air 2 (maelstrom is insane as always). I think one other mage took fireballs and the rest only air 2 as main damage dealer. after initial promos take spell extension for your summoner and strength (more damage for evryone, more strength for summons) as usual.
I scouted the lands with floating eyes (always on these nice peaks!). then thought i take an more active defense: one small stack in the north (mage, lbow, some hunters) one in a central position ( 3 mages, including the body guy, arquebus and your melee compartment) and one for the south (archmage, one mage, guybrush and some hunters). the positioning was in a north to south line above the bay, so most enemys had to pass there. my ships sailed to this city the bannor refer to and bombarded the emerging enemys with fireballs. Unfortunately they got take out by those water walking suckers wich spawn there quite early, but it was no problem without them.
Make sure u only fight at 95%+ (maelstrom every enemy to death!!) Biggest problem are those annoying liches, the come and somehow 2 or 3 high level summons pop up (those from death 3), so when you see them, better get fortified, but you will losse units, there is no way around, they are just too strong. Cause of this kill the liches first, any other demon can wait.
As I got near the 100 kills needed, I converged my stacks, because I realized, I had to pawn some bigger. After declining the demons offer, i set feet to the city Capria wanted me to destroy: It was my biggest fault ever! I lost my lvl 7 Arquebus and even after razing it, new creatures spawned there! Its probabely best to just walk to Dis and kill Hyborem, without caring about the others. I took a way through the centre of the map, because i noticed there were less demons than near the coast or in the north. so i reached Dis nearly unharmed after the other adventures.
Then it was just one last maelstrom summon hit hard turn: Hyborem didn´t even respawn, for which i had some extra units ready still!

On another note, i wondered about the power graph:

Spoiler :

I played the first part with this demon messenger bug still on and declined him 3 to 5 times in a turn: Basiums army got to 20Mio soldiers quite fast!! After applying the newer patch, his strenght stagnatet. Anyhow, he didnt do much except defend bourne with his 50+ national units.

 

[Scott Alexander]

Played on Noble and won.

I grouped about two-thirds of my unit into a stack-o-doom strike force, and left the other third around one the mountain passes into Bourne the Gleaming to pick off any units that got through my strike force. The strike force went straight to Bastradam at two moves/turn thanks to the body mage's haste spell. I took the southern route through the desert, though I don't know if that was the best.

Then I sent the two Arcane Barges to Bastradam. Whenever a weak unit like a spectre or hellhound appeared, the Arcane Barges brought it down with fireballs. I also left the Queen of the Line on the tile where the Ira would otherwise spawn. [Homer Simpson voice] I'm smarter than the Devil, I'm smarter than the Devil...

When the strike force started encountering Infernal units, I had the archmage summon Earth Elementals, and the mages Fireballs and Einherjar, to take them out. I didn't attack Infernals with nonsummons units unless there was absolutely no other option (or unless they were so severely weakened that all they'd do was provide experience). If a big stack of Infernals that could've done serious damage ended up right next to me on the end of the turn, I used Blinding Light on them to keep them immobile, waited a turn, and then used more Elementals and Fireballs.

Because I beelined for Bastradam, I made it before they had all that many strong units there and took over the city without a lot of trouble (with help from the Arcane Barges). A few turns after that, I got 100 units and Basium showed up. He turned out to be no help at all, so I took the Stack-O-Doom plus the Bannor reinforcements north, and used Floating Eyes to find the remaining Infernal cities. After that, it's just a matter of Maelstroms and Fireballs to wear them down; none of your units except maybe an Elemental or two should be attacking at less than ~95% odds. I'll admit I saved and reloaded once or twice when a particularly important battle went against me.

Although the scenario text said no Infernal units may get through to Bourne the Gleaming, I let a few through with no ill effect. I think it was because a few of my dead units went on to serve the Mercurians in the afterlife.

EDIT: After reading some other posts in this thread, I get the impression that you now win the scenario after just killing Hyborem himself, not razing all of his cities. In that case, heading straight for Dis (way in the the east of the map) might be a better idea.

 

[Kyroshill]

So now that I have turned down the demon.... I find myself asking the question.... does the offer mean that if I were able to defeat Basium, I would only have to deal with with Tebryn in the last scenario instead of having to defeat all the other Sheaim leaders first?

That is tempting....

But then again.... I am still not sure how my little, and irreplacable, army will be able to defeat either Basium or Hyborem.... sheeeeesh!!

 

[Mesix]

In a word: Maelstrom.

That is all you need to know to win this.

 

[shannonphillips]

Playing on Noble, I actually killed Hyborem and razed Dis before I'd defeated the 100 enemy units. After I went on to wipe out the 100, I got the story choice, but my new game goal is "defeat Hyborem." He's already dead! Have I put the scenario into an unwinnable state? Or do I have to take over all the Hyborem cities? Their last one (Poena) has a gigantic stack of balors and wraiths running around it, I can't get anywhere close to it without being wiped out.

Also, there was a message about Basium spawning, but I don't see him--he's not anywhere with my troops. I'm assume he's hanging out back at Bourne?

 

[Karstedt]

So how do your wear them down? I had a stack consisting of all but 6 of my starting units plus the healer and champions from the ally and have been slowly beating down his forces on my way to Dis ... but there seems to be no end. I'm at dis, have taken massive casualties (I'm down to my mages and 5 or 5 other units not including Guy or the Arquebus. Most have not been promoted because I can't get decent odds with them.) from stacks of wraiths attacking me along the way. There are probably a dozen or so wraiths in the area every 5 turns or so, a dozen each of the basic units, 4 ritualists I can't get at, 4-5 Balors pop up every 5 turns or so, but I have managed to weedle down the Ira's to about 3.

I basically dance about the outskirts of Dis with my remaining units, spamming maelstrom an attacking with earth elementals and angels. It seems that I'm getting nowhere fast. Too many big units so I can't even begin to whittle away at the weak ones with my remaining forces to get experience.

EDIT: Well, nevermind my current situation. I just hit end turn and a dozen wraiths attacked leaving me with only a mage left... game over. But my question on how to wear them down still stands.

And does destroying the Lairs even help? I got all but 4 of them by sending fireballs at them when nobody was around.

 

[timfi]

This scenario is just broken. Enemy doesn't attack you and just goes around - so you can use your crappy units to direct him to your SOD. Or you could - if he didn't sit tight near his cities doing nothing. Had to use WB.

 

[citis]

My Strongest unit is unable to battle Hyborem. He has both blessed and courage promotion, he is stronger than Hyborem, but he just can't move onto the tile. While other unis can.