Hey guys, I'm having trouble with the original warlords battlecry campaign.

Is there any way to level up my campaign hero some to make the missions easier? Replaying old missions doesn't give me any exp. Or am I stuck with that I have?

I went with Fighter->Ranger for my class set so I could have some magic but I feel like my hero is useless. Does anyone who has done this campaign have advice for how they managed?

(I'm going evil path by the way)

It's been a really long time since I've played WBC1, but I'll try to help you out as best I can.

For leveling up your hero in the campaign, no, there's no way to grind for exp. You'll only get experience for each new battle completed. The only way to make your hero a bit better is to grab some items whenever you can (you get them from quests or treasure chests). Go after items that boost speed, combat and resistance to make your hero a bit harder to kill in battle.

As for how I managed to beat the campaign (I've beat both routes btw), I never sent my hero out unprotected; If I needed to convert something, I had a bunch of my best troops with him to guard his back. Low level heroes are really weak, so they need the protection.

Anyways, I usually held back, built up my defenses and when I felt I had a large enough force (which was usually a horde of cavalry with ranged attackers for backup), I'd rush the enemy base with it. If you're up to the part where you're controlling the orcs on the evil path, build a bunch of orcs when you attack the AI's base(s), since most towers suck on them if they have the skill that makes them resistant to missiles (I believe it's called "No pain!", but I can't be sure; my memory fails me, lol). You can send wolfriders and trolls in to mop up while the orcs are distracting the towers.

For the battles that you can't build on, I used summoned creatures as a bit of extra backup (my first hero was a wizard -> summoner, so I summoned a lot of sprites). Since your hero is a ranger, he should be able to summon sprites (and maybe unicorns later if you buy that spell), so just summon a bunch of them for some extra units to help you out.

One last thing, if you are offered a Minotaur King for your retinue after a battle, be sure to pick him up. Those guys make excellent guards for your hero, and they are pretty good at killing enemy heroes too (attacks that do 50 damage that also ignore armor? Yes please. lol).

Rough.

Yea I've been thinking of starting over and speccing into a class that is better at summoning units. I know in warlords battlecry 2 I used a melee-centric hero and single-handedly steamrolled most enemy armies by the time I was near the end. It doesn't work as well in warlords battlecry 1. If units are that awesome maybe I should be focusing on that.

Thanks for the advice!

It's an interesting balancing act in WBC 1. Early on your hero is VERY vulnerable, and is not recommended for anything but converting buildings. However you get bonus XP points for (I think) for every 100 units your hero kills, so on missions like where you have to go across the undead infested forest, but they're all stationary. Take a couple of white mages along (get them in your retinue soon as you can, but then don't level them up so they stay cheap). Then slowly chip away at the stationary units, this sort of focus can help bring your hero on a little quicker. However for the army based scenarios, keep your hero in a nice pack, and don't particularly involve him in fighting a big battle. Even hide him in a tower where there are assassins or goblins around (if you don't have a white mage or unicorn to cure him). For these games you're playing pure RTS, build units, tank rush, acquire resources, win with big army.

Then near the middle of the game (at least for a pure warrior class) your warrior starts to be able to take down the opponents without taking a lot of damage. Here you want to use him to clear down the packs of small, weak enemies. Things like orcs, wolfwriders (possibly goblins, but keep a cure spell near you), or their dwarf equivalent. You can't win the battles on your own, but with a decent squad of troops behind you, they can keep things occupied while your dude does damage.

Near the end, you've got a tank that is near indestructable to anything but those bloody liches, their fire attacks are always a problem. Still, by this point you can charge your warrior straight into their base and destroy the whole thing without a problem, this makes the last levels easy.

Oh, and do at least 3 or 4 quests per map if there's a quest giver. I think these also provide an XP bump if you complete them in a mission.

Build up your training skill early on, as that means you start getting the additional XP earlier. I think 21 is a good point to aim for almost solely before you need to start skilling up other bits to keep your hero alive.

Hope that helps.

Each mission in the campaign has a set amount of experience you earn when completed that's then modified by your training skill. Training also increases how many ability points you get per level though there are huge diminishing returns after training reaches 25. Between 13-18 you get 1 extra AP per level then 19-24 gets another and 25-40 gets yet another, after that point you need about 20 more into training to get any additional points per level. Both mages and warriors are viable in the campaign but I feel like a mage is easier late game and warriors are better in early game.

If you make strong here. You cant get experience more in campaign. So best way make your mana to 60. Dont finish your map. Dont destroy everything. Search new spell in Library to get "Create Artifact". So try to find good artifact.


Speed, Resistance, Training, Casting and Merchants are best skills in campaign.

For fighter ( Speed, Resistance, Merchants )
For acrmage ( Speed, Casting, Merchant )

^this is a decent tip really. Spamming create artifact can net you some good gear sometimes (it works best with spell grandmastery, but only wizards get that.)

Be careful though; too many chests can cause the game to freeze/crash. You'll want to save often if you go that route.