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So this one time, at bandit camp

MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
For the first time, one of my parties decided to do the bandit camp "the hard way". Essentially, rather than try to infiltrate, they went for exterminate instead. This was likely not a brilliant choice in hind-sight. Primarily because instead of fighting all the bosses by themselves in an enclosed area, you fight them along-side the whole flipping camp, and that many archers makes magic use impossible.

The strategy, as it were, was to take out the hobgoblins at the temple ruin, then use it as a staging area. I sent in Maeri with invisibility alongside a skeleton warrior to act as bait. That part went according to plan. The squad start laying down sleep and grease. Then, the bosses all showed up... at once. Chill archers on one side, Blacktalon on the other, and three "wreck-it Ralphs" in the middle. I also learned that just because you can't walk through a forest area doesn't mean you can't fire through one. My party got perforated - forcing a reload.

Second attempt - draw them to a section of forest near the edge in the hopes of escaping when the battle got out of hand. This almost worked, but Aura fell to a sleep spell, and then a hail of arrows. Before Maeri could get to her, Isra went down and Sirene was completely surrounded - sad to say, I once more reloaded, I knew there was no way to pull this off without Aura and Isra.

Third (and mostly?) final attempt. This time, I decided to draw everyone to the edge of the forest, but I was a bit brighter about it. I kept Aura, Imoen, and Maeri invisible, again using a skeleton warrior as bait. However, this time I kept everyone near the edge of the forest. When the whole gang arrived, the visible party members chugged potions and went after two bosses at a time. When they were down, the party bailed back to a nearby forest to rest.

They repeated this cycle a few times, each time taking two more named bosses until they were down to the random, unnamed bandits, hobgoblins, etc. It took about week of game time with all the travel and sleeping, but eventually the party whittled down the remaining bad guys. FINALLY, everyone in the area was pushing up daisies or party of my party - except for a few stragglers in the tents and cave. A quick sweep left the whole place devoid of mercenaries.

Which left the main tent - now completely empty except for the prisoner, Ender Sai. That was almost strange, but I guess everyone that would have been in there was now dead. It was a bit anti-climactic to start chapter 4 that quietly.

That was an insane battle, and I don't really feel all that bad for breaking it up into multiple attacks like that. With "better calls for help", it was literally everyone in the bandit camp compressed into a small area of forest.
Post edited by Maurvir on
JuliusBorisovChronicler

Comments

  • KvotheRM8KvotheRM8 Member Posts: 54
    Epic!
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,822
    Ever tried playing with Kivan? Try to infiltrate with him in the party, and as soon as he sees Tazok things go south. You don't even get the chance to choose where the big fight goes down.

    ... and despite that, it was the easiest time I've had with the SCS bandit camp, apart from my ridiculously overleveled party of dukes. Being free with item charges - a charge from a wand of monster summoning for some meatshields, a charge from a wand of paralyzation to take out the well-armored Taurgosz, and passing around a necklace of missiles for lots of fireballs - really helped.

    Getting disrupted trying to cast spells? Not a problem - my party wasn't allowed to do that anyway. I just had to keep Garrick back so he didn't get shot to bits.
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    Yes, that battle was MUCH tougher with SCS. I had what I thought was a reasonably decent party, and it still went south twice - though the first attempt was due to my not considering SCS would trigger every bandit in the camp to descend on the party at once, and that they would come from multiple directions. RP-wise, it was a great strategy on the part of the enemy, and it devastated my party rapidly.
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,822
    If you choose your spots right, you can get the enemy to come at you from one direction. I like the southeast for that, where there's a narrow passage between some forest blocks there. With the dukes, I had Liia drop an Incendiary Cloud on the chokepoint ... that pretty much won the battle in one spell. More conventionally, webs and fireballs work well:
    8887ajl7pn73.jpg
    You do have to be careful there to stay back - getting your party members stuck will get them killed.

    The part that feels really unfair ... they home in unerringly on your protagonist, even if that character is invisible.
    hmzkmj9cxp4z.jpg
    There really should be a better way to script the response.
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    They may home in on the protagonist, but they still can't do anything so long as they are invisible - which could be used to an advantage, though perhaps a meta-gamey one.

    As for the other, my party isn't high enough level for incendiary cloud. The best they can muster are web and sleep, and Jaheira has this IWD druid spell that creates flaming thorn bushes.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    edited September 2020
    You could use the Necklace of Missiles or fireball wands - though if your casters don't have their own 3rd level spells you might want to think about delaying how fast you get to the Bandit Camp ...
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    Grond0 wrote: »
    You could use the Necklace of Missiles or fireball wands - though if your casters don't have their own 3rd level spells you might want to think about delaying how fast you get to the Bandit Camp ...

    The trouble here is that both casters are behind the curve at the moment. Aura is a multi-class, so she's splitting XP. Imoen dualed at level 6 thief, so she is just now catching back up. The rest of the party is hitting their stride, with both paladins at level 6, but it means that they are melee and missile heavy and magic light. Maeri is also a multi-class C/T, but I've been using her cleric spells to buff her for combat, since cleric spells are so insanely slow to cast.

    Which means that the party had a distinct lack of high-power arcane magic to bring to bear on that little adventure. They did, however, manage - it just took a whole lot of walking back and forth.
  • SatrhanSatrhan Member Posts: 75
    I just cleared the camp (with scs) myself, but for me it didn't really provide a challenge.
    Mostly because I've went and cleared pretty much everything south of the city except for Durlag's tower, so I'm a bit over-leveled. Still they put up a good fight. I cleared the hobgoblins at the ruins first, then just buffed up a bit and approached from the west. Got a bunch of bandit archers together soon that did quite some damage, but a sleep spell and some AoE solved that soon enough.
    Are the bosses inside the main tent supposed to come out? They didn't for me, only had the two leaders outside, and then a final mop up fight in the tent.
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    edited September 2020
    I think it depends on how you approach the camp, and if you installed "tougher chapter 3 end battle" in SCS. Assuming you have that component installed, if you infiltrate the camp first, most of the honchos are in the tent and almost everyone is blue. If you just enter the camp without talking to anyone first, the whole camp is red and the bosses aren't in the tent.

    In my run, all of the bosses jumped in and the big tent was empty save for the prisoner. That was definitely "the hard way".
    Post edited by Maurvir on
    SatrhanAdam_en_tium
  • SatrhanSatrhan Member Posts: 75
    Ah yes it must be the tougher chapter end battles. I usually don't install them, but then by the time I get to them I'm over leveled and wish I had. Should remember that for the next time I play..
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,822
    There are a couple different features to that tougher battle in SCS; I'm not sure if it's all in the specific tactical challenge component or if some is in other parts.

    First, the call for help AI: if you make the camp hostile, they all come after you to spark one big battle.
    Enter without infiltration, and they'll raise the alarm and converge on the protagonist as soon as any of them sees a party member. This includes the leaders coming out of the big tent.
    If you infiltrate and don't start anything until you enter the big tent, Taurgosz will confront you on the way out and call everybody over to fight you.

    Second, SCS adds some bandits to the camp; four hobgoblin elites and four Blacktalon elites outside, two hobgoblin elites and three Blacktalon elites in the big tent.
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    Hmm, I didn't realize SCS added additional bandits. It was, in the end, a satisfying fight - even if it was resolved in a somewhat less than satisfying way. You know, with the party having to run with their tails between their legs repeatedly.

    However, I love those big brawling battles where you can break out the AOE spells. The merc battle in Amkethran was another great open-air battle - and of course, the siege at Dragonspear Castle was just epic.

    IOW, I actually really enjoyed that battle, and will definitely leave that component installed.
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