Defence of the Silver Spire

Defence of the Silver Spire is a set piece battle in Realm of the Wood Elves.

Description
So it has come to this. Morghur has thrown an almost endless torrent of Beastmen at the Wood Elves, yet they have pushed back the tide. Now the Shadowgave makes one final gambit - a push for the Silver Spire itself, intent on poisoning the water supply that nurtures so much of the land and leaving it for dead. He cannot be allowed to succeed. Yet Morghur has dark and twisted schemes that make him extremely difficult to kill - the Asrai must watch carefully and use their superior Elven intelligence to overwhelm his trickery. Hold fast against these desperate beasts, see the day won and the Old World saved!

Introduction
" The Oak of Ages stands strong in the face of adversity. You have the strength to stop Morghur. Let the Horn of Kurnous blast one last time in triumph, and rid the world of these foul creatures forever ! "

Ending
" Victory ! Morghur is relegated to oblivion, Orion, along with his feculent ilk ! You have held Athel Loren against the beastly hordes and averted absolute catastrophe from befalling the entire world. Now, winter is approaching ; we all feel the icy chill upon the air. The time has come for you to return to the Oak of Ages ; Ariel is calling. Step into Athel Loren's leafy embrace and begin the cycle of renewal once again. This is one end, Orion, but every end is a new beginning... "

Silver Spire (Quest Battle Menu) Legendary Difficulty Strategy
I tried this battle many, many times on legendary difficulty using many different strategies, varying:


 * being aggressive early vs turtling on a ramp vs some combination
 * archer placement (sides of canyon or top of ramp)
 * placing units at the end of the map where enemy units enter, so that the enemy is routed by the end of the map and the unit disappears
 * which units to focus on microing (different groups of archers or wild riders)
 * which enemy units to prioritize
 * and more

In the end, what worked was a relatively low micro turtle strategy (unfortunately I didn't save the replay!). Note that this was done in June 2021 on whatever the current patch was at the time (I understand unit stats have changed in some patches, this battle was probably easier when the game was first released). Here is initial positioning (most of this can be done in deployment, there are a few moves to make once the battle starts but you have plenty of time):


 * Place your treeman and tree-kin to block off the top of the right (from starting camera angle) ramp. Make a slightly inverted "V" with your two tree-kin and place your treeman slightly in front on the side closest to the center of the canyon. You want your treeman forward so that lots of guys clump around him. You want him towards the center because you want Morghul to attack him. He is your sturdiest unit. Note that it's important that you are at the top of the ramp, this is the narrowest part. This is particularly important for AoE spells.
 * Place your two eternal guard behind the tree-kin lines. Place Orion behind the tree-kin on the canyon-center side (he is your second line of defense if guys go past your treeman).
 * Place your sisters of the thorn in the patch of forest to the right of the ramp (so that they can fire down). It's important to give them this coveted spot since they have short range.
 * Place the mage also in the forest on the right. This doesn't really matter, you just want her to close enough to land spells but out of combat.
 * Place the dragon over the forest with the sisters of the thorn
 * Place all archer units (including the hero) in an arc behind your tree-kin/eternal guard. They should be back a fair distance, but close enough that they can shoot into the ball of units that will build up in front of your tree-kin. You may have to move them around a little once the battle starts to make sure they all fire.
 * Place wardancers behind your archers, facing away so that they are guarding your archers back.
 * Place all three units of wild riders at the top of the other (left) ramp. They need to be far back enough that they don't draw any units. You can also hide them in the forest at the top.

In the battle, your goals are to:


 * Kill/rout the enemy archers ASAP.
 * Keep your tree-kin alive as long as possible.
 * Unleash hell during the periods when the shields are down.
 * Kill/rout any units that "leak" up the left ramp with your wild riders. If you play correctly there should be few if any units that leak this way.
 * When your tree-kin/eternal guard line finally starts to break, send your wild riders down the ramp and charge the rear of the enemy unit mass with your wild riders. Send in your rearguard wardancers from the top as well. You are trying to keep the enemy on the ramp.

If you do this correctly, basically every enemy unit will form a giant mass on the ramp, blocked by your tree-kin. The vast majority of enemy units will be dead/routed/extremely weak by the time you can no longer hold the ramp. You will then need to pull back your archers and any remaining melee units and probably micro for a few shielding rounds while you pick off Morghur and the remaining shielded chaos spawn, but this won't be that difficult because your units are generally faster than Morghur and his spawn, and Morghur spawn should have significantly reduced HP (most spawn units were below half HP when I did it). Now some notes on execution:

* Your two waywatcher units. Don't use the other archers-- the waywatchers have long enough range to bomb the enemy archers without needing to get out of position, and they inflict huge damage; 2-3 volleys should rout an enemy archer unit. * Orion's bombardment/vortex spells. I would only use these if two enemy archers are stacked on top of each other. * Dragon fire. This does huge damage if you angle it correctly. You need to shoot it across the ranks (i.e. from the flank), not from the front. * Dragon/wild rider charge. Do this sparingly, hopefully not at all, only if for whatever reason you are unable to rout the enemy archers by the above methods. You should also only target quite isolated units. The dragon needs a lot of space to regain flight, and you really don't want to engage your wild riders unnecessarily and damage them or lure enemy units up the left ramp. Note that just flying the dragon over enemy archers or "mock charging" can rout them if they've already taken a beating. * The archers will rout and come back. When they do so, put a waywatcher volley on them and they'll rout again, probably for good. They'll be severely weakened anyway, so you don't have to prioritize these secondary ass-whoopings as much as the initial beating you give them. * Turn on fire at will on your missile units. Line of sight is generally too finicky in this situation to make focus fire reliable (I tried many times to focus Morghur or shield spawn groups, it never worked well). There may be special circumstances where you focus with some units, for instance, Morghur might slip through your line and duel Orion, then he's exposed and you may be able to focus him. But for the most part just use fire at will, this should ensure you are dealing maximal damage. * Drop Orion's vortex and bombardment spells on the middle of the unit blob. * Use dragon fire on the middle of the unit blob. * Use archer hero's Arrow of Kurnuous on Morghur. * Turn off fire at will with about 4 seconds remaining in the deshield period (you don't want volleys to arrive after shields go back up).
 * Some of the first enemy units to arrive are archers; I think there are 3 or 4. You should nuke them immediately. Do this using some combination of:
 * The only spells your mage should cast are Earth Blood and Shield of Thorns. Both should target your tree-kin. You should basically cast both spells constantly, whenever their cooldowns finish. Resist the urge to use The Dwellers Below on the massive enemy unit ball. Most of those units will rout, die to arrow fire, or die to Orion's vortex/bombardment. Your priority is Morghur and his spawn, who won't be that affected by The Dwellers Below. Again, you are trying to maximize the time your tree-kin hold the line.
 * When you cast earth blood, make sure you cast it forward (spell should be centered in the enemy units). The reason for this is that Earth Blood only affects up to your units, and if you target your tree-kin directly there's a chance it won't target both tree-kin units. You need to make sure when you cast it that you are getting both tree-kin.
 * Try to keep a shield of thorns going on your front line at all times. The spell has a huge AoE, so one cast should encompass the whole line. Remember that your Sisters of the Thorn have two casts worth of Shield of Thorns, you should exhaust these at the earliest opportunity (then it is less to remember once only your mage is a caster).
 * Use the Sister of Thorns AoE hex early, when your tree-kin first engage the chaos spawn. This is just to ensure you use it at some point, it's easier to remember to do it at the beginning.
 * Place all missile units (Orion, all archers, sisters of the thorn) in a single control group. TURN OFF FIRE AT WILL ON THIS GROUP. It is essential you do not waste ammo. They should only fire into a crowded mass, and only fire when no shields are up (exception with waywatchers targeting the enemy archers).
 * For each shielding around, about 4 seconds before the shields turn off (gives time for arrows to be fired):
 * DO NOT LET ORION DIE. If Orion dies then your units will rout a lot more easily, you really don't want that.

If you execute this strategy correctly, you should be able to win comfortably without too much micro. When your line breaks, most enemy units should be routed or so weak that they are easy to rout. You should have 1/4 to 1/2 your ammo left, which should be enough to finish off Morghur and shielded chaos spawn. You may need to tie them up in melee with Orion or your dragon to keep them still enough for a good shot from your archers. If you do run out of ammo, then use charges from your dragon, wild riders, and sisters of the thorn/cavalry archers when shields go down. The dragon charge in particular takes a nice chunk out of Morghur's HP.

If you are struggling to execute the above, some simple metrics to watch are:


 * Am I using all my spells (you should have no winds of magic reserve left, no Orion bombardment/vortex left, no Arrow of Kuornos left, no sister of Thorns spells left, no dragon fire left)
 * Am I using ammo efficiently? Again: 1/4 to 1/2 left when line breaks, never fire on shielded units, use fire at will only during periods of deshielding.

In the end, I finished with all melee units (including dragon) either dead/routed or almost totally depleted (eternal guard with single digits). Orion had extremely low health. Everything else was relatively healthy (but no ammo left).

One final note: in many previous attempts, I was attacked in the rear by a few units that broke through the ally side. I'm pretty sure that this is due to units "leaking" from your side into your ally's back, which weakens them and in turn lets enemy units leak from their side. That is why it is important to make sure nothing leaks from your side, which shouldn't be a problem if you have your wild riders on the left ramp.