On the Offensive – Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard

This is a guide for On the Offensive, Chapter 2 of the Lizardfolk campaign in Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard. It includes a detailed walkthrough, a handy map, and a table listing all the points you can earn throughout the mission.

On the Offensive Map

Description

The Lizardfolk trek high atop a mountain pass and set out to destroy the invaders’ encampment. As open war ensues, Wowen and his scaled companions make a startling discovery.

New Units

• Chameleon Rogue
• Troglodyte Surveyor

Walkthrough

As soon as you start the chapter, a chameleon rogue will come up to you and tell you about a “hideous lair that reeks of death” (#11). And not far from your starting position, you’ll find four troglodyte surveyors (#2) that will join your cause. Between those five units and the shamans and fighters that will arrive with your champion, you’ll find yourself with a pretty decent army at the start of the chapter.

So start building up your nexus, and then head into the underworld. You’ll find numerous minotaurs in the southern part of the underworld, and they’re the easiest enemies to fight in the early stages of the chapter. Later, you should head north and take on the umber hulk (#10) and the necromancer (#11).

As long as you leave a couple units at your nexus (#1), and upgrade the walls of your nexus, then you shouldn’t have to worry too much about attacks from the Order of the Flame. Their units will always cross through the center of the map, attack your nexus for a bit, and then retreat. If you’d like to kill off the attacking army rather than just drive it away, then station some units at the ettin village (#5), and use them to come in behind the enemy when they’re attacking your nexus.

Once you’ve built up your army, both in numbers and in levels, send them at the enemy nexus (#6). If you have your army cross by the lizard war totem (#4) on the way there, then your units should have a fairly significant advantage over the Order of the Flame, and it shouldn’t be very difficult to destroy the nexus.

Once the nexus is down, you’ll be attacked by some Umbragen units, and you’ll receive a new objective: to destroy the bridge at the northern edge of the map (#7). There are two areas of the bridge that you’ll need to target with your units, and once they’ve both been destroyed, the chapter will end.

1 – Nexus

2 – Troglodyte Surveyors

3 – Duergar Mine

The duergar leader here will tell you that the duergar are warring with the ettins (#5), and that one of their exploration parties went into the underworld but hasn’t yet returned. Since the exploration party will be needed for an upcoming battle, the duergar leader will ask you to track it down.

You’ll find the journal of the exploration party at #8. When you take it back to the duergar, they’ll ask you to help in their battle against the ettins, which will take place in two minutes right next to your nexus (#1). Any duergar that survive the battle will join your cause.

Note: You can’t help the duergar and the ettins (#5). If you take a quest from one you won’t be allowed to take the quest from the other.

4 – Lizard War Totem

If you control this place of power, your units will do 25% extra damage.

5 – Ettin Village

On the way to the ettin village (#5), you’ll run into a pair of ettins (#5a). They’ll ask for you to help them defend their village from the Order of the Flame. After the battle, they’ll also ask you to help them in their battle against the duergar (#3), which will take place in two minutes right next to your nexus (#1). Any ettins that survive that final battle will join your cause.

Note: You can’t help the duergar (#3) and the ettins. If you take a quest from one you won’t be allowed to take the quest from the other.

6 – Order of the Flame Nexus

7 – Bridge

8 – Arctic Minotaur

When you kill the arctic minotaur, it will drop a duergar journal. Depending on what you’ve done on the surface, the duergar there (#3) might want the journal.

9 – Qabalrin Relic

The Qabalrin relic is a place of power. If you control it, then it will give nearby units a bonus to their physical damage reduction.

10 – Umber Hulk

When you approach this spot, an umber hulk will rise up out of the water and attack you. The umber hulk probably is supposed to be tough, but every time we’ve fought it, it’s spent way more time moving around than attacking. When the umber hulk dies, it will drop a champion artifact: umber hulk ichor.

11 – Val’nath the Necromancer

Points Chart

Mission Points	Value	Description
Destroy the Invaders’ War Camp	1500	Destroyed the enemy nexus.
Destroy the Bridge to Stop the Dark Beings	750	Destroyed the bridge.
Find the Lost Duergar	500	Found the duergar journal and returned it to the duergar.
Help the Ettins	750	Defended the ettin village against the Order of the Flame.
Defeat the Necromancer	750	Killed Val’nath the necromancer.
Bonus: Pack Rat	250	Picked up all of the artifacts in the underworld. (This bonus might be broken. We’ve never earned it, and we’ve searched the underworld pretty thoroughly.)
Bonus: Explorer	250	Explored all of the regions of the map.

Bonus Points	Value	Description
Great Commander Bonus	500	Allowed fewer than 25% of your units to die.
Against All Odds Bonus	500	Created less than five captains.
Miser Bonus	1000	Used less than 1500 gold and 1500 shards.
Meticulous Bonus	2000	Completed every possible quest. (As of version 1.1.4, it’s not possible to earn this reward, because it’s not possible to help both the ettins and the duergar.)
Time Bonus	0	Beat the mission in under 10 minutes. (You can actually score up to 1500 points here, but this bonus will never count against you.)
Difficulty	Varies	Easy is worth 0 points, Normal is worth 500 points, and Hard is worth 2000 points.