Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 1, Mission 2

Here are general tips for playing the Empire Campaign in Warhammer: Mark of Chaos on HARD Difficulty. A list of all our Warhammer: Mark of Chaos articles can be found here.
We won't be hand-holding you through absolutely everything, but instead just give tips on situations that we found tricky or that you might not have considered.

Chapter 1: The Call of War

Mission 2: Saviour

Overview

Prior to this mission you will have gotten a regiment of halberdiers and had the opportunity to resupply at at Garlech.

• The halberdiers are there to help you against trolls in this mission. However, in general, having a lot of shooters (in this case, handgunners) is more useful overall, so we recommend not upgrading them and instead buying as many ranged units as you can in all of Chapter 1.
• Aim to develop about 6 ranged regiments. Hunters are okay, but they are mainly scouts and  unless you have no more handgunners to deploy, just deploy only one regiment of hunters.
• You start with 6150 gold (assuming you got all the gold in the last mission) but that is actually not a lot. Don't splurge but buy the basics: Extra Handgunner regiment, best weapons and a Champion for all Handgunner units.
• At this point, we also recommend full upgrades for a single regiment of Swordsmen, who at this early stage of the Empire campaign will still need to block for your shooters, and in any case you will need them in sieges to secure the battlements.

At Garlech, you can buy two magic items:

• Blade of Slaying (+15% hit)
• Looks great, but skip this. You can get something more useful in future missions.
• Staff of Transference (more Mana).
• Buy this and give it to Von Kessel. Makes a lousy weapon, but more Mana means more fireballs from your Bright Wizard.
• You will get a Staff of Sorcery from Mission 2, which is probably more usefully given to the Bright Wizard.

Walkthrough

Take point with a mounted Von Kessel and try not to let him get surrounded.

• If there are only melee units, lead them about as much as you can to let handgunners fire while they chase uselessly.
• If there are missile units, quickly break through and engage. He just needs to delay them and reduce overall attacks directed at our regiments. Use Handgunner Volley Fire and Bright Wizard Fireball to break the immediate enemy in front if he cannot ride around the battle.
• Overall, try not to pull too many enemy regiments and watch for patrols that can come to you. Most enemies guard a position and will withdraw back to their start if you move away far enough.
• Don't chase broken units - Just let them reform and come back, and let your handgunners shoot them.

We ended this mission with the loss of only 1 Swordsmen model.