Our author Schuhmann struggled in the RPG hit Baldur’s Gate 3 (Steam) with a battle. The defense of the Druids’ Emerald Grove against the Goblins just wouldn’t work for him. He was overwhelmed by flying Goblins and battle spiders until he defeated the greenskins with their own weapons.
What kind of battle is this? Act 1 of Baldur’s Gate ultimately leads to the battle for the Druid’s cave, the “Emerald Grove”:
- Either you side with the Tiefling refugees and defend the fortress against the Goblin army.
- Or you choose to get a new, hot, evil girlfriend and betray the good.
I chose the defense. But the “good path” proved once again to be rocky and difficult.
The Goblin’s battle plan has 4 maneuvers
Where did I fail? The attack plan of the “evil ones” consists of 4 maneuvers:
- At the beginning of the battle, 2 sword spiders jump over the parapet and immediately attack the Tiefling defenders; in the first move, the spiders kill the poorly armored refugees.
- An ogre also throws barrels with battle Goblins over the parapet: The Goblins jump out of the breaking barrels and immediately force the Tieflings into close combat. The ogre throws 2 Goblins per turn: Shamans also fly in.
- Additionally, 3 suicide Goblins run toward the fortress gate with burning barrels on their backs and blow it up.
- Once the gate is blown up, the ogre and the strong melee fighters of the army attack, march through the gate, and mercilessly kill the refugees and my heroes with sheer numbers. The evil elven bride actively supports with healing spells and buffs.
Defense position is bypassed and eliminated
Through this maneuver, the seemingly secure defense is useless from the start: You immediately have opponents on the battlements in the first moves, and by the 3rd or 4th move, the gate is blown up, leaving you practically without defense.
The problem is that the refugee helpers are nearly useless in this situation, as they immediately engage in close combat and die. The defensive position is also ineffective because the Goblins blow it up.
Ultimately, you fight hopelessly outnumbered with your 4 people against 10 to 20 opponents. Essentially, you are in a losing position here. Unless you can thwart the opponents’ plan.
It was enough to kill one Goblin at the beginning
How could I easily win the battle? Normally, in other games, I would say in such a case: Well, then I’ll just skip the quest for now and level up somehow or get better items, and that will be fine.
But in the case of Baldur’s Gate 3, it actually pays off to think, as the developers say:
The key to victory is to kill the suicide Goblin standing closest to the ogre as quickly as possible: The explosion doesn’t matter to the ogre, but the exploding Goblin makes all his throwing barrels shatter.
To take out the Goblin, ultimately a shot from my rogue and a spell from my cleric were enough.
Now, the previously so dangerous throwing Goblins are left dumbfounded, have no more barrels and cannot be thrown, but instead become pincushions for the ranged weapons of the defenders, who are safely on the battlements.
Since I placed my strongest melee fighter at the jump point of the sword spider, the spiders also stayed back out of fear.
Without the stress of having spiders and flying Goblins on the battlements immediately, the previously so useless Tiefling refugees actually became useful and shot down the “explosion Goblins” so that they died before they could reach the gate.
With an intact gate, the entire attack strategy of the Goblins became futile.
Ultimately, the huge attack army stood in front of closed doors and helplessly threw stones while the hot elven bride in the background could do nothing but cast spells aimlessly and wait for her end.
In the end, when all the opponents lay in the dust, I even had to leave the fortress and walk to the Elf on her hill to put an end to her.
Basically, it was completely sufficient to take out the right explosion Goblins at the right moment for the battle to go from “unwinnable” to child’s play.
More about Baldur’s Gate 3:
