I am attempting to lift the siege of Kvatch and would appreciate some tactical advice. The daedra that come through the gate are storm atronach, spider daedra, clannfear and daedroth. If I join the guards in attacking them directly, Jesan and Merandil die, Savlian becomes unconscious and I die shortly thereafter. If I run round the outskirts of the battle and use my bow I can prevail eventually but again Jesan and Merandil are dead. If I ignore this fight and go straight through the gate then the same mixture of daedra are attacking Ilend Vonius. If I go to his aid we both die, but if I stand off I can manage to survive by myself by doing lots and lots of running and shooting (I've never yet managed to talk to Ilend).

This is my first game of Oblivion and until now I've enjoyed myself exploring the fantastic map, dungeon crawling and completing quests and am at level 19. I am no longer enjoying myself.

I originally planned to level up before tackling the main quest figuring that would make it easier, but presumably the deadra have been levelling up as well.

I know I can move the difficulty slider but that would be my last resort. Can anyone suggest tactics that might get me through this quest?

You're doing fine

Let 'em die

The AI on companions is pretty bad, they can't keep themselves alive after a certain point

As a general rule for future reference tell them to wait whenever that option comes up unless you want to use them like tissue paper

Keep yourself alive, You can get all the enemies eventually

That is just the way it is when you take the standard guard against level 19 monsters and it's best to just get over it

I don't know if the diff slider is going to help, its changes the NPC's hitting power in respect to you but not to each other

Maybe you can RP some funeral rights after

Essential, in this case Salvian, chars don't die anyway

If you are really concerned about companions then you might want to work on some mage skills

If you have illusion and restoration you have a chance, albeit not enough of one to get by with out reloads, of keeping companions patched up, but I have found it impossible to do that and fight

What the above poster said. The guards' equipment is badly underlevelled so they're just not going to last long. A bow user probably has the toughest time, too, since you kill relatively slowly and have to avoid aggro yourself.

One option is not to do the Battle of Kvatch quest; it's optional and the reward isn't great.

Mara

You CAN keep everyone alive, but it has to be your full-time occupation. It's a very different style of play than what you're used to when going solo. You watch what's going on carefully, and bargain out your magicka to helping everyone else and forget about attacking anything yourself. The altmer archers in the Kvatch city guard are probably going to die anyway, but if you feel you absolutely must save them, give them the strongest shield, chameleon, or health regen effects you can. Take Martin with you, too. Martin is actually rather powerful.

Cast frenzy on dremora if possible so that they attack, and get attacked by, the other daedra. Cast a short duration, high-magnitude command spell on enemy creatures to duplicate the effects of frenzy: other creatures will continue to be pissed off at them after the effect has expired.

I managed to keep them all alive at level 50 when packs of valkyn and xivilai were racing in, basically just using these techniques, but I won't lie... it was a grind :glare:

Kvatch is notorious for being more difficult, and as you've discovered, the world levels up with you, while as mentioned, the guards don't.

Another option is to find some http://www.uesp.net/wiki/oblivion:followers like Mazoga, speaking with Martin before starting the battle so he'll follow, and maybe conjure some daedra of your own. Frenzy works great for thinning the big mob at the gate, but I've gone through here without magic too. The UESP describes how to http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Followers#Equipping_Followers with better gear, and I think I've done that myself. Doesn't stop the kamikaze guards, but does help.

Storm atronachs first appear at 19, and the higher level dremora will be appearing until 24, so the next few levels can be tougher than if you wait until after 25 and have better gear and enchantments. Think that's when I did it, and the melee fights were still tough, but I was better able to handle them because many enemy attacks weren't as crippling.

Where are your skills and attributes at, and are you only using a bow for attacks? Are you using any poisons?

Serves you right for not listening when Baurus told you to go directly to Jauffre, or for not taking Jauffre seriously when he said Martin was in "terrible danger." :wink_smile:

The beginning part of the MQ is much easier if done at low level, when you don't run into enemies any worse than scamps and runts.

As for the difficulty slider, the only reason for not moving it to an easier setting, if the present setting is proving too hard, is ego. I try to set mine to something that approaches "realism"; If my Nord can't one-hit-kill a goblin with a claymore, it's not realistic. Likewise, if I'm one-shotting armored bandits from 150 feet away with an arrow through the arm, it's too far the other way.

I am a Wood Elf/Warrior and have concentrated on my bow with Marksman at 78. I also have Light Armor 95 (I get hit a lot), Sneak and Armorer 54 and Blade 46. I occasionally use my sword on weaker foes or to conserve arrows and I haven't used any poisons. The only magic I use is Restoration for healing and Alteration for shields, all other mage skills and Alchemy are at their starting levels and I haven't completed the mage guild acceptance quests yet. As I said I am new to the game, what should I be working on now?

As for the siege - I eventually managed to save the guards at the gate but no way could I save Ilend, so I looted his corpse and continued on to the tower.

As far as Ilend goes, you can send him back to help the others. I never keep him around - I always send him back.