Slitherine

I'm currently at Owin's Ford (as the subject suggests). I noticed that the only way to my objective, is through this very small river deathtrap (shallow water) that leads me to a castle and 2 settlements with Armored Slingers on each of these tiles, which are adjacent to the shallow waters of the river. I've only found 1 liquid mana so far and used it for Wolf Mother upgrade, so I don't have Troll Hurlers to lay siege from across the river. I searched the eastern river bank for anything that should somehow allow me to traverse this predicament, but I didn't find anything of use for this situation. My party said they saw lizard folk in the river, and they laid an unsuccessful siege against the the castle and the two settlements (owned by Clan Machnar) from the river. They stood no chance. After seeing no other alternative, I summoned a Gatekeeper with Ailsa, which provided Wind Wall aura (50% missile reduction), and went into the river with units that have big shields (another 50% missile reduction), so they were immune to archers, provided the Gatekeeper stood next to them. This took me quite a while (big shielded units don't tend to be very offensive) and the regional wealth counter was almost completely depleted by the time I managed to cross most of my army to the other side, but not with enough time to explore the ruins and other points of interest for additional rewards.

I get the feeling that I wasn't meant to do that. If I didn't have the Gatekeeper summon, I don't think I could've manage it without losing half of my army (playing on hardest difficulty). Am I missing something? Was there some sort of an event that should've been triggered which would've helped me completing this mission with much more ease, giving me enough time to explore the western river bank?

No bug...

It's perfectly possible to get over with your wolfmother

I had the same issue in closed beta till I found how/what to lure onto the castle.

Hint: there is more neutrals around than just the lizards. You can also use Ravencloaks jump to soften up castle defense.

If you want to have a hurler before that map: burial mounds can drop liquid mana. Hint: "Clanmeet" eg has 3 of them. With some save/load you can get yourself 3 liquid mana there,

Thanks for the reply.

It wasn't until later that I realized that the Pegasi could be charmed with Wolf Mother, so at the time, I couldn't summon them, though I could restart the mission and charm one within the level If I was completely stuck. That being said, I think there should've been some detour included to surpass that area, which would cost me several more turns (like they did in the mission before that I think, in which I could face the enemy's army right from the start by crossing a river at a disadvantage, or go for a detour which would cost me several turns but being in a much better position to keep my army safe), if I didn't have any of the aforementioned abilities to counter them, or at the very least, include the possibility to respec Hero abilities by using a certain amount of gold. That part of the game looks broken as hell.

Unfortunately, I only had the one liquid mana which I'm bound to get after completing the first mission to feature undead (forgot its name). I think the game would be much more balanced and rewarding if the weapons, armour and liquid mana resources were fixed.

Cheers, and thanks again.

Actually you can use the lizards as well - they will attack the Machnar defenders and you can stand back and watch them do that while defending against them on the edge of the river, so they don't attack your troops.
Alternatively if you have a siege troll, you can take out the slingers while protecting him with anti-missile or armor magic.
Don't worry, there will be plenty of Liquid Mana after Krell's Landing