8How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Very clear.How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Excellent. I was particularly gratified that the dwarves understood membership in the "true race" is defined by one's deeds.How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Basically just fighting our way through tough enemies, sometimes in narrow terrain, and with limited healing. The timer is a real factor here even though it is 65 turns. The final battle is a definite challenge due to the waves of high-level enemies that can wear down the health of even a large and well-managed army.What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
10How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
None. I was a bit sad to hear that the original epic Underlevels map had been replaced, but this is a worthy successor, possibly even more fun than the original (and the original scenario was great). The problems in the story and gameplay that have infected some of the earlier maps in the campaign were not an issue here. This is nicely done.What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Statistics: Posted by JL42 — January 13th, 2024, 8:51 pm
Statistics: Posted by JL42 — January 13th, 2024, 8:17 pm
5How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Very clear.How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Not much dialogue here. It's really confusing though as to why the orcs are attacking Kal Kartha, given everything that has come before insinuating that they are allied. This map seems to be basically unchanged from previous versions (which is a good thing), and back then there wasn't all this weird stuff about the masked dwarves seemingly hiring the orcs etc. Now, though, its basic premise of them being in conflict appears inconsistent.How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
There's not going to be any carryover gold from the Forbidden Forest, so troops are a bit thin here. The ally isn't exactly a tactical genius, and even with his reinforcements there's a real risk of losing him if you don't push forward fast enough to at least pull some of the enemy troops away from his keep. The enemy leaders are level 3 and have a solid base income, so they have to be approached with caution.What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
8 – This is a really well-balanced and engaging scenario, probably the second-best in the campaign (after the final one). Initially it looks like Ductapelaxatose, or whatever his name is (the ally), is going to get completely overrun and you are too slow to stop it, but then he gets his reinforcements and it seems to be just barely enough so that you can get there and bail him out. You really get the sense of rushing in right in the nick of time for the rescue.How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
None, other than revising/reverting the overall campaign to remove the inconsistent weirdness about what is going on between the orcs and Kal Kartha's leadership.What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Statistics: Posted by JL42 — January 13th, 2024, 7:43 pm
10How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Very clear.How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
The only thing that is confusing in this one is why the dwarves had to go through the forest in the first place. It says this forest is the only pass through the mountains, but they're *dwarves* – shouldn't they prefer to just go over the mountains anyway?How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
OK, this scenario is stupid-hard. In the sense that most of the challenges are things you can't really control, like four-Wose ambushes suddenly popping up out of nowhere and the enemies having ten times more units than you. The terrain vastly favors the enemy, and the enemy is faster and has endless troops. There are some sections of the map that are more defensible than others, but you have to move off them fairly quickly to reach the objective. The only thing that makes this doable at all is that the enemy leaders never seem to personally attack (making them easy to kill), and sometimes they aren't very smart with their troop movements (in other words, mostly just luck). With the enemies being able to ambush you across nearly every tile of the map, the ability to prepare and organize your troops is very limited – so a lot of it simply depends on what units the AI decides to recruit and how it moves them.What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
4 – It makes you pay attention, that's for sure. But the ambush factor and the total lack of good options to meet what the random AI decisions dish at you was a bit too irritating for me to call it fun.How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
This scenario needs to be toned down some. It was already kind of crazy in the previous version (especially for an "intermediate" campaign), and now you don't have the mages, you may not have sufficient time to prepare lots of level 3 units, you can't save up gold because the previous scenario only has 5 villages, etc. I would suggest improving or reverting those issues with the previous scenarios, but in addition there are some good fixes to this one that could help. A big one would simply be to give the enemies less starting gold, and the player more starting gold. Reducing the availability of ambush units for the enemies would help too. Removing the fog of war would help the player to see what is coming.What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Statistics: Posted by JL42 — January 13th, 2024, 6:39 pm
3How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Kind of murky. The objective is simply to "find the orcs." The player will see them jumping out of villages soon enough – because capturing villages is always the first thing you do – but what is really confusing is that you have to eventually find the ones that are hiding in the burned-out houses, and there's really no clear reason at all to visit those tiles. The only reason I figured out what to do is because I read the walkthrough. I can see a player getting to the end, having occupied all the villages and killed all the orcs in them, and then just wondering "OK, now what?" as time runs out.How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Completely confusing. The writing is still reasonably good, but I don't understand the logic of this map at all. There are hints that the masked dwarves have some kind of "project" going on with the peasants, who are clearly terrified ... but what that project is, or anything else about what is going on here, is never explained anywhere in the campaign. It's suggested here, and throughout the previous scenarios, that the masked dwarves are working with the orcs somehow, presumably as part of this "project," and paying them for it, but never anywhere in the campaign do we learn what exactly is happening with the orcs. Unless I just totally missed it somewhere. It's hard to believe that Aiglondur doesn't have the good sense to pull one of those peasants aside and ask some questions about what is going on. The player wants to know too.How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Not a lot here in terms of gameplay challenges; the enemies are only level 1 and 2 and they come just a few at a time. (The difficulty of the various scenarios in the campaign has become wildly inconsistent.) The biggest challenge is just figuring out what to do because the map is very awkward and doesn't make much sense.What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
2How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Need to completely re-do this scenario, both gameplay and dialogue, to fix the issues noted above. Or better, just revert to the previous version, which was awesome and engaging.What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Statistics: Posted by JL42 — January 13th, 2024, 5:17 pm
2How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Very clear.How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Not much dialogue; it was fine.How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
This one is drastically easier than the previous two scenarios; not much in the way of challenges. You have unpredictably appearing enemies but they are relatively weak and few in numbers, and now you can finally get the dwarves into the mountains where they become nearly invincible. There's also plenty of villages here, so when units get moderately injured they can hang out and heal so that they don't get too low on HP.What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
5How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Nothing major that I can think of. Maybe reduce the timer again, or add some more enemies to make it more difficult. Really need to have another scenario or two before this one though, to make sure that the player has built up enough of a level-2 army to handle this map.What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Statistics: Posted by JL42 — January 13th, 2024, 4:11 pm
6How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Very clear.How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Mostly clear. It seems kind of unbelievable that they would so easily accept that Movrur constantly keeps himself shrouded – presumably he wears full clothes and mask every waking moment – and they do not yet becomes suspicious of that. In any case I very much preferred the previous version of this story where they were adventuring into the unknown to seek news of their lost kin, rather than dangling along at Movrur's request. For that matter, I also don't understand why Movrur would encourage this; seems like he should want to keep them away from Kal Kartha and would be saying, no we're fine, nothing to see here, stay home.How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
This is similar to the first scenario in that you're dealing with poor terrain, against overwhelming enemy numbers, and you probably don't have any healing yet. It's a bit easier though because you do have a few hills and a river's edge to work with, plus allied troops that will help distract some of the enemy's units. One of the hardest parts is that the ally leader is not very bright and you have to keep the enemy units outside of his suicide range. (I had to start over twice due to this AI suicide factor, as he rushes out of his keep and gets mowed down.)What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
4How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
I would suggest moving the ally leader's keep a couple of tiles to the west, so that he won't constantly rush out and die when we engage the enemy along the river. Either that or just staple his feet to the ground so that he doesn't move.What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Statistics: Posted by JL42 — January 13th, 2024, 3:37 pm
Statistics: Posted by JL42 — January 13th, 2024, 2:23 pm
7How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Very clear.How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Mostly clear. The writing throughout this campaign is extremely good, though I feel like some of the newly introduced material around the character Movrur is not really up to the standards of the original. In this particular scenario, when Movrur shows up he says, "I have been tracking that orc ... He be part of a band of raiders ...." This sounds like he be hangin' with Baldras from "Liberty" fo to long. In addition to being internally inconsistent ("have been" / "be"), it's just not how the dwarves in the rest of the campaign talk, and in the next scenario he goes right back to being more grammatical again. Kind of grating.How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
The terrain favors the enemy; they have a lot more gold/troops than you; they are a lot faster than you; and you have no healing. Honestly I found this one to be uncomfortably hard for an opening scenario (not sure why other commenters above described it as easy). It wasn't impossible or anything, but I'm not a huge fan of these low-defense fights – they always turn into bloodbaths, it's hard to keep your desirable units alive, and it reduces the importance of skill. Due to the urgent (and unexplained) timer there's no way to win this one other than just charging out into the central dirt-pit and hoping that you land more hits than the enemy does. I restarted numerous times due to, first, trying to find some way to fight in good terrain and running out of time; then later, due to getting my entire army wiped out and nobody being able to keep any XP (which will be sorely needed in the upcoming scenarios).What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
3 – It's a simple map that doesn't give you many options to work with. I love playing with dwarves and love the overall storyline here, but this opening scenario is a bit meh.How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
First and most important, I would get rid of the Movrur character. He really messes up this campaign throughout and makes it a lot less coherent and less enjoyable compared to previous versions. Maybe also some dialogue tweaks to clarify the importance of charging out urgently to attack the orcs. I might think about modifying the terrain a bit, like perhaps putting a few hill tiles along the central area, to give the player something more interesting to work with.What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Statistics: Posted by JL42 — January 13th, 2024, 2:11 pm