Winning Wesnoth on medium/hard

[Elvish_Pillager]

BTW, you can attach multiple files to one post.

One thing I've noticed is that I can get as far in Hard as I can in Easy in TDH and SOTBE, but not in EI, HttT, or TRoW.

Also it seems that Medium is easier in every other campaign then HttT, except maybe TRoW.

[Jyhem]

Alright I'm replaying the game on medium since hard is a bit too hard. Here's the first two scenarios, tell me what you think.

First scenario:
- Good job on XPs for Konrad and the shaman. Ooops! I just saw it again and I realise this shaman is not yours
- I'm surprised you did not recruit a pair of scouts. They
are great for taking/keeping villages. Just send them south to fight it out for the villages in the middle of the forest they are at their best there (difficult to hit, plenty of room for fast units). I realise that would make 2 less units in your main force, but you have so many allies that it is not necessary to move as a fully autonomous force.
- I just looked at it again: you did have a scout, but you use it as a frontline unit (?!?)
- Why did you not recruit the maximum of units ? If you really need money, I've found that finishing early is more efficient than fighting with a smaller army. A big army helps finishing early, and a couple scouts help getting villages (obviously, this advice depends on the scenario circomstances: if there are no villages, finishing early is no help)


Second scenario:
- Why didn't you recall the nearly levelled shaman ??? (yeah, yeah, see my ooops above, sorry). Druids are very usefull for curing, you need at least a pair of them as soon as possible. (and Shydes are downright great because they move so fast they can always cure units exactly at the good place)
- You got outflanked by some wolfrider. That's where scouts would have helped, instead of using your main force for hunting it.
- You got all your elvish units fighting on the plains, except the two suicidal ones which split from the main force. What was the point ? A shaman is useless alone: keep it as support for the others. Remember: slowing a troll means it strikes back at 50% efficiency only. But it still needs to take damage from archers. A pair of units alone have no chance, because they can't avoid being surrounded.


Hope this helps. If anyone disagrees with the above, I'd be interested.s, tell me what you think.

[Kingsley]

Alright, I'm going to try to re-play both scenarios with your advice. Especially since I don't have alot of gold for the next scenario ;-/

What is the recommend amount of gold do you need on average for a scenario. Or I should say how much units do you normally recall/recruit?

I normally recruit/recall about 6-8 units for the 2nd and 3rd scenarios and about 8-12 units for the rest.

[Dave]

I don't use Elvish Captains. I could even say I hate them in campaign mode. What's the point of units with leadership when all your units are level 3?

I really like Elvish Captains and Marshals in campaign mode. I always find myself having a use for lower-level units, and a Marshal really makes a 1st level unit useful.

Marshals are especially useful when you don't want to expose your high level units to risk, but you do want some hitting power. Surround a Marshal with some 1st level units, and they fight nicely. Also, I am usually still training mages and perhaps other 1st level units beyond the Ford of Abez as a contingency for if my higher level units are killed, and a Marshal is immensely useful in this process - a Mage commanded by a Marshal does an impressive amount of damage!

David

[Kingsley]

Here are my replays of the next two scenarios:

I had replay the previous two scenarios (the ones I posted above) since I didn't have much gold at the end of the second scenario.

I think I did fairly well on these two scenarios.

Comments?

[Kingsley]

I got Moremirmu

[silene]

a Mage commanded by a Marshal does an impressive amount of damage!

Hmm... I'm a bit stumped. What are you calling "impressive"? Unless I'm missing something, a Mage commanded by a Marshal only does 4 damage points more (weighted average on three hits in broad daylight with no enemy resistance) than a Mage not commanded by a Marshal. Leadership only gives an additive 25% damage, right?

[turin]

a Mage commanded by a Marshal does an impressive amount of damage!

Hmm... I'm a bit stumped. What are you calling "impressive"? Unless I'm missing something, a Mage commanded by a Marshal only does 4 damage points more (weighted average on three hits in broad daylight with no enemy resistance) than a Mage not commanded by a Marshal. Leadership only gives an additive 25% damage, right?

leadership now gives +25% per level of difference between the two units. so a marshal gives a mage +50%.

[Fortify]

By far one of the most important factors is leveling your leader! L2 Konrad now has a range attack + leadership this is HUGE! Plus you get Konrad in every scenario for free even the ones where you don't get access to your recall list! L3 Konrad is marginally better but I find once I have him at L2 it doesn't take any special treatment to get him L3.

This goes for leader/follower(non-recall special campaign) units as well. Level them asap because they are always there!

Next is your army composition. You always need a good core of archer/fighter types. But 2-6 'specials' are also critical and to really do well you have to handle these units very carefully. They give the most benefit but are easiest to lose. Mages, Druids, Horsemen, Cavalry and similar.

[silene]

leadership now gives +25% per level of difference between the two units. so a marshal gives a mage +50%.

So that's what I was missing; +50% is indeed impressive. Maybe I'll start to play with them anew.

[muxec]

My saves

[Kingsley]

Alright The Siege of Elensefar was fairly hard. I played offensive cause if I didn't I wouldn't have enough gold for the next scenario. I lost alot of good units in the scenario but I got quite a few level 2 units. Tell me what you think?

[Kingsley]

My saves

I watched most of the "Isle of Andium" replay and wow.
You play completely different from me.
You are very defensive when you make your moves, however you made a few mistakes with exposing your weaker units. And you end up moving back and forth thru the same area for quite some time. However unlike me you gained many level 2 units.

Compared to you I play very offensively.
Check out my replay of the same scenario that I posted before.
Have you won this campaign in "medium" difficulty yet?

[turin]

My saves

my advise on the Isle of Anduin (the one you lost) would be to send troops both ways. This is key - when you do, you come at them from two sides, but when you don't, they go up and flag all of those villages in the NW, so they get a huge income and you can never defeat them. The way you played, you let them get all the way up to Konrad before doing anything about it, so at that point, the game was basically lost, because you couldn't get your elvish units to Konrad quick enough without abandoning Delfador...


i didn't notice any bad luck, though. just some odd tactics.

[Dacyn]

i didn't notice any bad luck, though.

hm... one way to test this would be to load the replay using a "deterministic" mod of Wesnoth.