Hardcore or save/reload ?

[scott]

Please read the FPI sticky at the top of the ideas forum. While your idea is not without merit, it has been discussed in the past (a lot) and declined.

[Zhukov]

Save/load would be awfully easy to abuse. You could save before an attack then just continue loading until you scored maximum damage. But really, where's the fun in that?

I tend to save just before the actual fighing begins, so if I mess it up I don't have to repeat the introductory dialog and recruit/recall phase.
My main excuse to reload/restart is when I do something stupid. Say, not protecting that lvl3 Mage of Light when he is exposed on 4 angles and in range of several Wolfriders.

The way I see it, reloading to find solutions to problems like that can only improve my tactics, I hope...

[Naeddyr]

Yeah, I S/RL a lot, usually when I get one of my precious level-upped units killed, or either one of the two 'leader' characters in tHttH gets himself offed by a walking corpse or the like.

Of course, it's usually not so effective because of the seeded randomness (which must be a good thing - cuts down the effectiveness of such cowardly things as S/RL), but I think the seed is changed when you, say, move a unit.

[Calhor]

I maybe save abnormally much, but I believe that those Elven Outriders are just too damn weak. They must be the weakest among 3-rd lvl units.
The other problem I have are those unfortunate rolls. I lack luck and in most cases that results to quick losses. My tactics aren't all that bad, but they're not excellent either. I believe that with such average tactics I should be able to beat any campaign.
The biggest problem is that I'm a hardcore RPG player and favor the tactics of having less, but more experienced units, rather than swarming the enemy with first levelers. It's understandable why I should save so damn much, since in wesnoth the difference between unit levels isn't all that significant, and in many ocasions I find myself losing a third level unit to a first level one.
I play Wesnoth for the RPG aspect of the game and don't intend to change that tactic of mine. Can you tell me if I'm missing something here?
What do you suggest I do, anyway?

[JW]

My tactics aren't all that bad, but they're not excellent either. I believe that with such average tactics I should be able to beat any campaign.

Even the more difficult than average campaigns?

The biggest problem is that I'm a hardcore RPG player and favor the tactics of having less, but more experienced units, rather than swarming the enemy with first levelers. It's understandable why I should save so damn much, since in wesnoth the difference between unit levels isn't all that significant, and in many ocasions I find myself losing a third level unit to a first level one.

I beg to differ with the above statement. I'll gladly take any level 3 unit against any level 1 unit. It all depends on how you use the unit as to its effectiveness.

Also, why can't you swarm the enemy with more experienced units? Simply get more of them.

I play Wesnoth for the RPG aspect of the game and don't intend to change that tactic of mine. Can you tell me if I'm missing something here?
What do you suggest I do, anyway?

I believe that you are missing something here. If something isn't working for you doing more of it probably is not going to get you any further than you've already been. A wise man once said doing more of the same will get you more of the same.

You obiously need to change your "average" tactics. BfW is a tactical game, the RPG element follows. If you can't get around that then you'll keep having the same problems you've had in the past.

I suggest that you try some mulitplayer (MP) and play around with a few of the races. Once you learn the tactical system better from more perspectives you will know units strengths and weaknesses FAR better than you probably currently do. I know it helped me tremendously. Once you understand the tactics better you can then go back to single player and take what you've learned and apply it. Your "average " tactics will now be superior and you should be able to handle all that comes your way, even if not easily.

Another thing that may perhaps be escaping you is that single player campaigns are quite difficult. As far as I know no one has beaten Heir to the Throne on difficult without S/RL - which some consider cheating. I am currently trying to do so between lots of other projects, but I'm having great difficulty and I consider myself a player that has "good" tactics.

Learn the game more thoroughly through practice and everything will fall into place my friend. I hope that helps.

[ponkan]

I don't particularly like swarming tactics, I prefer using a unit to its fullest potential, which is very effective even with level 1 units. After playing Isle of the Damned in HttT, I think I can say that I learned a lot about tactics; at the very least I understood them a lot more than before. It really comes down to attention to detail - resistances, terrain, time of day, ZoC,,,, you get the point. And, of course, a healty dose of luck

Doing this, you'll find that you'll naturally lose less units and gain more experienced units to carry over to the next scenario.

[Ray]

I only save at the start of a scenario. A large part of the challenge is having to use tactics that can survive a few rounds of bad luck. It wouldn't be as fun if I could just charge the enemy leader with a pair of lancers and load until the dice went my way.

I started off by playing pretty much hardcore, but then I got about 2/3 of the way through the Heir to the Throne campaign and discovered that I just didn't have enough high level people or gold... and that I basically had to start the whole thing over to fix the problem.

That was discouraging enough that I've started saving and reloading pretty frequently now, especially when something particularly random happens (like some guy hitting 4/4 with a 30% chance).

But the problem is, while it's improbable for that to happen at any one time, there will be hundreds, possibly thousands of attacks during a campaign, and the long odds start to add up. For your example, it's more likely than not that someone will hit 4/4 with a 30% chance at least once every hundred tries, and every 30 tries or so, it'll hit 3/4, so it's probable that that the 3/4 will happen a few times in most scenarios, and the 4/4 will happen a few times throughout the campaign.