Eastern Invasion

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orthubertron
Posts: 2
Joined: June 23rd, 2010, 5:10 am

Re: Campaign: Eastern Invasion

Post by orthubertron »

:shock: Wat? I'm going to replay that scenario then, may as well recall everyone and kill the trolls if that's the case.
shadowblack
Posts: 368
Joined: April 15th, 2010, 3:03 pm

Re: Campaign: Eastern Invasion

Post by shadowblack »

If you fled from the trolls and blew up the bridge, ALL units on north side (including units you did not recall) are lost. If you KILL all enemy leaders you keep all your units. That's why I recommend the latter if you have enough high-level troops and enough gold to recall them.
You are a Dark Adept: You immerse yourself in the dark arts... potentially with great rewards...
boolithium
Posts: 6
Joined: August 22nd, 2010, 9:55 am

Re: Eastern Invasion

Post by boolithium »

I just finished this campaign, and I have to say it is among the best and worst campaigns I've played.

It probably does the best job of using the levels creatively, which makes it feel more like a story. Other campaigns use the storyline as an excuse to stick you in the "kill all enemy leaders" mode.

However, whoever is designing the scenarios has a truly sadistic nature. Far too often the player is forced to rely on luck, which leads to constant restarts of scenarios. Constantly trying this strategy or that gets very tiresome, especially when you figure out you just need a lucky turn. More than once, I reloaded and watched the same strategy be victorious, which had just ended in disaster.

The designer places enemies on the field, who can make short work of any level 3 player units. The result erases the difference between difficulty settings. The crux of too many scenarios is whether the enemy hits 1 out of 3 times versus 2 out of 3 times. Even the final battle came down to dumb luck. I happened to kill the leader after 3 reloads, and only because the leader placed himself in range of three of my units. Had he not done so, I would have been dead the next turn.

In my mind this ruins the campaign. If I fail to formulate a proper strategy, I have no problem rethinking the way I approach a scenario. However, I think a novice player is just as likely to win this campaign as an experienced player. If the rolls go your way, you shouldn't have a problem with anything but Evacuation, which will shred any units you've focused on leveling. Seriously, don't bother leveling anyone but the heroes and a couple units, because you won't have them there at the end anyway.

I'm sure some people will say they prefer a challenge, but being challenging is not the flaw in this campaign. If you prefer random actions outside of the player's control, then you will enjoy this scenario.
boolithium
Posts: 6
Joined: August 22nd, 2010, 9:55 am

Re: Campaign: Eastern Invasion

Post by boolithium »

shadowblack wrote:If you fled from the trolls and blew up the bridge, ALL units on north side (including units you did not recall) are lost. If you KILL all enemy leaders you keep all your units. That's why I recommend the latter if you have enough high-level troops and enough gold to recall them.
I would love to see a replay where someone actually does so. That level is a meat grinder, and trying to stand your ground is suicide.
shadowblack
Posts: 368
Joined: April 15th, 2010, 3:03 pm

Re: Campaign: Eastern Invasion

Post by shadowblack »

boolithium wrote:
shadowblack wrote:If you fled from the trolls and blew up the bridge, ALL units on north side (including units you did not recall) are lost. If you KILL all enemy leaders you keep all your units. That's why I recommend the latter if you have enough high-level troops and enough gold to recall them.
I would love to see a replay where someone actually does so. That level is a meat grinder, and trying to stand your ground is suicide.
Unfortunately, after finishing a campaign I delete all of my saves and replays for it. Otherwise I would gladly show you my replays. I've played this campaign twice, both times on Normal, but first time I went through Elven Alliance and Undead Crossing while the second time I went through The Undead Border Patrol, Mal-Ravanal's Capital (I saved all six prisoners) and The Crossing. In both cases I killed all leaders in Evacuation. The only difference was that the first time I had to rely on Iron Maulers and Mages while the second time I used Paladins + Iron Maulers + Mages (which made things a bit easier). But in any case the key to killing the leaders is to have enough level 3s AND enough gold to recall/recruit at least three full keeps.
You are a Dark Adept: You immerse yourself in the dark arts... potentially with great rewards...
monochromatic
Posts: 1549
Joined: June 18th, 2009, 1:45 am

Re: Eastern Invasion

Post by monochromatic »

I'll attach my replay once I get to my computer. I played on Normal, and beat all the leaders while losing only one shock trooper because of a stupid mistake :( so I'm reserving this post, I should get to my computer soon.

EDIT: Added replay.
Attachments
EI-Evacuation_replay.gz
Only lost one shock trooper, no losses otherwise. Normal difficulty.
(33.09 KiB) Downloaded 929 times
Last edited by monochromatic on August 22nd, 2010, 9:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
boolithium
Posts: 6
Joined: August 22nd, 2010, 9:55 am

Re: Campaign: Eastern Invasion

Post by boolithium »

shadowblack wrote: But in any case the key to killing the leaders is to have enough level 3s AND enough gold to recall/recruit at least three full keeps.
Ah, well, I certainly didn't have that much gold. To be honest, I hate having to milk levels for gold and XP. It seems like I'm on the enemy leader in 8 or 9 turns. Now I know the strategic thing to do is capture every village on the map, and wait for the enemy to send single units out for the next 20 turns. I personally don't think that is any fun. It is like tricking the AI, which is more gaming the game than playing it.
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Dixie
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Re: Eastern Invasion

Post by Dixie »

Actually, finishing quickly usually (always?) gives more gold than occupying every villages and "milking the level". As for EXP, I dunno,a baance between the two? Or maybe you just feed kills to the wrong units? Anyway, after sometime, and AI without income wouldn't have anything to send against you anymore, so there would be very little point.
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boolithium
Posts: 6
Joined: August 22nd, 2010, 9:55 am

Re: Eastern Invasion

Post by boolithium »

elvish_sovereign wrote:I'll attach my replay once I get to my computer. I played on Normal, and beat all the leaders while losing only one shock trooper because of a stupid mistake :( so I'm reserving this post, I should get to my computer soon.

EDIT: Added replay.
Holy Cheats!!! You have Dacyn at -16 hit points in the first turn. It must be easy to win, when you turn debugging codes on.
monochromatic
Posts: 1549
Joined: June 18th, 2009, 1:45 am

Re: Eastern Invasion

Post by monochromatic »

What? I don't cheat in wesnoth. I even refrain from save-loading. It's probably a corrupt replay. Plus, how could Dacyn have -16 hitpoints? So I'm cheating to make myself worse?! Y'know, there is something called logic.

Did you really think I'd try to embarass myself with a replay in where I cheat? No way. This was an honest win.

I played on 1.8.3, so it might be a problem if you played the replay on a different version.

EDIT: could someone else also download the replay and see if there is anything wrong with it? Thanks.
boolithium
Posts: 6
Joined: August 22nd, 2010, 9:55 am

Re: Eastern Invasion

Post by boolithium »

elvish_sovereign wrote:What? I don't cheat in wesnoth. I even refrain from save-loading. It's probably a corrupt replay. Plus, how could Dacyn have -16 hitpoints? So I'm cheating to make myself worse?! Y'know, there is something called logic.

Did you really think I'd try to embarass myself with a replay in where I cheat? No way. This was an honest win.

I played on 1.8.3, so it might be a problem if you played the replay on a different version.

EDIT: could someone else also download the replay and see if there is anything wrong with it? Thanks.
So you don't let him get beat on by 3 trolls in the first turn? I'm using 1.65, and in my version he would have been dead in the first turn. At level 3 with 47 HP, he couldn't survive that many trolls.
shadowblack
Posts: 368
Joined: April 15th, 2010, 3:03 pm

Re: Eastern Invasion

Post by shadowblack »

boolithium wrote:
elvish_sovereign wrote:What? I don't cheat in wesnoth. I even refrain from save-loading. It's probably a corrupt replay. Plus, how could Dacyn have -16 hitpoints? So I'm cheating to make myself worse?! Y'know, there is something called logic.

Did you really think I'd try to embarass myself with a replay in where I cheat? No way. This was an honest win.

I played on 1.8.3, so it might be a problem if you played the replay on a different version.

EDIT: could someone else also download the replay and see if there is anything wrong with it? Thanks.
So you don't let him get beat on by 3 trolls in the first turn? I'm using 1.65, and in my version he would have been dead in the first turn. At level 3 with 47 HP, he couldn't survive that many trolls.
No, he doesn't the one that gets attacked by three trolls is the loyal ogre:
evacuation.JPG
Maybe it's time you upgrade to 1.8.4?
You are a Dark Adept: You immerse yourself in the dark arts... potentially with great rewards...
boolithium
Posts: 6
Joined: August 22nd, 2010, 9:55 am

Re: Eastern Invasion

Post by boolithium »

shadowblack wrote: Maybe it's time you upgrade to 1.8.4?
I hate breaking my distro, if I don't have to. I have a bad habit of running hybrid distros, which end up becoming LFS after 6 months. Ubuntu says 1.65, and I don't want to turn this into a custom system.

But just in case, what is really better in 1.8/1.9?
monochromatic
Posts: 1549
Joined: June 18th, 2009, 1:45 am

Re: Eastern Invasion

Post by monochromatic »

boolithium wrote:
shadowblack wrote: Maybe it's time you upgrade to 1.8.4?
I hate breaking my distro, if I don't have to. I have a bad habit of running hybrid distros, which end up becoming LFS after 6 months. Ubuntu says 1.65, and I don't want to turn this into a custom system.

But just in case, what is really better in 1.8/1.9?
Everything, simply put. The AI, the images, the WML syntax updates, Lua support. 1.9 is bolstering lots of updates including terrain, bug fixes, new UI, and more to come with the oncoming dev releases.

But for playability, stick with 1.8. 1.9 is great but quite buggy. Getting 1.8.4 would definitely do.
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pauxlo
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Joined: September 19th, 2006, 8:54 pm

Re: Eastern Invasion

Post by pauxlo »

On Ubuntu you have to install the package wesnoth-1.8 to get the 1.8 branch. (At least on 10.4 this works, I don't know about older versions, but you could try.)
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