Scenario Review: NR 11 - Eastern Flank

Feedback for the mainline campaign Northern Rebirth.

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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario Review: NR 11 - Eastern Flank

Post by beetlenaut »

Replay (on nightmare difficulty). It says 1.11, but it should be equivalent to 1.10.3.

I had some good luck in that my shyde survived at one point, but if I had been taking more time, she wouldn't have been in danger. I also went overboard in recruiting in the enemy keep, but I wanted to be done. I thought more of those units would die, too.

I didn't originally save a replay, so it ends before the last turn. You can see what's going to happen though: After a couple kills, I will have three magic users in range of the last leader.
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taptap
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Re: Scenario Review: NR 11 - Eastern Flank

Post by taptap »

beetlenaut wrote:Replay (on nightmare difficulty). It says 1.11, but it should be equivalent to 1.10.3.

I had some good luck in that my shyde survived at one point, but if I had been taking more time, she wouldn't have been in danger. I also went overboard in recruiting in the enemy keep, but I wanted to be done. I thought more of those units would die, too.

I didn't originally save a replay, so it ends before the last turn. You can see what's going to happen though: After a couple kills, I will have three magic users in range of the last leader.
Looking at your replay I was amazed how few units you fielded in the beginning. You didn't even had a straight front and somehow you were killing units at an amazing pace. So, I was very sceptical how I will fare.

At turn 29 I had just gained a larger foothold on the island (I had the lich village sitting there right from start, who didn't made it out in time, which would be suicide against a human but the AI is rather predictable) and the enemies had still over 100 units (I made a unit count each turn), however to my surprise everything then went really fast. While in turn 29 and 30 the enemy unit count was actually increasing (night), the following day brought a foothold in the northeast-corner of the castle and triumph in the south. When Tallin arrived (I had less gold than you.) I could block the troll leader from recruiting right away - and the turn after some new openings allowed me to pin the orcish leaders with - most importantly - dwarf lords (I had 5 unrecalled) and some few other dwarves, only one of them ever recruited again. This speeded up things tremendously and I finished on turn 38.

Other than the different "inside-the-castle" approach, I actually did retreat drakes whenever and whereever necessary - ceding the southeast more or lessly completely for a while. Thus I had 21 drakes remaining in the end (some more were close calls though, from initially 23) that did quite a lot of work (close to 1/3 of the kills outside the castle).

The balancing problem in this scenario is the same as in the previous one. You get the bonus for both - ally and you, i.e. effectively 2 gold for every village / turn in the early finish bonus, while otherwise you only have 1 gold while playing - even if you wouldn't have upkeep reductions and controlling the whole map. Thus early finish is much more important than anything else.
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shadow12
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Re: Scenario Review: NR 11 - Eastern Flank

Post by shadow12 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Challenging, 1.0.4
Starting Gold: 515 Tallin, 570 Krash
Finished turn 29/53 with about 1800 carry over gold for each Tallin and Krash.
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 8
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives? Clear

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
The story about Tallin is interesting. The dialog gets a little cheesy at times.

One Drake Glider is named Grashitt. :) He is my new favorite.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
. Keeping track of my units (such as the loyal dwarves), especially when we got into the castle.
. Locating units in the crowd that I wanted to level. Some of the L1 and L2 drakes looked really similar.
. Remembering to withdraw Drakes at night or to use dwarves to protect them. Its hard to pull back when you've gained ground but the nights were brutal for them if I didn't.
. I have a tendency to go a little wild recalling/recruiting. When I saw the size of that enemy castle, I freaked out a little. Its good to have a lot of troops, because you can rotate the wounded and replace the front line with fresh troops, but too many and the field becomes congested.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9. I enjoyed it. I liked the different terrain to battle on - mountains, river, island and the big castle. 500 gold is a good amount to start. Too much gold and its not much of a challenge.
A Drake Fighter kicks butt when he becomes a Blademaster!

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
The scenario is really good as is. Just a thought... If drakes had been introduced earlier in the campaign, we would have had more time to level them. I think it would have made the whole campaign more fun.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yes, when one of my key units got killed because I wasn't paying attention.

My Strategy was basically just push forward in a line.
. Recalled high level units, spent most of my gold right away. It worked out ok. You gain villages pretty fast.
. Moved Drakes and dwarves to the northern mountains along with the Shyde flying healer.
.Sent some gryhons south to get villages.
.Stationed Fugitives on the river bank, all the way down to the bottom of the map. They eliminated a lot of enemies in the river. The Spectre helped them hold the bank.
.Sent the rest pushing through the center. The turning point was capturing the center island.
. When Krash made it through to the big castle on turn 27, I recruited drakes to trap the remaining kings. Didn't really need to, the enemy was almost wiped out.
. Recruited some low level humans right on top of villages that were claimed by the enemy, just for fun.

Grashhit is now a SkyDrake.
Last edited by shadow12 on March 10th, 2017, 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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BillytheBabyGoat
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Re: Scenario Review: NR 11 - Eastern Flank

Post by BillytheBabyGoat »

Content Feedback wrote:(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
1. Nightmare.

2. 10.

3. Crystal.

4. Fine.

5. Trying to smash through so many units in the turn limit was brutal. I ended up finishing with only two leveled drakes not counting Krash (The loyal ones specifically) and lost my loyal dragonguard and one of the loyal dwarvish lords from The Pursuit, not to mention the half dozen other dwarvish lords and 4 of my royal guardsmen, as well as 50 drakes. I brought the drakes down into the flatlands and pushed up through the mountains with my dwarves; Tallin ran with the drakes as well as the white mages, while Abhai, leveled druid girl, leveled sorcereress girl (Sylph at this point) and a host of gryphons went south to fight for the villages. The dwarves managed to push through the mountains with about a 50% mortality rate, while the drakes successfully deposited Tallin and his Royal Guard bodyguards at the start of the orcs keep; half of those guards got killed getting swarmed by the huge quantities of orcs getting recruited, while Tallin recalled a few leveled units with direct placement next to the leaders to take them out. The dwarves came down from above at about this time to wipe out the troll leader; the loyal dragonguard missed his shot, and was taken out the next round, while one of the loyal lords had an epic fight with one of the leaders in the northwest part of the keep where RNG was definitely in my favor. After wiping out the leader and about 4 leveled orc enemies, he finally got taken down. Abhai's mission to secure the villages to the south was the worst failure of all, with every single gryphon getting slaughtered. All 3 of my loyal flying units that were down there were low on health and about to be killed, so I moved every half dead leveled drake that had fought on the plains over the island and the water to protect them, where they were all wiped out. The only reasons I ended up winning is recalling directly next to enemy leaders with Tallin, Abhai and the two other loyals pulling so many enemies south, and the loyal dwarven lord distracting half the army for multiple turns.

6. 10. This was the most fun and challenging level in the entire campaign, and I plan at some point to go back and replay it a few times despite having completed the campaign now just to try and find a tactic for completion that results in less deaths on nightmare.

7. None; challenge is great.

8. I staunchly refuse to reload saves strictly for RNG reasons, although there were a few times when that definitely would have saved some loyal units (Dragonguard's shot missing the troll leader for example). I ended up not restarting either, mostly because by the time I was losing loyal units I was too deeply invested in my strategy to make a big deal out of it; it also helped that they weren't auto-recalls.
tikaf
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Re: Scenario Review: NR 11 - Eastern Flank

Post by tikaf »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
medium

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
10

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
crystal clear

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Clear and interesting!

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

The Drakes playing before your own troops was my major challenge. It is difficult to figure out when you can take a risk, where to place them, where to leave an opening for dwarves.
The other one is finding a good mix of units to defend south of the river, without taking much casualties.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

10 great scenario really. Plenty to think about.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

Nothing, apart from being able to move all troops in one same turn (drakes and your own troops).

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

Extending the front line all the way up north used too many units, and healers had too much way to cover.

I include my replay, for what it's worth. A bit random as to placement of troops and recruiting, any comments welcome.
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Thrash
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Re: Scenario Review: NR 11 - Eastern Flank

Post by Thrash »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?

1.12.6, Normal

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

3

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

Clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

Above average.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

Keeping Drakes alive.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

6, slogfest up North, guerilla war down south, nice mix.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

Nothing comes to mind.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

No.
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Konrad2
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Re: Scenario Review: NR 11 - The Eastern Flank

Post by Konrad2 »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?

1.14.1, Hard

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

7

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

Clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

Nice.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

Rotating my units and finish before the turns run out.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

4, too many enemies. I spent almost all of my time boxed in, grinding away at them.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

Scale it down.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

No.
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LordWolfDan
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Re: Scenario Review: NR 11 - Eastern Flank

Post by LordWolfDan »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?1

- 1.14.5, Challenging

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

- 10

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

- Clear. Easier said than done

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

- It's good. Now we can see the full aminosity of northern humans against sonofab... Rakshas

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

- WAY TOO MANY ORCS

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

- 6

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

- Can't think of any

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

- Took me a while how to form a good strategy
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Re: Scenario Review: NR 11 - Eastern Flank

Post by Tom_Of_Wesnoth »

Content Feedback wrote: March 12th, 2008, 12:17 pm (1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Normal, 1.15.2.
Content Feedback wrote: March 12th, 2008, 12:17 pm (2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
10. I couldn't beat it after two tries. I probably could have got there eventually, but it just wasn't fun for me.
Content Feedback wrote: March 12th, 2008, 12:17 pm (3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Crystal clear.
Content Feedback wrote: March 12th, 2008, 12:17 pm (4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Yeah, I mean, we're fighting Rashkas' forces, but Rashkas himself isn't here, so it's just some filler orcs.
Content Feedback wrote: March 12th, 2008, 12:17 pm (5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
There's way too many orcs. The orcs have an income - base income, before villages - of literal hundreds of gold every turn. I can barely kill the orcs as fast as they're being recruited.

The majority of the battle takes place in hills and mountains. This makes the number of orcs even more annoying, as they've actually got quite good defences on that terrain. A single unit missing can ruin the advance of a whole group of units, too, because it can result in enemies surviving and gaps not opening up.

I went into the scenario with fairly few levelled drakes, and a swarm of level one drakes are actually fairly useless against a larger swarm of level two orcs on 60% defence terrain.
Content Feedback wrote: March 12th, 2008, 12:17 pm (6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
0. It's like the Western Front of the First World War, only slower and grindier.
Content Feedback wrote: March 12th, 2008, 12:17 pm (7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Reduce the income of the orcs by a significant amount, and swap out some of the mountains/hills for more flat/forest terrain. Maybe throw in some lakes that the drakes can flit over, while the enemy can't get through.
Content Feedback wrote: March 12th, 2008, 12:17 pm (8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Does the slow realisation that my will to live is dying faster than the orcs are, count as an event?
If presented with the opportunity, I would take great pleasure in becoming a world ruler.
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Re: Scenario Review: NR 11 - Eastern Flank

Post by Konrad2 »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?

1.15.7, Royal Guard (Nightmare)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

7, you constantly need to push forward while avoiding the loss of units. The tables can turn at any time, and losses might mean that you won't defeat the enemy leaders in time.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

Crystal.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

Clear.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

Pay attention for the full 38 turns. Or rather pay enough attention so nothing fatal happens.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

8, but it's an aquired taste. For the 'normal' player it would probably a 1-3, since this one is a chore to beat.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

-

Scenario stats:
Tallin
Spoiler:
Krash
Spoiler:
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Rendy55
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Re: Scenario Review: NR 11 - Eastern Flank

Post by Rendy55 »

Content Feedback wrote: March 12th, 2008, 12:17 pm (1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
1.Nightmare
2.8
3.very clear
4.fine
5.fight with many more numerous enemy whose constantly recruit new troops and fight way to leaders
6.10
7.nothing just maybe allow lich and krash advance to level 4.
8.no
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