Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Feedback for the mainline campaign Son of the Black Eye.

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Chief_Chasso
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by Chief_Chasso »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Warrior (Difficult). Played on 1.10.6, starting gold 312
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6 or 7
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Very clear
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
The dialog/story was clear, but somewhat strange. When Kapou'e first arrives the assassin doesn't know who he is but starts talking battle strategy right away. He just assumes Kapou'e's there to help. And Kapou'e doesn't explain why he's there either.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
When enemies' coffers are replenished. If I would've delayed by one turn I would've lost. As it was, I was basically back at the bridge with the saurians before the enemies could catch me.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7- the only thing I didn't like was dealing with all the outlaw units. They ganged up and took down one of my lvl 3 troll warriors. Why does the dwarve recruit outlaws anyway?
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Maybe rewrite some of the starting dialog so it makes a bit more sense. Maybe explain why outlaws are there (and why do they have any problems with the orcs?).
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
None- however, I did play this scenario before so I kind of new what to expect.
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SBak
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Joined: October 8th, 2011, 1:36 am

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by SBak »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Challenging (easiest) 1.8.5 and 1.10.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
This depends. I'd say 7 to get through and rescue Inarix and the Saurians and 9 if you want to level up an Augur and get a healer.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Not crystal clear but I worked it out.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I found it strange that such an important location for the Orcs would have just an Orcish Slayer holding the fort. It also wasn't that clear to me why Inarix needed to be saved.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Recruiting/recalling was an issue for me here. The Elvish leader sends out plenty of Shamen with a mix of Fighters and Archers and then you have the Bandits on the other side. I know from playing Elves that even among level 1 Elves a Troll doesn't become a major problem until it's level 3 (in the Elves Beseiged in HttT I tend to home in on level 2 Trolls as they're fairly easy XP for Archers and Shamen). In this scenario I tend to go for level 1 spam and send out Troll Whelps just to contain the Elves.

Bandits are another problem. They hit hard. I know from Liberty particularly in the third scenario even if I have one bandit in among the Orcs I can do a lot of damage. Here I have units which also hit hard. But they hit twice, and a Bandit usually hits four times. It's probably one of the most consistent melee units among the chaotic factions even when you consider Revenants and Deathblades.

The map can be a challenge, especially in the south. The swamps are too far to the east, and notably on this scenario if you start putting Saurians in the swamp there's a decent chance of attracting Elves. I tend to run them north sending a few units south to meet them in the middle taking my chances against the Footpads.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8-9, because I always seem to get something out of this. Though I guess this would fall if the Dwarvish leader started pumping out Steelclads.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
None.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yes.
1. Detonating the bridge too early.
2. Trying to take out the Elvish leader with a force of Trolls/Crossbowmen only to meet reinforcements a move away from his keep.
3. Running out of turns.
4. Running out of gold.
WanderingHero
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by WanderingHero »

I don't get the scenario, that or its bugged for me in 1.10. Everytime I try to blow up the bridge I get the Kapou and Gruu complaining their too close to the bridge, even when I manage to get Inarix over it. Or am I only allowed to blow up the bridge if I get 4 lizards over?
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zookeeper
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by zookeeper »

WanderingHero wrote:I don't get the scenario, that or its bugged for me in 1.10. Everytime I try to blow up the bridge I get the Kapou and Gruu complaining their too close to the bridge, even when I manage to get Inarix over it. Or am I only allowed to blow up the bridge if I get 4 lizards over?
No, you can blow it even if none of the saurians are over, but you can't blow it if Kapou'e or Grüü are too close; the lower half of the bridge gets destroyed, so they can't be further south than the fort in the middle of the bridge. If you still get the message(s) despite having both on the north side, please post a savefile in which it happens.
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Maiklas3000
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by Maiklas3000 »

(1) Level and version? Nightmare, 1.11.12, 268 starting gold
(2) Difficult? (1-10) 9.5 to save Inarix, I'm thinking something has changed since the previous reviews.
(3) Clear? Clear.
(4) Dialog? Good. I question the use of the word "entrenched". They are massing for a banzai charge.
(5) Challenges?
1. First, you have to get past the bridge garrison. Recall your heaviest hitters, plus maybe a Grunt or Warrior to grab XP and a spare Assassin. The walkthrough says you only need 3 or 4 veterans, but you will need more on nightmare difficulty level. Go ahead and buy units up to your full 15 worth of village support. You'll need the extra units to meet the approaching Elves and Dwarves while Kapou'e recruits more in the southern keep. If the bridge fight causes you to lose a loyal Assassin or get bogged down, my advice is to restart from start.

2. If you want to save Inarix, then get Kapou'e to the southern keep ASAP. On the bridge, be conscious of where Kapou'e is... you need to keep moving him forward to get in range. If you look closely at my replay, you'll see I could have gotten Kapou'e to the keep a turn earlier if I had been thinking. That would have been turn 3. For recruiting there, I mostly spammed Grunts. To screen for the Saurians, unless you are advancing very rapidly on the Elvish front, you should also plan on recruiting Wolf Riders. However, don't recruit the Wolf Riders early like I did. Some L2 and L3 Wolf Riders would help.

3. Next, you have to try to save Inarix. This is a nightmare on Nightmare. As usual, with a tough scenario, I try to focus on the objectives. First, note that you don't have to save Inarix and four other Saurians. But if you do want to save them, the key insight I had was that it doesn't say which other four Saurians. On Nightmare, there are so many opponents that the Augers likely are going to get ZOC-locked and die. On the other hand, the Skirmishers can skate through ZOC's and escape. So, treat your Augers as already dead. You can use Augers to block for your Skirmishers and to blow a hole in the enemy line if there is no gap for Skirmishers to squeeze through. That said, one Auger almost survived for me. I sent the Saurians northeast to the last of the swamp, then north over open ground where they had to survive one last round of attacks before they would get screened by my Wolf Riders and other units.

4. Finally, you have to blow the southern part of the bridge. Not a problem, just make sure all units you want to keep are at least at the mid-bridge fortress. Unfortunately, I lost a L3 Troll in the retreat. He had been screening for the Saurians, so was wounded and last getting back and got killed by the enemy. You might not want to send Gruu on that mission.

(6) Fun? (1-10) 9.5, a very nice scenario that requires different strategy.
(7) Changes? It seems a bit too hard to save Inarix plus four others, but if that's the intention, then fine.
(8) Reloads? Yes, I reloaded on turn 8, as my line protecting the Saurians was breeched. It's a difficult enough scenario that I'm going to be satisfied with that.
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SotBE-Saving_Inarix_replay.gz
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Turn 5, Augers screen the rest of the Saurians.
Turn 5, Augers screen the rest of the Saurians.
Turn 8, screening force saves the Saurians.
Turn 8, screening force saves the Saurians.
Wesnoth screening force saves Inarix.jpg (159.82 KiB) Viewed 12515 times
Theron
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by Theron »

Nightmare; 1.11.13

Stats:
Scenario, starting gold (default+carryover),turns/max turns,recruits-recalls-advancements-losses-kills
10 150+114 14/16 17-6-6-14-45

Comments:
Scenario 10:
Maybe make sure the elves use more Shamans during the second assault. Their slow attack can be deadly while retreating. I sacrificed two units to save a Troll Warrior.
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shadow12
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by shadow12 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on? Challenging (easiest), Wesnoth 1.10.5, iOS app ver 1.0.4. Ended on turn 13/16. Starting gold 300, Finishing gold -7, carry over 42
The second time, I ended on turn 12/16 with 139 gold and 115 carry over.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 8, then a 6
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
It was clear. Move the Saurians to safety, across the bridge. Move at least 4. Save their leader. Destroy the southern part of the bridge. Anyone left behind is toast.

I think what really helped me was getting Kapou'e to the 2nd keep (south of the bridge) on turn 3 to recall more troops. If you do that, it makes a big difference. He can do it if he avoids fighting on the bridge and lets others clear the way.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I appreciate that the dialog isn't long-winded. The story is interesting, these Orcs are always on the move and encountering different races, which makes perfect sense for a band of hunting warriors.

It made me laugh when a troll tried to blow the bridge before Kapou'e had crossed it yet, and Kapou'e yelled, "Not yet, idiot, I'm still over here!" The boss was not happy. That troll probably had to scrub the latrine.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
1. Getting everyone across the bridge to safety.

2. The arrival of the saurians put my gold in the negative, because there were more saurians than I expected. The second time I knew I would get 10 of them.

3. Not being able to retreat and recoup (catch our breath) because:
(a) The bandits also do better at night
(b) The elves and dwarves don't care if it's night or day
(c) You need all units fighting since you have to protect the Saurians
(d) Time is of the essence to get everyone across the bridge safely
(e) all of the above

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10!
It was fun, suspenseful and fast paced, especially at the end getting everyone across the bridge with beefed-up humans and elves hot on our trail.
It makes it more interesting to battle different types of enemies and to get different types of recruits.

As usual, the map's layout is excellent with lots of different terrain and places to spread out and battle.
I like to watch the Saurians move, they look like frogs.

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

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario? restarted once.
I restarted because I wanted more gold. The second time I did a little better, recalled less troops.

I called out my big guns, a mix of eight L3's and used them and the loyals to clear the bridge. If you don't use Kapou'e to fight on the bridge, he can get to the keep south of the bridge by turn 3. In the keep south of the bridge, Kapou'e recalled four more L3's. I had 15 units on the board. The Slurbows worked best on the Bandits and the Troll Warriors worked best on everyone else. I don't know how anyone could fight with whelps, these bandits took out one of my Direwolf Riders in one turn and almost killed a healthy Troll Warrior. The loyal Slayers stayed behind, they kept getting attacked mercilessly. My army consisted of mostly level 3's that I used to set up a line of defense for the Saurians to pass through.

The Saurians arrived on turn 4. I kept the enemy busy, and the Saurians moved quickly into the marshes, then shot straight up north. On turn 8, the enemy recruited lots more units, but we were already starting to cross the bridge by then. I recruited a wolf rider to set off the bomb. Bye, bye Hag. ^_^
Sometimes life unexpectedly throws a Troll or a nasty Queen Naga in your path.
sine_nomine
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by sine_nomine »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Nightmare 1.12.4

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
7
296 starting gold

(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?
Clear

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Protecting the Saurians. Fighting off the attacks from elves and dwarves wasn't too hard, though that might be because I had high starting gold and overrecruited.
Also, I failed once because I couldn't get past the units blocking the bridge; one archer just kept dodging everything. I couldn't make it to the empty keep, but I suppose I could have "won" by abandoning inarix (though later scenarios would be impossible without saurians).

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
I think the elves sometimes choose the wrong attack (melee when they should use ranged and vice versa), double check that that's working properly

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yes, one restart because my army got stopped by an elvish archer.
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LordWolfDan
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by LordWolfDan »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?

- 1.14.5, Challenging

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

- 6

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

- Kinda clear

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

- Seems good. The sacrificial unit and Gruu's punchline is pretty much a quality black humor. The introduction of saurians is also good

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

- Trying to bring enough saurians to the river and across (failed two times)

(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?

- Instead of suddenly receiving gold, enemy leaders should receive reinforcements, but not in form of gold, but few lvl 2 enemy units

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

- Not really
Konrad2
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by Konrad2 »

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

1.15.2, Warlord (Nightmare), 232g

(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?

Clear.

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

Shepherding Inarix and 4 of her saurians through the enemy lines and making it in time over the bridge.

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

7

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

-

Scenario stats:
Spoiler:
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helling3r
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by helling3r »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Wesnoth 1.14.9; Warrior difficulty (the medium one)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
would give a 5.
The first few tries unwinnable (without lossing Inarix).
When i switched to wolf rider tactics to ZOC guard Inarix and his troops, it was not that hard at all.

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
The dialog was quite nice and i like the story.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Figuring out how to save Inarix troops. First i tried to let them hold out in the swamps, but that always turned out to be a death trap.
Sending just my army down was not fast enough.
Finally figuring out that i need really fast troops (wolf riders) to get some ZOC in the area was key to win this scenario.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10!
It was tactically really interesting in my opinion. Especially the reinforcements idea was quite nice. It would have been better to hide the money stats from the player, so this catches him as a surprise, tough.

After start i was quickly able to establish a hold at the center castle and my three levelled trolls proofed to be a very good guard. My main army smashed the enemy wave nicely and this resulted in the right flank being open, just in time when Inarix needed a corridor to move north.

Coordinating all this was really funny.


(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Hide enemy gold from player so its not so obviuos that enemy can recruit more.


(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Bad strategy in my means to save Inarix. First i tried to hold ground in the swamps, turns out to be not enough.
Then tried over and let my army fight quickly southwards, but thats too slow.
Finally the wolfs were the needed distraction to let Inarix slip east and leave behind the slow dwarfes.




(J, if you ever read this: greetings from the past :)
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max_torch
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by max_torch »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Nightmare, The start of scenario save is from 1.12.6 which I loaded on 1.14.11, 150 gold at start

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
It wasn't clear to me that only the lower half of the bridge was going to blow up. I initially thought the whole bridge would blow up so I moved all my units all the way above the bridge. Reloaded and moved units only to the upper half of the bridge to gain more bonus gold.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I find the premise very interesting since the scenario entails a lot of fighting yet the objective doesn't involve a leader kill. One of the more unique mainline scenarios. At the start of the scenario you already know you're going to fight hard with enemies on both sides and practically traversing the whole map in order to secure victory. Nice use of the dwarves competing with elves to see who can kill more trope.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The challenge is how small the window of time is to get in position and get the saurians out alive. Once I realized how to get Kapoue to the center keep at the earliest amount of time, Turn 3, that made all the difference to easily move down to meet and protect the Saurians.
Also, Elf shamans slowing Kapoue and/or Gruu. Once these essential units become slowed, there's no way for the army to change position, retreat, and reorient because they have to screen the heroes.
Also, I lost my Loyal assassins :( - Still trying to decide if I'll replay the scenario just to keep my loyals.
Edit: Played again to keep loyal slayers

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Perhaps we could add a dialog between the Saurians and the orcs, explaining why they're helping each other.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
At first I was trying to send only a few wolves down to escort the Saurians. Then to my surprise the two armies suddenly have gold to recruit units again mid scenario. So I changed my strategy to try to assassinate the elvish leader before he could mass recruit again, wasn't able to pull it off but the act of moving the bulk of my army out to engage the elves allowed me to easily shelter the saurians to safety.

Additional Note: I abused scenario restart until I got the desired outcome of reaching the central keep at turn 3. No loading of saves midscenario, except for the part where I save an extra turn because of realizing only the lower half of the bridge blows up.
Previously in this thread someone pointed out that an elf shaman stupidly uses melee attack just to die instead of using the slow attack, I observed the same thing.
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mal_shubertal
Posts: 93
Joined: December 1st, 2018, 6:58 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 10 - Saving Inarix

Post by mal_shubertal »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.16.6 Nightmare
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
4 just to finish, 6 to finish without wildly over-recruiting or losing key units.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
very
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
clear. Nice to have the call back to the silent forest and insight into the psychology of managing an orc horde.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Recruiting just enough. It's easy to win if you just recall a huge mob of lvl 3's,but then the upkeep kills your carryover gold and they don't have much to do, but if you under-recruit you get swamped or leave key loyal or high level units to exposed.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7. It gives you a variety of allied and opposed units, varied terrain, lots of different options about how to play it, and actually a lot of replay value as you have to approach it differently depending on how the enemies recruit.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
I think perhaps you start with too many saurians? You only need to save 5 of them, so I was able to just basically run past whatever elves opposed them, until I reached the orcish lines. Having fewer saurians would force the orcs to recruit more wolves and come farther south in order to provide more screening.
I like how this scenario has call-backs to all the orcs' enemies coming together. Lanbech makes reference to the first scenario, the elf Prince makes reference to the Silent Forest. I think it would be nice if the dwarf made some reference to holding a grudge for the dwarves you kill in To the Mountains of Haag, and/or the bandits you kill in the Desert of Death.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
I restarted a few times because I either over-recruited or under-recruited, and trying out different paths and strategies for the saurians until I settled on the strategy of just having them just ignore the enemies in their path and run for it.
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