Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

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Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

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(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth 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?
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Insinuator
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by Insinuator »

Hope I am supposed to post here...

1. Medium
2. If 10 is extremely difficult, that would be where I would put it.
3. Very clear objectives.
4. Fairly clear dialog, but also kind of boring.
5. Where to begin?! 100 gold to fight off three factions and an unlimited supply of mermen?! Insane, but it gets worse. They recruit 15 gryphon riders! I have never been as torn to shreds in a campaign as I was in this one. I had lots of good guys, but no money to recall them. And the previous scenario was almost as hard, a scenario when I had to sacrifice many good men to save those lousy saurians, leaving so few turns to get any surplus of gold. With only 100 gold, I see this scenario as impossible.
6. When you know you can't win, it is no fun. 1
7. GIVE ME MORE GOLD!
8. Maybe if the mermen had not shown up, I would have been better off.
9. I did not look at it.
wohlganger
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Joined: May 11th, 2008, 2:16 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by wohlganger »

1. easy
2. 2 (10 being hard)
3. clear
4. it was ok.
5. I had none
6. 4
7. It was far too easy with trolls. put a troll on the bridge, let them get hurt, swap out with another. repeat until you've leveled up a bunch of trolls. The only thing remotely threatening were the dwarvish player's gryphons. I think if partway through, the opposing armies started sending ships over which would drop enemies off near the east and west shorelines, this scenario could have been made more interesting and difficult. Or have some way to nullify the trolls overwhelming usefulness in this level.
8. no
9. i don't know wml
Fennlt
Posts: 3
Joined: August 11th, 2008, 7:22 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by Fennlt »

not being a smart ass but.
The only difficulties for this are Challenging, difficult, and nightmarish... theres no Easy or normal. With that said, that might explain some of the problems.

1. Challenging
2. 10
3. Clear
4. decent storyline
5. The unlimited supply of mermen. I thought maybe the first 20 or so would be it. But it gets ridiculous... Like someone above me said, trolls. But thats the only way I found to win. Just a ton of level 1 trolls. I dare not recall any of my level 3 units because they get torn to shreds and if this campaign is like most others i'll need them for the last level.
6. Meh, not fun when its this difficult, 2/10
7. Less mermen? maybe make them stop coming after 2 turns or something
8. no
9. dont know the language.
psvensson
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by psvensson »

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

The easiest, "Challenging." Software ver. 1.4.3

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

10. Could not complete it starting with 190 gold. Ended the campaign here.

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

Seemed clear.

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

Fine.

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

Too little gold and too few experienced units after the exceedingly difficult preceeding scenario, where I busted my ass to protect Saurians who are of no use in this scenario. I had lost gold two scenarios in a row.

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

1. Overwhelming difficulty, and not that interesting tactically.

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

Raise the minimum gold and throttle back the opposition.

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

No.

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?

I don't look at the WML.
claudya
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Location: Jena, Germany

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by claudya »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Challenging.
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
I didn't accomplish it yet. :shock:
My best achievement was giving up in turn 16.
(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?
Interessting, sure, any challenge like that would be "interessting".
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The mermen and the gryphons. Actually the situation would not be too dire if I had enough income. But with some level three units in action and not enough villages to fund them I end up more bankrupt than the Lehman Brothers. :twisted:
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
It'd be more fun if I saw a chance of winning.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
The major thing has already been said:
insinuator wrote:7. GIVE ME MORE GOLD!
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Loosing important fighters, because after the second or third turn I'm out of money to recruit any new ones.
(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
Where can I see the source code? I'd really love to look at the WML, but I got no idea how to access it.
MDG
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by MDG »

claudya wrote:
(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
Where can I see the source code? I'd really love to look at the WML, but I got no idea how to access it.
Details here. Just use a basic text editor to open up the .cfg files.
claudya
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Location: Jena, Germany

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by claudya »

Thanks, found it! 8)
(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
*lol* I did not find any comments in it.
But the WML is quite easy to understand even without any previous knowledge of the language. I could figure it out at first glance.

As it is open source: am I allowed to try some changes to make victory more likely? I'm thinking of adding one or two more villages to the map or increasing my start gold a little bit, so I could afford about two more units. That might make the difference. And I'd love my Orcs to be successful! :D

Would that be okay? Or is that cheating?
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zookeeper
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by zookeeper »

claudya wrote:Thanks, found it! 8)
(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
*lol* I did not find any comments in it.
But the WML is quite easy to understand even without any previous knowledge of the language. I could figure it out at first glance.

As it is open source: am I allowed to try some changes to make victory more likely? I'm thinking of adding one or two more villages to the map or increasing my start gold a little bit, so I could afford about two more units. That might make the difference. And I'd love my Orcs to be successful! :D

Would that be okay? Or is that cheating?
Of course that's cheating, but there's nothing wrong with cheating if that's what you want.

You're welcome to give suggestions on how to improve the balance (starting gold, villages, enemy gold, etc), but for that we'd need to know what Wesnoth version you're playing the campaign on. Or actually, you'd need to play on 1.5.x since there's been a lot of changes to that campaign in the 1.5 branch, so feedback based on 1.4.x isn't really useful.
claudya
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by claudya »

"Cheating" is such a hard word... let's call it "searching for alternative solutions", okay? :mrgreen:
But actually I would not like to cheat. I'd rather try to deal with the challenge you gave me.

But I'm playing on 1.4.something. So I guess it's time for an upgrade.


Btw: I still didn't accomplish that scenario. But I guess I found a way to avoid bankruptcy. I'll keep trying.
drjd
Posts: 1
Joined: November 18th, 2008, 10:21 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by drjd »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Medium ("Difficult") on Wesnoth 1.4.6. I had the minimum gold of 100.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
11, until I tried the all-Troll-Whelp strategy suggested by wohlganger above, when it became a mere 10. Can see how it would be very easy with 200+ gold and all Trolls, but with 100 gold one is very close to being overwhelmed until the mermen and griffons run out.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Finding any way to win. I replayed the previous scenarios twice each in an attempt to save gold, but could never get above 114. Almost ready to abandon the campaign before reading wohlganger's post. Even then I had to save-load multiple times and very carefully husband my gold income.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Not boring, but frustrating if you can't find the way to win. Latter half becomes boring once the mermen and griffon waves are broken, since the key to holding the bridge is to just not attack and rotate trolls.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Fewer mermen per turn but for more turns, to make the first half easier and the last half (if one survives) harder. Or have the mermen arrive several turns in, after one has had time to kill griffons.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Losing my leader or the Great Troll, since I had too few troops to keep them out of the heaviest part of the battle. The Great Troll, in particular, had the annoying habit of killing every enemy that attacked, thus allowing more and more to attack him until he died, ending the scenario.
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Turuk
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by Turuk »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Warlord (Nightmare) 1.5.7

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5. While the mermen and gryphons are a problem, putting some units on the west wall will take care of them fairly easily. Not to mention having an Orcish Slurbow over there shoots down the birds pretty quickly if needed. The bridge fort is easy to hold, just occupy all of the spaces or leave the bottom middle on open so that you do not have one unit that can be attacked by three enemy units. Then it was a matter of rotating my units out to villages or the saurian healer.

(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?
Good, not too much until the end. The dialogue when the reinforcements arrive reads "....help you push them back to the river!" That's great, but you do not take into account if the player actually held them back the whole time. ;)

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
None.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
6. The map, as mentioned when playing Saving Inarix is great, but a lot of the fun is lost in just grinding down the enemy forces.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
The mermen are a nice surprise, but it could be handled better. Have them appear on the beaches on the far side of the river (called into action by the human leader possibly halfway) and they can then storm both walls of the fortress.

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

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
Looks good to me.
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Egosnemesis
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by Egosnemesis »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
The easiest, "Challenging". Played on Wesnoth 1.6.1

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5. I think the previous scenario was actually significantly harder.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
As clear as the rest of this fine campaign.

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The only units that really posed a threat were mermen and gryphons. The enemy recruited 6 or 7 gryphons during the whole scenario. There were a lot of mermen and I did lose a few units to them. Holding the center was ridiculously easy if you didn't get greedy and try to get experience (which I did try a couple times). Since elves go first, they always stick an elf fighter/archer in gap, so you can sometimes do this safely. If you play defensively and put 3 trolls on the wall (with one castle space open), you should keep killing units until a weak ranged level 1 unit gets there. Think elf fighter. He'll do nothing but shoot at you and do 4-6 damage a round. If you kill him, make sure an elf is in range to replace him, not a red mage. I figured this out after a troll got fried.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8. I loved the atmosphere of being seiged and the actual evens that came into it.

(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?
None.

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
N/A
Arnaudus
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by Arnaudus »

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

Challenging (the easiest one), 1.7.1

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

Two parts. Resisting the gryphons and the fishmen: pretty challenging. Holding the bridge: piece of cake.

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

OK.

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

OK.

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

Turns 4 to 8, I had to deal with a fair amount of gryphon riders and mermen, this was tough. After getting rid of them, no more challenge, and plenty of useless units.

Gold will be a problem at one point. Perhaps it worked with the old gold version (80% kept), but now, with two consecutive scenarios which cannot be finished early, there is basically no way to keep some gold. Let's see how difficult it will be to deal with this in the next scenarios.

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

5. The first part is challenging and exciting. But the last 15 turns are soooooo boring.

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

Make it shorter, or make something happen to let their army cross the river in some way. It's too easy to hold the bridge rotating lvl3 units.

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

No.

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?

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StandYourGround
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Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 11 - Clash of Armies

Post by StandYourGround »

1. Easy, 1.7.1

2. I would say 7. My first mistake was spreading my army out too evenly, to find my west flank bombarded by the gryphons and mermen. Fortunately, half of the Gryphons suicided themselves on my bridge troops, and the others were soon beaten. The mermen were a constant pain, until about halfway near the end when I discovered that if you manage to kill all the mermen currently on the board before more can spawn, they will stop coming. The best way to do that is actually to retreat from the shore, and make the Mermen fight you on land. :) After that, it was just a straight defense to hold the bridge, rotating an Augur in and out to level it to Soothsayer, to give my front line the +8 healing bonus. Grüü and an Orcish Warlord did nearly all of the work, and got 3 AMLAs each.

3. Very clear.

4. It was fine.

5. In order, Gryphons, Mermen, gold, and bridge defense.

6. Seven. The most fun for me was actually holding the bridge, bumping off dozens of enemies with a handful of defenders. I also got a good rush from the gryphons and mermen.

7. Revive Bugg the sea orc. :lol: kidding. Actually, I can't say what would improve it. It's very challenging as it is. If there were more ways for their armies to reach us, then I would have to demand lots of additional villages to provide the resources for an adequate defense.

8. no.

9. I haven't done anything with WML yet, so nope.
I will now resume lurking silently.
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