The Thunderhead Raider - Goblin Campaign

[Migrant]

Hey guys!

I haven't posted much in the forums before, but i have read lots of it and of course, played heaps of Wesnoth. I've started to make a small goblin campaign for around 5 scenarios, which I hope to have ready in a week or so.

Here's the intro to it:
"The intricate dynamics of goblin affairs are often confused with anarchy. The chaos, however, is that of a thundercloud, and direction will sporadically and violently appear. Pashalik Mons and his raiders are the thunderhead that leads the storm."

As you can guess, you'll be playing with Pashalik Mons, a goblin who aspires to become the Goblin King and lead his band into a wealthy and bloody success by raiding the human villages.


I'll post the first few scenarios as soon as I'm comfortable with them, hehehe.
If anyone wants to comment on the idea up to now, though, feel free.
If any gifted artist wants to contribute with some artwork, too, it'd be great. I just need a static icon for a "goblin hag" unit and maybe some cool portraits for the goblins. I'm trying to keep it simple, so wont make too many new units.

Will be posting news soon.

Cheers,
Migrant

edit- noticed i had misspellad campaign name. Thunderhead RAIDER is correct, not Rider.

[docrock]

The intricate dynamics of goblin affairs are often confused with anarchy.

Anarchy. Me likes it. Seriously: just don't give these goblin pests too much civilization. If they'd have something like that they would not be orcish cannonfodder. Well, at least i think so. Maybe that goblin dudes are actually highly developed and just underestimated. Umm.

[tsr]

You might want to look into the free goblins (search for it) made by irrevenant.

(AFAIK they still need some work but there are a lot of different goblins there with some graphics too )

/tsr

[docrock]

free goblins? FREE GOBLINS? lol, right, i never heard of them before, i am gonna check'em out and post after that again. thank you for the hint.

[Migrant]

thanks for te hint, tsr. I checked out that topic, its pretty cool. I'm going on a rather different direction with the goblins, but its nice to see more people take an interest in this cool and often forgotten race.

Anarchy. Me likes it. Seriously: just don't give these goblin pests too much civilization. If they'd have something like that they would not be orcish cannonfodder. Well, at least i think so. Maybe that goblin dudes are actually highly developed and just underestimated. Umm.

No, i dont plan to. I'm making them quite tribal and simple, living in caves and raiding peasant villages in the countryside.
up to know I've got planned:
scenario 1 - Pashalik Mon (your leader) must kill the current goblin king to become king himself
scenario 2 - You lead a raid in a nearby village (opposition is mainly peasants / ruffians and woodsmen). When you win the imperial army shows up and the goblins must run (pikemen, archers, and lvl 1 storm troopers, leader is lvl 2 captain / general, whatever)
scenario 3 - Goblins must run over mountains and river. On the other side they find and "domesticate" wolves. Wolf rider becomes available to recruit and they must defeat the human army.
[EDIT]
scenario 4 - Goblins become confident with their new mounts and try to attack an elven caravan (mostly lvl1 elves, depending on difficulty chosen). After defeating the elves, (storyline only, show how) the goblins run into a strong group of orcs (lvl 2 units) who had planned to raid the same caravan. Orcs try to "enslave" the goblins again and goblins must run.(scenario ends with elves defeated, rest is storyline only)
[/EDIT]
scenario 5 - Awesome, as-of-yet unrevealed ending.

extra units:
Goblin stabber (possible diff name) - lvl 0 with 4-4 blade attack, alternative to goblin spearman. Upgrades to Goblin Raider. probably ends at lvl 1.
Goblin shouter - similar to wolf rider but with leadership. leader unit only (after scenario 3). upgrades to goblin screamer, then to goblin howler.
Goblin Hag - not a real unit, just a static NPC than gives council to Pashalik in scenario 1.


Cheers,
Migrant

[Akkarin345]

scenario 3 - Goblins must run over mountains and river. On the other side they find and "domesticate" wolves. Wolf rider becomes available to recruit and they must defeat the human army.

Is there a few years break here or something because i doubt the goblins just jumped on the wolf's back and could ride it instantly.

extra units:
Goblin stabber (possible diff name) - lvl 0 with 4-4 blade attack, alternative to goblin spearman. Upgrades to Goblin Raider. probably ends at lvl 1.

Goblin Puncturer? stabber sounds a bit wierd imo. However if he uses a blade then he slashes not stabs. Goblin Slasher?

Goblin shouter - similar to wolf rider but with leadership. leader unit only (after scenario 3). upgrades to goblin screamer, then to goblin howler.

Goblin Bellower? same with shouter imo

[docrock]

Is there a few years break here or something because i doubt the goblins just jumped on the wolf's back and could ride it instantly.

lol, actually here is a story to tell. been playing eve for years and as you might know there's a friggin lot of icelanders in this game. several years ago one of them (which i used to fly with a lot) had a polar bear in the vicinity that regularily raided his kitchen. up to the point when he decided to just not lock his front door again because doors and locks were more expensive than the stuff in his fridge. after some time that bear just started to live in his garage. one night, somebody tried to break in and steal his tv and other stuff. now guess what that polar bear did ...
lesson: if wildlife decides to side with you, just let it happen.

[Akkarin345]

lol but my point is you can't just jump on the back of a wolf and immediatly create wolf riders they would need time to learn.

[docrock]

lol but my point is you can't just jump on the back of a wolf and immediatly create wolf riders they would need time to learn.

hehe, point taken of coz. i am also pretty sure that those wolves would drive you into one hell of discussion before they would ever let a goblin ride on them. but actually, the plot rules, so if the storyline requires them to be wolfriders, so be it. that was what i was intending to say.

[Akkarin345]

IMO they should be some more scenarios between where they find the wolves and using them .

[docrock]

IMO they should be some more scenarios between where they find the wolves and using them .

that's the kind of plot-improving stuff.

[Akkarin345]

Maybe the goblin king could put down an uprising of goblins and use their land to rest and get used to the wolves?

[zookeeper]

I'd very much suggest having a mini-scenario involving taming some wolves. It could be more like a puzzle, where you must capture a number of wolves by ZoC and/or luring them into traps of some kind, maybe requiring some creative ambushing. I don't have much more specific suggestions than that, but I'm sure there are many possibilities for scenarios like that.

"Training the Ogres" in Eastern Invasion is a bit like that, although it's very simple and not all that good.

[Akkarin345]

Althought i hate that scenario i think it is needed and would make a good addition. ( please make it more interesting )

[Migrant]

Goblin Puncturer? stabber sounds a bit wierd imo. However if he uses a blade then he slashes not stabs. Goblin Slasher?

Yeah, i think stabber sounds, wierd, too. I was wanting a name relating to the lvl 1 Goblin Raider. I'll search the thesaurus for synonyms of raider...

[EDIT]
Looked at thesaurus.reference.com.
Synonym Collection v1.1
Main Entry: raider
Part of Speech: noun
Synonyms: bandit, buccaneer, freebooter, highwayman, hijacker, looter, marauder, pilferer, pillager, pirate, plunderer, privateer, rustler, thief

Goblin Looter sounds cool enough. Goblin Pilferer is cool and might let people wondering what it means. Might go for that one.

from answer.com:
To pilfer
v.tr.

To steal (a small amount or item). See synonyms at steal.
[/EDIT]


On the wolf domestication theme:

Well... it just game... I was thinking something simple: goblins go faster than humans over mountains/hills, so they'd gain some space with humans in pursuit. River fords/ bridge are a must (maybe they break the bridge after passing through it?) They find some wolves and a keep/castle (including a wolf "leader") on the other side and must defeat them. then in "last breath" of the wolf leader pashalik says "wait!" or something more, moves towards the dieing wolf leader and climbs on its back (transform unit tag or something like that). there are a few messages of "Wow!", "Ahhhh!", "Come ooon!" and "Eeeeeha!" with a few "go to" events around the area. in the end he goes back to where he originally was and voala, you've got a wolf rider xD and can recruit them. I might also transform some other goblins on the map in wolf riders...

Goblins are creatures more than they are humanoids, they have an animal empathy. They don't need to domesticate the wolves because they don't make the wolves follow their command, they make the wolves want what they want. The goblin and wolf relation is not like the human and horse relation, it might be more like how an elf rides a saddle-less wild horse.

Hahahaha. I just made that up.
I really disliked the taming the ogres scenario in that campaign, and I this is really just a minor detail of the campaign so that the goblins can have stronger units and to use the wolf riders. I dont want to focus on it much. Plus, how would the goblins defeat their human pursuers without the wolves? A simple "run away from the humans" scenario would be either boring or impossible, as on most terrains the goblins are desperately slower than the humans.

Do you guys think its really that big an issue??