Red Winter (Loyalist Campaign)

[Inky]

Nice to see this campaign getting updated! I think I'm just going to restart the whole campaign sometime since I mostly forgot what's going on

(campaign v0.0.11, Wesnoth 1.12.5, medium difficulty)

Scenario 5 notes

S5a

Typo (line 331): Brillant

Potion shop: I think the potions are pretty overpriced; for 20 gold you can recall a powerful level 3 unit which is more helpful than any of those abilities (and you also need to save gold for the second half). Maybe the potion shop would be better in the second half, which is the larger/more difficult half and you're also more likely to have extra gold (and the arcane one would be useful there).

Gold carryover: Objectives say 100% carryover; actual carryover is 80%. I started part 2 with 788 gold which would have been 985 with 100% carryover, which seems too high.
Possible issues with the part 1/part 2 gold mechanic:
-Due to the extremely high number of villages, the number of turns you finish early has a huge impact on gold for part 2 (43 gold per turn finished early);
-Even having a few of your units be non valiant/loyal will hurt your income, so players with tons of valiant recalls get an even bigger advantage.
A possible alternative: Disable income and carryover; whatever you don't spend in part 1 is what you get in part 2.
Or: Since it's meant to be the same battle, you could start Part 2 with no gold but with every unit you had at the end of Part 1.

Replay summary: spent 340 gold on 17 recalls; sent 1/3 of my units north to kill the human leader (these units did not end up doing much), while the other 2/3 formed a line at the edge of the southern forest. Orc forces were mostly wiped out around turn 12; at turn 15 the orc leader decided to go for a stroll on the ice in the northwest so it took a few turns to catch him; finished turn 20/25.
2 losses: Elvish sylph, silver mage

S5b

Bug: The frozen brew did not do anything.

Very minor note: since the scenario names are long both end up named as "Return to Estlyn - Part ... replay" so after finishing part 2 it asks if you want to overwrite your part 1 replay; maybe changing "One" to 1 and "Two" to 2 would shorten the filenames enough.

Due to the player's out of the way starting location way in the southeast corner, the vast majority of this fight ends up taking place between the two enemy AIs. Maybe there could be less units for both enemy sides since they're mostly fighting each other anyway. I also think it would be more interesting if the player started somewhere closer to the center so they'd have to be more involved in the battle at the beginning (though this would involve a lot of rebalancing).

Replay summary: 788 starting gold. Spent the first 10 or so turns just hanging out in the south while the undead and humans demolished each other. After that it was mostly just cleanup; Covos was killed on turn 17 and the lich leader on turn 26/37.
9 losses: lvl. 3: batal, 2 dwarvish lords, grand knight, royal guard, silver mage. lvl. 2: 1 pikeman, 2 swordsmen.

Scenario Five (both parts) is meant to be difficult and to clean up your recall list

This is extremely hard to do using normal methods (e.g. making a very difficult scenario where the player's supposed to lose lots of units) since players will always find some way to save their precious veterans. Probably the most effective way to clear a recall list is to use more direct methods (e.g. you may only bring a certain number of recalls with you due to story reasons.)

[Sire]

@ Inky

As always, thanks for the feedback!

Feedback Details:

One major concern that I came across during testing is that I was not using Valiant units (I was using a debug command and skipping forward). Looking back at the trait, it makes a huge difference in terms of power level, especially if the player has a lot of Valiant units on hand. I was also probably playing poorly as the Great Horde did originally overwhelm me (but that was before I added another 200 gold to the player as a knee-jerk reaction, so I may want to retcon that change).

Scenario Five is supposed to be a bloodbath, although arguably all the scenarios of Red Winter are meant to be a bloodbath, slowly using units as one progresses throughout the campaign. The First scenario limits recruits, but with proper management and rotation, it is possible to keep these high-level units alive. The second scenario takes place underground, and my main mechanic here to "leech" recalls were the Skeletal Dragons, but it seems they are easily countered with appropriate White or Red Mages. Then, Scenario Three is supposed to be a "desperate defense turned into break past enemy lines", but again, proper management, rotation, and decoys will save your primary units. Scenario Four is meant to be tough without the aid of the Ancients, and Part One of Scenario Five is supposed to overwhelm the player with lots of Tier 2 units. Part Two throws in higher level units and a super unit at the player.

I think one major change I could think about doing while keeping with the "theme" of Red Winter is to disable recruitment completely. (Problem with this is that it will somewhat screw up my plans for the final scenario, as I wanted it to mimic the finale of Warcraft 3's bonus campaign, a bunch of heroes aiding the generic units as they pushed toward the enemy leader.) The player mostly gets enough recalls for an army due to all of the pre-placed units, and for variety and I can always add another unit or two for the Dwarves and Elves.

I agree that "traditional Wesnoth methods" for wiping recall lists is difficult, as some players can handle it and perhaps even grow stronger off of a "tough scenario", or a player can become completely decimated instead. Problem is, I am a fan of recalled units, believing recalls are a core component of campaigns, but I realize the problems they can cause as the same time. Like I said above, perhaps I can disable recruitment completely and have the player manage what forces they have instead, making Red Winter a more unique campaign in that regard.

Back to the scenario at hand...

Potions - Potions may be a bit expensive. If I go through with the "no-recruit" revamp, then I will definitely look at reducing the prices of potions. Now, the Potion Shop is a carry-over from the "old Scenario Five", as it was one entire map instead of being split into two parts, which is why the Arcane damage is there. Perhaps I can add in the shop for Part Two as well

Gold Concerns - This is a problem plaguing this campaign, mostly due to the nature of high level units and the fact that recalls cost a mere 20 gold. The concept of transferring gold sounds fine on paper, but with such an "unlimited" amount of gold available, this somewhat trivializes the campaign. I had one solution above that basically will require an overhaul of Red Winter (essentially the player will not be able to recruit units whatsoever), but I'll look into your suggestions as well.
As for the 80% carryover, I thought I coded in the correct values for 100% carryover. At any rate, the entire thing will likely be revamped, so it is a minor issue.

Long Names: The name has been shorted to Return to Estlyn-1 and Return to Estlyn-2.

Starting Location: Holding back is a valid and intentional strategy in this map, although it does make it easier (perhaps too easier). While I will not be changing the starting location or surrounding terrain (for lore reasons, the map is shared with Scenario 3), I can add a "second wave" event to the surviving leader when the first one goes down to add some semblance of a challenge.

[Sire]

Developmental Update - May 10th, 2016

Progress was good last week, the main focus being an overhaul of Red Winter. Now, the player can no longer recruit new units throughout the entirety of the campaign and must rely on recalls to field an army. Of course, some scenarios have been rebalanced slightly to accommodate for this change (additional units are given to the player).

As for this week, I want to try and finish the Finale (Scenario Six) and the Epilogue, as well as tidy up loose ends with more polishing and balancing. In addition, I would like to get a good playtest session in before I release it (hopefully) next week.

Should all go according to plan, the next release will mark version 0.1.0 of Red Winter, which notates (for me at any rate), a "finished" campaign. Version 1.0.0 will be a "complete" campaign, which for the purposes of Red Winter will likely be the inclusion of proper portraits and sprites. It's been a long process, but hopefully Red Winter can finally be finished after all of this time, and all that will remain is the classic balancing and polishing for the campaign.

As always, here's the developmental changelog.

Changelog 0.0.12 IN DEVELOPMENT:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Announcements:
- The entire campaign has been overhauled to account for a game-changing revision – the player will not be able to recruit units for the entire campaign. The player has only the units at his / her disposal and units gained throughout. In addition, there is no more gold carryover or bonus gold.

Known Bugs:
- Killing all enemy leaders early in Scenario Three results in an early victory.
- There is no dialogue or explanation for a “Time Over” defeat.

Fixes:
- Fixed a typo in early Scenario Five – Part 1 (Brilliant).
- Fixed incorrect dialogue for the Royal Warrior in Scenario Five.
- Frozen Brew now works properly in Scenario Five – Part 2
- If the player has no Ancients in Scenario Four, their dialogue will no longer play.
- If the Lady “dies” in Scenario Four but the Bodyguard is still alive, he will still leave the party as originally intended.
- Finally made the “Immortals” code a macro. Backend code work.
- Transformed the Alchemsit Shop code into a macro, backend code work.

Revisions:
- The player can no longer recruit new units in the entirety of this campaign (this includes Aldras and Aleria). To compensate, the player now gains new units in various scenarios. The ability to recall past soldiers is unaffected.
-- Council: Lann, Tudok, Syris, and Vanrir can now recall units like Aldras and Aleria.
-- General: There is no more gold carryover or bonus gold.
-- Scenario One: Aethac’s reinforcements are now greater in size. (+ 2 Lieutenants, Arch Mage, Ranger, Royal Warrior)
-- Scenario Two: Upon reaching the checkpoint, gain units (3 Shock Troopers, 1 Mage of Light)
-- Scenario Three: The player has been granted extra Dwarf units (Dwarven Runesmith, Gryphon Master, Sentinel, 2 Berserkers, 2 Thunderguards)
-- Scenarios Four+: No extra units have been added.
- Scenario Three Revisions
-- The “Hidden Buff” for Aethac and Mycen in Scenario Three has been removed. (This gave enemies a forced chance to hit of 20%, regardless of terrain).
-- The “Valiant” and “Unstoppable” traits no longer grants a “Loyalty” bonus. This is because almost all of your units are Loyals anyway.
- Scenario Four Revisions
-- The Elvish Lady and her Bodyguard now have set names instead of randomized ones.
-- In Scenario Four, the desecration of Forests has been normalized. The corrupt Elves will no longer scorch the forests on Easy.
- Scenario Five – Part One Revisions
-- The Alchemist will now join the party, continuing his services in Part Two and the Finale of Red Winter. (He will set up shop near your main encampment.)
-- The Alchemist is now having a grand potion sale! All prices from his shop are now lowered. (10g for normal potions, 20 for the enchantment [previously 20, 35])
-- Gold values have been readjusted (600, 500, 500 <- 1000, 800, 800). Gold no longer carries over to Part Two.
- Scenario Five – Part Two Revisions
-- Now has a minimum gold of (600, 500, 500)
-- The Alchemist is now deployed in Part Two, in a village near the main encampment.
-- Now has a “second wave” event upon defeating Covos or Rudrick. The survivor will gain a boost in gold to keep the action going. (Gold Set = 400 // 600 on Hard)
- General Revisions
-- Minor dialogue revisions throughout the campaign.

Future Planning:
- Restructure Immortal & Classic mode code. Specifically, add +20 gold per fallen council member in Classic. (Current balancing is around having all Council Members present for each scenario, so choosing Immortal is highly recommended.)
- Check for “Tomato Surprises” and give appropriate warnings. This is defined as “If you had knowledge of this event, it changes the way you play the scenario from then on”. Give hints or remove entirely.
-- Mal Rudrick’s Departure (Scenario One), Estlyn Defiance (Scenario Three), Javelineer Unshackling (Scenario Three) // There may be others not listed, please notify the author if he has missed any.

Polishing:
- Change the name of the barony of Winterfell to something more fitting to the world of Wesnoth.
- In Scenario Five – Part One, have extra dialogue should the brothers reach the Alchemist Shop.
- Create a “Valiant” Icon for units who gain the valiant trait.
- Expand on how Aethac gets his “Champion” trait (and why his sword now does Fire Damage).

[RainerT]

Hi,

I really liked the campaign so far. After all these changes I have to replay. I Have two smaller issues.

- After scenario three the surviving units get fearless as a trait. This is a useless for neutral units und that way they profit less from the scenario. They should get instead of fearless another advantage. An easy option would be to increase there damage gain by one more point.

- The three elves in the first scenario don't get a marker for loyal units once they change sides. Could you change that? I always find it irritating to have loyal units without a marker. The same applies to the bodyguard in scenario four. However it doesn't matter to much since he is going to leave at the end of the scenario anyway.

[Sire]

Developmental Update - May 23, 2016

I really should stop stating "hopeful goals and specific dates". I'll be terrible at a PR job.

Instead of focusing on Red Winter, I've finished the Ooze Campaign (which is surprisingly enjoyable, and I picked up its sequel Elvish Dynasty), and played the Early Access version of Space Pirates and Zombies 2, giving detailed feedback to the developers after my 12 hour playthrough. Also, I marathoned through a playthrough of Ghost Trick on the DS as well as watching some "Souls Movies" by Moonlight Butterfly on Youtube.

However, I did make some developmental progress. One major change that I did do for Red Winter is that when Aethac's reinforcements arrive, the player gains control of Side 2 (your allies), including the Refugees. I changed the Refugees from 4 Peasants to 2 Peasants, a Woodsman, and a Ruffian, as well as giving them a special trait that makes them more powerful once they start leveling up. Think of the Refugees as "Super Trainees", that can become more powerful than your normal units if they are trained properly. Just remember that they are essential in Scenario One!

Another major change is that I buffed Aleria due to the fact that your other Council Members can come with the "Valiant" trait, so buffing her will help her be as powerful as the rest of the Council. The most noteworthy change is that I gave her a new weapon special, called "Deadeye" which is an upgraded Marksman. She now has an 80% chance to hit on the offensive, up fro 60%.

At any rate, here is the developmental changelog. I plan on switching gears and try to do some "unofficial" work on mainline campaigns instead of my scenarios, but I need to finish Red Winter first...

As always, thank you for reading,
-Sire

Changelog 0.1.0 - In Development:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Announcements:
- The entire campaign has been overhauled to account for a game-changing revision – the player will not be able to recruit units for the entire campaign. The player has only the units at his / her disposal and units gained throughout. In addition, there is no more gold carryover or bonus gold.

Known Bugs:
- Killing all enemy leaders early in Scenario Three results in an early victory.
- There is no dialogue or explanation for a “Time Over” defeat.

Fixes:
- Fixed a typo in early Scenario Five – Part 1 (Brilliant).
- Fixed incorrect dialogue for the Royal Warrior in Scenario Five.
- Frozen Brew now works properly in Scenario Five – Part 2
- If the player has no Ancients in Scenario Four, their dialogue will no longer play.
- If the Lady “dies” in Scenario Four but the Bodyguard is still alive, he will still leave the party as originally intended.
- Finally made the “Immortals” code a macro. Backend code work.
- Transformed the Alchemsit Shop code into a macro, backend code work.

Revisions:
- The player can no longer recruit new units in the entirety of this campaign (this includes Aldras and Aleria). To compensate, the player now gains new units in various scenarios. The ability to recall past soldiers is unaffected.
-- Council: Lann, Tudok, Syris, and Vanrir can now recall units like Aldras and Aleria.
-- General: There is no more gold carryover or bonus gold.
-- Scenario One: Aethac’s reinforcements are now greater in size. (+ 2 Lieutenants, Arch Mage, Ranger, Royal Warrior)
-- Scenario One: When Aethac’s reinforcements arrive, the allied Loyalist forces will join up with the player, granting the player control over them. This includes the General and the Refugees.
-- Scenario One: The Refugees are now 2 Peasants, a Ruffian, and a Woodsman (from simply 4 Peasants). In addition, they now have a special trait. Remember, they are essential characters in Scenario One, but act as any other unit for further scenarios. Time will tell if they will become worthy warriors…
-- Scenario Two: Upon reaching the checkpoint, gain units (Mage of Light, Red Mage, White Mage, Bandit)
-- Scenario Three: The player has been granted extra Dwarf units (Dwarven Runesmith, Gryphon Master, Sentinel, 2 Berserkers, 2 Thunderguards)
-- Scenarios Four+: No extra units have been added.
- Scenario Three Revisions
-- The “Hidden Buff” for Aethac and Mycen in Scenario Three has been removed. (This gave enemies a forced chance to hit of 20%, regardless of terrain).
-- The “Valiant” and “Unstoppable” traits no longer grants a “Loyalty” bonus. This is because almost all of your units are Loyals anyway.
-- There is a now a neutral variant for “Valiant”, which grants an additional +1 damage. Neutral units do not benefit from the Fearless trait, and will not get the trait.
- Scenario Four Revisions
-- The Elvish Lady and her Bodyguard now have set names instead of randomized ones.
-- In Scenario Four, the desecration of Forests has been normalized. The corrupt Elves will no longer scorch the forests on Easy.
-- Aleria has been buffed. For the most part, she now has a built in “Valiant” trait (+5 HP and +2 Damage) on top of her existing stats. Aleria now also has an upgraded Marksman, called Deadeye, which grants an 80% chance to hit when attacking with her bow. The reason for these changes is due to other council members easily outclassing her if they have the Valiant trait. || Detailed Changes: +13 HP from +8 // +4 Damage to melee from +2 // Deadeye Weapon Special
- Scenario Five – Part One Revisions
-- The Alchemist will now join the party, continuing his services in Part Two and the Finale of Red Winter. (He will set up shop near your main encampment.)
-- The Alchemist is now having a grand potion sale! All prices from his shop are now lowered. (10g for normal potions, 20 for the enchantment [previously 20, 35])
-- Gold values have been readjusted (600, 500, 500 <- 1000, 800, 800). Gold no longer carries over to Part Two.
- Scenario Five – Part Two Revisions
-- Now has a minimum gold of (600, 500, 500)
-- The Alchemist is now deployed in Part Two, in a village near the main encampment.
-- Now has a “second wave” event upon defeating Covos or Rudrick. The survivor will gain a boost in gold to keep the action going. (Gold Set = 400 // 600 on Hard)
- General Revisions
-- Minor dialogue revisions throughout the campaign.
-- EXP required to level up doubled. This places emphasis on preserving your units, and gives your higher level units more value.

Future Planning:
- Restructure Immortal & Classic mode code. Specifically, add +20 gold per fallen council member in Classic. (Current balancing is around having all Council Members present for each scenario, so choosing Immortal is highly recommended.)
- Check for “Tomato Surprises” and give appropriate warnings. This is defined as “If you had knowledge of this event, it changes the way you play the scenario from then on”. Give hints or remove entirely.
-- Mal Rudrick’s Departure (Scenario One), Estlyn Defiance (Scenario Three), Javelineer Unshackling (Scenario Three) // There may be others not listed, please notify the author if he has missed any.

Polishing:
- Change the name of the barony of Winterfell to something more fitting to the world of Wesnoth.
- In Scenario Five – Part One, have extra dialogue should the brothers reach the Alchemist Shop.
- Create a “Valiant” Icon for units who gain the valiant trait.
- Expand on how Aethac gets his “Champion” trait (and why his sword now does Fire Damage).
- Grant some form of animation (at least projectile) for the Great Skeleton Dragon in Scenario 5b.

[Sire]

New Release - Version 0.0.12 - June 12, 2016

Another delayed release! And to think I wanted this completed back in last December, and then in May, and I'm still not done. Two years - so close, and yet so far...

To put it simply, my mental state has been in decline for the past few years and it is taking its toll on me. When I say I want to finish Red Winter and work on other Wesnoth projects (alongside my personal projects), I mean it, but suffering from severe depression sucks as it saps all sense of enthusiasm and motivation to work on pretty much anything. I know if I properly sit down and work on the campaign, I can probably finish it within a week. However, depression, including other real life factors, makes it extremely difficult to accomplish these tasks.

Back to proper campaign notes instead of author melodrama, the main feature of this release is the Red Winter overhaul that focuses on using solely the units at the player's disposal to finish the campaign instead of recruiting units as per normal Wesnoth. This is meant to represent the nature of the campaign that an "elite force" is slowly dying out and losing the war, even though there are mechanics in place that make the player's forces more powerful as the campaign progresses. Additional units have been added to some starting scenarios to accommodate no longer having a recruit list, such as your allies in Scenario One falling under player control as Aethac's forces arrives. Another new feature is the inclusion of "super trainees", units that start out weak but can become extremely powerful when leveled.

As always, here is the changelog. I regrettably was unable to properly test these scenarios for balance, so if there are any glaring issues or bugs that I have missed, please let me know so I can make a hotfix.

Thank you for reading,
- Sire

Changelog 0.0.12:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Announcements:
- The entire campaign has been overhauled to account for a game-changing revision – the player will not be able to recruit units for the entire campaign. The player has only the units at his / her disposal and units gained throughout. In addition, there is no more gold carryover or bonus gold.

Known Bugs:
- Killing all enemy leaders early in Scenario Three results in an early victory.
- There is no dialogue or explanation for a “Time Over” defeat.

Fixes:
- Fixed a typo in early Scenario Five – Part 1 (Brilliant).
- Fixed incorrect dialogue for the Royal Warrior in Scenario Five.
- Frozen Brew now works properly in Scenario Five – Part 2
- If the player has no Ancients in Scenario Four, their dialogue will no longer play.
- If the Lady “dies” in Scenario Four but the Bodyguard is still alive, he will still leave the party as originally intended.
- Finally made the “Immortals” code a macro. Backend code work.
- Transformed the Alchemist Shop code into a macro, backend code work.

Revisions:
- The player can no longer recruit new units in the entirety of this campaign (this includes Aldras and Aleria). To compensate, the player now gains new units in various scenarios. The ability to recall past soldiers is unaffected.
-- Council: Lann, Tudok, Syris, and Vanrir can now recall units like Aldras and Aleria.
-- General: There is no more gold carryover or bonus gold.
-- Scenario One: Aethac’s reinforcements are now greater in size. (+ 2 Lieutenants, Arch Mage, Ranger, Royal Warrior)
-- Scenario One: When Aethac’s reinforcements arrive, the allied Loyalist forces will join up with the player, granting the player control over them. This includes the General and the Refugees.
-- Scenario One: The Refugees are now 2 Peasants, a Ruffian, and a Woodsman (from simply 4 Peasants). In addition, alongside the starting Horseman, they now have a special trait. Remember, the Refugees are essential characters in Scenario One, but act as any other unit for further scenarios. Time will tell if they will become worthy warriors…
-- Scenario Two: Upon reaching the checkpoint, gain units (Mage of Light, Red Mage, White Mage, Bandit)
-- Scenario Three: The player has been granted extra Dwarf units (Dwarven Runesmith, Gryphon Master, Sentinel, 2 Berserkers, 2 Thunderguards)
-- Scenario Three: When Gywn falls, his units fall under Player control.
-- Scenarios Four+: No extra units have been added.
- Scenario Three Revisions
-- The “Hidden Buff” for Aethac and Mycen in Scenario Three has been removed. (This gave enemies a forced chance to hit of 20%, regardless of terrain).
-- The “Valiant” and “Unstoppable” traits no longer grants a “Loyalty” bonus. This is because almost all of your units are Loyals anyway.
-- There is a now a neutral variant for “Valiant”, which grants an additional +1 damage. Neutral units do not benefit from the Fearless trait, and will not get the trait.
- Scenario Four Revisions
-- The Elvish Lady and her Bodyguard now have set names instead of randomized ones.
-- In Scenario Four, the desecration of Forests has been normalized. The corrupt Elves will no longer scorch the forests on Easy.
-- Aleria has been buffed. For the most part, she now has a built in “Valiant” trait (+5 HP and +2 Damage) on top of her existing stats. Aleria now also has an upgraded Marksman, called Deadeye, which grants an 80% chance to hit when attacking with her bow. The reason for these changes is due to other council members easily outclassing her if they have the Valiant trait. || Detailed Changes: +13 HP from +8 // +4 Damage to melee from +2 // Deadeye Weapon Special
- Scenario Five – Part One Revisions
-- The Alchemist will now join the party, continuing his services in Part Two and the Finale of Red Winter. (He will set up shop near your main encampment.)
-- The Alchemist is now having a grand potion sale! All prices from his shop are now lowered. (10g for normal potions, 20 for the enchantment [previously 20, 35])
-- Gold values have been readjusted (600, 500, 500 <- 1000, 800, 800). Gold no longer carries over to Part Two.
- Scenario Five – Part Two Revisions
-- Now has a minimum gold of (600, 500, 500)
-- The Alchemist is now deployed in Part Two, in a village near the main encampment.
-- Now has a “second wave” event upon defeating Covos or Rudrick. The survivor will gain a boost in gold to keep the action going. (Gold Set = 400 // 600 on Hard)
- General Revisions
-- Minor dialogue revisions throughout the campaign.

Future Planning:
- Restructure Immortal & Classic mode code. Specifically, add +20 gold per fallen council member in Classic. (Current balancing is around having all Council Members present for each scenario, so choosing Immortal is highly recommended.)
- Check for “Tomato Surprises” and give appropriate warnings. This is defined as “If you had knowledge of this event, it changes the way you play the scenario from then on”. Give hints or remove entirely.
-- Mal Rudrick’s Departure (Scenario One), Estlyn Defiance (Scenario Three), Javelineer Unshackling (Scenario Three) // There may be others not listed, please notify the author if he has missed any.

Polishing:
- Change the name of the barony of Winterfell to something more fitting to the world of Wesnoth.
- In Scenario Five – Part One, have extra dialogue should the brothers reach the Alchemist Shop.
- Create a “Valiant” Icon for units who gain the valiant trait.
- Expand on how Aethac gets his “Champion” trait (and why his sword now does Fire Damage).
- Grant some form of animation (at least projectile) for the Great Skeleton Dragon in Scenario 5b.

Possible Ideas:
- General: Increase EXP Thresholds (makes Level 3 units more valuable)
- Scenario Two: Asheviere’s Forces blow up a new passage to the Checkpoint (Creates a sense of urgency instead of easily blocking off a bottleneck).

[Inky]

Red Winter v0.0.12

Hey, I've replayed the campaign up to scenario 5b, on hard/classic this time. (Is it intentional that the campaign ends after scenario 5b in this version?)

Bugs/comments:

S1
-The gold carryover here was 80% when there wasn't supposed to be any.
-Bug?: Mal Rudrick didn't leave after the turn 19 reinforcements arrived.
-Not sure if it's intentional but the General you get from this scenario is able to recall units in later scenarios.
-typo in line 876: Submit, and your deaths will shall be quick and merciful!

S2
-Maybe the player could be given control of the dwarf leader (Aldras) when he arrives? Currently he heads straight to the keep at the checkpoint, so he'll die if you don't manage to hold the southern bottleneck (he'll also put himself in danger by attacking the enemy units there if he can reach them).

S3
-Valiant trait: Some neutral units (the yeti, the neutral mages, Aethac, the gryphon master) end up with the lawful version of the trait. (Also, the trait's description says a unit is lawful even when it's chaotic.)
Maybe the +2/+3 damage is too much, especially when combined with level 4 leadership; having an entire recall list of valiant units makes the later scenarios rather easy. (Not to mention the valiant refugees, which look like units out of LotI! )

S5a
-The alchemist shop won't let you buy anything if you have less than 20 gold, though the potions cost 10 gold now.
-This scenario was very easy; maybe reduce the starting gold?

S5b
-Bug: On turn 5, one of the player's units is sometimes teleported to the enemy fortress instead of the enemy silver mage. (Sometimes it works correctly though; not sure how to reproduce it.)

Replay summaries

S1
After failing miserably in a direct battle, I took the cowardly, ahem, smart approach and made an immediate retreat north to hold the two bottlenecks at King's Pass and Coldstone Fortress. I sent all the cavalry to the northeast corner to deal with the bandits' arrival, then had them quickly retreat north where they held out until Aethac's reinforcements arrived.
Holding the Coldstone fortress was quite easy with the good defensive terrain there; the King's Pass held until around turn 20 when the zombie dragon arrived and everyone had to retreat even further to the northwest corner of the map, where they held out until turn 31.
9 losses: 4 shocktroopers, longbowman, horseman, lancer, javelineer, cavalier

S2
I had a surplus of not so useful shocktroopers from last scenario, so I put them to (ahem) good use by jamming them all into the southern bottleneck. A couple of them got predictably fried by mages, but they (barely) managed to hold the bottleneck for the entire scenario. Meanwhile I wiped out most of the undead at one of the bridge bottlenecks, then lured out the death knights near the enemy keep one at a time.
Finished turn 41/50. 6 losses: 2 shocktroopers, 2 outlaws, knight, royal warrior. Sadly only 2 dwarvish steelclads survived, since the dwarves thought that attacking spectres in melee was a great idea.

S3
I formed my line along the outer walls of the fortress and the small 3-hex keep in the middle. Royal guards and grand knights held the southern wall against the orc/troll onslaught during the night, while halberdiers held off the loyalists in the north.
Elyra and several of her units ended up catching up to mine, so I used Covos' keep to spam...less important...recalls like javelineers and dragoons to try to hold them off. Almost all of the my units managed to escape, but it got very close at the end!
Losses: A lot, but the main ones would be a grand knight and halberdier killed by the infiltrating silver mages, and a fugutive and Lann were killed by the cavalry at the end.

S4
Mostly camped near the initial keep and tried to lure the serpents onto land, then headed west to take out the trolls and then the elves. Recalled plenty of mages to smoke the nether elves out of the forest.
On turn 18 I had several hexes on the northwest orc leader and made the extremely unwise decision to try my luck with assassination before he got reinforcements; it went rather badly and several units died to the newly recruited level 3 orcs. Once they were dealt with though it was an easy trip to the two southern leaders; I even recalled the remaining level 0 refugees to get some easy XP for them.
Finished turn 29/40. Losses: 4 of the new elves, silver mage, ranger

S5a
Held the southern forest line with dwarves (using the magical potion so they could hit those annoying orcish slayers) and easily held off the orcs; killed the orc leader on turn 14 and then went north to kill the loyalist leader on turn 19/25. No losses.

S5b
I split my forces equally between the western force consisting mostly of dwarves in the mountains fighting the undead, and an eastern force of mostly halberdiers and bowmen which used the frozen brew to head straight across the ice to Covos, killing him on turn 10. They then joined the western force in wiping out the remaining undead, killing the undead leader on turn 29/37.
Losses: 2 master bowmen, halberdier, elvish avenger, grand knight

Thanks for this awesome campaign!!

[Inky]

(double posting due to attachment limit)