Swamp Witch Curse: A Faerie Tale from the world of Four Moon

[Velensk]

After many delays, I am finally able to release another campaign for Era of Four Moons. Available on the 1.12 server (currently dev, soon to be the new stable).

Swamp Witch curse is a short expert level campaign for the Era of Four Moons. It follows the story of a cursed princess and her quest. Complete at 9 scenarios long.

Please post feedback, bug reports, and questions here. If you have completed it and have the time please post a review on the wiki.

If you beat the campaign on hard without save-loading, please post the replays here (I've only managed to get through on normal myself).

[Turuk]

I started playing through this on Hard without save-loading, and it's been interesting so far.

S1 - It took a few tries, I had to toy around with a few strategies - though, thinking about it now, some of my initial ones may have worked as I was not comfortable with how to use the units yet. I tried holding them at the passes, failed; tried sending a force to stall at the passes and one around the north of the mountain chain, failed; I moved north to the castle and set up base there, holding them as they arrived and pushing back, success!

SWC-Nomad_raiders_replay.gz

(25.66 KiB) Downloaded 335 times

S2 - The victory conditions should be a bit more explicit that defeating her is done by capturing all the villages. It read to me as if I had to own all of the villages and kill her, so I was corralling her into a corner of the map while also snatching up villages (and reclaiming them from some pesky spawns). Then I just just happened to grab them all and poof, she's gone. I'm currently moving into S3 but I had no extra turns left and no bonus gold, so we will see if that holds me up.

SWC-The_Witch_Appears_replay.gz

(35.18 KiB) Downloaded 309 times

[Velensk]

I think I'm going to wait to download till I have a complete set to watch at once. Still, good luck!

One of my worries is that when I get around to rebalancing all the EoFM Extended factions for multiplayer I'm going to have to rebalance this camapign but at the moment it's not looking like that's going to be anytime soon so I appreicate you playing it through now.

[Turuk]

I think I'm going to wait to download till I have a complete set to watch at once. Still, good luck!

Sounds like a plan! I might post some more feedback as I go (good place for me to take notes), but I will put all of the replays into the last one.

One of my worries is that when I get around to rebalancing all the EoFM Extended factions for multiplayer I'm going to have to rebalance this camapign but at the moment it's not looking like that's going to be anytime soon so I appreicate you playing it through now.

Sure thing, happy to help now that I have time in my life to devote to Wesnoth again - S&CD has always been my favorite. I will say that there are some units that I currently hardly use, though I can see that changing in S3.

[taptap]

I already liked the era before, but this is cool. Played the first two scenarios on hard for now. 1st scenario worked fine, but if this expert rating is anything like in panther lord I will have plenty of opportunity to refine my strategy in future trials. 2nd scenario is innovative in a good way - not sure where the different bonus gold leads in the next one. And results from this scenario will probably vary widely.

This campaign probably scares away a lot of potential players by not putting in a proper short description in the blurb seen on the add-on server and even the short description in the campaign selection screen suffers compared to the in-game dialogue (the last sentence frankly doesn't seem to make much sense to me "wishes her to bride, a large dowery").

[Turuk]

taptap, let me know how S3 went for you, I am trying to see if I am a good place going through S4 (gold, units, etc). I'm giving it a go today, so we shall see.


Edit:

Velensk, do you have your replay on Normal for S4? I have tried a number of different methods to successfully protect the ally while still beating the enemy, and I can always do one well, but not both.

[Velensk]

If not I can quickly get one for you. I might even have one on hard (on hard I got stuck on scenario 6 badly). I'll edit this post tommorow when I'll either find it or make a new one.

[Turuk]

If not I can quickly get one for you. I might even have one on hard (on hard I got stuck on scenario 6 badly). I'll edit this post tommorow when I'll either find it or make a new one.

Thanks! I have the feeling that I am missing an obvious way to defeat the Highlanders in this one, and it is just somehow escaping me.

[hebetude]

I'm also stuck on scenario 6 hard. Except for a very silly, accidental turn 3 win the first time I played it, which I'm not going to count. I have a replay, but it's on master (1.13.0-dev) and doesn't work right on the 1.12 branch. Basically, if Liaram is in range of the enemy leader, he might decide to fight her. There's a slim chance that she'll live, and then a 1 turn opportunity to win, before his scripted retreat. It should never work... but it did, once.

I feel like scenario 5 is maybe too easy. The heavy Imperialists can only kill what you allow them to fight, and it's easy to flank them and kill the leader whenever you like. I guess the point is to train.

I started scenario 4 with 202 gold and 8 veterans, had a hard time. I won twice in at least 12 tries, maybe 20 tries. I wanted to win with no level 2 losses but gave up.

[Velensk]

I had to redo it but I decided to redo it on hard, on normal it's much the same except easier.

I've got to say, the thread thus far says something about Wesnoth players (or maybe just those who play my campaigns). My reputation is known and I post saying that I couldn't do it on hard, so naturally everyone who has posted here has to try it on hard for their first time. Just can't resist a challenge.

[Turuk]

Just can't resist a challenge.

The gauntlet was thrown down, and we're all eager to pick it up and have a go.

I had to redo it but I decided to redo it on hard, on normal it's much the same except easier.

Thanks for the replay, much appreciated. It looks as if I'm just not fast enough in getting north, and I had 37 less gold to start, so that could be part of it. I might have to go back a scenario or 2 and play a bit tighter.

Edit:
I watched half your replay, realized I should rush north a turn faster and I only sent one unit east, and sure as the sun rises, I beat it on my first try (and relatively easily too).

S4
-Dialogue/story is a little light, you could flesh it out more (that's more of a nice to have than anything else)
-Two hexes of deep water next to the western ford, not sure if intentional?
-Potentially move the Roc more centrally, to make the player have to do more defending, though it is fun as well to cut them off and then push them back.
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SWC-Magestic_replay.gz

(39.66 KiB) Downloaded 286 times

[Velensk]

The deep water next to the ford actually is intentional. Like many of the maps I use in my campaigns, this one is based off a place I've been (I've actually used this same area though not the individual part as the inspiration for most of my mountain maps). There was a place we crossed the water where there was a very narrow channel of stream that fueled it but the water had cut down deep and then suddenly shallowed out and became rapids (which was where we were crossing). It is also convenient as it gives the player the potential to create a bottleneck against an overwhelming force but in a place where they can't stay indefinitely as they must protect the roc.

[Turuk]

I like that your map design comes from personal experience, it add a bit more realism to design. Knowing you and your focus on maps, I thought as much but wanted to make sure just in case. I certainly made use of it's strategic bottleneck a few times, though on hard I spent more time running north right past it.

S5 and onwards tonight.

[Velensk]

Has everyone gotten stumped again or have you all given up on the campaign for being hopelessly boring?

[Raijer]

I'm just starting it, but it seems you forgot to put the era of the four moon as a dependency.