South Guard 8b. The Tides of War

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(1) What difficulty levels and game versions 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?

[SmokemJags]

1. Hard 1.1.1
2. 0. Thug train devours skeletons, be they level 1 archers or level 3 draugs.
3. Pretty clear... should specifcally say to kill the enemy leader though.
4. Hmm.. a little strange how the previous scenario was harder... silly weak undead.
5. Trying to spend 500 gold when my income was about 40g/turn by only buying 4 thugs per turn. I actually was able to kill the lich before running out of gold, and I was constantly recruiting 4 thugs per turn for 21 turns.
6. Hilariously entertaining, thanks to the thug train. Good way to end the campaign. 8
7. Either I lasted WAY too long in the previous scenario (which is why I had a crazy amount of money) or something was hinky with my gold. That and like 50 towns on the map didn't hurt. I suggest seriously toning down how much money the player gets and how many towns are on the map.

Thug Life a la Wesnoth.
I think that and these pictures sum up my experience with this scenario very well.

[Kvasir]

1) easy 1.0.2
2) 1
3) clear
4) interesting
5) none
6) 7
7) Way too easy thanks to the thugs and bandits that are now covered by mages to deal with the wraights. Again it might be interesting to limit the amount of thugs/bandits you can recruit. Also it is a bit weird to hear about the heroic last stand but be able to recall everyone who was still alive when Gerrick died.

[PieterW]

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions 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?

1: 1.1.2 hard
2: 5
3: clear
4: there could be more storyline
5: again: realising you have to use speed, getting across the river on both fronts as soon as possible, resisting the temptation to fight with your leader instead of just pumping more and more troops to play the endgame
6: 8
7: a little harder, it's the last scenario after all, you should have to fight to get over the river instead of just rushing over it. It's the last scenario, make me sweat!

[rocinante]

1. on version 1.0.2, normal

2. 1, this level is easy

3. simple, kill the lich

4. that basically is the story right, kill the lich.

5. the lich boss has a drain attack in melee. so I ranged him with footpads so he couldn't regenerate. ended up losing enough of them for the lich to get an amla, but he didn't heal so he still went down. did not use the mage of light to fight the lich as the mage of light has low hp.

6. it was fun killing the undead. maybe a 8? it's easy and this is south guard.

7. more undead? my army vastly outnumbered the enemy units, had much more gold than was necessary.

[Tropico]

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

- Easy 1.1.2a

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

- 5, it was actually very hard for me.. UNTIL I had a lightbulb moment and set up a train like the one in the screenshots above, only with footpads.. then it became way easy

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

- clear as the water of acapulco

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

- Well, the guy says, "These are all the reinforcements we were able to round up!!" I look aroud the map and see... one infantryman and one pikeman.. that's it?

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

- figuring out the 'footpad train', once I got to that point it was done, took me a while though

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

- 6, at first the undead seemed totally invincible which wasn't too much fun, then they fell like paper which wasn't fun either; I'm guessing undead aren't the most 'balanced' of races

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

- Undead seem strange to me as a whole, I would definitely see what;s up with their resistances / weaknesses and improve the balance of them (although that has nothing to do with this map specifically)

Altogether I found South Guard a very enjoyable 'learning' campaign with excellent pacing and writing, if a little easy. It's certainly an awesome introduction to the game and to Wesnoth.

[Tmoiy]

I have two minor questions about this scenario.
1. Why is Minister Hylas suddenly a hero, when his defeat never led to loss before? What if he had died earlier?
2. Why is the lich named "Mal Feras" instead of "Mal M'Brin?"

This is 1.1.2a, so I suppose it might have been fixed by now.

[theruler]

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
1.4.0 (windows build) Normal

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
1 (I've lost only few units, say 7 or 8 at the most) and pretty easy with 850 gold in stash... (at the end of the campaign my stash was 2352!!!)
the previos scenario (sir Gerrick's death) I last 19 rounds.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
clear. Could it be clearer if it would be specified to kill the enemy leader.
I quote TMoiy: Why is the lich named "Mal Feras" instead of "Mal M'Brin?"

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
reach the northern villages.
I beat the lich in 16 turns out of 60.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7... too easy, though.
The easiest FINAL scenario I've ever played.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
better AI. If you let the AI send units to the north-east and north-west path, with the aim to surround the city from north, east and west... it would be more strategic.. and thus enjoyable (IMHO).

here is the replay:

LGDS-Le_sorti_della_guerra_replay.gz

(29.09 KiB) Downloaded 247 times

[Anym]

(1) Civilian (Beginner), 1.4, English [US]

(2) 5: Well-balanced and not too easy, while still being beginner-friendly. I should probably also mention that I survived the previous scenario for much longer than 32 turns, for the sake of perspective.

(3) Clear, although I was surprised that it was enough to Mal M'brin as I expect "Crush the undead" to mean crushing every single one of them. Also, "Death of Magister Hylas" seemed like a strange loss condition (not that keeping him alive was a problem or anything), considering the nature of this scenario and the previous one. If he dies defending his city, then so be it, no need cry "defeat". He's not even needed for the epilogue!

(4) Clear, interesting and well-written, although Deoran's "Taste cold steel!" was getting old.

(5) Hardly having any higher level troops with impact weapons. Although after reading this thread, I wonder whether I should have used low level troops with impact weapons rather than high-level troops without.

(6) 8: An very nice end for a mostly very good campaign, see my previous posts in this forum for any criticism of the previous scenarios.

(7) Seems fine as it is, expect maybe for minor tweaks to the objectives as suggested above. Scenarios 6b (which should get easier) and 7b (which should get harder) need more attention than this one, both of which will of course also affect the difficulty of this.

[lsummer28]

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Recruit, 1.4.2, only lasted 12 turns on the level before.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
4

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
There wasn't much.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
This was much less difficult than I thought it would be. I kept the vast bulk of my forces south of the keep on its side of the water and let enemies come to me for a while, then assembled a massive force of thuggery and footpaddery and lured two or three Death Guards to the bridge southeast of the keep. Amazing how fast footpads can drop Death Guards in the creek. There was a hairy moment or two when I flooded across the river with Hylas and all the heavy stuff, and I lost a unit or two, but after that it was all over. As units trickled up from the enemy base, they got mobbed by thuggery of various levels and crumbled into dust. I got into the valley of the undead in the daytime and just charged with level 3 stuff, and Hylas of course got in the last (gargantuan) blows. Three of 28, baby. I was glad there were no more levels since I wasted the kill on Hylas <g>.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7, mostly because it again allowed me the decision of how to split forces, even if it wasn't very challenging. Plus the geography allowed for ample chances to maneuver the enemy into terrain disadvantages.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
I was flabbergasted that there was only one enemy center, and that it started with no undead already summoned. I don't think you could let them start with all the units from the previous map, but maybe half of them. That would be challenging, but given the geography of the map and the lax time constraints, I think it would still be doable.

[TheJM]

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
easy on 1.5.7

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5

(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?
I really don't know, it was good.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
None really, just taking down the initial wave. I recruited tons of thugs and footpads and took them out. The mages came in handy too.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7, it's fun to take a level three unit down with a few level ones.. xD

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Not sure..

[Rapturous]

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

Normal, 1.4.7

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

6. I never lost, or was even close to losing, but it was a long teeter-totter battle. Every turn, I would advance only a couple spaces. Keep in mind, I didn't take advantage of thus. I strictly went lawful units, and that was probably my problem. I also didn't move Hylas into the fray until late, as I left him along the river to distract units across the river (which worked). My strategy, now that I read others', seems a bit unorthodox, but it worked.

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

Perfectly clear.

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

Initially, I thought the dialogue didn't put enough value on the sacrifice of Gerrick and Urza. I thought Deoran didn't really care much that they gave up their lives. However, the epilogue took care of all that, so it's forgivable. I guess it's realistic, though, as Deoran seemed pretty collect, and they had no time for emotional soliloquies. Seemed bare-bones, but not too bad.

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

The enemy sent endless units, forcing me to send endless horsemen (apparently, not a good strategy). However, I was able to do this with ease. I summoned at least 2 horsemen per turn, and still had plenty of gold leftover in case of an emergency. As I took more towns, the enemy summoned fewer and fewer enemies, and I eventually overran him.

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

By Battle for Wesnoth standards, I give it a 7. It was a bit of a grind for a while, but that also made it feel like an epic final battle, which matched the scenario well.

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

I'm not sure anything is worth changing, except maybe more emotional dialogue regarding Gerrick and Urza, though I explained my reservations for that above. The gameplay was probably quite easy, had I taken advantage of the enemy's weakness.

As a side note, I absolutely LOVED the ending. Really made me fall even deeper for this game. The way you folks wrote about his sacrifice, and how the people of Wesnoth recognized him for centuries really moved me. For such a short time with a mildly shallow character, this was absolutely well done. I'm impressed.

[Eponymous-Archon]

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Hard, 1.6
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Very hard. Took me a dozen attempts or so. Finally got him by sending a trio of cavalry along with Hylas around to the west and south while I held off the attacks with a combo of fast-moving chaotic footpads, spearmen and then villagers as I started to run out of money. Got it on turn 16. No need for the mages to arrive.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives? Fine.
(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?
Very hard to defeat the undead hordes, even to hold them off, at least without a good supply of upper-level chaotic units and lots of gold. But they pretty much ignored the flanking movement until too late, which is silly. The mages can't really be exposed to too much without risking death, so they're not much help either...again except as part of my flanking movement.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) 3
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? Add more hexes in the keep so that more units can be recruited faster. That would add some strategy to holding off the undead until the mages arrive. Have the undead pay attention to moves like the flanking one I used.

[silent]

A far more fitting, yet harder to reach ending to the campaign

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Soldier (normal) 1.6
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5. Footpad spam served me well, and I still had loyal mermen who were very useful in stopping advances across the river. Mages, except for hylas and the silver one were of very little help in the end, except to take down M'brin
(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?
A little quiet, but the epilogue takes care of that and it does suffice about whats currently happening
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I was too concerned with keeping several units alive, and those shadows are always a problem
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9. This was really fun to play despite footpad spam, really good tactic wise this one
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Since this is beginner campaign, probably nothing.

[stupidjaguar]

I played on Hard, 1.6.4 - I found the level very difficult. It's a mainline campaign, so all the objectives, dialogue, and fun-factor are fine (though it's never fun to get beaten so badly by skeletons).

I feel very bad seeing the people who find this level easy. I do not find it easy at all. The walkthrough suggested that I used footpads and thugs, which I would have done anyway. However, even with the 4 mages that appeared on turn 11 (since I finished on turn 13 in the last level), I still found the stacks of undead impossible to get through. The undead chewed through Minister Hylas, the Arch Mage, and one of the White Mages, as well as every footpad and thug I threw at it. A Halberdier that I eventually got was good for taking out Necromancers, but Outlaws and Bandits all inevitably died. There were too many Draugs, too many shadows. Am I just bad at Wesnoth? To tell the truth, I have never beaten any campaigns on Hard, and only Liberty and HttT on Medium. I thought I would try my hand at TSG to see if I could beat it on hard. Obviously I couldn't. I've gotten through DiD and NR without cheating, albeit on Easy, but still... why is this level so hard? Even with the few units I had left, I know I could have taken the draugs and other enemies left (about 7 or but the Lich just kept recruiting more, 2 chocobones or draugs or bone shooters or necromancers every turn... he has enough income to serve him forever. I was frustrated and got rid of the saves. I was doing fine until this scenario... sorry if I sound whiny or naive