Updating the Walkthroughs for Mainline

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Lord-Knightmare
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Updating the Walkthroughs for Mainline

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

In the latest 1.15.x (and soon to be 1.16 in the foreseeable future) branches, many scenarios and units in the mainline campaigns have undergone re-designs. Some have been slightly altered, introducing negligible changes in tactics. However, certain campaigns have scenarios that have undergone complete overhauls, hardly resembling the originals. Examples are The Hammer of Thursagan, Descent into Darkness, Sceptre of Fire, etc.

I haven't explored 1.15 much but on the ones I already did, I noticed the walkthroughs to be outdated. I shall try to list as many as I can.
  • Under the Burning Suns
    Unit advancement
    There's no way to know this beforehand, but you'll have to fight a some big underground battles. The army you build during the first scenarios should be capable of fighting in caves. There are two main variables to consider for underground battles:

    Can each unit move at least 3 cave hexes per turn?
    How can I maximize damage in narrow corridors?
    Because of these two priorities, deciding which units to level in early campaigns is very important. For instance, the following units are not as effective:

    Marksman/Sharpshooter (marksmanship ain't necessary, and besides they're too brittle)
    Hero/Champion (unless they're quick)
    Scout/Rider/Outrider (as slow as infantry, but weaker)
    There are more effective units:

    Ranger/Avenger have range attack (anti-troll) and backstab (+damage)
    Captain/Marshal have leadership (+damage)
    Sentinel's "slow" attack minimizes the damage taken; skirmish may break deadlocks
    This part requires a review as the entire faction was overhauled.
  • Descent into Darkness
    Remove dark adepts from recruit list
    I also noticed that one or two scenarios were re-designed, notably the titular Descent into Darkness one.
  • Sceptre of Fire:
    The last scenario needs a full re-write.
  • Liberty:
    Scenarios The Grey Woods and Hunters seem to have been merged. Thus, these two walkthrough articles need to be reviewed.
  • Hammer of Thursagan
    Removed scenarios 4 (Troll Bridge), 5 (Invaders), and 7 (Mages and Drakes)
    Reworked scenario 8 (Fear) and rebalanced other scenarios
    Added new character and updated some dialogue
    Some sections of the walkthroughs should be removed and scenario 8's one should be reviewed.
  • Wings of Victory
    Wings of Victory:
    New campaign added to mainline (Intermediate level, 11 scenarios).
    This needs a walkthrough from scratch.
  • An Orcish Incursion:
    Should its walkthrough be moved to the Guide to UMC campaigns page?
The aforementioned ones are just the ones I have played recently or checked. There may or may not be more re-designed/overhauled scenarios. I would appreciate it if any other overlooked changes are mentioned as well.

Additionally, since we are updating the walkthroughs, it would be nice to get something more out of this endeavour:
  • Recommended Recall list compositions for each campaign.
    Spoiler:
  • Alternate Tactics to some of the new or existing scenarios
  • screenshots to flesh out the walkthroughs and provide more elaborate explanations if possible
  • link to existing video guides on YouTube if they exist.
    Spoiler:
There isn't any need to update immediately. We can post our drafts here and then update the wiki with the finalised contents when they are ready. It would be beneficial if players who have played the Hard or Nightmare difficulties supplied some. I have mostly played campaigns on Easy and Normal.
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Re: Updating the Walkthroughs for Mainline

Post by Whiskeyjack »

I'll just add that Liberty, SoF, and THoT received more significant gameplay updates to pretty much all their scenarios than you can surmise from the changelog quotes, so I'd assume that their walkthroughs need a general overhaul.

WoV was removed again in a later dev release and while its reworked successor Wings of Valor is intended to be submitted for mainline again, that has not yet happened. The new version also had gameplay changes, so a walkthrough should follow the updated UMC on 1.14, not the 1.15.0 version and is possibly lower in priority right now.

Edit: Oh, also, changes to DiD were substantial AFAIK, so that should probably go into the "complete overhaul" bucket as well.
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Re: Updating the Walkthroughs for Mainline

Post by revolting_peasant »

I will add that over the past few years, I've tweaked, or sometimes overhauled, the walkthroughs of a bunch of the mainline campaigns. For those, it's only the 1.15 changes that need to be accounted for, rather than having to think back to how things were like in v1.8 or whatever...
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