The Sceptre of Fire

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I'm getting the following error when trying to start the campaign: The game could not be loaded: load_game_failed: Unit cold not be found: 'Noble Lord'

Mac OS X, Wesnoth 1.1.1

Yours,

Grey Wolf

[turin]

I see.

If you're using 1.1+, wait for my 1.1 specific version. I hope to release it this weekend.

[turin]

Well, I failed at that. But I did it eventually...


Sceptre of Fire 1.0rc1 on 1.1 server.

If there aren't any bugs reported by saturday, I'll release 1.0.

Since I use only 1.1.1+svn, it is too much work for me to make a 1.0 compatible version. Oh well.

[dthurston]

I got a message "The file you tried to load is corrupt" on "Searching for the Runecrafter".

I found the first two scenarios harder than comparable "Normal" difficulty scenarios.

[turin]

Strange. I've never had that kind of error message except when trying to load a savefile...

[dthurston]

Would you like a save file?

I think it may be related to trying to bring back the rider, Alannin or however you spell it. There was a message on the console about a checksum mismatch. This was with the SVN version, and I had to reload a couple times to make it through Closing the Gates. Perhaps its actually a bug in the engine?

Update: Save file attached.

[turin]

A savegame would be nice. This is a really wierd bug. I won't be able to look at it this weekend, but perhaps on Monday...

[Ewan]

Two things. First, if someone has a walkthrough, or replay, or even guidance as to how to complete Outriding the Outriders, I'd appreciate it. Spearmen - even on mountains - are knocked over by two outriders, but even if they took 3 or 4 my dragoon would still die. [It *might* be more doable if the path from the visit just-west of start was within 9 hexes of the one due-south of start, to allow for 4 rapid spearmen and hope for some luck. But right now - not a chance. Am I missing something?]

Second - OK, so I hacked around that, but then there is apparently a missing Fire dragon unit for the next scenario. Is this from some other campaign that I need to load, perhaps?

Thanks - Ewan

[scott]

Two things. First, if someone has a walkthrough, or replay, or even guidance as to how to complete Outriding the Outriders, I'd appreciate it. Spearmen - even on mountains - are knocked over by two outriders, but even if they took 3 or 4 my dragoon would still die. [It *might* be more doable if the path from the visit just-west of start was within 9 hexes of the one due-south of start, to allow for 4 rapid spearmen and hope for some luck. But right now - not a chance. Am I missing something?]

Second - OK, so I hacked around that, but then there is apparently a missing Fire dragon unit for the next scenario. Is this from some other campaign that I need to load, perhaps?

Thanks - Ewan

The fire dragon used to be an official unit and now it's not. You can find a copy in the "The Rise of Wesnoth" units and images directories. Copy them to the Sceptre of Fire units and images directories.

[Ewan]

Thanks, Scott. Taking a year off from Wesnoth clearly deleted too many memories

[Mustelid]

Two things. First, if someone has a walkthrough, or replay, or even guidance as to how to complete Outriding the Outriders, I'd appreciate it. Spearmen - even on mountains - are knocked over by two outriders, but even if they took 3 or 4 my dragoon would still die. [It *might* be more doable if the path from the visit just-west of start was within 9 hexes of the one due-south of start, to allow for 4 rapid spearmen and hope for some luck. But right now - not a chance. Am I missing something?

One word: luck. You have to be lucky to pull this one off. I've managed it a couple of times. You shouldn't try and take every village if it'll slow you down - if you still have a Spearman alive and holding up the Outriders, get more space on them rather than spawning another unit.

Be aggressive with your Spearmen, but keep them in safe terrain - preferably villages. Pierce destroys cavalry. It's possible to kill Outriders, if you're lucky - I've levelled a spearman to Halbardier in this scenario, although he died before I got to safety. Looking at the stats, on average it'll take three Outriders to dispatch a Spearman in 60% terrain, although it leaves him with only 4hp; on a town that'll heal to 12, good enough to get in two or three spear-hits on an Outrider on your turn.

What you're really relying on is one of those Spearmen getting extra lucky and holding out for a couple of turns, killing a couple of already-wounded Outriders and levelling, while you establish a nice safe gap and a few more defenders. The trouble is that in the early game, not getting lucky means you die. It's all luck, really. Lots of replays. Or you could save-load feverishly - in the early stages of this level the distinction between save-loads and replays often starts feeling academic.

It helps a bit to have levelled him up to Cavalier already - more hp to play with - but to do that you really have to make that a Serious Campaign Goal. He's pitifully useless in caves, so there's a small handful of scenarios where you really have to milk the xp. I don't think it's essential.

[turin]

Eh?

It's not that hard a scenario, in my experience. Just move your free spearmen as for north as possible each turn, so that the enemy has to slow down to kill them. I can consistently win it with Alanin being a dragoon.

[Mustelid]

It's not that hard a scenario, in my experience. Just move your free spearmen as for north as possible each turn, so that the enemy has to slow down to kill them. I can consistently win it with Alanin being a dragoon.

Hmm.

This seemed to both make sense, and be pretty similar to what I remember starting out with (and getting slaughtered). Went back and did a few more runs. Maybe I was just making inexperience errors, and then forgetting them.

Definite improvement - up to about 50% wins, with about half the victories being comfortable. The crucial element seems to be how quickly the first couple of spearmen are dispatched; if Alanin takes a few wounds early on, the Outriders just ignore the spearmen and target the wounded leader.

[Ewan]

Targetting Alanin was one of my problems - the outriders consistently killed off only those spearmen needed to allow them to get to Alanin.

Ah well. The most similar scenario I can think of - Dwarvern Doors - I could never see the difficulty with, but this one I've died in twenty-two times now... it's pretty much the only scenario I've ever had serious trouble with . No big deal.

[turin]

It's possible that something has changed since I last tested it making it harder. I'll check.