South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Feedback for the mainline campaign The South Guard.

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CeltiK
Posts: 27
Joined: April 24th, 2011, 9:14 am

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by CeltiK »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.10.0; Hard no saves/reloads.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
3. Can be a bit frustrating to deal with those pesky footpads, but it's quite ok.

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
It's getting interesting and I have to say: the portraits are of good quality.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Try to level up some archers and spearmen, not that easy considering their pierce damage against dead'uns.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7. I enjoyed it, the map is well designed and it's a nice surprise to see some undead units joining the battle as they were not expected.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Well the only thing is... how a bandit can summon undead? I mean he doesn't have any magical skill, does he? It's not that important but a bit inconsistent.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
None.
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Ninjuri
Posts: 167
Joined: April 28th, 2012, 2:59 am
Location: California

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by Ninjuri »

Easy 1.10.2
Difficulty: 4
Objectives: Pretty much clear, the only thing i wasn't 100% sure about at the time is whether i was able to recruit from the destroyed castle, i was pretty new at the time.
Dialogue is good
Challenges: Getting across the river, although the disadvantages it gave to me were also given to the enemy so that was good.
Fun:7
Fate is against me.
Crom
Posts: 3
Joined: July 3rd, 2012, 6:27 pm

South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by Crom »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.10.2; Hard

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5. I remember in a previous play through, I got pretty trashed, but I was a newer player at the time. There was also the surprise that the villages were being razed. Knowing that would happen this time, and being a better player now, I did not let any of my villages fall to the enemy, which kept my income healthy and my panic level down.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
No problem here.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I like this campaign's storyline, and the dialogue serves it well in this scenario.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
There are a number of small challenges a veteran player can easily overcome. Knowing how much to recruit, for one. Defending the villages from being razed. Dealing with the fact that you have NO weapons to fight the skeletons other than the white mage or (if you're lucky) a leveled up Deoran. (I was able to control the field and keep the skeletons in the water, at least, so they couldn't maneuver enough to get to my wounded units, and they were easy pickings for my troops.) Another thing that has increased my ability to play has been my use of cannon fodder ... realizing that my units that are higher level / loyal / more valuable need to be protected, so sometimes purposefully throwing a 0 xp spearman into a vulnerable position for the specific purpose of distracting the enemy from my more valuable units.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8. I like this scenario. It's challenging but not overwhelming. I like the surprises (razing the villages and summoning undead). But they're not unreasonable surprises. A good commander should be ready for anything.

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

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Nope.
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Seldam
Posts: 24
Joined: December 21st, 2012, 4:27 pm
Location: Austria

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by Seldam »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
easy, 1.10.5

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

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear and alright.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
7

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Nothing special.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
5

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
I think this is a good scenario. It prepares the story.
Kaiserdrache
Posts: 32
Joined: November 3rd, 2011, 7:26 am

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by Kaiserdrache »

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

Normal, 1.10.

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

3

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

Once again, crystal clear.

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

Very clear, but not too interesting.

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

None.

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

4 - I quite simply don't like it, no idea why.

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

And here we go. Another bunch of loyals joins our party and once again I beg to differ regarding their choice. 4 loyal peasants is quite simply unsatisfying. Actually I'm one of these players who levels them up, but in the end I have even more blade / pierce damage than I will ever need for the campaign. Furthermore four units of the same type are boring. I would suggest that minister Hylas stays how he is, he is a good unit and needed later on in the campaign. For the other free loyals, cut them down to a total of three and make them a peasant, a ruffian and a heavy infantryman. That would be far more useful in later scenarios.
SBak
Posts: 78
Joined: October 8th, 2011, 1:36 am

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by SBak »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Mainly Easy but also Medium 1.8.5 and 1.10.5

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

This is also a 2 for an experienced player but I'd give it a 6 for a newbie. A Walking Corpse on its own is nothing, but in a group together they can take out any unit (I refer here to the first two scenarios of the Descent into Darkness campaign to illustrate my point).

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

Very clear. But one thing which is missing is an additional explanation for newbies about Minister Hylas and using Mages in scenarios.

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

Hmm again interesting. The bit about Westin is good, but all of a sudden we have an Outlaw who can raise the Undead.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Now none, but initially (as this was my first ever Wesnoth campaign) working out what to do with Minister Hylas. Using him to 'cut through' the Undead by 'melting their bones' is a bit misleading as he's quite sensitive to the plague and his staff won't do much but bash their skulls.

Dealing with Footpads and Thieves was another challenge as a newbie given their 'dodge' and high defence. I found Minister Hylas very good on Thieves and Aleron good on Footpads.

Capturing villages is a pain in this scenario without any mounted units.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
I think it's quite fun, especially for a newbie player but for a more experienced player it can be quite trying.

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

First and foremost provide an additional explanation for the newbie on how to use White Mages or even Mages in general in a scenario seeing as one has been provided and the player doesn't have the opportunity to recruit any more.

Agreed that a White Mage can cut through some Undead - Walking Corpses, odd Skeletons, and Skeleton Archers and their advancements, and it's true they're quite damaging to Ghouls, Ghosts, Liches and Necromancers, but they're also very sensitive to counter attacks and need a lot of XP to level up.

Learning how to use a White Mage effectively (i.e. not just as a healer) was one of the most difficult things to achieve as a player of Wesnoth and until I started playing the AI at MP scenarios I never managed to level up a White Mage into a Mage of Light.
Kruel
Posts: 2
Joined: April 8th, 2010, 3:03 am

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by Kruel »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Soldier (Normal) 1.11.8

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

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I liked the plot of this scenario, though I thought it was a bit odd the bandits started getting undead. Still, it was well executed and fun to play. It maybe felt a bit forced at the time.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Nothing in meeting the objectives, mostly just a challenge to keep some loyal peasants alive to level up in the future. Also the undead force you to rethink how you utilize your troops.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
It needs a bit better explanation as to why the bandit leader can summon undead, it just seems a bit random and forced.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No
Entengelaende
Posts: 16
Joined: June 3rd, 2014, 1:30 pm

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by Entengelaende »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Hard. 1.10.7

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
7

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

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
To get to the city. When I recruited to much, I was to slow and Deoran got killed by a Huntsman. When I recruited less, Deoran got killed by too much footpads.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
5

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
-
kiss
Posts: 124
Joined: July 9th, 2014, 5:50 pm

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by kiss »

Overview
40 turns with a winning objective before ninth turn.
Outlaw Urza Nalmth can't move on water but at ford and on the bridge (special rule modification?). In case of fight these are 2 keypoints.
Two footpads with 8 moves. Difficult to trap?
Gold against villages from the start.

Strategy: Rush Westin with the 3 lvl 2, recall spikeman, a quick peasant for villages, bowmen.

Turn 2: Ok, Urza Nalmth seems the only one that can't move on water. First footpad attack, it helps not to have to run after him!

Trun 3: Same for the other footpad. Nothing more to fight arround Westin.
Strategy: there is room to strengthen the ford.

Trun 4: surprise again! And this one changes all. Bad placement for the last two bowmen?
Strategy: use the white mage and the mermaids to discover what they're able to do.

Turn 5: one more surprise. I was on the way to let few villages to Urza, but as he burns them out ... He summon undead, I don't know how to deal with them and my mage is quite far from the action. I forgot one willage!
Strategy: take and protect as many villages as possible.

Turn 6: kill with bowman?

Turn 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15: Over

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Civilian (beginner) 1.10.7

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

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Objective changes again, but this time reaching the first one leads to an underlying one. I start to learn, such changes are possible and should be taken into account.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Really interesting, the story grows for our pleasure.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I was afraid I need to do it twice if it ends from the first goal. We understand the change when the mage appears.
Later on, organizing my army between the river's side, especially the mage, but it was not too difficult and AI seems having to deal with the same problem!
Chance I do nat faces plague?

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

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
This time I have the surprise I was waiting for on the previous part. Then, nothing to change for me.
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Linthar
Posts: 77
Joined: September 14th, 2006, 12:16 am

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by Linthar »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Soldier (aka the highest difficulty) 1.10.7

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5 but part of that was my own fault. (See my answer to question 5 for why)

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
I found them clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
The writings fine, and the plot starts to get actually interesting here. The bandits burning the villages after you recapture the city was a nice little shock the first time it happened.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I had some difficulty getting into Westin not so much because the bandits guarding the place were difficult, but there were a bunch of footpad clogging up the bridge, and I had a rough time trying to kill them quick due to none of my units being able to reliably hit them. Still the time limit was generous enough that I would have found it easy to reach the Citadel in time, and win the rest of the scenario, except that once I saw that the bandits would start razing villages to the ground I decided to reload back a few turns and see if I could manage to save all of the villages, which required a good bit of effort to get troops stationed on all of the villages quickly enough to save them. Of course since the loss of a few villages would barely matter this was mostly me making my own life harder then it needed to be.

The undead were surprisingly easy. On a different map they may have been threatening since I had an army of bowmen and spearmen, giving me massive amounts of piercing damage that naturally I didn't want to be using to fight skeletons. However the fact that the skeletons had to cross a large river to get to me, a river that I could station my troops along the edge of, meant there was little danger from them.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7. It's a good solid scenario.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
It still feels a little to easy for the difficulty level, but as I said in my review of the first scenario I may not be the best judge of what is appropriate difficulty wise for this campaign.
kiss
Posts: 124
Joined: July 9th, 2014, 5:50 pm

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by kiss »

Edit sorry, wrong thread.
nikita1996
Posts: 49
Joined: July 18th, 2015, 8:07 am

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by nikita1996 »

Content Feedback wrote:(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)v1.12.5 Hard
(2) 2. It's quite easy. You have four times of gold as much as the enemy in the beginning. No one can lose it. The only thing is to reach the city as soon as possible in the beginning.
(3) 9. Very clear.
(4) 8. The story is attractive and interesting. It makes people nervous to know that the city is in danger and it's a great pleasure to know that the city is finally saved.
(5) No challenge at all.
(6) 3. Not very fun. It's too easy and simple. The strategy in the game is common and simple -- just to guard aside the river.
(7) First, to make it more difficult, not by lessen money, but by lessen the turns. The game says you should reach the city before turn 9, and I think we should reach there as early as possible. Maybe we should change it to turn 7. Also, the earlier you get there, the more money you should have. Second, there are neither enemies nor villages on the southeast of the map. Maybe we should add some villages on the southeast and then there will be a war for those villages. We can't make the southeast of the map useless.
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Britannicus
Posts: 57
Joined: June 25th, 2017, 8:04 pm

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by Britannicus »

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

Version 12.1, Challenging.

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

6

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

Very clear.

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

Pretty decent, nothing wrong with it.

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

Figuring out the best way to quickly push into the fortress without overexposing the essentials, then off holding the first wave of bats and skeletons.

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

7, pretty decent, the point where you get Hylas and the peasants is pretty nice.

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

/
Konrad2
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Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by Konrad2 »

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

Version 1.14.0, Soldier (Normal)

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

6

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

Very clear.

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

Nothing wrong with it.

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

Protecting all villages and the peasants. (Loyal peasants are nice.)

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

7, More loyal units? Thanks. :D

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

-
TSG-Proven by the Sword replay.gz
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EDIT:
Updating because of the new TSG.
Mind you, it's probably not exactly the same as the TSG online because the replay is from the playtesting phase.
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LordWolfDan
Posts: 216
Joined: September 30th, 2018, 7:31 am

Re: South Guard 2. Proven by the Sword

Post by LordWolfDan »

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

- 1.14.5, Beginner

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

- 4

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

- Similar to the previous one: Reach the certain part, summon an ally and get rid of the outlaw

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

- I like it. Seeing how the bandit from the previous scenario and the outlaw in this one are brothers is one good point. Furthermore, the thing that the outlaws have fiddled with necromancy is quite unexpected. Then there's the mention of elves in the end... I like where this goes.

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

- Making sure the enemy units were in water (footpads and thieves) so I could easily dispatch them

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

- 7

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

- Maybe some more backstory of Sir Lorris, I guess?
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