Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

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santosis
Posts: 74
Joined: October 11th, 2010, 12:04 am

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by santosis »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium 1.8.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Very interesting, make it to the sign without dying.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I could have used a bit more when I killed the bosses.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I spent all my gold recruiting every explorer-style troop I could. I only had 160 gold, so I had limited troops. But moving through the mountains, in conjunction with my white mage and Angarthing at lvl 3, I didn't lose a trooper. I did use my white mage and arch mage for a lot of my offense.

Just stay in the mountains, use explorers/pathfinders/scouts (since they have ranged and melee they match up well against elves), and run to kill anything not standing in a forest. Another reason to recruit e/p/s--they slaughter trees with their throwing axes.

I finished in round 17/28, with negative 57 gold. I will carry 109 gold over to the next scenario.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8 - My favorite in the campaign so far. Sensible randomness, really interesting terrain factors, and the uniqueness of the woses make for a fun fight.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Big gold bonus for killing all three leaders?

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Nope, I was fortunate on this one and didn't need a reload.
Etheri
Posts: 4
Joined: October 17th, 2010, 2:01 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by Etheri »

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

Challenging 1.8.4

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

5.

I sent my force to take out the SW leader, the bulk of it except my leader got bogged down, but some AI abuse kept my leader alive long enough to carry out the assassination attempt and it was more or less straightforward after that with one or two close calls are far as valuable units are concerned. Though I may be hurting goldwise when it comes time for Siege.....

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

I had no idea I had to move both leaders onto the signpost. Luckily the area was fairly unobstructed so I was able to puzzle it out.

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

The elves hate dwaves because the masked ones have been stirring up trouble. Fair enough...

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

Not getting bogged down. There is a fair amount of time pressure that forces you to avoid just walling up in the hills until everything is dead. In my case, I had to put my leader in serious danger in order to assassinate the SW leader, but somehow this paid off with the loss of only one lowly pathfinder.

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

6. All the woses and scouts popping out of nowhere and the time pressure certainly added an element of danger to the scenario.

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

There should possibly be something hinting at the existence of the staff of righteous flame. I only got it this time around because I discovered on my medium playthrough that I had managed to miss it.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

Around turn 6 or so I had a brainfart moment and sent a small force to the north, regretting it the moment the nerve impulse started travelling to my finger. I reloaded to the start of the turn and sent them south to regroup with the force that had finished assassinating the SW leader instead. There were several close calls with woses popping out of the woodwork and attacking my white mages for a potential two-hit-kill on 50% that would have resulted in a restart.

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?

Don't know WML.
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Yrth
Posts: 25
Joined: November 8th, 2010, 4:26 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by Yrth »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Hard, 1.8.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5, in contrast to the other comments I found this scenario not very difficult, I killed the southwest elves quickly, endured the main attack wave in the hills, advanced to the west while sending a task force to dispatch the wose king, before finishing at round 25 I even could kill the last elven leader

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Not very, see other comments

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
As with the griffons, the main reason for this scenario seems to be to introduce another race, the dialog is not very plausible

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
By recruiting 5 units, including 3 l3 I spent my whole gold and will carry just 2(!) to the next scenario, I suppose that will hurt me then, saving some money in this scenario may be difficult

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9, while not really fitting into the campaign, the scenario in itself was fun

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Make a small story about the staff

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
None, hopefully the neglectible gold I saved will not cause me to play the scenario again

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
...
dsa
Posts: 58
Joined: August 22nd, 2008, 8:46 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by dsa »

(1) What difficulty levels and what version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Hard, 1.8.5.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8. Not much gold left and a high terrain advantage of the elves afforded a good strategy, so I had to experiment a bit at first. Finally, I decided to split my little army. One group took a defensive position in the mountains and the other one (with pathfinders) went for the south. This worked quite well, although I admit, that I probably never had so much luck during a scenario, because several times the enemy missed a lethal blow to one of my units.

(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?
Okay.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Dwarves fighting against elves in the forest means a big disadvantage in terrain. Especially the high defense of the elves in the forest was sometimes frustrating, when I missed several hits in a row.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8, a real good challenge.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Everything is fine. The only minor thing I would wish for is a better bonus for the Staff of Righteous. My Fire Mage (fortunately) never died during the campaign, that means I couldn't benefit from the "final strike" ability. The steadfast ability wasn't really useful either, because there are almost no enemies with fire or arcane attacks.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yes, when I restarted to use another strategy.
Jabie
Posts: 107
Joined: December 2nd, 2010, 12:50 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by Jabie »

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

The easiest.

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

10. I had to save / replay/ reload a lot just to stand any kind of chance.

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

Fairly clear. The fact that both of your heroes have to make it to the signpost could be made a little clearer. Instead of a signpost, how about a Signpost and an Inn (the Inn heals as village, but cannot be owned by anyone) This would then occupy two tiles so each unit can make it ways to a waypoint.

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

Nothing jumped out at me as particularly out of place.

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

The enemy has all the advantages. The terrain is against you. Three sets of enemies. Slow moving Dwarves against fast moving Elves. (God help you if you lost your scouting Gryphon early on!) Fog of War. Ambush ability of many enemies.

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

5. The concept is nice, but the level is too damned hard on Easy.

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

My main sugesstion - and it only applies to the Easy level - would be to only allow the elves to recall Level 1 units. I wouldn't have had to save scum my way through, if I wasn't being ambushed by level 2 troops all the way. A couple of level 2 troops in favourable terrain can tear through your key units. There's a reason why some of us play on the Easy levels, y'know ;) Save the real challenge for Medium and Hard!

Strategy-wise there were clearly two options: attack the South and hope this doesn't give you oppponents to the East and North too much time, or run for it! I recalled a decent fighting force and a bunch of suicide pawns, then ran for it. The strategy notes suggested I should have several Dwarven Explorers by now. Yeah, right, I had one. He came in handy vs the Wose, but he wasn't nearly enough.

My Gryphon scouted ahead, but no too far. My suicide pawns took up ZoC (on villages, if possible) to slow down my opponents. A Dwarf Lord held the bridge and my White Mages hung around the centre with a small retinue of Dwarves, whilst my Heroes, the Gryphon and a couple of Dwarves charged towards the signpost.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

Basically the large number of Level 2 troops in terrain favourable to them. This secnario would have been a fair challenge against Level 1 troops. Fog of War attacks that couldn't be anticipcated plus constant ambushes would have cost me key units, like my Gryphon and my White Mages - hence I had to save / replay / reload sveral times til the dice fell in my favour.
BubbleScreen
Posts: 43
Joined: January 24th, 2010, 6:19 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by BubbleScreen »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium, 1.8.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6, though it does depend on how many Explorers or Pathfinders you have.

I went southeast, dispatched the leader, then fought my way north then east along the path. The elves were more of a problem than the Woses, because the axe-toting scout line, your White Mage, and Ratheln make short work of the trees. The problem with the elves is that they have good defense% in forest, and they shoot back, so while your mages can hit them, they can retaliate against your mages.

I figured out that Ratheln backed by the White Mage could basically take on any non-hero elves, so once I had pushed through the main army, they held off the elves on their own. 1-XP-from-AMLA-Aiglondur and Angarthing had little trouble in the east; the enemy's archers much preferred taking on axemen.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
I didn't have a problem, but you should really spell out that both units have to touch the signpost.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Kind of random, but it fits with depictions of elves in The South Guard and A Tale of Two Brothers, so it works.

Also, please explain why a powerful artifact is just sitting in the middle of a well-populated Elvish forest. Is the temple of religious significance, and the staff is a religious accoutrement?

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Avoiding wose ambushes. Surviving wose ambushes. Fighting elves in the forest in general. Not getting troops strung out.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7 - A new opponent, and a lot of different stuff going on in the scenario.

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

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No
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tr0ll
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by tr0ll »

Medium, 1.9.6
Review unchanged from BubbleScreen's above.
If you come into this without sufficent gold to recall some level2 units you might not succeed.
The gryphon rider is very handy for spotting elf movements.
podbelski
Posts: 151
Joined: June 7th, 2011, 8:35 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by podbelski »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.9.6, Hard, 124gp, no reloads

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
"6"
I watched replays to see what I'll be facing, so had a good plan right away. Surprizingly, it worked really easy, especially the first part when I rushed and crushed south-western enemy. I played a bit reckless in the middle, luckily my mages survived. There was no need in putting them at risk.

It's not a "tough" scenario IMO, yet not an easy walk as you must carefully plan your tactics, should know your enemy well, and have a couple side tasks - flagging villages for gold and retrieving an artifact. It would have been harder if enemy recruited more higher level troops. Basically, they were no match for my 2-3 level ones, so best thing they could do is accidentially kill me someone. No luck for them this time :)

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Barely satisfactory, especially if you compare them to the previous "masked dwarves" one.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
A bit uncomfortable combat in the middle of the map

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
I like it a lot - 7

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
With a better storyline I can easily give it an "8" score for fun
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taptap
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by taptap »

Lord (Challenging), 1.9.13, 80 gold. I came out of Mages and Drakes without bonus, barely managed to finish the previous scenario with high level recruits and negative gold. Once more with only 80 gold I couldn't afford more than 4 units, given the enemies I ended after several tries of running fast with level 1 units with high level (high resistance, preferably healthy, quick) recalls again (L2 and L3). After dispatching the SW leader, I moved the hedgehog formation with my single precious mage in the middle (I was very short on gold already in the last scenario) to the temple (which is pretty inconvenient with a total of 7 units) and then the exit of the wood. I don't complain, but it is kind of sad to be forced to play in such an ugly way, because of a bad result 2 scenarios ago.
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Ninjuri
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by Ninjuri »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Normal 1.10.2
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
100% (The part about both heros touching the sign post was weird though. The dwarvish lord guy was like "Everyone come to me we are done here" or something, i was thinking "wait what? The loremaster is the only other person here and he's already next to you..." Then i had to just wait a turn and switch their positions so now the loremaster was touching it and said whatever he did. IMO it probably should have just gone though if one hero was touching the post while the other was next to it)
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Not too sure what made the elves so hostile, they probably did have a confrontation with the masked dwarves, but these ones are clearly un-masked and the elves i assume always seek diplomacy before war, such as in LoW.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Getting surrounded by ambushing woses and rangers, which created an encompassing ZOC that i had to fight my way out of. The first time i played this, i tried to make a semi-straight path along the two bridges below the temple to the sign post, and i did make it, but i ended up getting every single unit killed, which included some veterans i brought along, the all the mages, and some gryphons. I went to this thread to see if people were doing it differently, and i saw how some people just brought along fresh dwarven guardsmen because they knew that they would get killed anyway. I tried that strategy instead but only made it halfway to the post before dying. So i guess i'll just have to stick with my first play and go to the next level with everyone dead.
(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?
Perhaps add a way for me to get to the sign post while retaining a few of my important units, or make it possible to get over there with just fresh recruits.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yes, i did beat it on my first try, but i lost everyone, so i tried it again with disposable units but didn't make it anywhere, so i am sticking with my first try.

Attachments related, both of my tries, the one where i was stopped short with disposable units, and the one where i actually won but lost everyone.
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Giraffemonster
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by Giraffemonster »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Steelclad, 1.10.3

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear. Move both essential units to the signpost.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
It was pretty standard. Not bad.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The main challenge was not taking too long to get clear of the elves. The last few times I tried, I got stuck at some point and the elves surrounded my units until my leader died. I read some of the posts here later, and revised my strategy. Got it on the first try, which was nice. I didn't have any Red Mages levelled, and the loyal Arch Mage died earlier.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7, it was pretty satisfying when I found out I was going to win.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
None that I can think of.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Got swamped, died.

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
N/A
devavrata
Posts: 119
Joined: August 30th, 2012, 8:59 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by devavrata »

Content Feedback wrote:(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Battle for Wesnoth 1.8.3, Easy/Medium/Hard
Content Feedback wrote:(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8
Content Feedback wrote:(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear
Content Feedback wrote:(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Clear. The elves, always so much arrogant...
Content Feedback wrote:(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The terrain is not to dwarves' advantage, but then, it has been so all the campaign. Forest gives a 30% defensive advantage, which for some reason seems a lot worse than 40%. But then, elves and woses are OK on forest and make ambushes. Difficult, but what would be a game without challenges?
Content Feedback wrote:(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7
Content Feedback wrote:(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Can't think of any.
Content Feedback wrote:(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No
Content Feedback wrote:(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
-
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Inky
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by Inky »

(1) Level and version? Hard (Lord), 1.12.4, 142 starting gold
(2) Difficult? (1-10) 8
(3) Objectives? Clear.
(4) Dialog? Fine.
(5) Challenges? Elves in the forest and their 60-70% defense
(6) Fun? (1-10) 6
(7) Changes? I'm still confused about the staff from the temple - it says it gives you a final strike but it gives you steadfast? There could be some more clarification.
(8) Restarts? One to start, moved ahead too quickly and got slaughtered. Played more conservatively next time.

Finished turn 17/28
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Aldarisvet
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by Aldarisvet »

Mages are far better at this scenario then dwarves.
1) They have 50% defence at the forest against 30% of dwarves.
2) They can send fire/cast arcane on woses which are vulnerable to these and also all elves are vulnerable -10% to arcane.
3) Most important is that they have magic attacks that means that high 60-70% defence on the forest will not save elves.
4) Also all mage's attacking bonuses from 2) multiplies under Loremaster's Inspire. So at the day mages under Inspire can fry Woses with immense power. It is 21-3 for Mages and 18-4 for Red mages.

So given you got as much mages as possible in the previous scenario, you can pass this one relatively easy even at the Hard difficulty.
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JMichael
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 9 - Forbidden Forest

Post by JMichael »

The exposition elf should refer to masked dwarves troubling the *western* margins of the forest.

In the introductory dialog, the elf says the masked dwarves have been encroaching on the eastern margins of the elves' forest. At the time, we're all standing at the west edge of the map. The inter-scenario map indicated we had been marching northeast since meeting masked dwarves.

Unless the elf is mistaken about masked dwarves only encroaching on elven forest, and the masked dwarves we met had made it all the way through the elven forest, I think we should be on the same side of the forest as earlier encroachment.

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