Funny things you did as a beginner

[Civhai]

1. I didn't know anything about hitting percentages. I thought thieves are incredibly bad units, but than I was angry because I was never able to kill them because I never hit.
2. After I found out that there were these percentage numbers when you try to attack enemies, I didn't know where it came from, I thought they were just some kind of god-given numbers.
3. Soon I found out, that there are numbers on the hex you intend to go to, but since they were high on mountains, where I was very slow, I thought it was negative, if they were high.
4. I always lost against the computer, even when I gave myself twice as much gold.
5. I didn't manage to win the first scenario of HttT
6. I didn't look at the time of day at all, I thought that this was just some kind of role playing stuff.
7. I wondered why Grunts made always 12 damage, if the computer had them but only 6 damage if I had them.
8. I didn't care about melee and ranged units, I just attacked with everyone as much as possible.

[faring]

9.I always wanted to have at least one of every type of unit (This was probably just me =( )
10. always ended a unit's turn on a hex where it has good defense... ...even when all the enemies are on the other side of the map

[Cheradenine]

I still want to have at least one of every kind of unit!

And,

11) I got annoyed that there was no way to tell how far a unit could see.

[Glowing Fish]

12) I actually remember my first ever game of Wesnoth, I made lots of mistakes, but the one that I remember is sending a scout out to "Hold a village for a few turns" in the first scenario of HttT. Which maybe lasted half a turn once the wolves got there.

In general, I think it took me a while to figure out that there are no super powered units in Wesnoth. Most Level-3 units will die pretty quickly if they get surrounded or are on bad terrain.

[krotop]

13) I tried to attack a player in a 4p game, until I realised it was a teamate.

[Velensk]

I didn't beat the tutorial on my first try. Mind you this was with the old tutorial which was very diffrent from the current one, amoung other things there was holy water in it, and you were fighting Defldors elves with your own.

Also, due to my early experiances I developed a mental chink that an elven fighter in the woods is more likely to be missed twice by an orc grunt than hit once. Which later on when my early luck ended to me beleiving the game was out to get me. Once the damage calculation feature was added, I actualy checked and was suprised to find out I was wrong.

[DEATH_is_undead]

14 or 15, depending on if Velensk counted

I didn't realize the Signpost on HttT was there, and tried to defeat the Orcs... Hey, I got one and a half of em dead.


PS: Velensk , was that the one with HttT's map? And 2nd level you had to kill Delfandor? I actually prefer that one...

[Max]

before playing the first time i've already been reading some posts on the forum, one of them from someone blaming the rng to be broken. smiled about how often people don't realize that their minds can play tricks on them.

after a couple of hours it happened - i was really convinced that my mages magical attack isn't even close to 70% hit chance, rather 50%. while i was downloading the source to check what's going wrong (i didn't actually think the rng was broken, rather something on a higher level) i started a small trial and wrote down the results of about 100 attacks.

i guess you all know the result^^

[LemonTea]

Thought the great tree was different terrain from forest, because an elvish fighter only had 60% dodge on a great tree while an archer had 70% in a forest tile. Then I realised fighters weren't the same as archers.

Lost the tutorial once.

Having about 6 or 7 lvl 3 units at the very end of Heir to the Throne, because I keep recalling lvl 3s and sending lvl 1s as fodder to get killed.

Getting stuck on An Orcish Incursion on easy.

Getting stuck on The South Guard on beginner.

Hero units sit in the keep. ALWAYS. (including Delfador in HttT). Konrad did get up to lvl 2 due to Sceptre mission.

No units retreat. Ever. Reload an autosave if the Elvish Druid next to enemy Orcish Warriors in water with 1 HP left at night somehow dies. Repeat until win.

(Druids are fighters not healers anyway! Never place them next to other units.)

[HomerJ]

Had units sit in villages for income, thinking that it's not your village any more if you leave it.

Greetz
HomerJ

[Civhai]

No units retreat. Ever. Reload an autosave if the Elvish Druid next to enemy Orcish Warriors in water with 1 HP left at night somehow dies. Repeat until win.

A bit later, I got the idea of save reloading and then I did it like that, too. I beat HttT on hard without problems and began to think I was a really good player. I really did LOTS of save reloading. My favorite unit where horsemen, because they always hit and the enemy never hit them, so I didn't have the disadvantage of charge. My favorite tactic was to send a few horsemen to the foremost villages and then hold this villages until the other units came, then hold it until the others came. The horseman (or higher level, of course) was surrounded and attacked, but of course, he never got killed. My goal was always to get as many XP as possible, so I tried to find any kind of trap to get more enemy units. Of course, I killed all the enemy leaders in the first level of HttT. At the end, I got such a big army consisting of lvl 3 units, you couldn't imagine. But I saw a replay of this battle a year later or so and I almost loughed. I just send every unit to attack as much as possible. Then, of course, the AI punished me for such an over agressive tactic, but he had no chance, because he just couldn't hit me. I thought it was unfair if I had to save reload the same thing for a long time. For example in ford of Abez, my main force killed Li'sar (without losses, of course) while three mermen took the other boss. There I had 10 percent chance to kill the enemy leader and I reloaded for more than one hour. But even funnier was maybe my first try on rise of wesnoth. Of course, the three heavy infantrists of the first battle survived and killed the orc. But the funniest thing was a battle in the swamp against the undead dragon. I liked it a lot, because you could create undead if you walk around and I tried to create as many as possible. My arch mage was of course sent to the foremost front and surrounded. I remember he had only a few hitpoints and was surrounded in the swamp by revenants and deathblades. I think that took me the longest time ever to save reload.

My brothers style was even worse, I think. He didn't concentrate on leveling units so much, but he liked AMLAs a lot. Once he had a legendary guardian with something like 20 AMLAs in rise of wesnoth. Once he played HttT on hard with only 7 units or so. Some time later, he found out, that you can change save files. And he used that a lot... Ever seen a whole army of yetis and old lichs?

And yes, I also lost the tutorial in the first time, because I fought mainly with scouts because I hated the other units

My sister is beginning to play wesnoth right now. She never plays wesnoth, though, she always plays wesnoth -d. Her style is even much worse. Her units have always 1000 hitpoints. I remember once I was sitting next to her and she said that this time, she wouldn't use any debug commands. (I loughed at that idea, because most units had already 1000 max hitpoints from the beginning) Then her leader got trapped and surrounded and she said: "Ok, now I have to." and used it again. Then she saw a ghost which was nearly leveled because he killed so many of her allied troops, but it was clear that he would die in the next turn. She thought it was to sad to allow that and changed the side of the ghost and took him. And yes, you can imagine what she did when she didn't officially declare that she'd do that battle without debug commands.

[LemonTea]

I guess the Art of Wesnoth runs in your family?

[Ken_Oh]

1. I didn't know anything about hitting percentages. I thought thieves are incredibly bad units, but than I was angry because I was never able to kill them because I never hit.
2. After I found out that there were these percentage numbers when you try to attack enemies, I didn't know where it came from, I thought they were just some kind of god-given numbers.
3. Soon I found out, that there are numbers on the hex you intend to go to, but since they were high on mountains, where I was very slow, I thought it was negative, if they were high.
4. I always lost against the computer, even when I gave myself twice as much gold.
5. I didn't manage to win the first scenario of HttT

Terrain defense also eluded me when I first played. I figured chance to hit had more to do with the unit attacking than with the unit defending.

[Turuk]

A bit later, I got the idea of save reloading and then I did it like that, too. I beat HttT on hard without problems and began to think I was a really good player. I really did LOTS of save reloading. My favorite unit where horsemen, because they always hit and the enemy never hit them, so I didn't have the disadvantage of charge. My favorite tactic was to send a few horsemen to the foremost villages and then hold this villages until the other units came, then hold it until the others came. The horseman (or higher level, of course) was surrounded and attacked, but of course, he never got killed. My goal was always to get as many XP as possible, so I tried to find any kind of trap to get more enemy units. Of course, I killed all the enemy leaders in the first level of HttT. At the end, I got such a big army consisting of lvl 3 units, you couldn't imagine. But I saw a replay of this battle a year later or so and I almost loughed. I just send every unit to attack as much as possible. Then, of course, the AI punished me for such an over agressive tactic, but he had no chance, because he just couldn't hit me. I thought it was unfair if I had to save reload the same thing for a long time. For example in ford of Abez, my main force killed Li'sar (without losses, of course) while three mermen took the other boss. There I had 10 percent chance to kill the enemy leader and I reloaded for more than one hour. But even funnier was maybe my first try on rise of wesnoth. Of course, the three heavy infantrists of the first battle survived and killed the orc. But the funniest thing was a battle in the swamp against the undead dragon. I liked it a lot, because you could create undead if you walk around and I tried to create as many as possible. My arch mage was of course sent to the foremost front and surrounded. I remember he had only a few hitpoints and was surrounded in the swamp by revenants and deathblades. I think that took me the longest time ever to save reload.

My brothers style was even worse, I think. He didn't concentrate on leveling units so much, but he liked AMLAs a lot. Once he had a legendary guardian with something like 20 AMLAs in rise of wesnoth. Once he played HttT on hard with only 7 units or so. Some time later, he found out, that you can change save files. And he used that a lot... Ever seen a whole army of yetis and old lichs?

And yes, I also lost the tutorial in the first time, because I fought mainly with scouts because I hated the other units

My sister is beginning to play wesnoth right now. She never plays wesnoth, though, she always plays wesnoth -d. Her style is even much worse. Her units have always 1000 hitpoints. I remember once I was sitting next to her and she said that this time, she wouldn't use any debug commands. (I loughed at that idea, because most units had already 1000 max hitpoints from the beginning) Then her leader got trapped and surrounded and she said: "Ok, now I have to." and used it again. Then she saw a ghost which was nearly leveled because he killed so many of her allied troops, but it was clear that he would die in the next turn. She thought it was to sad to allow that and changed the side of the ghost and took him. And yes, you can imagine what she did when she didn't officially declare that she'd do that battle without debug commands.

So, uh, all three have never really learned how to play the game effectively so that you do not have to debug or reload all the time? It might make it more fun then doing the same battle for an hour just to get the result you want. 1000 hit points, changing unit sides, making your own army. Wow.


On a note of funny things I did as a beginner, I thoroughly ignored time of day. Oh, I knew exactly how it functioned and the difference in the attack power of my units, but I thought eh... I can get around it. Worked out well for a while until I started playing on the harder settings.

[krotop]

Inspired by AI strategies, I tried an almost full scout recruit on my 1st turn. On a 25x25 sized map.