Wesnoth is actually two separate games.

[Glowing Fish]

After having played Wesnoth for six years, and having been on these forums for almost that long, I've realized that: a) Wesnoth is actually two separate games, and b) most of people's complaints about Wesnoth come from them thinking they are playing one of those games when they are actually playing the other.

The basic description of Wesnoth is a "turn based strategy with role playing elements". Although, depending on the campaign or modification, Wesnoth can also be a Role Playing Game with turn-based strategy elements. (Much like Bahamut Lagoon is, if anyone can remember Bahamut Lagoon).

There are two ways to fight a battle in Wesnoth: the first, the strategy way, is to think of lines of troops, think of the goals they have to reach, and come up with a strategy to do so. The second way, the role playing game way, is to use small groups of elite units, and to rotate and deploy these units in such a way as to always have an overwhelming advantage over the enemy. For the first example, think of a line of loyalist spearman advancing across a plain during the day, taking losses, but also destroying the enemy and capturing villages. For the second, think of a group of Elvish Avengers in forest squares, backed up by an Elvish Shyde, and taking out hordes of incoming orcs, and rotating backwards so that they are always safe.

I think the biggest problem with Wesnoth (or at least in how people play it), is that especially in long campaigns, people want to solely use RPG like tactics, in part because those units are hard to level up, and partly because we all grow attached to our units. (I won't deny that I have won TRoW without losing a unit (until the end, of course) through obsessive save/loading). I actually have a lot more fun often with Multiplayer, (or single scenario against the AI), because then I can play the game as a war game, and not have to worry about preserving units and gold for future scenarios.

Of course, as with anything, Wesnoth has enough flexibility that if people don't like campaigns where they have to play the small party tactics perfectly...they don't have to play them. However, I think that lots of the complaints against the campaigns are valid, because most of those campaigns do involve letting go of normal tactics to focus on unit preservation and development.

[joshudson]

Haha I noticed this.

[Captain_Wrathbow]

Very good points you touched on there...

[Gambit]

[acronym=Wesnoth is not a game. It's an engine.]WINAG IAE[/acronym]

[Blarumyrran]

[/acronym]

[Glowing Fish]

[acronym=Wesnoth is not a game. It's an engine.]WINAG IAE[/acronym]

Wesnoth is an engine, but notice that about 90% of what that engine seems to have been applied to so far is turn based strategy with a fantasy theme.

And its not for a lack of trying: we do have Spacenoth, after all. But it seems like something about the engine favors strategy with RPG elements.

[Gambit]

Right, and each campaign is like a whole new game. It's an engine with several high quality games packaged in.

[Ysegrim]

...For the second, think of a group of Elvish Avengers in forest squares, backed up by an Elvish Shyde, and taking out hordes of incoming orcs, and rotating backwards so that they are always safe....

hordes of incomming orcs rip that little elvish group to shreds just takes orkish warriors even in forest terrain happened often enough

but yes its cool how many games are in wesnoth and how many different campaigns to explore

[Icarusvogel]

The things you can do with WML are really astounding... (yes, Gambit, I'm referring to GEB )... stuff like Galactic Empires or the Empire Builder are just as much seperate games than the strategy with role-playing elements/role-playig with strategic elements. What I want to say is, every abstract era/campaign made is actually a whole new game in the universe of Wesnoth.

[Araja]

Don't forget Modern Combat and Wesband!

[PeterPorty]

Seriously? You've been playing Battle for Wesnoth for six years and you've ONLY managed to play 2 games!? Come on, I've been playing for a lot less and I'm pretty sure I've enjoyed over a hundred games.... I mean... Every era played on every scenario can be considered a diferent game, as each of them are pretty different from each other...OTOH, each campaign and even every scenario can be considered a new game. To end my message I want to point out that playing things like GEB or Bobs RPG era is a whole new experience... so yeah... they are just wml artists...

[LadyJesica]

Sorry, but i don't think that every campaign is a different game. Every campaign is only a small part of the game and actually a small part of Wesnoth History. So, it turned out that the game Battle for Wesnoth includes all of it's history in small campaign's, which show the different situations of living in Wesnoth, and how hard is to become a good king.

[PeterPorty]

ORLY? You don't think DID, UtBS and HttT all have diferent characters, story and even gameplay featuring different strategies, units, terrains, etc? and btw, Lisar sucks...

[Araja]

I'm guessing you never tried the Void Armour + Sceptre of Fire strategy then...?