A Vision Blinded (15 scenarios, all complete and working)

[AxalaraFlame]

At first it is elvish rush vs orcs, rather conventional and satisfying slaughters. Soon, we fight humans...the campaign becomes really IMBA. The later scenerios are insanely hard on hard level. I do understand there should be some hard scenerios, but continously having harder and harder ones!? No any damned breathing room scenerios??? It is not gonna be right, bro.

1. The cave scenerio. 55 turns look like a really long one, but it is definetly not going to be long enough to finish this scenerio with abundant bonus(and relaxively). I managed to finish it within 50 turns, but most of the plots hiden in walls are not spotted, including that spider with gold and the poison bow. I took many marksman and enchantres, with the help of lots of trolls, to defeat four dwarves by rather fierce attacks, so I pushed forward really hard and fast. Technically, fighting dwarves by elves in caves is not very rational. Using all hexes to fire, nearly lost half of the trolls and some elves, I succeeded to get to the entrance, with little bonus in hand. I don't think an unexperienced player could finish hard in time.

2. Scenerio10, fight baron Malostartin. It is winnable, but at great costs. You may try it, and you would find out that without pushing forwoard at all costs(income decreases to an astonishing level, gold turn negative-100) recalling lv3 elvish destroyers, it would be hard to win and would sacrifise many lv1s. It is simply insanely hard that you would need a good army which takes more than half of the villages on the map to maintain the income, which brings no good consequence. However, killing each leader provide certain ammounts of bonus mend it up properly, by the end of the scenerio I managed to end up with 500+ as the staring gold in the next scenerio.
I suggest to modify each enemy to focus on you, instead of taking any care of villages, which would bring far less difficulties in taking and holding them. Besides, the gold bonus can be erased and replaced by longer turn limits.

3. Scenerio11, you cannot defeat all eneies, obviously. The problem is defending 21 turns is still not a realistic thing, unless you don't mind how much would you lose.

[Adamant14]

A Vision Blinded:
... but most of the plots hiden in walls are not spotted, including that spider with gold and the poison bow....

What do you mean by 'not spotted'?

[AxalaraFlame]

Means I did not find them.
I know they exists because I redid this scenerio. It takes lots of lots of time...

[AxalaraFlame]

I finished. Its difficulty is rather challenging. You need to fend the enemy off by every means in the later scenerios. Unlike many campaigns, you experience some hard scenerios and some easy ones, this campaign became harder and harder when you go further.

I believe the last scenerio does not necessarily take so much time, and that gold hiden in "the end of lake" thing...well... whatever, I erased this part. That is becoming nonsense. I don't think any people with rationale woudl go search that place, unless given some hints, to make it less obscure.

And the River Ran Red is simply too hard. I used all lv3s and lots of save/load to break the clans' blockade

Besides, there are some issues in unit balance. I believe Naga Warlock is apparently too IMBA in having really awesome magical attacks. Comparing to all other units appear with them in a same scenerio, they are the most annoying. Therefore, I nerfed them down, and decreased hp and costs as well.

[taptap]

Well, I played only on medium and didn't continue for a while and found "The river ran red" hard as well... but you should not playtest with save/loads, never ever. If the scenario is too hard on hard (it might be, I don't know) then posting what you tried and how you were wiped out would be far more instructive (Losing is fun!)

Scenario 10 has a very high amount of villages and a high turn limit. You can optimize in scenario 10 without limits (even without playing recklessly) and you will be able to survive the next one better. E.g. (in my case) the one useless thief costs me a lot during a 45 turn scenario, sacrificing some superfluous L1 might even be beneficial, a scout more could have done wonders for map control, breaking the guards can be done more efficiently (I wasted two turns to position myself properly)... but still I started scenario 11 with 582 gold but lost 17 of 31 units there (3 melee L3 among them) - medium, first try without save/loads.

[AxalaraFlame]

Try nightmare. It won'y take much time to go there, maybe a whole night's gameplay?
And The River Ran Red cannot be won by most usual means, with the most powerful recall lists in hand, you still scarecely have any chance.
I beat it by S/L instead of debug because I want to have a normal starting gold in the next scenerios.(though it is obviously default gold, losing so much money in lv3s upkeep ...) All the rest of them are but fine, and with some charges and retreats, even the finale can be rather easy, with that little starting gold.

I don't save/load, really. This is just to make it through "normally".

But talking about how was I "wiped out" readily, I would mention those AI's lancers...

Scenario 10 has a very high amount of villages and a high turn limit. You can optimize in scenario 10 without limits (even without playing recklessly) and you will be able to survive the next one better. E.g. (in my case) the one useless thief costs me a lot during a 45 turn scenario, sacrificing some superfluous L1 might even be beneficial, a scout more could have done wonders for map control, breaking the guards can be done more efficiently (I wasted two turns to position myself properly)... but still I started scenario 11 with 582 gold but lost 17 of 31 units there (3 melee L3 among them) - medium, first try without save/loads.

Yep. On nightmare, I finally evened my score by widping out all enemy leaders(get gold bonus), without saveload as well. I get nearly the same ammount of starting gold as u do in scenerio11, which is 542, so I suppose I did well enough. On medium, you mentioned that you lost more than half of your units. Well, my dilemma is, I swarm Lv3s as if this is my finale, and I still lost everything. It is rather different on hard, since they get so many horses, and nearly all horses arrived at a same time during daytime. While the night is not long enough for you to kill them en masse, and the second day comes and...you know.

Oct 31th, 2012
I am still trying to break their lines on nightmare without SL. Now it is proceeding, but hope remains little. Each turn loses more than 3+ lv3s is really common thing. Now I am at turn10, with heavy loses taking place every single turn. The first wave of horses are nearly eradicated. I hope I could tomorrow's dawn.

Oct.31th, 2012
One boss is assasinated by three lv3 horses.

Oct.31th, 2012, I made it till this dawn, but I don't think it may last long enough for me...

@taptap
I made it! Lost five champions, one troll warrior, one sharpshooter who was nearly to amla, one avenger, I fend them off without saveload. However, that does not necessarily mean its difficulty is rational. It is still insanely hard.

[taptap]

Ok, I see adamant has handed the maintenance of this campaign to axalaraflame, is this correct? So, to keep axalaraflame busy I restarted the campaign on hard and will comment a little

Scenario 1) Perfect 1st scenario. End with first level ups and 80 gold carryover.

Scenario 2) A number of triggered events aka tomato surprises. While not very hard in general these events can be easily exploited with previous knowledge or can lead to a surprise loss for the unprepared player (having your leader exposed when your last moving unit triggers a new wave of opponents all around you). It is very awkward to have half a dozen elves and a dozen orcs pop out of nowhere and start fighting when the whole place was within sight already two moves earlier. Similarly awkward is when all remaining orcs simply vanish upon killing the leader of the orcish expeditionary group.

Maybe it is possible to have the original fight on the map at start but set up so the orcs need a turn to close in, upon you seeing the group, which can be controlled by a passive AI at start, they switch to your side. The assassins / enemy leader can arrive (from the edge of the map) some turns later without being triggered by the kill of the orcish fighting group. Fewer turns the harder the difficulty, if you are too slow in dispatching the first group, because you are torturing them with shamans, well, then this is your fault.

End with loyals + 8 other L2, 2 immortals (L1 one XP from level up) + 114 gold carryover. 5 losses so far from the first two scenarios.

[AxalaraFlame]

Ok, I see adamant has handed the maintenance of this campaign to axalaraflame, is this correct? So, to keep axalaraflame busy I restarted the campaign on hard and will comment a little

Thank you for your passion. I have largely modified some scenerios' enemy income settings, but I guess I can not be totally right. I will wait for your conclusions.

For scenerio two, I suppose your idea is fine. I made the orcs to appear as 2 grunts, 1 archer, and 1 wolf at the oringinal positions. The Lv2s are moved backwards for 4 hexes. Though they can see you, they will not get you immediately. I guess that would suffice.

@taptap
What I concern the most are that cave scenerio and that clans scenerio. I tested And the rive ran red again, find that without some positive luck, we will still lose readily by losing too many units in a short time.

[Adamant14]

I play right now through the latest version of A Vision Blinded (modified by you AxalaraFlame)

I play difficulty HARD.

I'm on scenario 07 right now.

The only scenario that's much too difficult (in my opinion) is 04_New_Mutiny.
The Berserker's troubles me, they costs me a lot of time, so I had real problems to win the scenario within the given turn limit.
That is not your fault, I'm sure the scenario was too hard before.
Maybe you should change the difficulty for that scenario a bit.

[AxalaraFlame]

The only scenario that's much too difficult (in my opinion) is 04_New_Mutiny.

Aha!
No, I did not change any stuff in this scenerio, because I break it with ease; Yet, obviously, this scenerio needs an unusual strategy. You need to sacrisfise some horsies and rush the middle castle to waste their berserkers(by noob fighters ofc). Played in a right way, it is actually very easy.

And I feel really curious about scenerio2, because I replayed it but cannot reproduce that bug. I hope I would figure it out someday or with your help.

[Adamant14]

About scenario 02:

Do you have the unit name Diludyren on the map?
If yes, then I will be very surprised.

About scenario 04:
Maybe I give it another try, with the tactic you suggested.

[AxalaraFlame]

About scenario 02:

Do you have the unit name Diludyren on the map?
If yes, then I will be very surprised.

I am not sure what do you mean for that, but I changed the code as you suggested. I am still trying to figure out what is the difference

edited just two mins ago...
see? that does not work...I guess the final [/unit] is important

edited just one min ago...
I add [/unit] to end that line anyway. It works

About scenario 04:
Maybe I give it another try, with the tactic you suggested.

Forget about my replay. It is corrupted.

[Adamant14]

04_New_Mutiny is not that problem, if you use the right strategy.

Scenario 05 - 10 was no big problem on HARD difficulty.

But now I stuck on '11_River_runs_red' on HARD difficulty.
What do you think?
Is it still unbeatable on HARD?

[AxalaraFlame]

Peter, it is really very hard, but not exactly unbeatable. I have already largely nerfed down the difficulty by cutting down their income, thus after the first impact(20+ horses), they won't send reinforcements restlessly.

In this scenerio we are always expecting to endure great losses. 8+ lv3s loss is a very predictable consequence.

Hint: Get all your Champions and hold it fast

[Adamant14]

I think it is still too hard.