Start of the War

[Elvish_Hunter]

I played this campaign on Wesnoth 1.11.7+git, Hard difficult.

First Encounter: I got this error:

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error audio: cannot open track 'knalgans_theme.ogg'; disabled in this playlist.

Around turn 5, I found that I was being assaulted not by one, but by two Troll factions!
So, I decided to restart from scratch.
At the second start, I recruited four Thunderers and five Fighters, and started defending along the line of cave road that starts at 11,20 and ends at 16,23. Have a screenshot:

At turn 6 the Trolls attacked, and at turn 7 I recruited another Thunderer.
At turn 14, I leveled up my leader and chosen the usual Steelclad advancement. In the same turn, I managed to break the attackers' line. Screenshot:

At turn 20, I leveled up a Fighter as Runesmith. For the course of this campaign, I planned to level the first four non-strong Fighters as Runesmiths.
I managed to kill the blue Troll on turn 30, while I managed to destroy the green one only at the last turn.
Units that I got: 3 Runemsiths, 4 Thunderguards, 2 Steelclads (including my leader), 1 Stalwart. Carryover: 55 gold.

More Trolls: I got this error:

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20140102 14:38:50 warning engine: Invalid anchor!
20140102 14:38:50 warning engine: Invalid anchor!

I started with 175 gold.
I decided to start recruiting on the next turn, as this means 175 + 7 gold per turn = 182. Enough to recall nine units instead of eight.
Until turn 5, carefully checking my income, I recalled my four Thunderguards, my three Runesmiths, my Steelclad and recruited two fresh Fighters, and started holding the line.
At turn 8, my enemies started attacking.
Holding the line, I ended the scenario with negative gold, but I managed to have the following units:
1 Runemaster, 3 Runesmiths, 2 Dragonguards, 2 Thunderguards, 2 Lords (including my leader), 1 Steelclad.

Third scenario: it was more or less a lottery. I kept alive a Pathfinder, a Steelclad and leveled the Fighter as Steelclad. I ended on turn 10. Not much else to say.

Fourth scenario: I got these errors:

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20140101 21:59:15 warning engine: variable_info: retrieving member of non-existent WML container, stored.Pelatus
20140101 22:07:59 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'share_map' discarded.
Invalid WML found: The key 'protect_unit' is deprecated and support will be removed in version 1.12.0. (2)
Invalid WML found: The key 'target' is deprecated and support will be removed in version 1.12.0. (2)

Was I supposed to get back Pelatus in this scenario? If yes, I didn't and that may be a bug.
Due to the fog, I recalled my two Pathfinders and recruited a Scout. Then I recalled three Steelclads, three Runesmiths and two Thunderguards, and I recruited a Thunderer. Also, I took all of my ally's villages.
three Steelclads, one Dragonguard (due to the objectives), three Runesmiths and two Thunderguards.
At turn 7, I managed to take the castle tiles near 10,16.
At turn 12, my Dragonguard reached the secret chamber.
At turn 16, I sent through the tunnel a small assault force composed by my leader, two Lords, a Dragonguard and a Runemaster. Not only this, but at turn 18 I got another Runemaster, that will join said force as well.
At turn 19, my Runemaster attacked the enemy leader (that decided to exit his keep), reducing him to 12 HP. Then he retired.
At the very last turn, a combined (and lucky) assault with two Lords and a Runemaster killed the enemy leader. However, my gold was once again in deep negative.
My units: 3 Lords + leader, 1 Pioneer, 3 Runemasters, 1 Thunderguard, 3 Dragonguards, 1 Runesmith, 1 Explorer, 1 Steelclad.

More than Enough: another defense scenario. I recalled three Lords, three Runemasters, one Runesmith, one Dragonguard, one Thunderguard and recruited a Fighter.
At turn 7, I leveled up Trithaol (the loyal Scout). By the way, it is possible to accidentally kill him before turn 6, so the dialogue occurring on that turn won't make any sense.
At turn 20 I started my retreat.
At the last turn, my leader ignited the explosives. Again, I ended with deep negative gold.
However, you should mark clearly what the safe area for my units is, as it's unclear what the scenario means for "the fort". And you should use the explosion.ogg and rumble.ogg sounds, maybe also a white or red flash, and use [kill] to destroy the Trolls that end up in the void. That will make the scenario end more interesting.
My units: 4 Lords + leader, 1 Pioneer, 4 Runemasters, 4 Dragonguards, 2 Explorers, 1 Steelclad.

Siege of Knalga: I got this error:

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20140102 15:22:49 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'share_map' discarded.
20140102 15:22:49 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'share_map' discarded.
20140102 15:22:49 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'share_map' discarded.
20140104 22:34:04 warning engine: Invalid anchor!
20140104 22:34:04 warning engine: Invalid anchor!

Objective correction: instead of this line:

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note="This is the last scenario."

use the core macro {IS_LAST_SCENARIO}, as it is much more evident and nicely looking.
By the way, despite what the objectives say, the AI controller menu doesn't seem to work: it just never appears.
So, another defense scenario. But this time, I have infinite turns, several villages and narrow passages to defend.
I recalled all my units with my leader #1, and recruited level 2 units with my other leaders (Steelclads, Thunderguards and Stalwarts).
For a lot of turns, it was just matter of defending the passages, cycle my wounded units and attempt to level some units.
On turn 76, I moved some units through the northern passage, attempting to break the siege.
At turn 80, finally I managed to take out the pink leader (Tuh), then I went back to my base for another round of defense.
At turn 92, I did the same with the NW tunnel.
At turn 98, I killed the NW leader (Great Chief Zorg). While going back to my fortress, I noticed that the enemies didn't recruit any additional Troll, so I went East instead.
At turn 105, the same troops took down the eastern leader, Rok. Then I went back to my base.
On turn 114, I went NE. On turn 117, I killed both leaders (Shak and Grok) in the same turn, and once again went back to my base.
At turn 128, I started moving towards the eastern leader, Agh, killing him on turn 131.
At turn 138, noticing that the white Trolls attached my southern tunnel, I went SW to try and take out another leader. At this point, I had plenty of space to start even moving my green and purple troops out of the fortress.
At turn 142 I defeated the white leader (Borb), while the last leader was destroyed in the next turn.
This was a very long scenario, that in some ways reminded me of the final scenario in Northern Rebirth. It was very long, as I had to split it in three days(!).
Overall: a nice campaign, whose real limits are only the variety of scenarios and enemies: with one exception, every single scenario was more or less "hold the line and defend the fort" (I concede that sometimes I had also to kill the enemy leaders), and in every scenario my only enemies were Trolls.
Just for variety, it may be interesting to add a prologue scenario, where Knaldor and his recruits have to fight some spiders (exactly as he said), bats, scorpions and rats: you know, the usual stuff that you can find in any respectable cave. Since a regular Cave Spider will be too much, I remember that some add-ons had a level 2 Tarantula available: that will be useful. Such troops will then be inherited by Thritdrol, and will be available for recall in the first scenario. That will have also the side effect of making the first scenario a bit easier. I also feel like the turn limit for the first and the fourth scenarios need to be raised.
Finally, I beat the campaign without recruiting a single Guardsman or Ulfserker.

[Turuk]

Overall: a nice campaign, whose real limits are only the variety of scenarios and enemies: with one exception, every single scenario was more or less "hold the line and defend the fort" (I concede that sometimes I had also to kill the enemy leaders), and in every scenario my only enemies were Trolls.
Just for variety, it may be interesting to add a prologue scenario, where Knaldor and his recruits have to fight some spiders (exactly as he said), bats, scorpions and rats: you know, the usual stuff that you can find in any respectable cave. Since a regular Cave Spider will be too much, I remember that some add-ons had a level 2 Tarantula available: that will be useful. Such troops will then be inherited by Thritdrol, and will be available for recall in the first scenario. That will have also the side effect of making the first scenario a bit easier. I also feel like the turn limit for the first and the fourth scenarios need to be raised.
Finally, I beat the campaign without recruiting a single Guardsman or Ulfserker.

As always, thanks for the feedback Elvish_Hunter. I will look into those errors and see what's going on there.

That's not a bad idea, and could be tied into the suggestion by Altex. A patrol goes out to clear the caves of spiders, bats, scorpions and rats only to run into the trolls, and the player's performance could provide a little boost to the current S1 if they do well.

Congrats on going without recruiting a single Guardsman, I knew Ulfserkers were not necessary, but I liked using Guardsman to plug holes while the other units healed.

[Elvish_Hunter]

That's not a bad idea, and could be tied into the suggestion by Altex. A patrol goes out to clear the caves of spiders, bats, scorpions and rats only to run into the trolls, and the player's performance could provide a little boost to the current S1 if they do well.

Finally I found it! The Tarantula that I was talking about is called Lesser Giant Spider.
It originates from this topic, where Eternal posted a red version. Its first appearance was in Era of Strife, as L1 Spider. I found the current recolored version inside Era of Two Suns and IftU, where it is a level 2 unit. The version that I'm posting requires a bit less experience to level up and has its AnimationWML updated to the 1.11 compact syntax. Don't forget to correct the textdomain!

lesser-giant-spider.png (1.14 KiB) Viewed 4252 times

Lesser_Giant_Spider.cfg

(2.29 KiB) Downloaded 260 times

Congrats on going without recruiting a single Guardsman, I knew Ulfserkers were not necessary, but I liked using Guardsman to plug holes while the other units healed.

Well, I reasoned differently on this matter. I thought "a Guardsman costs 19 gold. A Fighter costs 16. If I give up on the Steadfast ability, I gain in exchange more firepower due to the better attacks, better defence on hills and debris, and possibly I can recruit one more unit". It worked. I didn't aim for the No Guardsmen achievement : it was a mere strategic choice.

[Turuk]

Finally I found it! The Tarantula that I was talking about is called Lesser Giant Spider.
It originates from this topic, where Eternal posted a red version. Its first appearance was in Era of Strife, as L1 Spider. I found the current recolored version inside Era of Two Suns and IftU, where it is a level 2 unit. The version that I'm posting requires a bit less experience to level up and has its AnimationWML updated to the 1.11 compact syntax. Don't forget to correct the textdomain!

Thanks! This will be making an appearance in the prologue scenario, the dwarven patrol will be clearing out the tunnels of some of these as well as a few other unsavory creatures when they run into some trolls...

Well, I reasoned differently on this matter. I thought "a Guardsman costs 19 gold. A Fighter costs 16. If I give up on the Steadfast ability, I gain in exchange more firepower due to the better attacks, better defence on hills and debris, and possibly I can recruit one more unit". It worked. I didn't aim for the No Guardsmen achievement : it was a mere strategic choice.

A fair point, I did not really break down the numbers too carefully to see about the number of recruits I could get either way, and maybe I should have done so.

[Chrysophylax]

Playing the version available on 27/01/14 on Wesnoth version 1.10.5 on Windows Vista Home Premium, I encountered an error at the end of Vanquished Outpost. My gold carried over in the old style: I received 200 gold for the next scenario because 0.8*22=18<200, whereas I should have received 200+(0.4*22)=209 gold. The 80%-or-the-minimum version seems to be built in as a default somewhere, because the same thing happened to me when I won Saving Inarix by killing all enemy leaders ( ), as I reported here: http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=39140.

The allied units are very irritating in Vanquished Outpost. They aren't aggresive enough to start the attack, remaining bunched up at the start. A particularly irritating problem is that they invade the player's castle - I had my keep blocked for two turns by dwarves too craven to advance and join the fight!

The text for More Than Enough is fairly mangled. Given that I have an army of almost nothing but L3s and near-advancement L2s, wouldn't it be better to give me a loyal unit that might be worth bringing to future fights? I feel that Andurithas should be at least a Pathfinder.

Replays to follow.

[Turuk]

Playing the version available on 27/01/14 on Wesnoth version 1.10.5 on Windows Vista Home Premium, I encountered an error at the end of Vanquished Outpost. My gold carried over in the old style: I received 200 gold for the next scenario because 0.8*22=18<200, whereas I should have received 200+(0.4*22)=209 gold. The 80%-or-the-minimum version seems to be built in as a default somewhere, because the same thing happened to me when I won Saving Inarix by killing all enemy leaders ( ), as I reported here: http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=39140.

This campaign is no longer actively maintained on 1.10 versions, it's last upload being June 2012. The gold carryover is supposed to actually be set at 50% in the old method, which would explain why you were always receiving the minimum.

The allied units are very irritating in Vanquished Outpost. They aren't aggresive enough to start the attack, remaining bunched up at the start. A particularly irritating problem is that they invade the player's castle - I had my keep blocked for two turns by dwarves too craven to advance and join the fight!

I didn't encounter this issue at all, but that may be just my play style. Can you post the mentioned replay so I can analyze this and make adjustments if needed?

The text for More Than Enough is fairly mangled. Given that I have an army of almost nothing but L3s and near-advancement L2s, wouldn't it be better to give me a loyal unit that might be worth bringing to future fights? I feel that Andurithas should be at least a Pathfinder.

That's fair, and an easy fix as it's just currently set to randomly generate a loyal Scout, so the Pathfinder upgrade is not absurd.

[Chrysophylax]

Hello. I'm here to complain.

There is an unclaimed village in More Than Enough right next to the loyal Thunderer. Having another village or two would make this scenario better: you're pretty much certain to end up deep in negative gold, but losing the chance to win because you recruited a turn too early and had 19 gold for your last recall would be really irritating. I recommend adding another village and claiming the one mentioned for team 1.

The retreat is very slow and difficult because it is very hard to prevent units getting trapped by ZoC. Moreover, you have to abandon your villages or make them the front line, so healing is really limited. Combined, this means that a single unlucky turn can trap or kill multiple units. Having another village in the bend in the passage would allow retreating wounded units to heal and hold the line for a turn. I didn't use all of the available villages in the fort anyway, so having another one in the rear of the fort would probably only affect the retreat and would allow units to return a turn earlier than the other suggested place; I recommend adding the latter village at least.

Why in Azathoth's name is the loyal Scout quick!? WHY? You'll pay for this! I'll have my revenge!

Ahem. ...Why am I given two loyal units that can't usefully participate? The Thunderer is obviously for plot reasons and is loyal to save gold, but making the loyal unit that can participate die in two hits is just cruel. I had to savescum every single time he fought, because he was almost invariably killed immediately, generally by a single unit. Make the scout loyal resilient strong or loyal resilient healthy (or just loyal resilient if you make loyal take up a slot), please, and make both units at least L2. Loyal resilient healthy (loyal resilient) is also the way to go with the other one: if he's coming back in Siege of Knalga he'd better be able to survive a turn. Also, I already have two quick Scouts from Vanquished Outpost who saw zero combat and will fill all of my quick-scout needs for SoK.

It would also help if Siege of Knalga had villages assigned optimally to the NPC leaders so that they don't waste time fighting over them and so that the player starts off with villages. It would also be nice if Kulnar's free troops guarded his castle instead of my village. It would also be just ducky if I got to recall more than three units at a time for once.

[Turuk]

Hello. I'm here to complain.

That's always what authors/maintainers of UMC want to hear.

There is an unclaimed village in More Than Enough right next to the loyal Thunderer. Having another village or two would make this scenario better: you're pretty much certain to end up deep in negative gold, but losing the chance to win because you recruited a turn too early and had 19 gold for your last recall would be really irritating. I recommend adding another village and claiming the one mentioned for team 1.

What difficulty are you playing at? The scenarios aren't designed around gold hoarding.

The retreat is very slow and difficult because it is very hard to prevent units getting trapped by ZoC. Moreover, you have to abandon your villages or make them the front line, so healing is really limited. Combined, this means that a single unlucky turn can trap or kill multiple units.

...

Make the scout loyal resilient strong or loyal resilient healthy (or just loyal resilient if you make loyal take up a slot), please, and make both units at least L2. Loyal resilient healthy (loyal resilient) is also the way to go with the other one: if he's coming back in Siege of Knalga he'd better be able to survive a turn. Also, I already have two quick Scouts from Vanquished Outpost who saw zero combat and will fill all of my quick-scout needs for SoK.

The campaign is not designed to be easy, so setting up the player for guaranteed success by building them the perfect army is not the plan.

It would also help if Siege of Knalga had villages assigned optimally to the NPC leaders so that they don't waste time fighting over them and so that the player starts off with villages. It would also be nice if Kulnar's free troops guarded his castle instead of my village. It would also be just ducky if I got to recall more than three units at a time for once.

As noted previously and in reference to the suggestions of all of your points, posting replays would be most helpful.

[Chrysophylax]

Replays! I doubt I'll play Seige of Knalga.

The scenarios aren't designed around gold hoarding.

No, but giving the player 3 recruit/recall spaces means that recruiting takes a long time and so upkeep on some units is charged multiple times before recruitment ends, while with more spaces they would be in play for less time before gold ceased to be relevant. I never had any chance to hoard gold: it was invariably recall or die.

[Turuk]

No, but giving the player 3 recruit/recall spaces means that recruiting takes a long time and so upkeep on some units is charged multiple times before recruitment ends, while with more spaces they would be in play for less time before gold ceased to be relevant. I never had any chance to hoard gold: it was invariably recall or die.

Yes it does, so it forces the player to think about the units they want to bring back.

The lead-the-shaman-to-the-ulfserker trick didn't work for me no matter what I tried. I had to use two.
This scenario really needs a longer turn limit.

The turn limit is to encourage the player to push to killing the troll leaders, potentially having to decide how to split their forces and wipe out both leaders. It's not hard to complete the scenario in the allotted time limit.

Meh. First playthrough went south due to excessive aggression. The whole thing is pretty luck-based.

It's really not luck-based at all, you're supposed to apply the same principles you learned in the first scenarios. Hold the choke points near the villages and play defensively, and it's actually relatively simple. If you play aggressively and recklessly, then yes, it would be luck-based, but that goes for many scenarios.

This also needs more turns. I had some reloads due to the AI seizing my keep: in the end I used debug mode to get the AI to give it back.

The turn limit is still plenty of turns. I will make the AI avoid the hexes of the player's keep to remove that issue.

The retreat is very slow and difficult because it is very hard to prevent units getting trapped by ZoC. Moreover, you have to abandon your villages or make them the front line, so healing is really limited. Combined, this means that a single unlucky turn can trap or kill multiple units. Having another village in the bend in the passage would allow retreating wounded units to heal and hold the line for a turn. I didn't use all of the available villages in the fort anyway, so having another one in the rear of the fort would probably only affect the retreat and would allow units to return a turn earlier than the other suggested place; I recommend adding the latter village at least.

Again, this could use a few more turns. The unclaimed village by the Thunderer is really irritating! It would also be nice if more information were given about which hexes are safe from the mine.

This doesn't need more turns, you waited too long to retreat. Two caves open in the flanks of the dwarves' position for trolls to come through (turn 17), and you held the line for two turns past that before retreating (turn 19). It was then harder for the units to move back, so that the line you didn't get until turn 23 most likely could have been achieved by turn 20. You also waited two turns to ignite the explosives. I will put in something to indicate which area the player must clear to be safe from the cave-in.