What could I have done better? (Drake vs Rebel + Loyalist)

[LightAlkmst]

Hello, I am newly joined to this community. I have been casually (about 7 long games total, but many short games) playing The Battle for Wesnoth for about a year and a half now, and I am a decent (I would like to believe) player. I greatly enjoy playing as the Drake faction, given their mobility and damage (what they were designed to have).

I would like to know what mistakes I did in this game (other than the Skirmisher at about turn 3 >.<). Playing small maps against the computer were laughable, and a 1v1 against the computer on a sizable map would effectively be over once I got a level 2. I play mostly against the computer because I know I'm new(-ish) and a long time to play against a human player is something I don't have. As such, I decided to play against 2 computer players on a larger map (so the initial wave doesn't keep crushing me >.<).

The map parameters were these:
45 x 45 tiles
30 villages/1000 tiles
Coastal (slot 2)
Everything else default

Game setting were these:
Default
(3 gold a village as I only discovered on turn 32 >.<; I left it as default and didn't notice it was 3, not 2, explaining the absolute masses of Heavy Infantryman)

As I discovered the land with my scouts, my initial strategy was to fortify the edge of the northern snow with troops to use the Drakes' effectiveness against low defense, especially given that they were Rebels. I would stall the Loyalist invasion from the middle, and keep scouts village grabbing along the coast. (They were set on random races, so I didn't know their positions or races beforehand.)

I do know that I slightly disobeyed normal Time of Day usage, but with neutral Elven Archers and fearless Heavy Infantry, I believe it was better to stand and fight, rather than running and losing my slower Clashers to the faster and free-shotting Archers.

On the off-hand, without my Saurians on the field, but many Burners on it, why did the Loyalist AI send so many mages and slow clunky fire-weak target sign Infantryman?

[Velensk]

Because the AI is not very smart, and it's system for evaluating unit worth gives extreamly high high priority to heavy infantry that even it's weakness to fire does not counteract. I have not seen the replay yet (when I will I will edit this post to resond to it), however it is my advice that if you want a good game you should try playing against humans rather than against the AI. It is incredibly difficult to tell you what you are doing wrong when you are facing any opponent as clumbsy as the AI because things that work great against the AI don't work against most humans. For example, against the AI getting an army of mostly burners against loyalists is a good way to go, however in a normal game getting an army of mostly burners against loyalists is a good way to die.

EDIT: part way through and taking a break, but I'll put up what I have so far. More to come later.

Gold wasn’t set to 3gpv it was set to 2. The reason it appeared to be 3 to you is because villages also provide a free upkeep. Green was getting all those heavy infantry because of the number of villages he owned.

Turn 1: Not a bad start, I might have substituted in a clasher due to their ability to destroy most factions scout units.

Turn 4: Moving the glider into the woods gave the scout a better target. It would probably have been better to defend with the skirmisher who resists the ranged attack and has decent defence+village healing than to draw the scout into the hills. Granted this opens the option of attacking the scout with the auger, however I would not wish to engage in that fashion with all the scouts yet when it would not be to hard to draw them into a far nastier trap when you know that they will not be recieving reinforcements before you do.

Turn 5: It was not worth it to kill the scout yet. Much safer, and more profitable to run away. If you pull back the AI will surely follow you, you can use the saurians to pull the scouts towards where your pierce units/leader can give them a rough time while retreating the glider to safety thus killing them with no loses save strings of bad luck

Turn 6: It would have been quite easy to save the southwest gilder down south by flying into the mountains. It would be more than worth it, for as long as the glider is alive and free he can force enemies to chase after him (decreasing the presure at the front) and steal other villages. Once again I would not be fighting the scouts with the saurians yet. You probably could have saved the auger.

Turn 7: No major problems that I noticed

Turn 8: The archer could easily have been tricked into a position where you could kill him without loses, you were to impatient to kill and thus you used your units in a way likely to get them killed.

Turn 9: No major problems

Turn10: No major problems, though I probably would have sent the clasher south through the hills towards where the cavalry were.

Turn 11: Would have been better to attack the village cavalry with the unwounded drake, that way the wounded one could claim/heal or aid in the battle if needed He’d also be less hurt and more able to survive the cavalry attack afterward. Glider could have been saved from high chance of death by having him fly over the mountains.

Turn 12: Would have worked better if you’d put the clasher in the open and the saurian in the hill when attacking the scout. Alternativly, you could have used only the clasher and fighter to kill that scout and used the saurian on the wounded scout on the village where he’d have a higher chance of living, you could then send the wounded clsher towards healing. The downside of this is that it gives you a lower chance of killing the first scout.

Turn 13: Why did you put the saurian in the open? It worked decently as a lure, but against the AI you don’t need a decent one to get the AI to attack, they would have exposed themselves just as much for a much worse chance of a kill.

Turn 14: Leadership could have been used much more efficently. Also, as it is the last turn of night it probably would have been better to not recruit those saurians but rather more drakes

Turn 15: No major problems.

Turn 16: Probably would have been better to make an effort to heal your wounded drakes, and stop the heavy infantry from stealing by lureing with a diffrent unit.

Turn 17: With more efficent use of leadership/units near the snow feild you should have easily been able to kill the mage and the unit you did in the same turn. Might have been a good idea to cover the saurian auger with the wounded drake to avoid the chance of the mage attacking the auger and getting 3/3 hits. Down south it would have been better to wait for the mage to come to you on your village to attack him on his. As long as he is standing on the village your drake must do more than 8 damage to even scratch him.

Turn 18: Risky attacking the mage with the auger, though I understand why you did it. It still would have been safer to wait till the auger could take a hit if he missed and kill the mage with a diffrent unit. Especialy consitering the strong cavalry in range. The movements of the fighters on 30,28 wasn’t the safest choice.

Turn 19: Would have put the auger on 24,11 rather than 23,12 to decrease exposure, though you arn’t likely to die. You were again in so much of a hurry to kill the wose that you needlessly lost a lvl2.

Turn 20: Skirmisher exposed itself to attack shaman which it had no chance to kill.

Turn 21 would have been better to go after close to level archer with a weaker unit to level it up then hit it with something strong, or just leave it alone and let it keep it’s 6-4 attack till the end of its turn. It would have been better to work the fight in a way that wouldn’t expose the auger at that moment. You forgot to recruit.

Turn 22: Probably would have been better to pull out of the center completly and run away from the heavy infantry to preserve your saurians. You may have been able to use the units instead to hurt the ranger up north instead. This might have allowed you to keep your fire drake. Forgot to recruit again.

Turn 23: No major problems.

Turn 24: Probably would have been better to send the slasher north to kill the wose rather than head south. The heavy infantry on the village was a gonner and you couldn’t change that, however that move creates the possibility of the slasher getting pinned and killed by a overwhelming horde of heavy infantry.

Turn 25: The burners arn’t great units for removing a ranger at night I’d have sent the skirmisehrs that way, and had the burners head south (after flaming wose). Though it appears that you got enough luck to get around that without losing more than a burner (probably havn’t seen next turn). Forgot to recruit

Turn 26: Be more carefull with your lvl 2s.

Turn 27: Probably would have been more advantagous to run the glider away down south. The clasher would have a much better chance of surviving an attack from the heavy infantry (or at the very least do more retaliation before it dies) and running would put you into better position to grab villages which is what the gilder is best at.

[LightAlkmst]

I understand that recruiting each turn is very important to keep reinforcements coming, but are there situations where not recruiting would be better, such as seeing what units the enemy will deploy? I didn't know about the free upkeep per village...Is it just effectively +1 gold per village up to the number of units you have?

EDIT: If you have extra time, could you also add more overall tips that would be helpful against human players as well? I understand that it takes plenty of time to write all that stuff up, and I posted it about 5 hours ago! Very helpful though. Thanks. I'll watch the replay too to fully understand.

[Velensk]

Here is the rest of it. I didn't do the whole match, but I figure that at a certain point it realy didn't matter.

Turn 28: In the skirmish by the hills it probably would have been better to pull the saurians back and attack the scout from the hills with them first. That way if things went well you would have your level 2 free to do something else. Attacking the mage from the hills seems like a bad idea as it had no chance of killing the mage and a substancial chance of getting the saurian killed The south is shaping up to be a losing battle, so I would attempt to ensure that there would be a way for my units to retreat while holding the ground for as long as possible.

Turn 29/30: No major problems.

Turn 30: Leadership could have been used more efficently.

Turn 31: No major problems.

Turn 32: Leadership could have been used more efficently. It would probably have been bennifical to be more careful with the glider you’re trying to level. It would be more effective to attack shamans with units they cannot slow down.

Turn 33: Probably would have worked better to go after the shaman with the warrior first despite it beings slowed. It would probably have been better to go after the shock troop than the bowman. You can wait to attack the bowman till there is no chance for you to be killed.

Turn 34: It was not worthwhile to send the Flare to attack the bowman, even if he had missed you with his sword he would have shot you afterwards and that would be a poor trade off for not losing a glider or burner. Up north, if you were going to attack the cavalry it could easiliy have been worthwhile to hold off retreating the warrior for a turn as it would have only tooken one puff of fire to finish off the cavalry and no unit would have been able to reach him afterwards.

Turn 35/36: No major mistakes.

Turn 37: No major mistakes, but it might have been a good idea to use the saurian to deny the archer the cover of the woods.

Turn 38: Might have been a better idea to try to weaken the archer first so that you could give the warrior the kill and level him up. However your way works fine too. Probably would have worked better to have the saurian attack from the other side so that he wouldn’t be exposed to the mage and heavy infantry that the drakes would be much better at taking hits from.

Turn 39: Up north it would have been a better idea to put the clasher in the open and the saurian on the village.

Turn 40: No major mistakes.

Turn 41: Would have been benifical to use the Blademasters sword on the wose. Although you would take retaliation, it would be even more effective at killingt the wose thus increasing the odds of denying the wose a chance to attack. Down south I’d have had the sky drake attack the heavy infantry for the same reason.

Turn 42: Up north it probably would have been better to put the glider in the forest so that the elf couldn’t take cover there next turn if you failed to kill him.

Turn 43: No major mistakes

Turn 44: Would have been a little bit better to place the blademaster up and to the right a bit so that the archer and/or shaman cannot take cover when firing at you. Left the clasher in reach of the shaman up north.

At this point, I’m going to stop analysing as the match is mostly down to mop up and I’m getting tired.

Against human players: There are some guides on this forum that are stickied. I'd look through those if you havn't. There is realy far to much to say about multiplayer in general though I can talk about loyalist vs drakes here specificaly.
-Most human opponents do not have the computers obsession with heavy infantry. Most of the time (even when not facing drakes) spearmen are the backbone of the human army because of their cost efficency and damage. This is a problem to drakes who have the same allignment and a weakness to peircing along with low defence. To deal with this, the drake player generaly uses many saurians because they are 1) chaotic 2)faster than spearmen 3)resistant to peirce and 4) have good terrain defences. The drake player may also recruit clashers to defend at day and to be a serious threat to cavalry who can chase saurians down. The trick is that saurians in the open at day die to loyalists easily, and saurians do not have high damage per unit (they rely on skirmish/magic to take down loyalists at night).

[Kamamura]

Saw part of your replay. In my opinion, the biggest mistake was that you were alone, and the opponents were two. Under such circumstances, you'd have to be much more successful tactically, which you really were not. I don't know if it could be won, but two things come to mind:

1) Mobility. You did not exploit this main advantage of drakes too much, instead you tried to establish frontlines and drakes are horrible line troops (low hp, high price, vulnerabilities). AIs were generous by recruiting poorly (seriously, why HIs and mages???). Drakes should try to slip through enemy lines, more, steal villages, retreat when outnumbered, and strike back when stray enemies promise easy kills. Think guerilla warfare. It's important to have a mobile leader too. Higher mobility allows creating local superiority situations while giving fallow ground to advancing enemy.

2) Trading units. Often, you attacked with an injured unit, only to be cut down on the next turn. Drakes are expensive.

[Velensk]

What are you talking about? He won, therefore it was obviously possible for him to win. He could have won more easily, however he did adequate to win.

[Kamamura]

He won, but only because AI recruited extremely poorly.

[LightAlkmst]

I'll try to see if I can play against human players later on. I'm a little busy with scholarships now, so definitely much later...

Just wondering a little bit though, as Clashers have only 5 move, how would I keep them safe away from enemies, but able to react promptly to any situation? With their good movement on hills, would keeping them in a nearby hillside with saurian cover work?

[manored]

I understand that recruiting each turn is very important to keep reinforcements coming, but are there situations where not recruiting would be better, such as seeing what units the enemy will deploy? I didn't know about the free upkeep per village...Is it just effectively +1 gold per village up to the number of units you have?

EDIT: If you have extra time, could you also add more overall tips that would be helpful against human players as well? I understand that it takes plenty of time to write all that stuff up, and I posted it about 5 hours ago! Very helpful though. Thanks. I'll watch the replay too to fully understand.

Not really. If you are losing sorely, its better to reunite enough money to recruit several units in one go, seending units one at a time will get then wasted if the enemy has the upper hand. And I personally think that if you are winning its better to not recruit either so you can react to whatever the enemy recruits.

I'll try to see if I can play against human players later on. I'm a little busy with scholarships now, so definitely much later...

Just wondering a little bit though, as Clashers have only 5 move, how would I keep them safe away from enemies, but able to react promptly to any situation? With their good movement on hills, would keeping them in a nearby hillside with saurian cover work?

Saurians dont sound like a good idea as cover. First, because they arent "muscle" units, that is, they dont have the health to afford getting caught in bad terrain... and if you are going to use then as shields, they will probally end up in bad terrain. Second because they are chaotic, what means its better to use then at night separately from drakes. Clashers are well armored and tough counter-attackers, so dont keep then completly safe from enemies, just make sure that any enemy attack against then is pretty much suicidal.

*Your initial strategy involved fortifying, but that is not a good idea with drakes since they have poor defense everwhere. (Saurians dont but they have poor health). Rather than fortifying, as drakes its better to keep away from battle then the odds are bad and leap into it then the odds are good. Its even better to always criple an enemy group before it has a chance to counter-attack next turn, drakes make it easier than with any other faction. Suming it up, Winning with Drakes is all about being the one starting the battles, and also the one ending then

*Watching your replay I noticed you dont preserve your units enough... its no good finishing off an enemy units if you must give one of your own to achieve that, unless the difference in prices is considerable. Rather, move back your wounded units, heal then and then bring than battle to battle. That is especially true with drakes since they are the best movers of the game, so not only you can retreat wounded units easily but you can pursue the enemy easily as well.