Peasant Uprising

[brass_harpooner]

This thread is about the Peasant Uprising campaign that I'm working on. It's brand new and only contains a single scenario (Triple Siege) at the moment but I'll be building it over the coming weeks [EDIT: there are now two scenarios in this campaign; Triple Siege and Revenge of the Redbrains], hopefully with some helpful feedback and contributions from the community. It should be available via the add-on server shortly after I submit this post.

I'm new to Wesnoth but I'm an experienced programmer so whereas this first version is purely WML-based I can see myself delving into the actual code to make some advanced tweaks to the campaign.

Peasant Uprising is about a young mage freshly returned from his initiation to magic on the Isle of Alduin and confronted with an Orcish invasion of his homeland.

The first scenario, Triple Siege, sees him confront a mighty Orcish Warlord called Gork Redbrain with just a couple of woodsmen and peasants as his only allies. The Orcs also have the advantage as far as starting positions are concerned; they control the three fortified cities on the map. Most of the villages are enclosed within the fortifications. The odds seem stacked against our heroes at first but they soon joins forces with powerful allies (well, if you can find them). To win you need to assemble your troops and weather the storm for the first two nights and then you should be ok, provided that at least some of your key loyal units are still alive by then. Leveling up one or two of your weaker units would also help.

I'd love to get your feedback as I go along. Contributions are also welcome. In particular:

• I'm not much of an artist, and I'm using an icon and image from mainline campaigns in the campaign intro. It would be nice to replace those with novel artwork.

• I've read through the history of Wesnoth but I'm still uncertain where to best place this in terms of both geographical location and time period.

Thanks!
Brass Harpooner

[Paulomat4]

Hello brass_harpooner and welcome to the forums!

I'm not much of an artist, and I'm using an icon and image from mainline campaigns in the campaign intro. It would be nice to replace those with novel artwork.

Welcome to the struggles of being a campaign author! Most UMC authors do not have original artwork. Your best chance is either to learn digital drawing or to gather what artwork you can scrap from other UMC camapaigns. Most assets on the add-on server should be free to use but pay attention to the license under which they are distributed.

I've read through the history of Wesnoth but I'm still uncertain where to best place this in terms of both geographical location and time period.

Maybe this can help you: https://wiki.wesnoth.org/Timeline_of_Wesnoth
The story you have choosen is not too specific. I think there are many place in history and on the great continent where you could place it.
How about placing it in the northlands? Sometimes before the northern alliance was forged. Maybe the Orc invasion could be an attempt of asheviere to control the northlands?

I wish you the best of luck for your campaign!

[brass_harpooner]

Thanks Paulomat4, yes I guess the Northlands would be a pretty good fit. I'll make a mention that the first scenario takes place in peak summer to account for the lack of snow. I may revisit parts of the map in a different season, maybe to show a frozen-over Lake Krakenblood. I've started work on the second scenario, not that I consider the first one finished but I want to learn about campaign management (incl. carry-over gold and recall lists) and try to have Peasant Uprising work as a coherent and balanced campaign before I start zeroing in on some of the flaws...

I saw on the add-on server that the campaign was downloaded 10 times already. If you gave it a shot I'd love to hear your feedback. Did you complete the first scenario? What difficulty did you opt for? Was it too easy/hard? Did you have fun? What tactics did you employ/what city did you capture first?

[brass_harpooner]

I've just published a new version of the campaign to the add on server. This update features some minor improvement to the first scenario and a brand new scenario called "Revenge of the Redbrains". Several orc warriors attempt to avenge Grok Redbrain (who was slain during the first scenario). The scenario happens immediately to the north west of the previous one, and one of the cities from Triple Siege also figures in this one.

It's the autumn now and the terrain feels different. Your job is to protect an ally caught between the orcs and the city you liberated. You only need to survive for a certain number of turns (depending on difficulty), but in its current state it should be feasible to defeat all Orcish enemies (earning you a bonus).

EDIT:

I've made a bunch of improvements to this second scenario and it's a lot more fun to play (and more challenging). Whereas in the first scenario the situation seems desperate from the outset but then allies turn up to give you a hand, in this one it's the other way around.

You start out in a large city aligned with your cause (spoiler: it was liberated during Triple Siege), with opportunities to recall or recruit lots of troops, and with allies controlling the other two fortified cities. The orcs on the other hand are divided into three camps, each vying to replace their fallen leader as the new head of the Redbrain tribe. The odds look to be squarely in your favor, but expect some nasty surprises along the way.

The battle revolves around the control of two bridges over a deep river. If left to their own devices your allies and one of the orc leaders will fight for one of the two crossings for much of the scenario, but it's up to you to take care of the other two bosses (or at least make sure you and your allied leader survive until turns run out).

[brass_harpooner]

I posted another update to the first two scenarios, to make them more fun and more challenging, especially in hard. I've remodeled the fortified cities; they were too large and difficult to defend. Both scenarios involve sieges that don't amount to much if the opponent can just walk through the city out of range from the defenders. I've also remodeled some of the terrain in the first scenario.

While Triple Siege was already fun to play, there was a sequence of plays that you could do from the start that pretty much guaranteed you victory, even in hard. This was mainly due to the fact that orcs suck at defending cities that are under their rule. They would just abandon them straight away (except for the one with the keep) and that made it very easy for the player to snatch two of the cities in the first few turns with hardly a fight. I changed the AI behavior by making a few orc units "guardians", so that they remain in the cities unless provoked. This changes the scenario considerably and makes it more interesting, although it's still not ideal because...

Spoiler:

Guardian units will attack opposing units who enter their movement range, which makes it straightforward to lure orc units away from cities one by one during the day time and kill them in sequence.

I also don't want them to stay the whole game in their initial positions. I am going to delve into Wesnoth's AI code to see if I can alter their behavior.

[Konrad2]

I'd like to point out that you named the first scenario 'Triple siege.'. With a period.
Do you mind changing it to 'Triple Siege'?

You might want to doublecheck the possbile traits for the starter units in Sc1. I've got a peasant with dextrous.