Santa Must Die - Rebels campaign Version 1.0 on 1.16 servers

[MathBrush]

Santa Must Die is a Rebels campaign designed to give players experience with the exact same units that are in the multiplayer faction. It enables the Wose Shaman upgrade, and tries to focus a bit more on the 'weird' units (Elvish Scout, Wose, and Merman Hunter).

"For his crimes against humanity, Santa must die."

Features 9 scenarios, one of which is dialogue only. Features matchups with each standard faction (plus an introductory level). No new units are added outside of Santa himself.

As an introductory campaign for the well-known Rebels faction, with few flashy features, this will likely be much more interesting to new players than to experts.

This is a beta version. I've tested the campaign twice, tweaking numbers, but it's likely that some levels still have way too much gold or way too little.

Feedback I'm looking for:
-Bugs and typos
-Scenario too hard/too easy
-Story or dialogue in need of improvement
-Maps need changing

[Atreides]

This I just had to download. :)

[MathBrush]

I just saw your Christmas campaign was updated! I plan on downloading it and trying it out; your Lonely Era (on units database) is bookmarked on my computer because I like to use it for inspiration.

[Lord-Knightmare]

SMD-Rebellion replay 20220215-035328.gz

(19.96 KiB) Downloaded 74 times

SMD-Mermaid Rescue replay 20220215-040122.gz

(21.62 KiB) Downloaded 64 times

SMD-D Day replay 20220215-041538.gz

(33.06 KiB) Downloaded 65 times

SMD-Rival Avengers replay 20220215-043436.gz

(32.79 KiB) Downloaded 68 times

SMD-Santa's Sentinels replay 20220215-044631.gz

(30.12 KiB) Downloaded 67 times

SMD-Santa At Last replay 20220215-050418.gz

(34.53 KiB) Downloaded 71 times

[Lord-Knightmare]

SMD-Isle of Misfits replay 20220215-033709.gz

(18.04 KiB) Downloaded 66 times

SMD-Skull Lake replay 20220215-034634.gz

(18.33 KiB) Downloaded 75 times

Santa Boss fight was funny XD XD

[MathBrush]

Thanks for your replays! It was really interesting seeing your style, I learned some new tactics from watching. I noticed fights 3 and 5 (vs elves and vs orcs) were noticeably easier than the others (in fight 3 you just walked forward and murdered everyone), so I think I'll add a small amount of gold to enemies in those fights. I appreciate your time.

Edit: I made the changes and updated it to 1.0 since I didn't see any bugs in your replays.

Changes:
Added 15 gold to enemy leader on all difficulties in scenario 3
Added 15 gold to all enemy leaders on all difficulties in scenario 5.

[Lord-Knightmare]

(in fight 3 you just walked forward and murdered everyone)

I'd call it "killing with a passion"

I see you did not notice one thing I did. I levelled EVERY Merman Hunter to the Netcaster and seldom Spearman. This is one indication that the Merman Spearman line is pretty useless. Even in Dead Water, you'd have to level them all to Netcasters and Entanglers as they are way too valuable during the final scenario.

[Atreides]

Played first scenario. Lost. Reason: I tried to get to those glowing orbs but they are a deadly lure. The mermen can't trek overland although they start nearer and are faster down the river. The woses I tried it with since a forest almost leads to them but the problem came when I tried to back them up with Hermes. He was in the village just across from the reef "crossing" with two woses in the wood. Pretty strong position until the DICE decided I was to lose. Guess I'll have to try again (although as a rule I only play campaigns once and abandon them when I lose) because that wasn't my error. Well maybe it was for succumbing to the lure of those orbs! The road to the win was wide open as the undead are totally outclassed by the woses. But with 13 turns remaining I wanted to try and get to those orbs...

If I have a suggestion it would be to do something about those orbs. Place them nearer the river.

Oh and I was a tad sad when moving to the red and white striped pole did nothing. :) Mind... the same thing happens in Merry Christmas! Yes, there is one there too. (fully animated, boy that was tricky to fix back then since the macro used for it was removed) I also tried the wreck and the light tower (?). That's my explorer nature... curiosity kills this cat quite often.

Anyways, very nice scenario, great to see the references to those old famous Xmas TV specials all over the place. If I make it far enough I suspect I'll meet a Yeti named Bumble... now where'd I leave those pliers...

[Konrad2]

S7
Bugged insofar that you have to move onto the hex 24,2. But you made that hex impassable. Maybe change the objectives to moving next to 24,2?

[MathBrush]

Thanks! I haven't looked at the replays yet, but I went ahead and changed that tile and published an update.

I played through a couple times when testing, but must have been using debug commands or something to get through; I'll have to avoid that in the future. Thanks for taking a look at this!

[MathBrush]

Okay, I looked at your playthroughs, and it was really interesting! Very different strategies than me and Knyghtmare. I'm a savescummer, and I farm enemies for my mages. Knyghtmare focused on spellcasters and hunter-mermen and few spearmen, while you had more merman spearmen than any other levelled unit. It's nice to see that the campaign admits multiple strategies, although I might make it a bit more difficult in the future, since you dominated the final level even with a lot of level 2 units dying earlier; that might just be due to you having a lot of tactical experience though.

[Atreides]

Finally got back to playing this. Easiest level + non fatal wounds + road move bonus i.e. as much help as I can get. I'm just a sore loser at campaigns. ; )

Finished off the second try at S1, went better this time. : ) The woses though didn't get anything for reaching the orbs?
Skull lake was a easy one! All that water was perfect for the mermen, the enemy skels just walked into it when I baited them with my leader. The woses enjoyed the marshes and the crack of bones. : ) The new casters were handy also. Only lost 1 mage that tried to liquidate a skeleton fighter in a marsh/marsh fight and got unlucky. Finally also levelled up Hermes, now his ldrship is worth something.
Rebellion next. Curious why enemy elf named Thranduil. Oh well.

Oh the dialogue and narration still top notch. Present Pusher. LOL.

[Atreides]

Naturally I am continuing this now. : )

Rebellion:

Spoiler:

Rebellion was where I'd paused and it turned out to be a cakewalk. Just sat on edge of forest and let the enemy elves bite their teeth out on mine in the woods. Made my first Wose Shaman (ever).

Mermaid Rescue is where it wasn't much fun:

Spoiler:

So I sent Nestor to check out the mysterious whirlpool on turn 1. Was expecting either something nice or bad. Got bad but it was too bad. I knew enough to try and get Nestor away from the L3 but (maybe I got bad die rolls) he got killed. Game over. Unfair.

To be fair, now that I've vented my rage I'll try again. (next xmas?) It probably was the fault of the dice. Probably all hits by the Seasnake. Grrrrrrr!

I guess too I may have been reckless in sending a protect unit to explore something on turn 1.

OK fine, probably was all my fault. Campaigns make me nuts with their time limits. I always rush. Hmmm wonder if I can make a mod to turn off time limits in all campaigns? (Addendum: I found two such mod's already exist)

[MathBrush]

I've now published this one to 1.18 as well. Unlike my other campaigns I've updated this week, I have not made any balance changes, just bug fixes. Playing through, this campaign seemed well-balanced and pretty fun, and I didn't see major problems with the text. If I ever make a big change in the future it would probably be a bonus for reaching the orbs or pole (maybe just make them villages?). There was also enough experience for me to get a max-level version of every Rebels unit except for the Elven Marshal (ended the game with an Elvish Captain 8 xp away).