The Rise of Wesnoth 17c - Troll Hole

[Remellion]

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.15.14, Commander (Challenging) (i.e. medium); blind playthrough.
I did the elvish quests in the order CABD (Trolls > dragon > beach > undead)
274 starting gold here.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
10/10. Going in blind, it took me a few tries to figure out what I was doing wrong, and even then executing the right strategy and finishing in time wasn't trivial. Minimum gold would feel very tight.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Perfectly clear. See enemy, beat enemy.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
The mental image of a tall troll trying to squish a short but armoured dwarf like a bug is amusing.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The first one is my fault: bad strategy. Up to this point in the campaign, I relied on the simple strategy of spamming level 1 recruits/fodder along with some veterans for utility (usually healers, sometimes extra tanks or extra breaking power.) In this scenario, it failed very badly - the trolls just hit too hard, and the level 1 retaliation is insignificant in the face of troll regeneration and high HP. Adjusting to compensate, I recalled some bandits, a pikeman, and a royal guard, and some mages of light and white mages (to help the lawful/chaotic units respectively).

Next is chokepoints. Chokepoint PTSD from the Sewer of Southbay comes back. It is hard to push forward through 1-tile wide cave chokepoints past level 2 trolls. Positioning, movement speed, and healing efficiency all become very important.

Related to the map, there was also the long trek from north leader to south leader. (Random spawns, but the cave terrain is slow going all the same.) After the north leader went down, the fighting in the south was at a stalemate, and needed to wait for reinforcements (fresh recalls from Haldric, after getting more villages).

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7/10. Quite the challenge.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
None.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yes - multiple times, figuring out how many veterans I would need to hold the chokepoints successfully and not get run over by trolls.

[Konrad2]

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?

1.16.1, Lord (Difficult)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

8, underground, bad mobility, enemy has high mobility, and decent income.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

Clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

Clear.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

Actually getting through to the enemy leaders instead of being stuck all the time.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

5

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

-

Scenario stats:

Spoiler:

[LienRag]

1) 1.16.5 intermediate

(2) 8 - I had to reload many times

(3) clear

(4) Average. Could have more reactions about the exploration, I guess. Burin is fun though.

(5) Getting through the first wave without losing my loyal units nor the mages of light

(6) 7 - I like caves and exploration, but it could be done better

(7) Probably have a back tunnel somewhere, so that exploration is rewarded.
Maybe have a dialog warning about the danger posed by Spiders the first time they are seen, I didn't anticipate how dangerous they are and I had to reload once because one killed Lady Jessene : not only are they high damage and poisonous, but you can't flee them since they're quicker than your units in cave terrain.
Maybe also have one streak of sand and/or water somewhere in the map, to make it more varied.

[Traumflug]

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?

Version 1.18.4, Biased RNG (experimental), difficulty Lord (Difficult) ( = hard)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

7

While it's heavy fighting, all these narrow gates help a lot. Enough Mages of Light and Great Mages make it straightforward. I even found room for training a new Mage.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

Very clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

Very clear.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

Living with the fact that I can't explore every corner of the cave. Such things itch me

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

7

Slow movement all over the place is always a bit boring.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

It's fine as it is.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

None beyond the occasional turn restart, because my first plan of movements didn't work out.

TRoW-Die Trollhöhle Aufzeichnung 20250518-184043.gz

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[fredbobsmith2]

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on? Lord (Difficult) 1.18.5
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 7, lots of close calls
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives? Clear
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario? Good but lacking
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? Rotating slow units around in narrow spaces
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) 7, kinda annoying to fight trolls in chokes but it works out
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? None, maybe slightly wider chokes, but it's okay

I recalled 2.5 keeps of units, including 6 frontliners (maulers, highwaymen), 5 red/arch mages for attacking, 1 white mage for healing, and a silver mage and outlaw to accompany Jessene to grab villages (not sure if these were worth it, again, and it was a hugely risky undertaking). I had the lawful team (Haldric, maulers, Edren) go towards one leader, along with 2 red mages, and the neutral/chaotic team (Burin, highwaymen) go towards the other, along with their mages. There isn't alot in strategy specifically, but it is important to be very careful in rotating units so that they don't get killed from the retaliation + counterattack of enemy units. L2 trolls and grunts are the easiest, as they can be blasted down by a red/arch mage in 2 turns, and can't deal enough damage to kill them (if they start at/near full hp). Rocklobbers need to be weakened a bit first, using healthy melee units (who need to be very careful of counterattack damage), then blasted with a mage, then immediately covered by another healthy unit. Overall, the need for all units to be at or near full hp led to very slow going, but I still finished on turn 15 with decent carryover.

Results:
4 arch mages, 1 great mage (3 total)
175g carryover