The Rise of Wesnoth 10 - Sewer of Southbay

[Aldarisvet]

Here are replays of an unthinkable thing - passing The Rise of Wesnoth campaign on hardest difficulty recruiting only Mages.
The game version is 1.12.6

[LordWolfDan]

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

- 1.14.5, Easy

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

- 6

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

- Clear, I say

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

- It's good, as it shows the effects of Ruby of Fire, but I'm quite curious about these two mages. They sure need some backstory

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

- Scorpions mostly, being fried by mages (with surprisingly no causalities!), but that spider though...

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

- 6

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

- Give a backstory to these two evil mages why they're banished

[Konrad2]

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

1.14.5, Hard

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

4

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

Clear, because every way leads to the exit.

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

Enjoyable and clear. But I wonder how long ago those mages were exiled.

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

Grinding away on the army of the green brother.

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

7

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

-

[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.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9/10. I never knew how much I hated scorpions and chokepoints until now.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Perfectly clear. Haldric must escape the sewers no matter what.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Interesting. The brothers seem like interesting characters, and the Ruby of Fire seems to have this magical trouble-attracting aura.
"Ahead? So far it's been danger everywhere." Yes, very true Jessene.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Chokepoints upon chokepoints upon chokepoints. That were filled with scorpions. The swamp was not a chokepoint, but my units move so slowly in them it may well be. Also, is there a pattern in this campaign of enemy leaders receiving more gold once their ally is killed? (Yes.) So more scorpions.
Oh, and a spider at the exit. That was nasty.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
6/10. It seemed like a neverending stream of scorpions and bats, especially after one brother goes down. That said, it's quite interesting how well red mages work with bats and scorpions in that terrain, really an unexpected but nasty combination.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Maybe widen the chokepoint from the western brother to the exit swamp, so that he can send more units that way to meet whoever comes out of the cave at that side?

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yes - on the first attempt, while pushing to the northeast through the one-tile cave corridor, Haldric got ZOC'd on a village and couldn't retreat, dying. The second attempt was successful.

[Konrad2]

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

1.16.0, Lord (Difficult)

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

5, because lots of poison. And I didn't recall enough healers.

(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?

Holding out against the green leader, because I didn't send a curing healer with my troops there.

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

4.

(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) 7. One really needs to use Lady Jessene's "distract" ability if one is to survive here...

(3) Relatively clear. Not obvious what "escape" means.

(4) Quite good. The "Ruby attraction" foreboding is well done. Maybe some character may have dialog to make the "escape" part clearer.

(5) Not getting enclosed in the first cave nor having units adventuring a bit too far get swarmed.

(6) 8 - I liked the swamp and cave combination, also the different roster of enemies.

(7) More easter eggs ? This is really the scenario where one could get many interesting ones.
Also, the plan is shown only when one killed both enemy leaders ?
It could be more interesting to have exploration (or an intermediate objective) this sewer map. After both mages are killed the game is nearly finished anyway.
Could be nice also to have time be more of an issue - not by reducing the number of turns but by giving some bonus for finishing before a certain threshold. That way holding out in the initial cave would be less of an option.
Could also incentivize to escape rather than to just kill the enemy leaders like in any boring scenario.
The ice part looks like something is hidden in it but nothing is. That's a waste !