1.18 SP Campaign - A Tale of Two Brothers, Sire's Rework

[Snarkus]

An additional comment to one above re level 4 difficulty, after I viewed Konrad2's winning replay:

He also started with the min 250 gold, and had a fairly narrow win, succeeding by turn 16/20. He played before 1.3.0 so got a full-health Reeve Hoban from the start, and a warning re expected enemy force strength and locations, which I didn't.

His key strategy was to attack at dawn/morning, across a narrow front as possible, even on neutral terrain - and he had a swordsman and pikeman in recall list (I hadn't levelled either of those in earlier scenarios), which helped inflict good damage during the day.

Compared to me, he spent all the 250 gold to recall 12 L2/L3 veterans, including all the loyal cavalry (I had tried recruiting some footpads/thugs in some attempts, for a mix of e.g. 6 recalls, 8 recruits). He lost several of those cavalry, and also a paladin, but after they'd inflicted a lot of damage themselves. He got several key level-up heals during critical stages to keep units in the fight.

He had good luck (don't know if save-load involved?) - I checked the stats and after crucial ~3 turns of battle, they were +9% damage inflicted compared to expected, -7% damage taken vs expected for his side. A couple of times key frontline units barely survived after multiple attacks, preventing enemy breakthroughs to then kill injured units behind them.

So yeah, it shows it's possible to win with a better recall list, well executed attacking strategy and good luck. But I still think this puts the campaign difficulty overall well above the stated "Novice" in the description - Konrad2 must also be a veteran player given his many forum posts

Or perhaps upping the player's min gold in S4 to somewhere in range 300-350 (and scale up enemy gold on hard) would give just a bit more room to hire extra units to hold the front-lines during the key battle turns.

[Sire]

Thanks for the feedback!

Balancing is not really my strong suit, as I tend to follow the "rule of cool," "is it fun," and "eh, good enough" philosophies. Looks like I'll have to do another proper balance pass and playtest session, specifically regarding the various turn limits and tinkering with the starting gold for Scenario 4.
-- Also, Hard Mode still haven't been properly tested, and if people are struggling on Normal (which is supposed to be somewhat easy given the "Novice Campaign" description), Hard might be impossible.

[Sire]

New version is now live after a round of playtesting on Normal. Hard may still need to be adjusted.
-- Replays added for your viewing pleasure. (The Reeve change was done after playing, so he's still level 2 in the replay.)
-- Campaign has been made easier due to turn limit changes, and adjustments to the finale.

Version 1.5.0a
-- Scenario 1: Turn Limit is now 24 on all difficulties, from 20.
-- Scenario 2: Turn Limit is now 24 on all difficulties, from 20 (Normal/Hard).
-- Scenario 3: Turn Limit is now 36 on all difficulties, from 30.
-- Scenario 4: Turn Limit is now 24 on all difficulties, from 20.

-- Scenario 1: Added a hint about visiting labeled hexes for extra story stuff.
-- Scenario 4: Player Starting Gold increased to 300 on all difficulties (previously 250)
-- Scenario 4: Enemy 1 Starting Gold Adjusted (350, 400, 450 instead of previous 360, 450, 540)
-- Scenario 4: Reeve is now Level 3 (Master Bowman) instead of Level 2 (Longbowman).