Asheviere's Dogs - New Mainline Candidate!

[redbeard2]

I had a lot of fun with this one, it was a fun level of challenge without being a slog, which is a nice touch. A few comments I'd offer:

-If we're foreshadowing the Heir to the Throne rise of Konrad, maybe in scenario 2 at the end show Delfador walking despondently to a farmhouse mumbling how he has failed, to come out talking about the infant providing hope, could be a fun touch.

scenario 4: Had trouble until I realized elves don't have to be killed, just held off. In general I found Isolde's low HP to be a real liability, especially in the little intro section found here, she got killed several times when I tried using her much at all.

06: I love javelineers and this was a great opportunity for them to shine, poor enemy cavalry was useless against my loyalists.
07: I was very confused at the names of the humans living with the fire ants, until I thought about the authors...cute touch
08: A few thoughts: Delfador's lightning struck NEXT to Asheviere over and over again but never her, parsing through code I see Leollyn and Delfador say he was shielding her, I won at turn 19 so I didn't see this dialogue. Maybe at the beginning have some dialogue about this, even have an orcish sorceress doing so for the orcish side and someone also doing it for the Dommell so it's clear earlier why Delfador isn't sniping any of the leaders, Asheviere or otherwise. Also a LOT of lightning kept striking my recruiting area, which wasn't game breaking at all, but man it was annoying.
-I used an ant to open a gate and it had normal dialogue, maybe do something unique if an ant tries opening the gate?

I guess I'll be the prude and just say I'm not thrilled at the super low cut on Asheviere's dress. Is it a huge issue? No, just not a fan. I guess it is in keeping with her low resistances...

[holypaladin]

I had a lot of fun with this one, it was a fun level of challenge without being a slog, which is a nice touch. A few comments I'd offer:

-If we're foreshadowing the Heir to the Throne rise of Konrad, maybe in scenario 2 at the end show Delfador walking despondently to a farmhouse mumbling how he has failed, to come out talking about the infant providing hope, could be a fun touch.

scenario 4: Had trouble until I realized elves don't have to be killed, just held off. In general I found Isolde's low HP to be a real liability, especially in the little intro section found here, she got killed several times when I tried using her much at all.

06: I love javelineers and this was a great opportunity for them to shine, poor enemy cavalry was useless against my loyalists.
07: I was very confused at the names of the humans living with the fire ants, until I thought about the authors...cute touch
08: A few thoughts: Delfador's lightning struck NEXT to Asheviere over and over again but never her, parsing through code I see Leollyn and Delfador say he was shielding her, I won at turn 19 so I didn't see this dialogue. Maybe at the beginning have some dialogue about this, even have an orcish sorceress doing so for the orcish side and someone also doing it for the Dommell so it's clear earlier why Delfador isn't sniping any of the leaders, Asheviere or otherwise. Also a LOT of lightning kept striking my recruiting area, which wasn't game breaking at all, but man it was annoying.
-I used an ant to open a gate and it had normal dialogue, maybe do something unique if an ant tries opening the gate?

I guess I'll be the prude and just say I'm not thrilled at the super low cut on Asheviere's dress. Is it a huge issue? No, just not a fan. I guess it is in keeping with her low resistances...

This Asheviere portrait is from 1.4. I am also not really into the cut in dress as well as the skull which would work for Asheviere if she would be necromancer but not really in this case so in Library of Kratemaqht used other, even earlier portrait and I think it would fit here more as well.

[Tom_Of_Wesnoth]

I've started playing this, my thoughts on the first few scenarios on Normal difficulty:

Orcish Comradery

A solid start. I went for both leaders, first striking south with the help of the Loyalists. I won the battle there in a couple of turns on the river, and sent on a few units to mop up. Then I turned north-west and had a pretty tough battle in the hills, which I came close to losing - that's mostly my fault for being sloppy though. Once I punched through, it was a simple matter of claiming villages and killing the leader.

I like the rewards for the optional objectives. The free units are always welcome, and the 'potential' trait seems interesting. And getting 'strong' on my leader is of course, a very solid bonus.

Welcome to Wesnoth

I like a lot of this scenario's ideas. Racing to get the kill before your allies do is fun, as are the revolts when you occupy villages, and the burning of castle tiles you occupy. Unfortunately, though, I didn't have fun with this scenario at all. It took me a fun turns to arrive, by which point Asheviere and the other orc had already done most of the fighting and gotten inside the walls - leaving me nothing to do except surround the leader and whittle him down. I only got four kills in the whole scenario, and one of those was XP farming before delivering the final blow on the leader. I didn't feel like going for the rival chief was a viable option, purely because Asheviere's men were too much of a threat to the Paladin.

I think the issue here is that the spacings on the map mean you arrive late to the action. A bit of this is good to ramp up the pressure on the 'race to the kill', but it felt overdone. (It is, of course, possible that Asheviere and the orc just rolled really well, and it normally plays out better.)

The Iron Hunt

Now this is a fun scenario that plays quite differently to most. I went with assassins to poison the heavy infantry, and archers to hit them with fire, harassing them from turn one to the very end. My only quibble here is that the knights in the south-west of the map didn't seem to do anything, I was a bit confused as to what they were there for.

A Prophecy in the Iron Forest

Another scenario. The opening was a bit confusing, but once it opened up it was a good fun fight, sending archers out to burn the storage caches. The arrival of the elves was foreshadowed so felt fair and added another front in the second half. Ultimately I let the witch escape because I was getting bogged down by evasive enemies in forests and not making progress towards her, and just went for the crates.

Another thing to add, I started seeing some of the 'potential' traits pay off. The archer with the melee upgrade is great. The assassin with the wolf is interesting, not sure what to make of the wolf yet but we shall see.

[Tom_Of_Wesnoth]

Discipline

I played this one a couple of weeks ago and forgot to review it then, so my memory's a bit foggy. It felt very similar to Welcome to Wesnoth, perhaps too similar.

The Art of War

A pretty interesting scenario, and a nice breather. I enjoyed this one. Simple tactically at times - for example throwing pikemen towards the horseman enemy - but that's no bad thing, there's a lot of satisfaction in seeing simple counters play out effectively. One quibble I have is the messenger triggering one enemy early, this felt a bit out of the blue and disrupted by plans a bit.

An Underground Feud

A frustrating scenario that took me two attempts.

On my first attempt, I was caught out by the three loyalists at the end. I'd sent Bazur through alone, and wasn't able to support him enough because of it. I felt like these enemies were unforeshadowed and I couldn't have known they'd be there. Prior to that I'd recruited Ron, and lost him the same turn, as I hadn't expected him to join and he was left very exposed on low health.

On my second attempt, a few turns of bad RNG at the chokepoint at the start slowed me down a lot due to the lack of hexes to fight on. Ron died before I could even reach him this time around; I would never have known he was an option at all had this been my first attempt. Nonetheless I breezed through the scenario this time, using troll whelps to hold passageways, and got through without much fighting.

The End of the War

This scenario is brutally difficult. I went into it with a lot of gold, and a lot of third level units to recall, but was unable to beat it. Simply put, there's too many enemies coming from every direction. Even throwing two gates open early, I found myself surrounded and beaten down, with the allies not doing enough to break through the enemy lines.

With that said, I really like a lot of the ideas. The concept of opening gates to let allies in is good. The magical bombardment is a nice idea, though in my two attempts only hit a unit once (one of mine). Delfador's lightning being telegraphed to create tactical movement around it is good, though it was frustrating seeing him continually 'deny' recruitment spaces I was hoping to use.

It may be interesting to let the player begin unseen, allowing them to set up a bit before the chaos starts up all around them?

[SanDonk]

How much official is this candidacy status? Is there an active development/maintenance before going on? I always loved the era of Asheveire and HttT and Liberty have been my favourite campaigns. I just downloaded Asheveire's dogs and did not yet start playing. I can share scenario-by-scenario feedback in a similar form as it is done for mainline campaigns in individual posts as I start the gameplay, if there is an interest (=active work going on).

[Mechanical]

How much official is this candidacy status? Is there an active development/maintenance before going on? I always loved the era of Asheveire and HttT and Liberty have been my favourite campaigns. I just downloaded Asheveire's dogs and did not yet start playing. I can share scenario-by-scenario feedback in a similar form as it is done for mainline campaigns in individual posts as I start the gameplay, if there is an interest (=active work going on).

Hi. The campaign is in official candidate status. At the moment I'm focused on finishing the LoW rework, but I'll definitely come back to AD and do a series of improvements before 1.20, so your feedback would be appreciated.

[SanDonk]

-1- Orcich Comradery

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6, if I wanted to kill both leaders

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Generally thorough the whole campaign (not just this one scenario), Bazur's behaviour reminds me a bit of a bullied child, who did not learn much morals and accepted that the only important value is strength and power, but is frightened and unsure in himself (for example in Welcome to Wesnoth he says: "I had this one chance and I lost it" or very often he says "I will prove it" etc.). He does not seem that brutal and cruel in his dialogues, he does not even use swearing word for example.
Do not know, if it is the intention, just sharing my feedback.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
From the beginning I knew, that I am going to do it the hard way and kill both leaders. It is a challenge, but achievable one. I liked, how your ally send the few troops to slow down one enemy. I needed to restart and go into the mission with different recruitment (I first tried wolf riders for village grab and manoeuvrability and archer (because most orcs miss ranged attack), but it proved to be horrible idea. Troll whelps worked better despite their slow movement.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Nothing.

[SanDonk]

-2- Welcome to Wesnoth

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
2 (once you do not attempt to kill the orcish leader or anyone else and just slay the enemy leader)

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

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Nothing really, just to realise, I do not need to do anything extra at all. I needed to restart once from turn 1, because I initially intended to go over the northern bridge via the northern leader and slay both. Which is not manageable due to the power of Asheviere's army, which kill the rebel quickly.

(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?
I do not know. It is something unique for Wesnoth in terms of objectives and gameplay - having extremely week leader and a scramble, who is going to kill him first. And I am not sure, if it should be changed, other players may like it, but personally I did not much. I prefer bigger challenges, where you can loose different ways than by being slower than allies

[SanDonk]

-3- The Iron Hunt

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
7

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
I did not understand, what does "attacking in vicinity" means and by mistake I thought, it is the zone within their reach. For this reason I tried to keep my units some 5 fields distant to them on my first attempt and lost spectacularly.

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I needed to play this mission 3 times. First time I did not understand the movement and attacking by the HI. Second time I recalled/reruited mostly trolls (my strong army from first scenario), knowing that HI is relatively vulnerable against impact and they have high HP and can regen. It also did not work well as HI kept marching and they were too slow to effectively stop it.
Third time I relied heavily on assassins (to poison the troops by ambushes from flanks as they keep going, so they loose HP passively) accompanied by 2 crossbowman and 4 trolls to do its a bit of the heavy fighting to the tail of the formation. The cavalryman overtook them and blocked the bridge for about 2 turns before he got it. This worked perfectly. My losses are 1 cavalryman and 4 assassins. Bazur was evolved to lvl2, the "potential" crossbowman from first scenario to lvl3 with its unique bonus. "Potential" assassin was killed together with other assassins in their poisoning ambushes just few xps from reaching lvl2. I accepted the loss and did not try to replay it again to save him. I was mostly sorry of not find out, what ho evolves into, but I am sure, three "potential" units will be enough to finish this short campaign.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Nothing, just maybe make it more clear, how it is with the HI attacks and that player does not really need to be afraid of them (in fact mostly they do not even retaliate, if you attack them from the immediate back, unlike for attacking from flanks, and just keep going - not sure, if this is good or bad, as it makes enemy difficult to catch-up, but also saving your assassins from being one-shotted much earlier and makes them able to poison the rest of the party in following turns).

[SanDonk]

-4- A Prophecy in the Royal Forest

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Tomato surprise - more than one. But it is the aim, I believe

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I loved, how blatantly stupid Isolde proves to be, as she genuinely convinces herself, that she is fighting for the good side.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I played it twice. First I had no reason to suspect it will continue, so I finished exactly on turn 7 with little HP on all units in attempt for farm XPs for the correct ones, expecting the scenario to end.
After I found myself facing numerous enemies in their preferable terrain with 3 nearly dead units and limited option for some 6 recalls within two turns. I tried my best and continued, killing the first bandit leader. The last one was over my strength thought. The army was already exhausted with all units at minimum HP unable to rotate and I got ambushed from the back by the elves and massacred from both sides.
I restarted, on my second attempt killed the leader on turn 5. I recalled 2 sharpshooters (including the "potential" one) and 1 crossbowman (=all my levelled units with fire attacks) as well as 3 trolls (including the "potential") for high HP and regeneration and began an aggressive push against the leaders and storages (with wise rotation of injured troops and use of high XP ones for tanking to immediate healing with promotion the next turn), knowing I am raising against time and should finish ASAP to prevent myself being overrun by the elves. Which eventually worked. Isolde got evolved first to lvl2 and then lvl3 during this mission, two trolls evolved to lvl3, one orcish murderer also to lvl3 and the "potential" grunt from first scenario evolved to lvl2.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
nothing

[SanDonk]

The final 4 scenarios I need yet to play to give the feedback. I am now halfway through the campaign. As of now my party includes lvl3 Isolde, lvl2 Bazur with only 1 missing xp to level 3, 2 sharpshooters (including 1 "potential), 1 crossbowman, 2 troll warriors, 2 trolls (including 1 "potential"), 1 shadowblade and 2 warriors (including 1 potential) + 3 lvl1 units close to promotion (2 grunts and 1 troll whelp).
Except for the 1 "potential" assassin close to promotion in scenario 3, I did not yet lost any valuable unit (I should have lost at least 1 levelled unit in scenario 4, when I made the line to hold off elvish rangers, but I got somehow luck within like 10 % of statistical probability (which I feel slightly guilty for, but it is not my choice).

[SanDonk]

-5- Discipline

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
7

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear, but unexpected on first attempt

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Another scenario, I had to play twice. Because I did not know, what "unreliable allies" mean, I expected them to turn on me during fulfilling the scenario objective and wanted to rush it up as much as possible. On my first attempt I massacred most of the human army and killed the leader by turn 5. Also I recalled only 1 keep of units and immediately rushed into the battle. After killing the human leader, I was at low HP and easily slaughtered by my "allies".
On my second attempt I knew, what awaits me, so I spent all gold to recall 2 keeps of the strongest veterans and then waited outside the human keep, letting orcs and humans to fight and weakening each other, only rushing in and killing the leader by turn 9. After lethat I took a defensive stand around the 3 neighbouring villages at the east side of the keep and waited for the orcish enemies to come and attack me from flat terrain. By smart rotations I managed to overpower them, but lost about 2 or 3 lvl2 units, which might be valuable. On the other hand I levelled several units to lvl3, including both "potential" troll and "potential" warrior (the warlord is kinda weak though, just few dmg up in his ranged from the norm; compared to extra strike in both troll and sharpshooter, he is a big disappointment).
Also my sharpshooter got AMLA. Do not know, whether further boosting of his weapon is intentional. He is now a total beast with 13-5 melee attack (a "ranged" sharpshooter!).

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Probably again nothing. I suppose the need to play twice after revealing the true goals is the appeal of this campaign (as I had to do it everywhere, except the first scenario).

[SanDonk]

-6- The Art of War

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
4

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Totally unclear. When I spy on leaders, the objectives does not changes and just stays at "prepare your troops for battle". Eventually the battle was too long and I lost around 20 units (with prospect of reaching the 30 threshold and loosing soon) and enemies were already without army, so I ambushed them one-by-one, killed 2 leaders and won. Maybe it should specify "kill two leaders", the uncertainty is too much and does not work well.

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
None really

(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?
I do not know. At first glance I did not like the scenario as I was confused, why I am playing Asheviere herself rather than Bazur and annoyed by the presence of two leaders with the same colour, mixture of orcs and human in the same army and need to wait 12 turns till I learn, what to do.
Eventually I kinda liked it (6/10), but less than other scenarios of the campaign. The battle itself was great, but the underlying issues stay. I could not identify with playing as her for once scenario (when in the last one she will be again just as an ally) and I am still baffled of being able to recruit lvl2 units and massacre them in large scales (over 20 units dead) as they have minimal value, since I will not recall them. Also it was not actually difficult for this same reason.

[SanDonk]

-7- An Underground Feud

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
3

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

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Nothing, is was very easy. I had my lvl3 "potential" troll as starting unit, so I recalled 2 lvl3 trolls and two lvl1 trolls and started rushing south after just this one round of recruitment so Bazur does not stay behind. All the units (ants, swordsman) are melee fighters with week to none ranged attacks, so my trolls and Bazur with his "wesnothian greatsword" were massacring them and moving south quite easily. I did not make any mistake like trying to split this relatively small party and had zero issues. Just in the final battle after unlocking the gate one lvl3 troll was killed. I level both of the whelps to lvl2 trolls (with a potential to make them lvl3 units in the final scenario and hell them by this promotion), so I accepted it as a reasonable trade-off and finished the scenario. As I did not want to blatantly abuse save-loading. Some losses are expected. If I insisted on 0 losses, the difficulty would be more than 3.

(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?
I liked it even though it was quite easy. It was a good relax. But I would not mind making it slightly more difficult.

[SanDonk]

-8- The End of War

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Initially 10, gradually declines to 6 as you open all gates

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I loved it - the references to Delfador (HttT), Liberty etc. Even the reckless behaviour of the orc ("finally an appropriate reward" or what that dumbass said... I loved it).
I would be interested to learn, what happened with Isolde (maybe if she could be referenced somewhere - HttT, Liberty)... she was so stupid and brainwashed and yet at same time trying to be honourable, protect the civilians in the war etc. Very interesting and well-done character.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Open the damned gates with nothing but 4 units. About my 10th attempt or so I finally managed to open both the southern ones with Bazur and Isolde escaping to the second orc (which is crucial, because he is weak and need you to recruit reinforcements to him and keep that side of the battlefield). Asheviere managed to massacre her way up to the knight - which proved to be very useful as his recruits were the most deadly and annoying ones quickly reaching our bleeding orcish defensive lines. One of my lvl3 trolls went with her troops and opened the last gate as soon as opportunity presented.
Since the last gates were opened, we were 4 teams against 2 teams (numerical superiority) and the battle became relatively easy after the initial heavy bloodshed (and narrow defense of the western corner against brutal influx of enemies) - I finally switched to offensive and entered the city.
Final toll was 10 losses on my side (including several lvl3) and over 50 kills. Loved this hardcore large-scale battle.

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

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Nothing, it is perfect as it is!
If the question was "what changes I would made to make it more challenge" (as it is the final battle), my answer would be to debuff Asheviere's team, so she is not able to single-handly wipe our the knight leader within few turns of opening the gate (which she is, because he sends most of his troops my way and let the leader to die unprotected in the keep). But I am not sure, it is a good idea - the battle took close to 30 turns anyway (with heavy losses and many kills) and I feel like it might be unbeatable if the knight leader kept recruiting 2 units per turn with me facing all 3 teams pressuring my western corner simultaneously. It is still medium not expert difficulty. But potentially food for thought (do not know, if my strategy was the initially intended strategy by the creators).

-------

Overall I loved this campaign and you can see, that I am rating half of the scenarios 9/10... just sharing my detailed feedback with a few critically inputs. Great work! Thank you for producing this.

You can let me know, if you have any further questions about my gameplay