Scenario Review: (UTBS) 3. A Stirring in the Night

[Seansy]

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

1.18.2, Champion (Nightmare)

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

First playthrough 10. Second playthrough 7. Third playthrough 5 (with biased RNG)

(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?

The dialog and objectives were clear.

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

I overrecruited in the last scenario the first time I attempted it. Having the minimum starting gold makes it impossible to survive the undead and orcs combined on Nightmare. Had to redo the last scenario to have enough bonus gold to make it doable. I had 359 gold on the 3rd playthrough and it made it much easier by spamming Scout recruitment before recalling units with experience.

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

6. The entire scenario is kind of random within the campaign. The ending seemed kind of forced by the scenario, but otherwise it was decently interesting.

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

Maybe change the AI to force them to fight each other a bit more. Alternatively, the village closest to the bottom AI could be moved up 1 hex. I went crazy and saved every village on my 3rd playthrough because of how much gold I had, but with less gold there are too many enemy units. At that point you have to give up at least 2-3 villages and even then plenty of units will fight you after they take those villages closest to them.

[fredbobsmith2]

1) What version and difficulty level did you play the scenario on? Champion (Nightmare) 1.18.4
2) Do you think the difficulty is adequate to the level? Yes, very difficult again, though having ~350g to start made it manageable.
3) Was there any event that caused you to almost instantly lose, or made the scenario unplayable without reload? No, but I did reload to have a unit survive on turn 1.
4) Do you like the storyline and the dialogues? Yes, it's great, though the entire situation is a little out-of-the-blue.
5) Do you think the scenario was fun? Fun, and challenging. This scenario really highlights the strength of the scout line, and the orcs put alot of pressure to defeat the undead leaders; I'm not even sure how I'd play it if I wasn't aiming for the early finish.

I rolled a rather bad start, with 1 fighter in the north and 2 L1 taurochs in the south. For 2 turns I recalled just scouts + a sun sylph, with the sylph going north to join Nym, Zhul and DD (dust devil), while Garak and Eryssa went south. I manned 2 lines not far outside of the enemy keeps, just enough to hold all the villages close to them, with a few units in the middle to deter encirclement. On turn 4 I also recalled some fighters to defend against the orcs. The south line had it rougher as they had no healer, but the scouts and taurochs did well against the undead. The north team defeated the death knight around turn 8 or so, and the south team defeated the lich on turn 9, having to give the kill to Eryssa or it would've taken too long. No villages lost, though I lost some fighters with exp against the orcs.

Results:
1 vanguard
Eryssa to archmage
0g carryover