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 !

[Apparos_Vaklas]

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

Difficulty: Lord Version: 1.17.22

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

4/10. Had to be a bit careful against level 2/3 mages to avoid losing important units but other than that, it wasn't hard.

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

Quite clear.

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

Very good 9/10.

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

-

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

8/10 Very good.

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

Maybe replace a few scorpions with stronger units.

[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)

9

(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?

From 1.16 I remember this scenario can go very badly. If one doesn't leave the starting cave quickly enough, all the river floor eventually fills with Scorpions and one gets stuck in that starting cave, eventually running out of turns.

Once more, Burin the Lost, the dwarf, was of great help in this scenario.

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

6

Having to cover long distances over slow cave floor is a bit boring.

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

More regular floor to speed up movement, especially in the northern tunnel.

(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 Kanalisation von Südbucht Aufzeichnung 20250516-002223.gz

(38.67 KiB) Downloaded 6 times

[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) 6
(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 foreshadowing and character building
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? Timing of defeating the leaders
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) 7, I don't love swamp levels but this one is okay
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? None

I recruited/recalled 3.5 keeps of units, incl a near-advance bandit, an arch mage, the 2 near-advance mages from the previous scenario, and many poachers, thugs, and more mages. I like to send Haldric east (less swamp to wade through) but this tends to draw alot of the east leader's units through the small tunnel, so I put a small detachment to hold that chokepoint. Another small team in the east, incl Jessene, the highwayman, the now-white mage and the arch mage, hold the chokes south of the leader, while Haldric, Burin, Edren and most of the L1 mages push west. I stalled for a few turns on the east, so that both leaders were lured out at the same time, with no chance to recruit more (I think it's a bit risky on this scenario, where the red mages can easy kill your units).
Burin and the chaotic units continue to prove to be very useful; I'm not sure how much harder this campaign would be without him. I also continue to level L1 mages, with the quick ones in this group intended to become arch/great mages by the end of the campaign. Safely finishing the last 3 scenarios in particular depend significantly on having massive amounts of firepower to quickly eliminate enemies with fairly small windows of opportunity. Having a good reserve of chaotic front-liners makes the likely losses in the last 7 scenarios much more palatable, as your army won't be short of replacements, and there are limited chances to safely train new L3 units.

Results:
2 white mages, 1 red mage
1 highwayman (3 total), 3 bandits
2 trappers