Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Feedback for the mainline campaign Heir to the Throne.

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Linthar
Posts: 77
Joined: September 14th, 2006, 12:16 am

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by Linthar »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Medium 1.10.7

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8.

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Plot-wise its just another filler scenario, and the whole end of the scenario with the sun rising meaning the undead no longer had the strength to continue their assault made no sense at all. My units were all badly damaged and surrounded by 15 or so undead, they could have killed me quite easily, if they took one more turn, so it seemed to just be a deus ex machina.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The first major challenge was that my enemies far far outnumbered me, and trying to take them head on all at once is suicidal. I was able to solve that by making a break for the purples lich's castle, putting distance between me and the other two armies when I ran into my second challenge, in that fighting my way through purple's undead slowed my pace down enough that the other two enemies forces would catch up and leave me surrounded. That was fixable by spending all of my spare gold recruiting elven fighters to stay in the central keep as a diversion to buy me a little time, which left me with challenge number 3, dealing with all the wraiths that were far more maneuverable then my own units and liked to hide out in the mountains but careful maneuvering allowed me to keep my most injured units out of range. (It helped my army had a number of red mages so wraiths rarely stayed alive for long).

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9. It was a fun challenging battle. The only real problem was the enemies turns took a while due to the sheer number of enemy units, but the scenario was short enough for that to not be to annoying.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
It's good as it is.
yahiko
Posts: 12
Joined: July 26th, 2014, 1:12 am

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by yahiko »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Medium difficulty (Hero) on version 1.11.16

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
7 for holding our castle against all three opponents.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Quite clear. However, the secondary objective doesn't mention if we have to kill one or all the liches.

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Keeping the center and stay alive.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Very strategic so I liked it.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
I am going to hunt down a lich now.
Sir_Brickington
Posts: 1
Joined: June 14th, 2014, 11:40 pm

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by Sir_Brickington »

Content Feedback wrote:(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
(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?
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
1. Playing on 1.10, playing on Medium (At the time of starting I was very unfamiliar with the game)
2. I have yet to beat it. I think I understand the basic strategy, but I don't have it down-pat. 8/10
3. It's crystal clear
4. There's not a lot of dialogue, nothing worth writing home about. That's my general opinion of the campaign up to this point, though.
5. The major challenges are easily moving your main force safely while you draw the enemies' main forces away.
6. 2/10, this is a nice challenge, but to me it definitely qualifies as "that one scenario". The survival objective isn't a load of fun in Wesnoth.
7. I would make the castles for the undead either farther away, one tile smaller, or I would make the player's castle one or two tiles bigger. I generally don't like making levels easier, but given the manner of strategy in which Wesnoth is based, I really don't like the survival levels.
kiss
Posts: 124
Joined: July 9th, 2014, 5:50 pm

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by kiss »

Fighter (Beginner) 1.11.16. Never played before.

Storyline Thank you Lis'ar!

Events If I remember well, no early finish bonus means 60% gold lost at the end, it's painful. In the other hand kill the 3 Lich ...

The map
2 potions on 5,23 and 31,43. 4 strange stone, I never found anything on these places!
A wide map with mostly flat ground and mountain. After my first try, it is clear that fighting in the open ground wasn't a good idea.

Strategy Send horse to grab the potions. No other idea!
Comments.
First try: Delfador is dead turn 6. I've restarted few turns before to see what's going on. I've killed all turn 12! Now I have a little idea of what can be tried. Few one: many unit are needed to hold the line, the Lich gets out, a knight can kill in 1 turn, no enemy unit takes care of unit away from main battle.
New strategy.
Build 3 groups to kill the 3 Lich with a unit to sacrifice in each one. First one west then north, 2nd south and 3rd south east. Go as near as possible and wait for daylight.
Send a lot of Elvish Shaman with a druid to hold the forest. Capture and hold villages with Thief.
Send some Thief in the nearest mountain north.
Send some Thief south to capture the villages. Abandon 17,39 to prevent attack toward south group.
Defend the castle with Thief and some Mermaid Initiate.
Comments. No save reload, no redo.
It works better than I've thought.
The south entrance is well protected, better for a Knight? Too much Elvish Shaman?
Last Thief move against south Lich? I don't know, he protect Delfador?

I don't really get the purpose of this scenario. I don't mean the storyline, but the result on our strengh.
With a lot of gold, I was able to recruit, hold the ground, and also kill the 3 Lich. But what with low gold amount?

Whatever, I'll continue with this result, no more gold but no big loss.

Starting gold+(carried over): 300+(304)/200/200/160.
Finish turn: 9/12, bonus gold: 28.
Recruit 32: Elvish Archer,Elvish Fighter,Elvish Scout, 9 Elvish Shaman,Horseman,Mage, 3 Mermaid Initiate,Merman Fighter,Merman Hunter, 20 Thief.
Recall 5: Elvish Archer,Elvish Captain, 1 Elvish Druid, 1 Elvish Enchantress,Elvish Fighter,Elvish Hero,Elvish Marksman,Elvish Shaman,Elvish Sorceress,Footpad, 1 Fugitive,Horseman, 2 Knight,Mage,Mermaid Initiate,Mermaid Priestess,Merman Fighter,Merman Hunter,Merman Warrior,Outlaw,Red Mage,Rogue,Thief,Thug,White Mage.

XP tracking.
Delfador Elder Mage lvl 5: 136/200
Elvish Druid lvl 2: 24/80
Elvish Enchantress lvl 3: 39/144
Kalenz Elvish Lord lvl 2: 32/120
Elvish Shaman lvl 1: 16/32, 20/32, 2/32, 14/32, 8/32, 22/26, 22/26
Delurin Fugitive lvl 3: 26/120
Haldiel Knight lvl 2: 97/120
Knight lvl 2: 26/120
Konrad Lord lvl 3: 60/150
Mermaid Initiate lvl 1: 11/50
Thief lvl 1: 16/22, 3/28, 2/28, 4/28, 2/22, 2/22, 2/22, 4/22, 13/22
Moremirmu White Mage lvl 2: 64/136

R.I.P.: 2 Elvish Shaman, 2 Mermaid Initiate, 11 Thief.
Attachments
c1_HttT-The_Valley_of_Death_—_..._replay.gz
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brabar
Posts: 22
Joined: August 30th, 2011, 8:18 pm

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by brabar »

(1) Medium, version 1.12.0
(2) not an esasy one for sure, I confess I abused the possibiliy of replaying each turn ... (9)
(3) very clear, as usual
(4) As it's not the first time i'm going through this valley, I skipped the dialogs ...
(5) I followed the suggestions in the offered walk-through ... two horsemen (a paladin & a chevalier), to kill the eastern (turn 7) and northern (turn 8) lichees, but rather than going to hide in the south east corner, I had my army run to the southern baddie ... I was lucky to finish on turn 8 ...
(6) quite challenging ... the idea of blocking the smal forest with canon-flesh helps a lot ! It costed me 5 elvish Warriors, a chaman and a thief ! (9)
(7) Well ... I'm not sure I'd be able to have more difficulty, i-e fun ! :)
Sorry for my poor english, it's not my native language
Eonwe
Posts: 1
Joined: February 7th, 2015, 12:30 am

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by Eonwe »

(1) Medium, v 1.12.0
(2) 10 — Without a doubt the most difficult scenario I've played so far, and I've played through South Guard and Two Brothers, both on hard difficulty, without losing a leveled-up unit.
(3) Very clear
(4) If the storyline is intended to advance the plot, its purpose can only be to weed out at least one leveled-up unit, thereby enhancing the main units' emotional responses. Dialog in a later walk-through-the-park scenario might read, "It's a shame we lost _______ back in the Valley of Death. He was a good _______. I'm sure the rest of you miss him, too."
(5) Surviving. I first tried following the walkthrough's suggestion of assaulting the southern lich, but chocobones and his pals laid waste to my tough little army before I could reach favorable terrain at a favorable time of day. Delaying the southern assault for the optimum time of day doesn't work either, since the eastern wraiths catch up quickly for a double envelopment, even with thieves as roadblocks.
Next, I tried running the three main characters to the mountains in the southeast, but even the ten thieves I recruited could not slow down the enemy long enough. I then modified the run strategy by recalling my most powerful units, who set off for the mountains on turn 2. They fought a valiant rearguard action that allowed the Big Three to survive, but at a cost of two L3 fighters, one L3 avenger and one L2 white mage. If you decide to send holy water lances to assassinate two of the liches and either assault the southern lich or run for the mountains, the forces of all three liches gravitate toward you, making it impossible (at least as I played it) for the eastern horseman to reach the eastern lich unscathed.
I gave defending the central keep a shot, despite the walkthrough's advice to the contrary. A few of my mermaid fodder actually leveled up defending the moat but, as expected, a revenant put an end to dear Kalenz.
I finally found an approach that almost succeeded without any significant losses. I recalled two L3 paladins, two L3 fighters, two L2 white mages, one L2 red mage and one L3 shyde, and recruited four thieves. While two thieves went north and two went south to delay the respective armies, my main force went east to clash with the wraiths in the open the first afternoon. While carefully staying out of the lich's range, the arcane units destroyed the front line and the high-hitpoint units moved in to absorb the counterattack. Easty's army was gone by the first watch, and the four thieves had achieved sufficient delay to allow me to lick my wounds while moving into position for a dawn attack. Easty went to his reward during the morning turn, just as his buddies' hosts were catching up with me. Each paladin's holy water-enhanced assassination attempt reduced Northy and Southy to 8 hp each. The scenario would have ended during the afternoon turn without a major loss, but the paladin up north had some rotten luck, so Northy survived another turn, which was enough time for my hard-pressed force in Easty's keep to lose Elrian, the loyal mage.
(6) 2 — I'm not a fan of survive-against-insurmountable-odds scenarios, but that's just my preference. I give it a 2 instead of a 1 because defeating all three liches required putting the gray matter to work (along with some luck).
(7) Delete the damn thing, or at least modify it to the extent that it doesn't encourage the player to move the Wesnoth icon to the trash can.
bizulk
Posts: 5
Joined: March 11th, 2015, 10:24 pm

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by bizulk »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
normal 1.12

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9 comparing to previous that farly the most difficult, I don't give 10 because I've not played the others.

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Still not terminate the scenario. Still no word about the Queen's daughter treachery ?

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Don't lose L3 units, find the strategy to preserve them ?
I'm still not sure about the right scenario. I'm very defensive, maybe I should try to sacrifce a bunch of units and accept to to loose others. But they can transforme to undead if they dy.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
That's a challenge.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Put more forest, stones or something to let think about a tactical way, or put potion nearer the castle.
Violet-n-red
Posts: 49
Joined: June 27th, 2015, 2:38 pm

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by Violet-n-red »

is feedback for this campaign is still accepted? i've seen that wiki says it is considered to be finished.

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
normal, 1.12.2, had enough gold to recall two waves of units.
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
10.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
perfectly clear
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
ok
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
keeping my veterans and heroes alive. looking back, i see i could've left soem of them die and it would've been OK, but i just can't do that.
(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?
reposition or rearrange recruit lists so armies don't arrive all at once. although it was kind of OK as is.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
too many friendly units were dying and and too many enemy units were staying un-alive.

completed it by rushing to the east with mages, druids and marksmen, completely destroying that side and recalling a wave of cannon fodder to protect my veterans. was good when we survived first eight hours of united assault, was easy to destroy remaining enemy forces after that. could not reach any other undead commanders, did not use holy water.
SigurdFireDragon
Developer
Posts: 545
Joined: January 12th, 2011, 2:18 am
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by SigurdFireDragon »

Played on 1.12.5 Hero (Normal) 437 Gold

As many have said, this is more challenging to figure out than most of the scenarios so far.

I took three attempts at this.
#1 Seeing what I was up against by looking at the Status Table, I spent all my gold to recruit a massive force, and killed all 3 liches, but had no carryover and lost my loyal fugitive. Unacceptable.

#2 Went for survival and carryover gold, recruited a smaller force, and moved my whole army up the northwest passage. Survived, didn't lose any loyal units or level 2's, but was unhappy with the low amount of experience I earned.

#3 Went back to a more refined version of my strategy from attempt #1, this time aimed at earning experience and maximizing carryover.Recruited a smaller force, and went straight for the eastern lich. Got plenty of experience, 85 gold to carryover, and killed 2 of the three liches. Having read other feedback & the walk-through, I would have went for a 4th attempt with sending my main force to the southern keep, but estimated it would only be worth about 40 more gold on the carryover to kill all three liches.

Attached is the replay for my 3rd attempt.
Attachments
HttT-The_Valley_of_Death_—_..._replay.gz
1.12.5 Normal
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Co-Author of Winds of Fate
My Add-ons: Random Campaign, Custom Campaign, Ultimate Random Maps, Era of Legends, Gui Debug Tools
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Caladbolg
Posts: 198
Joined: January 1st, 2016, 4:40 pm
Location: Hopelessly trapped within the Submachine

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by Caladbolg »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.12.5, medium

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9.5-10 for killing all Liches. By far the hardest scenario so far and the only reason I'm not giving a definitive 10 is because I remember that there was one scenario with drakes that used to be very hard so I'm leaving some room for it (but think of it as a 10 for now). I played it 5 times (more on that in the spoilers below) but I saw that I can slowly work my way through all three armies simultaneously if I'm really careful. I didn't even try just surviving because I concluded that just rushing with my whole army to beat one of the liches and then defending until the turns run out wouldn't be much trouble nor much fun.

(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?
Weird and I'll point out some flaws with the setting and dialog:
1) I find it strange that such an enormous army of undead is situated in the middle of Wesnoth.

2) You have Kalenz saying: "My people douse our weapons with holy water when fighting undead." He's speaking about holy water but no one bothers to mention (and be surprised by) the fact that there are bottles of holy water on the map, which seems like ignoring the elephant in the room. You could fix it by adding something like: "Look, there are bottles of holy water!" before his sentence.

3)I have no idea why there are bottles of holy water on the map to begin with (from the story perspective)- it'd be the first thing the undead would want to hide/destroy if they saw them, but these ones either didn't see them or weren't that bothered by anti-undead magic just lying on the ground. On the other hand, liches have no brains or eyes so maybe it makes sense :P .

4) This thing, from the dialog when turns run out: "The sun rises in the east. Surely the undead do not have the power to continue their onslaught through another day!" This never happens in anywhere except in this one scenario. On Elensefar there were undead and they didn't retreat when the sun rose and they were led by a dark sorcerer. But for unexplained reasons, these enormous hordes lead by 3(!) liches can't handle sunlight.

5) Even worse is that this dialog can be triggered even if you're completely surrounded and on the verge of defeat. Imagine if your whole army got slaughtered and Konrad is just barely alive, surrounded by wraiths and revenants. Just a single attack and you'd lose everything. Fortunately, a ray of sunshine appears, so the undead decide to pack their bags and go away. Another victory for Konrad and his (now utterly decimated) army.

6) Browsing through the scenario file, I noticed the dialog that triggers if you didn't get Moremirmu on the Isle of the Damned. He appears on turn 7 and when you finish the scenario he speaks to Konrad a bit. This also provides the information that Li'sar tricked them and Konrad seems surprised, suggesting that they didn't know about it; this means that they're under the impression that she gave them the right directions but were just really unlucky to stumble upon an undead horde... It would be much better if someone from the group consisting of an aspiring commander, a wise old mage, and a wise old elf actually managed to put 2 and 2 together and conclude that Li'sar tricked them. This should happen regardless of whether or not you got Moremirmu.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Gosh, there are so many! Choosing which units to recruit/recall; managing gold so I don't end up with no carryover; keeping my important units and loyals safe... The most challenging problem in the scenario was how to distribute my units: if I tried to divide them evenly on all 3 sides, they would be too weak and I'd end up losing many units; on the other hand, if I ignored one side and went to deal with it after defeating the other two, I'd finish so late that my carryover would be negligible. Aside from that, it was very difficult for me to use decoys and ZoC properly as I usually don't put too much consideration into more advanced strategy.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7, surprisingly. I thought I'd hate it as I don't like hard scenarios and I never liked this one in particular. But because I'm writing a review here, I wanted to beat it as best as I could, and ended up replaying it several times to try different things. Rather than it being a hassle, I quite enjoyed it and I think I learned a lot from it.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
A bigger bonus would be nice. If you go for survival, use mostly loyal recalls and grab a few villages, you could survive without spending too much gold and end with a nice carryover. If you go for defeating all liches, you'll have to use more units and spend more gold, so even with the bonus you get very little gold for carryover. There is no real incentive to try to beat them all.

I finished the scenario 3 times, with carryovers of 5, 15 and 49. As I was writing this comment, it occured to me to check what my carryover would be if I didn't beat the liches. I reloaded to the beginning of my last turn and instead of killing the liches, I waited things out, holding the same villages so that the only variable is #of turn taken. When I killed all liches on turn 9, my carryover was 49; when I waited in that same position for the turns to run out, it was 45. So, by beating all liches 3 turns early, I only got 4 more gold (while having 19 income per turn). If I went for the survival from the start, I'd spend a lot less gold and conversly I'd probably end up with significantly greater carryover than what I got for defeating all the liches.

Considering that this is probably the hardest scenario in the campaign, it sucks that going for the more challenging option brings no real benefits. I think you should raise the bonus (and not just by a small amount) to make it profitable to try to beat all liches. That and/or some kind of a loyal unit or some useful trinkets...

Now, for the commentary (and this'll be long so I'll use spoilers).
About various attempts to beat this scenario:
5th attempt:
-starting gold: 438
-recruits(3): 2x Mage, Scout
-recalls(16): Arch Mage (loyal), 2x Druid, 2x Hero (1 loy), Ranger (loy), Rider, Sorceress, Fugitive (loy), Grand Knight (loy), Knight, Lancer, Mage, 2x Red Mage, White Mage
Review by turns; very detailed as there's a lot going on:
-losses(3): 2x Mage, Scout (in other words, those I recruited; well, that was their main purpose anyways)
advancements(8): Sorceress->Enchantress; Kalenz->lvl 3; Rider->Outrider; Druid->Shyde; Mage->White Mage; Red Mage->Silver Mage; White Mage->MoL (Moremirmu); Knight->Paladin
-turns taken: 9/12
-end: 44 gold; 22/24 villages
-carryover: 49
-no reloads; 5 attempts total
-XP (others are at their final lvl or have <1/4 XP needed):
~1/3: Arch Mage (Elrian), White Mage, Ranger, 2x Hero, Druid
~100%: Red Mage
-even luck:
--dmg dealt: +1%
--dmg taken: +1%
Attachments
HttT-The_Valley_of_Death_—_..._replay.gz
(67.45 KiB) Downloaded 767 times
abstergent
Posts: 1
Joined: September 15th, 2016, 2:59 am

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by abstergent »

Well, it's 2016, and I've just heard about Battle for Wesnoth a few days ago... and have pretty much been playing non-stop. :D

I managed to beat this scenario in 7 turns, and the wiki told me to come brag about it here, so here I am.

Basically I sent out three attack teams, one North to the west of the mountains including Kalenz, Moremirmu, a Bandit, and Delfador. Bandit picks up the holy water and hides in the village by the north castle, Delfador stands behind him, luring the lich into an ambush. Moremirmu and Kalenz work the pass between the lake and the hills. Second team is all fast-strike, 9 and 10 move units; mine was Haldiel, a paladin, a Rider and an Outrider. They bolt SE in between the two hordes, picking up the holy water, then Haldiel splits off to form team 3... heh, heh. The first three head west to the SW lich, staying out of range of the bleeding wraiths, and pound him on turn 7 after grabbing the village and luring him out. The third team, suicidal as Haldiel is, he hangs East, waiting to bolt North to grab the village from the East lich. The lich attacks him at the end of turn 6, he survives, steps around the lich, then Elrian the Silver Mage warps into the place Haldiel left. They dispatch the lich and viola, 7 turns in, all freed up.

In the meantime, I filled the moats with cheap mermen, then filled the castle with cheap fighters. The armies massed about the castle, and Konrad and Kaba, my quick trident Hoplite, and all the new red shirts held the walls long enough for the strike teams to do their work. What a mess!

Loved this scenario, so much so I had to create an account and log in to brag about it. Good times!

I guess I should mention that at least half of the 20 new recruits died, so I blew about 400 gold on this scenario, and made back like... 60. Definitely a losing game, but I beat them! Now I'm just broke on Gryphon Mountain, so that's fun...
Pteran
Posts: 1
Joined: November 26th, 2016, 3:58 pm

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by Pteran »

I first played Wesnoth years ago, but haven't touched it in probably 8 years...I made an account just to brag, like the Wiki told me to lol!

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Using version 1.13.6, playing on Easy as I haven't played Wesnoth in quite a few years...

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
I'd probably rate it an 8 or 9. I imagine it would've been easier to run and hide, but I wanted to try and kill all three liches...

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I'm not entirely sure why they didn't take the princess captive in the last scenario...why would they feel safe marching on with an enemy at their back? They didn't think she might be sending them into a trap?

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The major challenge was deciding which units to recall, and where to send them. I had two bottles of holy water to take advantage of! Who could put them to the best use, and who could get to them in a reasonable amount of time?

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
I had loads of fun maneuvering my army and slaughtering undead! Definitely a 10.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
The only thing I would change is providing a larger bonus for defeating all three liches. As it stands, you typically burn through a lot of gold on this scenario, with very little reward at the end.

I settled on two strike teams, and then sent my main army directly east. Haldiel and another Knight went up the west side of the map, with Haldiel snagging the holy water. I sent three Elven Riders south the grab the second holy water. My main army quickly moved in to strike at the closest lich. By turn 6 (aka the middle of the night) I had eliminated the northern and eastern liches, and had my Riders positioned to move in on the south. I finished the scenario, wiping out every last enemy just a few turns later =)
Attachments
HttT-The_Valley_of_Death_—_The_Princess’s_Revenge_replay.gz
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Alex-Stargazer
Posts: 7
Joined: May 25th, 2015, 6:38 pm
Location: Warwickshire, UK
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Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by Alex-Stargazer »

Content Feedback wrote:(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
(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?
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
1) Medium difficulty, version 1.12.6

2) This is definitely a ten. This scenario is insanely difficult, even with a decent strategy; it’s the hardest scenario in the campaign (and yes, I’ve played all of the scenarios).

3) Reasonably clear: survive or kill the liches.

4) I think the dialogue is interesting, but needs more explanation. Why do the liches leave when they do? The explanation about the rising sun is pretty weak—after all, you’ve already survived two days. Perhaps having a loyalist force turn up would make more sense. Additionally, as others have pointed out, Kalenz’s dialogue and the holy water doesn’t make much sense; there is a need for more qualification. Also, why haven’t they figured out that the princess tricked them? And what is a big undead force doing in the middle of Wesnoth, anyway?

5) Not dying—or losing other valuable units. I did end up losing some (a Red Mage, a loyal Outlaw, a Bandit, and a Lancer) but I killed all 3 liches. I’ve attached the replay. I did use some save-loading, I admit. I think the reason it’s so difficult is to do with a combination of three factors: your force is surrounded; the terrain is mostly flat and doesn’t offer much defence rating; and the undead have a huge variety of deadly and mobile units. Charging cockatrices, immortal wraiths, and even sneaky bats are a real danger—it’s just really hard to protect your units from them.

6) I would rate this scenario a 3 in terms of fun. The only good thing about it is killing the liches.

7) On the easier difficulties, I would remove cockatrices from enemy recruitment options. I would also decrease their gold somewhat, or if not, then provide a better defensive position for the player. Finally, I think a much larger bonus needs to be offered for defeating the liches: a loyal unit of some sort would be good. Perhaps a Silver/Arch Mage who was hiding in the mountains?
Attachments
HttT-The_Valley_of_Death_..._replay.gz
(59.38 KiB) Downloaded 739 times
The dwarf Lord said to his guardsman: 'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?'

The guardsman replied, 'Only a fool could get a guardsman killed.'
MrA4
Posts: 9
Joined: March 10th, 2017, 5:51 pm

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death - Dead Litches Parody

Post by MrA4 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
[ ] Champion (Callenging) 1.12.6 - Went for Alternative objective of Killing all the litches.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
[ ] 10 for this campaign - AND I KILLED THE LITCHES BABY! (watch my replay for strategy)
[ ] 7 or 8 for all campaigns - that one scenario (on Legend of Wesmir?) was about 30 times harder (Haven't played Burning Sands yet)

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
[ ] Painfully Clear

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
[ ] Dialog - The Litches and people should banter when a litch dies.
[ ] Storyline - Little iffy trusting that the princess would lead you down a safe path, but assuming you did trust her, it was realistic enough.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
[ ] Manuvering units into safe areas while still having enough firepower to kill the enemy.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
[ ] 9. - Pain in the neck but fun.
[ ] The feeling you get when winning? Surprisingly empty. Especially when you see yourself deep in debt.

(7)
What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
[ ] Add dialog for the litches.
[ ] Add a better win bonus for killing all the litches. (Maybe Permanent Holy water or another Loyal unit?)
Attachments
HttT-The_Valley_of_Death_—_..._replay.gz
(62.57 KiB) Downloaded 741 times
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Poison
Posts: 171
Joined: August 13th, 2017, 4:54 pm

Re: Scenario 9: The Valley of Death

Post by Poison »

Here's my attempt, this scenario is just too hard.

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Champion (challenging) 1.13.10

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

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
As mentioned by others the excuse for the end of turns is weird, maybe you should create an event with some people who come to assist Delfador or sth.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Surviving in general. The whole scenario is a ZOC exersice.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10. Btw my loading times are incredibly fast I've never noticed any kind of delay at BfW (saw some complaints about the enemies delaying above).

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Can't think of anything.

Attaching replay, I've managed to get rid all of the enemies and reached a hair from defeating the liches without save/loading. I got really lucky though (at least in the end). Also...
Spoiler:
HttT-The_Princess’s_Revenge_replay_Poison.gz
(52.06 KiB) Downloaded 696 times
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