The Stolen Sword (Drake Campaign for Beginners)

[vicente]

Hi all. I just uploaded my first campaign, "the Stolen Sword". I would like to make it a tutorial for playing drakes. The campaign is set at easy or intermediate level. There is no trap or "tomato surprise" in the campaign. (I hate "tomato surprise"). In cases where enemy reinforcement arrives in the middle of a scenario, they should be far away from the battlefield.

Please report bugs suggestions here. Since I am not a native speaker, spell checks are welcome as well.

There are 9 scenario so far, and I do not plan to add any more. The player will have a chance to play against all other races in mainline (including drakes as well). From scenario 5, the player will also have access to saurians. At the last scenario, the player will control mermen as well (I find it is painful to watch the ally committing suicide under the control of ai).

Spoiler:

Some tips.
Scenario 1 and 2 are "training sessions". You will play against drakes in scenario 2. Krelink should be level 2 at the end of scenario 2.

You will face nagas in scenario 3. It is a good chance to advance a few burners.

Scenario 4 might be hard. The main enemy are the loyalist. Stay at the bank of river. Heal at the nearby villages. Be careful about the few wolves coming from the back. Bonus for defeating the south leader. There is no early finish bonus. Stay until the last turn to harvest gold and xp.

You will have saurians under your command at scenario 5. The maps is very favorable for saurians. They should be able to hold elves relative easily. You should have a couple of leveled burners to burn down the woses. Try to finish the scenario early. Once you move next to the elf leader, the elves surrender, and the scenario ends. You need to have at least 1 soothsayer (2 is better) and a few thrashers at the end of the level.

You are going to fight undead in a cave in scenario 6. Not a very easy task. Recall the leveled burners, and thrashers. You need 2 soothsayers for healing. If not, you can feed an augur with the soulless at the beginning of the level. There are 2 holy water in this level. Give to your loyal skirmisher and a warrior/arbitor. Be careful about the dark adepts. They can do a lot of damage in this level. Send your loyal Augur to the cave at the southeast corner, he will find a ring of speed. A perfect artifact for Krelink. You will retrieve the Flaming Sword at the end of the level. You can give it to Swift.

Dwarves are the main enemy in scenario 7. The map favors the player. Drake Burner/Warrior is good here. A couple of Ambusher might be fine as well. You should move west fast. A gang of Paladins and Mages of Light will arrive at turn 9. You'd better to avoid them. Early finish bonus for defeating the dwarf leader.

Scenario 8 is an easy level. Try to finish early for the bonus. There are two treasure chase on the map. Remember to grab the gold. You will face some wild animals at the first half of the level (ogre ,wolf, and gryphon). Fortunately, they will fight with each other as well. The second half you will face some outlaws. They are fairly weak. First put drakes on the mountain, then attack the outlaws in the valley. When the drakes are injured, fly back to the mountains to heal. (A typical drake tactics).

Scenario 9 is the last level. The drakes should move west to defeat the trolls first. A few leveled burners can take care of the wolves attacking your back. The mermen should move southwest to defeating the nagas. Mermaid initiate might be the best option. Some sea monsters show up at level 3, and you should take them seriously. After cleaning up the trolls and nagas, the orcs should not be a big problem (although the orcs will get reinforcement when the nagas and trolls are defeated).

Spoiler:

There are two loyal saurians in the campaign. Although one of them is expendable, the player should keep her alive, as the other saurian will behave badly when she is absent.

Timeline of the story.
The story happens at 636YW, 10 years after "Dead Water".

Spoiler:

625 YW
Mysterious disappearances of livestock and peasants cause partial evacuation of the the Estmark Hills. Lords of the Horse Plains report increased banditry from there. Konrad II sends Dacyn with Owaec and Gweddry to man the old River Guard strongpoints. Eastern Invasion begins.

626 YW
In the Far North, the merfolk city of Jotha is overrun by undead. The action of Dead Water takes place.

627 YW
Wesnoth's last defences are broken and the undead march on Wesnoth
Weldyn is besieged.
Gweddry's army is fortunate and kills Mal-Ravanal. Eastern Invasion ends.
Wesnoth is saved, but large portions have been laid waste by the undead.

628-635 YW
Konrad II begins his attempt to rebuild Wesnoth.

628 YW
Keshan becomes the leader of the drakes at Bilheld Island. The endured conflict between drakes and merfolks at Bilheld ends.

629 YW
Keshan's first son, Krelink is born.

635 YW
Humans begin to build colonies in the Far North. Humans seized Dorset from orcs.

636 YW
The story of the campaign takes place.

[Superdark33]

By what do you mean "saurians behaving badly"?

[vicente]

By what do you mean "saurians behaving badly"?

The loyalty of the saurians are doubtful. The augur will try to steal things from you if not checked.

Spoiler:

You will not get the speed of ring if you failed to protect the skirmisher. Also the skirmisher will give you two potions of regeneration if you choose the second option at the end of scenario 8.

[Chris NS]

Hi,

Played the first few scenarios of the campaign. In principle, I think it would be good to have beginner campaigns for all the different races to get used to these tactics. At the moment, I believe only the Tutorial, An Elvish Incursion and The South Guard make serious attempts to do this.

However, I'm not sure the current format works as a training campaign as such. I can see the reason for having one battle against each of the other factions, but I'd have thought the best apporach would be to introduce the drakes one unit type at a time. Maybe one scenrio with just fighters (to start off with the mobility/encircling tactic), then introduce clashers (so you have mixed mobile units and tank units), and burners and gliders later. I'm not too familiar with drake tactics, so someone feel free to correct me if I'm talking rubbish with the tactics.

I'd persist with the tutorial approach though. I'd say that's a good gap in the market if you have hopes of going mainline.

[Marche]

I like the idea, but what Chris says also seems fitting. I haven't encountered any difficulties yet on my own (easy mode, but never used Drakes much before).

I'd like to suggest a change to scenario 3; when I played it, the Naga leader went north to the open village, but that put him in trapping range of one of my Burners and Swift, and I ended the scenario on turn 3 with approximately a lot of gold in return. In fact, if I did this again, I wouldn't even recruit more than two or three units, just to wall off the other approaching Naga warriors to give me a turn to finish the leader. I get the feeling this goes against what you'd planned as the goal, but if it didn't and this is just the shortcut, cool.

[Refumee]

I ported this campaign to 1.18

[ZIM]

Just want to report that there's a typo in scenario 2 that renders Thrush unable to recruit Drake Burner due to it written as "Draker Burner"
Also there's a typo in the first scenario's story
defected -> defeated

[Refumee]

Just want to report that there's a typo in scenario 2 that renders Thrush unable to recruit Drake Burner due to it written as "Draker Burner"
Also there's a typo in the first scenario's story
defected -> defeated

I didnt get a message about it, sorry.
The Drake Burner is fixed, the defected -> defeated will be fixed tonight

[ZIM]

Hello, I just decided to continue this campaign, and I find a few things that I want to point out.

1.In the second scenario, if we decided to control the merfolk, they don't have any objective. Also, the advice in easy is outdated, as the nagas now have ranged units.
2.In the 3th scenario, there are no early finish bonus. I just want to know the reason.

Also, I find the difficulty not really consistent. Like in scenario 1 is really easy, scenario 2 just normal, scenario starting to get hard for a beginner campaign, and then scenario 4 suddenly I have to defend against elves that has 650 gold and can recruit level 2 units. Same for scenario 6. Scenario 7 and 8 are relatively easier, compared to the others. But then in the final scenario I have to fight against 3 enemies that has a total of 1500 gold (in Normal)? Like isn't this supposed to be for beginners?

[Refumee]

Hello, I just decided to continue this campaign, and I find a few things that I want to point out.

1.In the second scenario, if we decided to control the merfolk, they don't have any objective. Also, the advice in easy is outdated, as the nagas now have ranged units.
2.In the 3th scenario, there are no early finish bonus. I just want to know the reason.

Also, I find the difficulty not really consistent. Like in scenario 1 is really easy, scenario 2 just normal, scenario starting to get hard for a beginner campaign, and then scenario 4 suddenly I have to defend against elves that has 650 gold and can recruit level 2 units. Same for scenario 6. Scenario 7 and 8 are relatively easier, compared to the others. But then in the final scenario I have to fight against 3 enemies that has a total of 1500 gold (in Normal)? Like isn't this supposed to be for beginners?

1, I added the objective and deleted the advice that only appears on "easy"
2, no clue, I just ported this campaign and tried to get rid of all bugs. I added in a early finish bonus.

The difficulty is a problem yes. I'll see what I can do about it. Firstly I'll remove the lvl 2 elf recruits. I met players that were able to attack the elvish leader and my guess is that the 650 gold was for not touching the leader.
Edit: I reduced the overall gold in the more difficult scenarios, like 1500 gold in total in 1225 gold.
I feel you are now playing all campaigns with my name in it

[ZIM]

1, I added the objective and deleted the advice that only appears on "easy"
2, no clue, I just ported this campaign and tried to get rid of all bugs. I added in a early finish bonus.

The difficulty is a problem yes. I'll see what I can do about it. Firstly I'll remove the lvl 2 elf recruits. I met players that were able to attack the elvish leader and my guess is that the 650 gold was for not touching the leader.
Edit: I reduced the overall gold in the more difficult scenarios, like 1500 gold in total in 1225 gold.

Well, maybe another approach is to reduce the gold but increase the income of the elf leader, what do you think? Also I don't think there is a hint that you can move next to the elf leader to immediately end the scenario, most people would just focus on defending, as the main objective is to resist. But I do think the level 2 recruit can stay on hard. To deter players from rushing the leader, I guess you could put elvish rangers around the leader as guardians.

I feel you are now playing all campaigns with my name in it

Heh, just a coincidence, it just happen that I'm also a fan of campaign that have saurians in it

Edit:
I just encountered another bug, it seems the flaming sword object is the cause of this, since the holy water one spawned just fine

[Refumee]

1, I added the objective and deleted the advice that only appears on "easy"
2, no clue, I just ported this campaign and tried to get rid of all bugs. I added in a early finish bonus.

The difficulty is a problem yes. I'll see what I can do about it. Firstly I'll remove the lvl 2 elf recruits. I met players that were able to attack the elvish leader and my guess is that the 650 gold was for not touching the leader.
Edit: I reduced the overall gold in the more difficult scenarios, like 1500 gold in total in 1225 gold.

Well, maybe another approach is to reduce the gold but increase the income of the elf leader, what do you think? Also I don't think there is a hint that you can move next to the elf leader to immediately end the scenario, most people would just focus on defending, as the main objective is to resist. But I do think the level 2 recruit can stay on hard. To deter players from rushing the leader, I guess you could put elvish rangers around the leader as guardians.

I feel you are now playing all campaigns with my name in it

Heh, just a coincidence, it just happen that I'm also a fan of campaign that have saurians in it

Edit:
I just encountered another bug, it seems the flaming sword object is the cause of this, since the holy water one spawned just fine
Screenshot_2025-09-03_18-54-08.png

Thank you for the hint and the screenshot, HolyPaladin found this bug too, but wasnt unable to tell me where it was. So I checked the scenarios he mentioned, not this, and wasnt able to find it.
Anyway the id bug is very simple, this id=flaming_sword is acceptable, this isnt id=flaming-sword. That is quite interesting.

I kept the level 2 recruits for the elves on higher difficulty.

New update is up.

[ZIM]

Just played the 6th scenario, I noticed there is no turn limit, but the objective mentions that we could get early finish bonus. I think setting turn limit should be the way. Also, the moveto event that triggers the witch running has too few range, you could easily killed the witch without triggering it since the dark adept stationed there can move out and our skirmisher units then can rush toward her, I suggest changing it to a sighted event, to also better reflect seeing the witch.

Code: Select all

     [event]
        name=moveto
        first_time_only=yes
        [allow_undo][/allow_undo]
        [filter]
           x=19-21
           y=24-26
           side=1
        [/filter]

*The code I'm talking about

[Refumee]

Just played the 6th scenario, I noticed there is no turn limit, but the objective mentions that we could get early finish bonus. I think setting turn limit should be the way. Also, the moveto event that triggers the witch running has too few range, you could easily killed the witch without triggering it since the dark adept stationed there can move out and our skirmisher units then can rush toward her, I suggest changing it to a sighted event, to also better reflect seeing the witch.

Code: Select all

     [event]
        name=moveto
        first_time_only=yes
        [allow_undo][/allow_undo]
        [filter]
           x=19-21
           y=24-26
           side=1
        [/filter]

*The code I'm talking about

Makes sense, I changed it to a sighted event.

What kind of turn limit do you suggest?

[ZIM]

Makes sense, I changed it to a sighted event.

What kind of turn limit do you suggest?

Well, since this is a cave scenario, and the tips tells us to use drakes in this scenario, I think the turn limit should be lenient, since drakes doesn't move that well in caves, maybe something like (42 40 38)? Then the turns runs out message could be something like "We've taken too much time, the witch must have managed to extract the magic from the sword". But since this is also the same as the sighted event, I suggest changing the sighted event to her simply running away and summoning undeads instead, maybe wraiths. It also makes more sense, if she already extracted the magic, then what's the point of recovering the sword?

Also, I noticed the campaign didn't have a epilogue scenario. So the story simply ends at defeating the orcs, without Krellink returning the sword. Would it be possible to add an epilogue scenario? Or maybe a simple event like Krellink moving next to Kai after the enemies are defeated would suffice.