Help a Noob Out.

[FieryChipmunk]

Hey, you wonderful internet people! I just got this game like two days ago, and I'm not very good at it (shocker, I know). I would love if I could get some tips on how to play better. Stuff like what factions are best, how to move troops around effectively and safely, effective tactics for multiplayer, and so on. Thanks for your time!

[gnombat]

Basic stuff is covered in the manual, especially the Strategy and Tips section.

The wiki also has a number of good pages.

There is also a detailed Wesnoth Strategy Guide.

[Yomar]

Yes, check out the "how to play section" there you will find suggestions of how yo play wirh every faction.

[beetlenaut]

Years of work have gone into balancing the factions so there isn't a best one. They have different styles though. For example, the orcs have strong, cheap units so they should try to overwhelm their enemy with numbers, while elves should use their mobility to take and hold forest hexes where they are difficult to dislodge.

Thinking in Wesnoth is a YouTube series where a strong player coments on MP matches as he plays them. It would be very helpful to watch a few.

How to Play link.

[LienRag]

I found the "Thinking in Wesnoth" very interesting, thank you. Especially the first video (I'm watching the second right now), I didn't understand that we were supposed to play the units so far apart from each other, as the AI always gang up on one when attacking.

But I'm watching the video with auto-generated subtitles on because my English isn't perfect, and it gives ideas for units I really would like to get in the game ! So far I've got "Wolf seeker", "Irish horsemen", "Foodpaths", "Calves",...
"My own suckers" though I'm not sure that I need.

[LienRag]

Though I'm surprised by the income he gets ; do rules work differently in multiplayer ?
Also, in the third video he's Loyalist, and when he recruits there are two units (cavalryman and spearman) that are labeled "ladder". Why is that ?

[Yomar]

Idk if I understood all your questions right.
Anyway I will try to answer, so the income can be changed before you start the game as can ve the starting gold.
The units labbeled (ladder) are from an add-on that modified the default units to try to make them more balanced for competetive gameplay, so they have slightly different stats.
There is a forum called "Wesnoth Ladder", the registerd people there play to get points and there is a ranking system and a top ten (but you can see all the players and their position if you want).
They also, like here organize tournamennts sometime.
Have a nice day.

[LienRag]

Thanks.

Is there a forum thread dedicated to this video channel ?

If not, I'm a bit surprised (and disappointed) by the episodes 2 to 4, where he consistently loses, and makes what seems repeated bad decisions.
Especially, he loses a lot of units in order to take or keep a village, and I don't understand why : a village is 2 golds per turn, and this only if you don't have enough upkeep, which makes a maximum difference of 4 golds (2 for you, 2 for your opponent) between having a village and your opponent having it.
This while losing a unit is at least 12 golds (orcish grunt), and usually much more since one more unit in a fight very often spells the difference between killing an enemy or not, which also makes the difference between losing one of your unit next turn or not.

In the fourth video, he lost 4 units while killing only one, and yet he pursues the attack (at nigh with orcs) rather than trying to hold while waiting for reinforcements. He talks of "putting pressure" but how can one put pressure on an opponent who got numerical superiority ?