13. Spoils of War

[Content Feedback]

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions 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?

[Vendrick]

(1) Invasion, 1.18
(2) 5
(3) Clear
(4) Good
(5) Liberating prisoners on the north bank since Owaec is too slow to travel back across. The bats are also a threat if they can swarm a weaker unit like the Mage or Orc Archer.
(6) 7
(7) The turn limit could be slightly more generous since Owaec's best attack is only one strike it isn't even that unlikely that it could miss 3-4 times in a row.
The Deathblade guards' movement allow them to ignore ZoC and break flanks. The player also can't easily see how many hexes they'll actually move.

I assume the gold carryover is intended as minor compensation for if one of the survivor units is killed early. If the player has gold carryover from Evacuation though, it'll be reduced by 60% again. I think it would be better to set the player's gold from Evacuation aside and add to S14's minimum gold alongside this scenario's carryover gold (the player's hero is even seperated from the main army here).

The pacing is a good break from the large scale fighting and provides the player some veterans in case Evacuation went really badly.

The Orc Slayer's poison stops the AI from attacking with its leader, even while flanked, making it much safer to give the kill to a weak unit.
(Even if the Slayer misses every strike and gets killed, it doesn't really matter.)

[sine_nomine]

Invasion, 1.18.0
I guess this is a filler scenario to allow players to level some units if everything was lost during the evacuation. Plus you get another loyal unit if you have Terraent.
Maybe this entire scenario could be an optional sidequest, so players that want to challenge themselves could skip it.
The scenario itself isn't terrible but it's not particularly fun either. The fact that you control a side character and are separated from your usual units is a bit strange and highly rewards players with advance knowledge because you can give several items to Terraent at the end of the previous scenario.
The special movement used for the deathblades is a bit confusing at first.
You're incentivized to kill off units that you don't plan to use later because you're paying upkeep for them.
(also I was frustrated by the bug with the sentinel shield and the deathblades resulting in characters not joining. But that should be fixed now)

[WLFobe]

I freed the group that included the Dark Adapt. But he was immediately killed by the other prisoner. How do I avoid this?

[octalot]

Spoiler on how to avoid that:

If you have the paladin Terraent from S04c then you play this scenario as Terraent instead of Owaec. He tells the other prisoner "Stay your hand, man of Wesnoth! A killing in cold blood is no justice and revenge will bring you no peace."

[WLFobe]

So, to get the adept, I have to go east. Ok.

The walkthrough is so messed up.

[egallager]

So, to get the adept, I have to go east. Ok.

The walkthrough is so messed up.

On the top of the walkthrough page, it says, "This walkthrough is in the process of being updated for version 1.18+". Eastern Invasion was heavily modified for 1.18, so the walkthrough doesn't reflect that yet.

[fredbobsmith2]

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on? Invasion (Difficult) 1.18.4
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 7, less of a breather than the walkthrough thinks
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives? Clear, though a note on which turns the prisoners will come would be good
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario? Good, but the necromancer's comments are somewhat random
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? I had Terraent so it was easy to take out the undead with him, the challenge is getting him to where he needs to be in time, and manipulating the bats. After I freed the dwarves, I had them lure the bats to them while Terraent went across the river; the bats always fly at the closest unit. After freeing the mage and bowman, I then had them lure in the next set of bats by moving east, so that the dwarves and Terraent didn't have to fight bats while freeing the orcs. I think it is probably possible to do the orcs without Terraent, since the thunderguard can take out the soullesses while the runesmith bashes the deathblade. These 4 troops then lure in the next bat group while Terraent goes south. The gap between prisoners gets short here, so I had the mage and longbow hide in the forest for 2 turns while Terraent came back, so as to not get killed by the bone shooter. I didn't have Terraent go north for the last group, as the 4 units there were enough to handle them. After that everyone converged on the south leader (though the dwarves are way too slow to get there in time) and finished on turn 40.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) 5, running back and forth over the river isn't that fun
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? Narrower river maybe