[Historical] Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Feedback for the mainline campaign Eastern Invasion.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

User avatar
Content Feedback
Battle for Wesnoth
Location: Wesnoth.org
Contact:

[Historical] Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by Content Feedback »

(1) What difficulty levels 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?
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Mainline Campaigns: Scenario FeedbackDevelopment & Overall Feedback
User-made Add-ons: Feedback
Egosnemesis
Posts: 18
Joined: April 23rd, 2009, 10:54 am

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by Egosnemesis »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Normal. Wesnoth 1.6.1

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
If you just want to escape, 2. The "elite" enemies (death knight and Mal-Ravanal) only can recruit on 3 tiles at a time and Mal-Ravanal's troops never even reached me. I had to replay a couple times because of poor strategy in the beginning, causing me to get wiped out. If you have the right mix of units and a proper strategy(and some luck), I managed to save the paladin + 5 knights and win on turn 9. (although I was scared to death that one of those wraiths that I couldn't see would slaughter a white mage at any moment)

(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?
Great. I liked the dialogue with the knights and the fact that they start dying if you lose units.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Doing everything fast enough. Even though I had 26 turns to "win", I'm assuming by turn 18 or so most of my army would be dead. Basically had an army slowly walk towards the NW enemy and ran the paladin there for a charge as fast as I could.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9. Really fun, really tense. I really get the sense that I'm getting overwhelmed and I was very happy to survive and only count a few HI as losses. Great atmosphere and good risk/reward. On the one hand, this path is much more dangerous. On the other hand, I'll walk through fire to get a loyal paladin. :wink:

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
None. This scenario is perfect as is. I've played about half of the mainline campaigns so far, and this stage and the "The Siege of Elensefar" (in HttT) are my favorite. Both have a great atmosphere and are tactical puzzles.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Restarted twice, once because I didn't realize losing troops meant those knights started dying. I reloaded the second time because I was a little careless with Dacyn.

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
N/A
sabalzen
Posts: 25
Joined: April 1st, 2009, 12:50 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by sabalzen »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.6, Easy
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Not too hard to escape, if that's all you want to do. Totally and utterly impossible to save all the prisoners, though. Seeing as I understand the previous poster managed it, I'll guess that this is yet another example of a scenario that is actually easier on supposedly harder difficulty levels. The best I managed in about 5 tries was to get the paladin and one knight. As on 'Easy', by the time you get here you still only have a couple of level 2s and no level 3s, Mal-Ravanal's troops are impossible to face.
(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?
Very interesting - it's an excellent scenario.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Taking down level 2 enemies with level 1 troops without any losses. Facing hordes of undead at night with no cover anywhere.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
I'd have enjoyed it more if it were easier to save everyone. On Easy, perhaps cut down on the number of level 2 troops. As far as I could tell, the eastern undead leaders were churning out full keeps of level 2 troops, so I'm guessing that I wouldn't have had any more to face had I played on a harder setting, but I'd have had a lot more experienced troops on my side.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Only being overly ambitious and thinking it might actually be possible to save all the prisoners...
Daiker01
Posts: 9
Joined: November 29th, 2009, 9:40 am

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by Daiker01 »

(1) Version 1.8.0 on Medium
(2) 3 to escape. 10 to free the knights
(3) Very clear
(4) I really liked this one
(5) The main objective, escaping, is very easy as you only have to fight one enemy leader with 100 gold worth of level 1 troops. The secondary objective, to free the knights, was impossible for me. I only managed to free 2 knights and the paladin after several restarts.
(6) 9
(7) None
(8) No, I sent Gweddry and Dacyn directly to the north and so they only fought the paladin guardian.
(9) -
bilu
Posts: 7
Joined: January 26th, 2010, 3:11 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by bilu »

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

1.8.0 Hard

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

Once you give up on freeing the knights (except the paladin) its fairly straight forward. Freeing a knight -10.

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

o.k

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

Fine.

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

Trying to free a knight besides the paladin. With 132 gold I was able to recall only one castle and trying to free a knight resulted in either not killing a leader fast enough (because of diverting too many troops to free the knight) and getting swamped by he eastern hordes (which reach you by turn 8), or losses that do not justify getting a knight (imho). On hard I think this scenario is basically a paladin + money generator (due to the necessity of finishing very early).

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

5

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

Those knights are tantalizing but don't have any good ideas how to make it easier to get them without loosing the flavor of the scenario.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

Many. see #5 above.
shadowblack
Posts: 368
Joined: April 15th, 2010, 3:03 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by shadowblack »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.8.1, Medium difficulty

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Depends:
a) If you want to just get out (and maybe get a loyal Paladin) - 1. Since you need to deal almost entirely with level 1 enemies you can probably complete the level without recalling any level 2s (though a couple of Shock Troopers will make rescuing the paladin much easier)
b) If you want to rescue the Paladin and ALL Knights - 7 to 10 (varies greatly depending on luck)

(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?
Fine.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Luck - more on that at the end of this post.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Depends:
a) If you just try to get out - 1. There's hardly any challenge, so it seems pretty boring
b) If you want to rescue all prisoners - 5-10 (varies depending on luck)

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Nothing I can think of.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Bad luck. See below for what I mean.


About luck:
I started the mission with 214 gold - just enough to recall ALL of my level 2s: 6 Shock Troopers, a Dragoon and 3 White Mages (not counting the advisor guy you start with). All but 1 of my Shock Troopers had the strong Trait and did 19-2 at dawn and 17-2 at night. Since Skeletons have 34 HP it takes exactly two strikes from a ST to kill one at night. And that's where luck comes into play, because even with high CHT your ST can miss. A string of bad luck (and thus many misses) can be very frustrating because it can greatly slow you down when you need to be fast. In addition due to their low defense the ST tend to get hit almost every time they are attacked and so their HP are depleted pretty quickly, especially once the level 2s from the east reach you. Even with a total of 4 White Mages to heal them it was challenging to not lose anyone. On the other hand good luck helped a lot here, and I managed to finish with 3 Iron Maulers, plus my leader (who started at level 2 with 38 exp) finished at level 3 with 55 exp.

In short, having the right troops with the right traits and getting lucky with your attacks helps A LOT here, while bad luck can REALLY hurt you.
You are a Dark Adept: You immerse yourself in the dark arts... potentially with great rewards...
Thrash
Posts: 223
Joined: June 25th, 2010, 1:54 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by Thrash »

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

1.8.3, Medium, 158 starting gold

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

Impossible to free more than a couple of the prisoners. I tried all the strategies on the wiki but basically you get overrun by wraiths before you can free any of the remote prisoners. My only guess is they got very lucky and didn't have any turns where they got bogged down by any Shock Troops missing and costing them turns.

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

Clear enough.

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

Very nice.

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

Wraith after wraith coming from the lich and really having no units that can deal with them.

(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?

If you drop the Death Knight it might actually be possible to free the prisoners.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

I tried to free all the prisoners many times, then backed down to just a couple and it still took me many tries. Part of the problem is it's just impossible given the limited movement to protect your principles so it's hard to keep them from getting tripled teamed.

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?

Compared to most WML I've looked at it's reasonably well commented and clean.
Attachments
's_Capital_replay.gz
(22.26 KiB) Downloaded 1187 times
Thrash
Posts: 223
Joined: June 25th, 2010, 1:54 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by Thrash »

Thrash wrote:Impossible to free more than a couple of the prisoners. I tried all the strategies on the wiki but basically you get overrun by wraiths before you can free any of the remote prisoners. My only guess is they got very lucky and didn't have any turns where they got bogged down by any Shock Troops missing and costing them turns.
OK, I eat my words. After thinking about it some, I realized I could improve my strategy (in a nutshell, white mages can do very well even one-on-one against reverants). I replayed it and freed all but one of the prisoners. I have to say I was also very lucky (particularly the NW enemy played badly). Not sure off-hand how could have gotten the last prisoner, but it's probably possible. New replay attached.
Attachments
's_Capital_replay.gz
(20.25 KiB) Downloaded 973 times
monochromatic
Posts: 1549
Joined: June 18th, 2009, 1:45 am

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by monochromatic »

[quote="Mythological"](1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Normal 1.8.3
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9 - one of the more difficult scenarios in the campaign, second only I think to Weldyn under Attack.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear, but difficult.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Nothing special. Dacyn's a chicken and Mal-Ravanal is a powerful bad guy. Yeah. Case closed.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Ghosts, and the fact that I'm in the middle.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10 - best scenario ever.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Hmmm....that this point in the game I don't think the player is quite ready for shadows yet. Maybe just wraiths?
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Gweddry stading bravely against 3-4 shadows.
(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?[
Didn't check./quote]
bobby
Posts: 13
Joined: August 13th, 2009, 5:53 am

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by bobby »

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

1.8.0, Medium

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

7. Not nearly as hard as I remembered but still tough, perhaps because this time I came prepared with lot of white mages and quick ST or HI close to leveling. I had a lot of gold too. Not hard to rescue 5 knights/paladin but the one at bottom right was tough to rescue. Gweddry can rescue the paladin alone, then paladin can rescue the next knight. Team of shock trooper(s) and white mage can clean up in middle, another 2 teams go SE and NW.

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

Clear enough.

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

Good.

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

Getting to the revenent guarding the bottom right knight and not getting any of my ST or white mages at the centre killed.

(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?

This is really hard if player does not have enough quick shock troopers. Maybe have the knights a bit closer so player without them wouldn't be so disadvantaged.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

Units getting killed before last knight was rescued.


There is a bug when I played. Turn 4 and 5 both had the same time of day, dusk. Made my job a lot easier.
Attachments
's_Capital-Auto-Save5.gz
(55.91 KiB) Downloaded 940 times
's_Capital-Auto-Save4.gz
(53.42 KiB) Downloaded 1016 times
dsa
Posts: 58
Joined: August 22nd, 2008, 8:46 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by dsa »

(1) What difficulty levels and what version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Challenging, 1.8.4.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9, I didn't see a realistic chance to hold on for a long time, so my plan was to focus on the north-western leader. I experimented a bit, what units can be rescued in addition and found out that one knight and the paladin is the only realistic option. But even then I was surrounded by enemy units and had a hard time to fight my way through.

(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?
Okay.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The ghosts were my main problem, because they aren't hindered by swamps and often find a way to kill an important unit.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7, the idea of the scenario is good, but with such masses of enemy units, it is difficult to protect the important units (especially from the ghosts). Therefore I had to do some reloads, which was frustrating.

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

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yes, as stated above.
User avatar
AxalaraFlame
Posts: 690
Joined: December 4th, 2011, 1:07 pm
Location: Pasadina, Caltech

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by AxalaraFlame »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
hardest, recently 1.9.12, once used 1.9.3, not much big different

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
damned difficult if you want to rescue all knights! especially for me because l think save/load is lame

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
you'd better kick that Dacyn's ass. he is a dult

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
as l mentioned. l can only take 3 away

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
challenging but not funny

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
would you please give that damned deathknight LESS GOLD? He screwed up my great rescue plan many times!!

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
too greedy rescuing all knights

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
l made mal ravanal killable, and l killled him. nothing happens lol~~ :lol2:
line
Posts: 94
Joined: January 11th, 2012, 9:21 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by line »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.8.6, hard
152 starting gold

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
I managed to free everybody. But therefore bad luck shouldn't strike you too often. Especially on killing the revenants, because you need to keep moving with the slow shock troopers. I found an ideal starting position for the recalls. It took some reloading to free everyone without casualties. But once the perfect starting position is found I could repeat it without reloading. But it's still a 10.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear. Get your a... out, before the undead tsunami hits you.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Referring to Gweddry who says something like he still want's to try to kill Mal Ravanal - or Dacyn turning cassandra-mode on (I knew it all the time, it was a fault to get here) - annoying.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Finding a way how it is possible, including the best positioning of the recalls. And that was (positioning clockwise, starting north castle hex):
12 o'clock: fearless, fast shock trooper
2 o'clock: see above - this one was closer to levelling up, than the other
4 o'clock: fearless, not fast shock trooper
these 3 went north - they ought to be fearless, as they had to kill revenants at night
6 o'clock: fast, but not fearless (because I had only two with that combo)
8 o'clock: see above
10 o'clock: red mage
I sent the 3 upper ST and Dacyn (because he was close to levelling) north, 8 o'clock-ST to the bottom revenant and 6 o'clock-ST with red mage to the revenant above. Gweddry recalled another white mage, then optionally helps out with the bottom revenant. The south force then marches to the southern dark sorcerer. Once freed, the paladin and northern knights head to the northwest, but arrive one turn later than the south force to maybe end the scenario.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
It's hard work, but feels good once accomplished.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
None, it's supposed to be tough and so it is.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yep, there was some trial and error before finding a way that worked out.

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
Attachments
IdF-Mal-Ravanals_Hauptstadt_Wiederholung_anzeigen.gz
(24.84 KiB) Downloaded 829 times
line
Posts: 94
Joined: January 11th, 2012, 9:21 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by line »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.9.14, hard
167 starting gold

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Following the strategy of my previus post I could do it without any save-/reloads at the first try.

(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?
I brought only one fearless, fast ST with me. He was joined by a fearless, slow IM and a fast, not fearless (but close to levelling up) ST. (I didn't recall another fearless IM because he was slow.)
The other recalls were as written before (fast ST, red and white mage).
It helped out to have several units close to levelling up.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
I like it.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
None, it's supposed to be tough and so it is.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
None.
Attachments
IdF-Mal-Ravanals_Hauptstadt_Wiederholung_anzeigen.gz
(27.69 KiB) Downloaded 850 times
User avatar
Crow_T
Posts: 851
Joined: February 24th, 2011, 4:20 am

Re: Scenario Review: EI 4c - Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Post by Crow_T »

Thanks for posting these replays line, I've been struggling on this one a bit!
Locked