Scenario Review: SotBE 3 - Towards Mountains of Haag

Feedback for the mainline campaign Son of the Black Eye.

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sine_nomine
Posts: 39
Joined: April 30th, 2016, 11:34 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 3 - Towards Mountains of Haag

Post by sine_nomine »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Nightmare 1.12.4

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8 to kill the dwarf
164 starting gold

(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?
Good

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The initial attack from the dwarves is dangerous since you need to do some fighting during the day, and the boss would be very hard to kill if he wasn't willing to move into poor terrain.

(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?
None

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No
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BillytheBabyGoat
Posts: 20
Joined: December 21st, 2016, 12:39 am

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 3 - Towards Mountains of Haag

Post by BillytheBabyGoat »

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

2. 4.

3. Very clear.

4. Interesting.

5. Had to watch the enemy leader carefully and avoid putting anything too close to him; also was interesting deciding where to fight, especially with the time constraints.

6. 5. It was fine.

7. None really, lost one or two units trying to get the leader, but with the option to take the sign instead it's not a problem with the scenario.

8. Restarted once when a level 2 crossbowman with some xp got killed. After the restart, managed to finish with a level 3 goblin knight, a level 2 goblin knight, 3 level 2 orcish warriors, a level 2 crossbowman, and some units with a little xp, which felt solid.
Getsome
Posts: 3
Joined: May 25th, 2017, 1:52 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 3 - Towards Mountains of Haag

Post by Getsome »

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6 at first, 4 once you know the trolls will be reinforcing.

(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?
Alright, I don't play for story

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Keeping Gruu's dad alive, which I gave up on quickly.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8 - a good primer and a great showcase of trolls. Good map layout with flanking paths for riders and villages and advantageous terrain to fight over.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
IMO it's near perfect. If anything make it a little bit more difficult - it's a bit easy to backcap all their villages. Maybe add a single dwarf or some hostile wildlife (foraging rams or goats would be flavorful) in the northern part of the map to slow down capture a little.

(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 Gruu's dad died (which I stopped trying to prevent) and again to try a new tactic - not fighting Dwarfs on mountains no matter what and to send more Wolf Riders to steal villages. Reloaded a few times to move units I forgot about.

Fun scenario, I like that it puts Wolf Riders to good use. I used 3 and stole all their villages ASAP which starved the Dwarfs out pretty quickly. Showcases the power of trolls nicely as well, it's cool stalemating vs the Dwarfs only to have Gruu and co. swing down and slaughter them in a few turns.
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max_torch
Inactive Developer
Posts: 414
Joined: July 31st, 2011, 5:54 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 3 - Towards Mountains of Haag

Post by max_torch »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Nightmare 1.12.6, 183 starting gold, chose to skip the scenario "The Human Army"

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6

(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?
Just alright.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The fact that most of the terrain on the map is favorable to dwarves. And with the thunderers you can get really unfortunate or really lucky.

(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?
It's pretty good already.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Did some restarts for optimization purposes. The thunderers have wild luck swings. I'm already aware that the next scenario is fiendishly difficult.

The scenario forces you to apply proper tacics and judgment. If you want to optimize gold you have to allow yourself to lose units. I was pretty pleased to see the trolls being effective in blocking the enemy leader towards the end of my playthrough :)
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LordWolfDan
Posts: 216
Joined: September 30th, 2018, 7:31 am

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 3 - Towards Mountains of Haag

Post by LordWolfDan »

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

- 1.14.5, Challenging

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

- 6

(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?

- Nice. Since this is orcish territory, I like how Kapou'e decides to let the others live because they're on his territory, thus destroying that "orcs are savages" stereotype. The arrival of trolls was welcome. (Just to be clear, I skipped the previous scenario)

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

- Luring dwarves on their unfavorable terrain

(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?

- Just remove that dying dwarf line

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

- No
Konrad2
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Posts: 3333
Joined: November 24th, 2010, 6:30 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 3 - Towards Mountains of Haag

Post by Konrad2 »

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

1.15.1, Warlord (Nightmare), 124g

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

7

(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?

Running away from the dwarves until I had somehow a chance to beat 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?

-

Scenario stats:
Spoiler:
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KK188
Posts: 6
Joined: January 8th, 2019, 2:46 am

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 3 - Towards Mountains of Haag

Post by KK188 »

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

1.16.0, Nightmare

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

8.5 as Dwarvish thunderers suck.

(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?

Not losing my key units to dwarves. Not losing Gruu to Thunderers

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

Don't really like it, so a 4.

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

Make it so that you can control the trolls(as a separate side).

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

Reload due to mistakes, and restarted when Gruu died(and got better luck).
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mal_shubertal
Posts: 93
Joined: December 1st, 2018, 6:58 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SotBE 3 - Towards Mountains of Haag

Post by mal_shubertal »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.16.6 Nightmare
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
7. It took several tries to find the best place to fight the dwarves.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
very
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
It's pretty mixed.
Good:
- trolls being fleshed out as sentient creatures with close family bonds, and more insight into the internal divisions within the northerner faction ('orcs have been allies in the past, but they treat us like fools').
- Kapoue character development, where he might have been able to talk his way past the dwarves but he insulted them instead and forced an unnecessary fight.
Bad:
- Trolls don't have a distinctive way of talking. The dwarves have their kind of scottish-esque accent, and I feel like Kapoue has a pretty consistent harsh/cunning way of speaking, but the troll dialogue could just as easily have been humans or any other species. Some of Gruu's lines in this campaign are my favorite in the whole game, e.g. "I have a cunning plan...", which reminds me a bit of how Schwarzenegger's Conan talks, kind of "uneducated but deeper than he seems", but that only comes through inconsistently.
- The dwarf leader's 'argh, i die!' dialogue just seems lazy. I would almost prefer "I am slain!" for the explicit shakespeare joke.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Figuring out where and when to fight the dwarves. As orcs, my instinct was to try to claim good fighting spots in the hills, or the forests near the hills, but the dwarves are even better in hills than orcs are, and I kept getting decimated before the trolls could relieve me. I eventually figured out to pull all of my troops up into the ice to lure the dwarves north into the path of the trolls.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10. I like it a lot. There's a lot of variety in the terrain, a lot of different ways to approach it, and a big backfield area for those who want to emphasize more wolf riders/scouting.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
In some earlier versions, this scenario gave you rudimentary control over gruu, by letting you just basically designate a point that he would aim toward. I would love for that to come back, just so that you can tell him to retreat when he needs to heal. As it is, I had to restart once just because he happened to get to very low hp because of bad luck, then unnecessarily charged into the enemy alone.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Like above, just some bad luck from gruu getting hit by an improbable number of thunderers and dying super fast. And several earlier tries where the dwarves wore me down by attrition when I engaged them too far from the troll reinforcements.
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