[Historical] Scenario Review - EI 1 - The Outpost

Feedback for the mainline campaign Eastern Invasion.

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governor
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by governor »

Just wanted to add that in 1.4.x the scenario is possible and still rather easy, however in 1.5.x the ai handles purple's lvl2 recruits much better and doesn't over-recruit bats. This means that by turn 7 the human player faces 20 + enemy units, with 5 or 6 lvl 2s that quickly dispatch any unit even during the day. Hence the impossibility in 1.5.x.
Jozrael
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by Jozrael »

Actually, I just beat this recently, not sure if I still have the rep. It involved recruitment of 5-6 HI and 1 Mage and falling back across the river and holding there. Also concentration of XP. I ended with 0 XP on my leader, 3 Shocktroopers, and a mage at 1/3 xp.
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governor
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by governor »

In that case, try it again and post the replay. I am very interested in seeing how you did it without exceptional luck.
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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by beetlenaut »

Jozrael wrote:Actually, I just beat this recently, not sure if I still have the rep. It involved recruitment of 5-6 HI and 1 Mage and falling back across the river and holding there. Also concentration of XP. I ended with 0 XP on my leader, 3 Shocktroopers, and a mage at 1/3 xp.
But you can't just hold across the river. You eventually need to go back to the fort--through a double wall of enemies. And how did you keep Dacyn from dying if he was across the enemy lines from your troops? (I've tried this. There was no way I could keep Dacyn alive.)

I thought I came up with an idea that allowed me to win with only a little luck. I recruited only spearmen. I was able to get around 12 of them. I put Gweddry on the space where the trapdoor was going to appear, and surrounded him with the troops. It worked on my second try, except that I was still told to move Gweddry to the trapdoor when he was already on it! I was surrounded, and none of my remaining troops could move anywhere. Oh well. It was kind of a cheap strategy anyway.
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skrutsch
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by skrutsch »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on? -- Medium, 1.4.7

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) -- 7, challenging but not impossible, a sweet spot I like.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives? -- Not too clear. The first time I got it in my head that my disappearing mage became Mal-Ravanal the super-baddie. (I am kinda new in Wesnoth....) To be real picky, Dacyn returning in two days should mean the beginning of turn 13, not 12. It took me awhile to find the trapdoor; good thing there was only a bat atop it. Glad I decided to defend the outpost rather than flee!

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario? -- Seemed good to me, liked the hint that the bad guys are searching for something.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? -- First play I bought not enough heavy infantry and didn't watch my money and villages.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) -- 9, a great situation and well done overall, fun enough to motivate me to post!

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? -- Tweak the dialogue as others have suggested.

I was able to make a defense line NE of the outpost around turn 6, which made the blue skeletons wary for some reason. I was able to stomp on a couple of green skeleton archers in the woods due east of the outpost, attracting every non-bat and keeping them off the outpost till turn 10 or so. Perhaps if the enemy were a little more single-minded, I'd still be trying to get past this scenario :*)
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Astoria
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by Astoria »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Easy, 1.5.10
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
2, I just recruited some HI and crushed the bowmen.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear, i knew that Dacyn whas coming.
(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?
Blocking the Revenants
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
6, OK.
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silent
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by silent »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Medium, 1.6.0
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5. If you think your moves through carefully, and your recruits consist of intelligent magi
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
clear but only due to having played this scenario before
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Interesting enough, I wonder what Mal-Ravanal was searching for though
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
unit positioning so that they weren't killed so easily
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
I give it a 10 for the following reason. At the end of the scenario, I had the following
-1 white mage
-1 shock trooper
-1 mage 1 kill away from leveling
-1 HI 1 kill away from leveling
-1 cavalryman about 1-3 xp away from leveling
Pretty good going for 1st level
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Nothing really, perhaps have in brackets 12 turns, next to the two days to give players an exact Idea how long to survive for
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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by beetlenaut »

For about a year, people have been complaining that this scenario is basically impossible on hard. I agree, so I made some adjustments myself. It still took me a couple tries, but I was able to win this way. What do you think?

side 1 (player): from 100 to 120 gold
side 2: from 100 to 80 gold
side 3: from 120 to 100 gold
side 4: limited to three level-2 units

(Also, I fixed a bug where Gweddry wouldn't go through the trapdoor if he was on it when it appeared.)
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zookeeper
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by zookeeper »

beetlenaut wrote:For about a year, people have been complaining that this scenario is basically impossible on hard. I agree, so I made some adjustments myself. It still took me a couple tries, but I was able to win this way. What do you think?

side 1 (player): from 100 to 120 gold
side 2: from 100 to 80 gold
side 3: from 120 to 100 gold
side 4: limited to three level-2 units

(Also, I fixed a bug where Gweddry wouldn't go through the trapdoor if he was on it when it appeared.)
Well, while I have beat it on hard myself after quite a few tries, I'm not unsympathetic to making it easier...applied your changes (except that I limited the revenants to just 1 on easy as well).
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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by beetlenaut »

I'm sure it was possible to beat, but I bet it required some luck--your strategic choices are quite limited.

Anyway, thanks zookeeper!
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miekka
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by miekka »

1. Medium 1.6.5
2. 7. The hardest campaign starting scenario.
3. Somewhat clear, though since I didn't exactly how many turns was 2 days I thought it was until the last turn.
4. It's ok.
5. Keeping Gweddry alive
6. 3... it's not nice to lose so many units but you can't avoid it
7. I guess it could be a little bit easier since it is a starting scenario
Daiker01
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by Daiker01 »

(1) Played version 1.8 on Medium
(2) Difficulty: 4
(3) Very clear
(4) Both clear and interesting
(5) The major challenge was to avoid being surrounded in my own castle. This was solved by sending a cavalryman to distract the northern leader.
(6) Fun: 9
(7) None
sw_emigre
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by sw_emigre »

I played 1.8 on Challenging, and I find no way to get through it without heavy cheating/saveloading. I used every strategy listed in the walkthroughs, and the archers eat me up every time, especially the boneshooters (of which 2 were recruited all 5 times I started up). I have beat this scenario on medium in 1.65 easily enough.

Cheating isn't fun. I rate this a 0 on challenging.
bilu
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by bilu »

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

1.8 hard

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

9. Took me 5-7 tries to start "perfecting" a strategy for this scenario. Don't see how you can do it the first time around without knowing of the trap-door and its location.

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

Clear, but the trap-door surprise catches you unaware.

(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?

Both main characters are fairly vulnerable to swarming by bats given the small number of units you are left with by turn 12. I eventually gravitated towards recruiting 1-2 mages just to cull the number of bats you will face later on (the mages never survived). I'm still of the opinion that even with good play success in this scenario depends somewhat on luck (or I may not be as good a player as I thought I was).

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

Always like scenarios that I feel teach me something and improve my play. Though those bats can become pretty frustrating.

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

Limit the number of bats? I'd rather face more lvl 2 guys and less bats.
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Maiklas3000
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Re: Scenario Review - EI: The Outpost

Post by Maiklas3000 »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
challenging; 1.8.3

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9.5

(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?
I was a little confused by the names. I thought Dacyn was the undead who left and wondered why Gweddry was upset about him leaving.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Bats. I hate bats. I had to play the scenario many times to finally win. I'm not sure what worked finally, though it probably helped that I never put Gweddry on a plains hex this time, and bats could have killed him one turn but failed. I ended with 3 shock troopers and 1 heavy infantry about to level. Is that good enough?

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8. I like a scenario to be this difficult if it's got a relatively small number of units like this, and so you can play it repeatedly in a short amount of time. So, yeah, it's good.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
To see why we need to leave, add a huge army of something terrifying timed to arrive at the castle around turn 16. There are words to that effect, but I want to see level 3 trolls or something closing in on the castle for the last few turns.
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