Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

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Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by Content Feedback »

A survey of the 7th scenario of The Hammer of Thursagan.

(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?
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Turuk
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by Turuk »

Huh, guess no one got this far and felt like writing about it.

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Lord (Challenging) 1.5.7

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
7. Did not lose a unit but it was rough. Initially went in recruiting a mix of 2s and 3s with my limited money, had to switch to using all 3s and start over. The drakes can wear down your units quickly, and at the rate of recruiting 2-3 drakes per turn.... it was bloody.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Crystal. If it flies, it dies.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Alright. The fact that the drakes listening in and making comments is a bit odd, especially if you wonder why the drakes have not wiped out the mages before now or vice versa.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Killing the drakes faster than they could be recruited. All praise to Dragonguards (one shot, one drake kill).

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7. Hard, but it was nice to actually get into it for once. So far in this campaign the player has managed to level his units without being in danger of facing a challenge that might kill a few of them.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
More accessibility for the AI ally to help, he was essentially useless.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Reevaluating the situation and choosing to recall all lvl 3s.

(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?
Looks good to me.
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zaimoni
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by zaimoni »

Mythological wrote:(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Easy [Wesnoth 1.6.2]
Mythological wrote:(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
4
Mythological wrote:(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Transparent.
Mythological wrote:(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Reasonable.
Mythological wrote:(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Working out the optimal village-capture sequence to the south. I do wish the initial assault mages were a little more cautious, keeping them alive is pretty much impossible as they get there one round before your Quick dwarves do.
Mythological wrote:(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7
Mythological wrote:(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
I don't understand this scenario well enough to comment.
Mythological wrote:(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No.
Mythological wrote:(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?
The WML is clear and well-commented.
cph
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by cph »

(1) Lord, 1.8.1
(2) 5 - completed first time with losses.
(3) Clear.
(4) Fine.
(5) The income stream of the drakes - they were recruiting 2 or 3 units per turn throughout. That plus their mobility meant I lost several units in forcing my way up to their keep.

Rathelin (or however it is spelt) is a pain to carry around - he's too slow in the mountains, and that's the best place for the rest of my units.

(6) 5 - it is variety.
(7) Nothing comes to mind at the moment.
(8) No.
ManiacTehGreat
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by ManiacTehGreat »

This was the first time I encountered Drakes, so that was novel and fun.

I also love the map for this scenario. It looks pretty, and it also offered the option to use terrain to your tactical advantage. Always more fun than pure flatland battles.
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Maiklas3000
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by Maiklas3000 »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
hard (aka challenging, aka lord); 1.8.3; 81 gold

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9.5, one of those scenarios that appears impossible (on hard) but isn't.

(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 agree with Turuk above that the Drake listening in and contributing to the conversation is a bit silly. It's also confusing, because first we're talking about intruders in the valley, and then you cut to the Drake. Eliminate his first comment and it will be improved.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I started with the minimum gold of 80 (plus 1), which was a challenge given the large number of units I would be facing. I recalled all three of my dragonguards and a dwarf lord. Maybe I should have gone for a stalward instead of the dwarf lord.

Mr. Boss Drake recruited 2-3 units per turn, which means that when you get near the keep, he tends to be surrounded by his units. It's difficult to break through to get a shot on him, and you need more than one shot to kill him.

Mr. Mage is slow in mountains and is difficult to protect from drake attack. I solved this by running him first down the front of the mountains (next to the water), and then crossing in the forest and running him down the backside. He did not do much helpful compared to my other units.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10, one of the best in all the mainline campaigns

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

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
The first time I lost due to getting bogged down in combat and unable to push forward to the objective.

(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?
There are almost no comments. It looks like for future scenarios the player keeps Ratheln except on hard. So, you could write a comment for that. Also, upon victory a semi-experienced mage (and a second one on easy) is created who joins the player on the next scenario, so you could comment on that. And it looks like you only get that gift mage only if Master Perrin (the allied leader) stays alive, so you could comment on that. On hard, is there a penalty if Ratheln dies? If both Master Perrin and Ratheln die, then what happens with Ratheln's dialog about Perrin's death?

Below is a fairly exciting replay. Watch the ending as one dragonguard gives his life in order to get one shot on the drake leader, then on the next turn two dragonguards and a dwarf lord each killed a drake to clear a path so that Angarthing could have a shot to kill the leader... 49%, and it worked. Since I needed to parlay four kills to kill the leader, that was a bit lucky. However, I did no save-reloads at any time in the campaign. (I recommend 2x acceleration on the replay.)
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monochromatic
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by monochromatic »

Mythological wrote:A survey of the 7th scenario of The Hammer of Thursagan.

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Normal 1.8.3
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
1 - The drakes murdered the mages on the north bank, while my units took the southern bank. The AI seemed to almost have ignored me. Other than a few clashers, I really met no resistance.
(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?
As written above, the drake leader peeking in on the convo is awkward.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Nothing, really. The AI ignored me for the most part.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
5 - simple, yet challenging in a certain way.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
The drake leader need bodyguards, pronto.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Nope.
(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.
Thrash
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by Thrash »

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

1.8.3, Medium, 189 starting gold

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

6, most challenging of champaign so far.

(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?

OK

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

Getting over the river - you're pretty exposed at this point and it's a bottleneck. The enemy leader foolishly came out and attacked. If he hand just hung back, it would have been a tough fight to his lair given he still seemed to be recruiting 2-3 units a turn.

(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?

Insert usual complaints about ally AI here.

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

No.

(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?

This scenario isn't commented, which is a step down from most of the rest of this campaign.
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turin
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by turin »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Hard 1.9+svn

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
4. I had too many advanced units by this point for it to be difficult.

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

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
None.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
4. I hate drakes. Also it's kind of boring, I didn't suffer any losses but didn't finish early either, it mostly felt like a slog through a bunch of not-really-threatening drakes to get to their leader and kill him.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Not have drakes? And perhaps make it more challenging. Or give some sort of incentive for not recalling a handful of high level units and curb-stomping the drakes. At this point there isn't much of one, since I have enough advanced units that I don't really need more.

(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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santosis
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by santosis »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium 1.8.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Got it, kill the rabbit.

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I spent all my gold recruiting a keeps worth of troops (all lvl 3 except for one lvl 2 Stalwart). As usual, I moved down the mountain range and crossed the river while the enemy troops were diverted with a peon mage.

I easily made it without casualties (one restart)

I finished in round 11/25, with 21 gold. I will carry 148 gold over to the next scenario.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7 - Good ole fashioned stomp fest.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Can't really think of any.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Didn't control ZoC, got my griffin swarmed.
Etheri
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by Etheri »

(Edited after replaying the campaign to this point, I initially couldn't beat this level)

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

Challenging 1.8.4

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

6. I managed to complete it without endangering any units badly, but I felt I had a particularly good run of it.

(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 seems unclear what has the drakes in such a stir right at the moment of my arrival.


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

Before replaying the campaign, I began with minimum gold, and a non optimal unit mix, I didn't have the damage capacity to launch an attack on the drake leader.
After replaying, I had +45 gold and 4 (eventually to be) dragonguards, the drakes didn't really stand a chance. Thus, my major challenge in meeting the objectives was making sure I was strong enough to attempt the scenario in the first place.

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

6. Good old fashioned roflstomp.

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

Seemed fine to me. I initially proposed an alternate win condition, but perhaps this scenario makes a good "you must be this tall to ride" sign :)

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

Yes! When I originally encountered the scenario, I began with minimum gold and a less than optimal recruit. I was utterly incapable of winning in 10+ attempts. Thus, this scenario forced me to restart the entire campaign.

(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?

Haven't looked.
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Yrth
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by Yrth »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Hardd, 1.8.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8, if you realize the griffon king will leave his hoard to attack wounded units, you may use this to your advantage and the scenario gets more easy, with some luck you don´t even have to cross the river

(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?
Commenting by the griffons on the remote talk with the mages seems silly, confronting the griffons is not explained sufficiently, main reason seems to be introducing another race into the campaign

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Getting enough gold from the former scenario to recruit sufficient units, keeping my mage alive, he is no big help anyway, so keep him out of the fight if it is not secure

(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?
Improve the story

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
In order to get enough gold I had to restart the former scenario

(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?
...
BubbleScreen
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by BubbleScreen »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium, 1.8.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9 - Look, he's spawning more drakes. Oh look, he's still spawning drakes. Oh look, the drakes want to kill me. Oh look, he's STILL spawning drakes. Didn't help that I had only one dragonguard at the beginning.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
No problem

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Why are the drakes listening in? Why have they decided on this very moment to attack the clearly weaker mages, rather than some earlier time, when the mages did not have friends who pack heat?

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Killing the Drakes faster than they could be recruited.

It was very rough trying to cross the river to get to the Drake commander. I had parked on the hills near the eastern ford to do battle in favorable terrain. But then it dawned on me that The Drake boss kept spawning more of his buddies, and that I was not recovering HP fast enough to keep fending them off. And this is with some good shooting from my thunder/dragon-guards. So I had to push quickly to get in position. It was pretty brutal forcing my way through the drakes to gain a foothold on the other side

I was in pretty bad shape by the time I made it to the mountains around the Drake base (nest?). But the boss left open a space next to him in his recruitment, so a Sentinel grabbed a foothold. And that was that.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7 - brutally tough, but in an interesting fashion.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Dialog/story improvements. Make our ally less stupid. He never came out of his castle to bail out his students. Also Ratheln doesn't have anything interesting to do, and running way away is not very heroic.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Well not so much one event as getting beaten when trying to cross the river.
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tr0ll
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by tr0ll »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium, 1.9.6

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
7 - lots of drakes. with a strategy of recalling level 3 fighters and level 2 or 3 scouts it was possible to move fast enough before they spawned too many and cross the river easily to the leader.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
10

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
see previous commenter re: implausibility.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
none. had to have good units coming into this scenario.

(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?
change dialogue to make drakes have history of harassing mages about some minor dispute. perhaps let them surrender and continue to live there under truce, due to worse threat of impending evil menace about which we have been picking up clues. have the drakes give another tip.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
easy to get too eager to grab villages with the gryphon rider and get him swarmed :lol2:

(9)
podbelski
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Re: Scenario Review: THoT 7 - Mages and Drakes

Post by podbelski »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.9.6, Hard, 96gp

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
moderate, like 5-to-6. Recalled a couple of level 2 Thunderers, another one of level 1, and two recruits. Expected to have big trouble but surprizingly even inexperienced shooters dealed with drakes pretty well. Level 1-2 shooter crew even has the advantage - it's less expensive, so you have some gold surplus for the next scenario.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
My main guy was killed near the drake keep, reloaded once. Just had a feeling it's perfectly doable w/o reloads but restarting looked boring

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
it's an okay scenario, though don't want to replay

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