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Parrhesia and Integrity's Guide to Surviving Wesnoth


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1 minute ago, Integrity said:

big problem is that this makes the jav literally promoted archer-tier ranged attack, while retaining an 8x3 spear. if they promoted from there they'd be obscenely good - javs are honestly a great generalist unit in short campaigns / single games where the lack of a third tier doesn't hurt them, and they're reasonably good in both phases. situational, but fine. i like them.

the buff i'd theorize is an increase in damage to 8x3 on the javelin - total damage only goes up from 22 to 24, but they gain a lot more consistency to pair with the 40% pierce resist and 48 base health for ranged dueling.

I do get the idea, though I was also comparing to the elven ranger getting a potential 32 damage per round. I will agree on the x3 idea for the javeilineer (maybe I forgot that it's up to 24 damage they can deal from their spears, I mistook it as 18. That's ad from me, I usually am better at math), but yeah the ranger seems to get a lot going for them in comparison (if arguably situational due to the importance of terrain in this game and how the map could have little to no beneficial terrain for them)

6 minutes ago, Integrity said:

i'm doing HttT next, after incursion. you're welcome.

That's going to be a bit if I remember correctly. I wasn't specifically asking for it, just wondering because I remember how long it took for me back then.

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3 hours ago, Dayni said:

I do get the idea, though I was also comparing to the elven ranger getting a potential 32 damage per round. I will agree on the x3 idea for the javeilineer (maybe I forgot that it's up to 24 damage they can deal from their spears, I mistook it as 18. That's ad from me, I usually am better at math), but yeah the ranger seems to get a lot going for them in comparison (if arguably situational due to the importance of terrain in this game and how the map could have little to no beneficial terrain for them)

oh yeah that's not to downplay the ranger, the ranger line is probably the single best hybrid phase unit in the game, and the javelineer's shooting stats are pretty piddly in comparison. my whole point was that one's gotta consider the javelineer's significantly better defenses when thinking about how far to buff that javelin. with the 10/11x3, they'd be just a significantly stronger ranger in many circumstances, and we're talking about the best hybrid line in the game. 8 or 9x3, though? Significantly, but not staggeringly, lower ranged damage than a ranger in exchange for concrete durability rather than streaky RN durability.

 

3 hours ago, Dayni said:

That's going to be a bit if I remember correctly. I wasn't specifically asking for it, just wondering because I remember how long it took for me back then.

incursion's only 8 maps! you'll see HttT start next week and go until roughly july.

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Spoiler
Quote

As they fared further north the green forest thinned around them, slowly fading into a barren and fallow country. The signs were obvious and unmistakable - tree stumps, an occasional half-rotten tree felled long ago, and dead wood around them in scarce grass. This had been forest once, like the woods they called home. It had been murdered.

There was no trail to be found here; wind and rain had erased the spoor. Fortunately, there was no need of a trail: smoke on the horizon betrayed the presence of their enemies.

Erlornas was near-certain they would find orcs there. No clan of dwarves would break their ancient treaties with the elves in this way; humans were never so... methodical in their destruction, and did not travel in sufficiently large numbers in a north country they found too cold and damp for comfort. The great question remained - would he find Rualsha?

Perhaps, but not here. The tribe this camp housed was too small to impress fear on other orcs. Come next morning, the elves were prepared for battle.

These quote blocks are a little cringey to transcribe, but in a harmless way. This was written by a 15 year old, and by God I would have thought it was cool at 15.

 

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If your chosen dave doesn't die he remains pretty consistent. Usually.

 

Quote

Erlornas: Yes. And this is the threat we were blind to but are now facing. This tribe is small, yet we must drive them back to the north. They must have no footholds south of the hills.

 

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Quote

Gnargha: Rise up, grunts! We have a great fight upon us! Let your rage flow freely! Let your blades slay all! First one to draw blood will feast by my fire this night!

Erlornas: Aim true, men, with wit and courage the day will be ours. And spare no-one, there can be no orc south of the hills, else we'll never have peace again

 

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Pure skirmish energy. That ugly guy we just saw?

 

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Tier 3 grunt. Orcish warlords are fucking huge, and learn to shoot a bow. They are significant threats. Worse, as the enemy boss they'll rarely leave the 60% cover of their base. You do not want to fight these guys in the dark. Look at those numbers, Christ.

 

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The plan is as straightforward as plans go. Unless we absolutely sweep them, we'll end up taking a turn or two to wait for dark to pass before closing in, but we'll do all our mulching at this treeline.

 

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Our recall list is beefy, and I won't be recruiting any new units. Nominally, it's better to recruit most tier 1 units rather than recall if they're far from promotion, but these guys have names and need to see their final fate.

 

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Anyway we can start to fill out our defensive position on turn 2. Go me. I fill out the strategy picture before I do the chapter, so there are gonna be times in the future I completely frick it up.

 

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They meet us about as favorably as could be hoped. Note the two weirdos!

 

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Tier 2 archers. Orcish crossbowfolk are... fearsome. 8x3 and 10x2 are, honestly, alright damage lines - compare us just making fun of 11x2 javelineers - but their strength comes in the versatility. Lots of the units in the game are either vulnerable to pierce or fire, and often resistant to the other. Orcish base archers don't have quite the numbers to make it work, but the climb to 8x3 and 10x2 means on many units this guy is a particularly powerful tier 1 unit, and on about 60% of the units in the game he's getting to choose a weakness that bumps his damage to respectable tier 2 levels. Contrast shooting a heavy infantryman with a ranger (7x4 against 40% pierce resist) and a crossbowdude (10x2 with -10% fire resist). They're orcish hybrid archer-mages.

Good news: they still suck in melee.

Anyway, the second takeaway is that as campaigns go on enemies can just recruit higher tier units out of thin air. You, generally, cannot. Heir to the Throne can quickly just straight up become a fail state, and I will be flagrantly savescumming the last six or so maps of it.

 

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Anyway, our boys pin down the right wolf rider and Theo claims the skull.

 

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Riders are scouts with higher numbers.

 

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Relatedly, somebody overachieves and feeds a kill to our first fighter to promote.

 

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Fighters, like many units, branch on first promotion.

 

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Captains are cool. Their attacking abilities are.... okay, at best, for a promoted unit, but they come with a new ability: Leadership. Leadership increases the damage of adjacent allied units by the tier difference between the leader and the unit. So a captain, tier 2, will give a +1 damage boost to all attacks made by adjacent tier 1 units (fighters, archers, etc), but will not buff promoted units. When he promotes to Marshal, he'll grant a pretty significant +2 damage to all adjacent new recruits, and also buff nearby tier 2 units with +1 damage per attack. Leadership is quite powerful, but not too easy to make use of.

Note that elvish wank starts to creep in at this tier, but we're not even close to peak.

 

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Heroes are fighters with bigger numbers.

 

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On account of being quick, dextrous, and named Michael Keane, we take the Captain promotion and get into a new defensive posture. Night is falling and we want to mop those crossbowmen up quick.

 

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One archer takes the worst of it, but we weather the dusk.

 

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Unfortunately we get cosmically unlucky with finishing blows on multiple dudes. This happens.

 

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We're still in a good position, even if our captain is ......sadder for the ordeal.

 

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It's a sweep. Some guy promotes to Hero in the meantime.

 

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Dark makes crossbowfolk a lot scarier. We still manage the kill.

 

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And then a new wolf rider just yeets the fuck out of the castle and eats some fighter. Figures.

 

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Anyway, pound the guy into dust, wait til morning, pound the new guy into dust, promote another guy to Ranger.

 

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And pray.

 

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Elvish bravado wins the day, though. Even though my healer took both return bow shots to the face.

 

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Anyway to close out the night I completely forgot to capture anything the orc guy said as he died but I did catch this. Jeez, guys.

 

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Quote

Erlornas: Good. But their disregard for self-preservation is astounding. As is their ferocity when defending what they claim as their own. Have the scouts found others this side of the hills?

André Gomes: No, lord. Bu trolls were spotted in the hills ahead. Do we really need to cross them to the north?

Erlornas: Yes. The council has spoken to me through a dream-sending. They are troubled. Reinforcements have been sent after us, but we need to press on. Tell the men to rest, we'll move out at dawn.

André Gomes: What about the loot, lord? We found supplies worth over a hundred gold (TN: five daves' wages) in the camp.

Erlornas: Distribute some among the men, save the rest for the road. This country is a wasteland now; we won't find much forage on the march.

 

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What a happy note to end on!

 

Edited by Integrity
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THE SOUTH GUARD - 1

Spoiler

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The beginning of the South Guard campaign! And, hey, a career opportunity for our boy Deoran. I am sure this will go well.

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oh

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A homie approaches!

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So I feel like I was kind of deprecating about Wesnoth before. It, well... Two Brothers is kind of a shitty campaign, and the elf wank is real. So let me re-emphasise - the art is really fucking good for an amateur project. And Deoran even has multiple mood portraits!

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Right. Time to take stock. Between lines, Moreth tells us there's weapons and armour in the River Fort. Time to roll out our best and--

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oh

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For all that we laugh at goblins... they had a 6x3 attack. Peasants... suck. Peasants are fucking terrible. And not worth wasting our time with. Can Deoran hold the front on his own?

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... yeah, again, I go back to that goblin 6x3 attack. And they had a javelin. And were tier 1. Gameplay and story integration is a bitch, and right now it means that Deoran is terrible. Note he has the leadership skill, increasing the damage of adjacent units by 25%. This is great! Except Deoran's a tier 1, so... literally only inspires peasants. Leadership is a very fun and useful tool to have, but Deoran needs to get some kills under his belt before it really comes into its own.

On the easiest difficulty, Deoran's a tier 2 to start with, and Moreth's a pikeman.

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Let's fucking book it south, shall we? Also note: Wesnoth has a variety of different flag designs! Instead of the normal straight team colour pennant, Deoran's boys have a white-and-team-colour striped design. Contrast to the tattered brigand flag.

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Urza Mathin pops out his two baby versions.

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Ruffians are the worst and cheapest unit in the entire game. Their combat performance reflects this. They have no health and pathetic damage with their clubs.

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Thugs have a great flavour text and great art. I love their pouches, very DiTerlizzi. And their fucking pompadours. Anyway, yeah. All the brigands are very cheap, and thugs are alone in that they take a while to level up. So, sure, they aren't very good, but Wesnoth units can't be compared in a vaccuum. Sometimes you do, in fact, just want a guy who beats people to death with a club.

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We find Gerrick in the fort. Together We Ride plays, metaphorically.

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Oh, thank God.

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Time to... well... do that. But first!

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Gerrick is a powerful fucking deuteragonist, or however the fuck you spell that. He's got heavy infantry resistances, shrugging off blade and pierce armour like it's nothing, a nice sharp glaive (Metzen alert), leadership and normal movement.

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We find another homie in this random village - if you're playing this on beginner, he's a full-fledged longbowman. We're advancing forward so we can deny blue income, not just get it for ourselves. That said, our gains are short-lived - night is coming. Better to regroup over our side of the river, ceding our gains for now while we recruit.

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Aleron's stint with the South Guard is pretty short-lived. You get a handful of loyal peasants in South Guard - issue is that recalling a peasant still costs 20, when recruitment costs 8.

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Deoran kills a child his age from a lower socio-economic bracket. Also, uh. There's no way of being nice about this - Deoran's sprite is dated as fuck. It's based, IIRC, on the old horseman sprite, but the horseman sprite was recently pimped the fuck out. So, for that matter, was Gerrick's - but Deoran's was left behind, unfortunately. Oh well. It's kind of like the effect of when one of your marquee guys in Warhammer is like a really old, swaggy, shitty model.

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They obligingly run into our spears on the shoreline. Okay, being chaotic at night is nice, but standing in 20%-defence rivers? Less so.

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Yeah, uh, that's gonna happen. It might've been slightly dicier if Aleron hadn't given his life to get brutally clubbed to death in a barn in some woods.

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It was at that moment that Maranyc began to feel very, very alone.

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Not much more to say - we mosey south, killing a couple of ruffians along the way.

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And yet again, even at night, enough archers can bring down a powerful foe.

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I do appreciate Deoran and Gerrick's dynamic - the young border lord, the seasoned career fighter. Deoran's tier 3 is even Cavalry Commander while Gerrick's is Infantry Commander.

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This is also one of those campaigns which ... the scale feels right. Each one of these dudes is probably just A Dude.

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I am sure Westin will be fine.

NEXT TIME:
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oh

 

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I don't find Sir Gerrick to be THAT great in context of the campaign. He has basically no resistance against impact weapons and low avoid. So all those Ruffians with their clubs can really tear him apart.

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Coincidence of all coincidences, but I actually started on The South Guard after reinstalling the game.

I'm a fair bit further than the first map though. No spoilers of future maps though.

4 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

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So I feel like I was kind of deprecating about Wesnoth before. It, well... Two Brothers is kind of a shitty campaign, and the elf wank is real. So let me re-emphasise - the art is really fucking good for an amateur project. And Deoran even has multiple mood portraits!

I love that he just looks like he's a mounted policeman shouting at people to calm down, the little shits.

4 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Thugs have a great flavour text and great art. I love their pouches, very DiTerlizzi. And their fucking pompadours. Anyway, yeah. All the brigands are very cheap, and thugs are alone in that they take a while to level up. So, sure, they aren't very good, but Wesnoth units can't be compared in a vaccuum. Sometimes you do, in fact, just want a guy who beats people to death with a club.

I would not ignore those thugs at night where they start to deal some serious damage.

Sure, Tier 1, but a bunch of these at night is actually concerning.

4 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

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We find another homie in this random village - if you're playing this on beginner, he's a full-fledged longbowman. We're advancing forward so we can deny blue income, not just get it for ourselves. That said, our gains are short-lived - night is coming. Better to regroup over our side of the river, ceding our gains for now while we recruit.

That's kind of hilarious considering what he's supposed to be versus what you get in Beginner. Why not archer?

I'll just mention a missed event for this map:

Spoiler

There's an event if you send someone to cap the sea village near the river fort you not only get two mermen on your side but they'll also be recruitable for the campaign. I will vouch for their usefulness in this campaign.

Edited by Dayni
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3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

^

Is there even a need for any spoiler tags? I figured they are both well versed in the campaigns. But yeah, triggering that event probably would have been a good idea.

There's a difference between 'well-versed' and 'photographic memory of every event'. But, yeah, spoiler policy is; any map we've already seen, go nuts, do whatever, spring break.

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6 hours ago, Dayni said:

That's kind of hilarious considering what he's supposed to be versus what you get in Beginner. Why not archer?

On the hardest difficulty setting all you get is an enemy Footpad. So a Lv0 ally is actually a good middle ground, I'd say.

The differences between difficulty levels seem far more significant then I ever noticed.

Edited by BrightBow
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6 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

On the hardest difficulty setting all you get is an enemy Footpad. So a Lv0 ally is actually a good middle ground, I'd say.

The differences between difficulty levels seem far more significant then I ever noticed.

Alright, that's even more hilarious.

I put that event in spoilers so that those who decided to play the campaign based on what they've seen so far could have some things they don't know about and could find for themselves and to fill in this gap that happened to not be covered for those who aren't as concerned. Considering this does affect other maps in some form, better safe than sorry personally.

Edited by Dayni
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THE SOUTH GUARD - 2

Spoiler

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I'd also be concerned if I heard screaming and fire, honestly.

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Oh, our introduction to the Tier 2 footpad! I love their art.

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Like last map, we need to get Deoran to an objective and take stock from there.

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Westin's seen better days.

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Tier 2 footpads, but they cross a threshold. Footpads are... painfully bad at fighting, but chances are an outlaw can do serious damage with at least one of morningstar or sling, and impact's a good weapon type.

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We've now seen all three tiers of the Thief line, though I forgot to actually take a screenshot of the Rogue at the time - he was the second guard leader in Three Bros, the guy Arne pasted in a single lance-blow. Thieves are... abject. Rogues rely on skirmish to flank opponents, and have knives for general-purpose chipping. Thieves. Don't. Have these things. Good news, though, is at least they don't take much work to promote. Under ideal circumstances - aka at night, with a backstab up - they can do some serious damage.

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Turn one we focus on just putting out guys - three veterans of last match. The two footpads aren't really up to much; rolling southwest with three bowmen and four spearmen is more than enough, with the keep in Westin. Which is handy because I'm not thinking straight and move Deoran off the keep after a single wave of recruitment before summoning reinforcements. Ah well.

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The thief guarding Westin chooses death.

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Hey, we found a dude! I've boosted up the resolution so we can hopefully see the art a little better. Hopefully.

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And he's a fancy motherfucker, too.

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Wow. I... guess you could call him a... slow Loris.

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More alternate art!

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Four homies join us. One actually counts - loyal and resilient Ufes, this guy. Joran, Makees and... uhm... Tyborg will not be so lucky.

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uh

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NO SHIT, DOG

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Okay, so this is bad. Skeletons, as has been mentioned and as would be expected, are basically immune to pierce damage. We have... all of two guys whose primary method of damage isn't pierce damage.

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Oh, hey! Makees goes to secure a village and finds friends, instead. Friends who... only deal pierce damage...

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The mermen, it's important to note first, have great art. As fighters, they're pretty mediocre - you'll note that the hunter is just straight up a damage-per-shot and 3 HP worse than a bowman. But they glide through water easily, and that, well, situationally that can count for a lot. On land, they aren't dreadful - 30% defence on flat ground is heavy infantry numbers, but they aren't going to die instantly. They're lawful. Oh, and we can now train Merman Hunters ourselves, should we wish - I'll pass.

Anyway, let's see what our buddy Minister Hylas can conjure u-

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OH GOD

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So, white magi are fucking l i t, pun not intended but fully sick and embraced anyway. Ike's run you through the elven shaman improvements. Laughably, they have to choose between dealing huge quantities of arcane damage and healing. White magi have a 9x3 arcane attack - notably worse, sure, than the red mage's 8x4, but consider this; arcane damage does an extra 50% against the undead.

Also, the female white mage is a self-portrait of the person who did all the wizards, criminals and, in a time long past, elves.

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Myssh's debut isn't... crash-hot, after he opens promisingly by pulverising a thief. Tier 2s are not twice as good at fighting as Tier 1s, especially not when their weapon type is mostly mitigated by bone.

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So here's the plan. We can't do much at night, but we can, at least, hold the line here and sponge up as much damage as possible with spearmen who don't have great traits. Hopefully they go for Makees.

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Makees gets killed by the spare skeleton here, and Moreth takes some heat, but on the whole we leave with no significant losses, and Deoran's masterful exhibit of your-fist-to-my-face style has left him 8 XP from levelling to 2! God, he needs it.

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Much as I'd love to make these cunts feel the rapture, with only spears and bows and at night I have nothing to back Hylas up with.

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It's fine, though; we destroy them as soon as the sun rises. And is it just me or is Deoran looking a little more...

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... yesssssss. God, that mace is coming, um, not quite in the nick of time. But Deoran, previously terrible, is now very strong.

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The crossing is kind of a bitch, but beating him up, even from this position, even with him on forest... well, the weight of spears tells in the end. He falls back and Moreth drives the finishing blow.

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Apparently the elves knew some shit was up, and wanted to talk to Loris about this. Loris, correctly, said fuck no, because they're elves.

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Deoran's pragmatic about the whole affair. We're gonna go over the elves and appeal for some fucking cavalry in the interim. Gameplay and story integrate well, here - spearmen and bowmen make sense as militia-type units, and also make sense that it's all Deoran's got.

Next time: that changes, with horseflesh.
 

 

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I used to play this shit all the time when I was younger; I think I may have actually played it before I ever touched an FE game lol. It's cool to see it's still getting updates and even a steam release!

I don't think I ever actually touched An Orcish Incursion though. I wasn't a big fan of Wesnoth's elves so I tended to ignore campaigns they starred in lol.

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3 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

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And he's a fancy motherfucker, too.

I honestly like the effects on the staff the most.

3 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

The mermen, it's important to note first, have great art. As fighters, they're pretty mediocre - you'll note that the hunter is just straight up a damage-per-shot and 3 HP worse than a bowman. But they glide through water easily, and that, well, situationally that can count for a lot. On land, they aren't dreadful - 30% defence on flat ground is heavy infantry numbers, but they aren't going to die instantly. They're lawful. Oh, and we can now train Merman Hunters ourselves, should we wish - I'll pass.

I will say this: I was rolling three of them (Counting the warrior) out on a couple of maps and the hunter (one with the javelins) surprised me with how useful he was, especially on one of the later maps (I'll talk about that when we get to it).

3 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

So, white magi are fucking l i t, pun not intended but fully sick and embraced anyway. Ike's run you through the elven shaman improvements. Laughably, they have to choose between dealing huge quantities of arcane damage and healing. White magi have a 9x3 arcane attack - notably worse, sure, than the red mage's 8x4, but consider this; arcane damage does an extra 50% against the undead.

Also, the female white mage is a self-portrait of the person who did all the wizards, criminals and, in a time long past, elves.

I mean, considering what they do to corpses, they're pretty lit up in battle anyway.

3 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

... yesssssss. God, that mace is coming, um, not quite in the nick of time. But Deoran, previously terrible, is now very strong.

Well, considering the rest of the campaign it's a good thing he has it early regardless.

I was a bit later with it myself.

3 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Apparently the elves knew some shit was up, and wanted to talk to Loris about this. Loris, correctly, said fuck no, because they're elves.

Loris unfortunately also died, complicating the understandable mistrust.

I'm also curious which versions you and Integrity have. Obviously won't affect gameplay much at all, but I think I've seen some differences so far and it's made me curious.

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7 hours ago, Dayni said:

I'm also curious which versions you and Integrity have. Obviously won't affect gameplay much at all, but I think I've seen some differences so far and it's made me curious.

current steam patch, which is 1.14.6

 

Spoiler

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Quote

At dusk they arrived at the mouth of a valley cutting almost straight through the range and made camp, as scouts warned that the area was hostile and the road ahead treacherous in darkness. There were no songs or music that night and most of the elves slept uneasily. An unlucky few kept a cautious watch.

When sunrise came, the elves moved into battle formations. Whatever waited in the slopes ahead, it would not find them unprepared.

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Hey, it's fog of war! All units can see any tile they could more to with one full turn from wherever they are. Scouts are the best scouts. Mountains are hard to see through, unless you're a dwarf or a troll or you fly.

Technically this is called 'Shroud' in the game, and fog of war is a separate thing we haven't seen yet, but fuck 'em I'm calling both fog of war.

 

Quote

Erlornas: You know well enough... Rualsha. That name sounds everywhere we go since the incursion began. That orc is much more than a mere marauding bandit in search of pillage. And he wants this land. Our land. He is planning an invasion, I'm sure of it. We must gather more information about his plans before we go back.

Erlornas: And tell me... How did you sleep last night?

André Gomes: How did I?... Uneasy, lord. My dreams were bleak, some of them nightmares.

Erlornas: Yes. The earth currents are perturbed here, and the bridges to the dreamland are tainted [tn: this is the stupidest sentence i have ever transcribed]. I think there is a mage dwelling somewhere nearby. Or perhaps more than one; the traces are mixed, and some of them have an unwholesome flavor.

André Gomes: It would be dire indeed for us if these orcs have magic to add to their battle-might.

Erlornas: We must discover if this is so.

André Gomes: Information will do us no good if we are killed before we return with it! These mountains look like troll territory.

Erlornas: Enough. The sun's fully over the horizon. Give the order to advance.

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Anyway, I vaguely remember this map. We're going to put guys in these two directions. I think there are two bosses, maybe three, and they're roughly here. Let's go.

 

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Hey, nailed it on one pretty much. That's gotta lead to a boss.

 

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I was a bit off on the other, but that's life. Sometimes maps give you convenient things for your boss to cap on turn 1, then he can head back and recruit on turn 2.

 

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I was right on the first one, too.

 

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Blue guy shits out a promoted unit, which provides the best bestiary dump opportunity imaginable because all three tiers of melee troll are on screen.

 

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The troll melee line literally just gets bigger. They always, only, have tons of hit points, and Increasing Numbers x 2 impact hits. Regeneration gives them back +8 health every turn, or negates the effect of poison (or you can say poison negates regeneration). Beginning of turn heals don't stack, so that means they effectively cannot be healed and get nothing from standing on houses. They can spawn with fearless, which is very nice for the entirely-chaotic orcs faction. I really like trolls

 

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Anyway, it's getting dark and fighting trolls in the dark is death so it's time to make a bit of space. Our noble ranger managed to slam a bunch of damage into the unlucky tier 2 troll on the enemy phase, so let's get about it.

 

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Note the power of zones of control at work here. Our lad is completely screwed unless we come back him out.

 

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Dark falls and we manage to clear a good bit of space, even though our druid nearly bites it. That, for context, was one hit from the boss and one from the baby. If the tier 3 troll lands two hits in twilight, darkness, or while fearless, it's death for lots of units.

Oh, it's hard to tell, but the troll on the right has 8 xp. That's because he decided an entire full health archer was no longer allowed to live. Trolls are scary.

 

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We pin the boss in a great location, relatively. Enough damage into him and the AI won't risk dying on the counter and will instead limp off to try to summon more grist.

 

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Fuck's sake. That's RNG. Good news is he'll only heal 8 health and we can get him next turn.

 

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Fuck's sake.

 

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Anyway, he dies. Somehow, Erlornas knows we've nearly won after that. What a loser. We're only halfway done.

 

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Action shot! Someone nearly dies due to a sudden excursion from the other boss.

 

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Not only yikes, but also this guy was just about to promote. Time to retreat.

 

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At this point I went to take the next screenshot and looked over at my other monitor and caught Mbappé making a really silly face. I took that screenshot instead and decided to share it.

 

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Anyway, we pull the wounded out and pretty much secure the map. Poor guy.

 

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You can run, buddy. And you can punch that archer really fucking hard.

 

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But you can't hide. Time for a new promotion.

 

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Quote

Erlornas: It is well. Break camp and move everyone through the pass before they rally. We'll rest a bit on the other side; we have earned it.

André Gomes: At once. How much time do you think we have?

Erlornas: A day, perhaps. We fought two clans today; they won't take long to rally. We need to be gone from here by sunset next.

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Not pictured: victory in Wesnoth makes this really satisfying BUMbumBUMbumBUMbumBUMbumBUMbumBAAAAAAAAAA-NA sound.

 

Edited by Integrity
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The troll art is really nice but when I went digging to find who made it and if there's any more work being done on art RN I got to see how fucking inefficient the art dev process on Wesnoth is and highkey tilted out.

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19 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

The troll art is really nice but when I went digging to find who made it and if there's any more work being done on art RN I got to see how fucking inefficient the art dev process on Wesnoth is and highkey tilted out.

I think the dev process of Wesnoth is fast in most areas is pretty fast tbh. Art is just separate from the rest of the game because it's kind of a cult of personality. I have vivid memories of reading this List of things that the Wesnoth art director recommended that other Open Source game developers do to grow their project.

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7 hours ago, Integrity said:

Vbw03Gl6_o.png

The troll melee line literally just gets bigger. They always, only, have tons of hit points, and Increasing Numbers x 2 impact hits. Regeneration gives them back +8 health every turn, or negates the effect of poison (or you can say poison negates regeneration). Beginning of turn heals don't stack, so that means they effectively cannot be healed and get nothing from standing on houses. They can spawn with fearless, which is very nice for the entirely-chaotic orcs faction. I really like trolls

The most articulate way a troll would put it: "Why use many small thing when big thing do?"

Also, that art is pretty great for the lot of them. Shame that the armour doesn't increase the warrior's defences slightly.

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SOUTH GUARD 3

Spoiler

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Today, Deoran, a teenager, rails at his mid-40s advisors for being nerds.

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Come to think of it, that's another thing Wesnoth's good at; having old cunts show up. Tier 1 humans generally look in their mid-late 20s, and they're all weathered-looking motherfuckers.

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Our goal is to arrive at the castle a fair march northwest of this guy, and you can tell from the path we pretty much have a single path to get there.

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Start of turn 3 and hel-fucking-lo, who's this tall glass of water?

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So horsemen, terrifyingly, are what the loyalists consider to be light cavalry. Cavalrymen are proper heavy cavalry. Not too much cop at dealing damage, though at least it's with a blade - but they have a nice, chunky resistance against blade (30%) and impact (40%), though like all cavalry they're vulnerable to pierce (20%).

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Battle is joined at dusk, and starts with this skeleton getting fucking pulverised, along with a random bat that gunned it for base getting oneshot by Deoran.

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We march on. There's... really not much to say about this map. Beyond that I overrecruited, as usual.

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This guy decides his life is worth less than the opportunity to hurl three knives at Gerrick.

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You're my favourite, Moreth.

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I... don't think we ever actually covered bats, three of whom we wipe off the next turn. They're hateful little shits, with 60% defence everywhere (since, you know, flying) and a drain ability. At least they're pretty much only effective combatants at night, and they have no ZoC. It'd sure be annoying if you could just recruit a level 1 flier with drain, hey!! Also, I say everywhere, but actually thanks to the feral ability they have a lower defence - 50% - on villages.

The undead have the second-most obnoxious scout unit in the game. They also have the most obnoxious scout unit in the game. Thankfully, we're yet to see one.

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After a couple more turns schlepping to the exit, boom, elven bullshit.

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Oh, honey. He's trying.

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Ah, a shyde! The tier 3 elven healer. This one has a unique portrait, too.

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I like Deoran. He's just like, shit is fucked and the only way he knows is to fuckin slam his face into every issue he faces, and it works.

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"Iiiii wwwwooooould summon a kick-arse undead army and burn the forests and take over the world"

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So, when Wesnoth doesn't go full elf-wank, it actually goes have a good aesthetic for them going. Its elves feel properly alien, from the white eyes to the fae affinity, their unnatural ability to blend in with forests, even little details like 'the elven word for 'hero' more accurately translates to 'dude who has seen too much shit''. And they're angry little fuckbags who really just want to be left alone and solve their own problems.

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Basically, Wesnoth creates an environment in which 'you know what, fuck elves' really is the natural response, but it also makes sense that they do hold various useful eldritch knowledge, and are just too stubborn and conservative to do what has to be done with it.

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i told you about elves dog
i told you bro

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The marshal tires of this.

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I like the detail that the marshal tosses it over to Ethiliel... but only having clearly expected that Ethiliel would tell him and the boys to open fire.

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i'm sorry deoran what's that face

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

next up: tears

 

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THE SOUTH GUARD 4

Spoiler

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Whew, already at the halfwayish point of the South Guard!

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Alright, so yeah the elves let a fucking necromancer get into the peace love happy valley. This must be how San Francisco's residents feel about Facebook moving an office in.

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uh

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Alright, is it- is it the name? Did they already get to rename the joint? Also you'd better believe I'm gonna find out what happens if you let a human enter first.
 

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'Ineffective' my arse. Anyway, in the early runnings of the mission, I recruit probably too many cavalrymen and make my way into the heart of the map. Unless we do some damage while it's still light, we're set for an ugly night phase.

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But who's that jaunty fellow in the top right? And did we ever actually remember to introduce ghouls?

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There's not too much to say here, except that skeleton archers obviously excel in duels against meat archers. Except orcs! Another reason orcish archers are the best in the game.

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We've met ghouls. They sponge damage with a variety of mild resistances, dole out poison in response, but mostly they're just annoying. I don't rate them much.

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In the south, brigands are in our way - I hope to use the day to crush them, but miss all seven (!) attacks.

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The situation changes subtly but importantly next turn, as the rest of blue is... mostly dealt with. The random cavalry that drew off a skeleton archer in the north now goes for gold against the leader, while making certain to finish our opponents means risk is minimal - that archer's slowed by Ethiliel, minimising its threat. In the south, the brigands... can't really scratch our cavalry, as Moreth tries and fails to steal kills.

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As night falls - Christ, this cavalryman's earned his corn. We're going to have to be brave, with this.

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First, land that slow. We get lucky and it lands first-time.

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Thennnnn uhhhh just kinda sit here awkwardly

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In the south, we try and dislodge some of these guys and hopefully kill the hey who's that pokemon

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Poachers are really good. Okay, so they have less raw attack power than... any other archer we've seen. But they pepper reliably with four shots, they're cheap like bowmen and have slightly better resistances, and, best of all? They promote very, very quickly. The poacher promotions are kind of underwhelming individually - they're kind of more like Tier 1.75s and 2.5s - but they get there fast.

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This guy croaks, predictably.

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She has bodyguards??

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They're smug fucks, predictably. But, yeah, three elven ranger homies show up. All named, uhm, Elven Bodyguard.

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Squeaky bum time in the south. Jarek barely makes it with three health.

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Ethiliel switches to thorns, and we finish things this turn.

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In the south, Jarek books it to safety and this guy takes his place. Our first spear promote this campaign!

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He's strong, and I bias this to where it'll make marginally more difference, with the four attacks of the swordsman (pikemen get three). I really like swordsmen. They attack a lot, do chunky damage, have a lot of HP and some slight 20% resistance to blade and impact damage. They're really solid men-of-the-line. I love their art, too - just a really solid, stoic brick of dude.

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MORETH NO

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oh god
He actually survived that thanks to first strike. The outlaw fucked him up hard, the poacher peppered him with shots and the thug... ran into his spear and died.

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Sounds like a great excuse to show off pikemen! I like them a lot, too, but the differences between them and swordsmen really explain themselves. They're also 40% resistant to piercing, instead of 20% to blade and impact. Both nice to have. They also both promote fairly quickly. I slightly prefer swordsmen, but a balance of both helps out against a variety of opponents.

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Hey, let's show this guy what we've learned! Swag gets a little overenthusiastic and kills him himself, though.

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Ice cold, Swag. Ice fuckin' cold.

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Quit whining, Ufes, it literally has two health left. Myssh finishes it off instead. And with that, the map's done and dusted. Let's see what happens if we fuck up with visiting Mebrin!

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Nothing. Infuriatingly, neither Jarek nor the random elf bodyguard trigger any event at all, though they do automatically move off the village when the next turn starts for some reason.

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But nobody came.

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Yeah, I figure it's probably the only other antagonistic force.

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The writing quality might not be the best in the world, but it's still nice to see the human suspicion of Elven Bullshit.

Next time: Meaningful decisions.
 

 

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Parrhesia, are you working with an earlier version? I ask because this map looks mighty different in 1.14.

8 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

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She has bodyguards??

I'm now trying to figure out how I triggered this event.

8 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

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Ice cold, Swag. Ice fuckin' cold.

Sir Catch-Hands of the noble house of No Fucks, everyone.

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You don't survive Wesnoth. You just throw enough units as a sacrifice to the dice gods until you beat the map, because FE6's RNG is back and here to screw you.

Good to see some Wesnoth love. I almost mistook Orcish Incursion with the other campaign (fan? promoted to official) where you start against three Tier 3 Orc commanders and it spares no time before kicking you in the balls.

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