Parrhesia and Integrity's Guide to Surviving Wesnoth

[BrightBow]

Mermen Brawlers are such a headache. I mean, it's nice if your citizens level up during the map and all. But I see little need to recall a lv1 unit to deal impact damage when I can just recruit another Initiate for less cost and with the prospect of potentially becoming a powerful healer and Arcane magic user.

Netcasters are of course nice but leveling a Mermen Hunter up against undead is not easy.

Edited May 7, 2019 by BrightBow

[Punished Dayni]

4 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Cylanna is our friend. From memory, initiate promotions are like many other mage lines; they have a dedicated healer and a dedicated DPS. Priestesses are healers. Their art is lovely.

Even lovelier they have impact and arcane.

4 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Krellis is not yet our friend. In fact, he's lightly fucking terrible. Promoting him to tier 1 is our highest priority.

That art seems like he's a bit older than his sprite.

4 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Citizens are I guess, reluctantly, our grist. Note they can promote into brawlers; they're campaign-only, like citizens themselves. Citizens are appallingly bad at everything and the more that die, the merrier.

Ouch. They're likely to be undead if they do, you don't want that.

This aside, this kind of class is why I want to look into the modding scene to see if there's a proper merfaction.

4 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

He summons new pokemon! Variants. Alola Forms, at least.

I think variants works here.

Also, Kevak is yet another necromancer bitch who thinks Malin Keshar is an example to follow.

Don't go full Malin.

4 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Aqua-zombies have art I Really Don't Like (TM) in the best way. Unsurprisingly, your man recruits a ton of them. Helpfully, this lessens the need for impact damage to reign supreme! Their advantage over regular meat zombies is they're good in water and have 20% cold resist. That said, their good movement in water is... still only four tiles. And they're worse over flat land, too.

Yeah, water zombies are like other zombies.

They just are concerning if they start killing of low health units rather than being scary in their own right.

4 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Spot what's wrong with this image.

20 and 18 melee only damage?

4 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

If you didn't, neither did Ike, so don't feel too bad.

It's not that this is a bad tier 1. In the context of a campaign against undead, they're better than fighters (6x3 pierce, -2 HP). It's that there's no tier 2. Stun is unique to brawlers, as far as I'm aware, and makes an enemy lose their ZoC. But not even being able to get to tier 2 is... brutal.

I want impact damage, but I'd rather get it through netcasters. Accordingly, Njoroa becomes a hunter. Unintelligent citizens who fluke into a promotion get to be brawlers, not an intelligent guy on map-fucking-one.

I missed it.

Also yeah, how would T2 be improved on? Just more damage, because I have a feeling a bolas option would be too similar to netcaster.

4 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

A ghost yeets out.

You know what would have been funny? If his corpse then became a skeleton or soulless and you had to fight that while he flies off.

[Parrhesia]

DEAD WATER 2: The return home. What do you mean, we never left?

Spoiler

And I guess that's confirmation we can recruit tier 1s. It turned out to be a fine restriction for the first map, but over the course of 10? Yeah, that'd get tiring, fast.

Oh, hey. We're bac-

Wesnoth's jokes have been pretty fucking terrible thus far. This was a mild snort of amusement. Comedy gold, by comparison to shit like the sea orc.

But anyway, we're back, defending a home ground map in quick succession against numerically superior opposition, I-

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Um. That was weird. Felt the strangest sense of deja-vu...

Seems sensible so far.

Hm. Interesting. Defeating all in 22 turns with tier 1 troops is... optimistic! Very optimistic. But it's kind of an all or nothing thing.

I wish I'd managed to get Krellis One more experience last map. This'd make this a lot easier; I could just yeet northwest.

It's a skeletal general.

Alright. I've decided on the Plan.

The Plan is to fucking book it southwest and kill orange, and as soon as Krellis gets a kill, move to escape. I've trained two garrisons worth. Orange appears to only train tier 0s, white and cyan have fiercer opposition.

There's no longer a compelling reason to name Everyone, but here we are anyway.

I... wasn't expecting them to promote Krellis of their own volition, with no chance of success, but, sure.

Solidly mediocre. Spearman damage with a better type but no first strike or javelin. Any predictions the tier 2 will continue with the 'these are exactly who listens to this man' theme?

Well, he hangs around long enough for his Jagen to set up a kill, and for him to capitalise.

We clean house. The three enemy factions have baaaasically run out of gold.

I think the huge extra gold we'll get is worth more than the heartache we'll get trying to fight a lich. And we have no answers to ghosts, and not many to skeletons. But it's worth noting their forces have seriously dispersed.

We push on.

And on. The terrain and night make this difficult, btu we don't have the luxury of waiting around, not with the ghosts approaching. Krellis is ready to leave the moment we're done here.

OH YEAH NIGHTSTALK EXISTS FUCK

You know, I'm not convinced that the boss kill objective isn't a trap in its entirety...

Guess I should... probably have one spearman, shouldn't I...

Spearmen are comically bad in close combat, but they're serviceable archers. The issue is that burners have... 7x2 melee, 6x4 ranged, and two more HP. Being aquatic at all carries a heavy premium.

You know... in fact... yeah, fuck it. Hanging around long enough to cap the necromancer would obliterate our forces.

Interestingly, the mermaid DPS wizard seems... apart from seven more HP and levelling significantly faster, almost strictly inferior to the priestess. 9x1 instead of 5x3 staff, 14x2 impact instead of 6x4 arcane... like... what? Anyway, Varanna Iron Bodice becomes a priestess. I'll make an enchantress next anyway, though.

Discretion is extremely the better part of valour here.

Kind of underwhelming as a map, honestly. But eh, Dead Water's got credit in the bank. And even though the win con is kinda out of nowhere, I approve of it.

 

[Punished Dayni]

5 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Solidly mediocre. Spearman damage with a better type but no first strike or javelin. Any predictions the tier 2 will continue with the 'these are exactly who listens to this man' theme?

T2 will mention that the more hardened mermen will still look at him as a meek boy rather than their king.

5 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Spearmen are comically bad in close combat, but they're serviceable archers. The issue is that burners have... 7x2 melee, 6x4 ranged, and two more HP. Being aquatic at all carries a heavy premium.

12 and 24 is really not that good, is it?

5 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

You know... in fact... yeah, fuck it. Hanging around long enough to cap the necromancer would obliterate our forces.

Interestingly, the mermaid DPS wizard seems... apart from seven more HP and levelling significantly faster, almost strictly inferior to the priestess. 9x1 instead of 5x3 staff, 14x2 impact instead of 6x4 arcane... like... what? Anyway, Varanna Iron Bodice becomes a priestess. I'll make an enchantress next anyway, though.

Why are merfolk so mistreated?

[Parrhesia]

I feel like there's kind of an unofficial concept of the 'tier 1.5' in Wesnoth. Trappers, for one, are inferior to like every other tier 2 archer, but their main utility is that a poacher almost immediately promotes into one - in multiplayer, an intelligent poacher promotes in just 16 XP. And I feel like all the mermen are in the same boat... which works, when they're just an aquatic complement to a main land force. They make up for their individual weakness by performing well in terrain where almost everyone else struggles. But when all you have are mermen, the fact that they're a pretty bland faction that takes a while to level, is mostly pierce-based, entirely lawful and lacks... I mean, anything, really. Godawful tier 0, slightly inferior spearman, slightly inferior bowman and ... frankly, initiates are terrible, and that's your lot. The mainline faction with the least variety is the orcs, and even they have options - goblins are hugely cost-efficient damage but made of glass, grunts and troll whelps are both meaty melee tanks, wolf riders are scouts who grow into capable fighters with a really interesting pillager option, archers offer chunky pierce and a surprisingly powerful fire option and also level really quickly, and assassins are annoying pieces of shit. The loyalists have ten units.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Parrhesia

[BrightBow]

If you defeat the Necromander, you get a ring and a Vampire Bat. If you defeat the Dead Knight you get gold and a zombie bat. And if you defeat the Lich, you get a Dread Bat. All of the bats are Loyal and will automatically be recalled, so you don't have to pay for them. The Dread Bat is also special in that it has more traits then they can normally get. In addition to being Feral and Loyal it also has the Resilient and Strong traits.

I did actually beat all three of them on the first try. And I didn't even plan to. It just turned out to be a perfectly doable objective as a tried to level up the young Kai. He didn't see any combat in the first map because you got so much money in the first one that I figured his time would be better spent recruiting people, so I couldn't just immediately escape.

I did rely mostly on citizen and Initiates for this. Initiates are just perfect for the job. Ranged impact damage and if they survive long enough they become priestesses, which you can never have enough of in a campaign against the undead.

Edited May 9, 2019 by BrightBow

[Parrhesia]

DEAD WATER 3: Patch notes, save the day

Spoiler

Now THERE'S a map name.

You know, the goblin aesthetic in Wesnoth is great.

*annoyed vrunt*

This is... extremely filler, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. For one, this is honestly a stand-out pretty map.

Wolves are, like, the ultimate basic cavalry. In fa-

I-

I'm gonna repost a bestiary entry.

The entire influence of the rider part of the wolf rider is the alignment. HP, movement, attack, resistance, cost, trait selection... identical. Amazing.

So yeah wolves are neutral wolf riders who can't promote.

They... they have a unique sprite for when they're keeping their snouts above water. Wolves rule.

Anyway, you probably get the gist of the map. This happens in the north, and in the south...

... I guess the gimmick of the map?

Great wolves are, unfortunately, measurably shitter than goblin knights. They do get that extra movement point, though.

Milau deletes a wolf.

I haven't fully gotten to grips with the merman roster so far. Mostly because its units are really, really unimpressive.

Huh. Didn't expect monster infighting, though it wasn't actually hidden; it's the other tab of the status table, I just didn't check. Anyway, they eat this guy.

They waste their energy on each other before sending out a single pillager south, and a couple riders north. Quick terrain primer: shallows are like the 'neutral' terrain in a situation like this; aquatic units treat it as low water, ground units as flatlands. The reefs are our defensive terrain; we get 70%, the enemy gets 30%. Low water is 60%/20%. High water is 50%/impassable. Mermen are 30% on basically all flat terrain, whether or not it's natural cover, and it costs 2 move.

And sand is not safe for either of us. Insert your own prequel meme here, you ingrates are all thinking it. So, along with being pretty, this map is pretty obviously teaching us about using our terrain. We'd get torn to shreds on land.

We kill the two riders. The pillager in the south... not much we can do at night.

Except for one hunter, we weather the storm! It's fucking Experience Christmas right here. Shame it's still night, but this is gonna be a fucking bloodbath.

Kinda hilariously - or maybe I'm just easily amused - the best counter to pillagers is... our own nets.

Actually Laseira's label is inaccurate, this wolf's on shallows, but his resilience proves a serious thorn in my side.

You know, fuck spearmen anyway. They don't even have animations. We lose a hunter on top of that who was close to promoting to Not Fucking Spearman.

Despite some very annoying misses, the fact is we've still completed the pivotal moment in any Wesnoth melee; the overlap.

Fuck this merman. He's eaten 16 of my XP only to die here.

Krellis brains the leader and... ends the map with no fanfare.

I was right about his T2 description! Positives: 8x4 damage is swordsman tier. He's a proper player now. Also he gets an awesome new portrait which looks like a secondary character from the Marabharata. So, yeah, I'm pleased with feeding him this kill. As discussed with Kalenz; better to promote leadership units early, before they're surrounded by guys who won't actually benefit from their leadership.

Our finances are... not healthy. I didn't over-recruit, either! Everyone saw combat, and there could've been some serious disasters with fewer hands on deck.

We arguably enter next map worse than we were at this stage. But... hey, we got Krellis up another step.

Postscript:

wait a minute,,

???

???

Well, this is the version we keep. The spearman survives, and the experience gets distributed a little better, but otherwise it's little different - it's from a late save where there was a very slim chance Krellis could die.

 

[Punished Dayni]

15 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

Wolves are, like, the ultimate basic cavalry. In fa-

I-

I'm gonna repost a bestiary entry.

The entire influence of the rider part of the wolf rider is the alignment. HP, movement, attack, resistance, cost, trait selection... identical. Amazing.

So yeah wolves are neutral wolf riders who can't promote.

I mean, they're not going to improve their bite by having a rider. 

15 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

They... they have a unique sprite for when they're keeping their snouts above water. Wolves rule.

I mean they're still ravenous and likely to hurt you, but just look at how cute that is!

15 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

Great wolves are, unfortunately, measurably shitter than goblin knights. They do get that extra movement point, though.

Why not 6x4 for them? It'd still be fine honestly.

17 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

I was right about his T2 description! Positives: 8x4 damage is swordsman tier. He's a proper player now. Also he gets an awesome new portrait which looks like a secondary character from the Marabharata. So, yeah, I'm pleased with feeding him this kill. As discussed with Kalenz; better to promote leadership units early, before they're surrounded by guys who won't actually benefit from their leadership.

He'll at least do more damage than his subjects against the skeletons :P

18 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

Well, this is the version we keep. The spearman survives, and the experience gets distributed a little better, but otherwise it's little different - it's from a late save where there was a very slim chance Krellis could die.

Are there any others in this campaign?

[Parrhesia]

Not as far as I'm aware, though I wouldn't be surprised and will now be on the lookout for them. The LP's actually up to date at this point, I'll have to play through map 4 tomorrow. There are some spicy pickups to look forward to there, though...

[Parrhesia]

DEAD WATER 4: If Jozy scores we riot

Spoiler

The trend of unremarkable map titles continues.

Okay, don't get me wrong, I love his new portrait, but this is gonna make every calm-sounding line unintentionally hilarious. "AAAAA THERE ARE CAGES ON THE SHORE AAAAAA I WONDER WHY !!!"

Yes! Brawler! Loyal brawler, at that.

"AAAA WHAT IS HAPPENING AAA"

Krellis is absolutely gonna brain a cunt now!

Specifically this one!

I'd call William Tecumseh Merman's March to the North a lot of things, such as 'correct', but not... kindhearted.

This makes me curious, so I save at the start of turn 1 and go back to a safety save late last level. Krellis' level has already been relevant once, so maybe this sets him to level 2.

It doesn't. Which is probably for the best.

Anyway, for this map we just gotta move north.

... Wait, is that-

A poacher? And a burner, in the south? Ohh, this should be good.

One difference in the New Storm Trident timeline is that we have an enchantress now, I guess. Sirens had better be fucking amazing given that this class is, other than XP to level and HP, inferior to priestesses in every way.

Ike - Today at 12:35 AM
hm.
28 potential damage on a streaky damage type or 24 potential damage on an almost universally unresisted damage type, plus healing

Parrhesia - Today at 12:36 AM
,
anyway that's the story of how i thought 6x4 = 12x2

Ike - Today at 12:37 AM
nice

Almost every way.

In daylight.

"sir your body language is giving me mixed signals"

Works for me.

Alright, let's do this. Our spearman is back.

Enemy phase is pretty restrained. And then it's dawn...

Not quite time, yet.

We nudge at their edges, they push back. And now it's daybreak...

Before...

... and after. 21 units show up, and they are largely terrible.

I'm feeling charitable to enchantresses and their impact damage, and make a second one of Catea.

Fun saurian fact; they take 20% extra damage against fire.

So. Who's ready for some motherfucking SLAVE RIOOOOOTSSSSS

YEAH oh god. They go from 21 units to, uhm, nine. But all three faction leaders get flushed out, in the end.

We capitalise - Scyteus gets the promotion he 'got' in the first run of last map.

And we hold our ground in both north and east, hoping the slaves will buy us just a little more time. The citizens proved especially useful last time murdering augurs.

Okay, not More effective. That's my XP you're playing with!

Inexplicably, this peasant lives. Six more go down, though.

Catea is a sitting duck, but I needed that kill.

Then... I get overeager. This move is great, 49% of the time. Unfortunately, it's 51% of the time, and I can't back it up.

mmmyeah I fucked that. Let's roll back the turn.

Now instead of stretching ourselves too thin and leaving a wizard in open cover, we have a warrior who can take a few shots.

Better still, we can actually back it up, sweeping this little pod off the board.

This guy actually promotes into a fighter.

We leave them a fighter on flat terrain as a patsy.

Alas. With this guy, house peasant and the random ruffian on the bridge, the slave riot has ended in, uh, total annihilation. But it's given the map a lot of character, and given us a lot of breathing room and move to maneuvre.

Hell yes.

"It started when this dame walks into my office..."

I cut out a couple of very generic lines.

Gwabbo's not wrong. Burners and saurians hard-counter one another - at night, an adjusted 7x4 melee damage will shred him.

For all that? YOLO

Otherwise, I play it pretty safe. It's night, and that's a dangerous fucking time. But we get a triton!

Oh, you'll have to do better than that.

Trades to Extremely Not Take

Oh, this is a terrible idea.

One we pull off. We kill everything here.

Then graduate to killing everything here.

Aaaand now it's full daylight and the flanker has come down to us.

Flare is a viable option, for leadership and better melee, but to be honest? It's the one source of fire we have, trident aside, and we need more ranged options.

This bow I got here was first purchased by my great-grandfather during the Heir to the Throne campaign. It was bought in a little general store in Elensefar. Made by the first company to ever make shortbows. Up till then people just carried longbows. It was bought by bowman Big Time Siddry on the day he set sail for the islands. It was my great-grandfather’s war shortbow and he used it every day he was in that war. When he had done his duty, he went home to my great-grandmother, put the bow down, put it in an old coffee can, and in that can it stayed until my granddad Sex Machine Siddry was called upon by his country to go overseas and fight the skeletons once again. This time they called it the South Guard campaign. My great-grandfather gave this bow to my granddad for good luck. Unfortunately, Sex Machine's luck wasn’t as good as his old man’s. Sex Machine was a poacher and he was killed, along with the other poachers, at the battle of the Pebbles in the Flood. My granddad was facing death, he knew it. None of those boys had any illusions about ever leaving that map alive. So three days before the skeletons took the island, your granddad asked a cavalryman heading north name of Aethyflyryyn, a man he had never met before in his life, to deliver to his infant son, who he’d never seen in the flesh, his bow. Three days later, my granddad was dead. But Aethyflyryyn kept his word. After the war was over, he paid a visit to my grandmother, delivering to my infant father, his dad’s short bow. This bow... this bow was in my daddy’s hands when he was capsized over these swamps. He was captured, put in a prison camp. He knew if the lizards ever saw the bow it’d be confiscated, taken away. The way my dad looked at it, that bow was my birthright. He’d be damned if any snakes were gonna put their scaly green hands on his boy’s birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide something; his ass. Five long years, he had this bow up his ass. Then he died of dysentery, but I'd been captured in the raids myself by then, so he gave me the bow. I hid this uncomfortable plank of hickory up my ass two years. Then, after seven years, you blue motherfuckers show up. And now, little man, I pledge the bow to you.

Temporarily.

Extremely temporarily.

Post-script: I'm curious about what's in the northwestern shipwreck. 100 gold. I could've been more curious sooner and sent a guy that way earlier on, but it's not worth rerouting now.

Anyway, I damn well aced that map. And our finances are healthy again.

 

[Punished Dayni]

9 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

This guy actually promotes into a fighter.

The arena wouldn't break him.

This he swore.

9 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Thanks for being a friend I guess.

[BrightBow]

Worst slave liberation ever. They all went from slaves to the Saurians to cannon fodder for the mermen. It was a really fun map though.

I'm impressed you managed to get that drake leveled up here. Considering those Saurians pack nothing but pierce and cold, I didn't find an opportunity for him to do anything.

[Parrhesia]

Dead Water is genuinely just shaping up to be a really good campaign.

[epilepsyduck]

I'd kinda stopped playing Wesnoth before this campaign came out but now I'm wishing I'd stuck around for it. Never realized how much I wanted a campaign focusing on someone other than one of the "main" factions.

[BrightBow]

It's kinda strange. Despite Drakes and Saurians being part of the same faction in multiplayer, in-universe they don't seem to be allied in any way. The in-game guide also doesn't mention any connection between the two as far as I can tell.

[Integrity]

hey

Spoiler

This will not be a passionate update. In fact, it will be fairly short and uninspiring, and was certainly not worth the wait.

 

We crossed the river. The seasons are changing! This is a pivotal moment in the narrative.

 

Welcome to the possibly most filler chapter in the entire campaign.

 

I dunno, we're pretty fat for money.

 

who

 

So let's summarize real quick:

We're chasing the ultimate artifact, barely keeping ahead of the people who are also chasing it. If they reach it first, the campaign is over, that's it, we're done.

We're wintering here.

 

I'm actually with Kalenz here!

Anyway, Northern Winter, the most generically named map, is pointlessly huge and has no real defining gimmicks besides being huge and limiting your mobility. There are two orc leaders, they recruit standard orc faire except also ogres.

 

There isn't really a tactical or strategic puzzle to solve here - every couple turns, more snow falls, limiting your mobility more, but the turn limit is 40 so you never really feel the pressure.

 

Two guys wide to get houses, everyone else just Goes Up.

 

Grunts, wolf riders, ogres, trolls, archers.

 

I tragically forget about the second front entirely and choose to open it up with just Kalenz. No idea how this happened.

 

The funny thing about the map gimmick is that limiting mobility actually empowers me, since my guys are qualitatively better man for man.

 

This is when I realize that Kalenz is being left to open the right front alone.

 

Have I mentioned I really don't like ogres? They're just a little too overtuned for a unit the enemy can just straight recruit.

 

He says, employing a force comprised of chiefly tier 2-3s.

 

Ouch! This front is basically mopped up though, there's only scattered reinforcements on the way.

 

He gets his comeuppance pretty soon after.

 

For some reason, this wolf decides to promote the thief to his ultimate rank.

 

I don't know if we've had ASSASSINS yet, but here they are. 16x3 skirmishers as long as you can set up the backstab, which isn't difficult. The knives they learned at tier 2 learn how to poison. Assassins are quite good, but not easy to create due to thieves/rogues' habit of exploding.

 

The state of us, turn like 7/40. North has devolved into eating blue's one unit a turn and crunching down green's expeditionary force. East still has Kalenz the most advanced, but there were about three other wolves that died offstage trying to swarm the houses.

 

The mighty far eastern front finally has contact!

 

Our fat friend Mormemiru promotes off the guy who promoted the assassin!

 

Due reminder that he keeps his sword. Look at those God-damned attack numbers. Next time we fight undead, this guy is gonna clean up shop.

 

Blue's just dregs now. I'm detaching a small force to go kill the boss, who doesn't have a ranged attack.

 

We're a quarter of the way through the turn limit and staring down one of the two bosses while outnumbering and outqualitying the other front. Shut up, nerd.

 

Moremirmu can now just obliterate people whenever, and also makes things lighter for himself and for my many horsemen. Gotta be a little careful using him with my criminals, but that's pretty minor.

 

Action shot!

 

State of it at full darkness. You'll notice that there... aren't enemies.

 

This troll is really the final threat, since I'm autopiloting things and let him get on good terrain.

 

Konrad asserts his dominance.

 

Green.

 

Green.

 

Green't.

 

Sixteen turns, took the entire map in a turn or two after this, rocking more gold than when we came in, zero casualties, multiple promotions.

 

The only reason this takes as long as it does is because our boys have movement of like 3-4 through snow forest. It sucks.

 

Manage to promote a criminal off the boss!

 

Yeah, so we just stop and chill here for like two months. Gryphlets is an adorable word. There's some, uh, more interesting maps coming up at least! I don't remember if they're actually good, but our unit pool will expand!

 

[BrightBow]

Man Gelgar. Try not to point a knife at people while making a request.

[Punished Dayni]

6 hours ago, Integrity said:

I don't know if we've had ASSASSINS yet, but here they are. 16x3 skirmishers as long as you can set up the backstab, which isn't difficult. The knives they learned at tier 2 learn how to poison. Assassins are quite good, but not easy to create due to thieves/rogues' habit of exploding.

For some reason, I really do not like the sprite.

Also their tendency to explode, but whatever. And yes, that backstab's nice if you get it.

6 hours ago, Integrity said:

Due reminder that he keeps his sword. Look at those God-damned attack numbers. Next time we fight undead, this guy is gonna clean up shop.

50 and 45.

Those are some amazing numbers, when will we get Mr Dummy Thicc as a main lord?

[BrightBow]

I love that due to his "Illuminate" skill, he powers himself up.

[Parrhesia]

DEAD WATER 5: Hotel Hell

Spoiler

Alright, then.

And we're presented with... I must say, another very visually interesting map.

I like this guy.

Uhhh, yeah, sure, that'll fly.

To be fair, if you hypothetically had an AirBNB, and someone brought an army of ghosts after them, would you let them stage that fight in your house?

Hm. Alright. Very interesting map. And our economy survival is going to count on killing Marg-Tonz, since I'm not seeing us getting any villages otherwise.

This is the north of the map. It's a small map.

Our unit choice... is pretty obvious. All our wizards, the triton, and the trident guy.

And then we alpha-strike. Fuck you, orcs! Better to let them use their gold early than save.

Adorably, a crew of grunts sweeps out of this house, dismantles the keep, then returns home.

Oh, hey, and new pokemon. Orcish arbalests, the third-tier. They're really good!

This movement range is key. Ghosts can't move well over sea. That. Rhymed?

And so we can advance in relative safety. Fighting on the 60% would be sort of optimal... but then the orcs would rush us.

Gwabbo promotes! Into the unwieldy 'entangler'. The damage is underwhelming, but three chances to slow? Meaty. That said, each individual net actually does a little less damage. Kind of a faux pas, Wesnoth design does this really rarely.

Meanwhile, putting the brawler on shallows means the orcs start to move... against the ghosts, in practice. Teeloa punches a ghost.

Slowing the undead is incredibly powerful. Krellis gets SO much XP.

Orcish archers PULVERISE ghosts.

And the ghosts would rather kill 20% evade orcs than 50% evade mermen.

Suddenly it all comes together. One heavy magical melee attack is surprisingly capable of fucking up someone going for blood, and might just save her life. And 15x3 is very, very competitive - Great Magi get 12x4, though it's a better damage type, but they aren't aquatic and require an insane amount of XP to get to.

The portents remain good. Triton's basically out of the fight, though.

I lied.

Upon the last ghost falling, we can still cut and run. But what of our early finish bonus?

Even Teeloa gets to punch a man to death. Enemy phase... isn't much to speak of, they can't move well on the terrain.

We destroy them. Oh, hey, and look who promoted! Also, a thing I didn't notice about Krellis - since tier 2, he's actually gotten physical resist - 30% blade, 20% pierce, 10% impact. Only 20 blade and 10 impact, last tier. Now he's someting of a juggernaut. A very satisfying lord line.

Guys. This is not gonna end profitably.

Hahahahha. Fuck. Yes. Remember the inferno drake. Remember the inferno drake's 82 health and 8x6 ranged damage. Keshan is a motherfucking juggernaut.

Time to hand out a one-star Yelp review.

What a fucking legend.

Nice! And also, Cylanna promotes! So does storm trident guy, into hoplite. It's a no-brainer. a) I don't plan on making any others, so he's finally visually distinct. b) he's tankier and does less melee damage, except he'll never use melee damage.

Funnily enough, since the trident doesn't scale up, the most potential storm trident damage is... level 1, stacking with leadership.

This is Cylanna now. Most crucially, she illuminates. She's very much the Mer-mage of Light, complete with chunky (40%) arcane resist. Initiates are very much an Est class lineit seems.

A great map, one we dominated.

 

[Punished Dayni]

2 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Uhhh, yeah, sure, that'll fly.

Like the ghosts?

I mean, when's the last time you had to invite an armed force being chased by vengeful spirits into your bay? Would your kindness not be rewarded?

2 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Hm. Alright. Very interesting map. And our economy survival is going to count on killing Marg-Tonz, since I'm not seeing us getting any villages otherwise.

Too many ghosts.

2 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Adorably, a crew of grunts sweeps out of this house, dismantles the keep, then returns home.

"We asked you to get out!"

2 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Oh, hey, and new pokemon. Orcish arbalests, the third-tier. They're really good!

Thee are scarier than you think based on the numbers.

2 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Gwabbo promotes! Into the unwieldy 'entangler'. The damage is underwhelming, but three chances to slow? Meaty. That said, each individual net actually does a little less damage. Kind of a faux pas, Wesnoth design does this really rarely.

But why?

24 and less than 24 is really not that good damage though.

2 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Suddenly it all comes together. One heavy magical melee attack is surprisingly capable of fucking up someone going for blood, and might just save her life. And 15x3 is very, very competitive - Great Magi get 12x4, though it's a better damage type, but they aren't aquatic and require an insane amount of XP to get to.

It's a T3, that 45's not half bad.

Ranged Impact will be nice if the undead come back though (Freeing up the priestesses for ghosts)

2 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Upon the last ghost falling, we can still cut and run. But what of our early finish bonus?

So you don't get it if you don't aonny the orcs?

That's a shame.

2 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

We destroy them. Oh, hey, and look who promoted! Also, a thing I didn't notice about Krellis - since tier 2, he's actually gotten physical resist - 30% blade, 20% pierce, 10% impact. Only 20 blade and 10 impact, last tier. Now he's someting of a juggernaut. A very satisfying lord line.

This is the fish guy she tells you not to worry about.

2 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

Time to hand out a one-star Yelp review.

This, I like this.

Some spitfire urns must have been in that review.

2 hours ago, Parrhesia said:

This is Cylanna now. Most crucially, she illuminates. She's very much the Mer-mage of Light, complete with chunky (40%) arcane resist. Initiates are very much an Est class lineit seems.

That's alright, though I wish the got 9x4 instead of 8, they can never have reduced attack which is cool actually.

[Parrhesia]

DEAD WATER 6: The old man and the sea serpent

Spoiler

You know a thing that's good about Dead Water, as we crest the halfway mark? Simplicity of focus. We are on a pilgrimage north; this is the story of how we get to the place we are going.

And,
that's
one hell of a cold open.

Oh, shit! It's a ranger, with some of my favourite art in the game!

Here we go. Blatant filler? Yeah, obviously. But I don't fucking care if the premise is that a crazy outlaw is sending his pet cuttlefish to murder us.

:)

Ahh, and these. Are a thing. A pretty weak and terrible thing. They're easily cut down by blades, resistant to impact and cold.

This guy honestly has some of the most atmospheric art in the game. This guy is 100% the guy you pay to take you through some Dark Shit, and get you out alive, but only because the money's good. They're one of the options for tier 3 of poacher -> trapper; the other's a more dedicated archer. But neither's a very good class... in isolation. Rangers do move through forests and hills freely, and take 60% cover in each. Now, does that compare favourably to the avenger's 8x4 blade/10x4 bow, with ambush? No, it doesn't. But by the time you've sunk 44 + 90 = 134 XP into promoting an avenger, you've promoted a 29 + 65 = 94 ranger with room for another 29 trapper on top of that. Keep in mind the immense utility (via the full heal) of promotion in and of itself!

Status tells us he has basically infinite money... but can only spend on two guys at a turn.

So I feel pretty good about just two sets of guys, leaving our sirens and triton at home.

First blood.

Alright, this ain't so bad.

uhhh

On the bright side, this absolutely has the coolest art in the game. Despite being basically a bigger water serpent, water serpents don't promote into them; however, unlike water serpents, sea serpents don't poison. They do have strong resistances, though, to impact, blade and especially cold.

I guess spearmen just don't want to be fed experience. Anyway, as per the norm, murdering the enemy here means fewer of them are alive to murder us. The cuttlefish especially cannot be allowed to melee anyone.

At least we've slowed one fish and killed both serpents, who have been really unlucky and failed to poison anyone so far. We slip a fighter into where this gap opens up.

They smack away at us. But now it's nightfall, and I actually do want to retreat; at least as far as better cover.

Serpents continue to miss. The other cuttlefish joins in, but the tentacles can't make it across.

MERMAN vs MERWILD

After a certain level of net-based persuasion, cuttlefish fucking suck at fighting.

Unfortunately, one netcaster decides to miss both his nets. His 25% double-fail combined with the sea serpent's 25% double-hit deletes Fjoroa off the face of the planet. Elaborate scheme from Fata?

Well, we punch back.

They punch back... weaker.

Keshan finally gets a chance to fuck a cunt up, and not killing a cuttlefish is the best he accomplishes. Ah, well. We get a diviner, and nearly level up the worthless spearman Milau.

And then fully level up the worthless javelineer Milau.

Take a master bowman and make him terrible and you have a javelineer. Better still, take a strong, dextrous elven marksman, remove the actual marksman trait, hurl on some HP and you have a javelineer. Unfortunately, as far as ranged DPS goes, it's what we've got.

Shit. I didn't anticipate a bat swooping in from nowhere to kill this worthless fighter, and now we've lost both our netcasters. The first was bad luck, but this was just a misplay. Maybe I shouldn't've skimped on a third wave of recruits after all.

Oh well, Keshan's Sick Deeps does the job.

This is... a really ugly player phase, but it's what we've got.

Everyone's poisoned, nobody's dead, and finally Gorloff leaves a recruit space open.

Aaand we sweep the board, at last.

Ohh, tiny bat. You could have had your life, escaped to cap some village, but noooo. Instead you figured you'd do this.

Scyteus lives on his one hit point.

And lives long enough to get wevenge.mp4. Oh, yeah, and when cuttlefish get fucked up badly enough... note his number of attacks now.

The issue with how I pause to do screenshots is, uh, that if a fight's happening in the far northwest... this is as far as I can go.

Compelling counterargument.

HOLY SHIT WHAT, YES

WHAT THE FUCK, NO, YES, OF COURSE WE DO

YES

THANK YOU INSANE RIVER HERMIT

oh my god he promotes. also he's healthy which is insanely good, always regenerates +2, very useful for, you know, him, but oh my god

dead water is good

 

[Punished Dayni]

58 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

Oh, shit! It's a ranger, with some of my favourite art in the game!

This can only end poorly.

58 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

:)

Scuttle Scuttle Scuttle,

Y'aint ready for cuttle.

58 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

Ahh, and these. Are a thing. A pretty weak and terrible thing. They're easily cut down by blades, resistant to impact and cold.

I assume that this is more powerful in a more..... dirty storyline.

58 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

On the bright side, this absolutely has the coolest art in the game. Despite being basically a bigger water serpent, water serpents don't promote into them; however, unlike water serpents, sea serpents don't poison. They do have strong resistances, though, to impact, blade and especially cold.

I kind of wish it had lightning powers looking at it.

58 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

After a certain level of net-based persuasion, cuttlefish fucking suck at fighting.

I guess you were ready for the cuttle.

58 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

Take a master bowman and make him terrible and you have a javelineer. Better still, take a strong, dextrous elven marksman, remove the actual marksman trait, hurl on some HP and you have a javelineer. Unfortunately, as far as ranged DPS goes, it's what we've got.

Merfolk get so screwed over.

I mean, they're not human javelineers at least. That does mean they're T3 and that's a shame.

58 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

HOLY SHIT WHAT, YES

I assume he couldn't give up Pinky, Blinky and Clyde.

58 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

oh my god he promotes. also he's healthy which is insanely good, always regenerates +2, very useful for, you know, him, but oh my god

Inky is best cuttle.

[epilepsyduck]

If you let Inky die this whole LP is #Cancelled istg.

[BrightBow]

Oh wow, your own Cuttlefish? This campaign is insane. And I thought making an army of undead with the loyal zombie bat from map 2 was as crazy as it gets.

Edited May 15, 2019 by BrightBow