Parrhesia and Integrity's Guide to Surviving Wesnoth

[Parrhesia]

MEMOIRS 19: Just in time to entirely miss the campaign it's a prequel to

Spoiler

... oh.
You know. I kind of figured you'd be allowed to bring in your daves from outside. Like that one Descent map, and, Christ, it's cursed to want to be bringing back elements from Descent. Still, I'm not sure you could easily avert gold haemorrhage last map. We ended with like -165. Five max-level elves should really be enough, anyway.

It'll be a champion.

Okay.

Holy water means undead. Undead means arcane, and to leave the archers at home. Why bring Atellas? I ... don't know. He was one of the first elves we met, though, on Chantal's team.

Chantal is nearly destroyed by a nasty trap.

Not much to say here.

We just... advance through a bunch of T1 and T2 dross.

Oh, hey! It's Sagus! Don't you remember our buddy Sagus?

Here, his literal one line from like five chapters ago.

Delfador does not remember our good buddy Sagus.

Again; that was his One Line. All we've seen has been him in opposition to our boy.

Show, don't tell! He just all but stated outright he killed Leollyn...

... who died BEFORE Delfador brought the book back.

The final fight is going to be bloody. Wish I'd sent out another couple north, but we have 12 turns to do this.

A bunch of skeletons, a dark adept, a ghost, a chocobone - the latter is obviously the threat. Not a full keep, so he's broke.

Chocobone softens up Nalim, gets murdered in exchange, dark adept finishes. The Classic Arkildur-Gwabbo maneuvre. Not much that could be done to stop that bar pulling out of the doorway entirely. Which I guess there was no reason not to, but, eh.

Okay, my open front may have been too open and not enough of a front.

Still, their opening shot was always gonna have to be something damn special to stop us.

Bring it home, Delfador.

Sagus... does not get a death quote.

That's. It. Apparently. I'm so stunned I forget to take a picture of the statistics, and had to go back into the replay to fish them out.

hagiography.

Subtract 19 kills and a death from this; it's counting them twice.
So. That was definitely a thing. One I'm not entirely sure what to make of.

Here. I've been wanting to show this off for some time.

About halfway through the campaign, I actually decided I needed to consult the walkthrough, because I just... did not know what to expect from the game next. That isn't a good thing when the challenge of a Wesnoth campaign comes in large part from cultivating a powerful army. I'd gotten invested in humans, I'd gotten invested in ghosts, and now I had Chantal's fresh elves. After you cut ties with that initial human force, there was no sense of MOMENTUM. You just kinda... had whoever you had, and rolled with it. Particularly as in the final stretch you have all-promoted guys anyway. I will say that the game letting Kalenz and ... the dwarf guy recruit T2s was a really good idea that did a lot to mitigate this. But it was chaotic, and disordered. It's hard to express how much it throws you off.

It's not that a medley of forces is a necessarily bad thing. It's not a bad idea. I'm just not sure a Wesnoth campaign is the place to pull it off. Minor related annoyances; I'm still mad that the one time you get Explicitly Delfador's Retinue, it vanishes without a trace a couple maps later.

Story time! My favourite. I mean, I graduated in this shit, of course it is. But really, it's just kind of ... bland? Delfador is a very stock character in HTTT, he's the old wizard mentor. Except old wizard mentors have to have more to them. The fat guy who mentors Pug in Magician is a lazy, jovial old cunt who has absolutely peaked at Regional Scholar; Belgarath is a mood-swinging wanderer who'd really rather just be left alone doing petty crime and discovering gravity and shit, but while he's here he's absolutely going to fuck with people; Obi-Wan Kenobi is a world-weary veteran who knows his ideals are right but can't fight for them hiding out in a filthy world. Delfador is... what, kind of a bitch? Vaguely? What do you get when you strip Delfador's age and power away from him? Memoirs was their opportunity to explore that.

They don't. A young Belgarath still acts like Belgarath, and you can see young Obi-Wan's character before the bitterness of his worldview collapsing in front of his eyes. A young Delfador... is just kind of... a guy. He fights for his vale, he saves Leollyn because That's What Heroes Do. He accepts the beacon of being the Head Honcho of Light, but it literally never comes up again; the fact that he tries to evade the absolute of saying he loves the light is the most characterisation he'll ever get. He saves the elves because that's what heroic wizards do; he saves the king because that's what heroic wizards do; he saves the kingdom because that's what heroic wizards do. He says Sagus was once a good man because that's what heroic wizards say, even though Sagus was a confirmed murderer before ever even seeing the book. And, yes, it's not entirely fair to compare a narrative-light game to a novel and a film series, but this was Delfador's time to shine. He could at least have stood for something. You have the time to flesh out your protagonist. Even Mal Keshar had personality.

But, you know, it is at the very least a nice snap-shot of the struggles of the time. It's just that, bluntly, undead incursions and orc raids are kind of what Wesnoth's ALWAYS going through; and humans, elves and dwarves squabble before ultimately putting aside their differences and ending the threat. The Land of the Dead, the Book of Crelanu and Delfador's evasiveness in the face of the staff of power were massive, massive missed opportunities. What if he truly had to embrace the dark to fight it - but, unlike Mal Keshar, he does master it? He doesn't fall? That's what's remarkable about him, not just elves saying 'ohhh he glows with power!' And the fix is, for once, simple; after the return from the Land of the Dead, Delfador never loses the ability to recruit and recall his undead and magi.

Instead of constantly switching factions ENTIRELY, Delfador always keeps his core. That makes him unique. And the help being T2 (Kalenz / dwarf guy's support, and the garrison at Parthyn / the earlygame veterans) means that you can supplement him with effective support at any given moment, but he always has his core of guys, guys who could always use conventional soldiery to spearhead the charge. And of course the temptation is massive to use these hordes, and his influence, for ill; but when Iliah-Malal is dead, he's good to his word. He lets his spirits rest, his magi return to the tower. If you still have the epilogue... it was a good idea, just the maps were bad. I'm not sure if it's possible in the engine, but what if you could still recall magi after that, and they've levelled like the elves... but they're all now 'aged'. But even a crippled Mage of Light against undead has its uses... Now he's a unique faction instead of a bunch of ordinary factions rotating in and out, and he has an actual arc - ordinary guy with big destiny, faces destiny, beats destiny, becomes ultimate wizard. As opposed to guy with destiny picks up staff and is suddenly affirmed by everyone as ultimate wizard. That's less satisfying.

Maps;
1) Starter mission. Kill orcs with loys. It's FINE.
2) Starter mission. Kill orcs with loys. It's FINE.
3) Starter mission. Kill orcs with loys. Leollyn came too, nominally. It's no longer fine, in the context of what came before, and it's the weakest of the three to boot, kind of a slog; it's BAD.
4) It's another fucking filler map. But at least this one's got a new concept. Now you're killing bandits in a swamp. You can pay off blue, but why would you? It's FINE.
5) That defence map which burned everything I had to very slowly send individual skulls at you. It's BAD.
6) Darnassian flashbacks. Hilariously easy to farm. And you're basically encouraged to. It's FINE.
7) Interesting, flavourful map. It's kind of a slog, but hey. You're given an interesting gameplay challenge in an interesting setting, and it's fairly forgiving, too. Finally ... it's GOOD.
😎 You know how Ike said earlier that the Basic Wesnoth Experience was often just... 'win one engagement to crush their first wave utterly'? Given that you have ghosts against dark adepts, this is like the ultimate example of that. It's on the better edge of FINE.
9) Hey, we're elves now. Spend all your cash on a mystery engagement that never happens. BAD.
10) This is a mixed experience. I feel it needs some more signposting, a bit more encouragement to just book it south. Once I did, it all came together. There's a nice sense of urgency, and a lot of fighting going on. It's borderline, but so was 8; it's GOOD.
11) Kalenz's debut. Recruit T2s, badly outnumbered by orcs but with the terrain stacked in your favour. Probably my favourite map of the campaign; it's GOOD.
12) 42-0 K:D. The one where your small band of elves has to destroy three camps of undead, but the east one is overflowing with powerful undead, but Delfador arrives with powerful troops in the nick of time. This was a lot of fun! GOOD!
13) Save the king, rout the orcs. I like it pretty well; it's straightforward, but there's nothing wrong with that, and despite being a defend mission where you're a while away from the objective I really can't see the King dying in a reasonable time-frame, especially as the last crucial waves from the final bosses are only triggered (seemingly) when you arrive. Four GOOD maps in a row.
14) If only it lasted. Starter mission. Kill undead with loys. There's dwarves who will apparently recruit four ulfserkers and explode. Given its placement, and the fact you aren't actually training any new blood, it's a fish out of water. BAD.
15) That time where I killed the lich and he regenerated instantly back to full. What if the stretch goal actually killed you? What if the chase fucked you? This map just drags and drags and drags. BAD.
16) The climax of the campaign. You have to balance your approach carefully, and the course-correction (in my case, to send more guys west) can be painful. It's too slow in the northeast, but I think I can forgive it. It's a GOOD map, at heart.
17) Go kill Eldred except not. I kind of liked skirting through the forest, going for the objective, but it was a bit ... too incredibly easy, and there's literally no reason to do anything else. Unless I guess you didn't recruit or train any T2s? FINE.
18) Final money sink. It's a promising map! Really! Cordon off the exits and steadily move in for the kill? Except the enemy only recruits like eight guys, and you have T3s and 4s across the board. And 'find the secret exit', give me a break; it's rubbing a horseman against walls for three turns, just in case you had any more money saved. BAD.
19) Beneath Denniscombe manor, many very tangible level 1 undead refuse to be buried. It was pointless, and all to kill an antagonist we had absolutely no emotional stake in killing. BAD.

6x GOOD
6x FINE
7x BAD

Like Legend of Wesmere (which was 5/7/5), very even... on paper. Like Legend of Wesmere, there is a very, very obvious peak. Legend started very strong, while the first wave of elven maps (AFTER their debut) here is four very good maps in a row. And the start is very bland, and the end is the dampest of squibs. When Legend was bad, it was bad with passion. Legend always had personality. Memoirs... just doesn't, really, and that, more than anything else, is its downfall.

Ah, well. What's next? Well, since Ike's started slogging through Heir to the Throne, we've learned about Kalenz, we've learned about Delfador... but what about the subject of the whole damn thing?

 

[BrightBow]

I didn't expect for the campaign to end here. If that's all that's gonna be shown from the events that set off HttT, it probably would have been better to stop after the defeat of Iliah-Malal. I mean, it's not like Sagus was some sort of great loose end that just had to be wrapped up.

Edited July 8, 2019 by BrightBow

[Parrhesia]

Yeah, it was a good theory they had that they just didn't properly follow through into practice. It's like a pale imitation of the civil war that ends Legend.

[BrightBow]

It's also a wasted opportunity. I mean, you would think the part of his life where Delfador sees everything he fought for fall apart around him would be the most interesting part of his life. Delfador had been told he would be the most amazing person to have ever lived right in the prologue. Yet, all of his power could not prevent any of this, nor the suffering that the land had to endure in the next 17 years. He was asked to be a force of the light that transcends the limited time of kings and countries, but the campaign stops right before he has to actually make good on his vow.

Edited July 8, 2019 by BrightBow

[Parrhesia]

Yeah, it's a shame...

I remembered really liking this as a teenager. It was in the minority of campaigns I actually finished (joining Invasion, Brothers, Liberty, South Guard on both routes... maybe another one or two). It's definitely got a lot going on, but just... doesn't build. Still. A mediocre Wesnoth campaign is still a good time, overall.

[Integrity]

i'm not posting about heir to throne

Spoiler

This man is an entire aesthetic.

 

Basically, we're playing terrorists.

 

Weirdly Eloquent Goblins return.

 

I shit you not, this is actually what Parrhesia looks like in real life, except a little scruffier.

 

This guy's our little band leader, and he's all about bashing skulls. Note how like six frames ago the narrative said the villagers weren't allowed to train with military weaponry, but this guy's just got a fuckin' flanged mace.

 

Tom Davies came too.

 

So you remember how like twenty of Heir to the Throne's maps were pivotal engagement -> mop up, victory? Liberty is going to start in a very strong fashion of not-that.

 

The map is tall. The enemy has four pillagers and a wolf rider; we have a mixture of tier 1 and 2 thugs, some poachers, and some footpads. The units are flavored a little differently - footpad is now Village Youth, thugs are Villagers and Village Elders, etc.

 

The point of the map is to kill those five guys. We could beat them in a straight fight - but they're always going to try to run north. If any of them make it to the top of the map, we lose. The footpads outspeed them due to the terrain, but the thugs and poachers do actual damage and can't catch up.

 

The explicit point, as stated by Baldras, is to get your footpads to cut off the riders and gum them up in zones of control, so that your damage corps can arrive and cut them down.

 

If they see an opening, they'll happily dart through. They're not here to fight. Astute eyes will notice roughly eight experience on one of the torchy boys and one fewer unit.

 

Anyway, this means that you also need to keep a screen of guys ahead of them, so if there's a breakthrough they won't just get ahead of you as the terrain flattens and their speed becomes a factor.

 

Noble poacher. The first to make it a certain distance up the map procs a conversation.

 

This spawns two extra thugs at the extreme north of the map, a final safety net. How many thugs you get varies based on difficulty, which is a smart and cool difficulty-based design decision! Higher difficulty, weaker safety net.

 

The initial trap is doing good work.

 

Two guys leaked through - the tier 1 got cut off by Harper, and the leader is running into the final thugs.

 

Wham.

 

It's all over but the formalities.

 

Liberty opens really strongly. I don't remember the rest of the campaign, but I'm really hopeful. That was more interesting design than basically any map in Heir to the Throne.

 

What a great map.

 

[Parrhesia]

What a great map. Great art, too. Man, Wesnoth is... really, really unafraid to make its characters ugly. It's admirable!

One thing to note; 'villagers' are neutral, unlike true criminals. Fun fact, though, IIRC the 'village hunter' or w/e the reskinned poacher is will promote to village poacher-equivalent... then just straight-up the normal chaotic T3 crime archers. The others all have proper variants through to T3.

[Integrity]

9 minutes ago, Parrhesia said:

One thing to note; 'villagers' are neutral, unlike true criminals.

genuinely didn't notice nice

[epilepsyduck]

I distinctly remember really liking this campaign, but maybe that's just because I've always dug Wesnoth's outlaws and always kinda wished they were a proper multiplayer faction in their own right and not just kinda stapled to the dwarves.

[BrightBow]

It's finally crime time. Who needs spears and bows when you got sticks and rocks?

[euklyd]

I remember exactly one thing about this campaign and it's exceptionally minor (the rare magic class) so I'll be watching with interest.

It's incredibly frustrating that Memoirs doesn't even end with Delfador failing to save the prince's. 

[Integrity]

map 2 update: liberty is still really good

 

Spoiler

What a nice little town!

 

So this guy's Tier 3. Just for the record.

 

Civil disobedience is right!

 

Check out this another really well-designed map. The guy cannot recruit - this is a party from the capital, they have no reinforcements - but they're a bunch of horsemen about to overrun our shit. Open battles are death, but there's sparse enough terrain that we can provoke profitable fights - but there isn't enough good terrain that we can really hunker down. While the proximity of them makes it look like a really intense press to begin the map, Baldras' civil disobedience means that the allied peasants milling around are combatants, so we're bought a turn of war crime being done to try to get set up. It's very clever.

 

fs in the chat

 

The general trend is to get enough footpads to have fodder (70% def on good terrain, 60% on flat!) for your ADC, and then recruit a shitload of archers. This map is just Agincourt.

 

At the cost of one recruit and the kill going to Baldras, we're poised for the counter. Also note: the map starts in Phase 3, the final daylight phase, so when you're all ready to counterattack night falls. It's clever! Liberty is good!

 

Harper tanks. the remaining peasants fall, and - uh, note what's Incoming on the left.

 

We manage to extricate him and leave some juicy targets out. Bad news: some of my poachers are gonna get attacked. Good news: it's full dark, and they're full lawful.

 

Hey, that's what he was there for.

 

Poacher goes on a dodging spree, but he wasn't in any real danger. Time to thin the herd before it gets light.

 

That's more like it!

 

Looks like the explicitly-criminal option got replaced in some patch since Parrhesia played. Keeping Ranger makes sense, though.

 

Three poachers against a guy weak to arrows can do a job.

 

All in all, a really productive night phase.

 

Of all the things to lose, a poacher with 1 experience is really high up on my list.

 

You need to engage and, preferably, finish off Tarwen before the second daytime phase. This is at neutral time, and if I don't paste him now he'll kill someone on his turn guaranteed.

 

no you

 

I could have pegged the other cavalryman, in retrospect - I had the poachers to do it and there was nowhere else for them to go - but then the last guy hits four from four and who am I to argue?

 

Nice one.

 

And with that, our guys all quietly switch off the Peasant X classes and become proper crimesmen, better at night. What a good map! What a good map that didn't at all outstay its welcome! I don't miss Heir of Thorne!

 

[BrightBow]

I don't know what those knights were expecting. As they say: "The pen is mightier then the sword." So if a tiny stick like that can already beat a sword, what chance could a sword possibly have against a big stick?

[Parrhesia]

God, I'm so happy that Liberty just... actually is as good as I remember.

[Integrity]

have a bonus

 

next map is awful

[Parrhesia]

Sceptre of Fire 1: Well, it's not fucking Liberty, that's for sure

Spoiler

We're going deep, deep into the past. Deep into the lore. This is, as far as I'm aware, the second-farthest campaign in the past.

Meet Rugnur. He is a dwarven fighter with no traits.

Haldric the Second, spitting image of Haldric the First; we'll get to HIM later.

Mercifully, after establishing the scene, they keep the map centred on this point rather than tennissing around the map. Haldric 2's class is Konrad with a crown; he's very Effort (TM). We'll hear the story of the Ruby of Fire later, too. Part of this LP would be neater if we went in pure chronological order, but uh, Rise of Wesnoth is the longest campaign in the game. I need a run-up to that. Sceptre is short and, hopefully, sweet.

Oh, God, that name again.

Haldric 2's portrait is really nice. Rugnur's is powerful. He is extremely Some Guy.

Haldric realises he's basically talking international trade deals with a random ICE guy.

Yeah, we only start with 100 gold, so make it good.

You know, I was wondering if they were really gonna get full mileage from a Haldric portrait, but this scene is taking fucking forever. They probably already have more lines from Haldric than from the Two Brothers.

OH FUCK YEAH. Early loyalists having this cataphract aesthetic? I am SO down with that!

Note adorable caravans.

Oh, God, stop talking, please. It's not that this is too long (it's a little too long.) but just imagine six seconds between every line while I upload and paste in the screenshot.

Iiii stand corrected. Yeah, come to think of it, Haldric II was the guy who reneged on the alliance with Kalenz. Did not realise it was that early. There's a canonical timeline somewhere.

Alright. You know what this means, boys; we're going to go murder some knife-eared cunts.

Count the ways this is a placeholder unit. I'm particularly fond of the distinctive coppertop. But it's understandable not to put too much effort in, this is afaik the only time he appears in anything, ever.

Caravans only move three places a turn. We may as well kill the fucking elves just because they're there, but my mind's always on the purse-strings, as well you should know by now.

We have a full set of dwarven infantry, but no gryphons. You can really see why they NEEDED to add scouts.

Anyway, I immediately need to restart turn 1 because I realise that I can squeeze in six recruits as long as it's four fighters and two scouts and none guardsmen, and I don't even LIKE guardsmen.

There we go. Precisely 0 gold, 9 profit a turn. 22 villages in all means mad profits when this is said and done. Alanin's a homie dragoon and that's perfect given he's the pace of any two dwarves combined.

One can't help but notice that blue spent their turn not moving. But they do move forward in turn 3 for whatever reason, which is handy, because otherwise the caravan is fucked.

(Ignore the first situation, I had to go find it again after clicking through when it took me by surprise). Instead of answering, a bunch of elves murder this longbowman, but he fights back strongly.

Tempting to keep jacking villages, trust me, but Alanin's brute force is needed here and now. Hopefully blue can screen.

Can't help but notice blue is getting just a little pulverised.

And they've. Promoted a hero, already, that's. Great.

Please, please, PLEASE send more goons north. Also, fuck Landar, he's a tiny, tiny bitch.

*laughs* I'm in danger!!

Rugnur domes this bitch.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Also this... is a thing, I guess. You go, girl.

But we can at least pick off a couple shamans.

THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANT TO HEAR RIGHT NOW

Hhhhe has 500 gold suddenly. I haven't moved the caravans AT ALL.

I need to bait out and kill the captain. Immediately.

But the captain refused to be baited. What if-

I mean.

But, no, even producing the more tempting target of Alanin OFF a house isn't taken up. And we aren't taking down the leader with six guys. Maybe if I'd kept thingy on the hill, producing guys... shredding our cash.

No, we need to restart this map from Turn 2 and move the fucking caravan, is what needs to happen. And hope it doesn't get caught up in the fight, I guess.

yep just take your lumps lads
This is actually a fail-state. They do need to hang back on turn 2, let the loys take the hits, then slip through afterwards.

The human advance goes far better this time around.

My village, bitch.

I'm not sure this is what it means to 'circle the wagons', but then, Californian settlers were never big on macro the way I am.

Loys get some big hits.

Finally. We ... are here. Ish.But we're not trapped here with them...

t h e y ' r e  t r a p p e d  i n  h e r e  w i t h  u s

And we're in time to mop up. This is... playing out far more as expected. It's not a BAD map... so much as it's one that doesn't expect anyone to take its stretch goal seriously.

Improbably, the royal guard clings to life here. They get their reinforcements now. I'll pull back into the mountains and try to get experience off them.

ahaha okay great they promoted a shaman...

I mean, like... we COULD help...

I...

may have overextended. Let's go back a few turns, back to the cold hard reality of the situation, where, really, we... are incidental to the map, can't really get experience at all - the map IS bad, actually. Fuck.

This map is TERRIBLE.

thanks alan.

Your one hope in this miserable retreat is terrain. Which. You know. Wizard.

I hate this with all my hate.

Yep, they sure are just sweeping me off the map!

What does the map want me to do.

great

bye

This is the issue, by the way. This fucking miserable snowdrift clogs up your convoy by like four turns on its own. You'll notice they have riders. I spent Every Gold Piece I started with.

I could replay this map a third time with a whole new approach. Or I could save-scum.

Hey, turns are basically instant now.

hey they're going for the snipe again

All about spreading out, blocking with ZOC as much as possible, and staying out of that fucking sorceress' way. This is not a comfortable lead; this is 5-6 turns away from finishing.

I don't think this map used to have the caravans. It was just Alanin.

Haldric can count in increments of 1250. Wow-ee!

They're dead, Rugnur.
Everybody, Rugnur.
Everybody's dead, Rugnur.
Everybody's dead, Rugnur.
They're all dead, everybody's dead, Rugnur.
Everybody is dead, Rugnur.
Yes, Rugnur, everybody, everybody's dead, Rugnur.
He's dead, Rugnur, everybody's dead, everybody is dead, Rugnur.

Holy shit, it's over. Between this and Blackeye 1x, remember that Wesnoth campaigns do not do fighting retreats well. Unless you count Dead Water 2. I miss Dead Water. Dead Water was my friend.

Killing the elven leader is impossible if he can't be baited. Hypothetically, I guess I could have loaded to an early state and gunned for him before his reinforcements showed up. But fighting elves on forest and fortress... kiiind of a non-starter, with just six T1 guys and both sides neutral. So why put the leader as an objective? Granted, I guess that at least avoids Wesmere situations where the map just bugs out. Still. It's map 1, you don't have your feet on the ground yet; why lead with THAT? That was awful.

How else to approach it? I guess if Rugnur sits on the fortress spitting out guys, but, again; most to all of them will die, and your economy will tank. I could have gone hard SE... and maybe won, against elves on forest, against a captain that refused to be lured out. Do I even have time for this? Depends entirely on how blue fares, out of my control beyond shoving aggressively with caravans. Yeah, and, reminder; the timer was that tight with me aggressively shoving caravans into a pitched battle.

Remember well these guys.

 

[Integrity]

i have tried and failed to beat this map like four times

[BrightBow]

Truly Alanin is a hero.

Edit: I gave this map a shot myself. Haldrick died on the first try, so on the second one I went for a different approach. I was hoping to block the entire castle but I suppose it worked out well enough in the end.

Edited July 10, 2019 by BrightBow

[Integrity]

map 3 update: liberty well honestly this map is just pretty good

 

Spoiler

Is each dot on the travel supposed to be a day? Makes you think.

 

Relana is also a thug. She's got a unique sprite.

 

It's a big old chaotic battle!

 

In the southeast, an orc! He wants revenge for the goblins we killed in map 1.

 

In the northwest, a saurian! His name is Thhsthss.

 

Fight and kill two guys, with a buddy.

 

There's a little more map to the north and south, but not much. It's a pretty hefty map.

 

Unique (?) to Liberty is the ability to command ally factions. They can be set to attack a certain leader, defend a point, or act normally; to aggressive, defensive, or normal behavior.

 

Given as the orcs have more money, we'll gun for the lizards first, hold the orcs off, and then win both fights. Easy.

 

The lizards also have exploitable impact vulnerabilities, and we do a lot of impact damage.

 

It's a little of a hangup that they straight recruit tier 2 skirmishers, but more gold!

 

We're got some really nice defensive terrain in the south, given as poachers can use swamps at 50%. I can force a lot of good trading with this.

 

Some of purple is splittling south, so I posture at the edge of their range to see if I can draw some out.

 

Belatedly, I tell the AI to gun for the lizards to see if they can get those lizard wizards out of the way.

 

Purple took the bait.

 

Green floods in. I'm done recruiting by now, but there's still some in the coffers if it turns.

 

Hell yeah, crime!

 

Things split perfectly in the north. The two tier 2 guys commit to me, the two tier 1s (including the wizard) commit to the new flank opened by the AI.

 

This poacher dodges like five attacks.

 

At this point I start to think: maybe I shouldn't be baiting largely with the fail condition footpad?

 

Anyway, it's getting dark, and the damage corps has arrived.

 

Yow!

 

The guy who looks like Parrhesia promotes.

 

Well, purple's done. It's forgivably easy, given as this is only the second level of campaign difficulty, and I kind of set the AI to come with me and go all-in on them.

 

The south is doing just fine. I'm not too motivated to move the line, though the southern flank is about to envelop.

 

Strange move, purple, but acceptable.

 

Just the boss.

 

You remember the whole thing with Black-Eye that sucks where there's literally no exploitable terrain in your favor in like half the maps? It's the opposite here. This little knot favors us absurdly.

 

In case you were curious, like 95 gold of blue has failed to neutralize the lizard wizard yet.

 

Another turn of slugging against green. This has been a really long stationary battle by the standards I've gotten used to, but green's running out of guys.

 

Blue fuckin' near killsteals me on the boss. He's on like 6 health.

 

u kiddin bro

 

Anyway, green's broken.

 

Blue chokes, and the skirmisher kills his dude.

 

Thanks!

 

Green came out, so that happened.

 

Kill the last lizard for good measure...

 

Nothing wrong with a luscious tier 3 thug to anchor around. You all saw what those guys could do in Heir to the Throne.

 

On the other side, a tier 1 thug ups to 2 off the boss for free.

 

Then we pepper him with arrows and rocks and give Baldras the kill.

 

It's circumstantial, but it's better evidence than none.

 

[BrightBow]

Man, that sweet old lady with her spiked club.

[Parrhesia]

Relana used to be a guy, IIRC called Relgan or Reglan, before the most recent art update for the campaign. Also, you were able to command AI around in very specifically the terrible North Elven map of Legend of Wesmere, I'm not sure if in any other missions.

[Parrhesia]

SCEPTRE OF FIRE 2: Landar vs. the Spiciest Rune

Spoiler

So now that the Sons of Landar have been established as Wesnoth's foremost force of military might, let's book it into favourable ground.

All our veterans might be dead and our lord might be a traitless fighter, but at least we have ONE promoted unit ready to hold the lin-

Ahhhh c'mon.

Rugnur swallows. Also, lol, they're so confident you can't kill Glindur last map that he returns here.

Glindur's gone from 'enthusiastic guy in charge of arbitrary road toll' to militaristic warlord strong-man.

A wild homie appears! With retinue!

Gotta appreciate the honesty here.

"no please let paul blart continue to dictate the unconditional surrender of the colony"

Well. I mean. I'd just use a fucking portcullis, me.

...
we deserve extinction.

Hhhhh. Okay.

It takes five days for me to return. I don't really want to do this.

Sure.

Thrilling. The same guy goes on to activate the one just to his north.

Well, that's two accounted for...

Have I overrecruited again? I hope not.

Guardsmen take some dislodging. Don't get me wrong, though, these losers outside the gates are dead fucking meat. In the south, yeah, I know, they have a front of three against two. That's better than two against two, because I want to be attacking them, hard.

And the breakthrough in the north, where we get a better frontage.

Funnily enough, I'd fancy our chances better at killing this elf than the other one.

Three down. I HAVE overrecruited, but there was literally no way to know. I don't like shroud in Wesnoth.

Let's kill a couple elves for good measure. It doesn't really matter if people die, but really, elves won't chew through this line of heavy infantry fast enough for it to matter.

At this point, I notice something. The glyphs unlight if someone steps off them. Oops.

Then I realise that they light up every time you put a guy on them, and unlight at the end of the turn. So that if you have a guy just repeatedly step on and undo their move, the light effects stack on top of each other until the entire thing is just... red.

The haters pick off a scout in the centre and a fighter in the south. More money for me!

This really is like fucking pulling teeth.

North's clear.

We avoid further casualties, even skewer an elf on the defensive. The spiciest rune continues to lose exactly one layer of heat every turn.

This guy might die, but fuck it! Map's in the bag next turn.

I need to start pulling back; anyone caught outside the walls, well, I'm guessing things don't turn out well for them. And as a quick scout, this is the only guy who, when slowed, can clear the gate. Unfortunately, as a quick scout, he's also made of paper. Kills a guy, though!

Take a moment to respect this troll before this fighter crushes him into paste.

Good question!

Good answer. Rugnur, when he closes off the northwest rune, goes on to have the exact same exchange... with Baglur. So they didn't account for Baglur actually taking one of those himself...

The gate comes up while I wait for the gyazo to load.

Do you seriously have nothing better to do? This is why Landar lost the fucking war. You should be on the scale of petty brigand war criminals, but you're more powerful in canon than the Wesnoth army is half the time.

You can see the gate in action at the bottom there. It's a nice gate.

Pretty good map. Could've stood to lose the shroud. You'd imagine the dwarves would know their own caves... but it's a nice opportunity for guardsmen to shine.

 

[BrightBow]

What the heck does Alanin think he's doing? What good is a messenger who doesn't know their way around? And even if he finds the way, the people there don't know him. Who knows if they even believe anything he says.

[Parrhesia]

SCEPTRE OF FIRE 3: The hammer of Thursagan

Spoiler

Pennant means cutscene, usually.

Now THIS guy has a fucking portrait.

Well, uhm, they did.

Ahhhh mannn, Rugnur, didn't anyone tell you? Cavalry don't go in caves too gracefully.

Yyyeah, kinda have to agree with Durry here.

That makes... some sort of sense, I guess.

So, yeah, that's another level of Hero of Another Story. There are two dwarf campaigns; the Hammer of Thursagan, and this one, which actually has Thursagan himself.

And guess who turns up, but...

bwam bwam bwaaamp

hup

Oh, shit. Is that the breath coming from Alanin and his horse, because it's fucking cold? The dwarves are unaffected, which is fine and IC. That's a really cool touch and reinforces him being a fish out of water here. The art has been consistently really good so far.

So, okay. Let's start to mosey.

He's out in this... sssssomewhere.

Uuuuuhhhmmmm??

Now that your midget head is on screen we can see that yes!

Baglur translates this line on the next page, but I'm sure you can work it out for yourself, right lads? Well, Krawg's with us now. He's a gryphon, which we have seen before - level 2 flier, 9 move, 10x3 claw. He's homie / intelligent, the latter being useless, since unlike Inky he has no promotion. But he is another scout, I won't sniff at that...

This'll do, probably.

Hey, nice.

Suck My Dick
I reload to the start of the turn, since this... had been my first move. Alanin can go north instead, but drive-by some cunt first. Bet it'll be dwarves only, though...

Given the regeneration, the occasional fearlessness and the pierce and blade resist, really, what DOES counter trolls that we have?

Not gryphons, apparently! Fuck!

We get some good breaks this PP, when they're needed. Finishing trolls is essential. We weather EP, more or less; one dwarf clings to his 70% terrain that betrayed him against the troll but keeps him alive against wolves.

These four guys use their entire collective turn finishing off one entire whelp and his 12 health.

Ohhhh, rarely have I been so happy to be wrong.

"Nah cunt"
THE END

This is a really, really wordy campaign. Time to condense things a bit, Integrity-style.

G A M E  M E C H A N I C S

This... will take nine turns, if totally uninterrupted. We're on 7/30.

Thursagan is the vanilla tier 3 runemaster, the final tier of the runesmith tree; this is, I believe, the first campaign it appeared in before it became a mainstream (if bad) promotion path. Like runesmiths, they get a weaker but magic hammer and slightly superior resistances, and lose literally 31 HP, the axe and now the hatchet. Thursagan has a blue bar, though; that means he can still reach a tier 4, presumably unique.

So we've finally been chalking up some promotions. Rugnur, a scout and now this guy.

Fighting trolls suuuucks. But we finish this guy off next turn, and then have time to collect ourselves before...

Well, I was gonna say 'the onslaught', but the wolves understandably balk at attacking anyone but this puny guardsman.

The other puny guardsman gets a promotion out of the deal, and the first is only one XP off.

Shit! The sidewinder! But Tris fends him off, then kills the whelp on the counter. He was nearly a Tris sandwich!

Everyone collapses on and kills this guy. The DPS just adds up quicker than I'd anticipated. What do you know, both these ogres are strong / resilient.

Ike's shown these cunts off before, but cursed thought I needed to inflict upon the world; these guys are basically like. You know how there's this style of weird creepy 'hyper-realistic' Pokemon art? The ogres look like if that was applied to Obelix. You're welcome!

God, I love pathfinders. This flank needs help, though.

Two western promotions in quick succession, the stalwart and this new pathfinder. I send a steelclad, stalwart and scout east. Thursagan's six turns away, now...

Hhh, this much damage? Not a fan, gotta say!

I caught this frame. It was too perfect not to post. He missed, though. Eight more XP for Baglur, who honestly probably needs it most, being a homie with poor DPS.

These are probably the last three enemies on the map, at this stage.

But we wear them down eventually.

Heading north eventually reveals this guy, but, you know. He's. In a random pond in the middle of nowhere, that's a tough ask.

Actually, I liked that map a lot. Nice and straightforward, hold your ground, and it lasts basically the perfect amount of time to kill (okay, practically) everything. You have a very clear, defensible position, weak fast enemies intermixed with slow tough ones. And you get another homie scout. No complaints, for the first time so far this campaign.

 

[BrightBow]

It's so strange that Gryphon's are vulnerable to impact damage of all things.

And I guess those pants actually do kinda look the ones of Obelix. Neat.

Edited July 14, 2019 by BrightBow