We just want our throne back Wesnoth SG 2

[haphazard1]

OK, non-cooperative server got [STRIKE]tortured[/STRIKE] convinced to work again, so I was able to play my turnset.

Our task on this map is to find the fabled lost artifact, the Sceptre of Fire, and claim it with one of Konrad or Li'sar. Given her current complete lack of ranged attack, I favor giving it to Li'sar -- it will make her much tougher and more durable since enemies will not be able to take free ranged shots at her. And we will need to keep her alive, now that she is one of us White Hats.

We start with some dialogue about the power of the caves, blah blah blah. Delfador can tell the sceptre is somewhere north but not specifically where. A couple of earthquakes hit -- these will occur occasionally, triggered by units moving into certain areas. (As far as I know, there is no way to predict these in advance.) Be aware that we will find some lava pits -- whenever a quake strikes these will grow and can engulf nearby units! This is an insta-death, so stay away from the fire pits and do not end any unit's turn next to one!

As previously promised, Li'sar contributes her available cash to the cause -- a very handy 300 gold. So we are now quite well funded, with over 500 gold to start the map. We have 35 turns and this is a big map, so we are going to need to recruit/recall a lot of units and spread out to search. Kalenz speaks up and recommends dwarves -- lots and lots of dwarves. I guess he has realized how horrible elves are in caves.

Turn 1

We start with a six-tile keep, and our local area opens only to the north. I recall our loyal mage of light (loyal, healer), our shyde (flying healer), and our quick white mage (healer, quick) for a medical corps, then three dwarves with XP. Our starting heroes move out and each grab a village to start getting some income. Note that this map usually has quite a large number of villages, so we can build up a very nice income with time.

Turn 2

I recall our loyal ulfserker -- might as well get some use from him, if he can survive. We have three other dwarves with enough XP to be useful, then I start recruiting fresh dwarves. I think we should go pretty much entirely with dwarves -- everything else is too slow in caves to really be useful, and we can certainly use some more experienced dwarves for future levels.

Everyone starts moving north, as there are no other options just yet.

IBT we spot our first opponents: the orange king (level 3 orc warlord) in his keep and a level 2 goblin knight.

Turn 3

- Delfador is too good. I was going to wound the goblin knight and then finish it with the white mage, but Delfador hits all 4 attacks and kills it.
- I continue moving units north, including Konrad. I did not recruit any more units this turn, as we do not yet have any room to spread out anyway. Once the orange king is dead Konrad can recruit more troops there.

- IBT the orange king does not move. A goblin impaler comes out and duels with one of our dwarf guardsmen.

Here is the current situation:



Keep moving north -- we only have 35 turns total and there is a lot of map to cover. Recruit at least two more full castles of dwarves, maybe even 3 -- there will be lots of enemies to fight and side tunnels to explore.

The Save - T03 Scepter of Fire

[Bobchillingworth]

IIRC that level is randomized in terms of where the scepter is and enemy leader spawns, but it's incredibly easy either no matter what. There are very few villages, so the enemies can hardly recruit more than a single keep each, and the AI has a lot of trouble with the terrain and ends up being really passive.

[Jkaen]

In my single player game I massively overrecruited on this level, so I agree on keeping things sensible and maybe building up a bit of a bank balance. There are enough forts dotted around we can always recruit quickly again if needed

[haphazard1]

The fighting is not likely to be a huge problem, I agree. But we do need to find the Sceptre, and after it is found we have to get Li'sar (or if no other choice Konrad) to it. That is going to take a fair bit of time.

When I played this map solo, it was at one difficulty level lower and you got a bunch more turns -- like high 40s or low 50s. Here at top difficulty we only have 35 turns, which is not really all that much time.

I would prefer to over-recruit than under-recruit. We are cashflow positive at the moment, with 3 more villages already in sight. And there are likely to be quite a few more villages as we spread out and explore, so I do not think we will have any problem with money.

[Ranamar]

Sounds like a good start...

I'll get my turns in tonight. It sounds like the order of the day is to spread out with whoever you can, drop the hammer on any enemies you run across with the main force, and, each time we find a keep, recruit up to cashflow-neutral. (We'll run out of money eventually, of course, but this map gives, like, 50 gold per extra turn...)

Personally, I'd favor exploring with quick dwarves (I miss Dwarven Pathfinders right about now...) while following on with everyone else, because the quick ones will both move faster and see farther. If they see enemies, I'm thinking they should probably run away and wait for reinforcements.

[haphazard1]

I don't know if we need to always recruit when we see another keep -- there are quite a few scattered around usually. But I think we do need at least another round of dwarves and probably two so we can scatter them all over the place to search.

I would keep moving the main force, or at least Konrad and Li'sar, northward while sticking to the center part of the map. The Sceptre is normally at least halfway up the map and usually more like 3/4 of the way, so they need to keep moving north. And if you pick a side and get unlucky, it can take them a bunch of turns to move across. Had this happen to me once, found the Sceptre and had killed all enemies, but took an extra 10 turns to get Li'sar in position because I guessed wrong.

Also, try to get Li'sar some XP if you get the chance. She is plenty tough enough to beat up non-king enemies already, although being melee-only she will take some damage doing so.

Good luck, and watch out for lava!

[Ranamar]

T4:
Wasted far too much effort trying to kill that goblin impaler... but it happened, and troops couldn't get much farther than that, anyway, so perhaps it wasn't really wasted...

T5:
Delfador continues to be a pro, landing all 4 hits on the orc king. Then again, that's what I brought him in to do. Then, I sent in the firing squad (commanded by Konrad)... which, I suppose, had a good chance of failing, but whatever. The thunderer missed, but the thunderguard successfully killed him.

Konrad moved onto the keep and recruited a fighter and a thunderer in the two open spots. Sometime soon, possibly next turn, I may recruit another batch of recruits, because we're currently at +6 gpt and have already found another enemy force. Meanwhile, our incredibly zippy shyde scouts ahead because there aren't too many wounded to deal with just yet.

I even got our loyal berserker a kill... on a goblin spearman. Four exp down; 38 to go!

T6:
I got the ulfserker another kill, this time on a L1, with heavy support.
(The Mage of Light took a shot and hit 1 out of 3 times and used aura to reduce enemy attack, and it was either hit 3/4 times with Li'Sar or have her boost him to 5-4 and then set the machine going.)
Also, Konrad recruited 3 more fighters and 2 more thunderers. The sixth slot was filled by a dwarf who was employed to kill a unit summoned in another of the six slots so that Konrad wasn't making the kill. We're running a very slight surplus, so we might as well wait until we've grabbed a few more villages before making another pass at recruiting.
Kalenz and the Shyde did more scouting but may want to come back... Kalenz was only scouting because this area is not movement-impeding.

What we've scouted by turn 7:

Not much advice comes to mind, really, beyond, "Carry on exploring while killing orcs and goblins."

I'll post the save after deleting a few of my previous ones... it's generically saying, "upload failed".
... or, because of the problems with the control panel right now, I can e-mail it to you if you want; I don't feel like figuring out web hosting right now.

[Mardoc]

I'll post the save after deleting a few of my previous ones... it's generically saying, "upload failed".
... or, because of the problems with the control panel right now, I can e-mail it to you if you want; I don't feel like figuring out web hosting right now.

Whatever you find easiest. RBMardoc at gmail.

I should be able to play tonight.

[haphazard1]

Looks like a nice turnset, Ranamar.

The site problem is rather annoying, especially the aspect where the problem prevents the most obvious way to resolve it. Oh well, we can manage alternate ways to move the save until things get fixed.

XP for the ulfserker... It can be a fun experiment, I guess, to see if we can actually get him promoted. But a unit that requires as much hand-holding as an ulfserker does to get promoted is probably not worthwhile in the long run, especially if he is just going to die anyway. But he is loyal, so we can give it a try.

[Ranamar]

Looks like a nice turnset, Ranamar.

The site problem is rather annoying, especially the aspect where the problem prevents the most obvious way to resolve it. Oh well, we can manage alternate ways to move the save until things get fixed.

XP for the ulfserker... It can be a fun experiment, I guess, to see if we can actually get him promoted. But a unit that requires as much hand-holding as an ulfserker does to get promoted is probably not worthwhile in the long run, especially if he is just going to die anyway. But he is loyal, so we can give it a try.

I expect him to now tag along and suck healing for the foreseeable future, because he's at 17/40HP or something. The handy thing about an 'serker, of course, is that it guarantees a kill that turn. The first 4xp were just on a whim, though.