Re: New Shrapnel game
 

OK, well, I just played through the first three missions again.
As such, here are my thoughts/ramblings:
If you use the same strategy every time for the first mission, the orcs will behave the same way. I was able to win several times quite easily by leaving the fort on the first turn (after buying troops), and just charging straight for the corner. That leaves the yellow player behind in the dust so that you only have to worry about the green guy, who is quite easy to demolish, what with your orange ally sending all his troops up to help out, and with nearly the whole map being covered with forests and elves being far superior when fighting in them.
The second mission is, admittedly, absurdly easy. I was actually able to win by just ending my turn 12 times and watching my ally clean up. Probably, though, the first couple missions are intentionally easy so that you can get the hang of the game a bit.
Heres my strategy for the third mission: Have Delfador and about 5 fighters go hold the west side of the map while you continually build more troops and head them around the mountains down to the south. The computer will send most of his guys north to where Delfador is, who can easily hold them off, thus leaving his leader relatively unprotected when your other troops get there.

I do remember the last mission being incredibly difficult in that campaign, though. I tried about 100 times and kept losing, so eventually resorted to a cheese tactic: reloading the autosave 10 times and re-running the turn until my troops got lucky.

The Dark Hordes campaign was really easy. I might play it again on the hardest difficulty; it was hardly even a challenge on the normal setting.

Now Im playing the Son of the Black Eye campaign, and am on a really impossible looking mission. Can anyone whos beaten it tell me how the hell you are supposed to win the 'Saving Inarix' mission in 16 turns??? At the rate Ive been going, it would take me 30...

Ah, I love this game. Ive been playing it 10 hours a day for the last couple weeks and am still not tired of it.

Re: New Shrapnel game
 

Geez! 10 hours a day? How do you keep your arm from falling off?

Re: New Shrapnel game
 

I'm amazed you can play the campaign for that long. I played the first 10-20 missions and then got bored. AI never got better it just made the player more and more disadvantaged. Thats why I dig multiplayer more. There is always a new challenge to adapt to.

With respect to the Wesnoth MP scene tho... I was sorely disappointed. It seemed like the majority of people I played with were very immature. Many would just drop a game outright if it was "too slow" or they worked themselves into a bad position.

Re: New Shrapnel game
 

It actually fell off about a year ago when I went on one too many 24 hour Counter-Strike binges, so Ive since then had a robotic one installed to replace it. Its quite nice; it has 0 encumbrance so it never gets any fatigue http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

The AI for Wesnoth is actually better than that for just about any other TBS game Ive seen. (With the possible exception of Galactic Civilizations)

Re: New Shrapnel game
 

Hey thanks for the strategy tips, Tauren13. But I meant the hardest level of difficulty -- I forget what it is called.

I still can't figure out how to win the 3rd scenario on the hardest level of difficulty.

Maybe I should just switch to the standard level of difficulty.

Well, really I should just get some MP action going...

Re: New Shrapnel game
 

A couple of new games are starting; come join!

Re: New Shrapnel game
 

wesnoth: there are hard missions and easy missions. if you get through a mission by sitting there clicking reload, it's REALLY going to hurt you later on. Later missions assume you have experienced units. Easy missions are where you get experience for units without them dying.

Re: New Shrapnel game
 

My problem with the experience system in Wesnoth is the same as in Age of Wonders. Your units only get substantial experience if they land the killing blow, which forces you into all kinds of gamey situations. Just dole out the experience evenly between units in a battle and I'd be much happier with both systems.

Re: New Shrapnel game
 

So you want your guys to get experience without having to actually do anything? What a great idea! Lets let you get all your troops leveled up without risk!

Re: New Shrapnel game
 

Your troops are at risk simply by being on the battlefield in AoW, and Wesnoth is much the same way. The problem with the system is, as I've already explained, that it leads to the ridiculously gamey situation where you run a single unit around killing off weakened opponents to gain experience. it goes far enough that you are usually better off _not_ killing something unless your hero is around, which is really quite ridiculous from a game design standpoint.