In Hearth of Durn-Turum - dwarvish SP/MP campaign!

[dwarftough]

The ancient dwarf kingdom of Durn-Turum was destroyed by the elves many years ago, but according to legends, its ruins still hide many secrets and treasures. For the dwarf Yabim, these legends have become a lifelong goal. Embark on an expedition, overcome challenges and light a fire in the hearth of Durn-Turum!

Mechanical and I have created a new campaign "In Hearth of Durn-Turum". It's a hybrid campaign, can be played both singleplayer and multiplayer (for 2 players).

The campaign offers you 6 interesting scenarios. Each of them is created with special attention to gameplay. You will have to show your tactical skill to overcome all the challenges. In the cooperative mode, players should think about cooperation and division of responsibilities to achieve an optimal result.

All scenarios are made with special attention to detail, beautiful maps, lively dialogues and beautiful special effects will make the fulfillment of tactical tasks enjoyable. While playing you'll learn the lore of the ancient conflict between the first races of the Great Continent.

We'll be glad to read your feedback and suggestions and, of course, watch your replays!

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[white_haired_uncle]

Forget to set the rank?

S1: I returned a piece of wood, checked the objectives, 1/12. Later I got the "half way" message. It's now turn 21 and I'm thinking I've got to be getting pretty close (wood == 10 BTW), so I check the objectives: 0/12. So I start loading old saves to see what is up, and every one of them has 0/12. I even went back to the one where I dropped off my first load, and sure enough, 0/12 after dropping it off. I did win when I dropped off load 12.

Also, "dwarven village" is probably ambiguous (assuming the type of the village in the caves is "dwarven", which I don't know and wouldn't expect a player to automatically know). If I own a village in the woods, is that not a "dwarven village"?

[dwarftough]

Forget to set the rank?

It's probable. What things does it affect?

Regarding objectives, it's a known issue but it's kinda strange, in our runs we encountered it when we reloaded a save and, when played in multiplayer, it affected side 1 only, not side 2. I hope to find out some solution or workaround for this

Also, "dwarven village" is probably ambiguous (assuming the type of the village in the caves is "dwarven", which I don't know and wouldn't expect a player to automatically know). If I own a village in the woods, is that not a "dwarven village"?

No, villages are checked by the terrain type, not the owner. You should bring wood in a village in your caves

[white_haired_uncle]

rank determines where the campaign shows up in the campaign list. Yours shows up in the middle of the mainline campaigns.

Since I've never seen that delayed_variable_substitution, or this problem...?

I figured out which villages to use, just pointing out that the objectives are not clear.

S2: Could we get an image thingy when a troll is in flee mode? My coal is stuck at 7 (coal == 15). This one just isn't fun at all. The trolls come at me in huge mobs. I can't make any progress at all going after them. It's nice that they're obsessed with monsters, but that just means the trolls get plenty of advancements. I got to turn 27, but I'm not making any progress getting close to the rest of the coal (the opposite actually), and the number of trolls just keeps rising.

S3&4: Both are pretty easy to lose before you can even get there to do anything about it.

[dwarftough]

rank determines where the campaign shows up in the campaign list. Yours shows up in the middle of the mainline campaigns.

Since I've never seen that delayed_variable_substitution, or this problem...?

I figured out which villages to use, just pointing out that the objectives are not clear.

S2: Could we get an image thingy when a troll is in flee mode? My coal is stuck at 7 (coal == 15). This one just isn't fun at all. The trolls come at me in huge mobs. I can't make any progress at all going after them. It's nice that they're obsessed with monsters, but that just means the trolls get plenty of advancements. I got to turn 27, but I'm not making any progress getting close to the rest of the coal (the opposite actually), and the number of trolls just keeps rising.

Yeah, makes sense, we'll add an image overlay for scared trolls. Can you send a replay/save? Red trolls get a lot of experience but in our test runs we didn't have much trouble in the latest version of this scenario, levelling some veterans on the yellow troll

[white_haired_uncle]

Okay, maybe S4 isn't so easy to lose. The first three caravans died, of course, and the objects under defeat show 3/3, but I'm still alive.

Take the save with a lot of salt, I pretty much lost interest pretty quickly. And I messed around a little, trying things like causing a troll to flee and then trapping him with zoc just to see what happens (still don't know, playing on ludicrous speed probably doesn't help).

Without taking S3 very seriously: Maybe lose the rocklobbers. Thunderdork misses, gets hit in retaliation = he's dead, and now I have to recruit another and spend the time moving him to the front. And since the AI is obsessed with killing my miners, 19 gold may be a bit expensive for them.

[dwarftough]

Okay, maybe S4 isn't so easy to lose. The first three caravans died, of course, and the objects under defeat show 3/3, but I'm still alive.

Take the save with a lot of salt, I pretty much lost interest pretty quickly. And I messed around a little, trying things like causing a troll to flee and then trapping him with zoc just to see what happens (still don't know, playing on ludicrous speed probably doesn't help).

Without taking S3 very seriously: Maybe lose the rocklobbers. Thunderdork misses, gets hit in retaliation = he's dead, and now I have to recruit another and spend the time moving him to the front. And since the AI is obsessed with killing my miners, 19 gold may be a bit expensive for them.

Oh, S4 is a bug, we'll fix it. But tbh S4 seemed too easy in our runs, you can bring your troops forward and block the elves, we lost 1 caravan usually if any.

About S3, can you elaborate on what the troubles are? We had a problem with Rurik going outside of his keep to shoot trolls and then die from their blows, but we should've fixed it, he sits still in this version.

I've watched your replay, you seemed to spread out a bit too much (your lone levelled units got killed alone easily). I saw you tried to kill the yellow troll but didn't succeed. Maybe it was worth to move more troops towards him first. Although I think Troll Warrior as the leader was probably too much, gonna nerf him to be an ordinary 2 lvl troll. Also 5 miners, maybe that was too much? Won't 2 or 3 be enough? We did test runs with a relatively low number of miners.

Btw, we would appreciate saves for each of scenarios you played, cause we want to see how it goes for players, it's a bit challenging playtesting properly when you know all the gimmick and so know what to do

[dwarftough]

1.0.1 version has been released, mostly bugfixes and improvements based on feedback

Changes:

• fixed objectives with variables
• nerfed enemies in s2, also added a helpful overlay
• fixed lose condition in s4
• clarified some objectives, added extra notes and bonus objectives notices
• added some extra dialogues about tactics
• fixed some typos

Further feedback and replays are highly appreciated

[dwarftough]

Without taking S3 very seriously: Maybe lose the rocklobbers. Thunderdork misses, gets hit in retaliation = he's dead, and now I have to recruit another and spend the time moving him to the front. And since the AI is obsessed with killing my miners, 19 gold may be a bit expensive for them.

We nerfed S2 on easy and normal: Troll instead of Troll Warrior for the yellow side, no Rocklobbers, a bit less starting gold and income

[white_haired_uncle]

About S3, can you elaborate on what the troubles are? We had a problem with Rurik going outside of his keep to shoot trolls and then die from their blows, but we should've fixed it, he sits still in this version.

He got hit pretty good by a couple whelps on I believe turn 1. By the time I could get to him, he was pretty well surrounded. There wasn't much room for me to put my units in place to defend him besides planting myself in his castle and on his villages. But at the rate the enemy was swarming, with a little ill luck he could have easily been dead before I ever got to him.

I've watched your replay, you seemed to spread out a bit too much (your lone levelled units got killed alone easily). I saw you tried to kill the yellow troll but didn't succeed. Maybe it was worth to move more troops towards him first. Although I think Troll Warrior as the leader was probably too much, gonna nerf him to be an ordinary 2 lvl troll. Also 5 miners, maybe that was too much? Won't 2 or 3 be enough? We did test runs with a relatively low number of miners.

I went in for a look, and pretty quickly decided it wasn't worth trying to approach the leader, even if I went in in force (not that I really had the gold for that IMO). It seemed like pretty much all I could do to hold the line to keep him away from my castle while rotating units to heal after they get crushed. At that point I assumed the idea was to go around.

I still don't know what it means for a troll to flee. Retreat for one turn, or leave the battlefield? Once I scare one, if it's seriously hurt, should I kill it or will it get in the way of its teammates? I suspect knowing this is important since they regenerate (if they're just going to run away and heal, I'm better off going for kills, if one hit is enough to take them off the board then I need to spread the hits out (well, unless the enemy can just recruit new ones)).

I think 5 miners was pretty reasonable, since I'd never seen the map, and I assumed they'd have to return with the coal like in S1. Also, they're not very durable and the AI seems to like to target them, so if I had just 2 or 3 every time one died I'd be out several turns before a new one could catch up. And as it turned out, I kind of had to take chances with them or I'd never get any coal.

I probably fell behind a little at the beginning since I assumed it would be my scouts (again) doing the collecting.

Spoiler:

Once I saw the trolls and monsters fighting, I realized I probably shouldn't have spread out so much, but sent a couple better defended forces to grab coal where they were distracted by each other. Not sure how that would have worked with the turn limit though. I don't like starting over to try a new approach, so eventually I just cheated to kill 30 of the trolls.

But tbh S4 seemed too easy in our runs, you can bring your troops forward and block the elves, we lost 1 caravan usually if any.

Except for the fact that the caravans are pretty much dead before I get there, yeah. By turn 3, I've got a couple rangers blocking me in (well, I could send some units to go out another exit, but it's too late for that). A turn or two to clear the opening, and the elves are attacking the caravans while I'm two or three turns from reaching them.

Spoiler:

I suppose if I started running for the red team on turn two, I might get some units past the elves (of course, whether that makes a difference may depend on how many rider/scouts they have). Perhaps. But if the difference in a scenario comes down to whether I start running on turn one or two...

[Mechanical]

About S4: I decided to go through it from your save, using your gold and veterans.

The main thing in this mission is to get to the battlefield as soon as possible, so you should take more scouts at the beginning and call your veterans on the lower hexes (closer to the battlefield), thus saving a whole turn to move them.

Both protagonists can recruit, a feature that can be used to recruit units even closer to the battlefield. I moved Yabim to the left castle, it didn't take long because he is fast, and allowed me to bring a pack of fighters to the caravans in a shorter time. I lost 2 caravans, but passed the mission.

[Mechanical]

I tested how much of an impact early leader movement has. The test showed that the scenario is passable even without leader movement at all. I was able to pass it with your veterans without losing caravans.

[Mechanical]

Patch 1.0.2 released.

Changes:

- improved map and lighting in scenario 2, now the player will have more tools to confront enemies
- improved graphics and QoL features related to resource extraction
- Adjusted enemy recruitment depending on the difficulty level in scenario 4
- Changed the difficulty level in the description and in the campaign selection menu. The campaign is now rated as "for experienced players" (which corresponds to The Sceptre of Fire and The Rise of Wesnoth).

[dwarftough]

Except for the fact that the caravans are pretty much dead before I get there, yeah. By turn 3, I've got a couple rangers blocking me in (well, I could send some units to go out another exit, but it's too late for that). A turn or two to clear the opening, and the elves are attacking the caravans while I'm two or three turns from reaching them.

I watched your replay and I think you could absolute have made it in time, even without leader movement, even recruiting the units you recruited on the hexes you recruited if you, quite paradoxically, hold a bit and moved one-two hexes back on turn 2.

That's your placement on turn 2

Then rangers block you

And that's how you start turn 4, indeed very late

Now, let's suppose you hold back a bit on turn 2 (other units have the same placements, the leaders don't move)

This way you don't trigger rangers, so turn 3 you end up like this

And now on turn 4 you have this

A pretty comfortable position, and it's even with 110 gold, no extra recruiting after turn 1 and no leaders moving.

[dwarftough]

Here also a save of what happens till turn 6, playing this way