[AAR] Sli Therine in the woods

“Drums of War” - is a turn-based tactical strategy game boasting well developed combat system and interactive environment, providing wide opportunities for tactics.

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Tamas
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[AAR] Sli Therine in the woods

Post by Tamas »

Hi All,

Drums of War has two excellent campaigns coming with the game. Each around 30 missions, they are well made, balanced, and offer a good challenge (and a pretty hard challenge leaving little room for error in judgement if you use the "Iron Will" option).
To really show off what the game is capable of in terms of variety and tactical situations, I should AAR some of these scenarios.

The scenario below has very little of those qualities, as it has been made by me.

It was my first real attempt at creating something using the in-built campaign editor. I did not put much time into it (took less than 10 minutes), and the only expertise I can claim is using my memories of the original campaigns in trying to match the number of own units with the enemies.

Yet, I decided to share this with you, so you can see what somebody with no talent or time investment in scenario design can do in the editor within ten minutes. :)

The scenario shows an encounter in the life of the great hero, Sli Therine! Let's get started, and play it!


First thing you do when starting a campaign (and between missions of a campaign), is assemble and equip your forces.

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I have only set the army size at 3, so I have room for two more beside my hero. I know I will be outnumbered, so I have chosen two Swordsmen, who shall be keeping the enemy at bay while my hero does much of the killing.
You can also see the two red healing potions with each of my units. Far from being the only potion type available, but a safe bet for this situation.

With my mighty force of one hero plus two mercenaries assembled, the campaign is launched, and I get to see where the first (and in this case, only) mission is taking place:


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Clicking on the shield I am exposed to my mission background story:


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So, it is Sli Therine's little team versus a bunch of Greenskins. Next step is placing my units on the map. Here is how I have done it:


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Now, the basic plan here is that I will try to get Sli Therine behind the two armored Orcs, and ideally take out the Goblin Shaman ASAP.
Shamans are annoying when they get to support their troops from behind:


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Hopefully that Net Catcher goblin up front will not stop me!

To be honest, this is not my first try of this scenario of mine. My previous attempt ended up with the AI being able to block my access to it's shaman, which kept units alive for long, which ended up with me barely being able to win, with only Sli Therine hanging on to dear life by the time he defeated the last opponent.
So this time I want to avoid this.



TURN 1

I sent Sli Therine on his left to charge the archer there, but he had no points left to actually attack the goblin.
The two swordsmen were sent against the Net Catcher. Their main role was, of course, to draw fire.

Which they did. Below you can see the map at the start of Turn 2. The Swordsman I have selected was the target of everyone except for one of the Armored Orcs, who rushed to protect the goblin archer from Sli Therine.


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TURN 2

Sli Therine moved past the orc to hit the goblin archer rather hard, while his swordsmen attacked the other orc and the Net Catcher. The latter greenskin got damaged, but I am starting to realise that my swordsmen are not really a match against the orcs one on one. Or rather, too close a match for comfort.

The ranged greenskins shared their fire between my two swordsmen, which is nice as it means the shaman was not healing anybody yet.

End of turn 2:


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TURN 3

Glory to Sli Therine! The damaged goblin archer has been finished off thanks to Sli's brutal Charge ability (see screenshot below). One of his swordsmen managed to severly injury the meager Net Catcher, but it was to no avail as the shaman quickly healed the annoying little guy.
The other swordsman managed to hurt his orc enemy a bit.

Overall, a pretty good turn! Unfortunately Sli Therine will have to wait 4 turns for his Charge ability to, well, re-charge, but the way is open to the shaman, so this advantage must be pressed!


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TURN 4

I have sent my swordsmen to keep the melee orcs occupied so they will not think about backstabbing Sli Therine.

I believe my plan is working perfectly, and with Sli attacking and damaging the shaman this turn, the skirmish is heavily turning to my favour, even if the shaman managed to heal himself.

I also have luck on my side, as the otherwise rather annoying goblin archers has kept missing most of their shots, and there is only one of them alive now of course.

As you can see below, the Net Catcher managed to throw a net on Sli Therine, but it is too late, he is already attacking the key enemy, the shaman!

End of turn 4:


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TURN 5

Another big damage on the shaman, who stepped back and shot at Sli but missed. One of my swordsmen is in a bit of trouble, as with his hit points about halfway down, he has caught a net and now unable to drink one of his healing potions.

No special plan for this turn: keep the orcs wanting to face my mercenaries, while Sli Therine finishes off the shaman.

End of turn 5:


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TURN 6

The goblin shaman is dead! This has to be the decisive moment in this little battle, and what remains is the mop-up, especially as I am starting to feel sorry for the goblin archer: he keeps missing my injured swordsman, so against all odds, the guy is still fighting.

End of turn 6:


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TURN 7

Flawless execution of the plan continues: Sli Therine attacks the last remaining archer and causes big damage to him, damage that cannot be healed now with the shaman gone.

The injured swordsman got into really bad shape so he will spend the next turn drinking one of his health potions.

End of turn 7:


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TURN 8

Sli Therine almost finished the goblin archer, who in turn damaged our hero slightly, in a desperate effort to avoid his cruel fate. With the previously troubled swordsman have been mostly healed by the potion, now it is the other one who is in serious trouble: lacking health points, and under a net!

End of turn 8:


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TURN 9

As expected, the goblin archer was slain, and Sli Therine turned around the tree the goblin was trying to hide behind, hurrying to save his swordsman. Too late though! The orc facing the poor guy finished the job, and started moving toward the other swordsman.

End of turn 9:


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TURN 10

Sli Therine caught up with the killer of his companion, and damaged him, while the still surviving swordsman used up his second health potion to ensure he would see the end of this battle.
The greenskinks, on the other hand, managed little.

End of turn 10:


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TURN 11

A very indecisive turn, with Sli's orc enemy receiving an other big damage but holding on to life dearly. With the map looking almost exactly the same, no screenshot for this turn!

TURN 12

The killer orc finally met his end at the tip of Sli's sword, and now our hero is rushing to aid of his companion. The remaining greenskins stand no chance!

End of turn 12:


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TURN 13

Our hero used his Push ability on the remaining orc, just for the heck of it, while his companion kept up and slashing away at the orc. The battle is near it's finish.

End of turn 13:


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TURN 14

The second orc finally has been slain, which was a joyous occasion for Sli: having killed 5 greenskins, he acquired the Greenskin Hunter ability, which would follow him on to further missions of this campaign (if there were any):

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From here, slaying the Net Catcher is just mere formality of course, and at Turn 16, the mission ended with a victory!
Here is my glorious end-of-mission message, with a bonus typo!

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And the statistics. Note that there is zero gold reward because I did not set any in the mission settings:

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Note that as far as I am aware, "allies" in the statistics mean the various NPCs that you can meet and add to your team during a campaign, and not the regular mercenary units which I had as companions.

As a further thought on the end result and the battle in general, I should had kept notes of my first playthrough as well, it would have been a nice showcase of what difference suiting tactics make in the game


Well, I hope it was enjoyable. I certainly enjoyed my two playthroughs of it, which -as I mentioned- is made especially nice by the fact that it took me no real effort to set this thing up. As such, I have only shown you the surface of this game!
generalgonzo
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Re: [AAR] Sli Therine in the woods

Post by generalgonzo »

That looks really promising and exactly to my taste.
When is release date planned and is there maybe a beta to participate in ? I think I already registered for it but didn´t received any invitation yet :-(
Tamas
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Re: [AAR] Sli Therine in the woods

Post by Tamas »

generalgonzo wrote:That looks really promising and exactly to my taste.
When is release date planned and is there maybe a beta to participate in ? I think I already registered for it but didn´t received any invitation yet :-(
Release is imminent, and as such the beta test for it has been finished. We had a very good response for our beta tester recruitment, so not everyone interested could get in. Thank you for your interest, and keep an eye out for news on the game. ;)
Ron42na
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Re: [AAR] Sli Therine in the woods

Post by Ron42na »

Tamas wrote:
generalgonzo wrote:That looks really promising and exactly to my taste.
When is release date planned and is there maybe a beta to participate in ? I think I already registered for it but didn´t received any invitation yet :-(
Release is imminent, and as such the beta test for it has been finished. We had a very good response for our beta tester recruitment, so not everyone interested could get in. Thank you for your interest, and keep an eye out for news on the game. ;)
Any chance this will make it to the iPad?
Vladimir1979
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Re: [AAR] Sli Therine in the woods

Post by Vladimir1979 »

Hello
It is not planned to port on iPad by now.
Maybe in sequel...
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