The mainline campaigns reviewed!

[Murgen]

Having played them all and beaten most of them, this is what I thought. MINOR spoilers ahead, with the biggest ones blanked out.

Dead Water
Gameplay: Average
Story: Bad

It was very different to play a water-based merfolk campaign, and mostly pretty fun. The "Uncharted Islands" scenario where you have to fight a horde of level 2 and 3 water-based monsters was kind of ridiculous in terms of difficulty, but the final level was a breeze thanks to the ability to recruit level 2 units. If it wasn't for "Uncharted Islands" I'd have rated the gameplay as "Good." The whole campaign revolves around trying to get to Tyegea but when you finally reach her she's kind of a jerk which was a letdown...

Tale of Two Brothers
Gameplay: Average
Story: Bad

A very short campaign designed to introduce new players to the game. It succeeds in this purpose but don't expect to be wowed by an epic storyline.

Descent Into Darkness
Gameplay: Average
Story: Good

A great storyline helps set this undead-themed campaign apart from the rest. This is one of the few campaigns in which you play a "bad guy" though he certainly has his reasons for doing what he does. The initial levels are a great introduction to the undead faction. I disliked the "Return to Parthyn" level because just as I was about to win a second optional objective was added to the level -- this is always a terrible thing because it screws up your troop deployment and recruitment for the entire level. The orc leader should have either appeared at the start of the level or after the primary objective had been completed. I also did not like the level in which you start alone as a lich because it's simply too easy to blunder into difficult enemies and/or get killed through no fault of your own by the RNG.

Rise of Wesnoth
Gameplay: Good
Story: Average

This long campaign introduces few new gameplay mechanics. But I enjoyed it because the levels were well-balanced (with one exception). Since this was one of the few long campaigns to leave your recall list intact I quite enjoyed building up an army of veterans. I did have two minor quibbles. I felt the second level "The Fall" was a little too difficult for being so early in the campaign. I also felt "The Dragon" level, in which you're pitted against a horde of saurians on terrain which is favorable to them, PLUS a deadly dragon, was by far the hardest level in the campaign, making the final battle look easy by comparison.

Northern Rebirth
Gameplay: Bad
Story: Average

A campaign featuring truly massive battles. Simply completing a single turn can take almost half an hour! While some people may like that, for me I felt the levels took too long. Plus there was an exploit with some unkillable white mages the player recruits. The player doesn't have to exploit this mechanic, but the difficulty sure seems to scale with the expectation that you will! I'm just not very keen on the player being given unkillable controllable units. The story was interesting and about midway through it branches into a "good" and "evil" path.

Legend of Wesmere
Gameplay: Average
Story: Average

I remember this for being the campaign that constantly messed around with my recall list. It seemed like every other level some plot reason would be given for messing with my recall list. Leave my recall list alone, already! Aside from that, it was a pretty solid elf campaign with some epic battles and some neat gameplay like using an invisibility potion for an assassination. I detested the "Costly Revenge" level, as with no healers and no villages the player is forced to attack aggressively using suicide waves of veteran units. Thus it's too dependent on the RNG for victory and I can easily see how it could be unbeatable for a player that made it to that level without enough veterans.

The South Guard
Gameplay: Average
Story: Bad

An introductory loyalist campaign for new players. There's nothing really new or exiting here (the story is boring) but the levels are solidly made. At the end there's a branching path.

Liberty
Gameplay: Good
Story: Average

Finally, an outlaw campaign, and well made too! The final battle in which you destroy a fortress was pretty cool.

Son of the Black Eye
Gameplay: Bad
Story: Average

The only orc campaign, and in my opinion the most difficult of all the mainline campaigns. I always felt I was short of gold, or short of turns, or both. After many attempts I made it about 2/3s of the way through the campaign before the RNG caught up with me and I got wiped out. Seriously, I think this is the only campaign that cannot be beaten without save-loading. Even if you make no mistakes and build up a formidable force of veterans you're going to be praying to RNGesus every level for victory. Since I refuse to save-load this is one of only two mainline campaigns I did not complete. Unless the difficulty is addressed in a future update I doubt I'll make another attempt.

An Orcish Incursion
Gameplay: Good
Story: Bad

An introductory elf campaign. I liked the first level in which the forest was set on fire - very innovative. Otherwise the battles are well made. The story is very lackluster though; ANOTHER orcish incursion? It seems like one third of the levels in this game have you dealing with some kind of orcish incursion or other!

Sceptre of Fire
Gameplay: Average
Story: Average

A dwarf campaign in which your primary enemy is elves! Now that's pretty unusual and the levels are pretty fun. I did encounter a pretty major bug in the final level. At the start of the level apparently every unit in my recall list was automatically recalled. I had so many units that they actually spilled over into both sealed caverns which weren't supposed to be opened up until later in the level! Two of my dwarves actually ended up stranded on a volcanic island! Also, I had actually dismissed units from my recall roster earlier not realizing I would get them for free later. So I can see how a player could make it to the final level and find it unbeatable because they didn't have enough units in their recall roster. The whole auto-recall mechanic should be looked at. I also found it laughable that the dwarves automatically assume in that level that the volcano has an auto-destruct glyph; there needs to be a better story explanation for that.

Heir To the Throne
Gameplay: Average
Story: Good

This campaign took me far longer to beat than it should have. The difficulty level was fine, but my predilection for rage-quitting a campaign after losing a loyal unit worked against me here, because this campaign has more loyal units than you can shake a stick at so some of them are inevitably going to die. This was the first Wesnoth campaign so the storyline was well fleshed-out with some nice artwork. On the "Gryphon Mountain" level I think it's possible for the enemy to kill the Mother Gryphon before you can even reach her which is problematic. Otherwise a very solid campaign with a few branching paths.

Under the Burning Suns
Gameplay: Bad
Story: Good

A cool new desert elf faction to play around with, plus neat desert mechanics like dehydration and new times of day! What's not to like? A lot, actually. You know there's a problem with "tomato surprises" in a campaign if the intro text actually warns you to keep multiple saves handy in case unexpected events happen! And boy do they ever! It's one tomato surprise after another! For example on the 3rd level my objective was to resist for 12 turns. I recruited and deployed my troops accordingly and on turn 11 I was congratulating myself on an impressive victory. Then turn 12 comes and SURPRISE the victory conditions changed and I have to keep fighting! AND one of my best units suddenly and unexpectedly defects to the other side. AND the orc leader which I had been ignoring because of my imminent victory now is able to walk onto my keep and recruit a massive army in my rear! So in one turn I went from "impressive victory" to "massive casualties and possible defeat imminent." Rage quit. For someone who hates save-loading as much as I do, this campaign is unplayable.

Hammer of Thursagen
Gameplay: Average
Story: Average

It's a fun dwarf campaign with a variety of enemies to fight. I enjoyed it up until the last level, which I remember as being a tedious slog through an endless horde of undead.

Delfador's Memiors
Gameplay: Bad
Story: Average

It's a mage-based campaign with initially short levels that usually have a twist to them. For example in one level there are runestones that summon undead; you can either try and hold out or smash the stones. I liked the whole concept of visiting the Land of the Dead too. I did not like the "Ur-Thorodor" level, as you have basically no choice but to rush a bunch of dangerous woses while on extremely unfavorable water/open terrain and pray that RNGesus is kind to you. This is another campaign that constantly messes with your recall roster unfortunately. Also the difficulty level was all over the place. The third scenario was very difficult, pitting you against a horde of orcish assassins while you have only a few villages for healing. The last half of the campaign was pretty easy however...

The Eastern Invasion
Gameplay: Average
Story: Bad

Go fight some undead! And then orcs. And then more undead. Blah! This campaign needed more variety with its enemies. I liked the level in which you have to flush out bandits that are hiding in villages while simultaneously holding off an undead attack. The story doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, I'm the freaking border patrol right, but I spend the first half of the campaign not warning Wesnoth of a massive invasion but instead running away from the invaders? Seriously?

Secrets of the Ancients
Gameplay: Average
Story: Average

An undead campaign that starts out strong but falters towards the end. The first levels are fun as you do necromancer type-stuff -- raiding a cemetery at night, creating new types of undead and so forth. I liked the battle on the ship; just having a ship to fight on was pretty neat. On "The Mage" level I encountered a minor bug. The white mage bodyguards aren't summoned until you recruit undead, but I didn't recruit undead until turn 2, resulting in the bodyguards spawning in the wrong location due to the normal location being occupied by the mage's recruits. I disliked "Abandoned Outpost" because at the end there's a horde of 9 level 3 spiders blocking your path but there's two side paths. So I figured, "Surely I can't be meant to bludgeon my way through such a threat, the objective is only for my leaders to reach the exit, so I'll just take the side paths and use my ghosts to block pursuit." Well, it turns out one of the side paths is a dead end and the other leads right back to the spider chamber so I ended up running out of time. So the level objective might as well have been to kill all enemies.

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That's my two cents! I did not review the downloadable add-on content, some of which is very high quality.

[quincy2112]

Throw on some spoiler tags? Other than that nice writeups!

[Murgen]

Thank you! Spoiler tags added!

[endeschluss]

This is rather vague rating

[Vlad the Impala]

Pretty sure they updated Hammer of Thursagan's final scenario so that it is no longer a mini-campaign of cave-crawler slog.

[Murgen]

Originally posted by Staplerfahrer Klaus:

Pretty sure they updated Hammer of Thursagan's final scenario so that it is no longer a mini-campaign of cave-crawler slog.

I checked and that level has been completely redone. It is still a long level (60+ turns) but it isn't as bad as it was originally.