Wesnoth is kind of overrated, and here's why.

I'll give it credit for being an open-source turn-based strategy game available on Linux. Unfortunately, the game itself is an unfair mess with bad writing. You may think "Hey, I don't play a freeware strategy game for the brilliant story", and I respect that, but the writing in the campaigns is still bad. Suffice to say that ripping off Tolkien is perhaps one of the easiest things to do in the world of writing, and yet Wesnoth doesn't do it well.


The gameplay on its surface is like if Civilization and Fire Emblem had a baby. That's not a bad thing in and of itself, but Wesnoth's primary sin is that its combat revolves around insidious, RNG-based attack odds. You cannot be sure of any of your strategies working to any realistic degree, because you can do every move completely right and still lose because the dice said so, and there's basically nothing you can do in terms of preventing that. What this ends up meaning is that luck is more than an enjoyable factor, but a frustratingly deciding factor, especially in multiplayer.

In fairness, one thing I do like about Wesnoth's combat is that unit alignments factor into the time of day for damage modifiers, which gives it a neat rhythm. It doesn't save the game though; the fact that there are only arguably two factors for whether attacks hit at all still makes fighting very tedious.

As for the campaigns... Units in Wesnoth earn XP, and if they earn enough, you can upgrade them to better, stronger units along various promotion trees. To stand a chance of finishing most campaigns, you must carry over a number of promoted units, and a stockpile of money, through each mission. Actually getting them promoted and then having them survive over multiple missions, however, is an exercise in tedious masochism because of the nature of combat. You also acquire much of your gold by beating missions early, yet in many cases you're playing too cautiously to really get enough because you're going in blind. It's worse when you realize that you almost always have to be attacking, so no camping or grinding, and that the AI gets free units that grow in strength because the campaigns assume you're continuously bringing veteran units despite no guarantee you'll have them.

If you didn't play optimally enough, too bad, hope you enjoy getting stonewalled by unbeatable elite armies. Not to mention some missions outright assume you have a certain army composition, and if you don't, you can either go replay entire missions to fix that or get slaughtered because you don't have the right army for the mission. Now, Wesnoth is open source, so surely someone could go and change these murderously unforgiving attack odds a bit, right? Not so. The developers claim that gameplay revolving primarily around luck...as opposed to, say, good mission design, or strategy one can master...makes for a more tactical and enjoyable experience. Okay then.

Since I first wrote this review, there's been a new "biased RNG" option added to play campaigns with, which alleviates the issue by making combat outcomes more in line with the displayed chances you actually see. It's probably best to play with this option, and only this option.


The other bad part of Wesnoth is the writing. It's largely a ripoff of Tolkien, and the majority of the campaigns are derivative pap because of it. The disdain for orcs, and to an extent elf fetishism, in the flavor text is also pretty stupid.

The human Master Bowman, a level 3 unit that represents the peak of their faction's ranged capability, is more or less summed up[units.wesnoth.org] as "Yeah they're not total noobs with their sword. And they're almost as pro as an elf. Almost. Totes jelly."

The orcs get the worst of it though; in accordance with standard Lazy Tolkienesque Lore they're more often than not portrayed as beastly brutes rather than a sapient race. The description for the level 3 Orcish Slurbow is more about the unit's weapon than the unit itself[units.wesnoth.org]. You know, a level 3 unit who is doubtlessly a skilled veteran of many battles. Also, no description in the Orcish Archer line mentions their incendiary arrows. No other faction makes use of them, and they are very handy if you happen to be playing as the orcs.

The description for the Orcish Sovereign, a level 3 unit and one of the few orc units that has the Leadership skill, advocates killing them off[units.wesnoth.org], lest they become equal to the other races!

The Elvish Lady[units.wesnoth.org], a level 3 elf unit meant to represent a leader, has no attacks whatsoever and yet still has over twice the HP of a goblin spearman? Miss me with that, thanks.

Wesnoth's open-source nature is somewhat of a curative here: the descriptions used to be even worse about the elf fetishism and orc racism. There's also the ability to straight up make your own campaign or even fork of the game, and write what you want instead.


Overall, if you really need a free strategy game that runs on Linux...I guess you could give Wesnoth a try if you like fantasy. I will give it credit for trying to address the concerns I've brought up here since I first wrote this review. It still wouldn't be my first choice for a free turn-based strategy game - that would be a copy of X-COM with OpenXcom instead.

(Also it still has no Steam overlay and that's stupid.)

Wesnoth is kind of overrated, and here's why. I'll give it credit for being an open-source turn-based strategy game available on Linux. Unfortunately, the game itself is an unfair mess with bad writing. You may think "Hey, I don't play a freeware strategy game for the brilliant story", and I respect that, but the writing in the campaigns is still bad. Suffice to say that ripping off Tolkien is perhaps one of the easiest things to do in the world of writing, and yet Wesnoth doesn't do it well. The gameplay on its surface is like if Civilization and Fire Emblem had a baby. That's not a bad thing in and of itself, but Wesnoth's primary sin is that its combat revolves around insidious, RNG-based attack odds. You cannot be sure of any of your strategies working to any realistic degree, because you can do every move completely right and still lose because the dice said so, and there's basically nothing you can do in terms of preventing that. What this ends up meaning is that luck is more than an enjoyable factor, but a frustratingly deciding factor, especially in multiplayer. In fairness, one thing I [i]do[/i] like about Wesnoth's combat is that unit alignments factor into the time of day for damage modifiers, which gives it a neat rhythm. It doesn't save the game though; the fact that there are only arguably two factors for whether attacks hit at all still makes fighting very tedious. As for the campaigns... Units in Wesnoth earn XP, and if they earn enough, you can upgrade them to better, stronger units along various promotion trees. To stand a chance of finishing most campaigns, you must carry over a number of promoted units, and a stockpile of money, through each mission. [u]Actually getting them promoted and then having them survive over multiple missions, however, is an exercise in tedious masochism because of the nature of combat.[/u] You also acquire much of your gold by beating missions early, yet in many cases you're playing too cautiously to really get enough because you're going in blind. It's worse when you realize that you almost always have to be attacking, so no camping or grinding, and that the AI gets free units that grow in strength [i]because the campaigns assume you're continuously bringing veteran units despite no guarantee you'll have them[/i]. If you didn't play optimally enough, too bad, hope you enjoy getting stonewalled by unbeatable elite armies. Not to mention some missions outright assume you have a certain army composition, and if you don't, you can either go replay entire missions to fix that or get slaughtered because you don't have the right army for the mission. Now, Wesnoth is open source, so surely someone could go and change these murderously unforgiving attack odds a bit, right? Not so. The developers claim that gameplay revolving primarily around luck...as opposed to, say, good mission design, or strategy one can master...makes for a more tactical and enjoyable experience. Okay then. Since I first wrote this review, there's been a new "biased RNG" option added to play campaigns with, which alleviates the issue by making combat outcomes more in line with the displayed chances you actually see. It's probably best to play with this option, and only this option. The other bad part of Wesnoth is the writing. It's largely a ripoff of Tolkien, and the majority of the campaigns are derivative pap because of it. The disdain for orcs, and to an extent elf fetishism, in the flavor text is also pretty stupid. The human Master Bowman, a level 3 unit that represents the peak of their faction's ranged capability, is [url=https://units.wesnoth.org/1.14/mainline/en_US/Master%20Bowman.html]more or less summed up[/url] as "Yeah they're not total noobs with their sword. And they're almost as pro as an elf. Almost. Totes jelly." The orcs get the worst of it though; in accordance with standard Lazy Tolkienesque Lore they're more often than not portrayed as beastly brutes rather than a sapient race. The description for the level 3 Orcish Slurbow is more about [url=https://units.wesnoth.org/1.14/mainline/en_US/Orcish%20Slurbow.html]the unit's weapon than the unit itself[/url]. You know, a level 3 unit who is doubtlessly a skilled veteran of many battles. Also, no description in the Orcish Archer line mentions their incendiary arrows. No other faction makes use of them, and they are very handy if you happen to be playing as the orcs. The description for the Orcish Sovereign, a level 3 unit and one of the few orc units that has the Leadership skill, [url=https://units.wesnoth.org/1.14/mainline/en_US/Orcish%20Sovereign.html]advocates [i]killing them off[/i][/url], lest they become equal to the other races! The [url=https://units.wesnoth.org/1.14/mainline/en_US/Elvish%20Lady.html]Elvish Lady[/url], a level 3 elf unit meant to represent a leader, has no attacks whatsoever and yet still has over twice the HP of a goblin spearman? Miss me with that, thanks. Wesnoth's open-source nature is somewhat of a curative here: the descriptions used to be even worse about the elf fetishism and orc racism. There's also the ability to straight up make your own campaign or even fork of the game, and write what you want instead. Overall, if you really need a free strategy game that runs on Linux...I [i]guess[/i] you could give Wesnoth a try if you like fantasy. I will give it credit for trying to address the concerns I've brought up here since I first wrote this review. It still wouldn't be my first choice for a free turn-based strategy game - that would be a copy of X-COM with OpenXcom instead. (Also it still has no Steam overlay and that's stupid.)