Battle for Wesnoth. Newbie guide.

With some games that I have had more extensive experience with, I may post some "newbie" guides, giving some advice to help people get started in the games, or get further into them.

There are a wealth of more thorough resources out there, so these should be seen as more of an introductory nature.

To kick off this type of column, we will take a deeper look at Battle for Wesnoth, reviewed here

While the game's tutorials are quite good, there are a number of smaller facts that can easily be missed, and from my experiences in playing the game in multi-player, some of these are worth discussing.

In no particular order:

Protect your units
This seems quite obvious, but it's surprisingly easy to forget. The AI in particular has a nasty habit of piling on a single, wounded unit, which can easily cause the loss of a highly experienced unit, or injure them so badly they have to fall back, removing them from the action for several turns.
When you plan your moves, examine what enemy units can reach you, and how many. Avoid positions that expose you to a wave of attacks.
A high ranking hero may be able to cut down multiple zombies or other "cannon fodder" with ease, but he'll also take successive amounts of damage while doing so.

If the enemy has units that can move past your zones of control, be especially wary of leaving holes, as even units behind your main line can be vulnerable.

Examine the odds
Another "obvious" piece of advice that is very easy to forget. We get ourselves fired up to attack a particular enemy unit, and miss that the odds are stacked heavily against us. While random luck can benefit you, over the course of a battle, it always evens out. Examine the situation in front of you, and ensure that damage taken will be worthwhile.

Use terrain
Many units have terrain types they do particularly well or poorly in. Make sure to understand this, and use it to your advantage. Elves can often use areas of forest as "islands" of defensive positions. Leapfrog from area to area, drawing enemies into the unfavourable terrain feature. Here they'll be slowed down, and you can strike them with superior forces.
Likewise, a difficult or unfavourable terrain feature can be used as an anchor to your position. Let's say you are forming a short battle line with a small holding force. Placed in the open, they are prone to being outflanked or simply bypassed, but if their flank is connected to a terrain feature, this becomes much harder to do.
Dense terrain can also help hold an enemy back while you fall back.

Move in formation
Units can support each other, both directly and indirectly. Keep your units in formation so they do not get picked off individually, reinforcements can move up to replace weak or destroyed units, and you can direct multiple attacks at tough, individual enemies.
A solid battle line can pin the enemy in place, while faster troops move around his flanks.

Regenerating enemies
If the enemy has units that regenerate, realize that it's worthless fighting them unless you can inflict more damage than they can recover. If this is not the case, fall back, or simply try to ignore them. This also goes for units in villages.

Pelt them with arrows
In the main campaign, you have loads of elves at your disposal. In many cases, it may be worthwhile to rely on ranged attacks, even for melee type of elf units. The reason is that this lets you inflict damage in your own turn, without taking damage in return. In the opponents turn, they'll attack you in melee, inflicting damage on you, but also taking damage in return. Thus, you are inflicting more damage, on average, than they are.

Of course, this is situational. Sometimes an enemy needs to be destroyed faster, or you are facing enemy missile troops.


Hope these basic tips help you get more out of Wesnoth. Happy hunting General!