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I used to feel like this too.

Then I understood I just had bad tactics.

If you fight the right way (cover every units' back, use beefier units to guard weaker ones) you don't suffer from bad luck nearly so much because you don't hang on the edge and can stand few bad blows.



"bad tactics"

If you remove the morality and ethical language, I have had some fun answering questions experimentally along the lines of "is it even theoretically possible even with save scumming to (insert unusual and adventurous idea/tactic here)" Yes I'm quite literate and I understand the scenario is trying to railroad me into following a certain very narrow track of gameplay, but I want to explore well outside that narrow track. Or rephrased, my idea of a fun "narrow track of tactics" doesn't map identically to a scenario designers "narrow track of tactics"

This is a fundamental moral / ethical difference between computer based (mmo)RPGs and paper/pencil RPGs, on the computer creativity is seen as inherently wrong, and on paper/pencil creativity is seen as correct. There's probably a startup idea or two buried in there. The world already has too many rules lawyer paper games, but a computer game that rewards creativity without turning into a themeless story free sandbox is a somewhat unsolved problem. There do exist some, especially historical, but to say its an underserved market would be an understatement.


I remember there was a patch or a setting to Wesnoth that removed all randomness from the game.

I.e. every attack chance is now 100% and every damage is now oldchance * olddamage. I guess it supported fractional HP.

You might try that if you want to get very creative with your tactics.


I remember something about an option turn_limit: -1 to shut off turn limits, I went thru a phase of "can 3 archers win the scenario" and the answer was often yes, but it sometimes exceeded the totally arbitrary turn limit.

You can create a whole new game out of the intended game that way where it turns into something like a counterinsurgency game where you battle for the hearts and minds (well, at least the hearts) of the gold generating villages.

There's a lot of interesting railroad track in the game, but if you step off the tracks there is also interesting land that doesn't have a track on it, thats not even on the map. It can be turned into an imperfect sandbox, and that itself is a metagame to find the "best" way to convert it.


Unless you're playing against a human opponent who is very close in skill level to you (such as a friend).


Then luck it will be.




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