Re: [Wesnoth-dev] More Thoughts on Knalgans

[David White]

Nils Kneuper wrote:

> David White wrote:
>
>  
>
> > I concur. I think that if we make ulfserkers decently powerful, the
> > dwarves might not have such a problem against poison, because I would
> > imagine an Ulfserker as a very good unit to use against assassins.
> >    
>
> I think that all poison units are a prob for dwarves. There are some
> with ranged combat poison like assaassins. But there is also the ghul,
> with close combat poison. This unit is worse for dwarves, because they
> do not have any good ranged combat fighters.
The ghoul does also pose problems, though it is mitigated by a few 
things. Firstly, the ghoul isn't as fast or as hard to hit as the 
assassin. The ghoul can only just outmanuever Dwarves in flat terrain, 
and the Dwarves can outmaneuver it in rough terrain. It is also easier 
to hit, meaning that thunderers are a feasible option against enemies 
that use lots of Ghouls. Admittedly, it does have good resistance 
against piercing attacks. However, I also don't consider the ghoul as 
bad as the assassin, because I don't think knalgans are as badly 
outmatched by the undead at the moment as they are by northerners: 
gryphons do well against ghosts, and the dwarves have blunt attacks to 
use against undead foot units.

Finally, making the Ulfserker reasonable will help against ghouls too: 
an ulfserker can take it upon themselves to charge a ghoul and kill 
them. The ulfserker will surely be poisoned in the battle, but will also 
certainly win the battle. Killing a unit that costs 16 gold in exchange 
for getting a unit that costs 18 gold poisoned is a very good deal. The 
ulfserker also moves fast enough that getting it to a village isn't 
quite so bad as for other dwarves. Or you can just use the ulfserker on 
your next turn to do what it was born to do and die in battle while 
inflicting lots of damage on another enemy. :-)

> So at least one unit,
> nbormally more, will get poisoned when attacking ghuls. To heal this
> units you have to get them (very slowly) to the next village. I think
> a change to the ulfserker is a must. 5-4 or maybe even 4-5 would be
> good.
5-4 is the most natural. 4-5 could be 'interesting' though I'm not sure 
lots of little attacks is really very 'dwarvish'. 7-3 is also an option, 
which would make it similiar to the dwarvish fighter, just a small 
amount below.

> But nonetheless dwarves could need a unit that can heal *only*
> poison status but no damage. This way they could not become
> overpowered.
>  
We could consider this, but I'm not sure it's necessary. We can monitor 
how things go. I would really like to keep poison as a powerful enemy of 
the dwarves that they must be careful against, though.

David