The Orc infantry line has big attacks and pays for it with high damage variance (and also a total lack of ranged attacks until T3, which can leave them quite vulnerable). The solution is to avoid fighting them full powered at night with your valuable units -- sacrifice some T1 units if you have to, hit the orc with a bunch of archers, slow them with a Shaman to reduce their damage.
Caves are particular challenges, and of course there's a map editor so somebody can just design a really poorly balanced campaign. But the Wose fairs not too bad in a cave because, well, they weren't really planning on evading anyway.
E: Regarding this lancer issue -- sounds like a bad map, but even the biggest attack can only kill one unit per turn. Set your T1's up to block your good units. Then, get revenge on your turn. Plus, as a bonus, Charge works both ways -- some of your T1's might get some big hits in or even some kills.
Orc Warriors aren't even the highest variance in the game though! That's just... typical Wesnoth. Really, Orc Warriors don't have much more variance than Elvish Heroes.
When we start talking Horsemen, Lancers, Thunderguards, Ulfserkers, Griffons, Wraiths... these are the real "high variance" units of Wesnoth. (Wraiths have self-healing on their hits. So its very "sharp" when they hit. If they "get lucky", a Wraith may be at full health after killing 3 units, because they self-healed). EDIT: Oh yeah, and Trolls too have way more variance.
That's the thing: the default level of variance in Wesnoth is really damn high. Far more variance in this game than pretty much everything else I've ever played. And when we get into the lol "variance as a strategy units" (aka: lancers/wraiths), its pretty much like playing against a slot machine.
> The solution is to avoid fighting them full powered at night with your valuable units -- sacrifice some T1 units if you have to, hit the orc with a bunch of archers, slow them with a Shaman to reduce their damage.
2x attacks from the Shaman is pretty low accuracy. Assuming your typical 40% evade chance, there's a 16% chance that your shaman misses both slow-attacks. If the Orc is standing on its advantaged hill or mountain terrain, you're basically screwed (slow probably will miss more often than hit).
No T1 unit has a chance of killing an Orc Warrior. None at all. Slow is probably your best bet (-50% damage), but its really not that reliable of a strategy.
Well, it is possible that this just isn't the game for you.
I don't really think it is an issue that there aren't any T1 units that can easily beat this T2 one. Depending on where in the campaign you are, a T2 unit might be a set-piece encounter that you have to spend multiple turns wearing down. Of course the map designer can do a bad job and throw too much at you, but that's the cost of having mostly community designed maps I guess.
But I also think that reducing the variance significantly would help the game severely. I fully disagree with the forum post here.
There's room for luck in strategy games. But I'm not sure if some units (see the Lancer) have a role in this game aside from forcing the player to hit the "restart from last save" button over and over. When the luck-engine is unavoidable (due to high movement), you simply can't "plan" around it. Your best plan is the restart from save button if you get unlucky.
A good game shouldn't have situations like that, where the best strategy is just hoping for the best and rolling with the luck.
I haven't encountered too many Lancers lately, although I guess it could just be a campaign design issue. I've mostly been playing the World Conquest map lately, maybe they just avoid them because of this. It is a difficult campaign -- I haven't managed to beat it yet -- but I dunno. I enjoy rogue-likes and rolling with the punches, so if a run gets impacted by RNG it doesn't really bug me too much.
> E: Regarding this lancer issue -- sounds like a bad map, but even the biggest attack can only kill one unit per turn. Set your T1's up to block your good units. Then, get revenge on your turn. Plus, as a bonus, Charge works both ways -- some of your T1's might get some big hits in or even some kills.
No. One unit can kill one unit per turn.
One good lancer charge means my Elvish Champion (Tier3 highest HP infantry for the Elves) is dead, and the backline is now exposed. That is a cascading failure where my line is fully eaten up and I lose. When I place a unit in 60% evasion with 70+ HP (very high in Wesnoth), I'm doing so because I need the line to hold in that location.
What's the chance that the lancer is in range? Well, 100%. Lancers have the highest movement in the game.
Champions highest evasion is 60% in the forests. Cool, I put him there. Well, woops. The lancer hit three times (6% chance of happening). Champion is dead. That's not even that low of a chance.
If a 70 HP champion (which you spawned for 20 gold) cannot hold the zone of control, why do you think a 33 HP Elvish Fighter can hold that zone of control for 14 gold?
The fact of the matter is: you have to put the Champion in risk. Its the best unit to do so, from any reasonable gold analysis into the scenario.
Any scenario where you're talking "multiple Tier 1 units holding the line" is simply less gold efficient than the use of a retained Tier3 Champion.
There are T2 units (ie: the Lancer) who can one-shot your champion. That's just how the game is played. You recognize the risk, you put the Champion into 60% evasion zones and hope for the best. If you need to "sac" a unit, the Champion with 70 HP is the best unit, because it survives most hits, and then your Druids heal them next turn.
A 33 HP Fighter will simply fold and die. They can't hold a line in any late stage Wesnoth campaign.
Caves are particular challenges, and of course there's a map editor so somebody can just design a really poorly balanced campaign. But the Wose fairs not too bad in a cave because, well, they weren't really planning on evading anyway.
E: Regarding this lancer issue -- sounds like a bad map, but even the biggest attack can only kill one unit per turn. Set your T1's up to block your good units. Then, get revenge on your turn. Plus, as a bonus, Charge works both ways -- some of your T1's might get some big hits in or even some kills.