Trivial way to win quest “A Bargain is Struck”

[Wuzzy]

I found a way to win the quest “A Bargain is Struck” very quickly and easily, even on difficulty level “Brutal”.

Spoiler alert! Don't read further if you don't want to read my strategy.

At the beginning, immediately walk with at least four miners or other non-critical units down the west side of the river. At the same time, move the caravans and the gnome duelist north to the river.
You will find a raft there.
The idea is to use this raft to cross the river to avoid any combat against the kobolds.
You have to cross the river several times, but the single raft will do:
Put a miner on the raft and go on the other side, then make the miner walk to the land, then put one of the mission units (gnome/caravan) on the raft, cross the river again, then let it go to your mead hall. Now you just need to repeat this 4 times and you won without any battles!

On Brutal difficulty you may want to make sure you stay far away from enemies, but it should be doable if you are quick and careful.

My comments and suggestions on this mission:
I think this strategy basically breaks the mission, since it makes it quite easy to win. Was the placement of the raft even intended?

I suggest to remove the raft on difficulty levels Normal, Hard and Brutal, but keep it on Easy for fun. :-)

Also, the mission objective was not clear. The objectives fail to mention that a) the kobold duelst must not die and b) the kobold duelst must reach the mead hall.

Also, when the kobold duelist reaches the mead hall, he claims he will “stay for refuge” (or something). I would assume this means the unit disappears from the game, yet it is still in it.

[Andrettin]

I found a way to win the quest “A Bargain is Struck” very quickly and easily, even on difficulty level “Brutal”.

Spoiler alert! Don't read further if you don't want to read my strategy.

At the beginning, immediately walk with at least four miners or other non-critical units down the west side of the river. At the same time, move the caravans and the gnome duelist north to the river.
You will find a raft there.
The idea is to use this raft to cross the river to avoid any combat against the kobolds.
You have to cross the river several times, but the single raft will do:
Put a miner on the raft and go on the other side, then make the miner walk to the land, then put one of the mission units (gnome/caravan) on the raft, cross the river again, then let it go to your mead hall. Now you just need to repeat this 4 times and you won without any battles!

On Brutal difficulty you may want to make sure you stay far away from enemies, but it should be doable if you are quick and careful.

My comments and suggestions on this mission:
I think this strategy basically breaks the mission, since it makes it quite easy to win. Was the placement of the raft even intended?

I suggest to remove the raft on difficulty levels Normal, Hard and Brutal, but keep it on Easy for fun. :-)

The raft was intended as a nice thing to have on the mission, to allow the player to explore a bit more easily. It's pretty cool that you managed to beat the scenario that way, I think it is a nice way to reward the player for exploring and being inventive with strategies. I do agree though that in the harder difficulties the raft shouldn't be there. I made the raft now only appear on the easy and normal difficulties.

Also, the mission objective was not clear. The objectives fail to mention that a) the kobold duelst must not die and b) the kobold duelst must reach the mead hall.

Also, when the kobold duelist reaches the mead hall, he claims he will “stay for refuge” (or something). I would assume this means the unit disappears from the game, yet it is still in it.

The mission objectives do say that the gnomish envoy must survive, and that he must reach the mead hall. Was there confusion because it said "gnomish envoy" and not "duelist"?

I agree that he should disappear after that speech, I've implemented that now.

Thanks for the feedback I've added you to the "Testing" section of the game's credits.

[Wuzzy]

Haha, I became an unintentional tester. Actually I just wanted to play, but well.

Oh, and I did not know what “envoy” means in my language now I looked it up in the dictionary and I know. My fault. Maybe just call the unit by its name?

[Andrettin]

Haha, I became an unintentional tester. Actually I just wanted to play, but well.

Oh, and I did not know what “envoy” means in my language now I looked it up in the dictionary and I know. My fault. Maybe just call the unit by its name?

The issue is that the unit could gain enough experience to upgrade to a master-at-arms, and then the objective would no longer make sense. Ideally the gnomish envoy should become a hero of his own (with a unique portrait) later on, and then the objectives would refer to him by his personal name.