08 — Clearwater Port

Identity

Story & dialogue

Clearwater Port is already evacuating its population when Haldric arrives. Commander Aethyr explains that the local army initially drove the orcs back into the Swamp of Esten, but reinforcements destroyed the defense and killed the King of Clearwater. Three more shiploads are needed before the remaining population can escape.

The opening conversation formalizes the Wesfolk as Haldric’s allies, introduces Aethyr as the local commander, and turns the scenario into a moral timing choice. The player may leave early, remain for a later ship, or fight until every enemy leader is dead. The longer the party remains, the more heroic—and mechanically rewarding—the outcome becomes.

Map description

The 42 × 37 winter coastal map stretches from mountains and frozen inland approaches in the west to Clearwater’s harbor and open sea in the east. Haldric enters near the city, Aethyr’s forward castle and inner wall guard the eastern settlement, and three orc armies attack from the landward side. Bridges, shallow water, deep water, snow, hills, roads, villages, city terrain, and a lighthouse create several distinct defensive layers.

Objectives and graded victory

Every valid victory carries 40% gold. The third ship and total enemy defeat award the scenario’s early-finish bonus even though they occur later, because the objectives explicitly define heroic success rather than using elapsed turns alone.

Sides and economy

Commander Aethyr’s stateful allied AI

Side 2 is reconfigured every one of its turns. The scenario records its posture in previous_ai_position and can move among four broad modes:

Dynamic allied recruitment

Aethyr normally recruits inexpensive Peasants, Bowmen, and Spearmen. Peasants are limited to two so the AI does not repeatedly expose fragile units along the wall. At the start of each side-2 turn, the scenario checks the garrison’s stored gold:

This allows the AI to spend accumulated resources on advanced defenders when the player has not captured its villages.

Ship timetable and local macro

BOARDING_EVENT SHIP_EVENT ABSCISSA ORDINATE BONUS removes three nearly identical movement events. It validates that the moving unit is Haldric, checks whether the correct ship flag is active, ends the level with the specified bonus, or explains why boarding is currently invalid.

#define BOARDING_EVENT SHIP_EVENT ABSCISSA ORDINATE BONUS
    [event]
        name=moveto
        first_time_only=no
        ...
        # Haldric + active ship flag -> victory
        # Haldric + no ship -> wait and defend
        # other unit -> Prince Haldric must board here
    [/event]
#enddef

Enemy escalation

All orc sides use night aggression 0.75, zero caution, and no grouping during dusk and the watches.

Special events

State lifecycle

Assets and reuse

Scenario WML · Map source · AI index

Lessons for campaign authors