In the world of Wesnoth there dwell humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, drakes, saurians, mermen, nagas, and many other races yet more obscure and wondrous. In accursed lands walk undead and ghosts and specters; monsters lurk in its ruins and dungeons. Each has adapted to particular terrains. Humans inhabit primarily the temperate grasslands. In the hills, mountains and underground caves orcs and dwarves are most at home. In the forests the elves reign supreme. In the oceans and rivers mermen and nagas dominate.

For game purposes, the races group into factions; for example, orcs often cooperate with trolls, and elves or dwarves with humans. Some other factions reflect divisions within human society — loyalists vs. outlaws, for example. In most campaigns, you will control units drawn a single faction. But sometimes factions make alliances with others, so you may face more than one faction in a scenario.

Campaigns are sequences of battles with a connecting storyline. Typical campaigns have about 10–20 scenarios. The main advantage with campaigns is that they allow you to develop your army. As you complete each scenario, the remaining units at the end are saved for you to use in the next scenario. If you choose not to use a unit at all during a scenario it is carried over to the next, so you don’t lose units you don’t use.

The campaign is the primary form in which Wesnoth is intended to be played, is probably the most enjoyable, and is the recommended way for new players to learn the game.

A single scenario takes about 30 minutes to 2 hours to complete. This is the fastest way to play, but your units are not saved and you cannot use campaign units. You can play scenarios against the computer or against other players either over the internet or at your computer. Scenarios are accessed through the "Multiplayer" button on the main menu.

In general multiplayer games are played against other players via the Internet (you can also run them on your LAN if you have one). All these games are co-ordinated through the Wesnoth multiplayer server. Multiplayer games can take anywhere from 1 hour to 10 hours, depending on how many players there are (and the size of the map). The average time is between 3 to 7 hours. Games can be saved and loaded as many times as you like. So, it’s possible for some games to last 1 or 2 weeks, even though the play time is only a few hours. When playing just a single scenario, your units won’t carry to future games and building up your army’s strength is possible only within the scenario.

There are several possible options you are provided with when clicking on the "Multiplayer" button:

Regardless of whether you are playing a scenario or a campaign, the basic layout of the game screen is the same. The majority of the screen is filled with a map which shows all of the action that takes place in the game. Around the map are various elements which provide useful information about the game and are described in more detail below.

Across the top of the screen from left to right are the following items:

Down the right of the screen from top to bottom are:

When you first start a scenario or campaign you will only have a few units on the map. One of these will be your commander (identified by a little golden crown icon). Your commander is usually placed in a castle on a special hex called a keep. Whenever your commander is on a keep (not only your own, but also the keep of any enemy castles you capture) and you have enough gold, you can recruit units for your army. In later scenarios you can recall experienced units that survived earlier scenarios. From here, you can start to build your army to conquer the enemy.

The first thing you will probably want to do is recruit your first unit. Press Ctrl+r (or right click on an empty castle hex and select "Recruit") and you will be able to recruit a unit from a list of all the units available to you. Each recruit is placed on an empty castle hex. Once you have filled the castle, you cannot recruit any more until units move off. Your opponent’s commander is similarly placed on its castle keep and will begin by recruiting its troops — so don’t dilly-dally looking at the scenery, there’s a battle to be won.

At the end of each successful scenario, all your remaining troops are automatically saved. At the start of the next scenario you may recall them in a similar way to recruiting. Recalled troops are often more experienced than recruits and usually a better choice.

All game types use the same soldiers, called units. Each unit is identified by Race, Level, and Class. Each unit has strengths and weaknesses, based on their Resistances, current Terrain, and Level. Full details are in the in game help.

As your troops gain battle experience, they will learn more skills and become stronger. They will also die in battle, so you’ll need to recruit and recall more when that happens. But choose wisely, for each has strengths and weaknesses a cunning opponent will quickly exploit.

Pay careful attention to the Objectives pop-up box at the beginning of each scenario. Usually you will achieve victory by killing all enemy leaders, and only be defeated by having your leader killed. But scenarios may have other victory objectives — getting your leader to a designated point, say, or rescuing someone, or solving a puzzle, or holding out against a siege until a certain number of turns have elapsed.

When you win a scenario, the map will gray over and the End Turn button will change to End Scenario. You can now do things like changing your save options or (if you are in a multiplayer game) chatting with other players before pressing that button to advance.

Your army does not fight for free. It costs you gold to recruit units and gold to maintain them. You start each scenario with gold carried over from previous scenarios (although each scenario ensures you have at least a minimum amount of gold to start if you didn’t carry over enough from previous scenarios) and can gain more by meeting scenario objectives quickly and, during a scenario, by controlling villages. Each village you control will give you two gold pieces income per turn. When you first start a scenario it is usually worthwhile to gain control of as many villages as you can to ensure you have sufficient income to wage war. You can see your current gold and current income at the top of the screen as described in the section on the game screen.

At the start of each scenario, your game state is normally saved. If you are defeated, you may load it and try again. Once you have succeeded, you will again be asked to save the next scenario and play that. If you have to stop playing during a scenario, you can save your turn and load it again later. Just remember, a good Battle for Wesnoth player never needs to save during a scenario. However, most beginners tend to do so rather often.

The major use for gold is to build your army by recruiting new units or recalling units from previous scenarios in a campaign. Units may be recruited or recalled when the leader is on a keep whose castle has at least one vacant castle hex.

Each unit also has an upkeep cost. The upkeep cost is generally equal to the level of the unit, unless the unit has the "Loyal" trait (see below). Units that are not initially recruited — i.e. the leader or those that join voluntarily — usually have the Loyal trait. Upkeep is only paid if the total upkeep of a side’s units is greater than the number of villages that side controls. Upkeep paid is the difference between the number of villages and the upkeep cost.

So, the formula for determining the income per turn is

2 + villages − maximum(0, upkeep − villages)

where upkeep is equal to the sum of the levels of all your non-loyal units.

If the upkeep cost is greater than the number of villages+2 then the side starts losing gold, if it is equal, no income is gained or lost.

Every unit has an alignment: lawful, neutral, chaotic, or liminal. Alignment affects how units perform at different times of day. Neutral units are unaffected by the time of day. Lawful units do more damage during the day and less at night. Chaotic units do more damage at night and less during the day. Liminal units do less damage during both night and daytime.

The two "day" and "night" phases are differentiated as Morning, Afternoon and First Watch, Second Watch, by the positions of the sun and moon in the time of day graphic.

The following table shows the effects of different times of the day on the damage dealt by lawful, chaotic, and liminal units:

Table 2.7. Time of the day and damage

Turn	Image	Day-phase	Lawful	Chaotic	Liminal
1		Dawn	--	--	--
2		Day (morning)	+25%	−25%	−25%
3		Day (afternoon)	+25%	−25%	−25%
4		Dusk	--	--	--
5		Night (first watch)	−25%	+25%	−25%
6		Night (second watch)	−25%	+25%	−25%
Special		Underground	−25%	+25%	−25%

Keep in mind that some scenarios take place underground, where it is perpetually night!

For example: consider a fight between a Lawful and a Chaotic unit when both have a base damage of 12. At dawn and dusk, both will do 12 points of damage if they hit. During Morning or Afternoon, the Lawful unit will do (12 \* 1.25) or 15 points, while the Chaotic unit will do (12 \* 0.75) or 9 points. During First or Second Watch, the Lawful unit would do 9 points compared to the Chaotic unit’s 15.

If an equivalent Neutral unit were fighting, it would always do 12 points of damage regardless of the hour.

Units have traits which reflect aspects of their character. Traits are assigned randomly to units when they are created. Most units receive two traits.

The possible traits for most units are as follows:

There are also some traits that are assigned only for certain units or only for units of a certain race. These are:

There are also some traits that are not assigned randomly. These traits can either be assigned by the scenario designer or are always assigned based on the unit type:

Certain units have special attacks. These are listed below:

Some units have abilities that either directly affect other units, or have an effect on how the unit interacts with other units. These abilities are listed below:

Units are awarded experience for fighting. After obtaining enough experience, they will advance a level and become more powerful. The amount of experience gained depends on the level of the enemy unit and the outcome of the battle: if a unit kills its opponent, it receives 8 experience points per level of the enemy (4 if the enemy is level 0), while units that survive a battle without killing their opponents are awarded 1 experience point per level of the enemy. In other words:

After you complete a scenario, all surviving units will be available to recall in the next scenario. You are not able to move or attack with a unit on the turn you recruit or recall that unit. A Recalled unit retains its previous Level, Experience Points, (sometimes) any magic items acquired, and will arrive with full hitpoints.

A unit’s Zone of Control extends to the six hexes immediately adjacent to the unit, and units that move into an enemy zone of control are forced to stop. Units with the skirmisher ability ignore enemy zones of control and are able to move through them freely without being forced to stop. Level 0 units are considered too feeble to generate a zone of control and all units are able to move through the hexes around an enemy level 0 unit freely.

On the top of the energy bar shown next to each unit of yours is an orb. This orb is:

Table 2.9. Orbs

Orb	Image	Description
Green		If you control the unit and it hasn’t moved this turn
Yellow		If you control the unit and it has moved this turn, but could still move further or attack
Red		If you control the unit, but it can no longer move or attack, or the user ended the unit’s turn
Blue		If the unit is an ally you do not control
-		Enemy units have no orb on the top of their energy bar

Below each unit there will normally be a colored ellipses or base. The color identifies its team; in a campaign game, the human-player color is red. The team color will also show up in parts of the unit’s clothing, or possibly on a shield insignia.

Usually the ellipse will be a solid disk. On level 0 units, you will see an ellipse that has broken lines. This indicates that the unit has no Zone of Control.

Some campaigns use a star-shaped base to indicate leaders and heroes (units which are somehow special and for example not allowed to die in the course of the scenario); others use a silver crown icon above the energy bar to mark heroes. Still others have no specific hero indicator at all. Which (if any) is used is a stylistic choice left to campaign designers.

Each unit is more or less vulnerable to the different attack types. 6 figures in the unit description show strength and weakness of the unit against the 6 attack types. A positive resistance figure indicates that the unit will suffer less damages from the attack type. A negative resistance figure indicates that the unit is especially vulnerable to this attack type.

Examples: Drake scales protect them from most of attack types except from piercing weapon and cold weapon. Human Cavalry units are generally well protected except from piercing attacks which are their weak point. Undead are very resistant to blade and piercing weapon but very vulnerable to impact attacks and arcane attacks.

Using the best attack type against enemy units will substantially increase your chances of killing them.

Trolls and Woses have the ability to heal themselves naturally through regeneration. They will heal 8 points each turn if they are injured. Note that because all units may only heal a maximum of 8 points per turn, Trolls and Woses gain no additional benefit from being on a village or next to a healing unit.

Some attacks can inflict poison damage on your unit. When this happens the poisoned unit will take 8 damage each turn until it is cured. Poison can be cured by waiting on a village or being next to a unit with the cures ability. Units with the heals ability can only prevent the poison from causing damage that turn, not cure it. When poison is cured the unit does not gain or lose hitpoints on that turn due to healing/poisoning. A unit can not be healed normally until it is cured of poisoning. Resting is still allowed, although it will not substantially diminish the poison’s effect.

Some other hints about healing:

Do not send wounded units to a sure death. Once a unit loses more than half of its hit points (HP), you should seriously consider retreating it to safety and either station it in a village for healing or give him to the care of a healer (like Elvish Shamans or White Mages). Healers are very useful!

This is for practical reasons: a heavily wounded unit cannot hold back or kill the enemy. During attack and counterattack, it most often will perish. Further, by sending it to its sure death, its gathered experience points (XP) are lost. Recruiting a replacement may be impossible because the leader is not in its keep or because funds are running low. Even if you can recruit a replacement, it is most often far away from the battle front. So don’t waste your units.

How do you guard wounded units? They are best guarded by being out of the adversary’s reach. No enemy can attack them if enemies cannot even come near them. The next section about zone of control (ZOC) shows how to restrict the enemy’s moves.

In the Action menu, you can select "Show Enemy Moves" to highlight all possible hexes your adversary can actually move to. This takes your zone of control into account. Thus you can check that your near death unit, which is behind, indeed cannot be attacked as the enemy cannot move close to it.

When your armies meet, you may want to try to be the first to attack. So try to end your move out of striking range of the enemy army. He cannot attack but most likely will close into your striking range.

Every unit of level 1 or higher maintains a zone of control (ZOC) covering all 6 neighboring hexes. This means that once an enemy moves into one of the six neighboring tiles, it is forced to halt and its movement phase ends (only enemies with the rare skirmisher ability ignore this).

Because of ZOC, an enemy may not slip between two units which are aligned on a north-south or diagonal line and have exactly 1 or 2 hexes between them. By combining these pairs into a long wall or using them in different directions, you can prevent the enemy from reaching a wounded unit behind. He has to defeat the units imposing the ZOC first. If the enemy can barely reach it, even a single unit may shield a small region behind itself.

By lining up many units directly adjacent or with at most 1 hex space between them, you can build up a powerful defensive line. Note that, because Wesnoth uses hexes, a east-to-west "line" is not a straight line but a zig-zag curve. The north south line and the diagonals are the "real" lines.

Coming from one side, the enemy may attack any single of your units in the line with only 2 of his units at a time. As a rule of thumb, a healthy unit without particular weakness can withstand an attack from two normal enemy units of the same level or lower without getting killed.

Unfortunately, your line often has to bend to form a wedge or to fit the terrain. At these corner points, 3 enemy units may attack. This also happens at the ends of a line if the line is too short. Use units with high hit point on proper terrain or with proper resistances to hold these weak points. These are the most likely to be killed, so use units with no or few experience points (XP) for this purpose.

Lining your troops up also prevents the enemy from surrounding any one of them. For ZOC reasons, a unit with one enemy behind it and one in front is trapped.

When a unit in the front line is heavily damaged you can move him safely behind your defensive line. To hold up the line, you will most likely have to replace him with a reserve, so hold a couple of units in back of the front line. If you have healers, damaged units in the second line will quickly recover.

Note that your units can pass through hexes containing your own troops.

Try to position your troops so that they are attacking from a hex with high defense against an enemy in a hex with low terrain. That way, the enemy’s counterstrikes will be less likely to do damage.

For example, you might position your elves just inside of a forest edge so that attacking orcs must stand on grassland while your elves enjoy the high forest defenses.

Advancing and attacking is of course the most interesting part of your way to victory. Kill or weaken enemies in your path and move your defensive line forward. This can become tricky as the enemy gets to attack back on his turn.

Often, you will throw several units at a single enemy unit to finish him off, but these were forming your defensive line which is now partly broken. Maybe this doesn’t matter because you are out of reach of the next enemy unit. Maybe it does because you only managed to weaken a very strong enemy and next turn, he is going to strike back. Perhaps a Horseman can deliver the killing blow.

Striking first is an advantage because it allows you the choice of which units will face off. Take advantage of enemy weakness: e.g. direct your ranged attacks against foes without ranged weapons. Take advantage of weaknesses like Horsemen’s vulnerability to pierce. But remember that they get to attack back on their turn, so you might have weaknesses the enemy may exploit.

For example, Horsemen can hold up the line against Orcish Grunts and Troll Whelps very well because they have some resistances against blade and impact. But your Horseman may quite quickly fall to Orcish Archers and Goblin Spearmen.

It usually pays off if you can definitively kill (or almost kill) the faced unit. If you are unsure of finishing off the enemy in one turn, either ensure that your unit can weather the return attacks or decide that you’re willing to lose that unit. To withstand the enemy’s strikes next turn, it is often wise to attack at the range that allows the enemy to do least damage to you, rather than choosing the maximum expected damage to the enemy.

In particular, use your ranged weapons if the enemy has no ranged attack. Using it will often reduce the damage which your units take until the enemy dies.

Remember that Lawful units like humans fight better at daytime, Chaotic units like orcs or undead fight better at night, and Liminal units fight best during the twilight. Ideally you want to first meet the enemy when you are strong and/or he is weak. When the enemy has its strong time, it often pays off to strengthen your lines and hold a favorable defensive position. When its weak time is about to arise, your advance will push forth.

For example, elves might hold out a forest during a nightly orcish onslaught and advance on sunrise. You may even note that the computer AI actively retreats his orcs during day.

Over the course of a campaign, it is critical that you build up a seasoned force. Later scenarios will assume you have level 2 and 3 units available for recall.

Your units gain most experience points (XP) from killing an enemy unit (8XP per level of the unit killed). As such, it often makes sense to have your higher level units weaken an enemy, but cede the kill to a unit more in need of the XP. Healers in particular are often weak in combat and often need to steal kills in this way to advance levels.

At the beginning (when you probably have no high level units), try to give most kills to a small handful of your units. This will fast-track them to becoming Level 2 units, and they can then shepherd others.

Don’t neglect to earn your leader experience. You need to keep him safe, but if you coddle him too much he will be too low level to survive future scenarios anyway.

An important part of succeeding at Battle for Wesnoth is keeping your units healthy. When your units take damage you can heal them by moving them onto villages or next to special healing units (e.g. the Elvish Shaman and White Mage). Some other units you will encounter, such as Trolls, have the ability to heal themselves naturally.