History YMMV / BattleForWesnoth

* EvilIsSexy: Asheviere used to be this, however, the new portait and sprite portray her as the 60-something woman she should be. Her old self, however, is immortalised in the add-on ''Ooze Campaign'', which has a dark sorceress with Asheviere's old sprite whose description is simply "[Character's name] is a pretty young woman with an unsettling fascination for death". She is apparently pretty enough for a ''paladin'' to fall in love with her despite how evil she is.

* GameBreaker: The multiplayer factions are mostly well balanced, with the exception of the still-in-development Khalifate. They can tear through the entire Drake faction with nothing but the basic Jundi and Rami; conversely, they get overwhelmed easily by the Loyalists' Spearmen and the Northerners' trolls.

** The elf lord Kalenz probably qualifies. Initially, he appeared as a supporting (albeit important) character in ''Heir to the Throne''. Later, he became the protagonist of his own campaign, ''The Legend of Wesmere'', which is so far the only mainline campaign to have a multiplayer version. And he also gets a significant role in ''Delfador's Memoirs''. This makes him probably the only character to appear in three (four if you count the multiplayer one individually) mainline campaigns.
*** [[http://wiki.wesnoth.org/CampaignDialogue:TB1.9#Story_5 Version 1.9.5]] of ''The Tale Of Two Brothers'' has him mentioned. [[spoiler:The player character becomes his pay-for escort during the epilogue.]] That makes four if this version of the mainline campaign is committed into the release builds.

* BrokenBase: Time and time again, many users find themselves debating whether or not Wesnoth's RNG is too varied for its own good or not. It doesn't help that the devs themselves adamantly state that the lower hit rates are to make each turn vary in strategies used, but many find this a weak argument stating that it instead comes to the annoyance that [[SturgeonsLaw anything they plan has a higher chance of not working than working]]. Moreover, another stance is "what use is planning anything when it won't work anyway?" This resorts in newer and casual players spamming units and doing whatever the RandomNumberGod decides works at best and dropping interest in the game at worst

* BestLevelEver: ''A Subterranean Struggle'' from ''Under the Burning Suns''. For once, a battlefield actually feels like TheWarSequence.

* IdiotPlot: In ''Heir To The Throne'', after Konrad defeats Li'sar the first time, he not only lets her go, he even asks her for directions. [[spoiler: Of course, she leads him directly into an undead-polluted area.]]

* GoddamnedBats: Any highly evasive unit has elements of this, but the actual bats (high movement, high evasion, and draining attacks) fall solidly under this trope as fast, obnoxious, and deceptively hard to kill.

** ''The Eastern Invasion'' has "Lake Vrug" as well, where the map is designed to screw you over. If you take the obvious approach and look for the enemy keep by following the road, all you'll find is a decoy. The actual enemy base is located on the other side of a thick mountain range, meaning your foot units are slowed to a crawl and your mounted units have to be left behind. You're stuck dragging your army one or two hexes at a time across the mountains and hoping you can kill the enemy leader before you run out of turns.

** When Haldric tells the Wose leader Elilmaldur-Rithrandil about the orc invasion in ''The Rise of Wesnoth'', he directs Haldric to the Ruby of Fire under the reason that it is a powerful artefact that might help Haldric on his quest. But after Jevyan and the orcs chase Haldric across the ocean for the Ruby, Jessene starts suspecting that Elilmaldur-Rithrandil did it to lure the orcs away from his forest, [[spoiler:not unlike what Haldric pretends he did to get the orcs to attack the elves instead of the humans]].

** When Haldric tells the Wose leader Elilmaldur-Rithrandil about the orc invasion in ''The Rise of Wesnoth'', he directs Haldric to the Ruby of Fire under the reason that it is a powerful artefact that might help Haldric on his quest. But after Jevyan and the orcs chase Haldric across the ocean for the Ruby, Jessene starts suspecting that Elilmaldur-Rithrandil did it to lure the orcs away from his forest, [[spoiler:not unlike what Haldric pretend he did to get the orcs to attack the elves instead of the humans]].

** Many PrestigeClass enemy units can be this as well, and in that category special mention must go to the Horseman prestige class, the lancer. While largely useless for the player due to how in order to get them you have to hire, train, and then stunt the growth of an expensive and high-potential horseman, in the hands of an enemy who can recruit them directly they're absolute nightmares that almost no unit, no matter how high their level, is guaranteed to survive so much as a single round of combat with. Heir To The Throne's Test of the Clans scenario turns into a living hell thanks to these things.
** Enemy leader units, especially mages, can completely obliterate one of your own units in a single turn if they get the chance. Because magical attacks have a high chance to hit regardless, and high level mages can deliver a huge amount of damage per attack, it's not uncommon for a powerful enemy mage to run up to an isolated unit and annihilate it and then run back to safety on their next turn, especially if they have their own units nearby to cover their flanks. It's generally a good idea to draw out the enemy's units from their castle (and maybe even sending a sacrificial CannonFodder unit up ahead) to make it harder for the enemy leader to hit and run.

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Some campaigns are notorious for having a particular scenario that gives you far fewer resources or a much harder objective out of nowhere, followed by a much more straightforward objective in the next.

** 'The Elves Besieged' from ''Heir to the Throne'', especially since it's the ''[[EarlyGameHell first]]'' level of the campaign. The objective is to get Konrad to northwestern corner of the map. Simple? ''Definitely'' not, as you are surrounded by no less than three orc armies, one of which is directly in your way to the objective, all three armies churn out level 2 (and even occasional level 3) units like there's no tomorrow, you have only just enough money to get 6 units, and while you have two allied armies, one is too far away to help much, and the other usually gets trashed in three or four turns thanks to ArtificialStupidity. As a cherry on top, the time limit on the map is very strict and is only just long enough to get Konrad to the objective if you start moving him from turn 1. Not an enjoyable map, this one, even with [[OneManArmy Delfador]] being around.

** 'Evacuation' from ''Eastern Invasion''. You start out surrounded, and have to choose between getting your heroes to safety at the cost of most of your army or fighting three large groups of max-level trolls.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: When [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Asheviere]] told her son (who was complicit in her grab for power) to [[LeaveHimToMe go fight Delfador himself]], was she hoping he'd win and [[DecapitatedArmy end the war quickly]]? Or lose, and get rid of the last barrier to taking absolute power for herself?