• Added automatic schema-validation of `_server.pbl` files when uploading an add-on. (PR #7239)

• Legend of Wesmere
  • Adjusted gold and carryover between S11, S14 and S17. (issue #7230)
    
  • S03: Fixed an event trigger when Urudin retreats. (PR #7221)
    
  • S16: Updated screen flash to use new macros.

• Secrets of the Ancients
  • S17: Use the new `screen_fade` visual effect.

• Son of the Black Eye
  • S14: Fixed Grüü’s dialogue not appearing during the intro. (issue #7280)

• The South Guard
  • S04: Updated safeguard against AI leader stupidity to match map changes.

• Under the Burning Suns
  • Quenoth Rework, including the major changes listed below. (PR #7349)
    
  • Redesign of the Quenoth Fighter line, with multiple attacks instead of the formation ability.
    
  • Redesign of the Quenoth Shaman line, with songs and the tailwind ability.
    
  • Redesign of the Tauroch Rider line, giving both Tauroch and Rider one attack each.
    
  • Hide XP bars for some enemies that are never expected to advance a level.

• World Conquest
  • Fix mechanic when a commander replaces a dead leader. (issue #7284)

• Scrolling the map north or south can move the text that overlays the map, so it doesn’t always obscure the southmost hexes of the map. (issue #6422)

• Allied units’ orbs no longer look like the player’s own units’ orbs. (issue #7108)
  • By default, they are now two-color during the ally’s turn.
    
  • Added an advanced setting to always show them as single-color (the ally color).

• Add waterfall animations to Isar’s Cross. (PR #7348)

• Added Art Placeholder overlay (terrain code `^Xxxx`), used for Isar’s Cross’ new waterfalls. (PR #7348)

• Updated translations: British English, Chinese (Simplified), Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish
  
• wmlxgettext always uses Unix-style file paths in .pot files, to reduce changes when working on different platforms. (issue #7380)

• Add Merman Brawler and Citizen to core.
  
• Add Dwarvish Miner to core.
  
• Add Sand Scamperer unit.
  
• Giant Ant now advances to Soldier Ant, requiring 26 XP.
  
• Soldier Ant now costs 16 gold, has 35 HP and needs 50 XP to advance.

• Added icons for invulnerable and unhealable states. (PR #7363)
  
• The help browser shows groups (`[race]help_taxonomy=`) in subfolders. For example Humans/Dunefolk and Elves/Quenoth. (PR #7228)

• New `attacks_used` key in `[attack]` causes the attack to deduct more than 1 from `attacks_left`. (PR #7351)
  
• Fixed `[foreach]` when nested loops used the same variable name for the inner and outer loop. (issue #6305)
  
• New `[trait]require_traits=` and `[trait]exclude_traits=` to control random trait generation. (PR #7109)

• Added basic achievements functionality.

• Fixed a regression in 1.17.x resulting in overlarge unit HP and XP bars in some cases. (issue #7171)
  
• Fixed the editor’s unit tool crashing when placing a unit. (issue #7296)
  
• Many command-line options that log to stdout/stderr now automatically imply `--no-log-to-file`. (issue #7310)
  
• General consolidation of code paths for logging between Windows and non-Windows platforms.
  
• Fixed crash and missing output in `--report`.
  
• Schema validation accepts variables in `[harm_unit]alignment`.
  
• Schema validation no longer accepts the unused `[unit]hp_bar_scaling` and `[unit]xp_bar_scaling`.
  
• Fix an issue with schema validator not reporting errors at top level.
  
• The `unit_tree` tool which generates https://units.wesnoth.org/ now ignores the `[advancefrom]` tag.
  
• Fix the search for the game data directory when doing a local Visual Studio build.
  
• Fixed warnings when compiling with Boost 1.81.

• Fixed: the unit tool crashes when placing a unit (issue #7296).

• Updated translations: Finnish, Spanish

• Make the log messages about "Skipping duplicate unit variation ID" say which `[unit_type]` is causing the error.

• Added support for allowing multiple people to upload updates to an add-on (PR#7268)

• Sceptre of Fire
  • S9: Update for terrain codes introduced in 1.17.9 (issue #7210)

• Heir to the Throne:
  • S03: Rewrite intro text, including a hint about training troops (PR #7214)
    
  • S05B: Delurin now has traits Loyal + resilient + intelligent

• Liberty:
  • The non-loyal character Delurin now has traits resilient + intelligent

• Updated translations: Arabic, British English, Czech, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Turkish

• Moved Kraken from campaigns to core, updated sprite
  
• Added some dragonfly units to "monsters"
  
• Dunefolk Rover portrait added
  
• Update sprites for Loyalist General, Spearman, Cavalryman, and Grand Knight
  
• Add more ant types
  
• Fix and adjust Falcon and Elder Falcon attacks

• Improved the layout of the orb colors dialog, and added tooltips.

• Fixed a crash when moving certain walking corpse variations north due to missing animations. (issue #7190)
  
• Fixed special notes being duplicated when storing units (issue #7153).
  
• wmllint now validates `rank=` values in `[campaign]` (issue #7224)
  
• Fixed a crash when checking if abilities are active during game initialisation after loading a saved game. (issues #5643, #7238)

• Updated translations: Arabic, British English, Czech, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Turkish

• wmllint now validates `rank=` values in `[campaign]` (issue #7224)
  
• Add disconnect check to alert users when they lose connection to the multiplayer server (issue #1336)
  
• Fixed a crash when checking if abilities are active during game initialisation after loading a saved game. (issues #5643, #7238)
  
• Fix a crash when an out-of-bounds side number is used in Lua’s `sync.evaluate_multiple` (PR #7222)
  
• Fixed special notes being duplicated when storing units (issue #7153).

• `^Qhhf` and `^Qhuf` terrain codes available to allow forest terrain on bluff/gulch hexes

• Updated translations: British English, Czech, French, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil)

• Merkfolk units movement cost on forest and hills reduced from 5 to 4.
  
• Orcish Slayer can advance to the Orcish Nightblade by default.
  
• Orcish Slayer's xp required to level up reduced from 100 to 64.
  
• Dunefolk Falconer portrait added.

• Fixed not being able to undo moves (bug #6898)

• Change codes "Irs, Ias, Icr, Ior, and Icn" to "Isr, Isa, Isc, Iwo, and Iwc", respectively

• Updated translations: British English, Czech, French, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil)

• Bot hosted games are now show on a separate tab from player hosted games.

• Add disconnect check to alert users when they lose connection to the multiplayer server (issue #1336)

One of the joys of Wesnoth is amassing an army of high-level recruits over a long campaign. When playing with friends, though, most multiplayer games are short, one-off encounters. When the scenario ends, you can say goodbye to that Red Mage you painstakingly leveled up.

Wouldn't it be great if you could play a whole campaign with friends? Well you can with World Conquest, a randomly-generated Co-op campaign for 1-3 players. Since including it in our 1.16 release, it's become the second-most popular game on our multiplayer server.


A game of World Conquest works like most other Wesnoth campaigns. You'll need to seize villages and kill enemy leaders to win. But there's a twist. When you recruit your first unit, you can choose bonuses for your side by giving them artifacts, training and heroes.



Every time you win and start a new scenario, you'll get to choose another set of bonuses. Choose carefully! The right bonus combos can really increase the power of your units.


Every scenario in World Conquest is randomly generated -- random maps, random enemies, random heroes, random bonuses. It's a great way to try out a new strategy or faction, like the Dunefolk we introduced in the last release.




To start a new Co-op game of World Conquest, follow these steps.

1. From the Main Menu click Multiplayer.
2. Select Join Official Server and click ok.
3. Once you're in the lobby, click Create Game.
4. Find the dropdown that says Scenarios and change it to Multiplayer Campaigns.
5. Select World Conquest 2p (two players) or World Conquest 3p (three players) and click Create Game.
6. Select your difficulty and click Play. (Start on Easy if you're not sure -- World Conquest is really hard.)
7. Tell your friend your game room's name so they can join you, or wait for another player.
8. Click I'm Ready to start the game.

Remember, this is a campaign and you'll need more than one sitting to finish it!
When you're ready for a break, be sure to save the game before quitting. Go to Menu > Save Game and give it a name you can remember.

To resume a saved campaign, follow these steps.

1. From the Main Menu click Multiplayer.
2. Select Join Official Server and click ok.
3. Once you're in the lobby, click Create Game.
4. Click Load Game on the left.
5. Find your saved game and click Load.
6. Tell your friend your game room's name so they can join you, or wait for another player.
7. Click I'm Ready to start the game.


You can play World Conquest by yourself. Follow the steps above, but join the Local Game in step 2 and select World Conquest 1p in your game room.

• add "elevation" terrain group

• The /report command now opens a dialog rather than simply allowing free-form text after the command.

• Expansion of cosmetic "lower terrain" to "higher terrain" and more transition graphics.

• Updated translations: British English, Chinese (Simplified), Czech, French, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Turkish

• Fixed highlighted movement range when hovering over units after their owner ends turn. It now shows their max movement next turn, instead of the remaining moves from their previous turn. (issue #6716)
  
• Stopped wmllint adding `wesnoth-icon.png` to `[message]`s that don’t already have an image. (PR #6991)

• Updated translations: Arabic, British English, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Swedish, Turkish

• Fixed drake flare leadership animation over water (issue #3996)
  
• Fixed animations not clearing properly when zoomed (issue #6589)
  
• Fixed the `{IS_HERO}` macro to avoid losing the hero ellipse when a unit levels up
  
• Fixed highlighted movement range when hovering over units after their owner ends turn. It now shows their max movement next turn, instead of the remaining moves from their previous turn. (issue #6716)
  
• Fixed out of sync errors occurring when unused add-ons contain the [resistance_defaults] or [terrain_defaults] tags (issue #6650)

By Lord-Knightmare

There are more than 450 add-ons available for 1.16 and this summer saw a lot of activity on the add-on server. Here are some of the highlights from what our user community has created.


An update to one of the most popular unofficial eras was released in late May. Era of Magic 3.8.3 brought us five more units and some exciting new treats, like the Mirrorshield's deflect magic ability. Now's a good time to revisit the Al-Kamija, the Kharos, and all the factions from Era of Magic.


This challenging campaign, which tells the history of the drakes and the secret to their inner fire, is now available for 1.16. Lead Herkarth and his people to the source of a mysterious power effecting the drakes deep in the ancient Heartfang mountains. With custom units, tricky puzzles, and easter eggs, this campaign brings much love to an under-played faction.


The team behind this growing era delivered a major update (1.4), with innovative new tactics like castle-breaking, unit-pulls and long-range attacks. They have also put together a short campaign, Ogre Crusaders, if you want to cut your teeth on something longer than a single scenario.



A true classic, this add-on may be the most well-written horse-back campaign ever and it's now available for 1.16. Command a cavalry force and use your mobility to outflank and defeat an unstoppable legion of cultists, soldiers, and creatures of the night.


This unique era features more than 200 historical units in more than a dozen factions inspired by 18th century warfare in Europe. A new major version was just released and the maintainers are looking for more contributors.


Another classic, this elven campaign is back after several years being unmaintained. It has been rebuilt to use units from the War of Legends era, and features dungeon-crawling scenarios and small-squad gameplay.


Follow these steps to install an add-on and play it.

1. From the main menu, click Add-ons.
2. Click Connect to join add-ons.wesnoth.org, the official add-on server.
3. Browse or search the list of add-ons.
4. Click on the add-on to read more about it.
5. Click to install the add-on.
6. Click Exit to return to the main menu.

Once your add-on is installed, you can play it like any other game of Wesnoth. Campaign add-ons can be found in the campaigns menu. Multiplayer eras and scenarios are available when you start a multiplayer game.


Every add-on starts with a good idea. Here's how to get started making your own maps, units, scenarios and campaigns.