History YMMV / BattleForWesnoth

* ThatOneLevel: '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.
** The final scenario of the ''Dead Waters'' campaign. Mainly because the three enemy bases never seems to run out of cash while you can barely hire two waves of troops to your aid.

* DemonicSpiders: Many of the Level 3 and above units, but the literal GiantSpider takes the cake, having many hit points, a slowing distance attack and a really powerful bite which inflicts poison to boot. The GiantSpider is so strong, it can kill ''Delfador'' within two turns if the player is unlucky. 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.

* DemonicSpiders: Many of the Level 3 and above units, but the literal GiantSpider takes the cake, having many hit points, a slowing distance attack and a really powerful bite which inflicts poison to boot. The GiantSpider is so strong, it can kill ''Delfador'' within two turns if the player is unlucky. 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 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.

* DemonicSpiders: Many of the Level 3 and above units, but the literal GiantSpider takes the cake, having many hit points, a slowing distance attack and a really powerful bite which inflicts poison to boot. The GiantSpider is so strong, it can kill ''Delfador'' within two turns if the player is unlucky. Many PrestigeClass enemy units can be this as well.

* TheScrappy: The [[MarySue heroine]] of the fan-made, downloadable campaign "Love to Death". [[spoiler: She even murders some lizardmen in cold blood only because they were worshiping a Death Goddess (but lacked the power of creating undead.)]]

* RunningTheAsylum: The game is completely built and developed by people who are essentially volunteering non-paid fans. Fans make the art, the music, the campaigns. Fans write the lore and decide the canon. And, so far, they've been doing a pretty good job.

** ''Under the Burning Suns'' among the mainline campaigns, despite the fact that it is arguably [[NintendoHard the most difficult of the campaigns]] and completely out of context. Reasons for this include an intricate plot with interesting and well-written characters who repeatedly subvert MarySue tropes, fantastic scenarios that really demand tactical measures from the players and actually feel like a proper story instead of a string of skirmishes and a great setting that actually feels threatening. [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination Yechnagoth]]]] is also frequently considered the best-written of all [[BigBad]]s.

* 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.

*** Grogg the troll is a (theoretically) completely optional party member in ''Under the Burning Suns''. Unlike the ''other'' optional party member, he is beloved enough by the fanbase that he even got his own spin-off campaign.

* ThatOneLevel: 'Evacuation' from ''Eastern Invasion''.

* JumpScare: Any unit that can turn invisible in certain circumstances can cause this and massive amounts of groaning as they ruin your strategies. While the most common scenarios are being ambushed by Woses in the forest or Shadows/Nightgaunts at night, some scenarios (such as "Crossroads" in ''Heir to the Throne'', "The Drowned Plains" in ''The Eastern Invasion'', and at least one optional quest in the add-on campaign ''Elvish Dynasty'') involve enemies with none of the abilities that grant invisibility being coded to ambush you as well. An army of skeletons could also invade an unsuspecting castle on an island from deep water (where they are invisible, but move ''very'' slowly). Thankfully, the AI (and most players) seem to deem the undead tactic too CrazyAwesome and impractical to use.

* EvilIsSexy: Asheviere. The add-on ''Ooze Campaign'' even has a custom unit with Asheviere's sprite whose description is

* EvilIsSexy: Asheviere.

* JumpScare: Any unit that can turn invisible in certain circumstances can cause this and massive amounts of groaning as they ruin your strategies. While the most common scenarios are being ambushed by Woses in the forest or Shadows/Nightgaunts at night, an army of skeletons could invade an unsuspecting castle on an island from deep water (where they are invisible, but move ''very'' slowly). Thankfully, the AI seems to deem the undead tactic too CrazyAwesome and impractical to use.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: It's hard to determine whether or not the fact that none of the songs were commisions or even paid for makes it even more awesome.
* TooDumbToLive: The [[MarySue heroine]] of the fan-made, downloadable campaign "Love to Death". [[spoiler: She even murders some lizardmen in cold blood only because they were worshipping a Death Goddess (but lacked the power of creating undead.)]]

* EarWorm: A huge portion of the game's soundtrack. This can be expected with compositions with a highly emphatic rhythm like ''The Dangerous Symphony'', but even things like the calmer portions of ''The King Is Dead'' can worm their way into your head and come back at unexpected moments (when you haven't played the game for days).

* 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 [[CompleteMonster get rid of the last barrier to taking absolute power for herself]]?

** Orcish Assassins also come to mind. Not only are they highly evasive, but the longer they're around, the more opposing units they're probably going to poison (which right there is a hassle in its own right even if the poison alone technically can't kill). And trying to take them down via magic or marksmanship runs into the fact that it's the Assassin's ''ranged'' attack -- which will also be used for its counterstrikes in this case -- that delivers the poison, so even if it does go down to such an attack there's a very good chance that it'll have done so to its vanquisher as a parting gift. (Trying to kill it in melee avoids the poison, but then has to deal with the fact that even notionally overwhelming force will have a hard time actually ''killing'' a healthy Assassin in a single turn again.)

* EarWorm: A huge portion of the game's soundtrack. This can be expected with compositions with a highly emphatic rhythm like ''The Dangerous Symphony'', but even more elaborate tracks like ''The King Is Dead'' can worm their way into your head and come back at unexpected moments (when you haven't played the game for days).

* EarWorm: A huge portion of the game's soundtrack. This can be expected with compositions with a highly emphatic rhythm like ''The Dangerous Symphony'', but even more elaborate tracks like ''The King Is Dead'' can worm their way into your head and come up at unexpected moments (when you haven't played the game for days).

* EarWorm: A huge portion of the game's soundtrack.

* ClicheStorm: Most of the campaigns, being set in a traditional Tolkeinesque setting. There are a few exceptions however.

* GoddamnedBats: And how.
** The game includes a real-time clock, probably [[AntiPoopSocking just for this reason]].

* JustOneMoreLevel: If you ever get hooked onto a campaign and just keep going and going…