Empire Aflame impression

[yuggothone]

There isn't a lot of discussion about it, but since I just finished the campaign.. What a blast! In many ways an improvement on the invasion, the Empires certainly plays quite a bit differently than the barbarians. More cautious with a much weaker infantry game of Death dealers compared with the Armored trolls. They have a powerful life leech, but low armor, low hp and unit size. Of course, the empire has the best archer units and discovered, the better sky hunter with the nightmare reaper!

The battles in general seems much longer than the invasion battles, bigger maps, more enemies. Many of the battles, I did not have the stamina to chase down every unit, take every settlement, castle or ruins. I remembered disturbing one of the frost troll territories and they stomped down south for a 3 way war! I had to prioritize many of the objectives and not be too greedy. The shadowspawn invasion was nice, very cliche though. They do pose a nice challenge to your units. A different straegy required to deal with the shadowbeasts.

I chose the good path with Moira. Helped Ailsa, save Macra, Eagle and lizardman. Alot of nice heroes! Sszlag, Thorbrand, Doros, Tirea etc. One annoying thing is the rotating change in heroes just when you get used to them (Macras and Doro leaving). Rather annoying! Also for some reasons Ailsa and Macras did not participate in the last battle (I helped out at Heartspire and saved Macras sucessfully)

[Kaysoky]

I think a lot of the Empire Aflame discussion occurred prior to the Evolution DLC's release. I remember plenty of threads, particularly on how to deal with Shadowbeasts (on higher difficulties).

The campaign definitely requires different strategies than Invasion. Units that are amazing in Invasion (Death Dealers, Nightmare Reapers, Fire Archers) are much less effective in Empire Aflame due to how much morale the Shadowspawn have. I'd argue that Death Dealers are the best infantry units though, as long as you can give them Fortify or Heroism (immunity to attrition).
As for flying units (including Nightmare Reapers), I learned to not rely on them, since they die way too easily to waves of 10+ Shadowbeasts (Legend difficulty). Pegasus Riders are actually a little bit better in Empire Aflame, since they have a charge attack (and can therefore take no damage while attacking a weakened Shadowbeast).

I actually think the Frost Trolls don't play a big enough role. They appear in the early maps, but disappear entirely from the campaign afterwards. Filos' route has them showing up a little later, but that's just one more map.

[yuggothone]

Actually, I would like to defer on the nightmare reapers with some 'promotion'. I recently re-ran the campaign on legendary mode and there was this tiny opportunity when you can first recruit your first pegasi and upgrade that unit with both 'strong' and 'anti-air' promotion, both of that brings you +60% damage against air-units, add in a 'rage' promotion which you get from another hero later, that brings you to +85% damage. What i discovered is that the increase in damage and the anti-shadow lantern allows your nightmare reaper to do enough damage and lifesteal that it could tank any number of nightmare beast and its health would be full afterwards.

Unfortunately, you have only 1 opportunity to do so, and at that junction, the game railroads you by giving you +6 worth of units and a really tough mission. A person with foresight could probably get +6 liquid mana, +2 supply ready for 2 pegasi. It doesn't fully negate nightmare beast (some who are carrying cursed amulet) and the siege worms can still damage you badly.

[ope84]

Empire Aflame swamp missions are much more difficult than the Invasion ones, I am glad i didn't upgrade the catapult engine. Is the Golem upgrade worth it?

[Kaysoky]

The golem is probably not worthwhile in Empire Aflame. The Scorpio Ballista is however. (You'll want strong anti-air capabilities.)

[Virgil-SKY]

Originally posted by Kaysoky:

The golem is probably not worthwhile in Empire Aflame. The Scorpio Ballista is however. (You'll want strong anti-air capabilities.)

And Slayer. That one is a big part when dealing with large shadowspawns. One golem might be used as tank, in case there are too many enemies to hold off, though generally speaking its speed makes it not a good choice, you don't have anything larger than it as imperial.

[ope84]

I just got the centaur heroine, i think so far she provides the best training buff for the imperial faction: +1 missile weapons range.

Overall, i think the best trainer is Dolos with the +1 equipment slot.