Faction analysis/guide + general tips.

[Hentaika]

Heya, wanted to make a list of all factions with all noteworthies so you don't need to swap many menus to figure out the pro/cons of each faction.

Here are a few details I want to give before we start with the factions though:

1) If you seek achievements and are only starting out - simply getting all gallery/story can be done in one playthrough.
BUT to get absolutely all achievements you need to beat the game with each country once, which is the biggest grind.

If you want to get everything aside of 'beat each country once' I recommend doing 2 playthroughs - one to unlock everything on easiest settings and one for fun on whichever difficulty settings suit you based on what you have seen.

If you plan to play only once/twice - make sure you read lore in faction select menu and start each faction once to get the scenes. This is the ONLY lore/scene that is unique to the faction - all quests can be completed by simply capturing heroes, even ones you didn't start on. (aside of very short conquest win scene)
So by viewing them all - you got essentially all the story.

Obviously only do this if you actually WANT the story. Since there isn't one DURING the game - you don't really have to worry much aside of maybe understanding who the characters you see are/what are their motivations.

If you are doing the 2 playthrough style - for the 'grind achieve' playthrough I recommend first starting with beginner mode to learn basics and then restart game with easy settings but change 'exp gained by enemy heroes' to hard/hell. This will allow you to 'discover' each talent for gallery much easier and won't create much trouble since you are going to be .

In achieve playthrough your goal is basically to rush the enemy countries who are getting wiped out(use diplomacy menu) and locking up everyone to get all the possible heroes. Also make sure you are using search regularly to get missing neutrals.

2) When summarizing faction noteworthy hero I will be using terms below.
Skill summary:
While game has loads of heroes - the key offensive skills can be quickly summarized into categories.
Directly in front or around you - very small AoE either in front or around you.

Shoot forward - a screenwide 'beam' attack forward to where the hero is facing.
I will make a special note on this one since if you retreat and keep repositioning from top to bottom and then to middle you can stack all enemies into this beam which makes it super powerful.

X amount of Random TROOP GROUPS - troop means hero + soldiers.. guaranteed to hit everyone who gets targeted regardless of position.
X amount of Random Hero - only targeting hero
Random area - while it says random area I think it works kinda like random enemy groups.. except it does it on random place near those and is not guaranteed to hit everyone if the unit position is spread out.
AoE near the target -the unit you target is shot at and then an AoE happens around it.
Target someone with lowest/highest HP - does just that, if it's troop then it's hero+group if it's hero then only hero.
All enemies - welp, logical

For support there are usually heals which either target everyone or only a few groups.
Buffs usually target absolutely everyone or only the hero himself.

The important factor of those skills is damage(I will list which ones there are) and cooldown(your skills START with cooldown)

3) Condition list:
Chill: -50% atk spd/-50% move spd
Poison/Ignite/Bleed/Doom/Wither - damage over time(~15-20% of your atk value) every 2-3 seconds for ~15 seconds..
Perish - inflicts damage x150 your wisdom value after 15 seconds
Hypnosis/Stun - unable to act
Snare - unable to move
Regenerate - seems to heal ~3% HP every X seconds.

4) When summarizing country tech tree I will be summarizing in this way:
City:
Listing all citywide bonuses here like upkeep decrease, sentiment increase etc.
I will write them in order of importance approx.
The most useful ones are IMO auto prosperity/construction followed by sentiment followed by celebration and everything else.
Money means everything and celebration eventually allows you to tax 200% for the period of it.

Hero:
If I don't write anything else - it works on all heroes.
If I write 'soldier' then it's only for soldier class heroes for example.

For actual noteworthy heroes I will only write only what I think makes them 'noteworthy'.
For damage/heal numbers - I will write the 'lvl 1' with no gear ones so you can easily compare similar.

Troops:
Same - if it's full army bonus then it's written as is.
If it's class specific - I will write class.
'Tier 6 units' means

The usual playstyle of each country is often built on this faction bonus and which T6 units faction has. It's often better to ignore the weaknesses and just go for power synergy instead.
BE AWARE I WILL AVOID WRITING SOME MINOR BONUSES FOR NON 'MAIN TROOP' DUE TO THIS.


Finally moving onto the factions:
I will give a short summary/rating for each but those assume offensive playstyle and manual playing for hard battles. My main judgement is based mostly on City Tech(that's the only thing that's permanently with you), a bit less on the heroes and even less on positioning.

Reclamation

Rating: 8/10

The country that most people will likely start on since it's first one in selection.
It's actually a well balanced powerful faction that's friendly to new players.

Playstyle:
Mainly soldier heroes/units early on BUT each troop type is viable if you get a strong hero since you get all tier 6 units.
Has both auto prosper/construction freeing up your hands a lot on what you need to do with heroes.
Has a lot of solid masteries.

City:
+300 auto construction/+50 auto prosperity, Sentiment +5
Negotiation success +20%
10% investment, 10% construction, -28% upkeep(only barrack one), Celebration +48%

Hero:
Force +17
Soldier Def +450

Troops:
ALL TIER 6.
HP +200, ATK +45, DEF +35, Attack Speed +30%
Soldier ATK + 75, DEF +24

Noteworthy Heroes:
Lenna - SS soldier. 49s cooldown 2750 to 2 random groups + ignite.
A solid leader. Long CD but when it hits those groups will die either instantly or after ignite ticks down. Heroes will take massive damage.

Theodore - BEST IN SLOT Chancellor 35%. S Mage/Range with decent'ish stun random groups skill with 42s.

Anecia - 40% diplomat, decent'ish.

Revati - 60% marshal(max).. not the best in slot due to stats but very close to it. SS spearman.

Nevart - 28s beam attack with Ignite, S soldier. 28s is the time it takes for enemy to reach you after retreat approx. If you min max position this beam it will be catastrophic to the enemy. Manual play required.

Minerva - S soldier with soldier talents.

Mercenaries

Rating 7/10.

The reason I brought this faction out of order is that it's nearly 1:1 copy of Reclamation.

The only difference is that it's almost straightforward worse.
The tech tree loses some soldier bonuses and replaces 'force' with bigger values of 'politics'.

The heroes mostly suck - they have very low cooldown but also very weak skills. Loads of the skills are beam including leader one so requires good positioning.

Decent tech tree is what makes this meh faction this high.

Imperial Guard

Rating 10/10

Strongest faction in the game by far... you will see.

Playstyle:
Stomp everyone with the power of your tech tree... yep. Ability to use any strong heroes to their maximum potential since your are stronger than all 'specialized' unit factions for ANY unit type.
Early on you have to solo carry with Schilder and fully supporting him with others is the only downside... once you start developing tech tree and getting stronger heroes - you have pretty much won the game.

City:
Top tier, a copy of reclamation with only one difference:
15% sabotage success instead of 20% negotiation.

Heroes:
+15 EACH STAT.

Troops:
All tier 6 units.
+1 SPD, +300 HP, +45 ATK, + 35 DEF, +60% ATK SPD, +12% crit, +15% basic attack ignore armor.

Noteworthy heroes:
Schilder - the ultimate 'gameplay' hero of the game and true 'protag' of the faction.
Best in slot Marshal(60%) and the strongest 'all attack' in the game with 32s cooldown and 1366 damage. You pretty much just retreat and by time enemy reaches you - it's ~3-5 seconds until you simply wipe out all enemy troops. One man army.
Eventually stops being able to fully one shot but still remains very strong for such a low cooldown.
SS spearman.

Krishna - diplomat 60%(max).. close to best in slot but low stats. A 25s cooldown 'dodge' buff.

Fratus - 20% chancellor.. well.. it's something.. he is also a healer to 3 groups for 1500 with 26s

Harmon - best in slot treasurer with 70%(the only one in the game).. his stats aren't too great but due to having highest % with items he is the best in slot.
Also a very nice atk/def debuffer with 24s cooldown.. perfect synergy with the usual 'retreat' meta.

Protag not worth a mention, yep.

Nubidia

Rating: 5/10

The idea of faction is to be heavily raid oriented.. but the reality is it's kinda average in every department.
You start with 5 lands.. which isn't too big of an advantage though.

Playstyle:
Your main power is in the cavalry units but all melee is overall ok. Flat atk speed is very powerful on the simple units.
Certainly avoid using ranged units.

City:
Sentiment +10, Celebration +15%, Operation Costs -100 AND -17%.
Construction 22%, Training +53%, Gold from battle +36%, Soldier auto recover +20%

Heroes:
Basic attacks 25% to ignore def.
Melee - crit chance +20%

Troops:
Only cavalry tier 6, other troops tier 5.
HP +200, DEF +15
Melee - Atk SPD +9, Crit +12%
Cavalry HP +1150

Noteworthy heroes:
Nothing too noteworthy.. Micipsa S cavalry with decent talents for cavalry.
Jugurtha nice for persuading/lobby'ing heroes.
Okay'ish treasurer + chancellors.

Hagmonia

Rating: 5/10

A faction highly focused on economy.

Playstyle:
Your income is HUGE, so you pretty much solve your problems with cash. Mostly a 'diplomatic' faction.
Which isn't too strong in this game. But income is useful for being aggressive as well.
Favors 'ranger' heroes.. but main unit is spearman.. which rarely works well with Ranger class.

City:
Auto Prosperity: +60, Income +39%, Trade +69%
Negotiation +23%, Investment +43%, Construction +11%

Heroes:
Charm +16, 25% ignore def, ATK +200, Range ATK ++850
Ranger - Int +13

Troops:
Tier 6 RANGED spearman. All other units tier 5 and NO MAGE.
15% def ignore
Ranged - Range atk +40, Range +1

Noteworthy Heroes:
Aioros Drake - has S on Ranger/Warriior/Spearman
34s skill which does 3k damage + bleed for 10 secs to 2 random heroes. This is big damage, will heavily damage if not outright kill those 2 heroes if we include bleed.

Decent Marshal/Diplomat too..

Noseiffen

Rating: 8/10

One of 2 factions to get strongest unit in the game - steam mech, which is tier 6 warrior with insane stats and ranged attack.
Oriented on offense/survival.

Playstyle:
You will mostly be using Steam Mechs tier 6 unit. The unique cavalry ain't bad either.
Soldier/melee heroes are ideal.

City:
Auto construct +160, Hero Salary -20%, Operation Costs -41%
Soldier recovery 22%, Training 15%, Sentiment upon conquer +11

Heroes:
Politics +21, Force +19
Health +8400
Soldier - Force + 29

Troops:
Tier 6 warrior, cavalry, soldier. Tier 5 spear/ranger.
+200 HP
Cavalry/Soldiers have ~1k HP
Melee units get +12% damage reduction

Noteworthy Heroes:
Lamia - S cavalry unit with good cavalry talents and a 5s nuke that deals 731 damage in front of her and a 10 sec chill. It's very high power for such a low cooldown.

Beramode - SS mage with amazing mage talents.... problem is mages suck on this faction..
48s 3500 damage to random groups nuke with chill/stun. Very solid.

Alcott - 35% chancellor(max) close to best in slot

Decent 40% marshal

Adas

Rating: 7-8/10 if we count heroes overall.. 5/10 if we count heroes as part of this faction.

Faction is oriented on high attack speed, survival and warrior troops.
Faction is pretty much a weirdo where it has nice core but does everything to work against what it tries to do.

Playstyle:
Warrior basic attacks go brrrrrrr. Pretty good persuasion up so helps to takeover enemy heroes after locking them up.
Huge flat attack speed makes basic attack oriented heroes(usually self buff ones) insane.

City:
Upkeep -45%, Sentiment +3, Persuasion +50%, Operational Cost -100
Sentiment after victory +13, Training +52%
Archer upkeep -35%(why?), Warrior Troop recovery +30%,

Heroes:
+5500 HP, +14 ATK SPD
Melee +500 atk

Troops:
Tier 6 warrior, Tier 5 Mage/Ranger/Spear
Warrior +2 SPD and +11 ATK SPD

Noteworthy heroes:
All the heroes are nice for other factions but mostly meh for this one since no good warriors. Hence I am mentioning them mostly for if you plan to conquer this one.
Ares - very solid S soldier hero with soldier traits. 8s 270x3 nuke in front of him, which is solid damage.

Skehan - one of the best heroes for nearly any faction - talents which support ANY unit and has S cavalry/ranger/warrior... also 32s 744 damage ALL TARGET nuke. Not as big instant damage as Schilder but can deal even more once bleed is done.

Cattibrie - S ranger with good ranger talents. 41s all target nuke with 594 dmg.. on the low side of damage.. but good as extra to finish off the remainder after the other ones.

Rocky Gran - good S rank cavalry unit has one of strongest beam attacks with 665 dmg, 28s and ignite.

Augeas

Rating: 6/10

Another warrior/melee oriented faction, this time weaker warriors/faction but stronger/more compatible heroes.

Playstyle:
Mostly warriors yet again. Has huge auto construct so can defend it pretty easily.

City:
Warrior upkeep -25%, Sentiment +4, Auto Construct +800, Sentiment after conquer +6
Invest +35%, Construct +10%, Training +25%, Warrior Recovery +30%

Heroes:
+1500 HP
Melee - Force +16, ATK +1200
Soldier - Def +100

Troops:
Tier 6 warrior, Tier 5 soldier, mage, ranger
Melee - 20% ranged dodge
Warrior - +65 atk, +1150 HP, +24 Def, +15% Def

Noteworthy heroes:
Oravec - a perfect hero for both this and Adas factions. SS warrior and great warrior talents. 42s random 3 groups 2477 damage. Weaker but 3 instead of usual 2 groups.

Kelis - okay'ish A warrior with 48s 1621 dmg + 15s ignite around her.

Crysania - seemingly bugged healer. Her heal value is so insane that it's pretty much impossible not to heal full HP with her. and if you stack your troops inside each other she is full HP to everyone.

Laura - 40% marshal, S warrior with 8s 3x234 nuke.

Faris - solid 35% chancellor

Gramer

Rating: 4/10

A mage/range oriented faction with some economy boosts and some diplomacy/sabotage.

Playstyle: you will want to use almost exclusively mages and maybe rangers since they will become as bulky as melee units. Negotiations are much easier.

City:
+55 auto prosperity, +59% trade, +3 sentiment, +23% Sabotage Success/+15% effect.
+18% invest, +16% construction, +31% negotiation.

Heroes:
Mage - +10 ATK SPD, +1200 ATK

Troops:
Tier 6 Mage, Tier 5 everything else.
Mage/Ranger - Mana Shield
Mage - +5 ATK SPD, +55 ATK, +114 DEF

Noteworthy Heroes:
All heroes for some reason have massively nerfed damage numbers on skills.

Aravictor - all attack with 853 dmg and 44s cooldown. Amazing Negotiator +60%

Decent treasurer(50%) and dimploacy(40%)

Balorica

Rating: 2/10

Country focused on ranger heroes with almost 0 city utility.

Playstyle: Honestly you will mostly suffer and have to use ONLY ranger heroes... only decent heroes bring this up from a 1/10 rating... and heroes are very short term importance.

City:
ARCHER upkeep -26%, Celebration +16%, Training +200 exp
Hero recovery +20%, Invest +25%

Heroes:
Ranger - +18 INT, 42 FOR

Troops:
Tier 6 archer, Tier 5 all except warrior
+2 Move SPD
Archer - +30% ATK SPD, +49 DEF, +1550 HP, +40 ATK

Noteworthy Heroes:
Bayar - one of the best full army buffers in the game. 13s CD +30% atk/move speed and 40% attack for 20 seconds. Basically permanent upkeep is easy. Also a solid S cavalry unit.

Frey - decent stat S ranger with decent ranger talents.

Miles - becomes very solid S ranger on lvl 7 with it's amazing talents. Also decent 33s 2 random group 792 damage.

Constante

Rating: 8/10

A melee oriented faction that is carried by it's strong heroes. Noteworthy is pretty good placement allowing you to take down Yan/Iricus early on and take their amazing heroes.

Playstyle - offensive oriented, full melee and your advantage is being able to rush the troop levels the fastest.

City:
+64% training, soldier recovery +36%, hero recovery +33%, Sentiment after win +9
Invest +25%, Construct +26%

Heroes:
Force +15
Melee - +20% ATK SPD
Soldier - +20 Force
Mage - +13 Politics
Ranger - +13 Wis

Troops:
Tier 6 soldier, Tier 5 warrior, spearman, mage
ATK +42
Melee - +8 ATK SPD, +1150 HP, Block(50% reduce range damage by half)
Soldier - +67 DEF

Noteworthy Heroes:
Marcus - the strongest what I call 'basic attacker' in the game. SS warrior with best warrior talents. Basically as long as he has mana - he upkeeps a buff that pretty much makes him massacre 1 unit per attack with insane atk SPD while remaining essentially immortal with the amount he lifesteals. Makes quick work of heroes who no longer have troops to be their shield so paired well with all target nukers.

Cronus - extremely good melee army buffer 25s +40% melee ATK and +50% DEF for 20 sec. Also SS soldier and the best troop trainer in the game.

Uranus - best in slot diplomat(60%).. also great ranged army buffer with 26s +40% ranged ATK and +50% atk/move SPD for 20s.

Larburg

Rating: 3/10

Fully cavalry troops and soldier hero oriented faction with very little city utility.

Playstyle: Focusing Soldier heroes who have cavalry troops.. not easy to do.

City:
-23 Upkeep(barracks), +25% Training, +12% Income, +20% negotiate
+10 sentiment per win, +25% invest, +25% cavalry hero/troop recovery.

Heroes:
+5 Politics
Soldier - +35 Force, +650 ATK, +850 DEF

Troops:
Tier 6 cavalry, Tier 5 Ranger, Soldier
Cavalry - +55 ATK, +800 HP, +80 DEF, +2 SPD, +6 ATK SPD

Noteworthy Heroes:
Lajos Nagl - decent SS cavalry with a 36s 5 random area 714 damage nuke. It's a pretty solid type of skill with good enemy positioning.

Decentish 50% treasurer and a 40% negotiator.

Brunia

Rating: 2/10

A country focused mostly on Persuasion hero stealing/sabotage/celebration tax raising and winning on the cities destroyed by sabotage with very weak initial pool of heroes and offensive bonuses.

Playstyle: You pretty much just sabotage cities and hope to catch them when their troops are used elsewhere so you can easy capture city and hopefully some lone heroes along the way.

City:
Sabotage success +13%/effect + 38%, Celebration +55%, Sentiment +5, Invest +25%, Persuasion +30%
Recovery after win +22%, Construct +23%, Mage Upkeep -25%

Heroes:
+39 Charm
Mage +15 politics

Troops:
Mage tier 6, All except warrior tier 5
+550 HP
Ranged - Range +2
Mage - Def +90

Noteworthy heroes:
Mostly weak in terms of combat.
Meloetta - starts as top tier Sabotage hero.. on level 7 also becomes top tier persuasion/lobby'ist.
Has the 'bugged' heal skill which heals massively.

Orson - one of the 'valiant' army buffers but weak as a hero.

Lanlerner

Rating - 8/10

An absurdly strong hero/tech country limited only by the fact it has only one tier 6 unit and 2 tier 5 units.

Playstyle: each of your towns will passively gain absurd amount of prosperity. Your main power is Ranger heroes and unique tier 6 ranger troop with absurd attack speed.
Warrior/Mage can somewhat be used as well but nothing aside of that will work at all.

City:
+240 auto prosperity, +2 sentiment, +20% celebration, +50% persuasion
+26% auto recovery, +300 training exp, +35% invest, -100 operation costs.

Heroes:
Melee - +10 ATK SPD, 20% chance to reduce 70% damage
Ranged(not ranger) - +10 ATK SPD, +30% crit chance

Troops:
Tier 6 ranger, Tier 5 Mage, Warrior
+5% ATK, Regeneration every 3 seconds, +2 SPD
Ranged(not ranger) - Range Attack +100
Archer - +14 ATK SPD
Warrior - +7 ATK SPD, +45 ATK
Mage - DEF +39

Noteworthy Heroes:
Delantis - The oldest living being in the world. The absolute strongest character in total stats. SS ranger who is the only one in the game with 5 talents and becomes an absolute beast at lvl 10. 52s nuke for 4158 to multiple groups. This is the 2nd strongest version of this skill and it obliterates troops at pretty much any point in the game. Flows pretty much naturally with normal combat since usually only a few groups remain by 52s which will instantly die to her. Also best persuasion starting with level 4.

Aphneidel - a 60% marshal(max), very close to top tier. S cavalry and decent cavalry talents.. but not for this faction...

Mayfair - a 35% chancellor.(max). not too far from top tier.

Isoneide - S ranger with okay'ish 991 damage all hero nuke at 23s. Great ranger troop trainer.

Dunaticcus

Rating: 7/10

A country with almost 0 city utility that's all about massively improving stats of all heroes and army overall.
Only one tier 6 unit.

Main weakness is not too compatible heroes.

Playstyle: mostly gathering more heroes which will quickly snowball you with how strong they get via tech. Spearman is strongest troops but all aside of soldier/mage are 'ok'.

City:
Sabotage success +13%, Gold from win +59%, legendary armor x2

Heroes:
Force +28, Int +19, Pol +20, Charm +27

Troops:
Tier 6 spearman, Tier 5 all except soldier.
+12% CRIT, +1150 HP, +102 DEF, +159 ATK
Spearman - +10 ATK SPD
Archer - +5 ATK SPD
Cavalry - +7 ATK SPD

Noteworthy Heroes:
Byrdwenner - solid S rank mage.. but mage is weak for this faction. Decent sabotager at lvl 4+.

Ereda - another decent mage that has ways to put enemy into hypnosis.

Kanis - A cavalry with good cavalry talent. Main noteworthy is his 5s 471 damage in front of him +10s bleed skill. This is extremely powerful for how spammable it is.

Darkdust Tribe

Rating 1/10

You were wondering what would have to be 1/10? Well, that's it.
Basicaly it's an interesting idea - you have to BUY PENALTIES in research tree to get to good bonuses... sounds good/fun? Yeah.. except bonuses are often not worth.
I will only list what I think MIGHT be worth.

On top of that it has 2 tier 6 units AND NOTHING ELSE. And ♥♥♥♥♥♥ heroes..

Playstyle: welp.. hopefully you are skilled enough to fight with hardest start in the game.

City:
+9 sentiment, +20% celebrate, +15% sabotage effect, Mage -25% upkeep, +16% restore after win.

Heroes:
Int +9, Force +9

Troops:
Tier 6 Mage/Warrior, tier 4 ranger... that's it.
Mage - +5 ATK SPD, +25 ATK
Warrior - +5 ATK SPD

'Tradeoff bonuses' that are IMO worth taking the penalties:
Heroes Politics -5 > Force +5 > Politics -6 > Intelligence +40 MAYBE Politics -9 > Health +3500
Heroes Charm -6 > Crit +30% MAYBE Charm -9 > City Sentiment +15
Heroes Health -700 > Atk SPD +15
Heroes Def -30 > Ranged Hero Range +4 > Hero Def - 80 > Hero Spellshield effect.
Hero HP -400 > Army HP +250
MAYBE Heroes ATK -300 > Troops 15% def ignore.

Noteworthy Heroes:
Seraph is S mage and Lana is S warrior.. decent but not amazing.

Shadow Spectres

Rating: 2/10

A faction with almost 0 useful bonuses but some pretty strong heroes with unique Tier 6 mage unit with life leech.

Playstyle: Extremely offensive - you restore most of your troops after each victory so you can keep fighting if you can win without quick refills. There is also some good sabotage.

City:
Recovery after win +59%, Money after win 59%, Sentiment +7, Sabotage success +18%/Effect +27%, Upkeep -890

Heroes:
Nothing

Troops:
Tier 6 mage, Tier 5 everything else.
Some minor atk to most troop types and slightly bigger to melee units.

Noteworthy Heroes:
Salotarna - strongest SS mage with amazing talents becoming a beast at lvl 9. Decent 41s random group nuke for 800 damage and a big debuff stack.

Selthirina - 60% marshal close to top tier, very solid S ranger at lvl 7

Selthiria - decent S cavalry

Deathblade - S soldier with great talent

Tera - great stat/trait A warrior basic attacker.

Ossell

Rating: 7/10

Yet another country with almost 0 country bonuses and full focus on melee units. Only one tier 6 unit. One of the strongest protagonists. Upside is extremely compatible/strong heroes.

Playstyle: Offensive, a bit sabotage and full focus on melee heroes only.

City:
Money after win +70%, Sabotage Success +12%/effect +13%, Sentiment after win +9

Heroes:
Melee - 15% vampirism, Force +45, Health +8600, ATK +1300, DEF +520

Troops:
Tier 6 warrior, all Tier 5 except soldier(yep, a big loss since you are full melee)
Melee - +63 ATK
Some minor bonuses for most troops.

Noteworthy Heroes:
Danos - SS warrior with great warrior traits and 48s 4422 damage to random groups. Strongest attack of this type. Extreme stats too. Kinda a slightly bigger force but less other stats than elf queen.

Titan Slaughterer - A Warrior with great warrior talents, Noteworthy is his 4s 844 damage in front +15s doom nuke... This is the strongest nuke of this type which absolutely massacres everything if you fast rush.

Calle - not too strong, B warrior but very compatible with titan slaughterer for battle rushing. 3s 377 damage in front +10s bleed.

Loca - a 'valiant' army buffer, B spearman but with great spearman trait.

Manu

Rating: 3/10

Very similar to previous faction. Also focused on full Melee but outright worse tech/heroes. One tier 6 and only melee tier 5.

Playstyle: same as Ossell.

City:
Money from win +142%, Sabotage effect +35%, Sentiment from win +6
Training +35%, Soldier recovery +30%

Heroes:
Force +16, ATK +1300
Melee - damage based on max HP

Troops:
Tier 6 soldier, Tier 5 other melee.
ATK +53
Melee - damage based on max HP
Soldier - +100 ATK, Cavalry - +75 ATK

Noteworthy heroes:
Sharham - S soldier/Cavalry.. not too strong otherwise.

Olga - good S cavalry on level 7

Zero - 3s 406 dmg +10s bleed in front nuke. A soldier with great trait too.

Blade Mountain

Rating: 4/10

2nd faction with best tier 6 unit - steam mech. Only 2 tier 5 units aside of that.
Focused on auto construction and giving you loads of epic/legendary equipment... which is not too important long term.

Playstyle: pretty easy to maintain defence of high size cities thanks to fast reconstruction.

City:
Auto construction +460, Trade +23%, Construct +16%, Operational costs -100.
Loads of equip, some is unique.

Heroes:
HP +5700, Force +18
Soldier - DEF +500

Troops:
Tier 6 steam mech(warrior), Tier 5 ranger, soldier.
+250 HP, +50 DEF, +10 ATK SPD, damage reduce 20%
Warrior - +850 HP
Archer - +750 HP
Soldier - +57 DEF

Noteworthy Heroes:
Gerson - Decent S warrior/S soldier at lvl 7. Has 36s 833 damage to 5 random areas which can be pretty decent.

Darine - a nice 'stand ground' buffer.. also 40% marshal and S soldier

Tyrsdei - +30% atk speed buffer.. one of weakest buffs but it's still a buff... stacks with other ones too.. also 50% treasurer.

Scarlet Apostles

Rating: 6/10

A decently average faction with 2 tier 6 and 3 tier 5. Not too strong not too weak heroes and decent tech.
One small 'buy penalty' to get good boost tech.

Playstyle: everything is balanced but slightly on the weak side, can do most things.
Heroes have slight focus on persuasion but city tech doesn't help it.

City:
Sentiment +4, Sabotage effect +21%/Success + 15%, Training +47%, Money Per Win +36%, Recovery After Win +22%

Heroes:
Int +22, Charm +15
Melee - ATK SPD +8
Ranged - ATK SPD +11

Troops:
Tier 6 Spear, Warrior.. Tier5 - all except Ranger
Spear a bit ATK/DEF, Soldier a bit ATK

Tradeoff bonus:
-300 HP army > Heroes +15 force and +15% lifesteal
MAYBE -800 army HP > x3 legendary +40% crit armor x3 with 10 ATK SPD

Noteworthy Heroes:
Returner - decent basic attack S rank warrior with great trait. Problem is his skill seems bugged... it's 201s cooldown with.. I think they made an accident typo with 201 instead of 20... so he has no skill since battles only last 180s.

Mabeline - valiant buffer, not too strong otherwise. Good negotiaton/persuasion.

Yan Empire

Rating: 8/10

Strongest early 'auto' battle faction with strong heroes and good tech tree.
Suffers from only having 1 tier 6 and 2 tier 5 units which in turn makes it only so so since you won't be able to efficiently use a lot of heroes.

Playstyle: generic, you simply have strong stats/heroes/economy.

City:
Sentiment +8, Lobby +20%, Training +40%, Celebrate +25%, Invest +50%, Upkeep -28%

Heroes:
Politics +11, Int +18, Charm +15, Force +25, ATK +800, HP +4000, ATK SPD +7

Troops:
Tier 6 soldier, Tier 5 Cavalry, Ranger
Small stat boosts for each troop type.

Noteworthy Heroes:
Wu Bai - very strong S cavalry/soldier with the most powerful traits in the game. Has 35s cooldown 2333 in front damage, which is kinda decent if you use it well.

Ling Xiao - SS cavalry with decent traits. Her biggest thing is her passive which gives all troops 50% damage reduction and 20% ATK SPD... also decent 30s 4x553 damage around her. Also she is decent 40% marshal.

Zhang - 35% chancellor, very close to top tier. Has a 18s +10% damage/crit/atk spd/move spd buff that lasts infinitely and stacks.. needless to say extremely powerful in long battles. His passive is weaker than it sounds.. not sure how exactly it works but at lvl 9 I only did ~6k damage when it seemingly triggered instead of ~2k... instead of what should be an instant kill damage of ~20-30k.

Wei - 4s 646 damage in front +15s doom... similar to titan slaughterer, hence strongest version of this skill. but hero itself is weaker.

Iricus

Rating: 9/10

2nd strongest faction thanks to literally one hero who can solo decimate heroes regardless of their power. It also has one of best positions which allows you to rush Yan Empire while having barely any defensive borders.
Would be strongest if not for having only 1 t6 + 2 t5 troops.

Playstyle: you got a 23s cooldown 'kill hero with highest HP'... yep... you literally start battle solo with this hero.. simply run around and spam this killing 2-3 strongest heroes in the process. After that simply decimate what remains of enemy faction in further attacks which likely don't meet any resistance since you have your whole army saved.

City:
Auto Prosperity +100, Auto Construct +300, Sentiment +2, Auto Troop Recovery +29%
Persuasion +50%, Invest +35%, Sabotage Success +8%/Effect +15%

Heroes:
ATK SPD +30%, DEF +200
Mage - Int + 23, ATK +1200

Troops:
Unique Tier 6 mage - has a mini stun on lvl 9 which makes it pretty powerful via stunlocking enemy, Tier 5 Ranger/Soldier
ATK +5%, Ranged ATK +105
Mage - +5 ATK SPD, +150 ATK
Ranger - +12 DEF, +4 ATK SPD
Soldier - +2 SPD, +4 ATK SPD

Noteworthy Heroes:
Kargarellon - SS mage with great traits... mainly known for 23s kill enemy hero with highest HP.. yep.. that's 1 kill before enemy can cast mid tier ability and before most enemies can even reach you if you retreat... and 2 kills before enemy can cast high tier ability. If that's not enough his passive is extremely good for his 'run around and kill enemy' playstyle since every hit dealt to him will make most enemies 'perish' in 25 seconds.
Since he is leader - he can't even be captured/executed... crazy.

Hyris - you thought 1 great SS mage was not good enough? Have another. A 35% chancellor and an all hero 'shielder' with 28s CD. Amazing for early conquesting after only town remains thanks to Kargar and you need to take it down with mostly heroes.

Ayos - a very solid 60% marshal, A soldier with 'stand ground' buff.

Anahiel - 'valiance' buffer as A cavalry. Not too great for this country specifically but until you get more compatible valiance buffer she is great.

Tanya - S mage and 40% diplomat, decent.

Kaze Empire

Rating: 6/10

A faction boosting basic melee attacks despite being mostly range oriented.
Decently strong heroes. Okay tech tree.

Playstyle: you start with a leader who is very good at persuasion/lobby so you should have no problem expanding your hero pool and mustering power fast this way. Other than that pretty balanced playstyle.

City:
Sabotage success +18%, Celebrate +25%, Training +18%, Training +200 exp, Trade +69%
Money for win +49%

Heroes:
Basic melee deal extra 600% of your wisdom as damage.. not as good as it sounds since you will likely not reach much wisdom with melee.
ATK SPD +9
Mage - +750 atk
Ranger - +650 atk

Troops:
Tier 6 ranger, unique with lifesteal, Tier 5 all except warrior.
+12% crit chance
Archer - +55 ATK
Soldier - +9 ATK SPD
Mage - +80 ATK
Cavalry - +7 ATK SPD

Noteworthy Heroes:
Kanata - amazing persuasion/lobby'ist.

Oboro - the MVP of the faction. SS ranger with decent ranger traits. 42s 99x898 random target attack with some debuffing.
It sounds a bit better than it really is. It can't hit more than one of same enemy so until very late game you can mostly simply count it as 'all attack'.

Kazurei - S ranger with great traits.. has all hero 23s 1071 dmg which is kinda okay

Sora - decent S mage

Kazunobu - a 40% diplomat and 3 target healer.

Herricido

Rating: 3/10

Meh tech tree, decently strong heroes, one tier 6 + 2 tier 5 troops.

Playstyle - no real identity to the faction, so it's a simple balanced one with no tricks and no big advantages.

City:
Sabotage effect +21%, Income +25%, Upkeep -170, Training +31%, Money on win +79%

Heroes:
Melee - Force +18, Move +3
Ranged - ATK SPD +7, ATK +450

Troops:
Tier 6 cavalry, tier 5 - spear, soldier
+3 ATK SPD
Melee - +12% Crit
Cavalry - +55 ATK
Spear - +10 ATK SPD
Soldier - +80 ATK

Noteworthy Heroes:
Arum - SS cavalry with top tier cavalry traits. A 16s 750 damage in front +15s doom.. decent but numbers are pretty small for the timer.

Movaya - S soldier with decent traits.

Ezer - decent A ranger with great trait.

Mulo - decent A soldier with great trait.

Nephne - S mage with decent traits. 12s 261 damage to 2 random troops which makes them immovable for 10 seconds. This is great for anti melee fights allowing you to fully disable part of enemies before they reach you. If enemy only has 2 troops of melee left then you can pretty much near permanently disable them.

Phew, that's it for the factions.
Factions include almost all noteworthy heroes - all other heroes are mostly random garbage with a few rare exceptions of neutrals who come with their own mission and achievement, usually posing nearly faction MVP amount of stats and either very powerful skill or traits.

[Багряный]

Scarlet Apostles are one of the weakest factions that have no idea. Other than the faction leader, there are no good heroes. Very weak research. 2/10

Blade Mountain is one of the strongest leaders, who alone can destroy the armies of any enemy, while living for a very long time. 7/10

Herricido
Rating: 3/10 What? Are you serious? 7/10.

Yan Empire is a broken faction, the strongest in the game. 10/10

Hagmonia 2/10 Economic bonuses don't have much power

Gramer 2/10 Very bad balance, they need a serious buff

Mercenaries 3/10 The very idea of this faction is very stupid and they are rather inconvenient to play

Balorica 6/10 I don't see a problem with their ranger specialization, the faction is quite strong

Imperial Guard 5/10 single hero faction.

Noseiffen and Constante 9/10, 2 very strong factions with very strong bonuses and good heroes. Unlike the broken Yan Empire, they have a good balance

[Hentaika]

Originally posted by Багряный:

Scarlet Apostles are one of the weakest factions that have no idea. Other than the faction leader, there are no good heroes. Very weak research. 2/10

Blade Mountain is one of the strongest leaders, who alone can destroy the armies of any enemy, while living for a very long time. 7/10

Herricido
Rating: 3/10 What? Are you serious? 7/10.

Yan Empire is a broken faction, the strongest in the game. 10/10

Hagmonia 2/10 Economic bonuses don't have much power

Gramer 2/10 Very bad balance, they need a serious buff

Mercenaries 3/10 The very idea of this faction is very stupid and they are rather inconvenient to play

Balorica 6/10 I don't see a problem with their ranger specialization, the faction is quite strong

Imperial Guard 5/10 single hero faction.

Noseiffen and Constante 9/10, 2 very strong factions with very strong bonuses and good heroes. Unlike the broken Yan Empire, they have a good balance

You are rating heroes and not considering positions/tech tree and most importantly amount of t5/6 units which is pretty stupid, since those are all very important factors on higher difficulties. You also do not consider hero compatibility with own faction.
Your ratings feel like they were made on pretty easy difficulties(blade mountain comment espeically), which is not where the challenge of the game resides.

Scarlet has solid all around heroes and persuasion boosts which is the most important to start getting more heroes and snowballing.

Blade Mountain - Gerason can't 'solo' anything, he simply will lose on timer on any difficulty beyond easy. Beyond mech unit you need to reach the faction is quite meh. Maybe deserves a 5/10 for mech unit alone, but the faction itself is too weak and tech tree is just too bad. He doesn't even have good talents until lvl 7. His skill is great for a tank unit, but it's simply not enough and any remotely sturdy comp will outright ignore it.
Darine if anything is more important with his stand guard.. but he is not warrior, which means no mech... overall the faction is just incompatible with own heroes which is issue with quite a lot of factions I rate low.

Herricido - has one of most disastrous techs and pretty meh position(nothing around them to give you decent advantage). Doesn't even have that strong of a heroes aside of arum. They only have 1 t6 unit and 2 t5(like all DLC) which needs SERIOUS other advantage to compensate for this that they lack.

Yan - yan is good to conquer and good auto play so bot will play good on it. That's about it. If you like auto play especially on easy difficulty - yeah, it's best., but this difficulty is negligible to begin with Position is great but worse than Iricus and it has the usual DLC disadvantage of 1t6/2t5, which is also the only reason Iricus isn't top 1, it's waaaay too huge of a disadvantage and makes you not snowball as hard in mid game.
Yan can't do same one turn one unit army wipe trick as Iricus and can't use ANY heroes with top tier units like Imperial guard. You simply win battles in a regular way at best. On any higher difficulty Yan simply won't do as good as imperial/iricus both in early game(since it can't be as good as Iricus at a huge level disdvantage and conquering iricus is much more annoying compared to conquering yan with iricus) and late game(not being able to use majority of good heroes due to t5/6 limitation)

Hagmonia - worth 4/10 at very worst. Economy is extremely important on higher difficulties. If you play on easy, which seems very likely, then your rating would be correct, I guess.

Gramer - is a weak faction, but I wouldn't call it 'very bad balance', in fact if anything - a lot of factions need a nerf insetad. It's more of a negotiation being not too much better than having good starting position being the issue. That being said I agree with it's 'hard' rating as it's faction with a very turtle playstyle which requires turtling/sabotaging and using correct moment to attack.

Mercenaries - rating a near top tier tech tree as 3/10 baffles me. That being said it's not easy to play - 2 important heroes have low cooldown beam attack which makes them hard to play since you need to optimal position yourself for a spam of beams. If you can make it work well it can actually be almost comparable to reclamation.

Balorica - again, on easy you shouldn't see any problem. On any harder difficulty having full ranged bonuses is meh since most of the 'best' heroes in the game are melee...not to mention most of the heroes being melee in general is also a thing.
I will also note how their bonuses are RANGER, not RANGED. Which means mages are also a no go, further limiting the faction.

Imperial guard - is where I probably ought to have stopped even commenting on your ratings, since they have the strongest tech tree and all of the t6 units while being pretty close to top tier heroes they can steal pretty fast. Not to mention best in slot treasurer/marshal, extremely close to top tier diplomat and a neighbour country having best in slot chancellor.

Constante/Noseiffen - I kinda debated on giving Constante 9/10 as well, but it's simply not same tier as Iricus/imperial guard.. it's not even as strong as Yan which I also rated as 8/10 since I think 2 countries being 9-10 is more than enough, there needs to be a wider distinction. It's a very strong faction alright and I disagree in that it is a decently balanced faction, which is what I mostly mark as ~6/10 myself.
It's a faction balanced for newbies, which is mostly what I rate as 7-8, allows you having a challenge without becoming too overpowered all around.

Noseiffen mostly carried via Mech unit and is otherwie quite 'meh', so certainly not over 8/10 though and certainly weakest out of the ones I marked 8/10.

[Багряный]

Originally posted by Hentaika:

Originally posted by Багряный:

Scarlet Apostles are one of the weakest factions that have no idea. Other than the faction leader, there are no good heroes. Very weak research. 2/10

Blade Mountain is one of the strongest leaders, who alone can destroy the armies of any enemy, while living for a very long time. 7/10

Herricido
Rating: 3/10 What? Are you serious? 7/10.

Yan Empire is a broken faction, the strongest in the game. 10/10

Hagmonia 2/10 Economic bonuses don't have much power

Gramer 2/10 Very bad balance, they need a serious buff

Mercenaries 3/10 The very idea of this faction is very stupid and they are rather inconvenient to play

Balorica 6/10 I don't see a problem with their ranger specialization, the faction is quite strong

Imperial Guard 5/10 single hero faction.

Noseiffen and Constante 9/10, 2 very strong factions with very strong bonuses and good heroes. Unlike the broken Yan Empire, they have a good balance

You are rating heroes and not considering positions/tech tree and most importantly amount of t5/6 units which is pretty stupid, since those are all very important factors on higher difficulties. You also do not consider hero compatibility with own faction.
Your ratings feel like they were made on pretty easy difficulties(blade mountain comment espeically), which is not where the challenge of the game resides.

Scarlet has solid all around heroes and persuasion boosts which is the most important to start getting more heroes and snowballing.

Blade Mountain - Gerason can't 'solo' anything, he simply will lose on timer on any difficulty beyond easy. Beyond mech unit you need to reach the faction is quite meh. Maybe deserves a 5/10 for mech unit alone, but the faction itself is too weak and tech tree is just too bad. He doesn't even have good talents until lvl 7. His skill is great for a tank unit, but it's simply not enough and any remotely sturdy comp will outright ignore it.
Darine if anything is more important with his stand guard.. but he is not warrior, which means no mech... overall the faction is just incompatible with own heroes which is issue with quite a lot of factions I rate low.

Herricido - has one of most disastrous techs and pretty meh position(nothing around them to give you decent advantage). Doesn't even have that strong of a heroes aside of arum. They only have 1 t6 unit and 2 t5(like all DLC) which needs SERIOUS other advantage to compensate for this that they lack.

Yan - yan is good to conquer and good auto play so bot will play good on it. That's about it. If you like auto play especially on easy difficulty - yeah, it's best., but this difficulty is negligible to begin with Position is great but worse than Iricus and it has the usual DLC disadvantage of 1t6/2t5, which is also the only reason Iricus isn't top 1, it's waaaay too huge of a disadvantage and makes you not snowball as hard in mid game.
Yan can't do same one turn one unit army wipe trick as Iricus and can't use ANY heroes with top tier units like Imperial guard. You simply win battles in a regular way at best. On any higher difficulty Yan simply won't do as good as imperial/iricus both in early game(since it can't be as good as Iricus at a huge level disdvantage and conquering iricus is much more annoying compared to conquering yan with iricus) and late game(not being able to use majority of good heroes due to t5/6 limitation)

Imperial guard - is where I probably ought to have stopped even commenting on your ratings, since they have the strongest tech tree and all of the t6 units while being pretty close to top tier heroes they can steal pretty fast. Not to mention best in slot treasurer/marshal and a neighbour country having best in slot chancellor and a decent diplomat.

Constante/Noseiffen - I kinda debated on giving Constante 9/10 as well, but it's simply not same tier as Iricus/imperial guard.. it's not even as strong as Yan which I also rated as 8/10 since I think 2 countries being 9-10 is more than enough, there needs to be a wider distinction. It's a very strong faction alright and I disagree in that it is a decently balanced faction, which is what I mostly mark as ~6/10 myself.
It's a faction balanced for newbies, which is mostly what I rate as 7-8, allows you having a challenge without becoming too overpowered all around.

Noseiffen mostly carried via Mech unit and is otherwie quite 'meh', so certainly not over 8/10 though and certainly weakest out of the ones I marked 8/10.

I got all 84 achievements and beat the game on hard difficulty. I didn't play Hell. And I analyze both technology and the composition of the troops. You will spam 1 or 2 squads anyway. So if you only have 1 T6 unit, that's fine. For example Iricus, it makes no sense to use any units other than T6 mages, this is their main strength. And so it is with most of the other factions.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2820747103

The Imperial guard has only one very strong hero - Schilder Craft, all other heroes are just rubbish in terms of combat strength. Yes, the tech tree is good, but you start with specific heroes and in a specific position. And this faction is surrounded by quite strong opponents, whose initial heroes are stronger.

Herricido has all above average heroes and a generally balanced troop and tech mix. They certainly need a little buff, but as a faction they are at a decent level.

I've fought many times in the late game against Blade Mountain and it's one of the most annoying factions. If Constante you can crush through the cavalry. Then you will do nothing with Blade Mountain and you will receive catastrophic losses of troops. Only Kargarelleon and Raistin can destroy Gerson.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2835261947

Here's an example of how I beat the game as Blade Mountain, literally in 59 moves. I played games on normal and hard weights, so I understand the difference in strength.

[Hentaika]

'Playing on normal and hard'...

'Not playing on hell'...

'Rating factions'..

'Shows a screenshot of beating blade mountain on easy mode in 59 turns' proving my point.

'Shows a normal mode 208 turns clear' with only 60 heroes on one of strongest factions... that's enough turns to complete all missions and get all ~270 heroes and all their talents and still have plenty of time leftover.

I guess I should stop right there, was a waste of time to even comment on your ratings, I guess.. wish you posted this earlier so I wouldn't waste so much time >>

[Багряный]

Originally posted by Hentaika:

'Playing on normal and hard'...

'Not playing on hell'...

'Rating factions'..

'Shows a screenshot of beating blade mountain on easy mode in 59 turns' proving my point.

I guess I should stop right there, was a waste of time to even comment on your ratings, I guess.. wish you posted this earlier so I wouldn't waste so much time >>

I showed an example of passing on a difficult level. And you won't be able to beat the game on easy in 59 turns with most factions. Are you saying that you completed the game for all the factions on a hellish level? I doubt it. And almost no one will torment themselves with a game at a hellish level, since the developer has balanced the game very poorly.

I just proved that some of your assessments are inadequate and very poorly thought out.

[Hentaika]

Originally posted by Багряный:

I showed an example of passing on a difficult level. And you won't be able to beat the game on easy in 59 turns with most factions. Are you saying that you completed the game for all the factions on a hellish level? I doubt it. And almost no one will torment themselves with a game at a hellish level, since the developer has balanced the game very poorly.

I just proved that some of your assessments are inadequate and very poorly thought out.

You can beat game on easy with ANY faction in UNDER 50 turns. In fact if you are rushing game - it's harder NOT to if it's not your first time playing.
In fact Iricus can do record speedruns on any difficulty, so it's entirely easy to do ~50-60 turns on normal if you want a good rush, and ~70-80 for hard is all it should take as well by using the 1 turn country wipe trick closer to end game.

200 turns is enough on ANY difficulty(up to hard) with ANY faction to get slightly under 270 heroes(minus whoever gets executed) and all talents/quests unlocked/completed.

The game IS balanced around playing on hell difficulty and you telling otherwise just shows you don't know how game is meant to be played.

Easy-Normal is named such for a reason. Those are either for completing gallery or rushing the game for achieves. It's not a 'challenge'.
Hard is a good challenge for first playthrough but becomes easy when you know mechanics.

Hell is what you need to get any challenge at all on 2nd+ playthrough as it's the only difficulty where enemy develops decently and doesn't do stupid mistakes you can abuse easily. It's also the only difficulty where the faction starts remotely matter since on other difficulties any faction just snowballs after first few turns.

I am not even sure what you are 'assessing' since you didn't even play game on the only difficulty that remotely matters for those who seek challenge.

[Багряный]

Originally posted by Hentaika:

Originally posted by Багряный:

I showed an example of passing on a difficult level. And you won't be able to beat the game on easy in 59 turns with most factions. Are you saying that you completed the game for all the factions on a hellish level? I doubt it. And almost no one will torment themselves with a game at a hellish level, since the developer has balanced the game very poorly.

I just proved that some of your assessments are inadequate and very poorly thought out.

You can beat game on easy with ANY faction in UNDER 50 turns. In fact if you are rushing game - it's harder NOT to if it's not your first time playing.

200 turns is enough on ANY difficulty with ANY faction to get slightly under 270 heroes and all talents unlocked.

The game IS balanced around playing on hell difficulty and you telling otherwise just shows you don't know how game is meant to be played.

Easy-Normal is made so for a reason. Those are either for completing gallery or rushing the game for achieves. It's not a 'challenge'.
Hard is a good challenge for first playthrough but becomes easy when you know mechanics.

Hell is what you need to get any challenge at all as it's the only difficulty where enemy develops decently and doesn't do stupid mistakes you can abuse easily. It's also the only difficulty where the faction starts remotely matter since on other difficulties any faction just snowballs after first few turns.

The first 20 moves you will receive levels at any level or just try to survive. Further, if you have a good faction, you will quickly capture the map with a snowball. If the faction is weak, then this one will drag on. The main advantage of easy difficulty is that you can quickly make up for losses for money. The AI behaves almost the same on every difficulty, it's just that its economy will be stronger, and you will need to be careful.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2835968197

You gave Darkdust Tribe a 1/10 rating and I agree with it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2834860841

Shadow Spectres 2/10 and I agree with it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2836189829
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2836938621

But the Imperial guard is closer to Shadow Spectres and Darkdust Tribe, and Balorica seems to be much stronger.

[Hentaika]

Easy difficulty is not where you 'rate' factions.
It's hell difficulty where you do.

For rushing game the ratings are entirely other obviously, since game is not balanced around you just auto'ing it on easy.
It's just that you can auto game on easy with all factions if you want to for the achieves, does not make any faction better or worse.

Rushing game on easy entirely removes a lot of mechanics that play a huge role on hell:
Economy, Position, Capability for diplomacy/negotiation and such...

All those mechanics go out of the window on easy and the only thing that matters is starter heroes who go BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Same for normal once you know what you are doing.

Hard already starts resembling something of a balanced play but is still not enough to warrant using all the mechanics to their utmost.

[Багряный]

Originally posted by Hentaika:

Easy difficulty is not where you 'rate' factions.
It's hell difficulty where you do.

For rushing game the ratings are entirely other obviously, since game is not balanced around you just auto'ing it on easy.
It's just that you can auto game on easy with all factions if you want to for the achieves, does not make any faction better or worse.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2834681462
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2823687671
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2822347299
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2821552289
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2820123147

Here are walkthroughs on normal difficulty. After the hard difficulty, I did not want to play it, due to the fact that the game is artificially delayed, and not because the AI somehow deviates from the easy difficulty.

And I have concrete evidence that I completed the game on 3 different difficulties, for all factions. This is more than enough to challenge your rating where you are clearly mistaken.

[Hentaika]

So far I only see normal mode completions which is pretty much same as easy mode for those who are playing not their first time.

And just beating one faction on hard wouldn't really change much either in terms of your ability to analyze anything, especially if it's a stronger faction.

Again - game is not 'artificially delayed' on harder difficulties, it simply wants you to to use mechanics it has to offer instead of rush destroying everyone in a few turns.

What you were doing on normal mode for 100+ turns is beyond me as well.. Especially with Iricus who can start conquering an entire faction(if it has 2-3 cities left) in 1 turn starting with ~turn 50-60.

From my approximate analysis of your playstyle - you simply executed majority of stuff you could unless it was during the faction conquer. Having so few heroes is very inefficient and only serves to delay you if you know what you are doing. After which you just brute force conquered and moved on onto next country. So instead of profit from snowballing you choose the 'harder' way for whichever reason.

Based on factions you beat faster - I can analyze that you are mostly relying on 'auto' play style with minimum manualing as well.
Good to see with constante who are among best basic attack factions.
Optimally you use all commands including 'retreat' which is arguably the most important manual mode action that allows a lot of heroes to become much stronger than their 'mostly auto' play.
You rating mercenaries so low explains it as well since it revolves around positioning enemy into your beam attacks which are one of best manual style attacks.

But yeah - 'not getting better after so many rushes' and 'game being badly balanced' are 2 different things. Yeah, if you simply seek achievements - it's most efficient to just rush easy. But if you want a good gameplay value - the only way to get it is by appreciating how hell pushes you to use all game mechanics you previously thought useless that suddenly start being important.

[Багряный]

Originally posted by Hentaika:

So far I only see normal mode completions which is pretty much same as easy mode for those who are playing not their first time.

And just beating one faction on hard wouldn't really change much either in terms of your ability to analyze anything, especially if it's a stronger faction.

Again - game is not 'artificially delayed' on harder difficulties, it simply wants you to to use mechanics it has to offer instead of rush destroying everyone in a few turns.

What you were doing on normal mode for 100+ turns is beyond me as well.. Especially with Iricus who can start conquering an entire faction(if it has 2-3 cities left) in 1 turn starting with ~turn 50-60.

From my approximate analysis of your playstyle - you simply executed majority of stuff you could unless it was during the faction conquer. Having so few heroes is very inefficient and only serves to delay you if you know what you are doing.

But yeah - 'not getting better after so many rushes' and 'game being badly balanced' are 2 different things. Yeah, if you simply seek achievements - it's most efficient to just rush easy. But if you want a good gameplay value - the only way to get it is by appreciating how hell pushes you to use all game mechanics you previously thought useless that suddenly start being important.

No, the whole game value will come down to the fact that you just need to enter into additional alliances and trade agreements, and against your opponents, steal their heroes and constantly sabotage, process the heroes you need in prison. Unfortunately, the mechanics of this potentially great game are very raw and very poorly balanced. And unfortunately the developer abandoned the development of the game. As a result, some of the factions are very strong and others are very weak

[Hentaika]

Agreed, some factions being strong and weak is exactly why I made the analysis for those who wanted to tackle hell and need to plan out every little detail.

Yet your 'opinion' is based on difficulties where you simply ignore game mechanics and even ignore the possibility of manually playing in favor of simply fast skipping turns and executing everyone to soften faction to the point it can't resist anymore, which is a viable way to win but a very slow one.

You literally just told 'I have to use so many mechanics that make this game good - game is bad' to describe why you think hell is badly balanced...
You enjoying beating everything on auto/easy mode is a 'you' thing.

You can enjoy game how you want and it's fine. It's just that if you are simply enjoying lower difficulties - whatever faction rating you can do will revolve on enemy not doing much to resist you.
Such difficulties do not require 'faction rankings' at all since they can all be completed with 0 challenge as enemy simply can't do anything to remotely challenge you.

Hell is where enemy is always either equally powerful or more powerful than you, especially if you pick what I rated as 'weak' factions. The economy you ignore becomes important due to that.
The diplomacy you ignore becomes important due to that.
The heroes you ignored become much stronger than those you used to auto beat everyone on easier difficulties since those can't just auto carry you and those with good manual AoE attacks become the way to go.

[Багряный]

Originally posted by Hentaika:

Agreed, some factions being strong and weak is exactly why I made the analysis for those who wanted to tackle hell and need to plan out every little detail.

Yet your 'opinion' is based on difficulties where you simply ignore game mechanics and even ignore the possibility of manually playing in favor of simply fast skipping turns and executing everyone to soften faction to the point it can't resist anymore, which is a viable way to win but a very slow one.

You literally just told 'I have to use so many mechanics that make this game good - game is bad' to describe why you think hell is badly balanced...
You enjoying beating everything on auto/easy mode is a 'you' thing.

You can enjoy game how you want and it's fine. It's just that if you are simply enjoying lower difficulties - whatever faction rating you can do will revolve on enemy not doing much to resist you.
Such difficulties do not require 'faction rankings' at all since they can all be completed with 0 challenge as enemy simply can't do anything to remotely challenge you.

Hell is where enemy is always either equally powerful or more powerful than you, especially if you pick what I rated as 'weak' factions. The economy you ignore becomes important due to that.
The diplomacy you ignore becomes important due to that.
The heroes you ignored become much stronger than those you used to auto beat everyone on easier difficulties since those can't just auto carry you and those with good manual AoE attacks become the way to go.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2873452735

I went through hellish difficulty. The enemy just has a strong economy, the AI behaves exactly the same as on easy difficulty.

[Hentaika]

Pretty much, yes.

Hence why I rated factions as they are.
Iricus is probably easiest one overall since it does not require any skill on your part - you just retreat and click 1 button then win. But I would say as a faction still weaker than Imperial guard.

Not sure what you did for 200 turns as Iricus though.

[Багряный]

Originally posted by Hentaika:

Pretty much, yes.

Hence why I rated factions as they are.
Iricus is probably easiest one overall since it does not require any skill on your part - you just retreat and click 1 button then win. But I would say as a faction still weaker than Imperial guard.

I chose Iricus because they are my favorite and they are not easy to play. Even the developer tagged this faction as medium instead of easy. Kargarellon often kills the weakest hero and up to level 6 mages, this faction is quite weak in combat.

Still, the Imperial guard only has 1 very strong hero, probably the strongest marshal in the game. All other characters are pretty weak. It is very rare for this faction to survive in the game.