Battle of Dyrrhachium is impssible

[Ludwig van Beethoven]

Battle of Dyrrhachium is impossible I have tried and done a lot of things and it just doesn't work. I took everything and attacked the castle and I was killed over and over again. In one attempt I left the blue ones alive but the catapullt attacked me anyway. What can I do to make it?

[macleodcorey]

It is no doubt a very unpleasant experience this mission. I almost quit the game altogether because of the OP catapult thing.

This level is all about luck and there's no real tactic here. All you can do is run around in circles to each point recruiting when possible and trying to recapture lost flags over and over.

Any level with catapults will be frustration and not fun, unlike the other missions. If the catapults had been designed to be more realistic and the shot landed randomly in a wide area around the target then they would have been more welcome. Instead they are seem to have 21st Century cruise missile technology. Even World War 2 artillery with spotters was not this accurate.

[PuttBlug]

I'm stuck there as well, those catapults resemble more modern ballistic missile systems rather than actual catapults. I beat the Greeks, get all the spawn points, max everything out but I can't seem to be able to beat the final fort battle in which the enemy with unlimited funds can spawn soldiers immediately and take advantage of their incredibly accurate ballistic missile system which 99% of the time hits only my own troops.

If the accuracy shouldn't be fixed, at least make it reload 4 times slower so that we get a chance to beat this level without going crazy!

[Polemarchos]

The level is possible if you use a flag-capture-speed standard and time your attack right. Its difficult though. You need to destroy the gate behind the wooden bridge (to dodge the rocks easier) then retreat and wait until the Wallkeeper AI leaves the fort over the stone bridge without the gate being fully repaired. Then you can rush in. Just try it over and over again.

[x_wing]

Originally posted by AlexRie:

The level is possible if you use a flag-capture-speed standard and time your attack right. Its difficult though. You need to destroy the gate behind the wooden bridge (to dodge the rocks easier) then retreat and wait until the Wallkeeper AI leaves the fort over the stone bridge without the gate being fully repaired. Then you can rush in. Just try it over and over again.

Did you play with the last patch? My big problem with previous version was to get gold as it felt like you didn't have enough time. With the new patch this level is now definitely impossible to win even with silver on normal. The reasons I see are:

• Greeks are OP from the beginning with theirs spears soldiers. This means that you must avoid contact with them at all cost and that Pompey troops will be completely slaughtered when they engage combat (which means that you cannot wait and attack when both troops debilitates after a fight)
  
• Pompey troops are way too static on the fort (not new) so you're almost on your own against Greeks
  
• Your capture speed will always be slower than Greeks as in order to get the FCS perk you will have to save troops (i.e. slower capture time for you), not to mention that getting full troops is still a waste of resource due to the catapults.
  
• (Not 100% sure of this) seems that Greek general is able to summon troops we he is far away from his flag or when he dies he always spawns in the flag you're trying to capture (even if it was the farthest flag to the place he died)

I'll try to test the idea of getting enough gold to create an spear's soldiers army so then I can try to conquer Pompey's base after Greeks attacks (I'll have to wait until they conquer ALL the maps flags...), breaks into the castle and lose so I can get inside and take the flag when Pompey's decides to go conquer another flag. This may work at some point but this is strategy is definitely hacking and I'm almost sure that this will work once every 100 tries.

The dev definitely didn't test the changes he did in the last patch as I'm sure that his idea was to make this level easier on normal difficulty but, in the end, he did exactly the opposite.

[PuttBlug]

I've done it, I did take the capture the flag speed boost, maxed out everything, full 24 legionnaires with the banner guy as well. The trick is to break the gate, doesn't matter which one and then you're expected to fail from the constant ballistic missile defence system that's in place and the enemy spawning right on top of you.

Respawned, recruited everybody again, charged in while trying to avoid the catapult shots, was left with about 17 men, just don't go attacking the enemy because they're the distraction. I kept pressing F and going around them as they were chasing me and got to their flag, pressed shift to double the capture speed and FINALLY did it! From that point on I just kept pressing 3 , spawning endless waves of legionnaires until there was no defenders left. When you capture the fort flag the catapults stop firing completely by the way.

[x_wing]

Originally posted by Pastor LuL:

I've done it, I did take the capture the flag speed boost, maxed out everything, full 24 legionnaires with the banner guy as well. The trick is to break the gate, doesn't matter which one and then you're expected to fail from the constant ballistic missile defence system that's in place and the enemy spawning right on top of you.

Respawned, recruited everybody again, charged in while trying to avoid the catapult shots, was left with about 17 men, just don't go attacking the enemy because they're the distraction. I kept pressing F and going around them as they were chasing me and got to their flag, pressed shift to double the capture speed and FINALLY did it! From that point on I just kept pressing 3 , spawning endless waves of legionnaires until there was no defenders left. When you capture the fort flag the catapults stop firing completely by the way.

Normal or easy difficulty?

Edit: I can add yet another new difficulty for this level -- Rocks ca now go through the doors, killing your soldiers. idk, the new patch made this level impossible in normal difficulty. I can't even find a way to win by points, something that was kinda easy to achieve with the previous versions.

Edit 2: Aaand I was finally able to win this ♥♥♥♥. My tactic was to start collecting denarius using A, B C & D (i.e. running simulator) while saving for the standard and the FCS upgrade. Once you get this two upgrades, I found a way to force the Greeks to attack the fort door by capturing F (seems that when they capture this flag it's quite probable that the will proceed to attack the fortification). Next step was to create an army of 10 or 12 militia, keep them guarding outside the fortification (near the wall so they don't get smashed by the catapults) and then proceed inside alone. While in there you must taunt Pompey to follow you with the full army while activating the guard near the fortification flag. If you are able to keep Pompey army away of your soldiers, you should be able to capture the fortification in no time. After the capture, Pompey will run outside of the fortification in order to try capturing a flag, he will fight with Greeks and Greeks will defeat him. From there on the battle is decided in your favor by using a similar taunting/guarding strategy plus the destruction of catapults over your enemy army.

I'm almost sure that this strategy should has work before this patch, but with the Greeks being more powerful from the very beginning it makes it way more harder than what it used to be.

[Polemarchos]

Originally posted by x_wing:

Originally posted by AlexRie:

The level is possible if you use a flag-capture-speed standard and time your attack right. Its difficult though. You need to destroy the gate behind the wooden bridge (to dodge the rocks easier) then retreat and wait until the Wallkeeper AI leaves the fort over the stone bridge without the gate being fully repaired. Then you can rush in. Just try it over and over again.

Did you play with the last patch? My big problem with previous version was to get gold as it felt like you didn't have enough time. With the new patch this level is now definitely impossible to win even with silver on normal. The reasons I see are:

• Greeks are OP from the beginning with theirs spears soldiers. This means that you must avoid contact with them at all cost and that Pompey troops will be completely slaughtered when they engage combat (which means that you cannot wait and attack when both troops debilitates after a fight)
  
• Pompey troops are way too static on the fort (not new) so you're almost on your own against Greeks
  
• Your capture speed will always be slower than Greeks as in order to get the FCS perk you will have to save troops (i.e. slower capture time for you), not to mention that getting full troops is still a waste of resource due to the catapults.
  
• (Not 100% sure of this) seems that Greek general is able to summon troops we he is far away from his flag or when he dies he always spawns in the flag you're trying to capture (even if it was the farthest flag to the place he died)

I'll try to test the idea of getting enough gold to create an spear's soldiers army so then I can try to conquer Pompey's base after Greeks attacks (I'll have to wait until they conquer ALL the maps flags...), breaks into the castle and lose so I can get inside and take the flag when Pompey's decides to go conquer another flag. This may work at some point but this is strategy is definitely hacking and I'm almost sure that this will work once every 100 tries.

The dev definitely didn't test the changes he did in the last patch as I'm sure that his idea was to make this level easier on normal difficulty but, in the end, he did exactly the opposite.

I just played it with the new update. I went from A to B then to E. The Greeks went to D and then to F to attack Pompeys fort. From E I went to D and let my squad hold there while I baited the Greeks back to Pompey and called my men to F. Greeks out in under 10 min. without many casulties.
I uploaded a screenshot of the mission summary. Search under "Dyrrhachium".

[x_wing]

Originally posted by AlexRie:

I just played it with the new update. I went from A to B then to E. The Greeks went to D and then to F to attack Pompeys fort. From E I went to D and let my squad hold there while I baited the Greeks back to Pompey and called my men to F. Greeks out in under 10 min. without many casulties.
I uploaded a screenshot of the mission summary. Search under "Dyrrhachium".

In my case they never went from D to F. They always go to C or sometimes they come to B. Here you see an example: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2502161098)

[Polemarchos]

When they go to C or B I just go to E and let them have it. I avoid combat capture A, B and E and make them chase me while my squad takes their flags. They are an aggressive AI and will never stop chasing you. Just make sure you dodge the jump attacks when they are close behind you. Sometimes Pompey comes out and assists sometimes you need to capture all blue flags by yourself. Avoiding combat until blue has no flags is key. You also need to make sure that you refill your squad because the catapults go for your squad while you bait blue but since the last update the squad survives a good amount of time without the player leading them.

[x_wing]

Originally posted by AlexRie:

When they go to C or B I just go to E and let them have it. I avoid combat capture A, B and E and make them chase me while my squad takes their flags. They are an aggressive AI and will never stop chasing you. Just make sure you dodge the jump attacks when they are close behind you. Sometimes Pompey comes out and assists sometimes you need to capture all blue flags by yourself. Avoiding combat until blue has no flags is key. You also need to make sure that you refill your squad because the catapults go for your squad while you bait blue but since the last update the squad survives a good amount of time without the player leading them.

Pompey is useless when he attacks unless if he develops legionaries (but that won't happen until minute 15-20). As I said, Greeks are OP in this new patch, making this level way more difficult. Not to mention the deffenders hitting harder and balls going through doors.

I was able to beat this level, so yeah it isn't impossible. But my point here is that the dev did changes in order to make the level easier but we end up with a way more difficult level that requires of hacky strategies to win. I don't know you but I feel that the game becomes boring when you have to completely avoid combat (even when after two AI figths) and execute dirty tricks in order to win.

[Ludwig van Beethoven]

Because I do not know how to delete such a Diskution I just write that no one has to write anything to this here but thanks for your help :D

[Gohantico]

I figured it out lol. Don't engage Purple. Fully commit to taking out blue as fast as possible. Only take objectives that blue owns and leave about 9 or 10 defenders in either F or C. Those will generally do the job. After that go after any objective blue has that purple isn't going for. If blue starts attacking you just run away and make ot fight purple. Slowly blue will run out of money and for the most part purple will not go further than the bases by the river. Once blue is out attack the gates opposite of where you left your defenders. Once the gates are broken its all about waiting for purple to attack the side with defenders and you run in and take the stronghold.

[Ludwig van Beethoven]

Originally posted by Gohantico:

I figured it out lol. Don't engage Purple. Fully commit to taking out blue as fast as possible. Only take objectives that blue owns and leave about 9 or 10 defenders in either F or C. Those will generally do the job. After that go after any objective blue has that purple isn't going for. If blue starts attacking you just run away and make ot fight purple. Slowly blue will run out of money and for the most part purple will not go further than the bases by the river. Once blue is out attack the gates opposite of where you left your defenders. Once the gates are broken its all about waiting for purple to attack the side with defenders and you run in and take the stronghold.

hahahahah after 4 years xD

[jacobsmbarlass]

Originally posted by Gohantico:

I figured it out lol. Don't engage Purple. Fully commit to taking out blue as fast as possible. Only take objectives that blue owns and leave about 9 or 10 defenders in either F or C. Those will generally do the job. After that go after any objective blue has that purple isn't going for. If blue starts attacking you just run away and make ot fight purple. Slowly blue will run out of money and for the most part purple will not go further than the bases by the river. Once blue is out attack the gates opposite of where you left your defenders. Once the gates are broken its all about waiting for purple to attack the side with defenders and you run in and take the stronghold.

4 years!!!!!