Rival Cartels

[Revenge]

The game concept is fantastic but the one thing I hate about the game is how enemy AI cartels don't actually have any operations. They just have an infinite supply of cash and drugs. I don't see why that makes any sense. There is no way to cripple a potential enemy. Taking over locations in their territory doesn't do anything to them since they don't use them to produce anything.

A sequel to this game would be amazing. But they would need to let enemy cartels play by the same rules players do. That would mean, paying their capos, and the ability to sabotage their production, cash starve them before attacking them head on.... ideally so they lose capos due to lack of funds. They could do this by actually setting up enemy cartel zones with full production facilities and laundering operations instead of the random items placed in their zones.

As it stands now, battling a rival cartel is basically a waste of time - or more importantly it pushes combat vs rivals into an endgame only activity. That means for the bulk of the game your goal is to chat them up and trade with them so as to not make them mad due to your expansionism. I would like to subjugate a rival cartel neighbor but unfortunately that isn't really possible for the bulk of the game due to capo recruitment time gates / money gates.

[Under Andr]

Thank you for your feedback! You can actually lower the overall power of the Enemy Gang by fighting them outside their city and winning. Every loss in the battle for them means -1 overall power.

[soldyne]

follow up question. does the power of rival cartels continue to grow unbounded? I just started a hard sandbox playthrough and my rivals have an average power of about 39. mine is only about 27. there is no way I can fight them either in defensive or offensive capacity. the only thing I can do is keep talking to them and hope they don't attack. Not sure if weapons or other abilities will be enough. will they stop gaining power at some point?

I can't raise my own power level very easily either with the 60 day interval on hiring.

[Revenge]

Originally posted by soldyne:

follow up question. does the power of rival cartels continue to grow unbounded? I just started a hard sandbox playthrough and my rivals have an average power of about 39. mine is only about 27. there is no way I can fight them either in defensive or offensive capacity. the only thing I can do is keep talking to them and hope they don't attack. Not sure if weapons or other abilities will be enough. will they stop gaining power at some point?

I can't raise my own power level very easily either with the 60 day interval on hiring.

You can raise your power level with being friends with the Guerrillas. If you have them, they will join your fights with +8 power. Then you can also bring guns to fights with you and use the LT ability called "suppressive fire". If I recall correctly, 20 weapons will subtract 1 enemy power, 30 will subtract 3, and 40 will subtract 5. So that could potentially be a 13 point swing in a battle.

Also, buildings have a power rating on them. Say for instance, you have a Farm II which has a building power of 1. Then you befriended the military and provided them with some Opium so you could unlock their research. Then you researched Power II attached to the Farm II tech. Your building power would then be 4. So if you made them angry and they attacked that building, you add 4 to your power. Combined with above, this is now a 17 point swing in a battle. So 27+17 = 44, 44 > 39. So you could defeat them in combat, but it only lowers their total power by 1 every time you win, so that may not be of a big big help. But.....

You could trigger a police action, and hope the police attack one of their farms/other items. They send 100% of their military power to fight the police. Now you can sneak in behind them (if the battle is far enough away and you've staged this correctly) and fight them at the city with a power of around 4. But be quick, because as soon as they defeat the police, they will return to their town and fight you.

[Under Andr]

Originally posted by soldyne:

follow up question. does the power of rival cartels continue to grow unbounded? I just started a hard sandbox playthrough and my rivals have an average power of about 39. mine is only about 27. there is no way I can fight them either in defensive or offensive capacity. the only thing I can do is keep talking to them and hope they don't attack. Not sure if weapons or other abilities will be enough. will they stop gaining power at some point?

I can't raise my own power level very easily either with the 60 day interval on hiring.

You can make an Alliance with one of the Enemy Gangs if your relationship is good enough, and use their power to your advantage - they will help you in fights, and you can use them to ease the pressure from other Enemy Gangs to grow your Cartel.

[soldyne]

but does their power stop growing at some point or will they just keep getting stronger infinitely? in order to win the sandbox mode I need to control all regions (as well as have all research done). Just trying to figure out if I have a time limit on this or not. I feel like they are growing way faster than I am. should I restart with different tactics?

The distraction is an interesting idea. I might be able to attack one of their areas with a single dude as a sacrifice, then run in with my full force to the city. wonder if that will work...

[Under Andr]

Originally posted by soldyne:

but does their power stop growing at some point or will they just keep getting stronger infinitely? in order to win the sandbox mode I need to control all regions (as well as have all research done). Just trying to figure out if I have a time limit on this or not. I feel like they are growing way faster than I am. should I restart with different tactics?

The distraction is an interesting idea. I might be able to attack one of their areas with a single dude as a sacrifice, then run in with my full force to the city. wonder if that will work...

Their power grows when you acquire a region!

[Revenge]

Originally posted by soldyne:

but does their power stop growing at some point or will they just keep getting stronger infinitely? in order to win the sandbox mode I need to control all regions (as well as have all research done). Just trying to figure out if I have a time limit on this or not. I feel like they are growing way faster than I am. should I restart with different tactics?

The distraction is an interesting idea. I might be able to attack one of their areas with a single dude as a sacrifice, then run in with my full force to the city. wonder if that will work...

For the most part you just have to wait out the recruitment time gating for your own cartel power to grow.... though I would also point out that if you can afford to, you should take LT quests so you can promote your LT's which... some have strength additions to select when you promote them.

Enemy Cartel power will grow when you expand or defeat/subjigate other Cartels. Otherwise their power remains or can be lowered (by 1 per battle you defeat them at).

[soldyne]

Thank you everyone for your input. I went back to my game and realized a few things. i was looking at the total power when the gang was in the city which inflates it by +3. I finally figured out that I could check the rival gang true power by clicking on the button on the bottom of the screen (went through the entire story mode and never realized what that button did). My own gang was also down a person in the hospital and their power is 0 while in the hospital so my own power was reduced by 5. I also got a new recruit with 5 more power so now the discrepancy is manageable.

also, I attempted the distraction idea. At some point during a random event one of my rivals attacked and took over one of my farms 2 regions away. I used that as the distraction point. but, attacking cities is very slow, even with the distraction, and guns, the rival army still made it to the farm, retook it and got back to their city before I was done. so while there is truth to the distraction idea, its still not a guaranteed win.

[Pokesus]

I just sent to oblivion every cartel but the one of Wilfredo Arias because i feel like it's a great character... + he accepted our union very early on, otherwise he would been betrayed as that old lady.

[Dave C.T]

Great game and the enemy cartel mechanic whilst needing some work is a great mechanic, agree that the cartels should also have moving parts and sell drugs changing the economy and not just infinite cash.

One thing I have really struggled with is that if the enemy cartel attack your city they never become injured in doing so whereas your lieutenants do and you can be stuck with a constant enemy cartel power whilst yours falls!

Don't mind the other cartels being powerful that's part of the fun if they're never injured during large fights that's just unrealistic!