Tech tier list

[FishyFin]

I wonder if anyone have put a tier list on techs?
What you think are worth getting more than other?
Which branch of tech you pursuit in order? How it's like?

[Lëgënd]

Depends on squad builds, as I don't use lots of gunners/cannons, I would say Mid>Left>Right tree as far as priority wise. Get a nice +10 cap for unlocking all techs in Left/Mid as well which is nice.

[Zalugar]

Depends on a few things. If you play permadeath, mid is gonna be your best friend.

I like right the most as you get a nice resource refund and by the time you get it you should be about to hit the tier 3 boom which costs a ton of resources, but I also don't really care for cannons and guns. Artifacts and armor and HP are also pretty nice.

I find myself liking left's early on as, well, it helps the most long-term. Better marketplace, you get increase CP gain, mages can attack first instead of last. It's just if you rush left, you're very likely not going to be able to even get dragon riders right then even if you unlock them. Even if you get max CP on a dragon, the required stats can be a bottleneck for a bit.
But as mentioned, getting both mid and left will get you +10 capacity which should average out to 1 more unit per squad, a massive boost. +10 capacity itself is probably? better than the resource refund to get tier 3 by just a little bit.

All in all I'm not really sure. Playstyle matters a lot.

[HeathenSW]

I usually go mid/left as well (starting with market buff and recruits buff, then target leader and extra morale down for killing leader), with the exception of extra armour on the right. Survivability is nice.

[FishyFin]

So it matter which 2 branch we go first right?
Mid left: Massive and well trained squads. Resource is a bit issue.
Mid right: Strong musket squad, well trained, resourceful. Flying unit come late, a bit low on growth and a bit weak on magic.
Left right: Good cannon, good mage, dragon, overall good dps and resource. A bit lack on attack options, take a bit longer to train rookies, smaller army.
Spread out: Get the best low and mid level techs of 3 branches. Late for the top tech. Properly good if go for chapter 12 achievement.

My first play through on captain, I'm a little spread out. Kind of go for left>Mid>Right. Does get a little resource bottle neck but my troop seems decent. I do notice that I can't get flying unit so I go for mid a while.

My second play through I choose Cadet to get the chapter 12 achievement. I go a bit spread out but focus on good mage, good defense, 3 artifact slots, growth and attack options. I got a cannon squad by chapter 12 and was doing well. Properly hurt a bit later if I continue but I only aim for chapter 12 so there's no point planning for late game.

[Isharis]

I definitely recommend getting Apprentice Training and Merchant Envoys as your first 2 points. More options means a higher chance of great opportunity to snag a precious artifact or promising recruit, and getting your Apprentices rolling early can save you a LOT of money in the long run. Higher level Mages often cost 5k as mercenaries.

I really liked the first 2 tiers of the Craft tree. The extra HP on Heavy Infantry and Cavalry and the extra +10 Armor for most units really felt like the single biggest change in combat for me. Extra artifact slots is also really good and I got decent mileage out of Crossbows as well. I had several Earth and Water Affinity units that just seemed like garbage, but I didn't want to delete them, so I made them Crossbows. The high Weapon attribute combined with +25% damage against Heavy Armor units made my Crossbow units great for softening up some of the blocks of Cavalry the game likes to use.

The third tier of crafts mostly centers around Gunners, Dragoons and Cannons. Which is good if you want to use those things. I made a doom squad with the Blond General only to lose him shortly after Ch.12. He does come back but he took most of my Pyrocite.

Industrial Furnace is pretty good, but I found I wasn't hurting that much for Iron or Obsidian to begin with. The upcoming Resource Exchange will make this a better tech, but still, you definitely won't run out of Iron or Obsidian with this. Makes Warbow Squads easier to build if nothing else.

The Academy techs seemed pretty decent, though some of them require special planning, like the one where Medics take less damage if Paladin or Valkyrie is in the same squad. I took the Dragon Trainer trait early, and so far i've had 100% rate of having Dragons in the Bazaar. The extra 25% CP hasn't been really noticeable as mostly they are held back by their stats rather than CP for upgrades. I haven't played without it, but I do have a lot of Dragons which is nice.

Mages being Normal speed instead of Slow is good, though often enough I didn't have so many it dragged my speed down, but it did happen a few times. The ability to cast spells on the first turn is top tier, IMO. A must have. The ability for Magic/Dragon to ignore a portion of (mostly non-existent) Armor hasn't been noticeable, and the chance to inflict status also seems useless. I think i've seen it happen before, it its super rare even with the tech. The times it has triggered, has never made a difference at all. Dragon Riders are amazing! Flying is just as good as it sounds, though there are some tiles you strangely can't hover over, most of the map is now easily accessible.

Tactics seems to have the most lackluster of techs, especially at Tier 1. Easier Charge hasn't seemed much easier, as its rare for me to move 6 but not 7. Most of the time my Cavalry isn't that far from them so it doesn't apply at all. Mixed unit tactics seems decent, more damage is good, though unless you tailor your squads to min/max its effect its not going to be a major factor. Still free damage is good. Defeating a leader for more Morale damage seems good, but I didn't really notice a difference before/after taking the tech. Conscripts starting at +1 level and half mastery might be decent at the very beginning, but conscripts level quick if they are under level, and half mastery isn't enough to promote. Target leader can be useful for bonus accuracy, but it doesn't seem to target the leader very well. Mostly still attack the same targets they would've anyway.

Extra Arrows is very nice, and the Morale bonus for being near allied bases was more useful than I thought it would be. Cautious and Aggressive Attack, like Target Leader, seem to be mostly about the passive bonuses and less about targeting. I have no idea how good Polearm Mastery is as it doesn't give the numbers.

Dragoons being Light Cavalry is pretty nice! It's late in the Tactics tree, and requires you to also be far into the Crafts tree as well. Archer General making your Archers into Light units is very very good. You can now ambush with Archers and they get a bonus from terrain like Woods or Hills. Supply Chain heals your units from nearby objectives, and free heals is nice. Flanking seems like it'd be good, but I haven't really seen a big impact. +15% Attack Power seems good, however, usually my first unit moves adjacent to weaken the unit, and the second unit moves in to Surrender Attack them. So the second unit in theory gets the bonus, but usually doesn't really need it. This has probably helped me without me realizing it, since its a subtle thing.

Professionalism the capstone for Tactics seems to incorporate a lot of what that tier 1 Standing Army tech wants to be. Lots of extra levels and mastery. Much better for later in the game when you don't want to train units as much. On the other hand, by then you should already have a lot of conscripts. For Permadeath seems like a mandatory tech, but without seems very optional.

[FishyFin]

I do like target leader. The gain is at chapter 11, you will need it to defeat Beatrix. Otherwise, she may dodge enough for a turn seriously hurt one of your squad.
Another use is to assassinate their leaders so that you can have better chance force surrender their squad. It's quite an income and faction exp.
In other case, on chapter 12 you can see that some cannon squad have their leader as a cannon stay behind the frontline with 2 other cannons. Some fire mages with target leader may have better chance to take them out.

[Zalugar]

Originally posted by Isharis:

Supply Chain heals your units from nearby objectives, and free heals is nice. Flanking seems like it'd be good, but I haven't really seen a big impact. +15% Attack Power seems good, however, usually my first unit moves adjacent to weaken the unit, and the second unit moves in to Surrender Attack them. So the second unit in theory gets the bonus, but usually doesn't really need it. This has probably helped me without me realizing it, since its a subtle thing.

I found myself pretty much only ever using the base healing and morale in the silver arena, and that's about it. There's one late game map I can think of where I'm relatively close to a base for combat but even then I choose offense because the longer you're on sand the more morale gets screwed. Only way I can think of really using it is sending a flying unit to go capture a town or whatever deep in enemy territory and letting the healing do work.

The 15% attack power actually helps with surrenders. I noticed that surrounding a Fearful unit with 3 units makes him appear as Shattered for the third unit's force surrender. So it helps a lot.

[Isharis]

Originally posted by Zalugar:

Originally posted by Isharis:

Supply Chain heals your units from nearby objectives, and free heals is nice. Flanking seems like it'd be good, but I haven't really seen a big impact. +15% Attack Power seems good, however, usually my first unit moves adjacent to weaken the unit, and the second unit moves in to Surrender Attack them. So the second unit in theory gets the bonus, but usually doesn't really need it. This has probably helped me without me realizing it, since its a subtle thing.

I found myself pretty much only ever using the base healing and morale in the silver arena, and that's about it. There's one late game map I can think of where I'm relatively close to a base for combat but even then I choose offense because the longer you're on sand the more morale gets screwed. Only way I can think of really using it is sending a flying unit to go capture a town or whatever deep in enemy territory and letting the healing do work.

The 15% attack power actually helps with surrenders. I noticed that surrounding a Fearful unit with 3 units makes him appear as Shattered for the third unit's force surrender. So it helps a lot.

That happens even without the 15% Attack Power; its a normal mechanic of Morale that an enemy surrounded on 2, 3 or 4 sides has increasingly high Morale penalties, starting with the 2nd unit.

Ideally I want to have them surrender on the second unit though. If the enemy is placed a certain way I can sometimes fight one enemy and flank another, which is good, but happens less often than i'd like. Usually when 2 units aren't enough to surrender a squad, I usually lead off with Archers or hit them second and then sweep in for the surrender.

The gold and faction exp is just so good that I tend to focus everything around surrenders whenever possible.

[FishyFin]

Maybe supply chain is good when you do one squad arena training. Stack it with the Garrison skill and camp at the castle gate so your troop can earn double exp.
Strangely even if I'm a little pass turn limit, I still got S in arena.