Came back after being off for a yr+, some questions

[WingT74]

hey all, so really enjoyed my first playthrough of Wartales....geez I dunno, 1 or 2 ago. Getting old memory going.

Anyway, what i do remember is this: Animals, sucked. Even Alphas....just didn't do enough damage, how low hitpoints, and were a waste of a turn that could have gone to someone else, not to mention each counted towards total # of enemies to fight.

So yeah, wolves/bear/boar still suck at fighting? Horses any good toher then hauling or boosting party combat speed in range?

Next, large parties and combat prep. I'm currently running with 9 companions (total # of professions) and two horses. Probably the worst experience first time around was building a large party (think had 20 or so) and organizing them before every battle. Has this improved at all?

And last: What has been your favorite add so far over last 12 months? So far, I'm liking the 14 Willpower keeping your troops alive....

Thanks!

[Ra Archon]

Hi!

Short answer - nothing really changed combat wise. The less the crew - the better. I personally liked 5+3 slaves.

[Robin of Spiritwood]

Welcome Back, Reften!

Up in Grinmeer Province there are 2 new subspecializations for Swordsman and Warrior. You can check those out.

[Dumeka]

what was added are several specializations (Swordman, Assasin, Warrior and I think another 2 or so).
The animals are good in battle if you select the right skills, give them certain items and build up their strength and constitution.
I personaly going with a dominant, saw, alpha wolf, a bear and a mole rat.
They have also good defencive traits you can learn that add extra food in your inventory like the mole rat fidnding cheese in towns, the saw picking up mushrooms while you are walking through forests, the bear catching fish while you are moving near a river and the wolfs finding also stuff during camps rests.

A infected rat has the same skills like the mole rat but its weaker in my opinion and a crogswine is as good as a dominant saw with the different that its hits can poison enemies (the passives and other traits are the same like the boars/dominant saw).

A warhorse can be a good tank after you gave it a good amount of constitution and a good armor, however, it is still the lowest damage animal in the game.

They have also added more recruitable characters with the new regions you can save from death, from the plague (giving them meat, then curing them and keeping them), helping out of the prison by giving them only a certain amount of crowns, deciding to recruit instead of fighting during a dialogue and so on.
However, no spearmans under them so far (maybe in the alazar region that is coming soon) and only one archer in vertruse that can be recruited in the prison (only prisoner there as long as you dont finish the quest) which some bad traits so I wouldn't bother with him and rather recruit one at the tavern.

Captured enemies can be put to work in the camp and build up their trust so they can ask you to let them join your party but the outlaws have mostly only one level 6 skill which makes them useless at the end (unless if they change that).

You can upgrade your camp stuff and build also more stuff then before.

Correction: After the update the willpower needs to be 14, it was previously only 12 points.
Have fun!

[WingT74]

Originally posted by Dumeka:

what was added are several specializations (Swordman, Assasin, Warrior and I think another 2 or so).
The animals are good in battle if you select the right skills, give them certain items and build up their strength and constitution.
I personaly going with a dominant, saw, alpha wolf, a bear and a mole rat.
They have also good defencive traits you can learn that add extra food in your inventory like the mole rat fidnding cheese in towns, the saw picking up mushrooms while you are walking through forests, the bear catching fish while you are moving near a river and the wolfs finding also stuff during camps rests.

A infected rat has the same skills like the mole rat but its weaker in my opinion and a crogswine is as good as a dominant saw with the different that its hits can poison enemies (the passives and other traits are the same like the boars/dominant saw).

A warhorse can be a good tank after you gave it a good amount of constitution and a good armor, however, it is still the lowest damage animal in the game.

They have also added more recruitable characters with the new regions you can save from death, from the plague (giving them meat, then curing them and keeping them), helping out of the prison by giving them only a certain amount of crowns, deciding to recruit instead of fighting during a dialogue and so on.
However, no spearmans under them so far (maybe in the alazar region that is coming soon) and only one archer in vertruse that can be recruited in the prison (only prisoner there as long as you dont finish the quest) which some bad traits so I wouldn't bother with him and rather recruit one at the tavern.

Captured enemies can be put to work in the camp and build up their trust so they can ask you to let them join your party but the outlaws have mostly only one level 6 skill which makes them useless at the end (unless if they change that).

You can upgrade your camp stuff and build also more stuff then before.

The willpower thing comes at 12 willpower already, not at 14. :)
Have fun!

AWesome reply thank you!!!!

[DaLagga]

I have to disagree with Dumeka completely when it comes to animals. If you're playing on free-roam mode, then enemy party size is directly related to your own. So for every animal you have, you can expect to have to fight an extra enemy and the simple fact is that NONE of the animals are anywhere near as good as a merc. Even bears, which are by far the best, pale in comparison to a proper tank. So unfortunately, if you use animals, you are making your game harder.

[WingT74]

Originally posted by DaLagga:

I have to disagree with Dumeka completely when it comes to animals. If you're playing on free-roam mode, then enemy party size is directly related to your own. So for every animal you have, you can expect to have to fight an extra enemy and the simple fact is that NONE of the animals are anywhere near as good as a merc. Even bears, which are by far the best, pale in comparison to a proper tank. So unfortunately, if you use animals, you are making your game harder.

So...the interesting thing here is, I play on Easy, and I think i'm going to have 3 wolves in the party, just to bump the difficulty a bit. Plus....wolves are cool. Appreciate it thanks

[Dumeka]

Originally posted by DaLagga:

I have to disagree with Dumeka completely when it comes to animals. If you're playing on free-roam mode, then enemy party size is directly related to your own. So for every animal you have, you can expect to have to fight an extra enemy and the simple fact is that NONE of the animals are anywhere near as good as a merc. Even bears, which are by far the best, pale in comparison to a proper tank. So unfortunately, if you use animals, you are making your game harder.

Thats where Strategy comes into play.

If you engage the enemies with your companions your animals can do extra hits and use their traits to support (like the wolfs protection skill or the saws unity one).
Besides you can let the animals engage the enemy archers to prevent them from spreading fire or do critical damage to your companions. This way you render the enemy archers useless since their punch attack does very low damage that even a mole rat with good constitution can take while giving a good amount of damage back.

I'm playing on the region locked mode though but still going by such strategies.

Originally posted by Reften:

Originally posted by DaLagga:

I have to disagree with Dumeka completely when it comes to animals. If you're playing on free-roam mode, then enemy party size is directly related to your own. So for every animal you have, you can expect to have to fight an extra enemy and the simple fact is that NONE of the animals are anywhere near as good as a merc. Even bears, which are by far the best, pale in comparison to a proper tank. So unfortunately, if you use animals, you are making your game harder.

So...the interesting thing here is, I play on Easy, and I think i'm going to have 3 wolves in the party, just to bump the difficulty a bit. Plus....wolves are cool. Appreciate it thanks

If you go with 3 wolves you can take the wolfpack traits to strengthen them more.
Would rather recommend to get 3 alphas though because they are stronger then the regular wolves.
You can also keep "Buddy" instead of turning his quest in at the jugglers camp in vertruse if you decide so. :)
BTW: I just rechecked and it seems they changed the willpower amount needed for the willpower preventing from immediate death to 14 again.