It could have been good

[Darq]

But the recipe debacle just ruins it.
It's like this. Either you know the recipes and can upgrade your reagents to a level that gives you the ability to improve your barracks with t3 troops, or you're screwed.

The computer knows all recipes and has t3 troops galore while you struggle to produce t2 troops which are severely inferiour.

The game started so well, slow expansion, quests, but then I had to fly my tower to undead land, where there were stacks of 8 and 9 with double the HP of my tropps, which autorez after battle.

Meahwhile the computer players take my allfire nodes and other locations in my realm, attack my troops on sight with t3 troops. I have 0 chance.

The key to getting t3 troops are recipes, doing alchemy to upgrade reagents so you can build those extensions, so you can build t3 troops.

It's a joke really. there are 50 recipes you can find and most just turn 3 1point resources into another 1point resource.
So if you don't know the recipes you're screwed. Game over.

[Syncronis]

Thank you for this, I was wondering as the design decisions by the devs, several obvious items and miss steps. Hoping they stay with it and mature it and not end up in abandonware. Will keep an eye on it for now.

[p2k]

Just start on easy and learn the stuff first

[Red Dragon]

I thought the point of crafting anything is the utility of the end product and selling or re-using them as ingredients is mainly just a last resort thing?

[Butcher]

Tier 3 troops can be hired in cities. Sevenkeeps offers T3 cavalry and nearby taverns provide reputation.

Do not piss mages off and noone will take your nodes.

[PewSquare]

And here i thought that the point of crafting is to use different catalysts to get just the effect you wanted.
Knowing recipes means literally nothing in the game, since its about getting the materials to actually craft the recipes.

[C_oNe]

Originally posted by Butcher:

Tier 3 troops can be hired in cities. Sevenkeeps offers T3 cavalry and nearby taverns provide reputation.

Do not piss mages off and noone will take your nodes.

I just wanted to recommend the same. They really helped me a lot after some starting frustration.
So try to start at Goldenfields or Alluvyen and go for the undead area between the 2 starting areas to increase your population in sevenkeeps.
Moreover its intended to research your receipes. You shouldn't have all right away. You will make your experience with that and later on you always be better.

[Izunyami]

And as usual, people are complaining about the basic elements of the genre and why basic elements of a genre shouldn't exist. Why can't the devs just give us I Win buttons and eliminate any form of randomness or progression?!

[PengoPaddy]

Originally posted by Izunyami:

And as usual, people are complaining about the basic elements of the genre and why basic elements of a genre shouldn't exist. Why can't the devs just give us I Win buttons and eliminate any form of randomness or progression?!

These forums are hilarious. People complaining they purchased the game and its turn based and not RTS. Its like buying a car sight unseen and then complaining it has no seats. "How could I have known this car has no seats? No seats feels like a real step backwards."

[Darq]

Originally posted by Butcher:

Tier 3 troops can be hired in cities. Sevenkeeps offers T3 cavalry and nearby taverns provide reputation.

Do not piss mages off and noone will take your nodes.

I had 3 cities at max reputation, one had humans and the other animals, none were t3.

Connacht and... the one near the easy starting area.

I was at rank circle mage. They all hate me.
They have troops strength 1200, I have barely 600.

In the end the tower was destroyed after taking the 3rd node, by impossible troops.

Originally posted by Izunyami:

And as usual, people are complaining about the basic elements of the genre and why basic elements of a genre shouldn't exist. Why can't the devs just give us I Win buttons and eliminate any form of randomness or progression?!

As usual some smartass comes along trolls the thread and leaves.

I played Ashron's Call back in the day, I know, you weren't even born when that was, zoomer.
This finding out recipes or spells in AC made sense in a MMORPG, where many people play in a persistent world, online, with a vasall system, with guilds etc.

Here, in a single player, offline TBS, it doesn't make sense. Especially when resources are rare and experimentation is expensive. Who is going to learn 50 recipes that you'll never ever use again in any other situation?
It's unnecessary mental burden, and a non-fun component.
Absolutely stupid game design.
I could've been so good and fun but why does this component have to be in the game?

Idk why I'm even feeding you, the troll.
It has nothing to do with it being a TBS or RTS.

Originally posted by p2k:

Just start on easy and learn the stuff first

It was the default difficulty setting, the one above story mode, which is usually effortless, not in this game.
And at first the difficulty was alright.
But then something happened and the computer had stacks of 8 and 9 while I had a max of 6 and when I became circle mage, the highest tier possible, my stacks when to max 7.

So the conclusion is, it must be the recipes.
However now that the computer was going into my area, it also took all the resources with it.
Week 42.

I could also be that it's not recipes, but what else?
You need huge numbers of those multi-3*** ingredients to be able to build expansions for t3 troops in your tower. I'm guessing they can only be acquired by upgrading your mats through alchemy (playing an Alchemist).

Originally posted by PewSquare:

And here i thought that the point of crafting is to use different catalysts to get just the effect you wanted.
Knowing recipes means literally nothing in the game, since its about getting the materials to actually craft the recipes.

... and how do you get the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ materials when you can't build T3 troops but the computer has all T3 troops? You can't. You have to upgrade your existing mats.

So you're saying you losing for 10 games until you find out all the recipes is by design and fun? If so you should never design a game. It's a game, not a life's work. It should be fun.

[Butcher]

Originally posted by Darq:

Originally posted by Butcher:

Tier 3 troops can be hired in cities. Sevenkeeps offers T3 cavalry and nearby taverns provide reputation.

Do not piss mages off and noone will take your nodes.

I had 3 cities at max reputation, one had humans and the other animals, none were t3.

Connacht and... the one near the easy starting area.

I was at rank circle mage. They all hate me.
They have troops strength 1200, I have barely 600.

In the end the tower was destroyed after taking the 3rd node, by impossible troops.

Sevenkeeps
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2928397966
T3 cav
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2928398026
Hiring
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2928397989

I'm sure there are other T3s around the world, but T2 halverdiers are very solid too with good armor, health, first strike and ability to encourage everyone on level 10.

[Cat]

I've seemingly had no issue making items I have no recipe for, but it's runecrafting so maybe necro and alchemy is different. As long as I know the combination for it then I can make it (rune crafting depends on the ore catalyst however).

As far as troops go, a well developed team of high level T2 units can do well against T3 units, provided you kept your army alive and kept developing them, I've beaten armies 300+ power above me just by abusing spells and T2 halvediers are super good if enemies don't employ magic to hit you, their defense buff when next to each other is rather good and the late level abilities like encourage makes a huge difference as they are usually better off countering attacks instead of actively attacking. Recently destroyed a mage tower that had difficulty rating of 9 and 10 vs my 6 just by employing magic and buffs.

Another tip is that you CAN make a fodder army just for the purposes of weakening an enemy stack, enemies don't get their health back on victory, so summoning a giant stack of fodder and throwing them into the enemy to kill or harm them makes it a lot easier for your main army to then swoop in and finish them off.

[Sartarius]

Ill just leave it here. You are right that it is a bit unballanced due to AI has insane stacks but it is AI and SP game. Alchemist is insanely powerful
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2928699900

[Izunyami]

Originally posted by PengoPaddy:

Originally posted by Izunyami:

And as usual, people are complaining about the basic elements of the genre and why basic elements of a genre shouldn't exist. Why can't the devs just give us I Win buttons and eliminate any form of randomness or progression?!

These forums are hilarious. People complaining they purchased the game and its turn based and not RTS. Its like buying a car sight unseen and then complaining it has no seats. "How could I have known this car has no seats? No seats feels like a real step backwards."

If people purchased this game thinking it was a RTS, they weren't looking at literally anything on the front page. Your analogy would be funny if it were accurate, but this game made it painfully clear what genre it was. Failure to pay attention is the consumer's fault.

It's like trying to buy a car, the dealer offering to let you look at the car, and you refuse, hand over a blank check, all while only seeing the name of the car. Be a better consumer.

[primetide_dev]

To the OP
You also don't need to power up your tower quite so fast. That will usually get you in trouble quickly. Instead increase your stack levels and stay mobile, optimizing your resource take in.