Lodges absolutely need to go

[CromX]

The way they are now no one needs them. No matter where you place a lodge the entire gang of AI against you knows EXATLY where you place your lodge (no fog of war for these guys oh no!) and beeline for it.

Not only that you cannot DESTROY you own lodge! Marvelous! Well thought out! Next!?? Well next the enemy can pillage the lodge. Just fantastic! And they never stop pillaging it. They just do it over and over and over and over and over just magically draining all your gold and mana from your faction.

Because you know you got me! I do indeed store every drop of mana and last gold coin in some cabin in the woods. So may as well steal all my resources until I can get there and kill off the invaders.

And after you kill the invaders do you know what happens immediately after you leave? Well another AI party loots your lodge. Ya dont even have time to build another lodge to get rid of the one you placed. Genius!

I must say well done. Well thought out.

[Gravedigger]

Put a defensive stack in the lodge?

[EXAiDER]

Are you meaning with AI party those from the circlemages? In that case make sure you don't have only one or two pissed at you at the same time then the frequency is good to handle. If you mean random AI partys then ofc you need to clear the area of the red glowing spawn places before you move your primary stacks out of the area.

[CromX]

Originally posted by Gravedigger:

Put a defensive stack in the lodge?

Ya can't really always have a "defensive" stack in the lodge. If you do place units there they are not going to be the tier 3 in quantities you will need to defend against an AI that has zero limits on its ability to spawn units.

If you could remove the lodge it would be a tad bit better. If the enemy destroyed the lodge when it pillaged it it would be better. It's crazy the AI can endlessly loot gold and mana from it. Combine this with the fact we are supposed to move our tower about and you have a lodge micromanagement hellscape.

The only reliably way to use lodges is to place them within a couple turns reach of your defensive units at the tower. Because I cannot support multiple stacks of any quality at all times during the game. Late game sure. But not early or even mid game.

The lodges need to be removed or retooled.

[Syiss]

Defending lodges with their own personal stack is also economically stupid. The point of the lodges is to capture resource nodes to increase your income. If you have to sit an entire stack of T2-T3 units on it just to keep AI away, you're just wasting that income. If this is the intention of the game design, it's bad. There are not a lot of lodge locations that can make up the loss of income from needing a full stack of defensive units sitting on them at all times, especially if you don't get the lodge domain range increases.

[Gravedigger]

I've just cleared the region around the lodges so random stacks don't spawn there anymore, and I haven't gone to full war with a circle mage until I'm ready to commit enough armies to destroy them outright. If you're gonna put a lodge somewhere that circle armies are going to harass you, you have to leave defenders and make sure the lodge is worth putting there. If you put a lodge down to collect a single mine or something make sure you can protect it with a nearby stack until the mine disappears, or it's far enough from mages you're at war with that they don't go there.

[CromX]

Originally posted by Gravedigger:

I've just cleared the region around the lodges so random stacks don't spawn there anymore, and I haven't gone to full war with a circle mage until I'm ready to commit enough armies to destroy them outright. If you're gonna put a lodge somewhere that circle armies are going to harass you, you have to leave defenders and make sure the lodge is worth putting there. If you put a lodge down to collect a single mine or something make sure you can protect it with a nearby stack until the mine disappears, or it's far enough from mages you're at war with that they don't go there.

Riddle me this once you place a lodge you can never not have a lodge. In other words once you place the lodge the best you can hope for is to move the lodge which requires physically moving to a new location (while your old lodge sits undefended) and then takes 2 turns to place the new lodge which will now be your new headache.

As far as the circle mages being at war with you....they always are. All four of them all against you. Not only that they will come after lodges even when not fully at war. I don't see the lodge system as it is now as being anything other than a giant burden. And as one poster above says if you put an army there its going to negate any advantage of having the lodge anyways as the army will eat up all the resources unless you level up units with the follower trait, or use weak slave units, or grind the slaver runes.

But in the case of slaver runes and follower trait armies losing them is catastrophic and no matter what units you place there the AI will grind a single immobile stack down eventually. You can't just leave a full stack there and expect it to survive indefinitely. Not only that because the cheese AI always has more stack slots you are going to eventually be fighting armies with 2 more units than you have in your stack.

The whole thing is a headache with the AI unit spam.

[Malware Mal]

I do agree with this to an extent. Lodges are a hassle and the only reason I like to keep them up is that they will auto res a dead apprentice if they die, but the fact the AI has no fog of war is a load of bull.

I had a lodge on damn remote island with no circle mage tower anywhere near an entire region and Hokan undead just started swimming to it almost immediately from across the country.

Honestly, exploiting orc slavers is the only way you'll ever be able to manage to a defensive army from my experience. Enslaved Corrupted Dwarfs and the Turn Animal can easily turn a tide against beast armies and a stack of slave purity soldiers can put up a decent fight even against those never ending undead hordes the AI likes to beeline to you. Plus they're free upkeep. Who doesn't like free.

Also games can be won or broken by the rng of the spellbook.

[meiam]

I've had lodge stay un guarded for most of the game without any issues, circle mage don\t venture too far from their starting region so you can leave lodge near the one that are friendly and avoid the border region of the one in cold war. It would be nice to have an option of removing them, but its not really game breaking or anything.

[Tiny Pocket Ninja]

I agree.

At best, when attacked, they should be destroyed not captured and transformed instantly into a circle tower spawning full stack of ennemies 2 turns later.

In my actual endgame, I don't bother anymore, I don't built them once captured, there are a total waste of time and ressources. I'm just using my flying fortress .

[Jimib4158]

Im not trying to brag guys, because i really struggled with this game early on
BUT......I think you are missing some of the finer points of the game.
Unless you are playing hard or higher,its pretty easy to maintain 3 armies, 2easy guarding lodge n tower, hopefully close enough to support each other, why your main army quests....let me explain.

1. I always get the audale city friendly first (nothing like quanity over quality :/
2. your 3rd army can be wisps, with a hero. you may laugh (i prefer guardian spirits) but 6 wisps hurt,with your hero can stave off most attacks on your lodge
3. Crying about money? did you know finishing lysra quest grants you 10G per turn, thats needed relief....also everyone overlooks harvesting! sell your unwanted for gold,running a negative a bit is very doable if you keep workers running around, sure you have to run from wolves n such, but water-walking and MT climbing will save their frail little butts

enjoy

[Grizley]

The problem is, if you're maintaining 3 armies and have 4-5 lodges then your lodges are going to get wrecked. Unless you cluster them and have them close to your tower so that one or two armies can try to keep them free.

The real answer is slavery. Lots and lots of slaves. Yes, they get a penalty to armor and attack. Yes, you will have too many to really glyph them out with all the best, even as an artificer. However, a stack of T3 slaves or even some of the T2 slaves will completely munch almost all harassment stacks without very much/any support.

Your wisps can deal a little white damage from range, great. An enslaved Wyvern will munch a stack of wisps will very little trouble. Let alone an entire stack of enslaved demons, golems, those frenzy dwarves etc etc.

[Mindeveler]

I started in the dwarven lands on balanced difficulty.
Then slowly expanded to the south (all 4 mages are there).
I hardly ever had problems with anyone attacking my lodges.
Also if you build them in mountains, most enemies won't be able to reach them.

[JODEGAFUN]

Teleport is your friend. My loges are unguarded, once you have recall and teleport those who dare harass usefull logges face the full upgraded main army.

[Mort]

It is weird that the enemy can forever auto pillage a lodge - they should eventually be destroyed.

[Mort]

But yes, for now, the rule is to keep your lodges accessible by a power stock of your own (via distance or teleportation).

Nature magic kennels can also let you support an unlimited number of mountain bears, which can make defense easier.