I am finding this game difficult aside from Goldenfields/Explorer level

[HozzMidnight]

So, first 3 times I started a campaign I went Alchemist-Goldenfields-Explorer. I abandoned the first two games mostly because I felt like I was 'losing' even if maybe I wasn't, in retrospect. The pace of the game and the way the other mages start off way more powerful than you threw me off.

Anyway, third game everything came together for me and while my overall armies were smaller, stack wise, (never got Audale faction until late because Isgrimm had the region locked down), I could win any fight with my main stack using situational consumables. Sacred Water and Sealed Elemental, Eagle Spirit, Dark Feast, later the big elementals, etc. Autoresolve would destroy my armies but I could easily turn decisive defeat predictions into heroic victories. So I won the game and figured I would turn up the difficulty, play a different class and change up the starting region.

It did not go well. I chose Artificer-Dwarf Snow Region (middle choice, name escapes me)-Balanced. Right off everything was WAY harder. The early encounter enemies had much higher army points, circle mage reputation hits were double that of Explorer difficulty, the local enemies were moles and snow leopards instead of trash human and beast mobs from Goldenfields that would just destroy my early goblin stacks...not that I could not win but casualties were inevitable outside of the starting scripted encounters and even those were much harder. So I quit that game.

I tried the Elf region, between Goldenfields and the Dwarf start, and it went a little better but as I pushed north for ore, same ♥♥♥♥, got mauled.

So my question is, what I am doing wrong? Just trying to expand too fast is the only thing I can think of because I just can't see how these early fights are winnable with what I have to work with.

[Mossflower]

Exact same experience. Goldenfields/explorer... a nice extended game. Literally every other option, an early stompin'. The tower battles were complete stack killers. Units never really got the ability to stick around so they never really got the ability to gain higher levels. All combats were harder due to the area, so you just wind up fighting so many creatures at the top of your range that you inevitably lose units and snowball to nothingness.

The other thing I found is that often the things you think would match... Artificer/dwarven area put you at a huge disadvantage as everything is going to resist your primary damage type. I feel like you have to *grind* and *grind hard* to survive, but I can't actually confirm that. All I know is that rushing the major objectives is sure death.

[Zombiesbum]

So one thing to note is that on harder difficulties, you don't want to take the opposing tower (the one that spawns after a few turns) right away. You actually want to farm the easy 2 stack enemies they spawn. This allows you to grab a few levels on your units.

The other thing to note is depending on the units you get with the apprentice, you want to send them to fight monsters that they counter. Dwarves with a few levels (with ele resist) will counter most demon stacks.
Earthbenders with the earth armour spell on them will also have 100% phys resist (yes the earth armour spell stacks with their earth armour passive, don't ask me why). Note that you can't auto resolve with earthbenders because the game doesn't seem to calculate spells for some reason.
A single Celestial will auto win against stacks of ethereal units; there is sometimes a random quest that gives you a griffon, look out for the quest to free captured griffons.

Another thing to note with dwarves is that sentinels are very underpowered until you can get them to level 10 and savescum (or use the skill choice mod) till you get Modified Crossbows.

I also found necromancer very easy to play and start compared to artificer. This is because certain undead units are overpowered (along with Meldecs soul).

[Vvv]

If you are artificer, simply make an early stack of wisps with your 1st earth apprentice, pick earth armour when you can. You will easily win anything dwarves, leopards or bears can throw at you. As mentioned above, earth armour give you 50% physical resistance so you can make your wisps invincible against physical attacks.

Also, there's a dwarf town just north of you where you can get dwarf workers to mine and gather everything just behind your main stack.

Befriend human cities just south and gain more spell pages, the big human city offers militia that gives research bonus if garrisoned in your tower or lodge, if you level them a bit you can also pick the +2 research with them.

By then you will certainly have mined some adamantium to turn your non wisp units in legends.

Also get the little mod that gives you 4 skill choice per level, it helps with the more tedious things.

[Ronnie]

Or you can just move your tower somewhere else safer.. Game seems easy so far playing on hardest map at the hardest difficulty. If trouble comes moving the tower being your base seems like a good idea.

[HM]

Here's one exploit that I am using to turn 0% chance of winning when auto-resolve into heroic victory.
1. Have 1 or 2 units with the "Motivate" ability (Refills all action point of a enslaved unit). "motivate" can be used even if the unit has no more action points.
2. Buff those 1 or 2 units with glyps that gives focus points so they can motivate more.
3. Have a single strong melee enslaved unit that has these glyps/abilities (I personally use Spider Queen because it has Greater Life Leech but if you don't have that then it's preferable to have no-retribution glyph)
- vampiric healing (heals 100% or 50% of health when doing melee) can be used if you don't have the 'no-retribution' glyph.
- no retribution when attacking (prefered)
4. to win, simple attack with your strong melee unit, and then have your other units with Motivate reset it's action point repeatedly.
So basically this is what happens, i attack with my strong melee unit. Then use my units that could "motivate" on it. Then the attacking unit has full action points again. You'll lose some health for the first attack if the enemy retaliates. But with vampire glyph or no-retaliation glyph there's not much danger of dying. Repeat this continuously until your focus from the motivating units run out. Having potions that generate focus helps at the early game.
Having tower buffs on focus helps. Usually for me on the first turn I could take down at least half of the enemy forces. More often at later game, only 1 or 2 turns is required to wipe off all unites and win with 0 damage. I also buff up as much as possible for the attacking unit.

[Livy]

Guess a strategy can be to go for the two cities that provides slaves and spam those units until you get something other sustainable/stronger.

Nature magic got kennels which lets you spam beasts.

[Supply Side Jesus]

The only strategy I could come up with is exploit combat imbalances. You create a super unit by stacking buffs then kill everything with it. At some point you have to move to the next tier of unit and buffs,

[HozzMidnight]

Appreciate the responses. I guess what I was looking for was a way to play the game 'better', to deal with either a different starting region, a different class and/or an increased difficulty level without having to min/max or 'cheese' the mechanics.

I am definitely going to try the dwarf start tips in this thread in my next campaign.

[Mossflower]

It's rather silly the difference in power between the first tower in Goldenfields and the first tower anywhere else. In Goldenfields? A medusa and a hunter. In Dwarf lands? IIRC, there's a full stack of five units including a medusa, a wisp, cutthroats, and two soldiers. Like come on. You can't move your tower until you've beaten that. And "just spawn a stack of wisps for this one event" is an exploit. Cutting down that one battle would greatly reduce the snowball to nil because it's going to kill off your cheap initial units no matter what you do.

[fogandsteel]

I have played so far only with the game setup you are having trouble with: Artificer - Dwarf - Snow Region (Draycott) - Balanced.
In the first few turns you get a quest to hire guards. Definitely pay 10 gold to hire Moleriders. Early game, they are the only optional tanky unit you can get. They will carry your main stack for a long time.
I use the following unit composition for my main "doom" stack:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2933878531
With a bit of savescumming they can take on almost any enemy stack with no losses.
And try not to lose units. This way your stacks become stronger with upgrades. Kinda obvious advice, but it’s key to surviving in this region.

[HozzMidnight]

What is the unit in the far right slot of your stack? Have not seen one of those.

[HozzMidnight]

Also very nice tip on hiring the Moleriders...that quest in Goldenfields I always just killed them.

[Lavos]

Key to the late game is Crystal Chamber for it's upgrades. You get it as the last unlock of the Tower Spellpage. Adamantium is needed for it, so it's a priority for all playthroughs. It offers three beams upgrades. -50% resistance on Elemental, White or Death. This weakens all stacks that attack tower considerably, then it's just a matter of units spells or abilities that complement own units to the weaknesses of those upgrades. For example, every unit in a stack with Holy Weapons upgrade against enemy weakened to white damage.
It's even possible to build two or more room upgrades of the same kind, and go for two Crystal Chambers, but that's probably overkill.
This offers enough protection to defend tower against anything that enemy throws at it. It's also a potent offensive strategy. Crystal Chamber unlocks flying tower that emits domain, so it's just a matter of packing units into the tower and going gungho at the circle mages bases of operation.

[fogandsteel]

Originally posted by HozzMidnight:

What is the unit in the far right slot of your stack? Have not seen one of those.

That's your Apprentice. ^_^

[fogandsteel]

Originally posted by HozzMidnight:

Also very nice tip on hiring the Moleriders...that quest in Goldenfields I always just killed them.

Yeah, I kinda learned that, at least, as an Artificer, it's almost always best to take the high road. For example, in the first week, when you go to a village to retrieve your former master's belongings, you can take away them by force or trade for them. The first option is cheaper and you even get a "free" Dwarf mining/harvesing unit, but you lose a lot of reputation points with a dwarf faction. A very bad trade-off in my opinion.