Jesus, how do you heal on the map without Fast Recuperation?

[Lampros]

I am trying out the default Elves, and the inability to heal quickly on the map is driving me bonkers. I feel I have to wait an extra turn just to fight again. I guess I got spoiled by playing initially with the default Humans, who have Fast Recuperation. Solutions?

[PlutonArioch]

Fight close to your borders, build outposts in areas where you anticipate to fight a lot, take enough support units and heroes with healing abilities to heal at the start of the battle, take tomes that give you more healing abilities, or even army heal spells, play barbarians and use the ritual of alacrity, there are also some empire development perks that help healing. There are plenty of options. Or you can just always take fast recuperation when you build your race...
Or just don't take so much damage.

[Astronimo]

Outposts exist for that reason alone, basically.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Astronimo:

Outposts exist for that reason alone, basically.

It still wastes a lot of movement though...

P.S. Outposts can only be built by heroes, right?

[mk11]

Don't. Take a support unit with an area heal (like Bannerman) group everyone together at the start of battle and heal them all. Spread damage out and it only eats into the temporary hit points. Trouble is, that means manually fighting everything,

[mk11]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Originally posted by Astronimo:

Outposts exist for that reason alone, basically.

It still wastes a lot of movement though...

P.S. Outposts can only be built by heroes, right?

And Barbarian scouts.

[PlutonArioch]

Originally posted by Astronimo:

Outposts exist for that reason alone, basically.

They also exist to claim land, and to build cities...

Originally posted by Lampros:

It still wastes a lot of movement though...

How does it waste movement?
It is your decision if you want to heal your troops or go straight into the next fight. If you think it is a waste, just don't do it.
If your troops are too hurt to fight, they won't be of much use anyways if you don't heal them right? So just send them back to heal, and move on with the rest of your army if you are in such a hurry to get to the next fight.
And if your whole army (or more of it than you can spare for the fight) needs healing before battle, how is it a waste to make sure they heal faster?

Without any bonuses you heal 5 hp per turn outside your borders. In your own territory you heal 25 just for being in your territory. So depending on how much you need to heal, you are saving a lot of time by going inside your borders.
With just a bit of nature affinity you can add another 15 hp/t from natural recovery, and fast recuperation is just 10 on top, so it is not nearly as effective as just making sure you can retreat to your territory after tough battles - I would recommend that for faster healing even if you have fast recuperation.

Originally posted by Lampros:

P.S. Outposts can only be built by heroes, right?

The barbarian scout can also build them, but it costs more and takes longer. Other than that though, yes only heroes/leaders can build them. The expectation is that you have at least one hero with the army when you want to establish a more permanent foothold, and are not just quickly moving through.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by PlutonArioch:

How does it waste movement?
It is your decision if you want to heal your troops or go straight into the next fight. If you think it is a waste, just don't do it.
If your troops are too hurt to fight, they won't be of much use anyways if you don't heal them right? So just send them back to heal, and move on with the rest of your army if you are in such a hurry to get to the next fight.
And if your whole army (or more of it than you can spare for the fight) needs healing before battle, how is it a waste to make sure they heal faster?

As I said, I initially started playing with default Humans, so I am looking things through that limited lens. In those runs, I could recuperate quite fast and did not have to wait around to get to full health. I know there is opportunity cost to Fast Recuperation, but not having it is suddenly quite jarring.

[Midas]

You could take the tome of faith for army heal.

Also there's a lot of empire traits for world map healing. Shadow has one for healing in enemy territory, chaos has one for healing whenever you raze something, nature has one for healing way faster in your own territory, materium has one where remaining movement points are converted into healing.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Midas:

You could take the tome of faith for army heal.

Also there's a lot of empire traits for world map healing. Shadow has one for healing in enemy territory, chaos has one for healing whenever you raze something, nature has one for healing way faster in your own territory, materium has one where remaining movement points are converted into healing.

Thanks - the Materium one sounds amazing!

[Midas]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Originally posted by Midas:

You could take the tome of faith for army heal.

Also there's a lot of empire traits for world map healing. Shadow has one for healing in enemy territory, chaos has one for healing whenever you raze something, nature has one for healing way faster in your own territory, materium has one where remaining movement points are converted into healing.

Thanks - the Materium one sounds amazing!

It is, but it's very late in the materium line, accordingly.

[Alexander]

BTW ancient wonders claimed by you, but not annexed (dotted line) still count as your territory and provide healing.

[GrandMajora]

Nature Affinity has an early perk that makes you heal faster within your borders, while the Shadow Affinity has a late game perk that makes you heal faster within an enemy's borders.

The two Affinities oppose each other, but investing in both of them is a good way to go if you want your armies to remain in peak fighting condition.

[Demonicon]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

Nature Affinity has an early perk that makes you heal faster within your borders, while the Shadow Affinity has a late game perk that makes you heal faster within an enemy's borders.

The two Affinities oppose each other, but investing in both of them is a good way to go if you want your armies to remain in peak fighting condition.

At the end of Materium affinity, there's also a perk that heals your units based on the remaining world map movement. Waiting a single turn is usually enough to heal all of your units to (almost) full health, especially if they are fast units like cavalry or flyers. It's a pita to get to the ned of Materium if you aren't focusing on it to begin with, but it IS a nice perk to have.

[Pantagruel]

Teleportation mastery in astral is amazing for just resetting your army health, but not going to come on line for quite a while.