New DLC story map 1

[WiggleTheKobold]

I don't have MANY issues with the map but there's some points im not a fan of.
Mainly it being stuck on mega city, and your location being pretty crummy with all the mountains around you.

The enemy close by (won't spoil exact position) has a rather good sight line across plains right towards you, chucks 1000 army power stacks by turn 30, and of course this could be my RNG but LOVES jumping over mountains to attack your troops in transit.

Basically: there's 10 other spots on the map I've scouted and thought "this would be a good city spot, spaced out, in a position I am going to have to clear out/fight from etc" but its mega city so you're stuck in the bowl.

Also I KNOW its the DLC map but playing this without the DLC race trait that makes you immune to the corruption is pain and suffering.

The hero you're stuck with at the start just hemorrhages army value each turn because im not going to pay a 30 mana upkeep to keep him and the 5 random non-faction units he's stuck with alive, if I was running a lot of summons maybe but for 30 mana a turn he's not worth the investment.

All and all 6/10 map imo, the dragon maps felt a bit more "play how you want" and the Empires story maps felt more "learn how to use Empire" this feels like a "Use the Brain squids or perish because you start in a circle of mountain shame."

[utilityguy]

From having played it, the Eldritch DLC Story 1 map--which i'm under the impression the layout is RNG like the rest of the campaign maps--expects the player to stay stealthy for the longest possible time and take advantage of the resource nodes you can gain from the Eldritch realms.

Specifically; I know that on my map there was an eldritch realm with one region containing 4 Magic Crystal nodes + one Eldritch node. That alone covered the cost of the sniper rifle hero, but by then that hero's army was KIA (but not the hero, his sniper rifle is too valuable imo). But I discovered it waaay late into the game when I was able to start spamming tier 3 units.

I wish the quality of life that is Item forging wasn't stuck behind needing to start with it as a culture trait or rush creating it in your city, as the DLC introduced a new item you can forge that grants immunity to eldritch fanboy rot. But alas, it's how it is.

[Elgareth]

Originally posted by utilityguy:

I wish the quality of life that is Item forging wasn't stuck behind needing to start with it as a culture trait or rush creating it in your city, as the DLC introduced a new item you can forge that grants immunity to eldritch fanboy rot. But alas, it's how it is.

If you make it too easy to circumvent the problem you could just remove it alltogether at some point.

Concerning the map, I took the artisan perk that makes your buildings have double the cost but produce +5 gold each, knowing that the -1 city limit would be no problem, thus, once the city got going I didn't have problems, even though I ran into the enemy very early on. Being in a corner and not knowing where the enemy is/where I'm not supposed to go is problematic. I guess you are supposed to "turtle up" for a good while, only venturing in the save direction, but you can't know which direction is the save one.

And yes, the Insectoid Guards always have mountain camouflage, they are meant to ambush you from mountains.

In my mind each story map presents a little puzzle before even starting it, for you to generate a fitting race to play on it. So I'm not too bothered if it "forces" a certain perk or tome choice.
That's what the freeplay maps are for IMHO :-)

[Pantagruel]

The eldritch realms story maps appear to include fairly substantial blocks that are non-random, on map 1 at least 2-3 provinces out from your home city are always the same, but the factions on map 1 aren't terribly hard, a thousand army strength on turn 30 is nothing exotic.