Progressive Difficulty in the Campaign

[Winter Wolf]

I have noticed that I am having a more difficult time in the campaign than in previous shards and am wondering if the beginner rating is accurate as the campaign goes on.

I am finding that no matter what shard I select from the shards screen I get into a position where I can't win. No one hero/starting combination seems to work. The shards are all now contested by masters with no local lords and though I have tier 1 & 2 units unlocked it seems they are less sufficient dealing with such ordinary monsters as Goblins and Skeletons (the beginning guys.)

I am not so much complaining about the game's difficulty in general here but how it seems to ramp up in the campaign no matter what you level select. Ive completed some fairly difficult shards (one where both Lords had end game monsters as guards for instance.) I thought my progress would eventually get easier with more unlocks but this seems to be not the case. In addition the astral point purchases seem completely worthless as starting bonuses. Perhaps my 135+ hours are just not enough to give me proper insight into this but it feels like the game just dead ended.

I was pretty sure after rolling through a few of the early shards I had a grasp on how to begin these and maybe I was just lucky with how the provinces were laid out but I have had games where before I could take a 5th province the enemy (skilled AI) was able to besiege my castle rolling through my guards and hero without loss or effort. This has happened several times.

When I read about this here in other thrreads I assumed that the person was perhaps having some problems with logistics and build order but now it just seems like crazy bad luck.

[Winter Wolf]

And speaking of terrible runs of luck I finally found a shard that neither of my Master compatriots is dominant on turn 10 or so and I run into foul event after foul event. Gossips, Superstitions, etc. All designed to cause massive revolts in a fear sphere. So my theater/pubs are worthless and there is nothing else I can do except try and rush through to get the best guards possible in each of my 7 provinces that I know I won't be able to hold. So again gg mf.

[watcherzero]

It doesnt really ramp up, always based on progressivley harder circles around the stromgholds, technology doesnt really affect the base difficulty level, it affects how far you can range from your stronghold. You may be making less efficent building progression routes as you have more choices that may be why your feeling weaker. Prioritise:

1. Level a primary hero and depending on size of map a secondary hero.
2. Build a sustainable economy with enough income to support your heros troops
3. after a couple of turns of exploring capital conquer the first ring then explore those until your hero is able to comfortably conquer the next ring and so on.
4. Dont just grab all the land you can, you dont get much reward from conquering new provinces unless they have a resource you get more gold/equipment from defeating an exploration encounter.
5. Building wise you should first build the buildings your heros need (tier 1 troops, librarys for mage) then Inns and theaters then concentrate on economic buildings and building them in your provinces, large gold finds will allow you to skip ahead a bit and build and expensive new mage/troop building to strenthen your armies.
6. Guards should be lowest priority at the start, use adventurers in the most rebellious provinces/provinces with valuable resources, only start putting in more guards if you encounter your opponent or have a comfortable income each turn. The happiness spell will be able to prevent any province revolts unless you go evil.
7: Dont bother with any guards below the strength/cost level of guards and guardsman, they will eat your income and not be able to defend the province.

Skeletons have really high ranged defence so dont even try shooting them with archers and with the scout hero he cant really damage them until hes levelled up a bit, have them focus on zombies instead and use a line of stationary infantry to break the skeletons rush.

Fighting local lords is actually a very rare occurence after the start.

[Winter Wolf]

Some responses point by point.

a) thanks for replying.

b) yes I am familliar with the strength of provinces increasing but when the provinces in the first ring are filled with slugs, basilisks etc but are labeled as goblins it becomes rather frustrating.

c) I am aware of how to fight the various undead units. Somewhat of a RPS game that.

d) my priorities for building are slightly different from yours as I tend to worry more about the economy than leveling up and I have typically only leveled a 2nd hero when the first is over 10th level and usually only if I need help with tasks (like exploration.) Perhaps this is wrong.

e) the Ring by ring advice is good. I never really considered it that way and that might help a little but I am still baffled by the "strength" of various neutral guards.

f) Ive included minimal guards in all provinces since running into the inquisition. Losing a number of provinces one after another because of inadequate guards cemented that lesson pretty strongly. It might be that militia aren't worth their cost but without them I could find myself cut off unexpectly and unable to get back without losing a battle.

g) I am finding that Brothers of the Light Guards are decent for rebellious provinces but the effect is really slow so perhaps that isn't really a worthwhile guard after all. Only having access to a few adventurer guard contracts doesn't leave enough to fill all the rebellious provinces and if they should die after repeated rebellions or disappear because they got bored (this has happened a few times now) that province will be lost to me.

h)I have usually gone from turn 1 to attacking provinces I think I can convince to come over without a battle. Rarely is there no province at all that meets that requirement. If this is too much of a money drain then perhaps it is bad practice but without that it might impossible to even get one ring of provinces. And as I said in some games the enemy just overwhelms you right away. Having a buffer province quickly at least ameliorates that. (I think.)

While I recognize the value of exploration, it is so slow and unrewarding much of the time that it seems like something to do when there are no other major actions to take with a hero.

i) Battles seem to be inordinately imbalanced themselves where the dfference between one unit healed fully and slightly injured means an entirely different outcome vs even the lowliest enemies.

I realize this is a bit OCD but I dislike battles where I lose many soldiers just so I can gain a few more gold so I have tried to figure out which battles are truly winnable without losses and concentrate on those at first. Tough job since as I said any little factor can make huge differences. (Did I position my archer on a hill?or did it just look like a hill because the plains graphic isn't all that different? Oh oops not a hill...game over.)

Again thanks for replying.

[watcherzero]

While I recognize the value of exploration, it is so slow and unrewarding much of the time that it seems like something to do when there are no other major actions to take with a hero.

That could be where your going wrong then, while it seems unproductive its actually the most productive action as long as your hero is being stretched, its unproductive to just search your capital or inner ring if your hero is strong enough to explore second ring or even third ring (conquering new provinces is usually less rewarding as you have to build up their economy and invest in guards upkeep). Just expanding through territory and not exploring you will progress at a snails pace. When your hero is strong enough to explore fourth and even fifth ring you will be getting around a thousand gold or more a turn in loot.

No your right on the hero, I dont usually get a second one till my first ones around 15 unless I have spare cash. However it does sound like your overburdening your economy trying to supprt guards earlier and in greater quantity than you need. Yes militia arent worth the cost.

Inquistion wont spawn till late game on a shard and you will always have warning as they will ask your permission to torture your subjects first. Also they are stong enough to wipe the floor with all the cheaper guards and even some of the middle strength guards so its not worth filling your provinces with weak guards.

You also sound like your being over cautious, you will lose troops a lot and just about getting back as much gold as it costs to replace them is often a happy occurence, remember its the strength of your hero not the level of your troops that matter and your hero needs every battle he can get to level up quickly. Particularly when fighting slugs you will get wiped out a lot and you just have to accept the losses and try to avoid those battle or put them off until later unless using a level 10ish scout or mage. In fact if a province is guarded by slugs I may well leave it till quite a bit later even conquering harder provinces until I feel im ready for the attrittion.

Finally yes the ring by ring is the best way to go, just accept that some provinces troops (for example forest guards and slugs) may be more difficult than others (yawn, bandits). Push for the hardest encounters you can complete with near certainty your hero wont die as they will be the most rewarding. Also its worth pushing towards resources if you can see them, wood and iron are essential, the others you can just view as profitable squares/small discounts on buildings.

I would end with a warning about corruption (after youve conqueres something like 25/30 provinces you get diminishing returns on income as the losses to corruption rises with each additional province) however it doesnt sound like your getting that far.

[Winter Wolf]

I dont know how you got the impression I wasn't getting that far?... I went through a very elaborate description in a thread elsewhere here of the previous shard where I had to grind my heroes up to defeat Guard of the Ancient guards ... and was killing dragons. Yep got that far. Corruption wasn't a big deal after I got the dungeon built. I was always ahead of the corruption level in terms of cash on that shard. The main costs were replacing lost troops.

That "brag" doesn't mean much in terms of the wider campaign progress however. As I said in this thread it seems the remaining shards got tougher with better guards closer in and much worse events wreaking havoc. I did manage to get one shard going (still on going) where I didnt get rushed by an overpowered enemy after losing troops to a way overpowered neutral guard.

So far I haven't seen the other Lord aside from Oinor who so far has decided peace was OK since I am on the path of light and order so to speak. After several different revolts and horrible events I think I might almost be able to play this one through, though again haven't encountered the other Lord yet. I expect that would be rather one sided from previous experiences.

I don't know what you mean by overly cautious. I have attacked many things and paid the price for it by utter defeat. I have also reloaded since I see no point in playing through a lost position. As for trying to keep my troops alive I think the reward is worth it for some of them. Obviously no one cares about an unmedaled low level unit but high level units with several badges seem worth their weight in gold.

Though I have one unit now that puzzles me. A swordsman unit with healing but no range to use it on. I am half convinced it is a bug and half convinced it is just an oddity of the RNG.

As for the inquisition not sure what you consider late game but I wasn't even half way done with my last shard when they showed up and started trying to take provinces. The guards were always useful in killing off members of their squad if they weren't completely repulsed. That made it easier for a lower level hero to mop them up and retake lost provinces.

[Winter Wolf]

Oh and that damned unit being unselectable in the tactical screen bug is back again and biting me hard.

[fractguy]

The medal bug is due by a troop loss, so it seems than even if in xp panel it's the right unit who get right medal, in fact there is some switch with the nex unit. So, you may have healer or sniper medals for your close-combat units, who is a loss of gold plus a wasted medal slot :/

I usualy relaunch my saved game when it' s occurs, and try to avoid any loss during the fight (not so easy task sometimes, so i simply avoid medals instead :P)

For a good start, you realy need to explore. At short term, it's a waste of time, but in long term, it's a huge income/items/xp boost. The best place to starting exploration is your capitol: more hidden places like anywhere else, easy ones, medium ones, hard ones, and direct acces to your troops/spells/blacksmith.

And you need an early secondary explorer-bot, who discover hidden places for your main heroe, who can pick the fights without waisting his precious turns.

An exploration tip is to avoid discovered location encounter, but keep on land's exploration. With some luck, you can discover 2-3 location in a row, and greatly increase your bonus sources.

If your provinces are raising against you too often, the best gards are the evil ones. Cuthroats for the start, but Living Deads are far better: more resistant, realy cheaper (upkeep: 1 gem). Also need a T2 cemetary, who is very expensive if you don't aim T2 necromancy school.

[Winter Wolf]

Yes I am aware that the game requires exploration to win each map but doing it early means not being ready for your enemy when they come calling. Unless you get lucky with what you find of course. Also evil is NOT an option since I am playing a goodie two shoes.

Thanks for explaining the medal bug. Sadly I like medalled units too much to stop using them. I figure I could get this swordsman into a commander's unit that raises range and use him that way maybe. :p