Aserai seems a bit op

[Toprongy]

I started over a few times and I remember them always keeping their towns except maybe 1-2 on the borders, they seem to have lots of manpower and they attack and take over towns from other kingdoms. In my current playtrough they captured empire towns and castles and seem to slowly snowball while the empire is messing around

[Clovis Sangrail]

Got your ass kicked by the Aserai, eh?

[Toprongy]

Originally posted by Clovis Sangrail:

Got your ass kicked by the Aserai, eh?

no... I just don't like the snowballing and the nonsense messing around while the empire in that case could perfectly fight back

[Clovis Sangrail]

Just wondering. I've been playing since about the second day of early access, and I have not seen that any faction had a monopoly on snowballing, and that is through at least a dozen or more campaigns.

If you think they are OP, then try playing them.

[RJboxer]

Originally posted by Clovis Sangrail:

Just wondering. I've been playing since about the second day of early access, and I have not seen that any faction had a monopoly on snowballing, and that is through at east a dozen or more campaigns.

If you think they are OP, then try playing them.

Khuzait had a huge huge huge snowball issue for first year of the game.

But yes, Aserai does NOT snowball. never has...

it wasn';t until relatively recently that they even took over another town outside their area. and even now, that is kinda rare..

They WILL sometimes "turtle" in their area for a long long time.. then wait for the player to kill a faction, they will absorb 1-2 of that factions Lords.. THEN as the player weakens the middle of the map.. they will slowly MOVE forward.. with their new found lords.. and expand a bit from there.

Even then, they tend to not take over 2-10 extra fiefs...

At least thats been my experience, over 3000 hours in game. (not played 1.8 yet)

[Rhapsody]

Aserai are finally in decent place. They could pretty much never get out of the desert and would always lose Husn Fulq to either the Southern Empire or Khuzait. The state of balance between factions seems pretty good to me, skewed against the Empire as a whole maybe, but I feel like that's how it should be.

[RJboxer]

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

Aserai are finally in decent place. They could pretty much never get out of the desert and would always lose Husn Fulq to either the Southern Empire or Khuzait. The state of balance between factions seems pretty good to me, skewed against the Empire as a whole maybe, but I feel like that's how it should be.

what patch??? I have seen Aserai been ok (well MUCH better) than before.. in 1.6 and 1.7 but I wouldnt say "in a decent place"... are u talking about 1.8?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

And yes, "skewed against empire" regarding, MAP position maybe..

but I still say Empire is best/easiest faction.

Multiple fiefs with EMPIRE culture.. so your AI lords dont have those issues. Multiple Fiefs you can Recruit your "empire" troops from.. even if you don't own them. (example, if You are battania, and own 1-2 fiefs,, then want MORE battania troops. if you don't OWN those other fiefs,, you take a huge relation hit in regards to available troops to recruit.. you sometimes can't even get ONE unit from them).

And of course, Empire are very very well balanced. Good noble troop, xbows for seige defense, bows for field battles, Good infantry. etc..

All around I think they are the best. ESPECIALLY with a player owning them, since the player can use player brain.. and decide where to attack.. and then the "middle of the map" is an advantage.

(oh and tons of EMPIRE lords in other factions to RECRUIT to your side.. to bolster your ranks.. and own the NEW empire fiefs u conquer...) so many advantages IMO.

[Voncrow]

Throughout development, Aserai has been a mid tier performing faction because of how spread they are combined with their unique unit composition. Aserai is spread over the widest (or second widest) stretch of territory in the game with only two points of entry/exit on either far end. What this means is that it takes an extremely long time to travel through Aserai territory, because of the detours one must take and the desert move penalty. This is both advantageous and disadvantageous to Aserai. On one hand, the extra travel time makes it much easier for Aserai to respond to attacks in their territory, especially as invading armies get deeper. However, the distance also makes it extremely difficult and time consuming for Aserai to expand. The core of their settlements and recruiting are in their central territory, as far as possible from the border exits. This distance and time consuming invasion time makes it difficult to invade as they can be countered easily or run into enemy attacking armies by the time they actually get out of their territory. How each faction performs in a given game is very RPG dependent, but from my experience cross multiple games across multiple updates, Aserai is usually one of the lack factions to survive but rarely one of the ones that snowballs.

[Toprongy]

Originally posted by Clovis Sangrail:

Just wondering. I've been playing since about the second day of early access, and I have not seen that any faction had a monopoly on snowballing, and that is through at least a dozen or more campaigns.

If you think they are OP, then try playing them.

I have played about that time and I remember the snowball issues which was worse back then. And didn't have snowballs recently, just now
And they have heavy units which can be used effectively

[Toprongy]

Originally posted by RJboxer:

Originally posted by Clovis Sangrail:

Just wondering. I've been playing since about the second day of early access, and I have not seen that any faction had a monopoly on snowballing, and that is through at east a dozen or more campaigns.

If you think they are OP, then try playing them.

Khuzait had a huge huge huge snowball issue for first year of the game.

But yes, Aserai does NOT snowball. never has...

it wasn';t until relatively recently that they even took over another town outside their area. and even now, that is kinda rare..

They WILL sometimes "turtle" in their area for a long long time.. then wait for the player to kill a faction, they will absorb 1-2 of that factions Lords.. THEN as the player weakens the middle of the map.. they will slowly MOVE forward.. with their new found lords.. and expand a bit from there.

Even then, they tend to not take over 2-10 extra fiefs...

At least thats been my experience, over 3000 hours in game. (not played 1.8 yet)

They seem to attack constantly in the empire region, took Lageta and a few other castles, tried to take on the other side as well and they have about 1700 unit armies near Lageta, while the other kingdoms just mess around even if they have the same or more manpower

[Toprongy]

Originally posted by RJboxer:

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

Aserai are finally in decent place. They could pretty much never get out of the desert and would always lose Husn Fulq to either the Southern Empire or Khuzait. The state of balance between factions seems pretty good to me, skewed against the Empire as a whole maybe, but I feel like that's how it should be.

what patch??? I have seen Aserai been ok (well MUCH better) than before.. in 1.6 and 1.7 but I wouldnt say "in a decent place"... are u talking about 1.8?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

And yes, "skewed against empire" regarding, MAP position maybe..

but I still say Empire is best/easiest faction.

Multiple fiefs with EMPIRE culture.. so your AI lords dont have those issues. Multiple Fiefs you can Recruit your "empire" troops from.. even if you don't own them. (example, if You are battania, and own 1-2 fiefs,, then want MORE battania troops. if you don't OWN those other fiefs,, you take a huge relation hit in regards to available troops to recruit.. you sometimes can't even get ONE unit from them).

And of course, Empire are very very well balanced. Good noble troop, xbows for seige defense, bows for field battles, Good infantry. etc..

All around I think they are the best. ESPECIALLY with a player owning them, since the player can use player brain.. and decide where to attack.. and then the "middle of the map" is an advantage.

(oh and tons of EMPIRE lords in other factions to RECRUIT to your side.. to bolster your ranks.. and own the NEW empire fiefs u conquer...) so many advantages IMO.

Yes empire seems a lot easier especially when starting out as a clan and giving fiefs to the family and companions, I also use their veteran infantryman (I play battania)

[Toprongy]

Originally posted by Donna White:

Throughout development, Aserai has been a mid tier performing faction because of how spread they are combined with their unique unit composition. Aserai is spread over the widest (or second widest) stretch of territory in the game with only two points of entry/exit on either far end. What this means is that it takes an extremely long time to travel through Aserai territory, because of the detours one must take and the desert move penalty. This is both advantageous and disadvantageous to Aserai. On one hand, the extra travel time makes it much easier for Aserai to respond to attacks in their territory, especially as invading armies get deeper. However, the distance also makes it extremely difficult and time consuming for Aserai to expand. The core of their settlements and recruiting are in their central territory, as far as possible from the border exits. This distance and time consuming invasion time makes it difficult to invade as they can be countered easily or run into enemy attacking armies by the time they actually get out of their territory. How each faction performs in a given game is very RPG dependent, but from my experience cross multiple games across multiple updates, Aserai is usually one of the lack factions to survive but rarely one of the ones that snowballs.

I see more the advantageous side of their place, never seen other kingdoms go deeper than 1 city, the aserai can always focus and bottleneck the attackers and so they can't flank and take an unguarded town. And it seems now that they did come out from the desert and stay around the empire region

[Toprongy]

Another thought I had, but don't know if it works like that: is it possible that a faction is a predetermined "winner" or advantageous from the start of each save? Or "smarter"

[SnoopBalls]

In my current play through the Aserai feel very strong. Currently in the late game and controll 1/4 of the map.

Aserai are the only faction I am struggling to fight. Because of their horse units, I have to use alternative tactics and the battanions (my culture) seem to struggle a little bit compared to fighting any other faction.

Aserai were doing really well, they had taken all the kuzhait (wrong spelling) territory. So not quite snowball but still impressive!

[Toprongy]

Originally posted by SnoopBalls:

In my current play through the Aserai feel very strong. Currently in the late game and controll 1/4 of the map.

Aserai are the only faction I am struggling to fight. Because of their horse units, I have to use alternative tactics and the battanions (my culture) seem to struggle a little bit compared to fighting any other faction.

Aserai were doing really well, they had taken all the kuzhait (wrong spelling) territory. So not quite snowball but still impressive!

Battanian mounted skirmishers are somewhat effective against aserai cavalry, but the best units so far in my experience is the khuzait torguud, khesig, khan guard. They do great with the glaive. Could mix in some spear user infantry too

[RJboxer]

Originally posted by Toprongy:

Another thought I had, but don't know if it works like that: is it possible that a faction is a predetermined "winner" or advantageous from the start of each save? Or "smarter"

First, You never mentioned what patch you are on. ALL THE stuff I say, is based on 1.7.2 (the current LIVE patch) and all the patches before that. I have not played 1.8

Second, Starving was a huge huge issue over a year ago.. It was approximately 12-14 months ago. Something happened in 1.7.0 and it came back.. a little. They then released 1.7.1 and it was WORSE, the devs then said "we are fixing starving, blah blah blah" (regarding an OLD bug that they had fixed months and months ago). But then their fix in 1.7.2 was way way way worse. In fact, I am 99.99999999% sure they did the same mistake they have repeatedly done (and is documented) with some perks.. And got the Math BACKWARDS. This meant that 1.7.2 had a WORSE starving problem then 1.7.1 and 1.7.0

Why bring it up. Because when the game came out, and THESE recent patches.. Starving breaks the game. And is "the main decider" who wins... When Aserai starts with their "great" map... It is Great IN THEORY ONLY. There are multiple threads by multiple people.. including me, outlining the issues with it. Speed to cross the map (aserai didn't used to have bonus speed in desert.. so could never even walk from one side to the other, that's kind of a big deal? eh?). They had lords assigned to OPPOSITE ends of the map, based on fiefs.. Sounds good right??? 10 on the east, 10 on the west??? Well when those rag tag scrubs from the (pick a side)... WEST finally make it to the east.. The EAST guys are already captured (remember it takes a long long time to cross the map)... then they get there, and THEY too are captured. Huzzah... war ends... they are released.. or they SLOWLY escape.. well they SPAWN all the way back on the other side, again.. and now need to refill their party.. and WALK across the map again... ugh.. Rinse-repeat.

It gets worse. Now, imagine they are doing this ridiculous dance over and over.. AND STARVING as they do it. In the olden olden days.. they'd just flat out all die, before they crossed their territory.. In the last year, they'd make it to the other side, but have almost no food.. and soon have to "disband" or "retreat" and get some food (better than starving though, eh?). In RECENT patches, they now make it to the other side, and don't "completely die", but are all wounded. The enemy then comes along and captures all of them, sells all their gear, and sells their prisoners.. and the end result is Aserai CAN NOT defend their edges.. and the edge factions (southern/khuzait), (western/Vlandia) get strong and stronger by feeding off Aserai...

Ok.. so what's happened with the "good stuff" over the last 5 or six patches.. Well when they DIDN"T STARVE, they'd have a tendency to "turtle" they'd hang tight, maybe lose their western castle (I forget name).. and maybe lose Husn Fuq, and a castle over there too. But would recapture it, when the enemy was occupied elsewhere.. Those SIDE enemies would eventually fight OTHER enemies (i.e. southern might fight khuzait for example), and then ONE of them would take fiefs from the other. Aserai is STILL turtling.. not gaining, not losing..

Around year 5-10 of campaign, one of those nearby factions is Weak, And aserai comes out like a juggernaut. usually with an extra few clans (picked up from dying southern, or dying sturgia etc..) they now move up. and MAY grab a town or two.. a castle or two.. etc...

This is good. They "expanded", right? well sadly they can't hold it.. Their armies/parties are STILL all "home based" to fiefs in aserai... So even though u grabbed 2 sturgia clans.. and took over 4-5 southern fiefs... those fiefs (will be lost do to culture, lmao... ).. err let's say they grabbed 2 EMPIRE clans... And took over 4-5 southern fiefs.. those are mainly the only guys to defend those fiefs with. They MIGHT be able to get a few of the "eastern aserai" clans to walk up and help.. but again, that takes a long time...

Worse worse.. lol. The Western aserai clans are now walking to defend those southern too.. and leaving All of western aserai open to "Western empire" and vlandia..

Anyway,, this is pretty much how aserai has been for a year or more.. (minus the starving, that popped up again starting about 4 months ago or so).

In other words, they do not snowball. and never have. If you are playing as aserai, YOU can make them much stronger, by swapping clans/fiefs, and putting lords where u want them.. and also by picking a side and YOU guard it solo.. Let aserai take the other side, and work their magic...

Even then, you ain't gonna snowball.

~cheers.

PS- All this troop talk "ahh but so n so troop is better than such n such" seems like severe "new player" talk to me. You can argue "ahh, but is Vlandian xbow better than Fian for fief defense.." that is a good argument either way.. Since u will STACK those troops as a defense, and can argue who is better at that one thing.. and easier to recruit etc..

But to say "well aserai has a melee infantry that has an axe, and thus it can by pass the armor of empire" etc... is maybe true. but useless IN GAME. No faction favors "one main" troop over the rest, except maybe their nobles.. And all factions troops are pretty well balanced except Sturgia (which is garbage).

Aserai tends to have above average troops in MY, and most people's opinions.. But that isn't going to mean you will WIN or LOSE to khuzait.... it is THE ASERAI map that is the decider, not if their bows are 4% stronger than khuzaits.. etc..