Favorite Factions

[boozermonkey]

Please post your favorite factions and why you like them. Also, rate the factions as you see thier standings in terms of playing vs. the AI and multiplayer. These are my ratings:
Wild Walkers: 2 (Amazing faction - OP military and production)
Broken Lords: 8 (Seem quite weak - slows mid - late game and military is mediocre)
Necrophages: 1 (Well suited for more than one victory type - This faction needs nerf badly)
Ardent Mages: 7 (fun faction but not really good at anything comparatively)
Vaulters: 6 (Just don't like playing them, but they are quite powerful for science victory)
Roving Clans: 5 (very slow starting faction but powerhouse late game)
The Cult: 3 (Awesome faction and fun to play)
Forgotten: 9 (spying seems broken and weak military. Faction needs rework)
Drakken: 4 (great faction, but Diplo victory? -- boring)

[protëin]

"Broken Lords: slows mid - late game"
What[i.imgur.com]
The only slow part, if any, should be the start. After getting a few dust bonuses from techs and/or hero(es), you'll be buying citizens and buildings every turn. Unless you mean something else by being slow :D You'll also be able to afford anything you'll need from the marketplace, units, heroes, resources, whenever you need them.

Anyway, my list:
#1 Broken Lords: I like swimming in dust. And then more dust.
#2 Cultists, Roving Clans, Drakken: Honestly, I like every faction so far, but these are the ones I had the most fun with yet.
#3 Wild Walkers, Vaulters: Never liked Twi'leks, and the Vaulters seem way too much like your generic "must have human race, at least for me.
Haven't tried Necrophages (want to do some expansion victories with them), Ardent Mages (tried a bit, pillars seem to have a weird mechanic with districts, expansion-wise), and The Forgotten (looks really interesting, love my some spying).

[CombatWombat]

#1 (tied) are Cultists and Broken Lords: They just feel aggressive, and I like the Cultists big, nigh-invincible city later on.

#2 (tied) Drakken, Clans: Really nice specialization. Drakken have some pretty tough units too.

#3 (Vaulters, Walkers) : Decent, but feels generic as protein pointed out. I DO like the Walker's massive range on their archers, but they are so squishy it isn't really worth it.

Haven't tried Phages and Forgotten. I don't think I'll like Forgotten very much though.

[The Doctor]

Necrophages get lots of free units from combat, battleborn, and they're not trivial. They are an excellent choice if you're going to play an aggressive game as your armies snowball quickly and your economy needs to be srong to support them. But they're not my # choice either.

I had the most fun playing Broken Lords and Cultists too. Broken Lords start weak but grow very, very powerful as the game progresses. I got an Economic victory playing with them. Weird as I was going for a Science victory and was only 2 turns away from researching that final tech for the win when I was told that I'd won an Economic victory. I was actually disappointed :D

Cultists have only none city to manage and I tend to craft some very powereful units to make the core armies. I use strategic resources to enhance the Guards.

Necrophages would be my 3rd pick.

Wild Walkers would be #4. Wild Walkers archer units are extremely powerful when playing against the AI. Assign a leader who enhances their range and their damage and it's practically Game Over.

My absolutel last would be Forgotten as I'm not into espionage or spying when playing a strategy game. I also don't like that they don't produce Science.

[TheDeadDude]

My fav factions 1# Ardent Mage - Very powerful units and really nice science throughout the game.

They just look cool and i have alot of fun playing them but they do have major drawbacks.

Pillars are crap unless faction quests is completed which isn't possible in fast speeds in multiplayer. Starts to pitfall at mid/late game because other factions have better traits suited to empire building. Ardent mages are only good in combat with stun and even then they are weak in comparison to other factions. Drakken, necrophage, dustlords and wild walkers comes into mind.

2# Necrophage - I really hate playing against these guys but playing them is pretty fun, playing the market by selling the spare battle borns you aren't using. I use that dust buying out all the city upgrades while only producing units to feed my warmongering habits.

3# Wild walkers - they have disgusting science early on but once you get a science hero and start expanding these guys can build a metropolis other factions can only dream of.

4# Dust lords - still learning them but i like the dust mechanic they have, its 100x better then forgotten

5# Forgotten - fun to play against AI's on normal but good god they are tough to play against hard/impossible ai's.

These guys play like an endless pit of need and they need FID in amounts they can't possibly produce. They have absolutely no FID production tech or bonuses like say buisnessmen or industry traits would help a !@#% ton.

The dust = science costs should be scaled down. Even with the museum and empire plan the tech costs way too much for them to buy it. Spies get jailed or killed and knocked out for 15 turns which happens more than you think. Depending on security levels it even takes 5-10 turns to get enough intel to actually steal tech past era 1/2. All this is happening while other factions are taking 2-3 turns or less to get tech at a much faster pace.

Alot of the most useful hero traits take too long to reach on the tech tree and should be inherent on the heroes to begin with, these guys are no better spies than say a drakken or cultist spy. Only thing is the hero skin/icon to differentiate race and look.

Few things to help these guys not suck, they need a bit more hp. They need a faction building somewhere along the lines that reduces costs to buy tech by 50%. Rework the empire plans right now it sucks!

[Reanigael]

I am currently playing Drakken focusing on gold revenues. Nearing endgame techwise, in the last functional era, playing on hard with the hardest minor factions to slow down game start. I only have 2 armies, and no troops in my cities. I have 9 cities, about 700,000 gold, and 32,000 gold income per turn. I have no workers on anything except food.

Unfortunately in this game, trading with AI players want a % of your money regardless of the amount. Were I having a normal income, a tech or deal from an AI might cost 4k. Instead it now costs 450k for a tech from a tribe that probably has an income of 500/turn. Pretty ridiculous mechanic! They wouldn't even know what to do with 450k and all their cities won't profit that much (after needed purchases) in the entire game.

So instead I bribe the AIs to war with each other and leave me alone. The advantages to the income are that my cities are fully built (omitting lack of available resources), run around 20-25 districts each, and if needed I can spawn armies like a mad hatter can feathers.

I also just buy out every resource of every kind to hamstring them, not that the AI really even utilizes the market - another severe weakness in this game.

I have 325 hours, give or take, playtime.


Forgotten 0: I hate espionage in any game - I haven't played them and always kill this faction ASAP. They aren't the hardest to face just the most annoying for sure.

Drakken 5: They are fun and I enjoy making the AI fight itself.

Dust Lords 5: Lot of fun on these guys too, unique mechanic! Can be a little powerful gold-wise. Really don't need these guys to have a massive income though.

Necrophages 7: I dont like playing these things because they are such good enemies, but I customized their faction to be leaner and more efficient killers so they are a really nasty opponent. My favorite opponent.

Cutists 7: These freaks really creep me out. I can just see their blind multi faces looking at you, seeing nothing but everything. Maybe their head twitters side to side or something. Freaky. I like them as opponents especially in the early game for their strong cities and constant ninja work on your minor factions. I also tweaked these to be tougher.

Wild Walkers 5: Normally my favorite faction top 2 factions to play. I groove with the ethos, and think they are a very well balanced tribe.

Vaulters 6: My other favorite faction. I played the dungeon escape game before this one so I like the vaulters too... pretending you're surfacing on an alien world full of freaky and creepy enemies that want to convert your soul or eat your face.

Roving Clans 10: In an excellent demonstration of AI vs Player, these guys suck as opponents, and always get facerolled. When I play them however, my incomes are so staggering the game looks completely borked. My current incomes are a pittance of what you can achieve with these nutjobs going to town. I don't play them much because it's just no fun.

[Spyro]

So far only played Drakkens, Forgotten, Necrophages and Cultists but i rate them:

1) Cultists - Just feels amazing building 1 city up to be amazing in every FIDSI. Love the idea of converting dozens of villages and expanding your empire that way. Was definitely a different playstyle to the others

2) Forgotten - Generally love the animations for the units movement. They have very well balanced units in terms of health, dmg etc. No science means you can hugely focus on dust allowing for the potential dust victory and purchasing of high lvl tech every 2-3 turns.

3) Drakkens - Cool units especially the Ancients. Force diplomacy very useful. Really nice heroes. However have horrible looking buildings!

4) Necrophages - Poison is very powerful, even if units aren't particularly strong. Love the Proliferators just chilling and emassing a huge army. Cool looking buildings.

Can't wait to play the others!

[boozermonkey]

Awesome. Thanks for the replies. I guess I have been seriously misplaying Broken Lords because in my games they kinda suck. Mediocre military and I always find myself behind in the dust income.

[TheDeadDude]

Originally posted by boozermonkey:

Awesome. Thanks for the replies. I guess I have been seriously misplaying Broken Lords because in my games they kinda suck. Mediocre military and I always find myself behind in the dust income.

you need to expand relatively regularly and you need a governor or two with dust boost 3 and a few wild walker heroes.

The wild walker heroes reduce the industry costs by 54% combined wtih empire plans and if you research slave & prisoners and use the economic empire plan u can reduce buyout costs by 50%. This means you can buy all your improvements on a settled city from era 1-4 for about 1k dust give or take. Which is nothing compared to how much dust they make per turn mid and endgame.

[boozermonkey]

Kinda gimmicky. They should have the ability to produce dust on par with the Clans but I find they don't come close. Clans can do it without the need for off faction heroes, although that always helps regardless of the faction you play - Clans in mid game can literally afford any bloomin thing they want by that time with some to spare. I guess with Broken Lords I just need to focus on dust production almost exclusively to come close to that?

[TheDeadDude]

Originally posted by boozermonkey:

Kinda gimmicky. Broken Lords I just need to focus on dust production almost exclusively to come close to that?

Well as the roving clans the keys to the market starts adding up for at least 20%+ of your dust income and the rest of it would be from say trade routes or buying/selling goods. No matter what faction you play you need governors or you will get way behind in everything. Heroes cost around 290 dust in the first 10 turns and around 1000+ dust in turns past 60. When your getting a cut of every thing sold or bought in the market it adds up really fast. Buying, selling mercs and stockpiles is another cheesy way to get crazy amounts of dust as well.

Dust lords however need to focus industry and dust before they can hit science hard which is why they start out so slow. Once you set up though you should be able to snowball the same way roving clan does.

[Bladewind]

Dust Lords can be brokenly OP, and they work great with either Ozek or Broken Lord heroes as governors. With Ozek, you compensate for their slower influence revenue. With Broken Lord heroes, you get a 1.5 resource boost (there are only so many strategic/luxury resource on the market). Cultist heroes are just better governors hands down.

Anyway, their disregard for food, and ability to buy anything and everything allows them to expand very quickly while focusing only on dust and science production. Do make use of trade like roving clans.

Broken Lord troops has high defense. So long as they survive, you can use dust to heal them back to full. You would want heroes that augment damage and attack to compensate. Alternatively, make use of minor faction troops. A stack of winter solders with a bow hero for +2 movement wearing watchman's pelt (for hero only winter immunity) would work wonders here.

And since you have too much dust than you know what to do with, its great to abuse the mercenaries and punt your allies.

[boozermonkey]

Broken Lords troop survivability is not the issue for me. They are super defensive and they get Bishops so its rediculous. Its their ability to finish a fight. I always end up in a draw for the bigger fights and even some smaller ones. In order to deal with this I usually make strong use of minor factions like Minotaurs or Orcs for ranged. Mino's are damn nice for packing a punch and can sub in for front line troops to boot.
Yes, I know if I sub in Wild Walker or especially Cult heroes which are really the best governors in the game I find, then I can supercharge a city for production or science or dust. Even then, when I play games as Broken Lords and have a Broken Lord AI opponent, that AI always outproduces my dust output by like double. Could be the AI advantage but getting the economy off the ground is just harder than it is with the Clans or the Cult.

[Reanigael]

Yeah there are quite a few ways to cheese the game with the market! For me at least it sort of ruins it so I only buy from the market.

With the Dust Lords, you have to start cautious. Todays game I played on Insane with some super crazy minors, as Dust Lords. I tried to have only Dust Lord heros on my cities, but there just arent enough and I ended up with too many cities, so I picked up some Rovers and Forgotten, because they make the best imitation town heros for Dust Lords.

Because I had 8 players on a normal sized map, it was going to get furious pretty fast. I also had 3 different customized Necrophagers AIs rampaging around with 105 trait points, which has been a lot of fun. 2 left.

I dont put many people into anything other than 'food'. When a city is 'done' and just keeping up with new items, I will keep say 6 people on production/food with Dust Lords. The rest is all income or stars if needed.

For troops with DL, Im a bit of a purist so I just stick with DustLord troops. Its fun trying to work out the battles with all that melee tripping over itself. Sometimes I lose a troop because they get focused and the bishops just are not eyeless. Seriously WildWalkers or
Vaulters with 2 eyeless are crazy. Couple crossbowman up front, rest longbow, and 2 healers. Map clears so fast!

Anyways I'm just about near the final tier of tech and Dust Lords are pumping out around 27k a turn at the moment. So dont feel they cant be good or do well. The Dust Lords need that income though, you really do spend it with them, unlike with the Drakken or Rovers, who just sit on the Smaugpile.

Somewhere in mid to late game your Dust Lords should start producing pretty serious coin which allows you to spam out the parts to your towns. Like the other poster said, a Wild Walker hero intown with the production bonuses will really make for a powerhouse city - Im not using any just dust heros for this game - but thats a good way to go.

Just remember to get roads and coin techs up ASAP. The roads create the trade routes and that is much of your early dust extra income. You also need the roads so you can focus on towns rather than spamming out armies to guard your frontiers. With roads you can keep it on 2 armies. I managed this game with just 2 armies, and a few odd troops bought out here or there to buy time for an army to arrive. So you dont have to have a lot of skin out there, even with Necrophages customized to hate everyone and pump out masses of troops. With later techs the routes go dustcrazy.

With DustLord exclusive troop battles, play steady and buy time. Running out the battle clock is always in your favor, because you can heal up between rounds. My best city was under seige and it had only 3 militia and my army of 6 (hero, 4 warriors, and 2 casters). It was being seiged by 3x6 armies of Necrophages, mostly flying the rest being ranged orcs, and 1 hero.
I won that by upgrading to blue weapons on my standard troops, and adamantium morale boosting trinkets on the standard troops, and then starting at the rear of the battle map and holding out long as possible while they stumbled over each other queing up to eat our faces. After a battle Id replace 1 troop if needed by buying out on the seiged city (think I had to do that 2-3 times), healing the army and going at it again. Eventually we killed all of them including 2 partial reinforcement attacking armies. There mustve been 8 armies before I took their next city, which must be approached slow and cautiously if you only have 2 armies, as you must be wary to not overextend when youve one army guarding against an ally backstab, and only 1 to fight/seige/claim cities. But with Dust Lords you can do that because of the heal mechanic, and because they can be very tanky if you have some heals on them and keep them in lockstep with morale boosters.


And if you arent customizing factions and havent picked the trait that allows no peace/trading, then make friends with a good guy so therer is some regular trade going on.

If you want a fun challenge map, customize your faction to declare no war and have no peace/trading. You'd better pick some core traits though to balance it out, like extra dust per tile, and not techs etc, because thats really tough. You cant declare war, and cant ask for permission to open closed borders, so you cant finish most quests, even your main quest. And you get isolated quickly. Its a lot of fun. I like doing that with Vaulters - coming out of their ship and seeing this crazy freaky world - hell they arent trading with any of these bugs or spacevangelists thats for sure - better keep to themselves. It ends up usually quite a fun game.

[protëin]

With Broken Lords, you should put EVERY citizen on dust. You don't need food, since they don't even produce that shit. You don't need production, you will buy your buildings and units. You don't need science, that usually takes care of itself, and you can just buy some science buildings if you really feel behind. You don't need influence, since you should go for tall at the start.
Again, put ALL your citizens on dust.
Use dust efficiency heroes. Give them items that gives bonuses for dust/worker.
Pacify your villages ASAP.
Focus heavily on techs that increases your dust/turn.
Start tall, only 2 or 3 cities.
As for units, they seem to be more tanky, rather than simply lacking damage. Equip them with the best items (you can easily afford it). You can heal them up after every single fight. Also, Ryder supposed to be a strong unit, though for whatever reason, I haven't tried them yet.
After setting up your empire, you can start expanding. You can train as many settlers as you want, you can afford them, and you can buy every building the new cities need for a start.

[boozermonkey]

Yeah. Tried Uncle Proti's advice and on turn 60 with three cities im pumping out close to 450 dust/turn. Its pretty sick. I put a Wild Walker hero on one city just to boost production, level 2 economy empire plan for the building reduction cost, got slaves for another 25% reduction, and beelined strait for every dust tech. With the quest item you can use Broken Lord heros as governors and you get a pretty nice dust, science, and production boost with that alone. When I settled my third city I was able to buy up all buildings in two turns.