The Age of Orcs

[War Emblem]

After completing 3 campaigns (Berany, Cor Vilaad and Ravengaard) I have decided to play my first conquest game as the Iron Barony Orcs. First let me say that it is instructive to play the Iron Barony because you quickly see how they can raise masses of troops. Several troop types can be raised and fielded in the same turn. This is an incredible advantage limited only by your resources of gold. Second, it really changed my style of play. I am used to upgrading a core of units, creating a cadre of elite forces. The Orcs really have nothing like this. Their archers suck (and don't fire in auto battle), the infantry is fodder, their catapults have low range and their wolf riders are very squishy. The Shamans can't heal until they live long enough to be upgraded. Ogres feel blah for an elite unit. Yet, despite all this, I find myself mowing through the realms of men. After establishing non-aggression pacts with Cor Vilaad and Cloudfels, I invaded Dunmar. The CV dwarves were opportunistic and invaded from the south. Needless to say Dunmar was utterly crushed. After that I invaded Dragonhold. Did they have lots of archers? Sure, but I had lots of fodder. Their defeat was only stalled a bit when Vessoi DoW on us. Ultimately both Vessoi and Dragonhold were destroyed. I unlocked a new troop type and now turn my eyes to the next realm. With an ambassador building relations with the CV dwarves I will either move south or finish off the North.

The Orcs are a strange army, there are very few, if any units that you can get attached to. I'd like to see an elite unit of Chieftan's Guards so there is at least some backbone. I actually don't think the computer AI can beat the Orcs. You need to use over-run from cavalry or elite infantry which the AI is not skilled at doing. Once you destroy the 'main' force of a country, the numbers of the Orcs over whelm everyone. Now, I am not rich, so finances might limit my ability to keep the horde going as I conquer more lands. Some of the southern nations might also be able to keep raising armies which will slow me down. It will be fun to see. A new experience makes for a very replayable game.

[War Emblem]

I'm not trying to rig the challenge the game does or does not have right now. I'm playing through my first conquest campaign and noting what I am doing. I think there is a flaw in that heroes provide no benefit from autobattles - but some people want to play with no hero abilities at all. I really haven't had any hero abilities played against me that I thought were all that significant. My hero ability of Headlong Rush is quite good - Orcs basically get two straight attack turns. So overall, my heroes might have been better than their heroes anyway.

[War Emblem]

195 provinces taken. Will finish in my next gaming session. Well I guess I was a bit too cocky in my estimation of Ravengard. They proved to be a VERY tough out. The AI played them the best of all the realms I have faced. Fell Mist is a bear of a spell. It prevents all ranged attacks, which nullifies my catapults and archers. Since most of rank and file is fodder....well...let's just say the beaches looked like something out of Saving Private Ryan. Lord Soren was killed early on in one of the numerous battles of Old Hill but the resolve of Ravengard never wavered. Hafor's Field, Old Hill, Rodrin Pale - these names will go down in infamy when the Orc Shamans tell the tale of their peoples. I lost count of the number of armies which I lost in these battles. Thousands of Orcs perished in a blood bath that must have looked like Stalingrad. I had to bring in a Hero army to start turning the tide, but even then it was only won with extreme cost. One of the weaknesses as I said is my rank and file doesn't do too much damage, and if I can't use ranged attacks, then it became really hard to knock out those Siege Towers that Ravengard loved building. After a huge cost in treasure and lives we finished off Ravengard.

To give you an example of War Totems - if I am not at war it costs me -15K a turn, while at war +4000. So that's about a 20K swing at this point. The Orcs march on. Evengaad was a walk over which you would expect from a peaceful trading nation. Their civilization wept as the Orcs swept over their lands. The Mist Dragon never came into play, only fighting in the last battle. During this war the great leader of Odenheim died. Did he fall from a broken heart of what he saw was coming? Without their legendary leader, Odenheim could provide little resistance to the Orcs. They too were engulfed without too much trouble. After swallowing up Odenheim I attacked Beraska next. They were actually kind of scrappy for a weak nation, putting up more of a fight than Evengaad and Odenheim. I had massive numbers though and they could only resist so long before coming under the Empire of the Iron Barony. During this time I had surrounded Sonneneve with armies, launching an invasion after Beraska fell. The cries of the Dryads echoed long into the nights as the Elves simply could not stop the Orcs. Attacked on all sides, the Elves had no hope of stemming this tide. With 195 provinces now taken, Orc victory is close.

[War Emblem]

Oh - two things I noticed, the spell Bone Hex does not work in Auto-Battle. Also, rebel fleets - they serve no purpose. When a nation with a navy is destroyed, the fleets should just be removed in my opinion.

[Breca]

More epicness!

We hear you on rebel navies. This will be put on a patch, post-release, as will a correction to the siege weapon auto-battle exploit.

Note: Feb 2 is our release date.

[War Emblem]

Something else you might want to look at - making the Vampires immune to ranged damage. They are just too easy to target and kill right now - for a darklord holding their realm together I feel they should be tougher - you should have to take em down in melee combat.

[Breca]

Units like Soren, Giants and others are single targets that admittedly get torn down rapidly due to the single target rules. Those rules state that units with multiple membes (such as pikemen), take decreasing damage from ranged fire (fewer of them to target), but also deal decreasing damage. Meanwhile single targets take full damage from ranged fire, but also deal full damage until dead.

While interesting in theory, it just has never worked very well in practice, and makes for "cheap" kills of a a realm's most heroic units.

I think we're just going to remove that designation altogether, and treat all units as "units," but that is something that will have to wait post-release.

Breca

[War Emblem]

I hear you, balancing single hero units with formed units is a struggle for every fantasy game ever made. You don't want to have it be like some versions of Warhammer where it was Herohammer and they dominated the battlefield but you don't want them being fragile either.

[War Emblem]

Well finished off the campaign. The Iron Barony finished with 1635 World Power. The rest of the top 5.

Iron Barony 1635
Averine 425
Myrmont 383
Cor Vilaad 285
Calland 252

It is interesting to note that Cor Vilaad became a great power by staying on peaceful terms with us. The campaign world now makes for a fairly interesting story as an RPG setting. The Empire of the Iron Barony stretches across the land. Island nations like Ariselle and the Azure Isles are relatively safe bastions with no Orc navy to threaten them. Will a future Orc King try to learn the mysteries of ship building to take the fight to these nations? The south central core of Human Nations holds out. Calland and Myrmont have a mutual defense pact - will they stand with each other if the Orcs invade? Can they get Averine to join them? Will Elidon be able to bank roll this with so much wealth in Orc hands now? What about the once proud Knights of Berany? Does Valegorn get off the sidelines? Can a War Captain push back the Orcs from their former lands? The Giants remain in Cloudfells, never venturing out of their mountain halls. Cor Vilaad and Aevinwode are the last bastions of demi-humans, can they maintain their peaceful existence with the Orc so close to the Iron City? Crivia has just their city, but Orc power is spread far throughout the land, might they be able to carve out a foothold in the South supported by pirates from the Azure Isles? Khazoth has a non-aggression pact with the Iron Orcs, will that hold? Or might they have ambitions of their own in this new world order of Orc? A lot of fun stories could be told.

Oh and if you weren't mentioned in the above paragraph - your people are dead.

[msunavygrad]

"Oh and if you weren't mentioned in the above paragraph - your people are dead."

Palemoor must be very happy then.