Dwarf queen game sooooo slow...

[Flap]

Pfiou I am not a huge player of coe4 (30hours).
I am now having fun with Dwarf Queen. The idea of the subterran network is great. But the game drags on for ever...
I must have spent 10 hours and only now do I start having a decent army.

I was wondering : how would it impact the game if all units had their movement, and field of view doubled ?
I have the feeling that it would make it much quicker but still retain the map richness.

[Orpheus]

30 hours? Those are rookie numbers in this game...
Changing the game like that would give a big advantage to factions that have reasonably accessible Fast commanders. It would also make stealth-type abilities more powerful, because there are no longer many gaps in players' view, so non-stealthy units now can't evade detection. That in turn might make Acute Senses and Spirit Sight more valuable - but it also might not, depending on what factions are in play.
Teleport abilities and that Necro "run really fast through Hades" spell (I can't remember what it's called) would become less necessary for logistics and troop mustering, but would still be relevant (perhaps moreso) to bypass defending garrisons and strike undefended 'heartland' locations. Planar travel would also become more useful for this purpose, since for the few units that can do it without a fixed-in-place portal, they can evade or outmaneuver other armies regardless of speed and vision.
Finally, Dwarves will get outmaneuvered even more than they already do. The distance you can move is the radius of an 'accessible area', within which you can choose any location to move to. A Slow stack has an accessible area of 25 squares at most (or less, depending on terrain). Regular units have a maximum of 49 squares. Fast units have up to 81 squares accessible. This translates to more sites within 1-turn reach, and more chance of being able to grab the best sites early. So already, slow units have a significant disadvantage in claiming the best territory.
Your proposed change obviously alters these numbers. Slow units now have up to 81 accessible squares. Regular-speed units have up to 169, and Fast units have potentially 289 accessible squares. This means they have WAY more chance to grab high-value sites early, and also makes it much harder to defend against them, since it's harder to predict where they will move to. Good luck figuring out which sites to garrison...
It would be a very different game requiring very different strategy. That might be a good or a bad thing, and it would certainly be interesting to give it a try. But I suspect that it would be even more unbalanced than it currently is.

[Flap]

30 hours? Those are rookie numbers in this game...

I fully agree with that ! I see that I am hardly grapsing the game basics. But I takes so much time to experiment anything...

Edit : oups... I have just realised that I forgot the "not" in "I am NOT a huge player" in my first post

I reckon : it would be a pretty big change in balance and strategy.
And it ain't an easy task with a small crew and such a rich game.

[Gilmoy]

Dwarf Queen is a peculiar class, very different from most other classes.
You're brave to learn CoE4 by playing Dwarf Queen 1st :)

CoE4 is not changing now. We are more likely to get CoE5 instead, and all shall rejoice.

For some fast, expansionist games, try Baron or Senator.
Warning: you will spend most of your gold to buy "normal" troops, and that's basically all you do.

For a vicious offensive game, try Illusionist.
Go for L3 Capture Phantasms in Golden Mirrors, then make lots of them.
Late-game, use Mirror Gate with Catapults and Phase Beasts.

This is also one of the most aesthetically pleasing games, because you're willing to jump into huge fights between main armies, since your costs will be only a few gems. Some of the loveliest fights you can get are your 200+ spellcasting monster phantasms vs. an enemy group of 15+ full columns of spellcasters or ranged AoE damage casters. Set speed to 4, sip coffee, watch the carnage. (Well, all classes could create those fights, but very few of them want to suffer the hideous casualties. Illusionist doesn't care )

For a truly long-term, slow game, try Enchanter with Guardian creep.
Double your gold with Dancing Tools everywhere, buy iron at overprice, buy every Apprentice.
Stack Guardians on citadels, fortifications, and resources.
Ignore enemy armies, and slowly eat their land away.
Wait until they walk away, then take a site and (almost) never give it back.

12 Guardians is a deterrent. 18 Guardians will kill an army. 24 Guardians in a fortification will kill a main army full of tier-3 summons and spellcasters. (Caveat: Druid's Cockatrices might beat that.)

Build your portal network between 24-Guardian fortifications
It is great fun to teleport guys all over the board for 1 MP each.
Warning: a full game vs. 7 King AI could last 800 turns and take 100+ hours. For 1 game.

Dwarf Queen's portal network is more rigid than Enchanter's, because it's only between existing iron mines, and it has a 1-turn delay in Agartha(?). But it's still a great late-game strength, if you can last that long.

[Flap]

Thank you for the tips !

But 100 hours for a game ! It would be far too long for me 😓

[MseeRus]

Dwarf has the advantage of lots of recruitable commanders. You get access to way more commanders than any other side. make sure you are taking magic libraries to gain access to human spellcasters as they will boost your offense a lot. Your ballistae are really strong vs walled tiles, so use them when you can, and don't waste your elite units if you are up against dangerous monsters

[Orpheus]

Dwarf is also one of the only classes (along with the Dryad) that passively gains troops without having to do anything at all. So all the time that you think you're not doing much, you're building up a swarm. Even un-upgraded basic dwarves are still effective in numbers, and as MseeRus noted you will never be short of commanders. Dwarves are one of the very few factions that can realistically garrison every resource site if they want to, even if it's just a handful of basic troops to deter wandering snakes (and to let you know when you lose a site)

[Flap]

They are not dwarfs.
They are turtles...

[Flap]

Well, I'll accept that the game is slow, and explore a bit more aggressively to grab more mines behind the enemy lines.

[jojeck]

Dwarves are about maximising their firepower from the Arbalests and the Ballistas. You can soon beat the small animal stacks with 10 or 15 arbalests and win against most mine defenders with few if any losses to the frontline troops. You need only enough frontline troops to protect the arbalests and for seiges you can use enough ballistas to kill nearly all the defenders before the battle even starts. If you try to win battles with the frontline troops alone then they take too much damage and take a long time to heal and pick up afflictions so avoid that unless the enemy is really weak.

As the enemy get tougher and the AI stacks get bigger you need to use a Runemaster to enchant you arbalests and ballistas to increase their firepower. So saving 125 diamonds to get a Runemaster level 2 quickly is essential and then look after him and keep him in a central location where he can help upgrade several armies. I find rubies and sapphires are mostly used to upgrade weapons to increase firepower and emeralds upgrading armour to make the frontline troops more durable.

Council guards are really tough with 3 armour, large shield and pierce resistance and 16 HP when they've got 60 xp. They're slow moving and low damage but they soak up a tremendous number of enemy archery shots and are the ideal frontline for your Ballista stacks that move slow anyway. It's wonderful to see a stack with 2 full frontlines of these guys and then 4 lines of arbalests (80 shooters) and then 10 ballistas hopefully mostly enchanted, they just mow down the opposition as they trundle forward wiping out AI stacks with hundreds of troops.