Kastelan Robots

[Al3x!el]

This moment your army finally destroys a Kastelan Robot got you cheering until you notice there are about 10 of those things charging in on your position.

How the ♥♥♥♥ am I supposed to beat those?

At the point I had this battle my troops are a few marine squads one devesator one cyborg and a captian.

Guess what they got destroyed without even taking one Kastelan down.

Is it intended to flee from those ?

[Sharlatan]

the wildlife is your main enemy early on, it severely restricts your expansion until you can deal with it.

Devastators should pretty much replace normal tactical marines asap IMO,

[Warlok]

Heroes can form the core of your killin' forces early on, until heavier harder-hitting vehicles can arrive. Kastelans are some of the toughest NPCs in the game, especially when supported by NPC Enginseers.

A Space Marine cohort usually went out of his way to field a Captain with full equipment before engaging them.

[radbass2]

Kastellans kind of serve as a natural roadblock to expansion until you have the armor piercing capabilities to deal with them.

However, recently it seems like they are spawning much more than they used to, and very close to your base. I'm not sure if I've just been unlucky, or if the spawn tables have changed.

Also, in my opinion the presence of Kastellans are part of what makes the Necrons OP in early game... The gauss weaponry of the basic necron warrior unit has a minimum damage that allows it to fight WELL above its weight class, especially against hard points and units with high HP. Necron warriors do 8 damage (if I remember correctly) to buildings and units like Kastellans, while other small arms are plinking off for less than 1 point of damage.

[Warlok]

Originally posted by radbass2:

The gauss weaponry of the basic necron warrior unit has a minimum damage that allows it to fight WELL above its weight class, especially against hard points and units with high HP. Necron warriors do 8 damage (if I remember correctly) to buildings and units like Kastellans, while other small arms are plinking off for less than 1 point of damage.

As they should... :)

[radbass2]

Originally posted by Warlok:

Originally posted by radbass2:

The gauss weaponry of the basic necron warrior unit has a minimum damage that allows it to fight WELL above its weight class, especially against hard points and units with high HP. Necron warriors do 8 damage (if I remember correctly) to buildings and units like Kastellans, while other small arms are plinking off for less than 1 point of damage.

As they should... :)

Lore wise, yes. But by that logic Tau fire warriors should have twice as much range and their pulse weapons should melt everything they hit because they are essentially perfected plasma rifles.

[Warlok]

Originally posted by radbass2:

Originally posted by Warlok:

As they should... :)

Lore wise, yes. But by that logic Tau fire warriors should have twice as much range and their pulse weapons should melt everything they hit because they are essentially perfected plasma rifles.

Yes, and the further one strays from that reason/logic, the less believable the fantasy. So an argument to "rectify" this apt capacity is not a good one.

No faction, unit, or asset is ever going to be perfectly balanced versus any other. Pursuing this myth leads to continual fundamental tweaking, ala Rainbow Six Siege. Are they different=yes, then they cannot be totally balanced. I prefer the difference.

[radbass2]

Originally posted by Warlok:

Originally posted by radbass2:

Lore wise, yes. But by that logic Tau fire warriors should have twice as much range and their pulse weapons should melt everything they hit because they are essentially perfected plasma rifles.

Yes, and the further one strays from that reason/logic, the less believable the fantasy. So an argument to "rectify" this apt capacity is not a good one.

No faction, unit, or asset is ever going to be perfectly balanced versus any other. Pursuing this myth leads to continual fundamental tweaking, ala Rainbow Six Siege. Are they different=yes, then they cannot be totally balanced. I prefer the difference.

Uh.... yeah I was just responding to your comment that Necron Warriors "should" be able to fight way above their weight glass with weapons that deal a large amount of flat damage that ignores armor.

That's not about being "perfectly balanced". The Necrons straight up have a basic tier 1 infantry that can reasonably destroy cities in pretty small numbers. That's broken.

[Voyd™]

I've had HORDES (like 6+) of these things showing up very near my base, very early, and already at L4 and 5 within the 1st 20 turns or so. WTF

[kane]

Yeah bit odd at the moment in some games i won't see them at all and in others 6-8 off them show up and i normally keep wildlife to low.

[Tchey]

Something fun to do : abondon game at turn 1, and watch the map.
Repartition of neutrals seems to be very random, in a "bad" way.

[Jean-Luc]

I always play with max wildlife and I don't think I've ever seen more than ~4 Castelans at once and they've never beelined for my base or something like that. Neutrals typically defend their area and become aggroed by the player attacking them.

You can even turn off overwatch to avoid provoking them.

[Crew]

Originally posted by Jean-Luc:

I always play with max wildlife and I don't think I've ever seen more than ~4 Castelans at once and they've never beelined for my base or something like that. Neutrals typically defend their area and become aggroed by the player attacking them.

You can even turn off overwatch to avoid provoking them.

Just because it hasn't happened to you, doesn't mean it hasn't happened to others. I've had to restart games becuase of having Kastelans trapped right next to my base.

[Tchey]

Actually quite often in my games, with max wildlife, IA in Hard die from them.

IMO, wildlife should prevent fast expension, give XP, but never beat an IA unless it’s Easy.

[Venrez]

Originally posted by Tchey:

Actually quite often in my games, with max wildlife, IA in Hard die from them.

IMO, wildlife should prevent fast expension, give XP, but never beat an IA unless it’s Easy.

Its AI. Artificial Intelligence. Not intelligent artificial.

ALL of these games also list them as AI. Not IA.

I see this across countless videogame threads and whilst I hate to be the nit-picker, it is tiresome.

- - -

But ontopic, yes, numerous times it is specifically Kastellans that have ended a game way prior to when it should be.

When 3+ Kastellans happen to spawn in such an arrangement where they directly impede a player (or AI) early on, it can completely stall or end the game for them as they have no means to bypass or fight them directly.

Losing a couple of units to an Enslaver, Kroot Hound swarms of Vespids is normal, but only Kastellans (can) potentially appear so early, by sheer luck of the draw with the random map seed and other variables, that they have the firepower to flatten anything and everything you've got, destroy either your 1st or 2nd city and by extension end the game for (that) player then and there.

Kastellans are the only reason Ive ever had to restart any game prior turn 20 because you get 1-3 of them right by your starting city and they home in on it, regardless of your means to fight it, disengage from it, or do anything else, because the Kastellans get stuck in a feedback loop due to their individual strength, spawn location, what they are set to defend and what they can target - which just so may happen to be your starting city through no fault of player action.

I dont mind the strength of them. But I do mind their behaviour. They should not appear so close to player starting positions, or have such behavioural tendencies to stick around in X radius of player set structures (cities).

I see a loop where a Kastellan might engage, kill a unit, be told to disengage and retreat X tiles, but disregard that because a player-owned city-tile it can attack is within this distance and thus leads to an irreversible loop resulting in either completely stalling or annhilating a player when they (the player or AI) really had no say in the matter, as the player HAD to engage a Kastellan right by their city to begin with.

It is one of the drawbacks of randomly generated maps, and all the other intervening variables regarding AI, NPC units and such. But it could be adjusted, better.

[Tchey]

Originally posted by Venrez:

Its AI. Artificial Intelligence. Not intelligent artificial.

ALL of these games also list them as AI. Not IA.

Yep i know sorry, in french it’s Intelligence Artificielle, when you are very used to some acronyms, it’s hard to even notice the mistake...