March to Mytilene, what a way to kill the fun in your game.

[doru]

this mission is poorly implemented. they spent the tutorial teaching me about stabilizing characters and bleeding and whatever and in the end it doesn't even matter, I get insta kill and lose the mission immediately.

what a bunch of lazy game designers.

and the only way to progress in the mission is to figure out after each death what precise map hexagon position can't be reached by the sniper archers that are on the hills above.

you place your weak archer on any other location and you lose the mission.

amazing. no amount of tactic matters except making sure none of your characters can get double hit by the enemies.

I've read an fan explanation that if a character gets to zero life then he can't be incapacitated because he can't flee and is doomed to die once he's downed. I disagree and here is why this doesn't make sense.

Because there is already a character on this mission that can be revived. Is the general. So if is possible to "revive someone to 1 health" then I should have the same option for other characters. Keep the death timer for downed characters, maybe allow them to be insta killed if they are downed and a enemy gets to them when they are down.

[asarokk]

It's always nice isn't it, to blame the game or the developers if you suck at it. In any case, this battle is intentionally difficult as to emphasize Marcus Minucius Thermus' mistake on deciding this approach, because it lead to serious ramifications for the legion. In other words they were ambushed at the worst possible location that put them at a serious disadvantage, where the legion could be easily overwhelmed, as you have noticed. If anyone else besides Gaius Julius Caesar dies, the quest will fail and it's specifically designed to do so. Marcus Minucius Thermus, Caeso Quinctius Aquilinus, Julius Calidus, Bestia Tabat, Syneros and you must survive.

In this situation, any soldier who is incapable of moving on their own, will be left behind. Syneros does not have the ability to revive incapacitated allies, yet. The reason why the quest fails if any of the aforementioned die, is because they are not supposed to die there. Story wise, they have to make it out. All you have to do is save Thermus and then retreat to the red zone.

Because of this whole blunder, Thermus loses his command of his legion and the feats performed by our protagonist, warrants him the command of the legion. By Lucius Licinius Lucullus' decree.

[doru]

It's always nice isn't it, to blame the players if the developers are inept and don't understand the rules of the game, the same rules they spent time to teach the player.

One hit kill is not fun or hard. Is just lame

[MasterKroket]

This is one of the hardest missions yeah. As always with these games the early missions are harder than the later ones cause you have no skills yet.
I found it an absolute pain too. You have to be very careful (and there is no undo button LOL) I failed the first time on hard too but managed to squeek through the 2nd try. First time i chose the long way round 2nd time i actually moved directly through the ravine on the left side. I suppose there is some luck involved too here... It is a painful mission agreed cause you cant revive and your characters can literally get 2-hit kod agreed...

[Evil_Doc]

Might I suggest playing the game on an easier difficulty? I played it on easy, and had no problem getting past that mission.

I always play all games on easy for starting out, especially for this reason. There may be a mission or two that are ridiculously hard (even on easy), and would be almost impossible on higher difficulties (unless you get lucky).

Then, if I really like the game later and feel like punishing myself, I'll try out the harder difficulties. Though, I'm not really in for the "long haul" and hate grinding, I'm in it for the story and character arcs.

So if I go back to play this again, it will be too try out a different character arc, different romance, different story choices, etc.

[doru]

I know, first world problem but I've got so annoyed about this and I've uninstalled the game.

[FlyingMoses]

I really encourage you to give it another shot. The game is really wonderful. I will say that some of the earlier missions can be a little hard. I am usually a normal difficulty player in most games and I was able to beat it in two or three tries on hard mode (was trying to see if it was too much for me, ended up being a great difficulty, however I did tweak the mission rewards and legion map difficulty to be normal).

That mission is a classic one where I think you really should freely use a quicksave or two. This effectively allows you rewind often exactly one turn and tweak your positioning. I know some people hate save scumming but I feel like that mission it is perfectly acceptable.

Once you start to get a couple of builds and decent weapons together, which happens actually pretty early, the game becomes super super satisfying. In particular, the untrained units being killed giving another action point can really make a few missions very feast-or-famine.

I will add that if I'm remembering correctly, this mission practically requires you to split up your units in a deliberate way. If you try to move as a group you'll have a rough time. For example, often it can be very helpful to deliberately send a unit to stand right next to an archer if they can climb the hill, because you may not realize but the archer cannot shoot at anyone else without getting reaction-hit, making them much weaker. Also, if you can get the archers to aggro Caeso, his shield deflects shots.

To be fair, I'm pretty sure I (very roughly) followed this guide (link) https://www.neoseeker.com/expeditions-rome/March_on_Mytilene that tells you a good first two turns. I had to restart or load a save mostly because I screwed up the second half where you have extra units come from the bottom by being careless once or twice.

[asarokk]

Originally posted by doru:

It's always nice isn't it, to blame the players if the developers are inept and don't understand the rules of the game, the same rules they spent time to teach the player.

One hit kill is not fun or hard. Is just lame

Oh yes, definitely. As I've already explained, this quest is very specifically designed. It's an exception to the rule.

Originally posted by doru:

I know, first world problem but I've got so annoyed about this and I've uninstalled the game.

Probably for the best. If you didn't like March to Mytilene, then you would absolutely despise Act III Ambiorix's Warning as the quest is designed to end in a humiliating defeat.

Most battles do function as normal and most of the time you win by simply defeating your enemy, but some battles have different objectives and requirements to win, while others offer you the chance of retreating. Different challenges, different tactics. Then there are the rare ones, battles that are directly related to the story so they are scripted a certain way.

[MasterKroket]

Well that is where i am now ugh :(
I got slaughtered twice.... I nearly won the 'first' part but you probably cant cause there is too many reinforcements but then you have to play with poorly equipped idiots with a bunch of weak skills. Maybe i need to go back and do the first phase and somehow try to kill the 2nd commander archer as well cause that would make this so much easier.
If only ONE of em brought a firebomb / caltrops / poison bomb it would be easy but despite 'planning it' they forgot these useful items lol

[SkyRiderJM]

I beat it on insane difficulty but I would admit it's part luck. If those 3 archers on the hills see any of your most hurt member they all will shoot that one player and the RNG depends so the player can drop and you lose. I some times race with Bestia up the first hill it takes two turns and he can kill the first archer which can pave the way on when you guys retreat for if not doing that, that one archer close can make your retreat hell. I put a whole play through online in insane difficulty and I am not saying it was the best run but it was fun. The ambush is designed to be hard.

[meowbeast]

OP got filtered hard.

[Pogey-Bait]

Weird, I went left side got the guy and walked back to the entry zone pretty easily. The neutrals on our side were a great distraction and I just chose my battles wisely.

Wasn't that difficult at all.

[Lywelyn]

Originally posted by doru:

It's always nice isn't it, to blame the players if the developers are inept and don't understand the rules of the game, the same rules they spent time to teach the player.

One hit kill is not fun or hard. Is just lame

my friend your argument is a poor one, how about you address the flaw in your gameplay, instead of making unecessary and unproductive reply, you did made this thread did you not ?

there is a bit of RNG alright, but that's just how most CRPG work. if that is an issue you cna always save scumming to your heart's delight, but skill will always beat luck.

learn the basics, get used to a style you like, learn the game mechanic, but most of all, keep in mind

it's ok to play on easy difficulty ?

[Pogey-Bait]

Even on normal difficulty that fight is not that challenging.

[WreckWren]

I'm terrible at turn based games. Abysmal, useless, inexperienced.
I did this mission on the first go.

[doru]

Originally posted by Lywelyn:

my friend your argument is a poor one, how about you address the flaw in your argument, instead of making unecessary and unproductive reply

there is a lot of RNG alright, but that's just how this game works because devs don't know what they are doing.

you can learn the basics, get used to a style you like, learn the game mechanic, but most of all, keep in mind that it will not matter because all the rules and the game mechanics do not matter at all.

it's ok to not reply ?