Started a new campaign with the beta release, surprisingly didn’t end early yet and still doing good. Usually takes like 3 attempts to get a playthrough that doesn’t end in a horrible way (or because I’m getting greedy and go broke).
Notable changes and remaining issues:
– speed up feature is great (almost gave a heart attack though)
– the new system to take existing locations instead of spawning new ones for contracts is good, I like it, but the traveltime can be up to 2 days on bad terrain, would be nice if the reward was partly based on distance to the settlement
– ambitions as stretchgoals make things more interesting
– not being able to enter a city when traveling with a caravan is nasty, not a fan
– money is tighter than every since early contracts in noble towns aren’t available (less contracts) and we can’t always risk to haggle for mor money as every contract is necessary to have early on
– new “in between” weapons are great
– new Undead are awesome, but damn they are nasty early on, 4 of them are a world of hurt compared to 4 werewolfes, but alas I know that now, its not like Orcs or Goblins are any different
– no clue what exactly you did to werewolves but they seem to have dropped down from 5-7 to 3-5 for the early game, makes them much less prone to instantly end a run
– putting priority to get enough mid range recruits (Farmhands, Wildmen, Caravan Guards, etc) with decent armour for a spearwall with 2nd line backup and no ranged combatants is still the easiest way to handle basically everything you actually want to fight early on
– tier 2 and 3 Perks are still close to autopick (Gifted and Underdog)
– For the first ambition getting 12 men is way easier than building enough reputation with a faction
– not sure if its a display bug or not, but surrounded boni don’t seem to apply to with reach weapons at times, need to confirm this, might just be a timing problem and me forgetting about spear’s +20% to hit
– general weapon imbalance, Spearwall and +20% to hit is way stronger than any other weapon early game. Swords are only viable for Brothers you want to clad in armour that is almost too heavy for them or if they are a legendary variant (additional damage and armour pen makes those exceptionally strong)
– superiour numbers matter now, like matter a lot. This is a really good change but 16+ Orcs were already quite hard to deal with. A warlord with 20 warm bodies vs 12 of your guys is a bit of a mess to fight against
– there are still huge gaps in risk/reward when fighting different opponents. Orcs and Goblins stay very unattractive compared to the expected rewards for them
Quality of life wishful thinking:
– I’d really like a slot for secondary weapons that doesn’t eat 4 fatigue when switching to a Dagger
– AI behaviour for humans in a battle after chasing you could be a bit more aggressive
All in all I’m having a blast and can’t wait to get back to play after work.
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