Fotsvamp

[Fotsvamp]

I agree with alot of what is said here, the fact is that conscripts are way too strong for them to be what they represent i.e. a non-professional soldiers.

Nimble simply puts their survivabilty over the top, this problem is exacerbated by the fact there’s not really any good weapon choices to make to counter nimble unlike battle forged. Battle forged is countered by warhammers or puncuture or even bypassed by maces with high armor ignore, but nothing really lets you go through nimble except maybe bleed or poison but neither of those are viable for killing the large number of conscripts that are in southern forces.

This leads to a situation were fighting southern forces simply is no fun.

[Fotsvamp]

I like putting fearsome on a bowman, use rapid fire and lower the morale on two enemies, of course it still isn’t very effective versus armored foes, but it is really helpful vs bandits and goblins.

[Fotsvamp]

Restarting steam can also help with updates that doesn’t want to start

[Fotsvamp]

Right now I personally consider the wolf rider to be the weakest of all goblin units, a fight vs a pack of them is a straightforward brainless fight, some are going to charge your front line while the rest moves around to try and flank your archers, just be prepared and you can easily take them down.

Low ammo count for throwing weapons would make them charge after 2 turns anyways, and besides nets they would be countered by archers.

Giving them more tools would make the fights more interesting and challenging instead of just being, “oh a goblin army…. Yes! It’s made out of goblin wolf riders, free exp!”

I think every enemy should be a challenge and right now the goblin wolf rider isn’t.

[Fotsvamp]

I personally have no problem dealing with archers in veteran difficulty, but then I run a pretty archer heavy composition myself, usually 4, sometimes as many as 6 ranged characters. Perhaps that is an issue for those with complaints? I simply out-shoot the enemy.

[Fotsvamp]

I also have the same experience, normal dire wolves have overwhelm

[Fotsvamp]

End game I generally aim for as many 2-handers as possible, if I can find recruits with iron lungs I give them mansplitters, otherwise great swords is the preferred weapon, toss in the odd unique great axe that I’ve found.

In a 18 man squad i usually run 10 men with two handed weapons, then the rest is split between skirmishers, archers and officers / polearms, the skrimishers have throwing weapons and shield, to function as a quasi ranged unit where that is beneficial, mostly vs goblins, generally I run 3 pikemen, 2 archers and the rest frontliners with great weapons or the skrimishers to rotate as injuries require.

This functions very well vs any enemy, then you can tailor it vs specific foes, as man archers and skirmishers as possible vs goblins, less archers vs undead etc.

[Fotsvamp]

Scenarios like these would be quite a fun event, +1.

[Fotsvamp]

The change on skeletons is in an upcoming patch, it’s not in game quite yet. Since the current released build is a bit older it does not reflect all the current new features.

[Fotsvamp]

In the endgame (most of the time) I have only characters with two handed weapons in the front line, using your example it would look something like this:

GGGGGGG
PAOAP

P is for a man armed with a pole arm and with perks that promotes inflicting injuries.

This is the setup I run against most foes and on most terrains.

if I’m fighting goblins, armies of orc young or in hilly terrain I usually have a set up like this:

SGGSGGS
PAOAP

Where the men with shields have throwing weapons and spears, that way you can counter the ranged superiority of the goblins, and open up the front lines for an assault, use the throwing weapons to take out goblins with spearwall or nets while the archers take out their archers e.t.c.

In hilly terrain the extra adaptability of having men with throwing weapons makes up for the lower damage, you can hit foes you can’t walk up to and hit many times.

And the spearmen with shields really help vs armies with a lot of orc young or orc berserkers, since the charge can be deflected most of the time, (in the set up I displayed earlier there are only two spots where a charge can end without hitting a spearwall, so only two of your men with great weapons can be stunned as long as your spearmen have high enough melee attack).

Running this style of company relies on having a lot of heavy armors and without a decent supply of scale mails or heavier armor it’s quite susceptible to be overrun by foes.

I find that after the talents and perks update a well built character with coat of scale or coat of plate and a great weapon can easily go toe-to-toe with an orc warrior, and often times take out two or more on their own.

There is one last variation I run against skeletons which is:
GGGGGGGGG
P O P

Early game I find that it’s mostly about making the best of your situation and your setup should reflect that, but I have over several campaigns aimed towards a setup as I have laid out in here and it has worked well on the middle difficulty (not sure what it is called right now).

(Imagine the second rank as centered)

[Fotsvamp]

It would be nice if the combat log could provide more information, and be larger in general. it’s not very eye catching and a neglected piece of the UI, like if you want to know who dealt how much damage during a battle it can be very hard to find out using the log.

Right now it just says “Bandit raider’s head armor was hit for 20 damage” but a message like, “(Battle brother X) dealt 20 damage to Bandit raider’s head armor” would be more useful.

The earlier mentioned change would be a gameplay improvement but the following suggestion would be more for flavor and setting the mood.

And if you want you can add even more flavor to the message by having slightly different messages depending on the attacks. “A devastating blow to the head” could be a used to signalize a head hit or perhaps if an attacks inflicts an injury it could say, “a strong blow to the leg completely pierced the muscles and left a debilitating injury” instead of just X suffers pierced leg muscles.

and if that bold text could have a mouse over tool tip describing exactly what pierced leg muscles did it would be a super useful feature.

[Fotsvamp]

How about “The Free Men” as one of the companies to inspire a banner, They were originally a group of peasant rebels fighting against the oppression of a cruel lord, but when their cause failed to gain support they eventually turned to mercenary work and occasional banditry.

Their banner would have peasantry iconography, maybe crossed pitchforks (scythes or other farm implements turned into weapons), with a bushel of wheat or something similar to represent their origin, and a broken crown to represent their contempt of, and rebellion against authority. The company isn’t really interested in justice as much as rebelling so symbols of justice I think would not be great for their banner.

Probably muted colors, grey, brown and the like would best capture the spirit of this company.

[Fotsvamp]

What I would like to see is the implementation of specialized ammunition E.G, Bodkin arrows vs broad head arrows, they would work slightly different, the bodkin arrows ignoring more armor and the broad head dealing more damage.

This would add some utilitiy to archers and if you’re willing to go a step further you can add more outlandish types of ammunition such as blunt bolts for crossbows (causes stun, deals less damage), Mongolian whistling arrows (which could work something like the fearsome perk) and the classic fire arrows (which surprise! Sets things on fire).

This would not only add another element of strategy to how you want to outfit your ranged characters, it also has some root in real world history, as detailed in this Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrowhead#Variants

Of course there will be some players that try to take advantage of this, a stunning crossbow could be a incredibly powerful tool but to prevent it from being game breaking perhaps quivers could be smaller for them, something like 3 for the more powerful variations and 5 for the less powerful ones. you could stock up your crossbowman with 15 stunning bolts, which would take up the same space as 50 normal bolts on the paper doll and it would drain your over map ammunition supply a lot faster, therefor working as a deterrent to using too many quivers of specialized ammunition.

I’m loving the game thus far and I can’t wait for the end of February update, keep up the great work!

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