new hero & new flier movecost thoughts

[kenc80]

Quick thread here on the new battle changes - the two big changes to me are obviously the new hero and the new movecost rules for flyers.

New Hero - I like her overall, especially in terrain-y maps like sci-fi & marshland. I dont think I'd like her as much at battlefield or BullRun the big grassy maps. When I first get her I always buy the extra group moves and learning first (same with HorseLord). Still though - I dont think she can get the job done as a "primary" hero. Still more of an accomplice hero than anything else to me. Its great to see warding though - what a cool skill.

Flyers - Wow what a change. At first I was mad because flying strategies are pretty much out the window now. Ghosts use to be really handy but at 20 or 22 moves they can't even keep up with normal move 15 ground stacks on roads. Its a really big change. This really changes my opinion on the griffon particularly. Kind of interesting, I really liked big stacks of GD's, Griffs and ghosts + hero and now these flying stacks are really cumbersome and slow.

The fact that it costs 2 to move into and through city squares is really big. If I were to suggest one balance thing would be to reduce the move cost for fliers in city squares to 1.

All in all though, I think its nice to see ground units get back into the game. I think we'll see much more play from devils and elephants and minotaurs (among others). I never liked devils because obviously they didnt help flying attack stacks but now they are going to be very nice.

I wish the pegasi had another two moves.

All in all, its good to nerf the fliers and get some value back to these ground units.

Thumbs up from me. (no comment yet on simul play as I havent ventured there yet)


Cheers,

Ken

[KGB]

Ken,

I haven't used the Ranger much yet. The couple of times I got her it was just for the 12 UL to search a nearby ruin without needing scouts. Afterwards she died quite easily in combat because she is so frail (this includes attacking a Gryphon neutral with her, an Eagle and 3 scouts which is a place I thought she'd have some value but that stack was only 80%). So to me she is super specialized like the HL and thus below Barb's, Assassins, Pally/DK on my hero list.

The flight changes I really like. The +2 moves seems like a compensation for the loss of road movement rates. In fact I find more than ever that my flying stacks are avoiding roads and are thus much less likely to be detected by opponents who use land units that stick to roads. At the same time early Crow raze tactics are now much harder to pull off (as they should be) thus making MP maps or small 1v1 maps more enjoyable. One thing I keep forgetting to confirm is how a hero stacked with flying units gets charged for moving on roads. He should be paying 1, not 2 like the flier.

KGB

[Zaque]

I actually had a question about that. If you take the hero upgrade that makes a hero always flying does that mean you now use roads at a 2 move instead of the 1 it was before?

[kenc80]

good question, I would think 1

Also - if the flier is over water and with a snake or Kraken - does it pay 1 or 2 while grouped?


KGB - good points about the flying. I agree - its a good change. They were overpowered. I think my new "base" unit is going to be the minotaur. I expect to see more devils & unicorns going forward and the spider really suffers with unicorns around. The mino is a nice buy. Strong with good movement.

That pally change down to +10 max is significant, I wonder if we'll see more DK's in play. I'd be curious to see the percentages on hero selection pre & post the new beta....

[smursh]

I certainly feel the DN is now more useful than the paladin. If I have ghost production to increase my UL he can do all the ruin hunting I need, and the higher max bonus makes him more useful on large maps.

As for the ranger, I agree the main use is for imediate ruin hunting. Later she is only useful to stack with other heroes where the anti-air and warding can be useful.