Balancing Stacked Cities

[Chazar]

The problem of too strongly defended cities remains. I do not like magian's suggestion either, but there is a problem there.

So I would suggest to allow two-pronged attacks against cities. There is a small UI problem here, but allowing 16 attackers does not seem too much to me. It would also be fun to allow team-mates to attack together with two stacks at once.

[magian]

Two-pronged attacks could work. Something along the lines of DLR's disease/poison could work. Units that can 'support' attacks from adjacent squares might work.

An interesting way of implementing disease might be to afflict a unit with a % chance to fail at whatever it is doing. So, a diseased orc would get a % chance to still fail after a successful ambush check AND a % chance to miss after rolling successful hits in normal combat.

[Chazar]

Something along the lines of DLR's disease/poison could work.

I don't remember how disease/poison worked in DLR, but I am strongly against any battle effects beyond death that last longer than one turn.

No micro-management hell please. If would enjoy sorting out diseased units I would still be playing Dominions3.

[magian]

I never found warlords 3 to suffer too much from micromanagement. Dominions 3, well that game IS micromanagement. In DLR, disease lasted until a unit was blessed (at a temple or with a spell). KGB has suggested that a Warbarons version last a couple of turns.

[tabanli]

One way to balance is to change the rule about the items after a lost battle. If you attack a city and you loose, your items ends up inside the city. However if we change that, them I can attack that city with my prime hero stack and kill as many as possible, but at least I will not loose the items. With good income, you will get L3-L4 heroes but great items are irreplaceable.

I usually encounter stacked cities problem at the Battlefield map, especially after I got the items from the center. My problem with the stacked cities is that they prolong strategically won games. Let's say I control 70% of the cities with all the right units, I have all the good items however my opponent has a high level Assassin and a good Barbarian sitting in a crowded city with all the right bonus. Now it is very hard to pass through that city to reach low def cities and it takes obscene amount of troops to get that city. One way is to use your prime hero stack but it is always risky, since once you expose your hero stack, your opponent may adjust the fight order. With the right fight order an inferior stack would have an edge against a superior stack.

Retreat option will definitely benefit high level heroes and pro-players. Just one more thing to learn for the new comers.