XP implications on hero behavior

[piranha]

unicorn cancel all terrain bonuses including city terrain and yes KGB those bonuses can not be canceled.

[Pillager]

KGB,

I think that bypassing heavily defended cities (in favor of softer targets) is probably the best strategy.

In my experience spiders are most often used as city defense units...so not allowing city bonuses to be negated would only strengthen the 'strong city garrison' play style.

I think something like a treant would work better than a siege tower. Part of the problem with all of the current siege units is that they have low strength, this makes them ideal targets for sallies. Also, adding them to a stack weakens that army's combat value. A siege unit with some punch (ala treant) wouldn't suffer from those drawbacks. I believe you are right about the speed..14 movement, and wood movement 2 would make it a more versatile unit. +1 stack in forest steps on the wolfrider's toes somewhat though. Maybe 5 turns and +2 stack in forest?

[KGB]

Pillager,

I think something like a treant would work better than a siege tower. Part of the problem with all of the current siege units is that they have low strength, this makes them ideal targets for sallies.

It's not their strength, it's their speed. They move slow and are easy target with faster units like Lt Cavalry. If there was a 3 turn, 1 strength, 24 move, -1 wall negating siege unit I'd make it over either the current Ram or Catapult simply because of the movement.

+1 stack in forest steps on the wolfrider's toes somewhat though. Maybe 5 turns and +2 stack in forest?

If the Treant was added it would be easy to just change the Wolfrider to give a +1 stack bonus in the swamp instead.

KGB

[Moonknight]

Will there be any differences in Beta4 with the hero experience and leveling up? I only ask b/c I'm still trying to figure out the best combinations of leveling up between my heroes in play.

I'm starting to see that increasing Command seems to be a smart play, but I haven't tried to the critical attack route, which seems like it could also be dangerous long-term.

Anyways, I don't want to research too much now if everything is going to change in Beta4

[kenc80]

Yeah I'm curious too. Maybe that is why the unit/bonus warpedia is not up. Ive basically been using this thread as my guide to units/terrain/bonuses!

[piranha]

Not sure about changes yet.
Have anyone tried the critical route yet?

[KGB]

Nope.

But then in all my Beta3 games I have only twice had a hero reach level 7 and by the time they did the game was over anyway. In 95% of my games I've won by the time I have even one 5th level hero.

At some point I'll go that route if I can get a game that lasts long enough.

KGB

[Pillager]

Yes, heroes have taken a big hit in beta 3, and I don't think that was needed (or called for).

[kenc80]

yeah I agree pillager, heroes are really powered down. I mean, basically the first three or so levels dont do anything for anyone as you are saving up for the first command bonus of 35. I was talking to KGB in a game and basically we're just using Heroes to get gold and the allies that come with them at this point. Its a big debate right now for me whether to even buy heroes or just buy super allies with the coin. Maybe when they have items they will have a bigger impact.

Let me be clear that I'm not suggesting the hero system should be scrapped, I like the choices. I wish the amazon had one or two more walk points & I would really consider her occasionally. Same with paladin. Right now the +1 darkknight is pretty tough to ignore.

[KGB]

I personally don't always save for the +1 command at 35 points because I don't want to wait till L5.

Since I am using a LOT of Dreadknights and I can get an extra +1 bonus when attacking I've found it's often better to just extend the movement of the Dreadknight at L1-4 so that he moves 16+ and is therefore attacking more often.

But yeah, the +1 command bonus at 35 points is a tad high right now. 25 points or L4 would have been fine with 5 pts left to spend on something else.

If would help if the XP for searching ruins/conquering neutrals was more than it is so that 90% of XP didn't come from large battles. Also in Beta4 I expect quests to generate a fair bit of XP, at least on par with winning a fairly decent battle for easy quests and large amounts of XP for medium type quests.

KGB