Forum Overview :: Reviews :: Superior tactical combat?

[quote name="Mischief Maker"][quote name="fabio"]It's mostly the same problem I had with Warlock, Fallen Enchantress, and every other MoM clone I've ever tried: there's so little easily available information on why I would want to build X over Y. In AoW3's case, it's offering the exact same experience as a Heroes of Might & Magic game but with a ton of obtuse bullshit clouding things up. I'm wondering why I just don't go play HoMM 3.[/quote] I completely agree that the tutorials for this game suck and its in-game encyclopedia is so poorly organized it's next-to-useless. I've had to spend a fair amount of time with online guides myself. However, I think the tactical battles are better than HOMM3 thanks to things like the flanking system and the more obstacle-cluttered tactical maps that allow for position play. I recently had the satisfaction of taking down a Tier-4 bone dragon with superior numbers of tier 1 & 2 troops using this system. If you're interested, here's some info on picking units to build (and other random shiznit): There are 4 Tiers of units that come from 3 sources: Racial units that just require recruitment buildings, Summoned units that must be researched, and Class units that require recruitment buildings AND must be researched. The racial units vary slightly in stats and perks between the races, but are fundamentally similar. Tier 1 units include Swordsmen (melee specialists) archers (ranged specialists) pikemen (anti-cavalry defense specialists) and irregulars (jack of all trades, master of none, but they're the cheapest). Tier 2 units include Cavalry (Fast-moving melee with bonus damage for charging) and Support (Magic ranged attackers with buff and/or debuff powers) Tier 3 units are individual to each race, but generally are super-cavalry. Summoned and Class units are much more varied and specialized, too much for me to list them all here, but in general the tier-1 summoned units are meant for scouting. There are certain researchable empire upgrades that can make certain types of units way more useful and powerful than their base level. Because of the flanking system, it's far more important to have a full stack than a partial stack of high-level units. The way flanking works, if a unit is hit by an attack from any of the rear 3 hexes, they take full damage from the attack, lose an action point next round, and turn to face the flanker, potentially exposing themselves to another flank attack. This allows even the strongest of units to get stunlocked into oblivion by lowly irregulars if they're outnumbered. Also, when battle begins, every stack adjacent to the defender's hex participates in the combat, so you can try things like split up your stack to surround the enemy on the world map and gain a tactical advantage. Heroes start out slightly stronger than a Tier-2 cavalry in terms of combat power, but they can learn skills from level ups and collect (or forge) magic items that will eventually turn them into an unholy terror on the battlefield. However, multi-hero stacks are inefficient because only one hero can cast a spell per round and whole-stack-benefiting skills only activate if that hero is in the lead. One huge improvement over HOMM and the previous AoW games is that any unoccupied resource building within the doman of a city will be automatically harvested, so no worries about neutrals or hostile players crippling your economy by "tagging" structures. What's more, now every type of map structure provides <I>some</I> sort of benefit when in-domain (Hasteberries give their city a production benefit, for example). Also worth noting, not only do forts quickly and cheaply create a bubble of domain to start harvesting resources from distant sources, but if you have a settler create a new city inside the fort, the new city will automatically inherit the old fort's walls for a huge savings in development time. I bought the expansion and while I like all the smaller new features it brings, the hobbits annoy the shit out of me because they bring back the RNG saying "fuck you, you missed" with their luck mechanic.[/quote]