Hi, In very early stages I stumbled upon this game and immediately my AW memories came back. I always would've liked a more fantasy styled AW game and this game hit the mark. After getting a Nintendo Switch, I finally decided to get it. (I did not play a lot of games on PC anymore, so I had some hesitation in getting it at launch. But the switch's handheld capabilities made deciding a lot easier.) I thoroughly enjoyed the game and with this (rather long :/ ) post I would like to share my experience, thoughts and some ideas. Now that I have finally been able to get 200 stars, I feel confident that I know the ins-and-outs of the game. If you only want to read specific sections, please see the following table of contents: 1. General Experience, a rundown of the games content; 2. Balancing Thoughts, some thoughs/ideas to balance the current state of the game; 3. New units/changes for bigger updates/ DLC; - New units; - Commander passives. 4. Remaining thoughts. Please note that there are some spoilers below, but they appear quite late. 1. General Experience Campaign: Playing through the campaign was quite pleasant. I liked the story and the character backgrounds. Reading the lore afterwards made picturing the world complete. Well done on this part. Gameplay-wise the campaign was very strong as well. Many different objectives (not just taking down the commanders or the strongholds) and the learning curve was well made. The final battle was very interesting, having to battle with just a few commanders. And that the epilogue battle was indoors changed things up as well, which I liked. It was a completely different experience. I do have to say that I would have liked more big scale battles like Act 6 – Mission 2. Puzzle mode: Puzzle mode was lots of fun. It is very technical and all your knowledge about the game is needed. Its only downfall is that there is very little replay value in these. Arcade mode: Arcade mode is decent. I like the story per character, however I dislike the simplicity in the different difficulty settings. Although I can understand that it would be hard to change this so that the difficulty lies in different aspects. Would take a lot more time as well. Then again, I managed to win all maps in the random maps pool, apart from one; The Sunder Sea. I think it’s doable, but all my tries just became too time consuming and I decided to just start over. But for the rest, the double income isn’t that big of an obstacle. Arcade mode does get a little bit boring after a while, because of units being the same for everyone. I played one or two Commanders and then went on and did something else, before trying the next. Commander passives (army differences) would help make Arcade mode more interesting (more on passives later). Map/Campaign editor and online: It’s great to see an editor and a share function in these type of games. People can make the wildest maps and campaigns. I am very impressed with the editor. I haven’t played a lot of online games yet, but it all looks great. I have read some comments from people, so I feel I have a general idea of how it is to play versus people. 2. Balancing thoughts in the game’s current stage Soldiers could be a good counter for Spearmen, so having a small damage buff versus them would be good. Spearmen are quite present at this moment and could be nerfed a bit in general, maybe change price to 200 and the dogs to 150. Dogs could get a small damage nerf if 150 is too low. However, they are better in FoW of course. Wagon is strong, but in my opinion only due to the fact that there are lots of roads. (To many roads for Middle Ages -ish times?). Reducing the amount of roads, or changing roads might help a lot. The Wagon itself can be untouched in that case. Archer feels unused due to price tag. I rarely recruit these over other units. Not sure how to change this, as it might be a personal thing. I do like them when I have some in the army (pre-deployed campaign missions). Naval and air combat actually feels quite balanced. In general I always find myself thinking: “Should I get this extra Dragon, or get 1-2 naval units? Or maybe just get a stronger land presence? The fact I think this all the time shows that the relation between land, air and sea is pretty well done. The only thing I have my doubts about is the critical hit condition for the Dragon. ‘Just’ critting on roads feels weird and the ratio is quite high. I was thinking of shifting the ciritical hit condition to ‘open’ terrain: roads, plains, beaches, sea, deep sea, etc. And then reducing the power of the critical hit. That way you won’t do 200+% to cheap land units, but still kill them and have more use in overall battle, without one-shotting commanders and strongholds (I know it’s 2 shots, but if the enemy can’t kill it within one turn, it will strike again). The relationship between Turtles and Harpoon ships could get some change too. I do not see how at this moment, maybe something movement related. And finally, I think Aeronauts can do with a little buff. +1 movement would help it a lot by being able to dance around mages. Otherwise there are just too many counters for them. Other than that I feel the game is really well balanced, creating very even matches with anyone. The Grooves have just enough impact to make the game more fun, but not enough to consider any of the commanders overpowered. You can play with any commander, without being at an immediate disadvantage. 3. DLC unit ideas/changes I’ve been thinking of a few extras for the game that might be fun to have. Here is a rundown of some units that might be a good inclusion to the game: Land: Healer - New Unit Description: Unit capable of healing. As an action the healer can heal adjacent units. Different units get different amounts of hp. Can attack enemy land units, but is very weak. Critical hit condition and value: Crits against the enemy when is adjacent by two or more friendly units (150%). 'Crits' his/her heal if there is only one friendly unit effected (200%). Heal values: - Sword, Pike, Dog, Merfolk (on land), Mage, Archer, Knight, Aeronaut and Sky Rider by 20% - Commander, Dragon and Giant by 10% - Wagon, Balloon, Ballista and Trebuchet by 5% - Remaining units cannot be healed. Price: 400-500 (a value where approx. 5 heals will make it worthwhile or something) Strategy: A very good all round unit. Useful to have in any land army. Its crit makes sure you can have it as backup for any unit and without its crit it can support a larger army. Having a small dmg value makes it able to defend itself, so that it doesn’t get beat-up by low hp units. Names: Cherrystone – Cleric/Monk Felheim - Medicine Man?/Witch Doctor? Floran - Druid Heavensong - ? Mage - Changes due to Healer Give an area defense boost instead of heal for a full turn. (Small Emeric Groove, with only +2 defence. Small star shape (5 tiles)) Alternatively, just not have an extra bonus at all. Mages are pretty strong and balanced. The healer can replace mages in heal focused scenarios. Battering Ram - New Unit Description: Siege unit that can only attack buildings on or adjacent to land. Very slow moving (+4 wheels based), but quite heavily armed. Ideal unit to take out gates. (Optional) Units can load in, just like a wagon. Critical hit condition and value: Critical hits on gates, for 200%. Alternatively: Critical hits if a unit is loaded. Price: ~700 Strategy: Very strong in siege combat, able to level buildings in no time. However, it is quite slow and has little use in non-siege combat. Its slow movement is offset by having great armor. Names: All - Battering Ram Air: Fairy - New unit Description: Small, weak air unit. Can Capture. Basically the swordsman of the sky. Can attack everything. Critical hit condition and value: Crits when target was already attacked by a fairy this turn for 150%. Gives the ‘swarming’ idea. Price: 200-300 Strategy: Very similar to the swordsman, but is airborne. It has less damage, but makes up for it by being able to attack everything. Strong in numbers. Names: Cherrystone - ? Felheim - Batling Floran - Pixie Heavensong - ? An additional air unit, something in range of beast-like creatures, might be fun addition. Creatures like Griffins, Manticores, Pegasi. They could be strong overall fighters. The dragon could be made more expensive and stronger if needed. More naval units would be cool to. Maybe something that can submerge. DLC/Expansion: Epic Unit - New Adding so called ‘Epic’ units. Every player is limited to one of these and special conditions need to be met before they can actually be summoned/recruited. Cherrystone could have an Archangel, Felheim some dark being, Heavensong a large mechanical colossus-like being and the Floran could have giant moving tree. DLC/Expansion: Commander Passives Adding commander passives to the game could create a more fun experience. However, this will create unbalanced situations and should therefore have a ‘on or off’ functionality in custom games. In the Campaign, Puzzle mode and Arcade mode it can be turned on or off by default. It will definitely make Arcade mode more interesting as there will be an actual difference per commander. Ideas: Mercia: - Good Morale: Units have a chance to move again. - Reinforcements: Reinforcements cost only 80-90%. Emeric: - Battlemages: Emeric and Mages give adjacent units +1 defense. Does not stack. Ceasar: - Best Pets: Dogs and Turtles have 20% more offense and defense. Mercival: - Water Affinity: 10% extra damage when attacking from all water tiles Valder: - Necromancy: Has a chance of raising victims, killed by Valder himself, as follows: 10%: Soldier, Spear, Dog. 5%: Mage, Archer, Knight. Ragna: - Defensive Power: Soldier, Spearmen, Knights and Turtles have 10% more defense. In addition all units gain another extra 10% defense if they were given the ‘wait’ command. This one feels kinda weird since she is quite an aggressive fighter. However, she does only have a shield as a weapon. Sigrid: - Vampirism: Air units have 10% extra damage. Vampires heal or 50% of their damage dealt. Greenfinger: - Nature’s Power: Attack and defense in tree +10%. Nuru: - Advanced Tactics: Spearmen and Archers have +1 movement and +10% attack. Sedge: - Assassins: in FoW, units deal 15% more damage if they were unseen before attacking. Without FoW units deal 15% more damage when attacking from trees or reefs. Tenri: - Tailwind: Air units +1 movement. Units deal 10% extra damage versus air units. Ryota: - Counterstrike: Counterstrikes are 20% more effective. Soldiers always strike first when attacked. Koji: - Juggernauts: Giants, Dragons and Battleships have 20% more defense. - Siege Engineers: +1 movement and 10% extra attack and defense Ballistae, Trebuchet, Giant, Battleship Elodie: - *Name*: Critical strikes have a 3-5% chance to fail versus Elodie’s units. Normal damage will still occur. Dark Mercia: - *Name*: Units have a 3-5% chance to do a critical strike, regardless of the critical hit conditions. 4. Remaining thoughts: The Mercival mini-game: I really liked the idea and it was fun for the first few fishes. But after getting 16/18 fishes, with only the ‘Red Flapper’ and the ‘Starfish’ remaining, the fun came to hard stop. It took me literally 270(+) tries to get the Red Flapper. I tried going for the Red Flapper in a custom map where your Groove was up every turn and it took me 200 turns, before I gave up. And later another 70 or so turns in the same map, before I finally caught it. A few tries after the Red Flapper I got the Starfish as well, but that was expected. This really broke the mini-game for me. I would highly suggest looking into this and make a bit more practical to do. I’m fine with difficult conditions, but just having very bad luck is never fun. Next to that I would suggest to give Mercival an actual Groove, so that he becomes a viable commander. An idea for this could be: Call-To-Arms/For The Kingdom, Mercival inspires his people to grab their weapons and come fight for the kingdom, spawning Soldiers next to each village he owns. (Starting at the top and going clockwise in case spawn locations are obstructed). Thank you for reading all the way through this! If you have any remarks or ideas as well, feel free to reply. Regards, Mus1cbox
It's funny you bring up the fairy, because last night I was thinking about an air unit that could capture buildings. Maybe even have floating villages for air units to fight over. Similar to port villages for naval. That way there's more incentive for air units to do something when they can't do anything else. I really like idea of a cheaper air unit that can capture.
