Really like this game but getting frustrated

[unmerged(500205)]

This is a really good game bordering on great. In many ways it's the spiritual successor to the great Age of Wonders series. Indeed, it's sort of Age of Wonders meets Civ5.

Anyway, when going through the initial learning period it was a lot harder than I anticipated, and like Civ5 I struggled a bit and nearly gave up out of frustration. Fortunately though things finally started to click, and I got two wins in a row (with two different factions) on the regular map at normal difficulty. I then proceeded to the 'Great Land' map and got a win straight away with Anna the Benign. I then played another 'Great Lands' game with the Empress faction, and after five tries can't seem to get a win to save my life.

Not sure what's going on, but I do seem to recall what one reviewer said about how it's easy to get in to stalemate situations in the game. In any event this is what's happening to me. It seems I'm falling into an all too familiar pattern: I will do well initially and in some cases even vanquish one of the opposing wizards early on. I then proceed to expand as fast as possible which is the norm with games like this. But then something funny happens about mid game. Even though I had what I thought were large empires, the AI's start to outclass me, both in quality of troops and the strength of their spells. At that point the grind sets in where I either can make no headway against the opponents, or they start pushing me back.

Is there something fundamental to the game (like spell management or the unit tech tree) that I'm not understanding? Is there a 'Warlock for Dummies' on this site? I dunno, I thought spell management was easier in Age of Wonders. Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. This game seems much too cool to give up on out of frustration.

BTW, I had to mention that I think the developers did a good thing not trying to force a 'story' down the player's throat. I remember how although the Age of Wonders games all had very involved stories, to me they seemed largely irrelevant. The best stories in those game came from the exploits of my heroes.

Come to think of it, I always hated the alternate lands (underground and trans-dimensional) in Age of Wonders, and felt they were a pain. Having said that, I always setup Warlock with the minimum number required. Is this a mistake on my part? Also, is there something peculiar to the 'Great Lands' map that makes it more difficult?

 

[Skyhunteren]

Are you remembering to stack perks and buff spells?

If done right you can make extremly deadly units.

 

[unmerged(15561)]

Well if youve managed 2wins then the Beginners Guide wont be of use. The AAR Im leisurely updating isnt wont have got far enough. As youre playing "vanilla" Empress you will be using undead. Undead are my least favourite race to play, though I usually mix my cities races in all my games.

So perhaps you arent getting your mix of units right. Towards the mid-game you should be phasing out lower level units with zero experience and buffing your core high level units with all the upgrades you can cast/maintain and purchase. Furthermore, make sure that you have one or two human./monster cities to get the buildings that have upgrades that undead do not have.

Alternatively since undead are mana heavy, rather than buff up your units, you could summon a host of powerful greater elementals to supplement your forces and perk these up.
If you do this, you will need to focus on upgrading mostly mana producing buildings, while producing enough gold (or capturing it) and only top up food.

Once you have a sizeable and powerful enough force to take one of the alternative realms, focus on one and capture the dragon resources there and produce dragons. Once you have those, victory is guaranteed.... well it should be.

 

[player1 fanatic]

Well, since he plays with minimum number of alternate worlds, conquering the one and putting cities near holy grounds there will pretty much trigger one of the victory conditions (50% of such places claimed)

 

[unmerged(500205)]

Thanks for the replies. There are a couple of things mentioned that got me thinking. For one thing, although the Empress is an expert conjurer, I've been doing this rather infrequently. For another, I take it then several of you think it's a mistake to minimize/ignore the alternate realms?

BTW, in my last game, the capital was undead, but all the rest were human. I did learn in previous games that those tough human advanced infantry like the veterans and halberdiers are great for city assaults, as they have a lot of depth and can take a lot of punishment.

It could also be that I'm not being focused and methodical enough with my unit buff spells, as two of you seemed to imply.

When I think about it (my last game was a case in point), it can be frustrating trying to fight off halberdiers with regular warriors. Having said that, how do you expedite getting advanced units? Is it a function of the right buildings combined with city size? I've been sort of assuming that you get a city to grow fast with a lot of farms. In any event I really think being outclassed by better units was the big reason I gave up on the last game.

Also, is their any rhyme or reason to the spell research availability? They seem to become available randomly, rather than through the usual research tech tree.

BTW, I think Warlock would lend itself very well to a War of the Ring scenario. With the upcoming Hobbit movie, I'm sure it would be wildly popular.

 

[The Apprentice]

The cities of different racial factions get a -20% penalty on resource production. They also grow population much slower. THIS IS HUGE if all of your cities but your capital were human. Horrible handicap.

Halbredears are actually a special resource unit, like Minotaurs or Elves. Any city can build them with the resource.

Population growth is not affected by the number of farms in the city AT ALL. Surplus food doesn't boost growth. The only things that boost growth are two spells, Prosperity and Blessing of Life (one of Agrela's divine spells). This thread should help explain it: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?606961-Mechanics-Behind-Population-Growth. There is also a nifty chart on the second page which shows how detrimental having non-racial cities is for growing your empire.

I've played on Large and Huge Maps mainly, and I will have 2 or MAYBE 3 cities that actually produce combat units. The rest are resource producers- either gold/mana/food/research or were founded to claim a special resource. The non combat cities also produce settlers as needed.

Spell research is basically random as far as anyone can tell. There is a suspicion that some spells are more likely to appear earlier than others (Melee Resistance vs. Summon Fire Elemental), but that is mainly anecdotal. For instance, I have researched Agile Mind in my current game but have yet to be offered the chance to research Eagle Eye.

Re buffing spells- they are the path to greatness in the current incarnation of the game (The AI is supposed to start dispelling buffs the next patch per Ino-Co). For example, flame weapons give a large boost to elemental damage, meaning level 1 Vampires can actually damage elementals. Fervus's regeneration spell heals +15 health/turn. Slap it on a Gold Dragon and laugh as the AI tries to kill it.

Re advanced units- it depends on which ones you want. Do you want Magisters? Get a human city and build a Military Academy (which requires a fair number of per-requisite buildings). Do you want Black Minotaurs? Build a city with a Minotaur cave in its radius AND wait until the City grows to size 10 (then build a special building that is only available at size 10+). Want Elder Vamps? Only build the required buildings to get a Military Academy in an Undead City.

This is probably longer than you wanted. Overall, the key to beating the AI is husbanding your units to a powerful state. Keep them alive so they get XP and level up, buy them all the available perks, and enchant them with buffs. And don't send them on Kamikaze missions.

 

[Skyhunteren]

Spell research is random. Cities don't grow faster with more farms. You just need positive food. Specialise cities. Make some for gold, other for mana etc.

Here is a link to what you need to get certain units:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...ck-Tech-Trees-now-w-printer-friendly-versions

A good choice for "killer units" are either full upgraded trolls, because of their great regen or full upgraded vamps because of their life drain and great elemental resistance and their AoE buff. Upgraded vampires give resistance to all friendly units standing beside them and trolls demolish cities like there is no torrow. Get a couple of each. Let the troll stand in front and the vampire behind him so he give his buff and you have something that destroyes capitals in a few turns.

To get advanced vampires go
Market->bat fort->tax office->vampire mansion->University->military academy (will also enable you to upgraded trolls)

The spell prosperity increase city growth and is awesome. The more you stack perks and magic on the same unit the better it gets.

Edit: and get a biiiiiiig gold income. Biiiiiiig as in huuuuuuge, gigantic and then a bit larger.

 

[Bored Peon]

I find the dracolichs to be more effective than red and gold dragons simply because the dracolichs hit three units, the red dragon hits two in a row, and the gold dragon hits two in a row with a cooldown. The dracolich seems to be far more useful for clearing large groups of units quickly.

 

[soth007]

vampires and elder vampires are probably the strongest 'stock' units in the game. Use them!

If you get a temple with an undead faction, build a temple to krypta and you will get ancient liches, which are the strongest temple unit in the game. Imo the undead faction is the strongest of the 3, due to vampires and liches.

 

[unmerged(500205)]

OK, I think I have a win in progress now. Just got over the 'hump' turning point battle, and in fact it was one of the most exciting gaming moments I've had in a while. I was having a tough fight for my main opponent's capital (on the usual shoestring budget , and while this was happening my patron goddess Krypta materialized an ogre and one of those good priestesses in my rear! Gosh, with friends like that who needs enemies! lol I survived it and took the enemy capital by the narrowest of margins, but that's what I love about this game.

I honestly did not know about that penalty suffered by cities that are not of your starting race. 20% does seem pretty severe. I know I still tempted fate a bit by having mostly human cities, but I seem to have weathered the storm and am now nearly in to the mop up stage of the game. I think the big thing I did differently this time was that I made finding the halbedier and Elven archer resource nodes a priority. Once I was able to start cranking out those two unit types most of my troubles were over. Another thing that really helped was making clearing out some ruins a priority. Not only did this give me control of some holy ground, but also gave me a ghost and zombie unit which helped me survive the dark hours of the game.

Soth007 - Yes, I do have three vampire detachments in my army, though I have yet to recruit elders. I dunno, I tried the Lich king once and didn't have much luck with it. I like the Sisters of Krypta much better. Not only do they kick butt and take names, but their voices are much cooler.

The Empress strategy I've been devising is to crank out the cheap basic undead units early in the game, switch over to halbediers and elves as soon as possible once they become available, then finish the game with the Sisters of Krypta and vampires as the core elite units.

BTW, as far as I'm concerned the jury is still out on the Galleus units. Their offensive power is OK and their mobility is great, but they have a high mana upkeep cost and they seem fragile compared to regular ships.

Anyway, love this game. And thanks everyone for the excellent suggestions. Gosh, I wonder if the 'great one' Sid Meier has seen Warlock???

 

[unmerged(83282)]

I always hated the alternate lands (underground and trans-dimensional) in Age of Wonders, and felt they were a pain. Having said that, I always setup Warlock with the minimum number required.

Is this a mistake on my part?

It could be considered a "mistake" because there is a victory condition assigned to the control of Holy Grounds, and a recent patch has reduced the victory requirement from 100% of HG under control to 50% +1 -- so it has become easier for an enemy to achieve that type of victory. If you only have one alternate land, you have much less HG than if you had six : consequently, with only one alternate land, you risk that your game could abruptly end because an enemy would have achieved the required HG control.

For that reason, I do the opposite of what you do : I set the number of HG to the maximum of six. It is never a victory condition which I seek to achieve, and I do not want to take the risk that an enemy will abruptly end my game by fulfilling that type of victory condition.

I read elsewhere on the forum that the AI enemies do not explore the alternate worlds. To be fair, I do not either. If the AI enemies do not try to obtain very powerful dragons in an alternate land, I consider it an unfair advantage if I "exploit" a human capability which the game's programmers have not incited the AI players to exercise. (My ethical position is based on an assumption concerning the AI's limitations, but I have never encountered an AI enemy which had a type of unit that can only be recruited in an alternate land.)

 

[unmerged(500205)]

So there are sudden death victory conditions associated with the alternate realms? If so I've not yet encountered it. In any event I've been perfecting my Empress strategy and still avoiding having to mess with those realms.

I would add though that in my most recent game, moving in to a certain area above ground netted me a Lich Dragion, and OMG they are so cool. They definitely kick butt and take names. For obvious reasons the Lich Dragon is even better than my beloved Sisters of Krypta.

 

[unmerged(489564)]

It could be considered a "mistake" because there is a victory condition assigned to the control of Holy Grounds, and a recent patch has reduced the victory requirement from 100% of HG under control to 50% +1 -- so it has become easier for an enemy to achieve that type of victory. If you only have one alternate land, you have much less HG than if you had six : consequently, with only one alternate land, you risk that your game could abruptly end because an enemy would have achieved the required HG control.

For that reason, I do the opposite of what you do : I set the number of HG to the maximum of six. It is never a victory condition which I seek to achieve, and I do not want to take the risk that an enemy will abruptly end my game by fulfilling that type of victory condition.

I read elsewhere on the forum that the AI enemies do not explore the alternate worlds. To be fair, I do not either. If the AI enemies do not try to obtain very powerful dragons in an alternate land, I consider it an unfair advantage if I "exploit" a human capability which the game's programmers have not incited the AI players to exercise. (My ethical position is based on an assumption concerning the AI's limitations, but I have never encountered an AI enemy which had a type of unit that can only be recruited in an alternate land.)

The AI can still get red and gold dragons without even going into other worlds. They get summoning spells for red and gold dragons very late in the game.