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Aotrs Commander

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Apr 15, 2016
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Before I resume banging my head against the wall, I feel I need to check if I'm not doing something fundementally entirely wrong in my approach.

I'm playing on Low difficulty by-the-by, in apparent absense of a "Patronisingly Easy Difficulty for Babies" difficulty setting.

I played in 2019, before giving up partyi in frustration, partly because I somehow after completeing the Vanguard missions instead if progression to the Kir'ko ended up starting a new campaign (which would have forced me to go back and do all the Vanguard missions again, which I culdn't cope with). I have this time picked up where I left off, I finished the Kir'ko campaign, re-did the Vanguard one, muddled through the D'var but as on Amazon, Syndicate and Assembly, I have been finding it harder and harder and increasingly ended up relyin on the cheats to get through. (See previous thread...)

(Aside: Allow me to just take a moment to genuinely and whole-heartedly thank Triumph for actually HAVING cheats still, in a time when that has more or less Stopped Being A Thing, since without them, I would have had to rage-quit completely.)

I can only conclude that Bad At Video Games as I am, I must clearly be doing something fundementally wrong.

Basially, it all seems to fall apart at the point the AI declares war on me, since it does so and shows up with several doomstacks which, if I'm lucky, I might just out-number/score if I have my entire fielded army on hand in defence (which I never do).



So, let me go through what I've been doing, and you can hopefully tell me what I'm doing catastrophically wrongly (or else we'll know tha I'm just Bad At Games and might as well leacve the cheats on (since I'm GOING to finish the campaign, as ticking unfinished games off my checklist is the only thing that passes for an escape at the moment).



So, I start out Veteran, Kleptomaniac (as the least bad flaw, it's basically only the cost of a tier II unit upkeep), and mixing it up between APC (and the database one) or extra troops (and a gun).

I begin by sending out both starting scouts (plus shortly one more) on auto-explore to gather pick-ups, since they do so way more efficiently tha I do. I begin sending my starting stack around, clearing marauders, getting a second colony out fairly quickly if I can. I also start doing the objectives that are close by (including accepting timed quests from the NPC factions), and gathering units from thr rewards, which are a mixed bag, but often from the main quest/side quests (as opposed to faction quests) highter tier unit than I can produce at the start.

The problem I am finding it (especially with the Amazons and the Assembly) is that I very quickly find my energy income tanks due to the units, preventing me from... Well, doing much (such as expanding or recruiting heroes). So I seem to be expanding about as fast as the AI most of the time. By the time I am making any reasonable headway, my two or three stacks traipsing around the map clearing/qusting is the point the AI inevitably seems to declare war (around maybe turn 45-ish in the first Assembly mission?) and thus well out of position is the point at which the aforementioned doomstacks turn up.

Assembly 1 was particularly bad, since the first sidequest objectives involved attacking the spacers and thus ensuring the destruction of all my scouts, because of the aforementioned tanking of economy making getting the 150 energy for peace afterwards difficult.

(Can I just say that the defenders not being able to retreat feels awful, since it ensures that scouts are fundementally auto-killed by any hostiles. I only dimly remember AoW III (I played about 80 hours of that, rage-quitting when I discovered that the final mission of the elf anf human campaign was basically the same), but I have a recollection that wasn't the case there and you were able to avoid enemies and do a runner... But maybe I'm thinking of Fallen Enchantress or something.)

So. What am I doing wrong?

Should I not try doing ANY objectives until I've got 4, 6, 8 or 10 cities on the map and have manufactured (rather than smei-randomly recruited) about three stacks worth of troops to stand guard while one or two stacks then start doing the objectives? (Assuming then, that the unit rewards for quests are really something of a newbie trap, rather than to enable you to progress?)

Is it intended that I must become sufficiently proficient at the tactical combat that I should be able to routinely beat AI stacks more powerful and/or numerous than mine? As I usually find I get better results using auto-resolve.

(And I'm going to make myself unpopular here, but I am not fond of the tactical combat, basically due to the deployment (especially the seperation of multiple stacks) and the fact the AI seems to move so it ALWAYS gets the first attacks in whatever I do; to the point I can't bring myself to fight battles with more than one stack. (except for the sieges in AoW III, where I could actyually have time to draw up my troops into a deployed fashion before attacking, but which also got tiresome after a while).)

Should I just NOT send out scouts early on?

Should I be making use of frontier outposts with the intention of them being extra orbital relays later on?

Residential exploitations are clearly something that didn't exist previously when I played - I now gather that I should be using them to get up to six sectors (and/or extend beyond 2 sectors from the base)form, but what are the subtleties?

Should my first exploitation always be Food (instead of whatever seems best suited to the underlying terrain, like I have been doing), even it's only possibly to get level 1?

Is there some other fundementally obvious thing that I'm missing or mistake I'm making?

Suggestions/observations would be appreciated.
 
Here is some guessworking on what could help (really I don't know very well either)

By the time I am making any reasonable headway, my two or three stacks traipsing around the map clearing/qusting is the point the AI inevitably seems to declare war (around maybe turn 45-ish in the first Assembly mission?) and thus well out of position is the point at which the aforementioned doomstacks turn up
By turn 45 it is maybe worth having 2-3 stacks joined to attack your enemy and only 1 stack "traipsing around" doing clearing and defensive duties. AoW typically rewards aggressive play - it's much more comfortable to be the attacker than the defender

The problem I am finding it (especially with the Amazons and the Assembly) is that I very quickly find my energy income tanks due to the units, preventing me from... Well, doing much (such as expanding or recruiting heroes)
I know that sounds stupid but try not to, if you run into energy troubles build more energy sectors. Energy is THE resource in planetfall without it you can't do much. I'm not sure which of those things you already do but beside more energy sectors and less units here are more ways to make sure you are doing fine with energy
  • Have a few cities with energy sectors on produce energy and put as many pops into the energy slots as possible
  • Prevent the AI from using operations in easy autocombats (there is this little box to tick/untick in the battle preview)
  • Don't upgrade these military buildings higher than necessary (they cost upkeep!)
  • Make sure to cancel operations that continuosly cost upkeep, once you don't need them anymore (e.g. defensive operations in cities or sensor stations)
  • You can typically sell quest rewards for energy, there really is no shame in doing that (and you still get the influence)

Is it intended that I must become sufficiently proficient at the tactical combat that I should be able to routinely beat AI stacks more powerful and/or numerous than mine? As I usually find I get better results using auto-resolve.
This will certainly help a great deal, also practicing manual combat will help you to figure out good mod combinations and as you already wrote - tactical combat is one of the biggest features of Age of Wonders.
Alternatively you can just become good at predicting how good the AI will do and only take fights in which the autocombat doesn't loose units.
Really this is probably the most important point: Try only to take fights that will not loose you units against independents and ideally also against the AI opponent.


Should I not try doing ANY objectives until I've got 4, 6, 8 or 10 cities on the map and have manufactured (rather than smei-randomly recruited) about three stacks worth of troops to stand guard while one or two stacks then start doing the objectives?
This is a bad idea - Don't have large parts of your armies idling around they just cost upkeep, your armies should be active as much as possible clearing sites or doing quests (both give resources). Try to utilize your armies as effective as possible while loosing as few troops as possible (aka 0, loosing units at all should be an exception) each turn.

Hope that helps - Good luck :)
 
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From the sounds of it, no, I have not really been doing anything terribly wrong.

Here is some guessworking on what could help (really I don't know very well either)

  • Prevent the AI from using operations in easy autocombats (there is this little box to tick/untick in the battle preview)
  • Don't upgrade these military buildings higher than necessary (they cost upkeep!)
  • You can typically sell quest rewards for energy, there really is no shame in doing that (and you still get the influence)

Didn't realise the first two (that box is rather small in the autoresolve screen and easily missed), so that's a start, ta.

Was selling some of the gear after he fact, but it looks like you get more pennies from doing it then sometimes (if, like, it's not giving you something useful in resources like food or something) so I did do a bit more.

Really this is probably the most important point: Try only to take fights that will not loose you units against independents and ideally also against the AI opponent.

Was doin' that already (reloading if stuff died on autresolve). The only time I let some units die was when I was most struggling the energy.

It just sounds like you aren't considering whether you have the energy income for upkeep costs when you decide to build more troops.

I wasn't building troops, pretty much at all (until the late game), just getting them from quest rewards.



I ran through the rest of Assembly 1 with the cheat mode on; kind of relaxing to see the AI splattering itself on my scouts on occasion. I picked up a load of prospectots from finds, so I ended up prospecting, like, the entire map (while waiting to integrate the Autonoms for that one victory condition). Also gave me finally chance to get up to the top of the tech tree and get into the future techs and see what was there.

Funnily enough, when I got to the next mission (cheat back off), the fact it basically locked you on a continent surrounded by lava made it much easier. Swimming in energy, in fact. I knobbled the AI that attacked me that was on the same island early on mostly with heroes and starting units (since it attacked early); parked units on the teleporters to seel off everyone else and have very carefully build all my forces up. More missions like that would have been nice, where I can just take my time... (One enemy air assault, which mostly killed itself, which I then defeated with one unit.)
 
I begin by sending out both starting scouts (plus shortly one more) on auto-explore to gather pick-ups, since they do so way more efficiently tha I do. I begin sending my starting stack around, clearing marauders, getting a second colony out fairly quickly if I can. I also start doing the objectives that are close by (including accepting timed quests from the NPC factions), and gathering units from thr rewards, which are a mixed bag, but often from the main quest/side quests (as opposed to faction quests) highter tier unit than I can produce at the start.

The problem I am finding it (especially with the Amazons and the Assembly) is that I very quickly find my energy income tanks due to the units

found the problem op you need more early cities than that
 
i try to have out 2 colonizers asap, literally only build the central building and maybe a scout before that. set all your workers to food from game start so you have the pop to do this. 2 colonizers + grabbing 1 indie city = you have 4 cities before turn 10, and 3 of them probably have energy central buildings. this is what i do for MP, SP i believe going 3 colonizers start is the optimal opening

actually good general tip: always max out food pops on new cities. get to 4 pop asap for the sector to exploit to increase income. ideally try to find sectors you can turn into energy sectors, especially since you're having trouble managing your energy.

make sure you're grabbing up cosmite nodes asap too

(Can I just say that the defenders not being able to retreat feels awful, since it ensures that scouts are fundementally auto-killed by any hostiles. I only dimly remember AoW III (I played about 80 hours of that, rage-quitting when I discovered that the final mission of the elf anf human campaign was basically the same), but I have a recollection that wasn't the case there and you were able to avoid enemies and do a runner... But maybe I'm thinking of Fallen Enchantress or something.)
this is how it worked in aow3. if no unit takes damage for 5 turns that forces the attackers to retreat though, sometimes you can pull some shenanigans with scouts against the right stacks

Is it intended that I must become sufficiently proficient at the tactical combat that I should be able to routinely beat AI stacks more powerful and/or numerous than mine? As I usually find I get better results using auto-resolve.
yeah you should at least be doing better than autobattle

(And I'm going to make myself unpopular here, but I am not fond of the tactical combat, basically due to the deployment (especially the seperation of multiple stacks) and the fact the AI seems to move so it ALWAYS gets the first attacks in whatever I do; to the point I can't bring myself to fight battles with more than one stack. (except for the sieges in AoW III, where I could actyually have time to draw up my troops into a deployed fashion before attacking, but which also got tiresome after a while).)
i don't know how you manage to get first striked by the ai in every engagement i'll be honest with you

Should my first exploitation always be Food (instead of whatever seems best suited to the underlying terrain, like I have been doing), even it's only possibly to get level 1?
this is a terrible idea. food is... tricky, but in general you can safely consider a food exploitation to be inferior to any other exploitation type. that bioengineered food plant specialization is such an absurd amount of food that it changes things, but i'd recommend starting out with an "i'm going to not build food sectors this game" mindset, and then once you get a little more comfortable with the game you can maybe start seeing when it's a good idea to go for a food sector and when it isn't. energy and research sectors are always good and production sectors are only good to have in your small handful of production cities (for a while this is going to mean "just your capital" and it's not entirely necessary there either)

generally speaking food is good because it gets you more pop, which give a small amount of resources but also unlock more sectors. if you give up your first sector for food, you're giving up resources now to have more resources later, but food costs increase as pop count increase so it will be a very long time before that's actually paid off. meanwhile, an early energy sector will let you build more early units, which will let you conquer someone else's city and have more resources anyways because 2 cities > 1 city

More missions like that would have been nice, where I can just take my time... (One enemy air assault, which mostly killed itself, which I then defeated with one unit.)
this might be an important disconnect here too. aow isn't generally a series where you can "take your time," playing simcity with the map is a good way to get crushed. you will improve your economy most effectively and quickly by conquering enemy territory. the AI has a faster growing economy than you otherwise unless you're really good at simcity, so eating a neighbor asap is really more the mindset you should be in
 
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i try to have out 2 colonizers asap, literally only build the central building and maybe a scout before that. set all your workers to food from game start so you have the pop to do this. 2 colonizers + grabbing 1 indie city = you have 4 cities before turn 10, and 3 of them probably have energy central buildings. this is what i do for MP, SP i believe going 3 colonizers start is the optimal opening

Only ever play single player (and campaigns at that), but I'll bear that in mind. I usually get up the replicator, 3rd scout and then a coloniser, so again, I'm clearly not doing terribly wrong.

actually good general tip: always max out food pops on new cities. get to 4 pop asap for the sector to exploit to increase income. ideally try to find sectors you can turn into energy sectors, especially since you're having trouble managing your energy.

Noted.


yeah you should at least be doing better than autobattle


i don't know how you manage to get first striked by the ai in every engagement i'll be honest with you

It goes something like this. AI moves and stops. I move, into cover, do overwatch etc. The AI then moves into attack range (I don't even get how some times it seems to have longer ranged weapons than me (in the early game) so it can blast my overwatchers, but... RNG has always hated me, which is why I hate it back). If I stay still the first bound, the AI sits and twiddles it's thumbs unless you deal damage to it (which I remember happening in AoW III too) until you again move forward (since it will always seem to make sure it is JUST out of range for one bit of movement).


this is a terrible idea. food is... tricky, but in general you can safely consider a food exploitation to be inferior to any other exploitation type. that bioengineered food plant specialization is such an absurd amount of food that it changes things, but i'd recommend starting out with an "i'm going to not build food sectors this game" mindset, and then once you get a little more comfortable with the game you can maybe start seeing when it's a good idea to go for a food sector and when it isn't. energy and research sectors are always good and production sectors are only good to have in your small handful of production cities (for a while this is going to mean "just your capital" and it's not entirely necessary there either)

generally speaking food is good because it gets you more pop, which give a small amount of resources but also unlock more sectors. if you give up your first sector for food, you're giving up resources now to have more resources later, but food costs increase as pop count increase so it will be a very long time before that's actually paid off. meanwhile, an early energy sector will let you build more early units, which will let you conquer someone else's city and have more resources anyways because 2 cities > 1 city

Okay, good; again, I haven't been doing that, I've generaly gone with whatever exploitation is the highest in a sector. (Actually, that might explain why I struggled with the Amazons though, since for some reason, a lot of the early maps tend towards near mono-terrain and there's was mostly just forest).

this might be an important disconnect here too. aow isn't generally a series where you can "take your time," playing simcity with the map is a good way to get crushed. you will improve your economy most effectively and quickly by conquering enemy territory. the AI has a faster growing economy than you otherwise unless you're really good at simcity, so eating a neighbor asap is really more the mindset you should be in

When AoW III was sold to me (by forum personages of my acquiantence), it was "it's like Civ or Legendary Enchantress and stuff." Which is perhaps why I have had a very ambivilent relationships with it and Planetfall, I think. I simply don't like being force to rush things. Actual time limits, in fact, are among the fastest ways to get me to stop playing something in frustration (Which is why I've never really gone back to play either of the Starcrafts, for example, if of a slightly different genre. I played through SC1's main camapign once, then before 2 came out through it and expansions, but using resource cheats, because it was just too much like hard work for entertainment. SC2's pesudo-timed missions were just barely on the doable side of my comfort zone and the campaigns were prety good, but they were so much effort I've never wanted to replay them, unlikes, say C&C.) If I wasn't ticking boxes off, I probably wouldn't have gone back to Planetfall to be honest, as I could never quite twig what was up with it. The above, perhaps, might be the most indicative thing that's been said; and with it said, once I've gotten to the bitter end of the campaign (and MAYBE the expansion campaigns), I'll probably leave it there. (Also had given me some serious consideration as to whether I will consider going back to Aow III's expansions, which I never finished or just leave it.)
 
I believe first food sector is optimal unless you play very short games on small maps. You will reach size 8 very fast and nothing is lost because your 4-8 population worked on research/energy anyway. If nobody worked on food and you don't have food sector, you will reach size 8 too late (I tried it several times to be sure). So either 3-5 of your workers work on food or your first sector is food, which is roughly the same thing (+20 food). Every colony must have 1 food sector as either first or second, otherwise you will never reach size 12. That 50% growth discount and -2 food per colonists allow amazing results like multiple colonies with 6 sectors on turn 50.
 
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It goes something like this. AI moves and stops. I move, into cover, do overwatch etc. The AI then moves into attack range (I don't even get how some times it seems to have longer ranged weapons than me (in the early game) so it can blast my overwatchers, but... RNG has always hated me, which is why I hate it back). If I stay still the first bound, the AI sits and twiddles it's thumbs unless you deal damage to it (which I remember happening in AoW III too) until you again move forward (since it will always seem to make sure it is JUST out of range for one bit of movement).
overwatch range is 1 less than the normal range of a weapon, so at range 7 your overwatch only extends out 6 hexes (and even then, moving into that hex 6 out doesn't trigger overwatch - the unit has to either move again or take an action). you need to position yourself so that your overwatches force the AI into taking poor shots at your units (allowing you to move up and take good shots on their units the following turn). keep in mind that if your units are behind cover, enemy fire against them is much less accurate, and also that if a unit has 7 range while that means they can technically fire on an enemy 7 hexes away, they are taking accuracy penalties to do so. also keep in mind that moving reduces your action points, which for repeating attacks reduces the damage that unit can make. it's generally advantageous to set yourself up so that you are the first one to be attacked - but by attacks of no consequence (enemy spent all their action points moving into range, and are taking shots with high accuracy penalties), which then puts you in a good position to return fire very effectively (now the enemy is closer to you and you get move to take even better shots).

if you want to be the one taking the first strike you just need to check enemy movement ranges and position yourself so they can't move up to hit you, but next turn you can move up and hit them. this is a great way to go about things if you outrange them, say if you have a sniper.

it definitely sounds like "the ai always out positions me unfairly" isn't the issue here though - indeed, usually the ai will not move aggressively towards you until after you've caused damage to it (or are inside its attack range without them having to move their units), so you generally have plenty of time to get all your ducks in a row as to how you want to position despite the preset stack deployment.




in general it sounds like you're probably making a lot of "micro" mistakes. there's probably a lot of individual decisions you are making poor choices in, but broad high-level you have the right general idea. if you wanted, you could go into detail on your actions in the first few turns of a new game and we could see if that exposes any clear mistakes. if i had to point to anything though, it sounds like you're really struggling in the tactical combat and that's kind fo the lifeblood of the series - AoW is less a 4x and more a wargame with a 4x skin over it, there's a huge emphasis on the "eXterminate" X here and that's the kind of mindset you need to be playing to
 
overwatch range is 1 less than the normal range of a weapon

You.

What.

THAT'S a piece of information it didn't say, like, anywhere, and that's... KIND of important. Well, no fracking WONDER I get getting all shot-up like.



in general it sounds like you're probably making a lot of "micro" mistakes. there's probably a lot of individual decisions you are making poor choices in, but broad high-level you have the right general idea. if you wanted, you could go into detail on your actions in the first few turns of a new game and we could see if that exposes any clear mistakes. if i had to point to anything though, it sounds like you're really struggling in the tactical combat and that's kind fo the lifeblood of the series - AoW is less a 4x and more a wargame with a 4x skin over it, there's a huge emphasis on the "eXterminate" X here and that's the kind of mindset you need to be playing to

Yeah, and I think the problem be simply be down to inherently that I just don't really like the tactical combat. Oh, don't get me wrong (begore lockdown destroyed everything) I am fundementally a wargamer and I even like the general IDEA of having tactical combats (rather than just Civ or PDX GSG stacks fighting); but I just don't like AoW's particular brand of it for whatever reason. I think, as I say, in some part it comes from the lack of ability to sort out my own deployment, something that in (the sort of niche tabletop wargame I play) is, like, maybe not half the game, but a good chunk of it. Combined with the scale that feels a little too small (to me) in some respects and too big in others... Yeah, I just don't get on with it, I fear.

(A good chunk of my playtime of AoW III left me asking myself "why I am not playing Legendary Enchantress," with I recalled not having quite the same difficulties with; though when I actualy revisited it, it didn't fare much better in truth.)

On the other hand, I have more logged hours on HBS BattleTech than with nay other game I have logged time on (though even that's only 600 hours - through granted, if the mod I'd been using had not changed direction away from what I wanted to play, I'd have probably even more. And I have played through (the new) X-Com 1 and 2* fully twice (which is more than I play most games) and I'll likely even play them again at some point; and it's a very select company of games I play more than twice.)

So I don't know what to say, really, other than AoW's combat just... Doesn't quite gel with me. Bit of metaphorical uncanny valley with my expectations, maybe?

Still, I've at least learned a few points that'll help me muddle through the end of the campaign(s) at least, so thanks, folks.



*This may explain why in both Planetfall and Dungeons of Naheulbeuk that I also played recently both have caused a lot of frustation over why overwatch is, like, not doing what I expect it to. (Added to the fact that the main non-starship game I play is also all about setting up reactions - it doesn't have overwatch as such, since the ability to react to the enemy is, like inherent, rather than an action you take. (That game is fundementally a Real (tank) Tactics Simulator, which I have occasionally likened to the tabletop equivalent of metaphorically playing a PDX GSG at max difficulty with ironman and such on - it is emphatically not everyone's cup of tea (I play TT for entirely different - and opposite reasons - that I play computer games. And as usual, those are direct contraventions to the reasons everyone else plays TT and computer games...)
 
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yeah man i can't really talk you through not liking the combat. personally i think it's the best of any strategy game i've ever played (certainly better than endless legend's awful combat, and i like it a lot more than games much more combat focused like xcom), but i don't think there's any big epiphany i can provide to make you enjoy it. if you have any further questions though i (and anyone else reading this thread) can certainly provide answers though

i think my biggest advice would be to start checking enemy movement and attack ranges religiously and planning your positioning around that. positioning matters a ton in aow combat
 
I am not sure what you mean about deployment. You select which units to bring into the fight and your units are not attacked on first turn (by AI) so you always can reposition them before actually fighting.
 
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If you struggle on low difficulties and use autocombat - I really don't think your skill in manual combat is the problem... That the combat is generally considered one of the strength of the series has been mentioned often enough already (it is of course true). But it really is possible without problems to play and win against the AI only using autocombat on lower difficulties.
Also
in apparent absense of a "Patronisingly Easy Difficulty for Babies" difficulty setting.
Go to "new planet" and choose "Practice world", this should be what you are looking for
practice-world.PNG


Still from what you write it sounds very much like you already have a good grasp on the game mechanics and I really can't guess what is ultimately the reason you struggle so hard. Probably the best would be to just upload a savegame file from turn 5,10,20 and 40 and hope Ninjew or someone else is nice enough to check on them (I might, but I don't want to give promises I might not keep)

Good luck
 
Okay, I haven't really read through all, but you mentioned to have energy issues, right?
First of all I will mention that I am a very passive player that focuses on single strong armies instead of spamming troops. Still, I even I do get deficit now and then - the easiest way to get away with them is though combat.
A lot of times you can get artis or straight up loot you can sell (needs to be some form of camp/building), and if you get an out-of-way sector by conquering a landmark? You don't plan on settling near it? Just trade with an AI. Landmarks are very valuable to them, so getting +200 energy for 10 turns isn't that utopic and easily doable with a silver landmark.
Additionally, there are some doctrines that help to either reduce the upkeep cost, generate more energy in cities or getting energy when killing units in battle.
Finally, you are aware that you can micro your population in cities, right? So, if you have a slight energy deficit, you may want to re-assign your pops to produce more energy. Also note that you tend to want Residential Districts as the 4th and 5th sector, since they increase the ouput of your slots.
 
Here are some tips that have really increased my win-rate against higher difficulty AI opponents:

  • AoW games are all about military conquest. Think of these games as having similarity to the Heroes of Might and Magic series, but with more involved tactical combat, and you'll get the right idea. This means that you should try to be more aggressive and opportunistic with your armies. Always try to keep your armies "busy" as that tends to get you more rewards (new cities, new resources, etc).

  • The typical game should end around turn 70-100. If you're going over that turn counter, you're more likely to run into AI opponents with huge resource pools that will stomp you. Try to expand aggressively and push towards an end-game solution (conquest or superpower) before you reach these turns.
  • Try to expand at least once every 10 turns. Preferably the second item you "build" in your starting city should be a colonizer unit. Settle within the minimum distance to your starting city (this enables you to defend the new city more easily with your starting armies) and plan out your third colony within the next few turns.

  • You need to balance your armies with good compositions of tiers 1,2 and 3. Even later in the game, you will want to construct tier 1 units. Why? They are cheaper and have good cost to benefit ratios. They're not exactly cannon fodder either, as you can mod tier 1 units to relative parity with tier 2 and even 3 units! Their per-turn energy costs are super low, and give you more power projection without really wrecking your budget. Note that tier 1 units have the least resistance to status effects, so they're more easily controlled by tactical ops or mod abilities, so you do want tier 2 or 3 support units to mitigate this downside. Tier 4 units should be built sparingly, but serve a good support role.

  • Once you get good at tactical combat, a stack with a power rating of ~1000 - 1200 strength can handle most NPC visitation sites with tactical operations usage. The rewards from these sites are quite nice! Don't be afraid to escape either -- units don't respawn in visitation sites so you can whittle them down through attrition over time.

  • Try to use approximately 50% of your city production to produce military units per turn. Consider this an aspiration rather than a requirement, as you may need to build up infrastructure each turn. You need a strong military at all times!

  • Scouting units are useful. Try to scout and gather information while you can! Naval units are more effective than embarked units in nearly all cases.

  • Finally, build your cities close to cosmite deposits, and especially towards coastal deposits. Two coastal cosmite deposits (+8 each) provide more resources than three land based deposits (+5 each).
 
*sigh*

Okay. So I did the final mission. Actually, aside from turning on iamgod for a couple of early random battles where I well out-numbered the enemy but the fixed RNG ( I HATE the fixed RNG) decided I lost that could NOT be arsed to fight, I must have got luckt, since it was kiind o9f easy. (I mean, I had no idea what I was doing on the way through, but I think it was something like 6/6/2 or something.

I did follow all of your advice and try rush-expanding much faster, but of course RNG hates me always, so I was never near any enemies to quickly grab (though I did get marginally lucky in ne thing being a settlement.

I actually barely had to do anything, as Carmilla wiped out the neutrals and my allies took out 5/6 of the enemies with no help from me.

Yay. That was, even, pretty fun, or at least as much fun as I can derive from anything these days.



So, I thought I'd go for the other campaigns, to tick the box. Got through the first Revelations missions. I HAAAATE the fixed RNG, which is EVEN WORSE on the archeology (and thus taking all the fun out of what should have been a cool new feature), so again, I got fracked off enough to turn iamgod back on.

(You may at this point wonder why I'm even bothering and the short answer is, aside from ticking boxes by completing games regardless I literally, literally have nothing whatsoever better to do. And my patience is at more-or-less an all-time low, since one of my mates I've known for twenty years abruptly died on Friday at the stupidly young age of 36 or so (no, not Covid, not directly anyway; I chalk it up to at least the second death of my friends and family exascerbated by lockdown), and THIS IS WHY I HATE RNG, be it programmed or real-world.)

So. I brute-forced through that mission.

Got to the second one today, which immediately is like "and here's a seven-turn countdown to capture something or you lose." So iamgod went straight on, and I even got as far as turn 9 before I just instantly lost. I got as far as typing up this post to be asking what EVEN the hell (since is there was no battle coming up to suggest the enemy was attacking me) when I realised and went back and checked and yeah, apparently, the nodes don't have a garrision. (Oh, but if I'd left whathisface's stack there, it'd have been wiped anyway without the cheats on and of course there were no nodes remotely close to my starting location.)

Frack me Planetfall, you REALLY just don't like me at all, do you? Frack's sake, I'm trying here, game, but wow.

I appreciate you all trying to help, but I think we've sort of hit a wall.

I think at this point bloody minded stubborness wins out over cutting my losses like a sensible person (who has something to do), so I WILL get through the last campaigns, if I have to leave the cheat mode on the whole way through, because I won't give the game the satisfaction of not ticking that box off after 120 hours...
 
One apparently crucial tip for you: In campaigns, some heroes (or units) get transferred over.
See, the revelation campaign? In the first mission I literally did all anomalies (taking the options that give a permanent trait), researched all techs and decked out my heroes. In the second mission, my Kir'Ko hero was able to solo some of the landmarks himself, including stuff on the way (ironically, the contigent that you had with that Kir'Ko? More a liability than anything, because these tended to be overtaken by all the Avatars that were stationed near the landmarks). Thats probably where the imagod cheat actually is more harmful than helpful, because you tend to win a scenario underleveld without high techs?
 
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Guys, I appreciate you helping Aotrs here, but I am going to just have to say it. Aotrs, your game mechanics must SUCK. Seriously, how on earth is it possible for you to lose anything, to anyone, at the level you are playing at? You seriously need to tighten up your game, or just not feel bad about cheating your way to victory.

What is funny is watching some of these guys soft-play this. NINJEW for instance is an aces PVP player, and a bunch of these others are probably ranked on PVP, or have a ton of PVE expertise on 12 v 1 impossible mode. Any one of these guys could win those campaigns on hardest settings, no reloads, in half the time you are putting in.

It ain't the game homie. RNG either. Look deeper.

And just because I am feeling generous, try a few of these to sharpen up:

Sinsling V. THE WORLD - new event - hardest settings in the game

Sinsling v THE WORLD - Post Mortem

What are your early game god-mode mod/unit combinations?

Looking for tips for making melee heroes

Looking for tips for making RANGED heroes

Past all this, check out NINJEW on the PVP forums, and others, to see some pretty amazing PVP games. These guys min/max the crap out of this, and with those strategies, you should not POSSIBLY be able to lose. Seriously, you should not conceivably be able to lose on any difficulty, period.
 
Come on coodav try to be nice, I don't "soft-play" this, I try to help someone who struggles with the game. It doesn't matter that some in this thread can beat the AI on the hardest difficulty and/or "min/max the crap out of it" - You don't have to do that to beat the game on easy settings. Please don't talk people down that come to the forum asking for help.

At Aotrs
[...]my patience is at more-or-less an all-time low[...] I HATE RNG
If you don't enjoy playing it find something else. You must have noticed that planetfall games can be pretty long and do involve some heavy RNG... No one here can help you with that.
Hopefully things will brighten up for you!
 
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