Looking forward to testing my tactical skills in this long awaited work of art. Approximately how many different locales/environments will we be fighting in and what kind? (ie. Tundra, desert, mountain, etc.). I imagine this taking us all over the world, whichever world it may be.
What do you mean by Campaign levels? I thought there was going to be a Strategic Overworld or something.
It will be a strategic overworld, but this overworld will be apart of a series of levels that make up the campaign, and I believe they get more difficult as you progress. They explained that an overworld 'level' or 'map' could consist of a minimum of 3 tiles (one headquarters for each army with a tile of free land sandwiched between them) and a maximum of hundreds of tiles.
There are essentially 3 layers to the game. The outer layer is a map/hub where you progress through campaign missions, play skirmish, upgrade your stuff, etc. Nothing much to it. Each campaign mission is then a strategic "overworld" - I use the term overworld bc there is still 1 layer deeper - the ground combat, where stuff is more tactical than strategic. Each overworld map gets progressively bigger as you continue through the campaign, and the enemy gets stronger. Each overworld map is a self contained campaign mission, where you organize your armies, use battle cards to change the battle, manage resources, draw supply lines, capture strategic points, set up ambushes, manage army supply, bombard with artillery, etc... Re: environments, they include lands such as beach, forest, cities, towns, plains, snow, desert, etc.
There is only one beta... we've already gotten a ridiculous amount of applications, so we'll likely organize it in "rounds" though, so that we can get fresh eyes if we have to make significant changes. We'll try to allow as many people as we can.
So what's the final conclusion of the method used to defeat the enemy? Destroy enemy hq? Capture all strategic points/hold these points for a certain # of rounds? Kill all enemy troops until there's none left?
Right now, its destroy the enemy HQ. But, as you hold strategic points, you charge up a giant howitzer at your base, which damages the enemy HQ by a lot - so you can basically win by either holding strategic points or outright assaulting the enemy base (or both). We do have other victory conditions built in, but bc of some of the mechanics of the game, I'm not sure if they'll work or not yet - they won't be in beta, at least.
Just to clarify, the hq is an actual base that you can attack/defend in a battle, right? Sort of like seige mode on H&C2? If so, would this mean that there are also wall units (whether summoned or there by default), or just ground units that protect the hq? Or is it kinda like BF in that the base has little slits that shoot at you?
Not exactly... there are essentially a few types of "combat actions" that can happen... direct, indirect, and siege. Direct combat is a normal battle (where you play in 3rd person and fight an enemy army), which happens when 2 armies collide on the map. Indirect combat is how artillery attacks at long range - think of a more traditional Advance Wars setup here, where it shows for ex a cannon battery barraging the enemy army, you see casualties, and thats it. Siege is when an army attacks a solitary building (ie, a building without an army to defend it) - its similar to indirect combat in that its more of an Advance Wars type sequence showing your army attack the building, with a chance for some buildings to counter attack. In general, a siege can be dangerous for basic infantry when a building has artillery ready to fire. However, if you attack a building with a defending army on it you will engage in direct combat, only it will have the building on the battlefield in the background offering supporting fire. If the attacker defeats the enemy army, they will get an opportunity to siege the building afterwards.
Ahh, ok, I understand perfectly now. So an enemy building acts as a background entity in a battle as well as a strategic point on the map. And the building (in battle) would appear similar to the airship on the first gif of the first page.
