Turns out I can't connect to the rhs watchtower, even after fully replanting my second town so there's a continuous road running to it. Would've been useful to know that first!
Coupla possibilities. Most obvious is unit type. Some units will beat the cr4p out of others. Horses, piles, soldiers, horses. For example. I suspect there are some additional variables within this (knights can have both shields and armour, for example. And can be v strong against armour). Secondly, have you checked the * level of your opponent's units? Visible by clicking on them both in the pre-battle setup screen, and by clicking on them in battle. This does seem to be quite significant! Thirdly, have you upgraded your units? The tutorial is shocking here. I thought I could only upgrade them w/ 250xp, as the upgrade screen defaults to the topmost 250xp level. NOPE. Every unit with, in unit view, its xp tally in bronze / gold instead of white is upgradeable. 50xp (iirc) for the first upgrade, which adds a properly decent in-battle skill. 20/40/60(?)/80 etc xp to upgrade the skills in the mini-tree above (attack, defence, charge, ranged). And finally, building position does make a bit of a difference. I've just carved up my two cities to ensure that my castles are surrounded by military units (+1 attack for each), that each military building had a church adjoining it (now +2), and that my most awesome and most used units have the town tavern nestled between them (now +5 attack for 2 units * 2 towns = + 20 overall attack). I have yet to bother with messy considerations about house, slum, blacksmith and mansion planning. But suspect I'll get round to them, at some point. And afaict, workshops can be dumped at the arse end of everything. They need and want nothing from your town, and any adjoining building is a waste of a bonus that could be deployed elsewhere (except maybe where those buildings benefit from adjacent military units?!)
This,ladies and gentlemen,is the definition of free2play done right,i hope that we'll get more strategies like this OR maybe even an actual port of at least one of Total War games. It's just this game needs more in-depth such as alliances,alliance wars and other juicy stuff like that.
Spent some time wondering where the hell my sheep had gone. Before realising that shearing them in winter probably wasn't that sensible. Facepalm.
Yup, they die because they're naked in the snow! The sheep farms (most buildings, in fact, quarries included) have a 2 hex range, so I've built a sheep farm surrounded by a road (to limit where they wander) with 4 farms covering every hex in the area. This way, no matter where they go, one of my farms can manage each herd. I still love this game, I just hope they make it better with the next update (rather than ruining it as so many developers do). The best thing to do is to enjoy it now and level up, before the suits start looking at how to "monetise" it better.
My v lazy town planning sketch, w 2hrs of advisor support left. Fwiw. Edit: basically gives priority to unit attack and market. With a couple of peripherals thrown in. Tbf, most of my towns atm have fewer military buildings, and so more room for housing. (Haven't quite got round to needing more blacksmiths yet. I seem to be generating too much money. Errrrr...)
This is great! Thanks for posting! It wasn't until I saw this that I realized placing a Church next to the Castle is basically a huge waste. That being said, until you discover all regions any placements that don't move you along are probably going to change. Does anyone know what causes fish to spawn? I have Deep Water. But for example is only 1 Deep Water tile required? Or do you need 3+? Also anyone want to friend up? You get 3% bonus gold if any of your allies buy gold!
Also, take a look at some of the Silver costs required for Master Crafting. You won't have too much money, trust me.
If anyone is wondering, I found the answer about fish: it requires a Deep Water tile but the roll is random. So 1 tile is fine but you want more to increase your chances of fish spawning. I also found this on their Facebook page!!! Free 1000 resources, expires April 8.
Good find, garbul. Cheers! I'm currently finding cows completely underpowered. Wonder if I'm missing something?! Also wondered if anyone has puzzled together any unit stats... Having thought "sod it" and splashed out on some horsey and greataxe Knights this moment (unimpressive week for new games!) I'm, again, finding them pretty underpowered. Wonder if this is bc most of my other units are pretty well levelled up :hmm:
My general sense, tbh, is that stats aren't everything and bought units don't provide a *tremendous* advantage over non-gold. Swordsman and macemen remain two of my favourite units. And powering up early seems important! Late buy gold units are currently struggling. Edit: these stats are also messed up, tbh. I'd expect everything on there to have +2 attack, and my favourite six units to have +5. And most of the currently allocated ones are probably pretty close to maxed out on l1 xp upgrades. Would be interested in getting a more balanced overview wrt stats, as sometimes I get the sense that unit type matters, other times I find (eg) swordsmen are slaughtering a unit that just totally whupped an entire unit of Knights, and I have literally no idea why.
Anyone got any views on composite bow vs that flaming artillery ball thing? And / or stats for composite bow men, and experiences of their usefulness? (Ime crossbowmen are somewhat hampered by their entirely straight shooting arc. AI regularly moves targeted units, so the crossbowmen can no longer shoot. Which it took me a while to latch onto!)
Good observations. I only bought 1 premium unit (Knights Cavalry), I even bought the shield and sword upgrades, and while they seemed good they are definitely not carrying my army like I thought they could. I wanted to pick up the Greataxe knights too (mostly because they seem badass) but like you are saying I'm not seeing a tremendous advantage yet at least with the KC. How did you place those units in the back row of your army comp? I keep seeing that in duels and I can only place the Artillery back there. I managed to drag and drop my Longbow Archers to one of the Artillery slots but I don't know how I did it. Also thinking about the late-game. Once you have all 6 regions unlocked that probably changes everything. Wondering if I should be focusing on economy or a balanced army/economy approach? Currently Lord level 25.
No ideas re: artillery positions! Just suddenly found out I could do it Possibly a levelling bonus?! (Tbh, really not convinced I've got this one right. Definitely feeling short on ranged weapons sometimes!) Edit: and the greataxe Knights have tremendous attack, but shocking defence. They don't last long! Both they and the horsey Knights do have the "terrify your enemy unit" bonus as a unit bonus, though. Which is chuffing useful, for an individual unit. Edit mk2: OK, I've massacred the opposition in my last three duels. Really, full-on massacred. Largely, I think, bc of gold bought units. Feel a bit of a twat bc of that! I trust I'll eventually ℅me to rest amongst equally mercenary bellends!
Only realised recently that units can swap rows (and not just columns) before battles. So my longstanding fail (horsies charming into pikemen) can be addressed. To an extent, at least!
Yes this seems to be a huge part of PvP! Like a game of chess except in real time with cooldowns. FWIW, the devs have this to say about Greataxe knights in response to someone regretting the purchase:
The artillery row requires artillery in the middle slot. The two side slots in the very back row can take troops, longbow archers would be best.
Glass cannon sounds about right! Guess that's where ducking and diving comes in useful. Though I think that's only useful against crossbows?! Any other unit is going to track em with their slings and arrows (and artillery!) Does make me think, though, that (duh) I really should be hammering opposing greataxes w firepower before they arrive.
I find the great axe troops too squishy. I run with longsword knights, greatsword knights and the knights cavalry on my front row. I currently have archers on the second row and trebuchets on the third. When I've fully ranked these initial 6 units, I'll move the longbows to the third row and put 3 new units on the second row to level up.
I got the back row filled now, thanks guys. Gotta say I am surprised this game isn't trending higher with the TA community. I guess everyone is playing Clash/Royale. Not my cup of tea.
