(10-16-2019, 03:02 PM)Draugr Wrote: (10-16-2019, 01:24 PM)unclemike Wrote: (10-16-2019, 01:16 PM)Draugr Wrote: (10-16-2019, 11:55 AM)unclemike Wrote: Gnome
Gnome is one of the better kingdoms. SA is likely worst kingdom
I've heard that Sacred Order is worse but how? Is it the food requirement for their troops or something else? The Gnome isn't very strong in my opinion. Even their companion troops are kind of lousy: chameleons and warg riders are almost never used, ogres and war machines are ok but limited to 5 brigs each, while goblins are too powerful if recruited to their max of 20 brigs (causes opponent to have 100% withdrawal damage which kind of breaks the game). So other than an overuse of 20 goblins, gnome troops are kind of crappy so that's why I selected them but I'll try Sacred Order sometime in the future to see why people think they are no good in Maelstrom.
I thought the goblin ability was to force enemy troops to fight longer so both sides would actually continue fighting. advantage being if your force is stronger you force the enemy to fight to the last man effectively. even at 15 brigades a very good ability but 20 can destroy groups for sure but no more broke than fear is.
GN likely the best gold producing kingdom combined with one of the best spell lists not all nerfed up like the pure mages at only a cost of 8k per level. GN gets both hidden ore and defense 600 orders at level. being rich can get all wizards level to within a turn or two. with industrial they also get a 10% bonus so all those gold spells are even more effective. holding off to build bazaar a couple turns and your starting capital could be making as much as some regions around turn 4. standing orders to raise food as well at a lower cost due to industrial. as for troops yes not the greatest thing but can be recruited easily. start recruiting goblins T4 and recruit on thru winter because they only cost 2k food and gold each and almost nothing to maintain. as you raise your wizrards that have full access to summon undead spells to help fill out your armies and add fear to go with goblins. another thing I like about the GN is siege engineering something most do not care about but GN is special because unlike other kingdoms with siege engineering GN has access to invisible and teleport fairly easy so they can port to a town invisible siege and before someone knows they are there the next turn they own the town and move on no way to dome no way to block unless a group was already waiting. as windstorm gets fixed the GN could still take towns easily. warg riders are another one nobody takes but they like centaurs give flanking with only a few in the group. imaging the surprise to your fellow spell casters when you start flanking them as well as all the other stuff.
SA to me there biggest downside is they do not have riders and upkeep. they are a military kingdom but cannot stand up to other military kingdoms due to limited champions which is somewhat overcome thanks to all the new humans. But the big boys AM/RA/RD all over power the SA because the SA can be flanked. To me SA plays more like a political kingdom with no orator/cunning they can build a functioning military. they do not have any real wizards due to the crazy cost of raising them and maintaining expensive kingdom brigades that some humans could replace anyway. They cost more raise levels in every category agents, military, magic.... much like the darkelf except the darkelf is 2nd best is almost everything agents, magic even pretty good military to cost ratio.
A lot of good points. But first, here is what Valhalla says about finished Steel games in Maelstrom. Total points, top 10 kingdoms are:
Top 5: Ancient Ones, Demon Princes, Pirates, Ilusionist, Lizard King,
Second 5: Amazons, Necromancer, Underworld, Druid, Atlantians.
So here at near the close of the first year of Maelstrom, we have all four specialty kingdoms (AN, DE, PI, UN) in the top 10. We have three Mage Kingdoms, one military (AM) Devout, one balanced Devout (LI) and one balanced traders (AT).
The Gnomes are not here, nor the Dark Elves.
I like the Gnomes. Heck, I like all of them. Go figure. I would say on kingdoms (and I invite community response), who is at the wheel probably makes more difference than the chassis. And I say that with great pride at how different the kingdoms play. But you can have one player crash and burn as the Red Dragon and another just dominate the game. Pretty much I think I am in the consensus thought here, if the Red Dragon is in the game, and particularly if handled by a top 20 player, all players are kind of paying attention to what that kingdom/persona are doing. They're not in the top 10 though.
So I am seeing the hallmark of Alamaze through the decades, that of balance between such disparate kingdoms continue here even as the game has grown more complex. I'm not saying either Dark Elves or Gnomes are not potentially top 10 kingdoms, just saying as the NFL coaches say, "You are what your record says you are.".
In any case, of course from a design perspective we want all 24 kingdoms to be viewed as having an equal opportunity to win. And win from so many different angles and approaches.
Yes, Sacred Order will have some adjustments including Riders next time around.
Buddy/Ignore List
