Brigade comparisons

[Strongwill]

Free Traders:
These guys do not want to fight, they want to sell you a used car, um, chariot. Imagine used car salesmen drafted into a military unit. This is them. The one thing they likely practice is shooting. From as far away as possible. Climb a ladder while getting shot at? Are you kidding me? We really did not change much of anything.

Posted, Actual, Proposed
LR:Average, Average, Average
SR:Above Average, Average, Good
CH:Not A Factor, Poor, Poor
M1:Below Average, Poor, Poor
M2:Below Average, Poor, Poor
CO:Below Average, Very Poor, Poor
DE:Above Average, Average, Below Average
ST:Below Average, Poor, Not A Factor

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Ents… They decimated Saruman’s orcs and goblins with boulders in the two towers? Just saying

Not by the books. They ripped them apart in hand to hand, and then ripped down all the walls and towers except for the main tower where they could get no purchase on the enchanted walls.

Been a loooooong time since I read the books, movies all the time lol

[Olorin]

Heh. Read the books for years. My mom had a correspondence with him for years as well. That stuff sticks. A wall of forest arrives at the tower overnight. A horde of orcs and goblins charge into it. Silence falls. None return. Another enters. A few gasping, running remnants emerge screaming. And the Ents follow.

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Gargoyles [5]:
And back to the Monster Summons. the actual ratings for these are great. Biggest problem is the first 4 Summons have low defense. Gargoyles would have come in low to the original average (not below average, just on the low side of average). With the current set-up they are bad.
So, our thinking, Gargoyles do not shoot much. Maybe drop rocks. Kind of inaccurate, but hey. Swooping charge, nice. Nothing special fighting, but they endure like stone. Also defend like stone. ST is average, but gets the flyer bonus.

Posted, Actual, Proposed
LR:Awesome, Awesome, Absent
SR:Very good, Excellent, Below Average
CH:Above Average, Average, Very Good
M1:Above Average, Average, Average
M2:Above Average, Average, Above Average
CO:Above Average, Good, Above Average
DE:Above Average, Below Average, Excellent
ST:Above Average, Above Average, Average

[Olorin]

Gelatinous Cubes [3]:
Off to the high end of the Summons, This is a pow-8 Monster. And one of my reasons for thinking they were placeholders, Some of the ratings are changed from the Elves. Not all, but some. So he started working on them. Probably from the top down, though.

So, our thinking. Since when do cubes shoot or throw anything? They are a wall of stomach acid. They have a horrendous charge because they swallow yours if they encounter it. Ugly things to fight, 10 foot cubes that dissolve anything organic that touches them. With no vital parts. Unrelenting stomachs, that simply crawl up stone walls to get to the tasty treats inside.

Posted, Actual, Proposed
LR:Awesome, Awesome, Absent
SR:Very good, Excellent, Absent
CH:Above Average, Average, Excellent
M1:Above Average, Ultimate, Ultimate
M2:Above Average, Ultimate, Ultimate
CO:Above Average, Ultimate, Awesome
DE:Above Average, Renowned, Renowned
ST:Above Average, Awesome, Ultimate

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Giant Eagles [10]:
I still do not buy that these can shoot. Again, as the gargoyles, they may be dropping a few inaccurate rocks on heads. And that swooping charge. But we really changed very little here.

Posted, Actual, Proposed
LR:Average, Average, Absent
SR:Average, Below Average, Below Average
CH:Good, Good, Good
M1:Above Average, Average, Average
M2:Above Average, Good, Average
CO:Above Average, Average, Average
DE:Above Average, Average, Average
ST:Above Average, Good, Above Average

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Griffons [10]:
Pretty much the same as went on with Giant Eagles. These have a bit more defense in actual. So, again, not a lot of changes here.

Posted, Actual, Proposed
LR:Average, Average, Absent
SR:Average, Below Average, Below Average
CH:Good, Good, Good
M1:Above Average, Average, Average
M2:Above Average, Good, Average
CO:Above Average, Average, Average
DE:Above Average, Good, Average
ST:Above Average, Good, Above Average

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Ghouls [5]:
A pow-6 Summons. Should be right up there with Rock Golems and Pit Fiends. Hmm, the posted really does not match that, maybe the actual will? Nope, still worse. Special is a 10% Fear. Sorry, to me that sounds like a wasted pow-6 spell.

So, our thoughts, Still not much of LR, and SR are thinking of ripping flesh, so not much throwing. The stories reputed them to be surprisingly quick to close distance, so a good CH is probable. And they paralyze and rip guts out. Probably good at melee. If you hit one, you can hurt it. And short walls keep them in graveyards, so they are not good at ST. Hopefully a better pow-6 Monster.

Posted, Actual, Proposed
LR:Very Poor, Poor, Below Average
SR:Below Average, Poor, Poor
CH:Below Average, Below Average, Very Good
M1:Average, Below Average, Excellent
M2:Average, Below Average, Superior
CO:Average, Below Average, Excellent
DE:Above Average, Average, Average
ST:Average, Below Average, Poor

[Strongwill]

Heh. Read the books for years. My mom had a correspondence with him for years as well. That stuff sticks. A wall of forest arrives at the tower overnight. A horde of orcs and goblins charge into it. Silence falls. None return. Another enters. A few gasping, running remnants emerge screaming. And the Ents follow.

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Hahaha, yes… As you described it my mind went to GOT and the Dothraki riding into the knight king slaughter…. Well played!!!

[Olorin]

Giants:
A top tier fighting Kingdom. I mean it is one of two that cost extra for a Brigade so it should be worth it. And those Actual ratings are genuinely worth every gold piece spent.

Our thoughts: Yeah, if you take out that Actual Rating part it looks like we just gave more to the Giants overall. Once you include that you can see we were trying to balance Giants vs Red Dragons as our top military [without specials]. We had to drop the SR a little to keep from going over. Still I think it is a good set-up.

Posted, Actual, Proposed
LR:Good, Good, Good
SR:Excellent, Superior, Good
CH:Ultimate, Superior, Excellent
M1:Good, Awesome, Superior
M2:Good, Ultimate, Renowned
CO:Excellent, Ultimate, Renowned
DE:Superior, Renowned, Renowned
ST:Renowned, Ultimate, Ultimate

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Gnolls [10]:
The pow-2 Monster summons. Has one of the worst defense in the game. Beholder and a couple of others have worse but it is not many. It is also one of the few brigades you can raise immediately [most Kingdoms have a pow-2 wizard at start]. The question is would you want to? Definitely a glass hammer. If you have a spare group you can throw these in there and pillage some villages.

Our thoughts was it was way too powerful for a pow-2 spell. So it got reduced to the equivalent of a minor Companion type, maybe a bit better than goblins.

Posted, Actual, Proposed
LR:Awesome, Awesome, Average
SR:Very good, Excellent, Very Poor
CH:Above Average, Average, Below Average
M1:Above Average, Average, Below Average
M2:Above Average, Average, Below Average
CO:Above Average, Good, Below Average
DE:Above Average, Poor, Poor
ST:Above Average, Above Average, Average

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Gnomes:
We did very little here, besides catching the rankings up. We increased the ST since we figured they would be good at digging.

Posted, Actual, Proposed
LR:Average, Average, Average
SR:Average, Average, Average
CH:Very Poor, Poor, Poor
M1:Average, Below Average, Below Average
M2:Average, Poor, Poor
CO:Average, Poor, Poor
DE:Average, Below Average, Below Average
ST:Average, Below Average, Above Average

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Goblins [20]:
Almost scraping the bottom of the barrel for defense, right down there with Beholders. You can get plenty of them, but do you want them? They lower your defense for a group. Maybe pack them in a spare group for raiding villages?

We reversed the LR and SR, figuring that fit better. Did not do much else again. They still have an ST, it just slipped because others rose.

Posted, Actual, Proposed
LR:Good, Good, Average
SR:Above Average, Average, Good
CH:Very Poor, Poor, Poor
M1:Average, Poor, Below Average
M2:Below Average, Poor, Poor
CO:Below Average, Poor, Poor
DE:Below Average, Poor, Poor
ST:Below Average, Poor, Not A Factor