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This is the game that Elemental should have been when it released.  Stardock has really come through with this one and it's going to be a classic IMHFO.  I has much more depth than Warlock, a smooth interface, the graphics have received an upgrade, heroes are much more versaitile, and the tactical combat has been revamped is very fun.  It's still in beta for another week, but it's a very fun game right now.  I've only seen one possible bug so far.  I have  a warg den, but for some reason I'm unable to recruit warg riders.  TBH this might be do to a research or building requirement that I'm lacking.  EDIT:  I'm an idiot.  I just designed a War Rider in my units tab and now I can recruit them.  Yay!  I'm so smart!

Here are some screenshots.  Sorry about the quality, but it's due to the screenshot setting I have enable on Steam.  Frankly these screens do not do the game justice.

Kingdom overview 3D:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00011_zpse3aaf3cb.jpg&hash=5af9caa7c8a590ca246a7081c0505605451fdc69)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00002_zpse2464315.jpg&hash=ae8927eb553cdde45c202f2ea64eb8ff92624108)

Kingdom overview paper map:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00001_zps1c2f7698.jpg&hash=6a4fc34eb17a86b8677c1665ce56c20ff2512b04)

Kingdom management screens:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00005_zps8823559d.jpg&hash=6cd0a4e72752c1fd4d8c21f5e13c9f6a265e5297)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00003_zps5efc097d.jpg&hash=c77e4aca905967b429927d28518d3ed8988afc33)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00004_zps70a02e75.jpg&hash=c21690d468f0110f49708668bf4ccdf8f40d9496)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00006_zpsf5729934.jpg&hash=00293960056c10a827129b23e1af3554bb6f4ecc)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00007_zpsbf1700bb.jpg&hash=6fa6ef79dc1fe9812fe7dd6d0a2b9049675bcea8)

Combat:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00008_zpsf401d396.jpg&hash=e53eac74ccd4e0e178ad03ad69a9b6434c979354)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00009_zps02166d95.jpg&hash=2ecf2a846f4f0ecd398cd32cde0d912d0215b381)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00010_zps4d47fd12.jpg&hash=1d34eb70845397e90e98eb6d92b97fc1653f6124)

I didn't take shots of the most exciting combat.  The quick take aways:  More terrain features that give bonuses or limit movement, and random battle grounds for each combat.

I'm sure there are bugs that need to be squashed, but this is no Elemental. 

Those of you who originally purchased Elemental get a free game code.  You get the code from your Stardock account.  However it is a Steam key that needs to be redeemed there to download the game.

Thanks for posting!  This looks great.  I was already pretty happy with Fallen Enchantress so if this is even better, I need to start playing.

I have to say I like it too. It would be nicer if you got heroes faster and if your heroes got levels faster to move through the ability trees to some depth before the game is over. Graphics are very good. Balance seems much better than the other games of the series.

They've been adding so many small patches lately, I've not tried playing a full game yet.

It's looking good from what I've seen, though. 

This game has been getting secret/silent patches all the time.
Steam never mentions its updating.
And now I guess I've missed the that the full was was just released :P

Latest version is 0.90. Only item I see that is tough to deal with is taking enemy cities and then having them at 100% unrest. Make it impossible to build anything in them forever. Hopefully that gets tweaked in the next patch. 0.90 has made city fighting better and the unit spamming in cities is gone. AI is using spells at times and is pretty good mixing ranged and hth units.

Definitely fun.

I really want to like this game. Tried Age of Wonders 2: shadow magic but it didn't grab me...two "fairies and unicorns and pixie dust" for me. I need something a bit more dark. Maybe this is it. I tried fallen enchantress but it didn't do much. I need to feel like I'm part of the world (something AoW did well by the way). This looks good so far!

Release is May 22 it seems

First I have to admit I am still bitter/angry over the E:WOM debacle, so much so that I never downloaded and played any of the free games/expansions I was given.  Bison you are making me rethink this policy.  I've got nothing to lose and it will be on STEAM which will be nice.  Although just to be safe I think I might want to wait until the game is released and had at least once patch applied.  These guys are on a short leash with me now.

Kinda reminds me of Civ4 fantasy-style, with an extra tac combat layer.  Moreso than other fantasy strategy games I've played lately.

I played the beta earlier, but it CTD'ed on me. I think they were still working out some of the kinks. But it put me off of it until the official release.

Quote from: mikeck on May 12, 2013, 08:02:01 PM
I really want to like this game. Tried Age of Wonders 2: shadow magic but it didn't grab me...two "fairies and unicorns and pixie dust" for me. I need something a bit more dark. Maybe this is it. I tried fallen enchantress but it didn't do much. I need to feel like I'm part of the world (something AoW did well by the way). This looks good so far!

Release is May 22 it seems

I'd say that there are some pretty dark elements to the game.  For example I'm playing as Oracle Cesera right now.  She is a pretty dark faction to the point that I can kill one of my heroes and steal their powers.  This faction's leader is all about curses, life drain, and summoning.  Even this map board is dark. 

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00012_zps081e2e9c.jpg&hash=d2cb88ecc92e3fcd5e6cf05d2532bc29e7459959)

Quote from: son_of_montfort on May 12, 2013, 09:35:37 PM
I played the beta earlier, but it CTD'ed on me. I think they were still working out some of the kinks. But it put me off of it until the official release.

I've got over 7 hours in game so far and no crashes.  The water seems pretty safe right now.

Quote from: TheCommandTent on May 12, 2013, 09:01:17 PM
These guys are on a short leash with me now.

They were with me too, but I think they've really learned from the Elemental debacle.  If you already own the game, then what risk do you really take with it?  If you hate the game uninstall and swear off Stardock forever, but I don't think you will hate the game.  That's how good I think it is.

Quote from: Nefaro on May 12, 2013, 09:09:22 PM
Kinda reminds me of Civ4 fantasy-style, with an extra tac combat layer.  Moreso than other fantasy strategy games I've played lately.

Definately.  I've only had limited experience with the diplomacy, but so far it seems pretty inline with Civ.  Nothing to crazy so far.  Although I did have a faction premitively pay me tribute, before I crushed their measely army in a tactical battle!  Chumps.

Can you still buy the beta or is it closed now?

Quote from: mikeck on May 12, 2013, 09:46:16 PM
Can you still buy the beta or is it closed now?

Yes.  You can.  http://store.steampowered.com/app/228260/?snr=1_7_15__13

So lesson learned tonight.  When you meet an old blind man chained down in a dungeon and he claims to have been the servant of a Dark Priest...walk away.  Fast!

The old man turned into this crazy ass demon spawn.  He had upwards of 90 hit points which is pretty damned high from what I've seen in game so far.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00013_zps2340071e.jpg&hash=081234481e9c92de65f8b2c69b021138566f2de2)

It turned into a very painful victory for my hero.  She was beat down to 0 HP before my last troop standing took out the demon.  Cool I beat a demon.  Not so cool I lost my awesome Sand golem and my hero got 0 XP for beating the demon because she decided to lay unconscious on the floor.  :(  She also lost a finger.  You can see the note on the following screenshot.  This is a pretty cool feature.  When your hero falls in battle, they generally have some sort of adverse effect.  In this case she lost a finger.  I don't remember what it does exactly now, but I think she perminately gains a negative attack bonus.  Harder to hold that flaming axe now I reckon.  Stupid demon.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-12_00014_zps9d697236.jpg&hash=7e42d74e9c152a54daee37bebd8d4c63e50c0fe7)

The quests are similar to Elemental in that they are text based and go to such and such location until you find item/monster/person and then generally a fight insues.

I was wrong when I thought tiles on the battle map provided +/- bonuses.  Sadly it's not the case, but I hope they add it into the game later.  Some folks might not like the tactical battles, but I do.  I find them to be pretty enjoyable in a not overly hurt your head trying to calculate the best odds to ratio factors kind of way.  See monster.  Attack monster.  Use different spells/abilities to beat the baddies.  Learn to use auto resolve on weak encounters to save some time and the hassle of beating down one or two weak foes.

Heroes lose body parts! Nice touch!

Quote from: son_of_montfort on May 12, 2013, 09:35:37 PM
I played the beta earlier, but it CTD'ed on me. I think they were still working out some of the kinks. But it put me off of it until the official release.

Stardock have really struggled with this engine and I would hope they've got it working well after all this time.  WOM and to an admittedly much lesser extent, FE, did not like to run on my PC.  I'd get either CTDs or at least a load of DX errors.

Quote from: Bison on May 12, 2013, 09:41:49 PM

Quote from: TheCommandTent on May 12, 2013, 09:01:17 PM
These guys are on a short leash with me now.

They were with me too, but I think they've really learned from the Elemental debacle.  If you already own the game, then what risk do you really take with it?  If you hate the game uninstall and swear off Stardock forever, but I don't think you will hate the game.  That's how good I think it is.

I think you've convinced me to try the game but I won't until it is out of beta and they have a few more kinks worked out, just to give it a fair chance.

No matter what they do to try and improve the game, it still looks and plays like Elemental. Which is not a bad thing if that's what you want.

Quote from: Greybriar on May 13, 2013, 06:37:06 PM
No matter what they do to try and improve the game, it still looks and plays like Elemental. Which is not a bad thing if that's what you want.

I think on the surface level in some regards this is true.  However the game's mechanics are dramatically different from Elemental.  Some of the overarching concepts remain like elemental resources, heroes, quests and such but from my vague recollections of playing elemental the actual game plays out much differently.  The graphics of the map are essentially the same but the hero/monster models have been redone.  Also Stardock has brought onboard a number of developers from CIV IV and V to help redo different aspects of the game.  It's honestly a damned shame that this game falls under the shadow of the Elemental debacle.

I've been playing .90 and find it to be rock-solid and quite enjoyable.

Sounds interesting, but the tie breaker for me is that Brad Wardell is a gaint douche.

Isn't the 'official release' supposed to be the 22nd of this month?

As if that makes a big difference.  There'll probably still be regular patches before and after. *shrug*  It looks to be pretty polished right now.

Quote from: Nefaro on May 13, 2013, 11:35:20 PM
Isn't the 'official release' supposed to be the 22nd of this month?

As if that makes a big difference.  There'll probably still be regular patches before and after. *shrug*  It looks to be pretty polished right now.

Yeah it offically releases on the 22nd.  It'll be interesting to see what they bring out for bug fixes, balancing and such before it goes gold.  Honestly the game is running without a hitch for me.  I'm finding it to be quite challenging and I am not playing on a very hard level right now.  There's just a lot of mechanics and layers to the game that I need to learn.  I'm sure with all games there are systems of how to max out your heroes/armies/civilization expansion to best the AI everytime.  Right now I'm locked in mortal combat with 2 civilizations.  They had me on the ropes there for about 15 turns, but I think I've turned the corner.  I'm definately not on a major offensive at the moment.  I've spent a ton of magic points and burned through a good amount of army units to recapture lost lands and push the fight against one of the factions.  I thought I'd finally cornered and beat the leader, but he's got a hidden city or two somewhere.  The real problem I have right now is I need to keep fighting because the terms for peace are too high and out of reach atm.  Which is fine because I've been slowly building up units to restock my heroes and I just recuited a pretty bad ass female hero commander.

Quote from: Swatter on May 13, 2013, 08:47:27 PM
Sounds interesting, but the tie breaker for me is that Brad Wardell is a gaint douche.

Well fortunately no one can force you to buy the game.  If I stopped buying games from developers/publishers who suffered a bout of douchbaggery from time to time, there be quite a few less games on my hard drive.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Bison.  I've had the beta downloaded for some time now, but have been waiting to actually play it -- partly because I was waiting for it to be further patched, and also because with all the other games I have, there's no particular hurry.  Sounds like I may want to fire it up sooner rather than later, however! 

I'm torn between taking a look this weekend and waiting for release...

I've been playing since this thread started, well not constantly, and I've yet to have any problems.  I like the new combat skills, like spears going through two units and the bashing.  Also, the way heroes gain new skills is nice too with the tech tree like view. I'm sure I'm missing things under the hood that changed, but I'll figure those out as I go.

Quote from: Greybriar on May 13, 2013, 06:37:06 PM
No matter what they do to try and improve the game, it still looks and plays like Elemental. Which is not a bad thing if that's what you want.

I had high hopes with the original but, the latest version seems to have borrowed a little too much from the Civ games and lost it's original flavor. They still can't get boats with island maps to fully work, removed most of the RPG elements like marriage, balance still seems strangely off at times, no randomness in the tech tree, plus random crashes.  It seems like nothing more than a some what more refined version of the same thing, how many versions of do we need? They tried to create Master of Magic and ended up with a Civ light game.

Quote from: SgtRock on May 14, 2013, 08:40:55 AM

Quote from: Greybriar on May 13, 2013, 06:37:06 PM
No matter what they do to try and improve the game, it still looks and plays like Elemental. Which is not a bad thing if that's what you want.

I had high hopes with the original but, the latest version seems to have borrowed a little too much from the Civ games and lost it's original flavor. They still can't get boats with island maps to fully work, removed most of the RPG elements like marriage, balance still seems strangely off at times, no randomness in the tech tree, plus random crashes.  It seems like nothing more than a some what more refined version of the same thing, how many versions of do we need? They tried to create Master of Magic and ended up with a Civ light game.

Let's be honest here.  It's not like this is Stardocks first 4X.  Remember a little game called Galactic Civilizations?  Of course it shares simularities with the CIV just as it shares simularities with GalCiv as do a hundred other 4X games.  I think there is much to the game that makes it a little more than a Civ light game. 

I haven't played on an island map yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are issues.  It seems every game that incooperates land/water units struggles to figure out how to make the water units work effectively.  I can think of at least 4 off the top of my head where this is the case. 

How many 4X games actually have a random tech tree?  I can think of one Sword of the Stars and the tree itself isn't random but which tech branches are seeded into your civilization at the start up of the game.  I really like the SotS system and wish more games incooperated such a model.

14 hours of game and I've yet to have the game crash.  Not saying it doesn't happen, but I haven't experienced one yet.

Anyway.  I'm done fanboying it up today.  I'm sure as I play the game more I figure out aspects of it I don't like and want fixed.  In fact,  I can think of one thing right now.  I do not like the fact that borders do not stop pioneers from crossing your territory. 

Quote from: Bison on May 14, 2013, 12:50:08 PM
I think there is much to the game that makes it a little more than a Civ light game.

Agreed.  This is hardly Civ Light.  Warlock is Civ Light...Elemental is about as deep as Civ, it just plays fairly differently.  And Bison, dammit...I already had enough lined up to play this weekend.  Now I have to play this too!

You're welcome Huw.  Another patch update was released today. 

OK.  I have one gripe.  They need to look at the range of bows.  It's not that they are over powered but they can plink, plink, plink your units from any range at 1-6 pts a shot.  I'd rather see a little more power on the bows and some sort of range restriction between short and longbows and crossbows. 

Quote from: Bison on May 14, 2013, 09:01:36 PM
OK.  I have one gripe.  They need to look at the range of bows.  It's not that they are over powered but they can plink, plink, plink your units from any range at 1-6 pts a shot.  I'd rather see a little more power on the bows and some sort of range restriction between short and longbows and crossbows.

IIRC some people were complaining about bows being overpowered.  Thoughts?

I don't think bows in and of themselves are overpowered.  That being said, if you or your enemies army has 2 or 3 of them sitting in the back firing at the same target (which the AI does without fail and usually it's your hero) by the time you've fought through the melee battles and get to the archers around 9 or 10 turns have passed.  So you figure 3 X 6 X 10 = 180 points of max damage which is quite devistating, but I'd say they do less than max most of the time.  However you can overcome/mitigate this with some fast moving units if the terrain permits, fly lightning elementals and certain spells.

NOTE:  I've been horrible at building diverse armys.  So far it hasn't come back to haunt me too much, but I really do need to incooperate more archers and fast movers into my hero stacks.  I'm also behind on army size, which is increased through military research tech.  I think the max size for an army stack is 9 slots.

Here's an image of the expanse of my kingdom.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-14_00001_zps3705fb62.jpg&hash=4acde4260155131cbe1ebd760680bb45ff14eac3)

I'd say I own about 60% of the map.  I'm the blue areas.  There are a few more resources scattered around that I could build outposts and develop, which I may do.  The greatest AI threat remaining is Altar which is the red areas on the mini map.  He's been marching around 9 large army stacks near my border.  I'm not sure how aggressive the AI will be at this point.  Frankly I think it could steam roll a number of my cities and out posts before I could do anything.  My heroes and armies are skattered all over the place.  I think I have 6 heroes at this point in the game.  Anyway I've entered the end game and now its a matter of casting the spell of I cannot remember the name to win, or full out conquest.  Diplomacy is not an option at this point.  Decisions, decisions.

What are your current Army Stack size limits?

There are two factors to army size. One is the number of units and heroes in an army and the other is the number of people in the unit. That one is a big force multiplier as long as you have the money to upgrade all your units.

Quote from: Capn Darwin on May 15, 2013, 06:52:55 AM
There are two factors to army size. One is the number of units and heroes in an army and the other is the number of people in the unit. That one is a big force multiplier as long as you have the money to upgrade all your units.

This is correct.  I think the max number of people is 9 including your hero if there is one present.  The units that you build start with 3 and then increase to 4,5,6 soldiers per unit.  This is all done through the tech tree research.  Heroes and units you recruit like the elementals start at a certain level again dependent on you leaders level, hero skill path, tech tree, building built on elemental sites.

Quote from: Bison on May 14, 2013, 09:01:36 PM
OK.  I have one gripe.  They need to look at the range of bows.  It's not that they are over powered but they can plink, plink, plink your units from any range at 1-6 pts a shot.  I'd rather see a little more power on the bows and some sort of range restriction between short and longbows and crossbows. 

This has been a problem since WoM.  There should be a decent chance to dodge, maybe.

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 15, 2013, 12:52:57 PM

This has been a problem since WoM.  There should be a decent chance to dodge, maybe.

Yeah there are some effects you can get to help mitigate the long range plink, plink of archers.  Dodge and defense bonuses.  I've also found that some of the spells like Pull of the Earth, which knocks down units until they resist, help control these units too. 

The engine runs like a hog at points for me. Is that for everyone as well? So far, I like what I see and I have not yet had any of those CTDs that I had previously.

I had to turn AA off as well as something else (particle effects, I think) to get any sort of decent framerate, but my current rig has integrated graphics, so there's that.

What size of map were you playing SoM?  I haven't tried a large map so that might be an issue I haven't experienced yet.

Quote from: son_of_montfort on May 15, 2013, 05:36:31 PM
The engine runs like a hog at points for me. Is that for everyone as well? So far, I like what I see and I have not yet had any of those CTDs that I had previously.

It runs just fine on both mine, but it also runs the video cards kinda hot.  Not disastrously so, but more than I'd expect.

One of the things I'm looking forward to is seeing how the AI uses the non-tactical spells beyond the normal difficulty.  I have not had them cast on me yet, but I'm only playing against 3 factions (1 I eliminated already) and not on a hard/difficult/insane setting.  I do know that some spells you don't get an on the map graphic showing the spell being cast, but it should be listed in the city details.  This is the one aspect that makes me nervous beyond all others. 

Quote from: Bison on May 15, 2013, 05:41:43 PM
What size of map were you playing SoM?  I haven't tried a large map so that might be an issue I haven't experienced yet.

Standard or medium, I think (I did not change any settings). It isn't lag or anything when I scroll, it is just a hang for a few seconds in turn transitions. Probably just turn processing and me being too picky. But it just has a clunky feeling in comparison to other games.

I'm gonna fire it up as soon as I finish my latest game of Civ V, which....with Genghis massing at my border towns....should be soon  ;D

Quote from: son_of_montfort on May 15, 2013, 10:43:53 PM

Quote from: Bison on May 15, 2013, 05:41:43 PM
What size of map were you playing SoM?  I haven't tried a large map so that might be an issue I haven't experienced yet.

Standard or medium, I think (I did not change any settings). It isn't lag or anything when I scroll, it is just a hang for a few seconds in turn transitions. Probably just turn processing and me being too picky. But it just has a clunky feeling in comparison to other games.

There are some small quarks with the game that do need a little more polish.  For example, it can be tricky at times trying to get an unit/army to accept a move into a city tile.  As far as what you're experiencing, it very well could be processing time.  That wouldn't surprise me.  I really need to try a large/huge map and increase the number of AI opponents in my next game. 

FINE, I'm going to start playing early.  I hope you're happy.

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 16, 2013, 04:41:18 PM
FINE, I'm going to start playing early.  I hope you're happy.

Yeah, I might have had the same reaction........

Played for almost an hour tonight. My first impressions is....This is the game they should have released instead of WoM.

Quote from: Kushan on May 16, 2013, 10:55:49 PM
Played for almost an hour tonight. My first impressions is....This is the game they should have released instead of WoM.

Yeap.  Not saying it's a perfect game, but it's fun and a 1,000X better then WoM.

I didn't get much time to play last night but what I saw impressed me.  Tactical battles seem to flow better, and I'm sure I saw a new mechanic; flanking an opponent gives extra attacks...?

Also the engine seems to have been tweaked a fair bit.  It's still not lightning-fast but it's markedly less clunky than it was.  I'm definitely putting some time in this weekend.

Yes, flanking was introduced in Legendary Heroes, as was the fact that units start tactical battles closer to each other.

Played for a bit before I got a CTD and called it a night.   :-\  However, I agree this is way better than WOM and I like what I am seeing so far.  One question does terrain matter in the tactical battles?

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 17, 2013, 12:47:45 AM
I didn't get much time to play last night but what I saw impressed me.  Tactical battles seem to flow better, and I'm sure I saw a new mechanic; flanking an opponent gives extra attacks...?

Its called "swarm"

Swarm must be an attribute you need then, because my guys weren't doing it. :(

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 17, 2013, 08:16:49 AM
Swarm must be an attribute you need then, because my guys weren't doing it. :(

Did you position them in grids next to each other?  It's not a trait.  It's an automatic combat mechanic.

The "swarm" effect allows for a few additional points of damage for the main attacker during combat. Basically surrounding a target and attacking it will do more damage and take it down faster than the single attacks done in the last game. It is a good addition.

is that why it looks like all the guys surrounding a unit swing everytime any of them swing?

No, my guys do it automatically.

Quote from: RedArgo on May 17, 2013, 10:33:26 AM
is that why it looks like all the guys surrounding a unit swing everytime any of them swing?

Yes

Started a new game on a large map, and normal difficulty, monster, etc....

So I send the scout out to look for shards and a new places to build future cities and outposts.  All sounds great until I find out what the hell is living in my backyard!

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-17_00001_zps0a236b5d.jpg&hash=30d442ccd43978f4a7ad7cba8e283aca8e6f7ef4)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-17_00002_zpsd0eb0e30.jpg&hash=b69cf67547ec85bee83f94c0a1ec57564fc9b0dc)

That's a level 12 Dragon with around 270 hit points.  This board is not going to be easy to clear of roaming monsters and their dens.

^Good luck with that. 

I'm guessing that your property didn't come with an anti-Dragon warranty, Bison   8)

I just fired it up myself and I'm impressed. It has all of the things that I enjoyed about Fallen Enchantress, but is smoother. And the combat is a definite upgrade. I really like the way that units in formation together support each other and that enemy units do the same thing. Means you need to use a little strategy both in offense and defense. Looks like a cool game so far.

I'll be leaving that dragon be for a long time coming.  There are some pretty crazy monster battles either through quests or dens.  Last game there was one ogre den I could never clear.  It had something like 8 or 9 ogres the lowest hp was around 100.  They crushed every army I sent into the den.

The monster dens can definitely throw a roadblock in front of you.  It's nice to have a challenge that you occasionally have to work up to.

Purchase looming

Quote from: undercovergeek on May 18, 2013, 03:46:28 AM
Purchase looming

After you buy a new headset, yeah? ;)

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 18, 2013, 04:32:32 AM

Quote from: undercovergeek on May 18, 2013, 03:46:28 AM
Purchase looming

After you buy a new headset, yeah? ;)

Geek STILL not brought a headset? You still have to listen to his hamster running around in that squeeky wheel?
Tut.

Haha, actually it was my hamster last night - an actual hamster, too!  But yeah, we were playing Endless Space and I was on voice while he was using the seriously sub-par chat window.  Apparently he's going out to buy one today. ;)

ye of little faith

I'll believe it when I hear it. Y'know what a tight fisted git he is.

OK it looks like swarm was working after all, but the animations on my particular units weren't easy to see.  Cool.  I like how there's a lot of terrain dotted all over the battlefields now, making for some proper tactical choices.  I just beat a superior force by placing my units between two forests, creating a bottleneck and allowing my hero to shoot them full of holes while the two spearmen in front skewered whoever was foolish enough to come close. :D

I've been holding out on playing this until release date but resolve starting to crack.........

Quote from: FlickJax on May 18, 2013, 07:42:20 AM
I've been holding out on playing this until release date but resolve starting to crack.........

I encourage you to dive in.  Although there seems to be at least one update a day, they don't seem to cause saved game incompatibilities, and the engine is already very stable (in my experience).  Release is only a few days away so not much will change.  Go on, have at it!

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 18, 2013, 07:53:04 AM

Quote from: FlickJax on May 18, 2013, 07:42:20 AM
I've been holding out on playing this until release date but resolve starting to crack.........

I encourage you to dive in.  Although there seems to be at least one update a day, they don't seem to cause saved game incompatibilities, and the engine is already very stable (in my experience).  Release is only a few days away so not much will change.  Go on, have at it!

Ha!  Famous last words!  :P

I've been wanting to start a new game but I'm afraid there'll be a last minute pre-release update that screws up save games.  ???  Right when I'm halfway through.

You only gonna play it once?  Jump in Nef, the water's lovely!

Dammit...*sigh* another game bought. Trying to juggle this, AJE, Rise of Prussia, Dominion3, Stardrive and X3:ap

Quote from: mikeck on May 18, 2013, 03:11:12 PM
Dammit...*sigh* another game bought. Trying to juggle this, AJE, Rise of Prussia, Dominion3, Stardrive and X3:ap

its kind of hopeless, isn't it?

Well, it's better than the alternative. About a year ago I was in a gaming drought. Had nothing that interested me for weeks and started to think I had lost interest in gaming.

Here's a cheat that I've used a couple of times.  ctrl-n.  It regenerates the world at start up.  Generally I'm not really picky about my starting location.  The one exception that I will always regenerate a world is if the starting tiles have 0 or 1 mana starting attributes.  Otherwise I just roll with what the game gives me.

Lost my first game. All 3 of my AI opponents were just to far ahead of me in research and military strength for me to catch up.

I won my first game but I was playing on easy.  My latest game is on normal settings and it's proving to be a challenge with some powerful monster dens in my AO and my nearest neighbors expanding seemingly at will.  I suspect I'll have to do an early war just to remove one of my closest rivals and take over and free up some shards.

I think my empire may come to a quick demise.  I just lost one of my two cities to a monster stack that I in my current state I cannot repel.  I also lost two pioneers and about 90% of my sovereign's army all in one turn.  That was about 90 seasons worth of unit building gone in the span of 1 season.  Brutal.  I love it.

I think I'll increase the frequency of monsters in my next game, because I'm not finding much to level my heroes on, leaving them quite flimsy and unable to cast powerful spells.

Still really enjoying it though, after about 120 turns played now.  My cities are starting to take shape, I'm acquiring some shards and strategic resources, and making my way through the tech tree.

The only frustrating moment was when I entered a cave and found half a dozen creatures that were ridiculously tough to beat and were able to one-hit kill all my units.  There was no indication that the cave would be any different to the four or five I'd explored before, so that annoyed me a bit.  It's made me a lot more cautious about exploring.

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 19, 2013, 06:49:28 AM
The only frustrating moment was when I entered a cave and found half a dozen creatures that were ridiculously tough to beat and were able to one-hit kill all my units.  There was no indication that the cave would be any different to the four or five I'd explored before, so that annoyed me a bit.  It's made me a lot more cautious about exploring.

When you hover over the quest location, there will be a note on the popup that states the difficulty of the quest location/monster/army.  Run like hell from EPIC.  In the early game, you need to shy away from hard unless your army is capped out.

I had to retire my latest game.  It was a humbling game of futility on my part.  :D

Aha, thanks for the tip Bison!

Bison and Co.,

Sounds like you went into the wildlands (green boarder). There is usually boss type fight at the center of each. You need serious firepower to take them down too.

Capn Darwin there is the master quest zone you are referring too, but I'm also finding some serious dens that are not bound to any quest line.  Honestly I'm happy with it.  It's not the insane roaming monsters from WoM, but it does make you pause when constructing new cities/outposts.  The reason being that those independent dens will not attack your city/outpost unless your boarders over take the den's location.  At which point your city/outpost/army become targets for the monster stack.

Yep, there are a number of those in the game. The Deadly rated ones are just that. The one bad thing in the game is that the AI can build a city or outpost too close and release the critters and they still end up jumping on your cities or resources. I like dropping outposts over certain dens and then hitting them with flamestrike or the quake effect to hold them in place. Then send in the hero army to take them down.

I need to try out a few of the different factions.  I've yet to do a fire focused one or a higher level earth one.

Quote from: Bison on May 19, 2013, 04:21:54 PM
Capn Darwin there is the master quest zone you are referring too, but I'm also finding some serious dens that are not bound to any quest line.  Honestly I'm happy with it.  It's not the insane roaming monsters from WoM, but it does make you pause when constructing new cities/outposts.  The reason being that those independent dens will not attack your city/outpost unless your boarders over take the den's location.  At which point your city/outpost/army become targets for the monster stack.

Yeah I found that out the hard way......  we don't talk about that anymore.  :-[

Well it looks like the end of another kingdom is coming quickly. 

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-19_00002_zps7ae43867.jpg&hash=683ff7e5b1b0a2c27ac10452f98756438cff18a5)

I have 5 armies of Fallen from 2 different factions invading my kingdom.  And a massive Lich army running around.  I need to kill the lich to get rid of the plague in my capital city.  I need to survive the 5 Fallen armies to continue my slow expansion. 

And a few seasons later...

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi830.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz227%2FBison36%2F2013-05-19_00004_zpse0ec4639.jpg&hash=4c391303bd66589c01ba2ecce104e705ed02fe58)

I've lost 2 cities and 2 outposts.  I'm broke.  My army is a mere 4 units and soon I won't be able to afford them.  I thought I had a decent remote starting location perfect for a slow turtle buildup, but I was really hurting for resources.  I only had 2 shards in my kingdom and neither were the one I needed - Air.  Well I could press on but I think this one is in the bag.  :(

Yea, I think your screwed.

I loaded up a save halfway through my first game to see if I could fare better. I must really suck at this game because I lost with the game with all the default settings. I was able to do a little bit better then the first go around but there was no way I was goign to catch the AI when had faction power of 300+ and I was only at 170.

I did notice a few things. First thing  noticed was that even after researching the various treaty options, none of them appeared in the diplomacy options. Do they not appear if a faction has a low opinion of you? No matter how many times I offered the AI tribute or trades I couldn't raise their opinion of me and see if they would then allow for some sort of treaty.

Second thing I noticed was that to even remain within ear shot of the AI faction power, I basically had to have one or two cities constantly training pioneers and expanding my borders. I don;t think turtling is a viable option. Not sure if that was because I was playing a large map with only 4 factions (including me). I was able to colonize a lot more the second time around, but after I had expanded into my natural expansion areas (that I didn't do the first time around do to a drake siting on top of the expansion route), the AI had boxed me in.

I tried to fight back.  I took two outposts, but shortly there after I had all 5 factions declaring war on me and lost them again.  I don't think the AI would have taken me out right away.  But I was hurting so bad in the money department, I either had to produce wealth to break even or go even more broke trying to rebuild the city/resources to mount a future offensive.  I don't think I would have made it that far though since eventually my army units would have disbanded for lack of money to fund them.

I think I need a bit more practice  :)

(//)

Hahaha!  Got killed by a wandering monster before settling your first town?

 :-\ Can't make up me mind. This, Eador or AoW SM.......

Quote from: bob48 on May 20, 2013, 04:56:44 PM
:-\ Can't make up me mind. This, Eador or AoW SM.......

If you had GADD (Game Attention Deficit Disorder) like me you would by them all.  ::)

Quote from: bob48 on May 20, 2013, 04:56:44 PM
:-\ Can't make up me mind. This, Eador or AoW SM.......

Three great games, all with their own pros and cons.  I'd give the edge to AOW:SM though, because it has masses of replayability, is beautifully drawn, atmospheric, has a great soundtrack and is just an all-around joy to play.

Eador is a game that I'd enjoy more if I put more time into it; it's somewhat idiosyncratic and has the steepest learning curve of the three.  The campaigns can be absolutely massive though.

FE:LH is the biggest resource hog of the three by miles, not to mention the most expensive.  It's a lovely-looking game though and is benefiting from constant updates.  In some respects it plays similarly to Civ so you'll probably find it the easiest to get into.

You can't go wrong with any of them, but my money's on AOW:SM.  Why don't you watch some gameplay vids on Youtube?

Hey!  Don't sully this thread pushing that other game!

The old Eador availble on gog is fun and well worth the $10, but it does have a pretty steep learning curve.  I'm really enjoying FE:LH if you like CIV style 4X but with magic and tactical battles it's got all that too.

Played around a little with FE:LH and it is a lot more polished than previous iterations. Seems pretty stable and I'm kind of digging the art. AoW is good too. I did not care for Eador. Seemed very repetitive and once you conquer a shard, you have to start over? How can I role play with a hero if I have to ditch him every new shard

I love the feeling of Trolls walking into your capital city while I'm off for a stroll.... are my pants down?

FE:LH can be very unforgiving.


PE

Verison .95 was released today.  It's coming along nicely.  Now if I could figure out how to survive past the early game in a standard normal game...

How does this compare to Disciples 2 and/or 3?

Everytime I log onto Steam I see you (Bison) playing this, so I finally looked into it tonight.  I haven't really ever spent much time on the 4x type games, but I already own AoW:SM and at least one of the Disciples iterations with all the DLC, so I don't know if yet another fantasy 4x is what I need just now.

However, I do dig the boardgame look in that last set of screenshots...

Each game has its selling points, and I haven't played FE: LH yet, but for me, Eador is on a plane of its own.  The game is DEEP and takes a while to unpack, but it's got huge replay value.  It's also got more of a wargamer's feel than the others.  It was released as a buggy mess, but one month and 8 patches later, it's mostly fixed up and it's obvious that the developer (indie Russian shop Snowbird) is committed to getting it polished up.

FE had an intriguing game system, but the backstory and characters was very meh for me.  Just seemed like a mismatch of random fantasy themes, with no real compelling back story or particular fantasy archetypes that aligned nicely to create a particular game feel.  Great system, but no storyline there that I could tease out.  In that sense, it was a lot like the GalCiv games.

Quote from: FarAway Sooner on May 21, 2013, 07:48:39 AM
Each game has its selling points, and I haven't played FE: LH yet, but for me, Eador is on a plane of its own.  The game is DEEP and takes a while to unpack, but it's got huge replay value.  It's also got more of a wargamer's feel than the others.  It was released as a buggy mess, but one month and 8 patches later, it's mostly fixed up and it's obvious that the developer (indie Russian shop Snowbird) is committed to getting it polished up.

FE had an intriguing game system, but the backstory and characters was very meh for me.  Just seemed like a mismatch of random fantasy themes, with no real compelling back story or particular fantasy archetypes that aligned nicely to create a particular game feel.  Great system, but no storyline there that I could tease out.  In that sense, it was a lot like the GalCiv games.

I am playing both heavily right now and I would say FE: LH is not light years ahead, but is very far a head of Eador.  There is a lot more depth and strategy to FE:LH than Eador.  Eador has one path and that is simply taking over surrounding settlements when you have your hero and army built up and then the shard, FE:LH has a lot decisions to be made.... where to settle, what type of settlement, you have to work for your Heroes now, they simply are not available to you when you want one.  FE:LH is a lot deeper than Eador, although I will still play and enjoy both.



PE

I've always felt that 4X games like CIV, GAL CIV, and FE:LH strength doesn't lay in telling the story to you, but giving the framework for you to tell the story of your empire as the turns pass along. 

^ +1

Quote from: bbmike on May 20, 2013, 05:33:22 PM

Quote from: bob48 on May 20, 2013, 04:56:44 PM
:-\ Can't make up me mind. This, Eador or AoW SM.......

If you had GADD (Game Attention Deficit Disorder) like me you would by them all.  ::)

If I had the money - I would buy 'em all. I have MDD (Money Deficit Disorder)  :(

Hmm.  Maybe I'll play this instead of Shogun 2... 

Quote from: bob48 on May 21, 2013, 01:05:56 PM

Quote from: bbmike on May 20, 2013, 05:33:22 PM

Quote from: bob48 on May 20, 2013, 04:56:44 PM
:-\ Can't make up me mind. This, Eador or AoW SM.......

If you had GADD (Game Attention Deficit Disorder) like me you would by them all.  ::)

If I had the money - I would buy 'em all. I have MDD (Money Deficit Disorder)  :(

I have both.  :-[ 

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 20, 2013, 04:55:01 PM
Hahaha!  Got killed by a wandering monster before settling your first town?

Chose to settle on the only mana resource available (after 5 previous restarts) which was next to a friendly looking beastie ...... it wasn't ..... end of the Empire.

P.S. I wonder if that counts as my first ever AAR ?

Tomorrow is the day!

And here is a nice summary (not exhaustive) of what has been changed in between FE and LH:
http://forums.elementalgame.com/444571

One thing I am really enjoying about FE:LH are the outpost.  I know this is a small thing that may not matter to most but I think it is a great feature.  If I was running a real empire I wouldn't be starting cities just to exploit one resource if a strategically weak position but the outpost make this possible.

I just started my first game how important is it that I spam cities? is it a race ?? do I need to have three or four cities right off the bat or can I simply used outposts?

Quote from: mikeck on May 21, 2013, 05:53:45 PM
I just started my first game how important is it that I spam cities? is it a race ?? do I need to have three or four cities right off the bat or can I simply used outposts?

Good question.  I just started my first game last night too, and I'm not yet spamming cities.  I'm on a pretty big map, so it might not matter as much, but any tips are appreciated.

Now I caution you on my advice, because I am not the grand master of winning FE:LH.

You need to do both.  Build cities and supporting outposts.  There is a need to spam some pioneers early to claim city locations, because as I'm sure you've found out you cannot just build a city in any tile you want.  So you want to claim availible tiles for a few reasons; the ai will do so, you need to have each of the city types one for research and mana, unit production, and citys for money, it also gives you the capabilty to produce units at multiple locations if the need arises.  The downside is there is an unrest penalty for the more cities you have in your empire, so you need the buildings and hero types to reduce that unrest or the productivity of your city goes down.  However it's easier to control the unrest than it is to claim new city tiles as the game progresses.

Outposts.  Claim resources even if you don't have a need.  So if you leader's magic is earth and air for example, you want those shards to increase the power and effectiveness of those spells.  However if nothing else claiming shards of other elements denies the other factions the shard and it opens up the possiblity for future heroes who may need that element.  Also remember that the outpost pushes the resources back to the city that produced the pioneer who founded the outpost.  At least that's how I understand it.  So if you have a fortress that needs material try and use a pioneer from that city to build the outpost claiming a clay tile.  That way the materials go to that cities production.

I say all this noting that I maybe completely wrong.  :D

The AI and random monsters are really kicking my butt in this game.  I can't seem to buff my units out fast enough to deal with them.  It is a challenge but in a good way.

I think it is a considerable improvement over Fallen Enchantress and is proving to be much more challenging. I also like the way heroes are recruited and promoted much better now. All and all a really good game.

Early in the game I've found in my numerous failed attempts that it's quantity over quality.  Eventually that trend starts to shift especially against most random wandering monsters.

I was under the impression that outposts are linked to the nearest city?  I don't know for sure though.  But either way, you can check by selecting the outpost and looking at its details.

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 22, 2013, 12:41:08 AM
I was under the impression that outposts are linked to the nearest city?  I don't know for sure though.  But either way, you can check by selecting the outpost and looking at its details.

I've noticed that this seems to be the case sometimes too.  However, I have had outposts nearer one city but the resources are directed toward the city where the pioneer came originated.  So I guess the conclusion is I don't know.

From my experience I would go with the quantity over quality approach in the early game as well. Especially if you're playing a 'turtle-style' faction like Gilden. Their early armor troops are pretty strong.

Later on you will *need* to be able to field armies with quality troops and big units.

As far as I know there is no way to prevent the early race for resources, but it makes sense from a lore perspective. Besides, most games like this have some sort of initial race for land/space/resources.

Oh and I would advise going for the Civics research tree early on as a general rule. It will make you expand and develop much quicker. There is one exception; if you choose Ceresa; her troops are week and you might want to focus on early warfare for a few turns, especially if you start near Gilden.

Only a few hours to go until release! :)
Which marks the end of the deal where early adopters of the franchise would get their free stuff as a thank you for sticking around as well. Hm.. now  I need to start paying again like the rest! ;)

Aaaand its out!

Ill be firing up a new campaign this evening.

Did they do a massive bug squashing after. 95? Still appeared to be a good number of bugs and game play issues on the forum. Either way I will have to fire up a new campaign.

Started a new campaign now that the game is officially released.  I had a CTD but thankfully the game auto-saved right before so I didn't lose anything.  Anyway, I thought I was doing well.  I had three cities (one of each specialty) and a few outposts at strategic points  I was beefing up an army group with my leader in it and things were going well.  Or at least I thought so.  In a matter of two turns two empires had declared war on me and I suddenly realized I only had one army of any significance.  Before I had a chance to build more units I lost two of my cities and an outpost.  It went downhill from there quickly and just like that it is time to start a new game. :)

They've supposedly already released patch V 1.1  but I'm not to check it out until later this evening, if I don't fall asleep at dinner.

WOW, its like a totally new game :) I am very impressed.

Quote from: FlickJax on May 23, 2013, 06:22:22 AM
WOW, its like a totally new game :) I am very impressed.

However still slows down on a huge map and have had 2 ctd's

I just started a campaign with a leader that I created.  Darth Bison.  Once I give him a good trial run, the plan is to do some sort of AAR or DAR thingy.

Quote from: Bison on May 24, 2013, 08:46:33 AM
Once I give him a good trial run, the plan is to do some sort of AAR or DAR thingy.

Ooh!  Ooh!  Bagsy being one of your heroes!

Quote from: Bison on May 24, 2013, 08:46:33 AM
I just started a campaign with a leader that I created.  Darth Bison.  Once I give him a good trial run, the plan is to do some sort of AAR or DAR thingy.

Looking forward to this.

So, is the silence on this thread because folks have been too busy playing to share any more impressions.  Or are folks still in a "wait and see" mode now that they're starting to unwrap all the different pieces?

I've played quite a bit and really enjoy it.  I've just been side tracked with a couple of other games.

Quote from: Bison on May 28, 2013, 12:42:26 AM
I've played quite a bit and really enjoy it.  I've just been side tracked with a couple of other games.

Same here.  I'm playing in very short bursts.  I have absolutely nothing negative to say about the game so far...it's improved even over the already solid Fallen Enchantress.  I've seen enough to be confident that it's a very good game; the only thing I can't comment on yet is end game.

Same: I keep switching around between this and 3 other games. It is a lot of fun and I  enjoying it more than Eador. Always stuff to do, quests to complete, etc. It's not dominions 3, but I like it more than AOW:sm (although in fairness this is simply because SM has a "look" that I don't like...too.."fairies, pixies and unicorns")

I mean, of you even remotely liked fallen enchantress, you will like this. I hated both Elemental and FE bug really like this.

Quote from: FarAway Sooner on May 27, 2013, 11:43:25 PM
So, is the silence on this thread because folks have been too busy playing to share any more impressions.  Or are folks still in a "wait and see" mode now that they're starting to unwrap all the different pieces?

File me under the "too busy playing (both Legendary Heroes and other games)" category.  :)  I've not gotten deep into my campaign yet, but I'm unquestionably having fun so far. 


Like Huw, I really don't have anything negative to say at the moment.  My sole "complaint" (which I mentioned to him the other day on Steam chat) is that I'd love it if armies were larger -- not necessarily on the Total War scale, but perhaps something like Knights of Honor or the Hegemony series -- but that's more of a wish than a critique.  Overall I've had a very positive experience thus far. 

Total gameplay to date: 13 Hours
Campaign Map Size: Small (5 players, 4 AI, 1 human (me))
Difficulty: Normal
My chosen leader: Kulan of Urxen

First off this game has that 'Just one more turn' quality to it.  At first glance at the screenshots posted online for this game one might compare FE:LH to Sid Meier's Civilization.  It's a shame really because comparing this game to Civilization is like comparing a Ferrari to a Ford Pinto or an Opel/Vauxhall Corsa.  FE:LH is so much more than a Civilization clone, in fact when playing the game you realize that this is what the Civ series should have been but Sid Meier lacks vision.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.memegenerator.net%2Finstances%2F400x%2F27599891.jpg&hash=a6b28eab4d64432734e5b3378c7b26d01023c4dd)

In FE:LH you are the leader of a faction that must tame the land as well as tame your foes.  The game is rich in detail and very deep in gameplay.  It may not be as deep as Dominions 3 but in some ways FE:LH is more addictive because of it's presentation.  I immediately noticed how well thought out the game menu design is as well as the mechanics of the game.  For example, take the 'next turn' button.  It will flash yellow when there is an idle city waiting to produce something, letting the gamer know that it might not be good to advance the turn yet.  This same button will flash green when you have moved all your units and attended to your cities production queues.  This is all assuming you have disabled auto next turn however. 

Another example of how smoothly gameplay flows is the research progress indicator bar.  It is color coded so that at a glance you can tell from which category the current research project is from.  There are three areas of research, Economic, Military, and Magic. 

Over to the left hand side of the screen is a list in the form of icons of your cities, units in the field, and quests.  By looking at these icons you can tell how many units are in a city and if the city is idle or not.  If the city is producing something you will see a sparkline type progress bar indicating how much of the current production project is completed.  Clicking on any of these icons will immediately jump you to that city or field unit location.  Simple navigation but brilliant idea for quickly jumping to areas of interest in the world map. 

As you discover more tech you will be able to customize your units.  Not happy with the standard archer the game has offered you?  Why not equip your archers with longbows, magic amulets, armor, and unit traits yourself?  Sure the unit will cost more to produce and maintain but this feature is a brilliant way for the gamer to utilize the tech he's discovered other then the canned game offerings.  You can even go so far as to tailor the unit's appearance.  I made myself a female heavy archer unit dressed in electric pink! 

Battles are fought in a separate tactical display.  Everything is turn based and some of your units have special attacks or abilities they can use in battle.  The tactical battle is a game within the game.  Make sure you have a line of melee infantry protecting your missile troops and have your hero unit behind your line supporting the men with his magic or special actions.  Battle is not entirely rock paper scissors but certain lineups are going to do poorly in battle.  In other words archers are going to get pummeled by melee troops. 

Diplomacy is a no nonsense affair.  You will know up front whether the target of your diplo/trade offer will accept or not based on the perceived value of the offer which is shown at the bottom of the dialogue.  In my opinion the diplomacy options presented in FE:LH is far better than a lot of other games out there. 

There is so much more to say about this game but I will say this, FE:LH is relatively easy to start playing without the need to read a manual or play a tutorial however the game is so deep that you will find yourself hungering for a wiki to teach you the all the subtle nuances.  I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes turn based strategy games.  I wish there was a World War 2 version of this game, I'd be in heaven!

FarAway Sooner, if there's anything specific you'd like to know about the game, just ask.

Quote from: Martok on May 28, 2013, 08:41:38 AM
(which I mentioned to him the other day on Steam chat)

Sorry about rushing off in the middle of chat by the way!

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 28, 2013, 08:45:59 AM
FarAway Sooner, if there's anything specific you'd like to know about the game, just ask.

Quote from: Martok on May 28, 2013, 08:41:38 AM
(which I mentioned to him the other day on Steam chat)

Sorry about rushing off in the middle of chat by the way!

You know there is a certain amount of irony to Martok finally coming around to steam.

Quote from: W8taminute on May 28, 2013, 08:43:03 AM
Over to the left hand side of the screen is a list in the form of icons of your cities, units in the field, and quests.  By looking at these icons you can tell how many units are in a city and if the city is idle or not.  If the city is producing something you will see a sparkline type progress bar indicating how much of the current production project is completed.  Clicking on any of these icons will immediately jump you to that city or field unit location.  Simple navigation but brilliant idea for quickly jumping to areas of interest in the world map. 

It goes one better than that, too.  As with similar games, if you don't want a city to build anything you can set it to indefinitely produce extra gold, research etc.  The city list will clearly mark any cities that are doing this, so when you research a new building type you can see at a glance which cities you need to set to start building again.  Brilliant design.

Quote from: Bison on May 28, 2013, 08:52:36 AM
You know there is a certain amount of irony to Martok finally coming around to steam.

Do tell!

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 28, 2013, 08:45:59 AM

Quote from: Martok on May 28, 2013, 08:41:38 AM
(which I mentioned to him the other day on Steam chat)

Sorry about rushing off in the middle of chat by the way!

Oh, no worries man!  I was happily playing away, exploring the environs around my capital.  I didn't even realize you'd been gone that long til you apologized for having been away.  8) 

Quote from: Bison on May 28, 2013, 08:52:36 AM
You know there is a certain amount of irony to Martok finally coming around to steam.

Well "coming around" is probably not so accurate as "forced to use".  ;)  I'm still not fond of Steam, and probably never will be, but I've come to reluctantly accept I have no choice but to use it if I want to play certain games (such as Fallen Enchantress: Legendary  Heroes, StarDrive, Shogun 2, etc.).  I can live with it; I just don't like it. 

Quote from: Martok on May 28, 2013, 09:23:24 AM
Well "coming around" is probably not so accurate as "forced to use".  ;)  I'm still not fond of Steam, and probably never will be, but I've come to reluctantly accept I have no choice but to use it if I want to play certain games (such as Fallen Enchantress: Legendary  Heroes, StarDrive, Shogun 2, etc.).  I can live with it; I just don't like it. 

I can relate to this.  It took until Christmas 2011 before I finally installed it.  It's still the last place I look to buy a game, except for the mental holiday sales.  I'd rather buy via GoG or Desura, both of which offer DRM-free games and both of which make it as easy to update your games as Steam.

Quote from: Bison on May 28, 2013, 08:52:36 AM

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 28, 2013, 08:45:59 AM
FarAway Sooner, if there's anything specific you'd like to know about the game, just ask.

Quote from: Martok on May 28, 2013, 08:41:38 AM
(which I mentioned to him the other day on Steam chat)

Sorry about rushing off in the middle of chat by the way!

You know there is a certain amount of irony to Martok finally coming around to steam.

You're forced to these days, since so many titles require it.

I fully embraced my Steam overlords a few years ago.  I figure Steam overlords are better than ant or alien overlords.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mtbshorts.co.za%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2009%2F07%2Fsimpsons-alien.jpg&hash=14f103bbb3e103da7dfcc266e1fa9757580b0648)

Do I hear the song 'I told y'all so!" playing in the background?

Quote from: W8taminute on May 28, 2013, 08:43:03 AM

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes

I wish there was a World War 2 version of this game, I'd be in heaven!

Dude....no...

Quote from: mikeck on May 28, 2013, 02:00:35 PM

Quote from: W8taminute on May 28, 2013, 08:43:03 AM

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes

I wish there was a World War 2 version of this game, I'd be in heaven!

Dude....no...

I can see it now, Hitler with the ability to cast firebolts, McArthur can have bigger armies then everyone else, President Roosevelt has telekenesis and mind reading.


On second thought it sounds to much like the last Indiana Jones movie....

Quote from: Kushan on May 28, 2013, 02:15:22 PM

Quote from: mikeck on May 28, 2013, 02:00:35 PM

Quote from: W8taminute on May 28, 2013, 08:43:03 AM

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes

I wish there was a World War 2 version of this game, I'd be in heaven!

Dude....no...

I can see it now, Hitler with the ability to cast firebolts, McArthur can have bigger armies then everyone else, President Roosevelt has telekenesis and mind reading.


On second thought it sounds to much like the last Indiana Jones movie....

I was thinking using the engine to create a TBS WW2 grand strategy game.  Not fusing magic, goblins, and mages with Panzers, Afrika Korps, or bazookas.   ;)

Lol... I know. I'm laughing because the last thing i need is another turn-based strategy World War II game Considering all of the under gamed eras. But I have to admit Hitler casting fireball spells and Stalin calling down orcs and lightning bolts is pretty cool

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 28, 2013, 08:45:59 AM
FarAway Sooner, if there's anything specific you'd like to know about the game, just ask.

I do have one question:  What's an Entrantress, and can you still call her that after she leaves?

:D

Smart-ass one-liners aside, I actually do have one real question:  In comparison to Fallen Enchantress, does the game seem to come any more alive? 

The unit graphics look better (the visuals in FE just didn't do it for me, and the unit graphics were too tiny and non-distinct), but I had the same feeling with the different monsters and factions in FE that I got from Gal Civ I and II:  After a very short time, I just stopped thinking of the enemy units as the characters they represented and started thinking of them as abstract collections of stats.  In FE, it was partly the lack of a coherent back story and partly the nonsensical names of monsters:  While I can infer that a Ratkin is kind of whimpy, how can I tell the difference between a Skar and a Greater Skar and a Skaardvark and a Dantog and a Morkon?  (OK, I made those last two up, but the fact that the only monsters I can remember from FE 2 months after playing for 40+ hours are Ogres and Trolls makes it seem kinda silly)

I loved the FE game system, but the world in which I lived seemed very cardboard.  I generally like to role-play my own 4x ruler and can embellish freely, but I need to at least be able to keep straight different archetypes, and I just couldn't.  Does the game world seem alive to you guys, with some interesting and recognizable characters whom you grow to know, or is it just like a gigantic numerical puzzle?

Gal Civ was a game I played a lot, but eventually it just became "spreadsheets in space".  Will FE: LH just become "high fantasy spreadsheets" if I shell out the extra $20 for the expansion?

Quote from: W8taminute on May 28, 2013, 02:37:53 PM

Quote from: Kushan on May 28, 2013, 02:15:22 PM

Quote from: mikeck on May 28, 2013, 02:00:35 PM

Quote from: W8taminute on May 28, 2013, 08:43:03 AM

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes

I wish there was a World War 2 version of this game, I'd be in heaven!

Dude....no...

I can see it now, Hitler with the ability to cast firebolts, McArthur can have bigger armies then everyone else, President Roosevelt has telekenesis and mind reading.


On second thought it sounds to much like the last Indiana Jones movie....

I was thinking using the engine to create a TBS WW2 grand strategy game.  Not fusing magic, goblins, and mages with Panzers, Afrika Korps, or bazookas.   ;)

Frankly, the fusion idea is a Hell of a lot more interesting than yet another TBS WW2 grand strategy game.  ;D

Quote from: Steelgrave on May 21, 2013, 10:33:01 PM
I think it is a considerable improvement over Fallen Enchantress and is proving to be much more challenging. I also like the way heroes are recruited and promoted much better now. All and all a really good game.

+1

I've played a handful of aborted games, learning how the system works and one game to the finish where I won using the mastery spell.

I really like the gui, it is easy to tell what is going on and so far I haven't had any problems running the game.  I was playing on a large map and I didn't notice any slow downs from the beginning to the end and I've not had any crashes.

I was playing a sandbox game on challenging and although I was way behind in the power list, I was able to build the towers and cast the spell to win without any opponents even starting a tower.  I also seemed to be ahead in tech with the few encounters I had with the other players, so I'm not sure what the power number means.

I like the tactical battles and the AI seems to do a decent job, but I do wish there were some kind of terrain effects, like bonuses or penalties for attack/defense or extra movement costs.  As it is, the terrain looks nice, but as far as I can tell it might as well just be impassable squares.  Also, I wish there was some kind of line of sight for direct fire ranged attacks.

Overall, I think it is a very good game and I'm looking forward to Stardock continuing to improve it.

its a friday purchase

Fallen Enchantress

No the thread title spelling doesn't bother me.

Fallen Enchantress

No really I don't mind at all...

Fallen Enchantress

Meh.  Spelling is a relative thingy.

For those who are interested, SpaceSector's review of Legendary Heroes has now been posted (http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2013/05/fallen-enchantress-legendary-heroes-review/).  Overall it's a very positive review, while still noting there are various areas for improvement. 



I myself continue to have a blast playing this.  I still don't always know what I'm doing, but I'm having fun while bumbling around!  :) 

It's a fun game. They have put up the mod forum now too. Heavenfall has his Children of Storm version 1.0 out adding more races, items, talents, and more.

The only thing I would like differently are somewhat bigger armies and for terrain to matter during the tactical battles.

Quote from: Capn Darwin on June 01, 2013, 08:06:54 AM
It's a fun game. They have put up the mod forum now too. Heavenfall has his Children of Storm version 1.0 out adding more races, items, talents, and more.

Thanks for the heads up on this.  Some of the areas that for me needed some more fleshing out where item, hero, and talent variety.

Quote from: Capn Darwin on June 01, 2013, 08:06:54 AM
It's a fun game. They have put up the mod forum now too. Heavenfall has his Children of Storm version 1.0 out adding more races, items, talents, and more.

Perhaps this is what it needs most.  While I've tinkered with the game some, it still seems rather stale in the content category.  Maybe it's the dull 3D graphics style that makes me Bleh about it, because the game mechanics are fine.  I've only played in short stints before switching to something else, thus far.

Quote from: TheCommandTent on June 01, 2013, 08:23:56 AM
The only thing I would like differently are somewhat bigger armies and for terrain to matter during the tactical battles.

This is my biggest wish for the game as well. 

Quote from: Nefaro on June 01, 2013, 12:28:31 PM
While I've tinkered with the game some, it still seems rather stale in the content category.  Maybe it's the dull 3D graphics style that makes me Bleh about it, because the game mechanics are fine.  I've only played in short stints before switching to something else, thus far.

+1, this has been where I've ended up as well.  The tactical combat is better than the original FE, but it still isn't enough to grab me.  Maybe I just need to play it longer.  I honestly hadn't realized the majority of the changes outlined in the Star Sector review.

I think I want it to be an AGEOD fantasy game and it isn't.  I need to give up on that and try and play the game it really is.

.

Thanks for the heads-up eyebiter.  Have you tried it out at all? 

I really need to get back into this game.  It's really well done, but I've gotten side tracked with other games.

Quote from: panzerde on June 01, 2013, 07:47:59 PM

Quote from: Nefaro on June 01, 2013, 12:28:31 PM
While I've tinkered with the game some, it still seems rather stale in the content category.  Maybe it's the dull 3D graphics style that makes me Bleh about it, because the game mechanics are fine.  I've only played in short stints before switching to something else, thus far.

+1, this has been where I've ended up as well.  The tactical combat is better than the original FE, but it still isn't enough to grab me.  Maybe I just need to play it longer.  I honestly hadn't realized the majority of the changes outlined in the Star Sector review.

I think I want it to be an AGEOD fantasy game and it isn't.  I need to give up on that and try and play the game it really is.

God no ;)  Ageod is a borefest for me

.

I avoid anything that has words (Stardock and Beta) like the plague! :o

I feel like FE:LH has evolved into a very good title and one I really enjoy playing.  I think it is shoulders above other games currently in its class and is one reason I do not play Eador.  I enjoy playing it and like the customization you can give to your heroes, characters, and factions. 


PE

Quote from: SgtRock on October 24, 2013, 09:58:18 AM
I avoid anything that has words (Stardock and Beta) like the plague! :o

Are you judging the man or the game? ;)

I am with PE. The game has matured pretty well and is a solid fantasy 4x game. You can argue about the graphics or the art direction of course, but that's comes down to personal preference. Fact is that the game is now fun, has tons of replayability and work well.

Agreed, Yskonyn.  I've been playing it again since yesterday, and I once more marvel at how enjoyable it is (especially compared to all the criticism leveled at the original Elemental game).  Yes, the series' visuals are certainly a case of YMMV, but I personally have no problem with them. 

I have the original game....is LH an add-on or a completely stand-alone game?

Quote from: Rayfer on October 24, 2013, 04:09:08 PM
I have the original game....is LH an add-on or a completely stand-alone game?

It's a standalone, however depending on when you bought WoM, you might be entitled to a free copy.

By the by, the 1.4 update has now been officially released (http://forums.elementalgame.com/448478/page/1/). 

Quote
Features

Added the Fallen Enchantress scenario.

Added the Slam ability (monsters with this ability get a 25% to cause victims they attack to lose their next turn).

Tech updates now merge if the internal name matches (for modders).

Added the Summon Darkling spell

Added the Summon Spider spell

Added the Summon Harridan spell

Added the Summon Wilding spell

Added the Summon Shrill spell

Added the Summon Plaguestalker spell



Fixes

Fixed an issue that revealed the entire map for human players when the AI cast Ineluctable Vision.

Fixed bug where if main map objects were asked to be selected while the tactical window was up (could cause some odd behavior when exiting tactical battles).

Cities now make sure their hubs match the city's selected state, so that we don't have issues where a city appears to be selected but is not actually selected, and vice versa (usually manifested as difficulty selecting/deselecting a given city hub).

Fixed a bug where sometimes conquering an AI city wouldn't allow you to do certain production projects until you reloaded the game, due to the projects not always getting cancelled correctly.

Fixed some artifacting issues on forests (unfortunately this isn't as exciting as having magical artifacts in forests, the graphics guy tell me that artifacts are a bad thing).

Fixed an issue where Champion Shimsher could get Sweep twice.

Fixed lots of issues with placing rivers in the editor.

Fixed the Gust of Wind ability (not the spell), where it wouldnt knock units back if they resisted.

Fixed annoying issue where the hour glass cursor would show when looking at the tech tree.

Fixed common-ish crash bug due to multiple cities looking at the buildable improvements list at the same time.

Fixed a deadlock issue with regards to cities looking at resources (would appear to player as a lockup).

Fixed an issue where you could have a trait selected in the trait tree from a former champions selection.

Improved performance, especially on late game large maps.

Crash fixes.



Balance

Reduced the Fire Shill's Embers damage slightly.

Tectonic Bulwark can now only be be gotten from defeating Torax.

Crag Spawn hit points and defense from level increased, init was lowered slightly.

Earth Elemental hit points and defense from level increased, init was lowered slightly.

Earth Elementals, Grave Elementals, Ancient Grave Elementals, and Stone Golems gain the Slam ability.

Champion Vasim's given a masterwork chain breatpiece (was incorrectly set before).

Champion Rostyra gains Lethal 2 (had Lethal 1 set twice before).

Champion Ulrik gains the Noble trait.

The Gray March (Trog Spearmen) don't start with Chain Mail Proficiency anymore.

Increased the time it takes to for darkling huts to upgrade

Darkling Shamans can summon Darkling Warriors into battle

Haunters can summon Plaguestalkers into battle

Hoarder Spiders can summon Gatherer Spiders into battle

Giant Ravenous Harridan can summon Ravenous Harridans into battle

Shrill Lords can summon groups of Shrills into battle

Spider Queens can summon Gatherer Spiders and Ravenous Harridans into battle

Wilding Shamans can summon Wilding Riders into battle

Increased the damage on Maces, Battle Axes, Boar Spears, Short Swords, Mauls, Pikes, Longswords and Great Axes (along with magical variants)

Reduced the Init penalty on Mauls form -6 to -4.

You can now cast Burning Hands even if you have freindly units in the radius (they won't be effected).

Light Plate Armor now only requires Chain Mail Armor proficiency to wear.



AI

AI won't cast wither on armies without an attack (caravans) anymore.

Monsters are generally more aggressive in neutral and player territory

AI players more aggressive about going after monsters near their cities

AI much better about using magic in tactical battles

AI much better about using summons in tactical battles

Wow, that's a beefy patch. Maybe it's time to try it again.  8)

I'm planning to fire up a new campaign before I go to bed tonight.  :) 

Quote from: Martok on October 24, 2013, 04:23:28 PM
By the by, the 1.4 update has now been officially released (http://forums.elementalgame.com/448478/page/1/). 

Quote
Features

Added the Fallen Enchantress scenario.

Added the Slam ability (monsters with this ability get a 25% to cause victims they attack to lose their next turn).

Tech updates now merge if the internal name matches (for modders).

Added the Summon Darkling spell

Added the Summon Spider spell

Added the Summon Harridan spell

Added the Summon Wilding spell

Added the Summon Shrill spell

Added the Summon Plaguestalker spell



Fixes

Fixed an issue that revealed the entire map for human players when the AI cast Ineluctable Vision.

Fixed bug where if main map objects were asked to be selected while the tactical window was up (could cause some odd behavior when exiting tactical battles).

Cities now make sure their hubs match the city's selected state, so that we don't have issues where a city appears to be selected but is not actually selected, and vice versa (usually manifested as difficulty selecting/deselecting a given city hub).

Fixed a bug where sometimes conquering an AI city wouldn't allow you to do certain production projects until you reloaded the game, due to the projects not always getting cancelled correctly.

Fixed some artifacting issues on forests (unfortunately this isn't as exciting as having magical artifacts in forests, the graphics guy tell me that artifacts are a bad thing).

Fixed an issue where Champion Shimsher could get Sweep twice.

Fixed lots of issues with placing rivers in the editor.

Fixed the Gust of Wind ability (not the spell), where it wouldnt knock units back if they resisted.

Fixed annoying issue where the hour glass cursor would show when looking at the tech tree.

Fixed common-ish crash bug due to multiple cities looking at the buildable improvements list at the same time.

Fixed a deadlock issue with regards to cities looking at resources (would appear to player as a lockup).

Fixed an issue where you could have a trait selected in the trait tree from a former champions selection.

Improved performance, especially on late game large maps.

Crash fixes.



Balance

Reduced the Fire Shill's Embers damage slightly.

Tectonic Bulwark can now only be be gotten from defeating Torax.

Crag Spawn hit points and defense from level increased, init was lowered slightly.

Earth Elemental hit points and defense from level increased, init was lowered slightly.

Earth Elementals, Grave Elementals, Ancient Grave Elementals, and Stone Golems gain the Slam ability.

Champion Vasim's given a masterwork chain breatpiece (was incorrectly set before).

Champion Rostyra gains Lethal 2 (had Lethal 1 set twice before).

Champion Ulrik gains the Noble trait.

The Gray March (Trog Spearmen) don't start with Chain Mail Proficiency anymore.

Increased the time it takes to for darkling huts to upgrade

Darkling Shamans can summon Darkling Warriors into battle

Haunters can summon Plaguestalkers into battle

Hoarder Spiders can summon Gatherer Spiders into battle

Giant Ravenous Harridan can summon Ravenous Harridans into battle

Shrill Lords can summon groups of Shrills into battle

Spider Queens can summon Gatherer Spiders and Ravenous Harridans into battle

Wilding Shamans can summon Wilding Riders into battle

Increased the damage on Maces, Battle Axes, Boar Spears, Short Swords, Mauls, Pikes, Longswords and Great Axes (along with magical variants)

Reduced the Init penalty on Mauls form -6 to -4.

You can now cast Burning Hands even if you have freindly units in the radius (they won't be effected).

Light Plate Armor now only requires Chain Mail Armor proficiency to wear.



AI

AI won't cast wither on armies without an attack (caravans) anymore.

Monsters are generally more aggressive in neutral and player territory

AI players more aggressive about going after monsters near their cities

AI much better about using magic in tactical battles

AI much better about using summons in tactical battles

Duuuuuuuuuude - I can't wait to play the patched version!  I love this game.  Guess we'd better get the game computer working again...

Now I just gotta figure out if I want to play as Gilden again, or a different faction this time.  (Yes, I know I can go with a custom channeler/faction, but I like to play around with the stock ones first.)  Decisions, decisions... 

Wow, it is funny how this game suddenly caught fire.  I was part of the beta War of Magic fiasco - that game was a big disappointment as we all know.  Fallen Enchantress was a definite improvement, but in the final analysis it got little more than a "meh" from me.  I had pretty much given up on the franchise altogether.  The other day I installed Legendary Heroes in a fit of boredom (and to get some clues about GalCiv III  ;) ) but I never expected to play more than a few turns.  But wow, this game has finally arrived!  I just put 10 hours into my first campaign, and have now started a second campaign (because of the 1.4 patch). The game is really shining now!  All the mechanics are finally coming together in a coherent and entertaining fashion. 

I think one more expansion and this franchise might start catching up to the legend that is GalCiv 2. 

EDIT: My latest sov: 

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi226.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fdd70%2FCrusaderScott%2FFE%2520Legendary%2520Heroes%2F1378814_10201758992889352_1264352531_n_zps420e7876.jpg&hash=c938dff8fe3430214418971cd00e81d6d4c53f5d)

Quote from: bbmike on October 24, 2013, 06:55:24 PM
Wow, that's a beefy patch. Maybe it's time to try it again.  8)

+1


I got so much on my plate right now but I really have to give this game some more time again.  It really is a good game.

Stared a new game last night as the Magnar Empire.... my last game was a custom Kingdom.


PE

Ye gads, I played this for almost ten hours last night and this morning.  :o 

I think it's safe to say I'm hooked on this one... 

http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2013/10/fallen-enchantress-legendary-heroes-the-dead-world-dlc/

Hey! New DLC released today. A whole new kingdom of the Undead. Raise skeleton armies that harvest bodies for food and such. Looks cool and I'm picking it up.

Quote from: mikeck on October 31, 2013, 01:05:19 PM
http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2013/10/fallen-enchantress-legendary-heroes-the-dead-world-dlc/

Hey! New DLC released today. A whole new kingdom of the Undead. Raise skeleton armies that harvest bodies for food and such. Looks cool and I'm picking it up.

That one looks worth it at the price point.....


PE

I would wait a bit.  I see a lot of bug reports on this DLC.  Seems a bit rushed.

Quote from: RooksBailey on October 31, 2013, 03:21:30 PM
I would wait a bit.  I see a lot of bug reports on this DLC.  Seems a bit rushed.

I'm looking at the "elemental forums" at elementalgame.com (star docks site) and steam forums and I don't see any posts or complaints about  it...where are you looking so I can read up? I want to pick this up

There are a few threads in the LH support forum:

http://forums.elementalgame.com/forum/1049

Nothing terrible, but odds and ends.

EDIT: this was the thread I was looking at in particular:

http://forums.elementalgame.com/449677/page/1/#3412793

I don't know what trogs are, but it appears a lot of gripes are about what the undead cities look like. Doesn't matter to me. I went ahead and grabbed it but understand why others would wait. I just want to build an undead army...I mean, who doesn't?

Good lord, the forum grippers are out in full force over at stardock...not complaining about the DLC itself. Nope. Complaining about the price and the fact that there is no Halloween sale for it. Keep in mind it's $4.00. I swear, if you handed these people $20, they would bitch that it wasn't $25

Quote from: mikeck on October 31, 2013, 05:19:44 PM
I don't know what trogs are, but it appears a lot of gripes are about what the undead cities look like. Doesn't matter to me. I went ahead and grabbed it but understand why others would wait. I just want to build an undead army...I mean, who doesn't?

(https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRPpmWrT-lGZJMOP6mPCP8NZjR2mBkmtVZjBHKHHSOtcrae1Zvs)

All right, you primitive screw-heads, listen up! See this? This... is my boomstick!


PE

I haven't bought any of the dlc yet, are they worth it? And if so which one do you rate the best?

I finally got around to designing my first unit: Auxilia Warg Cavalry.  Fun! 


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1108.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fh412%2FRotarrin%2FGame%2520screenies%2FAuxiliaWargCavalry_zps482d11b9.jpg&hash=37408ed8d8aa665c0317bbcacd2553f80f2d95c3)

I think the DLCs are worth it mainly because they are cheap. It's like 5$

Quote from: mikeck on November 03, 2013, 09:19:20 AM
I think the DLCs are worth it mainly because they are cheap. It's like 5$

I know but xmas is coming :(  should be every other year

Yeah I get it...plus it adds up. Start grabbing this and that and next thing you know...you dropped $45

F*** me, the Wither spell sucks...at least when it's cast on your Sovereign and his army, that is.  I now have to endure three entire seasons of my leader and his troops dishing out damage like they're wielding frickin' whiffle bats.  :( 

Of course, that's probably because I've now defeated Warlord Verga twice (I'm currently at war with Yithril); this is probably just his way of getting petty revenge.  ;D 


On a more serious note:  Since getting the 1.4 update, I've been having problems with CTD's when trying to load saved-games; it happens about 50% of the time.  It's not a huge PITA, but it is rather irritating. 

I like the DLC, however not worth the full price.  I would suggest a sale, although they do add to the game... not enough to justify spend $5 per.  Newest DLC maybe the exception.


PE

I agree wither is a real nasty spell to have cast on you Martok.  I didn't know there was a global version of it available.  I usually use the local battlefield version to great effect.

Actually, I think Wither is only a strategic spell.  There's a tactical version too, then (maybe called something else)?  Lord knows there's enough spells that I've not even remotely familiarized myself with more than a small handful of them. 


Verga's latest trick has been to cast Tremor on my units.  You can cast it on enemies when they're in your territory; it's a decent defensive spell if you want to pin enemy units in place.  I've been working on assaulting one of Yithril's cities (in fact, I just took it -- finally!), so they've been doing everything they can to stop me. 

(Oh yeah, and I've now killed Verga a third time.  Lucky for Sovereigns they don't die when the faction still has a city left! ;D ) 

Quote from: Martok on November 04, 2013, 01:34:23 PM
Actually, I think Wither is only a strategic spell.  There's a tactical version too, then (maybe called something else)?

Wither works as a tactical spell, too (same name).  It is my first spell going into a battle.    ;D

Some big diplomacy changes coming in 1.5.  I am really glad to see this as I am tired of being on the bottom of an AI dog pile.  >:(

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes 1.5 changelog   (http://forums.elementalgame.com/449781/page/1/#3414145)

Also, a patch for the latest Dead DLC is expected this week.  BTW: is it true that the AI will not use the new Dead faction?  If so, I just lost interest.  :(

Any word when the 1.5 patch is going to be released? I didn't see it

WTF??!!!!!!!!!!! 

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1108.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fh412%2FRotarrin%2FGame%2520screenies%2FBloodSeason_zps4d126570.jpg&hash=ac78b05546c8af08b82653e9b82a751a986670f2)

What madness is this??  (Did I forget to turn off Random Events?  Or is it one that's unavoidable?)  Man, this is gonna suck... 

Quote from: RooksBailey on November 04, 2013, 04:25:24 PM

Quote from: Martok on November 04, 2013, 01:34:23 PM
Actually, I think Wither is only a strategic spell.  There's a tactical version too, then (maybe called something else)?

Wither works as a tactical spell, too (same name).  It is my first spell going into a battle.    ;D

Ah, I stand corrected then.  I'm admittedly not familiar with the Wither spell (perhaps because I'm playing as a Kingdom?). 
 

Quote from: RooksBailey on November 04, 2013, 04:25:24 PM
Some big diplomacy changes coming in 1.5.  I am really glad to see this as I am tired of being on the bottom of an AI dog pile.  >:(

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes 1.5 changelog   (http://forums.elementalgame.com/449781/page/1/#3414145)

Yes, that will be a nice change.  Let's hope it actually works as intended. 

Quote from: mikeck on November 04, 2013, 04:53:58 PM
Any word when the 1.5 patch is going to be released? I didn't see it

In the changelog thread, Derek said it should hopefully go beta next week. 

I think that is a random event I have never had it happen. If I'm not mistaken you can turn random events off and set up or at least turn them down. Or you can put on your big boy pants and fight it out!

Aw, but I don't want to put on my big-boy pants!  They look funny on me. :P 


Seriously, though, I'm kind of in a bad spot:  I'm the most centrally-located of all ten factions (more or less), and my Scouts have long since encountered all the other factions.  Ergo, I'm at war with EVERYONE...and I'm the only faction for whom that's the case. 

What's even worse is that I've kinda just been dinking around the whole time -- this is my first real play-through of FE:LH, so I'm still learning.  Unfortunately, this also means my cities are not even remotely optimized for...well, anything really -- certainly not for war, at any rate! 


More than anything else, though, I'll now be forced to be a conqueror, which just feels...kinda wrong when playing as a Kingdom.  ::)  I wanted to cast the Spell of Making, not subjugate the continent!  Gah! 

I think you can still get peace treatise with them. Not 100% sure. After a few turns, offer peace to a faction or two. Like I said, I haven't had it happen yet but I also haven't played a ton. I did get one where a bunch of skeletons rose up and attacked me

.

I forget what pain in the ass this game is and how hard it is early on.

Anyone ever had this happen?

You think your doing ok (14-19) in each research area, then you go to trade and found out all the AI players are 75-85 in all areas?

Your at peace with every one, you save and the next time you reload the games your at war with every one with in 1 or 2 turns?

As soon as a town is down to 1 or 2 units the AI attacks that town?

An enemy attacks with 10 stacks with back to back battles wiping out your strongest units and towns with no chance to heal/re-enforce?

Your trying to select units to build in a town but, after a dozen interrupts and moved all over the map, forget what town you were trying to build units in?

I really want to love FE more but it constantly kicks my arse.  :P

Quote from: bbmike on March 29, 2014, 05:43:21 PM
I really want to love FE more but it constantly kicks my arse.  :P

It normally takes me 4 or 5 restarts to get a game going!

Good lord.  :o  What difficulty level are you guys playing on?? 

I'm playing on Normal level.  :-[

Boost your Production more and build the Tower of Dominion first thing!

Quote from: bbmike on April 01, 2014, 03:35:05 PM
I'm playing on Normal level.  :-[

Goodness.  I must just be lucky so far, as I can't believe I'm that much of a better player... 

Quote from: FarAway Sooner on April 02, 2014, 09:12:20 AM
Boost your Production more and build the Tower of Dominion first thing!

Personally, I build a Merchant first (gotta get the money coming in!), then the Tower of Dominion.  But I agree you do want to get that built pretty much right away.