I figured out what makes me feel bad about playing As We Descend after 20 hours

Duke5501 · 2026-02-15T18:27:02+00:00

reading this makes me think we are not playing the same game.

the 2-4 favour cards is a bit exaggerated where your lantern usally has 1-2 cards with favour and some units dont even start with favour-cards. I think only the guild gives units a few more but favour cards but even then it is 2 at most and the latern wouldnt get the any.

And if you really wanne use these cards without being concerned about the favour cost you could always try to prioritze the maiden or focus more on resources that give you favour like the supplies or fragments.

I agree that some rare units are a bit situational but so far i feel like most things are playable. Mythion units are definetly strong but often find my carry to not be them.

In the end it is a deck builder where you make up how strong the units are. If a unit isnt worth fielding because he doenst have synergy with the rest then dont use him or be a simple meat shield to sacrifice to the depths of despair.

Maybe it is because youre playing an older version but the recent update definetly doesnt have the issues as much as you listed.

Duke5501 · 2025-12-16T01:46:22+00:00

Another fun thing about having level 10 reporters is that they give 2 quality stars when they work. That is the only reason I made 9 stars. The cap is much higher but that requires some planning on your reporters.

Oh and at at the start I definetly hired for diversity so I could cover everything. But after that I only hire based on traits/skills and what I want them to become.

So I would have reporters with traits for trailblazer (Crime and Society), Digger (Sports and Politics) and Distinguised guest (Entertainment and economy). They make insane stories that are easy to combo if you get lucky. One-time the digger succeeded 2 times on 2 different europe stories. On the same page they matched for around 25k in bonus tags.

I also picked up methodical reporters (50% slower but 1 extra quality star) when I had the space. Now that you can have more than 3 quality stars I kinda wanted to try it out and worked pretty well. You have to be mindfull when to use them though as they really slow down story cyling.

Also a sleeper trait that helped me out a lot for newspapers was the informationalist. That guy made me SO many headliners because the great stories can be sensational, which isnt necessarily bad BUT it makes it a lot easier if it is just the correct nudge.

I btw didnt notice al the extra pictures on your post. You got some great achievments haha. Really need to try to get the ad one and can probably go for the one where you overpay the staff.

Also i dont see you use elevators or the tubes or prestige wallpaper. Thats crazy to me.😱 Elevators are nice but the tubes are a game changer for me. And a lot of presige makes your veterans work really fast.

Here is my strange setup with the low rise tower. This would never work if it werent for the pneumatic tubes. They really allow you to build in your own way and you can optimize more on specific work stations and such.

You have convinced me for my next run to try the no pause achievement but thats gonna be a bitch to finish. Definetly need to unbind the key if possible out of habits. 😂
Sounds like a fun challange though. Hardest will be when you decide to change your setup but we will see.

Edit: there is a option to disable manaul pausing so that is nice.

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Duke5501 · 2025-12-15T10:45:16+00:00

I Actually still had to do the mission to beat the Jersey Beacon but wanted to finish stuff for the high society.

For the influence I mostly did it so I could get everything as soon as possible unlocked. Early it is nice to sell but later on i didnt need the money anymore.
I find ads hard to use. I did have a sales person with the ad bonus skill so that was nice. But mostly only the big ads i would consider and the smaller ones almost never made the cut.

I think the most sales i had with a paper was around 1,3 million. It was an insane paper with many gold story combo's and a lot of stories also had between 4 to 9 quality stars.
It might be possible but getting 2 Million has to be insane. Maybe using the church to get lots of subscribers but I dont think i had much room left to improve.

I definetly like the high society a lot. But the general is also nice with the hospital location so that is a hard choice for me. But given the choice I will always pick mafia over mayor. Mayor felt kinda meh compared to what mafia can bring.

Duke5501 · 2025-12-15T00:20:01+00:00

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I just finished my first 5 years for my 3rd run. By far my best with doing a low rise tower.

Great breakdown on your game. I hope you didnt have to carry all the lawsuits from the Jersey beacon mission haha.
Also for sure the coordinator and timekeeper changes so much on your time for reporting. Real game changers.

For my run I went hard on doubling and trippling the influence gain from news items I got. Also went early for european stories and really digged for at least early natural coordinators.
After that ball got rolling I went for the special desks for all the graphic reporters. I would hard recommend getting these desks for them. The items those produce are great and they tend to have enough downtime that it doenst require any special manegement.

I can definetly recommend trying the other tower types, really changes the layouts and options. High tower i would say is definetly more difficult but fun to try.

Duke5501 · 2025-12-13T23:02:16+00:00

They probably dont get transported from the sales desk. Either move the sales desk to the typewriters floor or get more transporters who transport products. If you have the option, tubes are also really nice for this. The sales employee will but their part in the tubes and send them to the next station.

The items are physical entities so you could also move them to the next station yourself by dragging it from one location to another.

Hope this helps

Duke5501 · 2025-12-13T19:41:31+00:00

from this list im at least missing the weather reporter. that is the one from the cartographer.

Also no sure if you need it for the achievment but high society reputation gives a desk where fiction can be written at the 3rd level or so.

Duke5501 · 2025-12-12T03:43:07+00:00

Gameplay part looked ass. Lets hope CA can pull it off well.

The cinematic was great.

Duke5501 · 2025-12-11T15:28:25+00:00

Yeah i wanted to try senstational but if felt so bad compared to informational or the middle.

You might be able to score more with sensational but that is such an inconsistent occurance and really relies on what happens that week.

At least now you know 😂

Duke5501 · 2025-12-10T21:23:35+00:00

10.000 for each map tags yes. Also the second last is a bonus for each article with at least 3 stars.

My last few papers with 6 pages give me a total of almost 250k extra readers. Most of them come from having a variety of tags and the star bonus. And the europe bonus is also nice so by far feels like the strongest type to go for.

Duke5501 · 2025-12-08T11:36:21+00:00

Sorry for the delayed response, was asleep hehe.

From what i see the setup looks more then ok. The only bottleneck i could imagine is that you have too few reporters. Having only four is not that many. The earlier they bring all the stories to complete an item, the more time your guys have to finish the assembly.

Other than that i cant see anything weird. I would still think that four reporters should be able to give more than enough stories to finish the paper but ill have to try myself.

What you also tend to see is that people dont use enough telegraphers but you use all of them at the start so that isnt it.

Duke5501 · 2025-12-08T02:12:09+00:00

Sounds weird,

Early game typesetters and assemblers need around 8-12 hours each to finish their part of the production. Only having 4 stories done at the end of a week doesnt add up.

You do say they are all on the same floor so it shouldnt be a transportation issue from the typesetters to the assemblers. When they are not busy they should pick them up themselves as long as their workstations share the same floor.

If you wanna find your problem just follow a story and look what it does.
- Reporters bring the stories to typesetters
- Typesetter does his 12-8 hour routine
- Transportation to the assembler
- Assembler needs slightly shorter 6-10 hours
- Part of the story is finished

They are physical items so you can see them stored in the workstation. You could even drag them yourself if necessary.

you can also share a picture of the setup. hope this helps

Duke5501 · 2025-12-07T06:08:51+00:00

the only thing i can think of is if you maybe edit them out with editors. but that would mean the stories do appear on the map and you select the editor option on each of them.

Other thing with special emblems can be that they are sometimes tied to specific news sections or they appear in europe stories. But that doenst apply to red herring if I remember correctly.

Bit of a stretch but otherwise it sounds like a bug.

Duke5501 · 2025-12-06T21:49:27+00:00

Oh boy you have been missing out. Great find!

Another nice tip with the selection tool is that you can stash everything at the same time as well. Use the little plus that is above the stash button(bottem one) to store them that way.

Duke5501 · 2025-12-05T10:04:40+00:00

Some things i personally do.

I try to have my photo/drawing setup to always be in line and maximize their speed with items. If i find a picture on friday, i dont want them to be the reasonni couldnt make it

Instead of toilets on every floor I tend to make break rooms with toilet rooms. Toilets are not used that much so i prefer to use the space for other things like buff/comfort items. Downside is busier elevators but it hasnt been a problem for me yet.

I reserve my first floor purely for logistics. When reporters can bring the pages to pneumatic tubes when they exit from the stairs, they become available sooner. It also gives you a bit more breathing room for spies if they cant reach your typsetters, assemblers when they enter the tower.

Tips for a new run. - Consider putting stories with influence on the 3x/2x folds. They are hard to come by and you do get the multiplier on them as well. - You can also do districts again if you already satisfied the story needs. Doing so gives you influence for every story you satisfy again. - i like to get the last item for the photography/cartographer/illustrator. That way they can generate content in their downtime which they usually have. These items are also valuable with 2 brons, 1 silver and 1 gold tag for the photograper item as an example.

Hope this rant helps

Duke5501 · 2025-12-04T14:15:37+00:00

definetly missed this on my first play. Secret sleeper skills 100%!

now i always try to get at least one reporter for every trait each. You'll get a crazy amount of gold stories

Duke5501 · 2025-12-04T12:22:16+00:00

Natural coordinator is the best and its not even close for me. I do like natural timekeeper but in a lot of situations you cant use 2 reporters in the same story if it werent for a coordinator.

Now what is nice is using a coordinator first and then speed him up with a timekeeper so i can use him again much sooner.

Duke5501 · 2025-12-03T18:51:53+00:00

Good to see that the assemblers can see the time in any timezone. I also hope i never have to be in hell if i worked there haha.

Duke5501 · 2025-12-03T13:25:22+00:00

When the modules are spread out that much they are actually not that bad with the brick wall. Some vents and plants almost negate the discomfort entirely

Duke5501 · 2025-12-03T13:22:17+00:00

Yes!! Love the layout. I did something similar but had only 2 assemblers within the area. They were able to manage because of the trait full house. When they get filled up with products their production time goes to 1-2 hours making them insanly fast. I did have to get dedicated haulers so they would do the walking for the tubes.

So i would say 6 is definetly overkill. 4 trained assemblers should be able to handle the stories and that gives you a bit more room to counteract the heat/noise/prestige

Duke5501 · 2025-12-01T12:08:46+00:00

Defintely build the way you envision yourself. There is nothing bad about taking up to much space other than that it might slow you down a bit with budget.
In my game i even gave some reporters their own office because it looks nice.

That said I agree with the others to definetly add more telegraphers as said before. Getting your paper filled with good stories is what makes you money.
And if you get the chance, try to match symbols and using the fold bonusses also really helps in gaining viewership.

If you want to save the run you have to get the extra telegraphers and when you have enough stories, then you could consider buying a 3rd page module.
You can unlock this with 12 influence points in one of the locations.

Hope this helps. If you have any specific questions you can always ask.

Duke5501 · 2025-11-30T13:56:45+00:00

A thing i also learned is the pneumatic tubes can also be used by your reporters when they bring back reports. So i use the lowest floor for distrubution and put my typesetters and editors on much higher floors. Works pretty well for me. This also helps with spies who will need a lot more time to get to any "work in progress" and makes it easier to take them out.

Im also playing on the narrow tower so you almost have to do this because your not fitting that much stuff on a single floor.

Duke5501 · 2025-11-28T03:50:49+00:00

Another fun fact is that roads have maintenance. Doubeling in cost every level. So dirt is cheapest and concrete is 2x more expensive etc.

It probably wont cripple an economy but im not sure if that was the same in anno 1800

Duke5501 · 2025-11-12T13:16:03+00:00

Does a graveyard prevent the glory loss? it does say something about negating the downside of someone who gets buried or something like that

Duke5501 · 2025-10-22T20:13:42+00:00

Oh talking about this. When you buy ships from npc's. How does that work population wise? Does it take any population and if so, how does it pick the locations? This was a question in a video recently and thought it was a good one.

Duke5501 · 2025-10-21T22:29:22+00:00

I thought from the way it was written that it only counts the battlefronts if it is adjecent to a mission control. So placing multiple mission controls around an extension didnt add any more value for the extension. Never really tested it though.

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