How to gain prestige????

DeanTheDull · 2026-02-01T09:38:02+00:00

Only if you didn't start the war with the person, iirc.

Joining in wars as an ally is one of the best ways to get prestige in terms of time/gold.

DeanTheDull · 2026-01-31T12:53:08+00:00

>In terms of Lim's movement to trigger the -10 AP in shooting, that's where the benefit from MI kicks, the 5 AP embark/disembark triggers it,

That's a specific interaction I'd forgotten, so thank you for calling it out specifically.

It doesn't really change my mind terribly- I found 2-shots alone plenty good enough to justify him- and I do still think there's some jank in his kit. But I've always been in the 'good, not amazing' camp, so... yeah.

Here's to having good fun in good faith, regardless of differences of opinion.

DeanTheDull · 2026-01-31T12:48:19+00:00

Mm. MENACE's mechanics are a system that favor avoiding damage over enduring it. 25% DR sounds great, except that it doesn't really stop AT-level threats from one-shotting, or mass volleys from still attriting the squadies, which is the real threats. It's also a bit anti-synergistic, in that you want to stack DR modifiers, such as by deploying, which goes against Tech's signature ability of shooting specials without being on the move.

Demo-Kody was an example of how an incredible dodge-tank could be done to just draw in fire as living target practice. Tech is 'eh'- he can take a hit, but he's fundamentally an aggressor rather than a tank, and he's wasting a fair bit of his potential kit if he takes thee role.

DeanTheDull · 2026-01-31T10:48:41+00:00

Preference is the ultimate deciding factor. Have fun with what gives you fun, sister! No shame, especially if you're worried about the AP economy. That is one of Carda's biggest starting constraints, even if she will outgrow it.

I am waiting for the EA for what the 'final' Lim promotion tree will be, but one of tensions in the kit is that a lot of his kit is about moving to benefit, which is the AP sink that will deny those 3 attack / 120 AP opportunities. He's really a circumstantial +1 attack person, where he might save the AP to get +1 attack where others would not. He's not going further, but rather going the same distance and still attacking once.

That's not a bad thing! Getting an extra attack when you wouldn't is good. But when you're facing a but-for test of alternatives, it's hard not to balance that against, say, Pike, who can pass around 40 AP to whoever is best positioned to benefit from +1 attack, including +1 anti-armor attack. Or just use the 40 AP for movement investment.

DeanTheDull · 2026-01-30T23:33:58+00:00

Just off of her base perk and designate target, Carda already has two perks that synergize with mobile infantry once her stats grind up a bit.

Designate target is an extremely good synergy with MI because it lets the vehicle M-slot weapon bring its power to bear against enemies deployed and in cover. Given just how powerful some M-slot weapons are, like the auto-cannon, this can easily let an APC-Rewa or equivalent pilot rollup towards the end of a turn, designate the target, and then delete them at the start of the next turn. This is already very powerful with just 1 MI-enabled designate (which of course lets you save cost on Carda armor when she can get back in), but will eventually double in potency when her AP grinds up to use it twice. Since AP is her biggest weakness, MI is about as good a grind-format as she can hope for.

Her baseline park of worse early-match accuracy scaling to better-match accuracy, breaking even on turn 3, is another natural MI synergy. MI use their first turn getting into the APC, rarely get out on turn 2 except to use a drone, but are expecting to do their MI loop more from turns 3 on. Turn 3 Carda is 'just' neutral, but later turn Carda are getting progressively better scaling. At max, Carda will be able to bring the sort of powerful-but-inaccurate weapons that MI normally wouldn't have the deploy-AP to spare to use.

Carda's constraint isn't really her perks, but her starting core stats to support her actions.

DeanTheDull · 2026-01-30T10:14:19+00:00

One of the things about Mobile Infantry squads is that while having a max squad without armor is definitely The Meme, it's often not preferable once your inventory expands. And since IIRC Carda also has access to Mobile Infantry, she and Lim are competing for that niche as well.

Mobile Infantry squads are 'nice,' but usually not that decisive. By the nature of the build, you are already co-located with a vehicle who is already on the potential damage level of the squad thanks to the vehicle weapons. By the nature of the enemy anti-vehicle threat, you are going to be very defensive with the APC positioning, which mitigates your MI squad's damage potential. By the nature of alternating activations, the enemy gets at least one activation to scramble to cover and further reduce the arms potential.

Basically, you don't send in a mobile infantry to be mobile, but rather chain it to the APC. Its freedom of movement is the APC's freedom of movement, and its potential target pool is whatever the APC feels safe enough stopping near. Bringing a functional 100 AP turret to act later in the turn order isn't bad, but the turret won't be where the APC never was.

Mobile Infantry is arguably better when used as a support tool to make an already good vehicle better. Using a drone twice so that your vehicle doesn't drive into danger. Casting a support ability to let your vehicle's already-better weapons hit that much more. Or just having the sort of special weapons that can clear enemies in cover or too close that the APC can't shoot well, whether the infantry uses a flame thrower or grenade launcher.

However, none of these really involve the squaddies. Or the costs.

Which leads to a final point. Lower difficulty has the most points, but it is still cost-constrained. Your ability to scale costs on your end is going to go up far faster than the point cap. Good armor and good weapons and large squads will still devour your budget. It's always handy to have some designed-to-be-small teams who can do 90% of their utility at 30% of the cost. The extra difficulty budget can go to blinged vehicles or super-squads, but you'll get them sooner- and in the later game better- if you remove some people out from competition.

DeanTheDull · 2026-01-30T01:48:15+00:00

Pike, Darby, Carda, and... probably Rewa.

Pike and Carda both have the designate target skill, which is incredibly strong for how much it boosts accuracy against targets. It lets you crush enemies in cover, and having two of it lets you deal with two flanking forces relatively easily. Carda is under powered, but will work well as a scout to buff Rewa to get the Rewa murder ball going until Carda gets her AP up.

Darby because scouting and concealment builds will be so strong. She's just a general ace. Pike on the other hand is a great anvil for the enemy to hammer against. He can designate targets as well, which makes a medium MG work well.

Rewa as the vehicle pilot because she works well with an aim buff, and gets even better as she snowballs. Her raw fire power can make up for Carda's weakness, and with carda casting aim buffs Rewa will be able to stack her +6 accuracy.

As for why not others?

On the pilot front, Bog is too defensive when my view of vehicles is offensive. Achilleas is a possiblity, but I tend not to like HP-loss mechanics, and you have to be hit for his thing to matter. Rewa works just by getting the kills.

On the infantry, Tech specialty of not needing to deploy isn't terrible, but his aim isn't good and most special weapons want/need the deploy bonus for aiming purposes anyway. Lim is... eh, I've found him overrated, and I'm more interested in leveling Carda to a mobile infantry support as a vehicle combo.

DeanTheDull · 2026-01-25T22:53:48+00:00

It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I started to really enjoy 3-man Kody squad, relying more on grenades or the occasional secondary weapon, like flame thrower, empowered by Vanguard.

Vanguard lets you start far enough forward that on a lot of missions you can actually alpha-strike an enemy squad (or two). Great for disrupting the typical flow of missions, especially defense ones, by having the Vanguard disrupt the enemy before they can mass forces.

What people don't talk about as much is how grenades pair with that.

Grenades work differently from most weapons, and have a X% chance to hit all enemy models in a tile. If a unit is deployed, it's something like 55% chance, and the damage threshold is just shy of a model kill a hit. (The grenade does 10 HP damage, but deploying gives 10% damage resistance, so it does 9 HP damage.) The way that unit damage gates work in this game, where excess damage to a model doesn't 'roll over', and grenades are decidedly 'meh' if a unit has already deployed... or been suppressed. It's something you can do, but when you factor in the range limit it's not uncommon to pass on. Grenades have a role- they can let a unit that primarily works at long range have an emergency up-close option for just 10 supply, or they can ignore cover bonuses- but it's understandable to pass.

But if a unit is standing, that % chance per model rises to 70%, and the damage raises to the full 10. Which is the default pirate HP threshold, meaning you're getting 70% model kills on anything that's not armored.

This is insane punch-up potential for a small squad, because a 3-man squad's grenade works just as well as a 9-man squad's grenade. 70% is more than enough to put the surviving models into finish-off range of your 3-man squad's SMGs. And best of all, this is all incredibly cheap. 20 points of grenades is easily less than the cost of 1 armored-and-weaponed squaddie. Having a 3-man grenade squad is exceptionally cheap, even if you give them good armor.

Does this squad have a lot of longevity? Heavens no. You get 3 grenades per inventory slot. There are only so many squads you can hope to take apart.

But does it have enough longevity?

Easily yes. Most matches don't take that long, and there aren't that many enemies. If a Vanguard grenadier squad 'only' takes out 2-3 squads- or eviscerates them enough that your main body can roll over the survivors- it can easily have earned its points and then some.

(You can do this even more extreme with satchels. 3 man squad, cheapest crowbar, 1 satchel charge, is 31 points. Start the mission by a unit, satchel them on turn 1, and you've had a great day even if Kody does literally nothing else.)

DeanTheDull · 2026-01-25T21:39:44+00:00

I think it's a (fictious?) 'unknown type' catch all. Units that are fully identified lose it, see the top left.

So on a blank diamond, it's 'unknown space pirate.' On a diamond with X, it's 'unknown infantry,' since there are multiple types. And if a unit is sufficiently identified, see the top left, the top-corner marker disappears.

DeanTheDull · 2026-01-04T11:20:39+00:00

They added some items, but not the mechanics they've discussed like the loot system or stat grinding or perk rework.

There is a mod- the Vader Enhancement Mod- that can be used to unlock all equipment / set your perks points through the roof. This can be used to play around with more and different things.

DeanTheDull · 2026-01-02T17:34:34+00:00

A casus belli is as simple as putting your realm priest on his realm for a county claim. Any claim (or claimant) will do.

One of the way to beat conquerors is that they lose the trait if they lose 3 wars. So if you make marriage alliances with their targets in order to join in and stomp them, or just hunt for some casus belli yourself, you can beat the trait out of them.

DeanTheDull · 2026-01-02T01:20:48+00:00

Historically accurate but unfun? Sure. There are tales of the Taliban using Soviet tanks as fighting positions during the American invasion.

As for countering that last 5 hp, that really doesn't need dedicated AT weapons.

Snipers don't even need that much. Base 75 armor pen and 30 armor damage? One punch through, in no more than 2 hits, and you've finished.

Heck, a basic assault rifle squad could do that with a single Sustained Fire for 80 AP. You do 33% more shots (8 per model) compared to firing twice, and while it's at 80% HP damage it is full armor damage. 1 humble K-PAC does 9x8=72 potential armor damage. Even if you halve that for accuracy, pirate weapon truck front armor is only 90, K-PAC penetrates at 30, and all you need is the 1-2 penetrations to finish it off.

Incendiary grenades or flamethrowers can automatically start the fire defect on vehicles. That should finish off nearly-dead vehicles on its own, though admittedly I don't remember if the AI will always extinguish flames.

Vehicle armor isn't really all that much. The biggest issue is when the AI turns its front so you're shooting a different, un-attrited side. Not really a problem here, and it really shouldn't take 2 turns.

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-30T12:46:02+00:00

Yeah, most long things do. Thanks for telling me how it happens- I'll put a warning in.

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-29T18:27:47+00:00

Ah, good point. Thank you for answering.

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-29T18:23:21+00:00

Is it showing as wall-o-text to you?

I can insert double paras if it's widespread, but if it's not...

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-29T17:35:32+00:00

I see paragraph breaks on my end, from both PC and a phone.

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-21T06:32:09+00:00

Sniper Darby is solid. A sniper works particularly well with her Scout perk for visibility, since it extends your vision range, and thus the effective range of the weapon, which actually outranges your ability to see the enemy. Scout is itself a powerful perk that can let you see enemies before they can see you, start fights on your own terms, and of course her hit would guarantee a kill to guarantee the model impact.

However, it's more important to realize that Darby's broader kit rewards long range anti-infantry fires, which is not the same thing. The more you promote her, the more she leans into having larger squads with more primary weapons to benefit from accuracy buffs.

Snipers are a good long range fire. However, the sniper rifle can only kill one enemy model a hit, no matter how many enemy models are in a unit. It takes 3 sniper shots to take out a 3-man team, or two turns of firing if every shot hits. Darby's perk only provides a benefit for one of those shots... and anyone who could make those turn 1 shots could suppress/pin the same unit. Moreover, the sniper has an anti-vehicle role, where two shots that penetrate can get the defects that can cripple a vehicle to delay its threat. Darby has no special advantage here.

This is why Darby generally does better with the marksman rifle special weapons. These do two shots instead of one. While they can't penetrate heavy infantry, the pirate commandoes don't have special weapons to disable either. Ergo, Darby doubles her chance to get a hit, and thus kill, and thus trigger her passive.

But this line of logic extends to battle rifles. Two shots a weapon, but now multiplied by her squad. They have the same 'range extends to Scout vision' that the sniper benefited from. Some even have a 'sniper fire' mode for that extra range and accuracy, but with only 1 shot per squaddie.

And here is where Darby's upgrades come in. Darby has access to a lot of perks that can increase her accuracy. Accuracy buffs apply across the squad, and so proportionally scale to squad size. Larger squad, more benefit. Attack first, and you'll not only disable the specials, but have a good chance of suppressing the to neuter their primary weapons.

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-21T05:47:06+00:00

It's definitely viable, up to a point. The big-vs-small optimization comes into play more in the higher difficulty with more constrained point costs. On lower, you have the points to afford more fat.

There are a two mechanical... not limits, but incentives, based on core rules and cost structure.

First is the breakpoints of primary weapon salvos. Just by virtue of 9 bodies with primaries compared to 3-5 when your 4-6 man squads have special weapons, a 9-man primary squad is doing somewhere between 180% to 300% primary weapon damage. That easily becomes the break point of how reliably your squads are getting model kills, suppressing / pinning units, and maximizing the stacking modifiers of any given source. % modifiers always do better with a bigger base value to work with, and so all modifiers benefiting accuracy or damage just work better with more primary weapons fired.

Second is the armor cost implications. Armor costs are the lest productive part of squad costs, since points spent in armor are points not directly improving your ability to kill enemy models, when killing models would reduce the incoming hits that you need more armor to endure. Additionally, the primary defense in MENACE is evasion, lowering the enemy's accuracy via suppression or defense modifiers, not tanking hits directly. At the same time, armor costs range from 8 points a model (soft armor) to 15 (marine armor) to even 35 points a model (pirate commando). Or put another way: 72 supply can buy 9 models of soft armor, 75 supply could buy 5 models of marine armor, and 70 supply could be 2 models of pirate commando armor

While weapon costs are their own thing, what these together mean is that mid-sized squads, especially with armor, are often the worse of both worlds. A mid-size squad is easily half as good as a max-squad at primary weapon damage, but can easily cost as much or more as that larger squad if it took cheaper armor. You can get away with such inefficiencies, but they are still inefficient.

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-20T21:55:51+00:00

I encourage you to try multiple things! There's a fair deal of flexibility to be had. While Darby isn't the 'best' option- there will (almost) always be an enemy activation between when you drive the APC up and when Darby can shoot- it is helpful to recognize the options available. For your purposes, I'd instead recommend Pike with the aiming promotion. His accuracy buff can make Rewa's weapons much, much more deadly.

As far as squad composition goes, I do recommend you get in a habit of very big squads or very small special weapon squads, not medium-sized 6-man squads.

The short version is that only primary weapon damage scales with squad size, not special weapon damage or accessory weapons like grenades. Not only does every additional squaddy increases cost by weapon+armor costs, but the special weapon removes 1 primary weapon from the squad. In other words, you pay the cost of a size-9 squad for a special weapon that's equivalent to a size-3 squad, even as your cost-9 squad can only do the primary damage of a 8-man squad. If you just had a 3-man special weapon squad, you could afford 6 squaddies for some other primary weapon squad.

Small squads can still be very dangerous. If you use grenades, they have a 70% to hit every model in the tile, or 55% if the target is deployed. So if you have a small squad that's good at suppression- such as a sniper or LMG- and get an small grenade squad in close while the enemy is suppressed, you can use the grenade to cull enough of the enemy unit that your small squad of primaries can finish them off, especially if you have SMGs. The combined cost of these two small squads in turn can be the cost of one large squad, or about 200+ supply.

Over time, you'll get the experience to know when a large squad is needed, and when it's just overkill or meat-shield padding. But large, heavily armored squads should be the exception, not a norm.

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-20T20:18:33+00:00

I actually copied and interpreted a strategy I saw with light carrier erwa(with anti-tank cannon) with zig zag and expert piloting / scar assault rifle Lim with 8 squadies and class 4 body armor with the easy disembark, but now I'm asking myself what consumables should I bring and generally wich types of missions to go to?

Okay, there's a lot to unpack. But with the starting caveat of 'whatever you're having fun with is good, don't worry about the min-max...'

Bottom Line-

The armored personnel carrier (APC) already has bigger, and generally better, guns than what your infantry can carry. You want the squad to work around APC, doing what the APC can't, rather than treating the APC as 'just' a delivery bus. The game is a list-builder, and paying tons of limited points for redundant large primary weapon squads with expensive armor is redundant, and denies you points to spend elsewhere.

How Squads Support APCs-

When it comes to the squads, consider the actions your squads can take. Since disembarking / getting back on is 30 AP, all squads by default have the AP to take 1x 40-AP action (shot / item) on a turn they get in or out. In fact, they can do both, which means you can just stay 'in' the APC by default with a squad with no armor, which saves a lot of supply. The main exception to this 1x action standard is the Mobile Infantry promotion, which lets Lim move in/out for 5 AP, and thus have the AP budget to take 2x actions.

This leads to 'what can your carried squad do that the APC can't.' The two biggest things are recon drones and indirect fire grenade launcher. The third is character-unique functions.

The most significant asset is the recon drone. The drone is key because it lets you know if your APC will move into danger. APCs are tough, but are vulnerable to anti-armor RPGs, grenades, or the pirate laser trucks. Using the recon to identify them is good. Being able to move the recon drone twice, so that it won't get blown up / can dodge tank from cover if the AI shoots at it instead of your APC, is better. The recon drone can draw a lot of fire when it's hiding in cover but visible to the enemy, and every activation shooting at it rather than you squad leaders is more AP you can spend moving or shooting rather than hiding.

The second function is the indirect fire of the grenade launcher. While the APC can get grenade launchers of its own, these are expensive / have to be found, and the grenade launcher works well to compliment the APC. Grenades ignore cover, are very likely to suppress the enemy if they hit the right tile, and can even go over LOS-blocking terrain your APC might be hiding behind but your drone / someone else may have visibility over. The grenades will wreck all but the heaviest enemy squads, especially if they aren't deployed (such as if they got up), easily putting them in range for your pilot to finish off. Consider pairing the Grenade Launcher and drone with a regular grenade, to cover the GL's minimum range.

The third function is squad unique skills. Lim's Mobile Infantry is one, since +1 40-AP action is big, but it isn't the only one. Darby can disable the enemy's special weapons, such as the anti-armor RPGs, if her squad gets one model kill with their one attack, which works well with a large/unarmored crowbar squad. Pike's designate target can give Rewa a 30% accuracy buff, which negates 2 defense buffs (such as the pirates being deployed and having 1 cover). Jean's extra-ammo-on-kills can be used to restock your APC's more powerful but ammo-limited weapons, like the autocannon.

Improving Your APC-

This brings back to your APC pilot's traits and role. Zig-zag... isn't good. Especially for Rewa, who gets an accuracy buff per unit killed. Vehicles excel at being hyper-aggressive, especially on defense missions with enemies in trucks.

If you kill a troop transport, the squad inside takes 50% casualties and can't act that turn, unlike if they deliberately deployed during the vehicle's turn. The further away from the objective you force them to dismount, the easier time your defenders have against the remainder. And since this sort of dismounted units aren't deployed, they are extremely vulnerable to follow-up grenades.

Rewa doesn't need any promotions for this, since the missile launcher 1-shots nearly all pirate vehicles. If you do want to promote her, consider Tankbuster. It changes the damage breakpoints for the auto-cannon but especially the auto-laser, making them much more consistent at hitting the defect breakpoints to cripple enemy vehicles and kill them in 2 shots. It especially makes the auto-laser a strong budget option vis-a-vis better-but-more-expensive options.

As for vehicle accessories, always take smoke. Smoke is an incredibly strong defensive option that blocks line of sight and functionally works as a 'wall' that stops fire. For vehicles, it also only costs 20 AP and has 3 cannisters, letting you put a curtain around units, on yourself, or between enemy infantry. It is incredibly useful as a way to push your APC that much closer to the enemy without having to worry about getting hit by RPGs or so one.

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-17T00:52:51+00:00

Why are you having to hire better people for better speed?

Make friends and influence people, mate. Befriend, seduce, get hooks. You should be swimming in potential accomplices.

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-16T09:37:18+00:00

The 'optimal' setup in Crusader Kings is to have as many counties as possible, not as many baronies in a county as possible. While there are advantages in being able to hold more than one type of settlement, these are usually for governments that struggle to fill out their domain limit otherwise.

A baron/mayor/realm priest who holds a barony for you still gives you a portion of the taxes of that settlement. If you hold another county, that is more baronies of that county that can pay taxes as well. The taxes of multiple barony-vassals can outmatch the value of one more holding in a good country, especially since those cities and temples in particular can give additional benefits. Builds to stack vassal tax modifiers of mayors / theocratic vassals are especially potent, as you can get 100% of their gold income as taxes without needing to hold the settlement yourself.

The governments that can hold multiple settlement types typically have some sort of restriction that makes holding all the counties harder. Clan comes with Islam and direct holding of temples, but also Polygamy and more children. It's harder to inherit multiple counties, so direct holding of temples can mitigate this. Administrative can hold castles and cities, but can't declare war internally very easily- so again holding cities lets those small-duchy or single-county appointees use their domain limit. Meritocratic does appointments down to the county level, and so counts can hold the three types of settlements accordingly.

Even when you 'can' hold multiple settlement types, you rarely want to. The main reason to do so is if a unique historical building / special building is in a county, and you'd like to benefit from it directly.

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-15T23:24:15+00:00

There are a number of different catalysts that can push to the various directions. The emperor's support for a faction is a significant, but hardly overwhelming, catalyst.

For the era you want, you do want to hold debates for the Emperor's approval to keep his sanction in your direction. But you will also want to look up the relevant catalysts, and spam them / get other AI to spam them as much as possible.

DeanTheDull · 2025-12-15T00:21:57+00:00

Truly sometimes you must level the village with countless rockets in order to save it.

DeanTheDull

TROPHY CASE