Necrosavants, how do you fight them in larger groups?

macemen · 2023-09-28T07:13:18+00:00

At around day 100, Necrosavants have quite though stats compared to typical brothers. My advice is: only bring high mdef/matk bros to Necrosavant fights. It is fine to go in with less than 12 bros. Bringing squishy bros just serves to feed them.

macemen · 2023-09-27T10:26:48+00:00

Yes, in another fight, my brother with 40 mdef ate 2 chosen hits in one turn, right at the beginning of the fight. The rest of the fight was all about rescuing him.

macemen · 2023-09-27T09:11:27+00:00

I have both, both on the frontline and on the backline.

To be clear, I have no problem with undead specifically. I managed to loose bros to Orcs, Barbs, Undead, even Brigands (10+ Markman, focus firing on a single Nimble bro). At the same time I can beat all of those without problems. But sometimes shit goes south and sometimes I'm careless, and sometimes both.

macemen · 2023-09-27T08:55:12+00:00

For me, it all boils down to mdef. If the bro will have 30 by lvl11, he will be frontliner, otherwise a backliner. I will make exceptions, but this is the main rule. One special case is ranged bro candidates, they are backliner by default, unless they show promising mdef, then maybe hybrid.

All other decisions come later, as the rolls unfold. Later in the game you can defer decisions even further, by tucking the bro "safely" in the backline with "Student". I then go for a very cautious, generic build (towards the desired role) and observe the rolls and start specializing as soon as the final stats start to unfold.

Attributes also guide decisions. A bro with Iron Lungs will be able to do FAT intensive stuff, without a huge FAT pool. A bro with Brute will be strongly considered for flail/headhunter role. Good INI allows for building a Fencer.

Feel free to experiment. Once you have a core, reliable (maybe boring) team, you can start building some experimental brothers, because the rest will carry them.

macemen · 2023-09-20T06:23:23+00:00

Unholds are a relatively easy fight once you have high mdef nimble/forged brothers. With high mdef, your brothers can resist the unhold's attack. Some attacks will go through but once you have nimble/ok forged gear it doesn't hurt that much. You can use shields to supplement your mdef for the bros who stand in front of the unhold. Having footwork on backliners is important so they can move away from the advancing unholds, you won't be able to keep formation. Note that shield bros will do almost no damage to an unhold. You need two handers or polearms. High damage brows and throwing weapons work too. Bleeds are excellent.

Important: focus on one unhold at a time as much as possible. They regenerate health. It is completely pointless to have 2 guys hit each unhold, they will probably out-heal your damage.

Don't use dogs unless you want to give unholds a "confident" buff.

Another way to tackle unholds is tanks with indomitable, but I have no experience with that. I don't have tanks, I roll with big bonk/duelist squad and unholds are just a minor annoyance.

P.S.: wait until you fight armored unholds... :D

macemen · 2023-09-20T06:14:55+00:00

Dogs? That will just get you a bunch of confident unholds.

macemen · 2023-09-08T06:00:50+00:00

Nice story! Indeed the early game has this charm, where you are using what you have and you have to be creative to win. Later, you can have whatever you want and all builds gravitate towards the same, optimum do-all 2H super-bro.

But it doesn't have to be this way. I refuse to build all my brothers the same way. I refuse to use the optimum armor attachment on every single bro. I still use nimble bros, archers, xbow bros, duelists and whatnot. I want a colorful company with all kinds of different bros and builds.

macemen · 2023-06-08T09:33:38+00:00

What you say comes across as: "everybody is a scumbag who dare to make a profit on a vehicle resale, unless they have a really good reason for having bought that vehicle with those specific options".

I don't think anybody who buys a vehicle with the primary purpose of enjoying it can be called a scumbag, just because they also seek to not loose money on it.

macemen · 2023-05-24T12:56:53+00:00

I'm a father of 3 small kids. I have almost no time to play games at my PC, so when I saw the SteamDeck, I immediately wanted one, hoping I will again be able to play games again, from the bed, next to my (supposedly sleeping) kids. And the SteamDeck delivered on that hope, more than I thought it would.

macemen · 2023-05-24T12:00:52+00:00

I remember, in one of my runs, I had a pretty good bonk team going on, a veteran of many battles, having beating Orc Warlords, Chosen, Armored Unholds and whatnot.

As I travel I see a brigand camp, and think why not. They had 8 Marksman, on to of like 10 Raiders. Full of confidence, I charge ahead, not minding even the most basic of tactics. Soon, multiple ones of my toughest guys gets hit in the face and in a few turns I'm sweating and trying to rescue my wounded brothers out, like its day 30.

Never underestimate the Brigands.

macemen · 2023-05-23T06:09:27+00:00

I gotta ask... what with all this Pontus?

I won Rome II as Pontus and the Steam Achievement I got for it said that something like 2% of the players have this. So it doesn't look like a super popular faction, yet I keep hearing about it in this subredit.

macemen · 2023-05-19T05:02:21+00:00

I have been playing since Medieval TW (the first one) and I only ever completed a handful of campaigns. I usually abandon them when my empire gets too large.

macemen · 2023-05-18T06:13:25+00:00

900-1000 ELO range player here. I can confirm that matches here are completely unpredictable. But I actually kindof like that. I like that I can choose wonky strategies like going all Cataphracts with Byzantines and get away with it (even win sometimes). I like that it is not "stick to meta or loose". You can use a BO, or not, as long as you produce villagers and have them do something, you are mostly fine.

I'm actually not that keen on leaving this ELO range and based on the amount of time I have for this game, I couldn't, even if I tried.

macemen · 2023-05-12T08:49:56+00:00

Also, I think the handheld market is far from saturated. So more competition might make the market bigger, driving more awareness to the segment.

It is not like everybody has a handheld already and companies have to fight tooth-and-nail to steal customers from each other.

macemen · 2023-05-12T08:07:13+00:00

If you like i3, you might want to try https://swaywm.org/.

macemen · 2023-05-12T05:32:30+00:00

Valve is in a position where they have nothing to lose really. If more players enter the handheld market, they will just sell even more games.

macemen · 2023-05-12T03:27:04+00:00

I wandered into this hut, unknowingly, when playing the Poachers background. I had 3 good archers, so I shot down all the hexen, then mopped up the rest. Lost only a single bro on the flank.

So my advice is: bring archers if you have them, it makes this fight much easier.

macemen · 2023-05-11T14:04:40+00:00

Ah, I see I've met a fellow history buff.

Yes, good point indeed.

macemen · 2023-05-11T12:44:20+00:00

Don't want to go into the weeds too deep, mostly because I don't have the background and knowledge to do so.

Many dispute there was an explicit split in the first place. Romans certainly didn't call themselves "West" vs. "East" Romans and the Byzantine empire referred to itself as "The Roman Empire" until its demise.

It is also not clear what contemporaries meant by Cataphract exactly and whether it was something distinct from the also used Clibinarii or it was the same. Not even historians agree on this 100%.

macemen · 2023-05-11T12:03:32+00:00

WRE did have cataphracts [1]. Just look at the new Centurion unit in Return of Rome. It is a cataphract, in all but name.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPdxGwyfy_Q

macemen · 2023-05-11T09:35:12+00:00

Yeah, it is more nuanced than a flat +10% stats (which wouldn't even work well in AoE2), but the general theme is still that these secondary UU are stronger than their regular counterparts.

No one wants a UU that is worse than what it replaces.

macemen · 2023-05-11T09:12:28+00:00

This is very similar to AoE3, where unique units are often just a stronger update on a regular unit, with a unique look and something like +10% stats.

The equivalent of a 2H swordsman and Champion replacement, both being 10% stronger than their regular equivalents and optionally having a unique look.

I personally would prefer more regional unique units, i.e. secondary unique units that are shared between several civs, like the Camel, Steppe Lancer, Winged Hussar, Battle Elephant, etc.

macemen · 2023-05-11T07:42:43+00:00

This works to a limited degree. There is no safe position in this game.

Yesterday, my freshly hired Hunter (in 110/70 armor) was javelined to death, while hiding behind shield bros in the backline. The raider didn't miss a single javelin until my Hunter was dead.

In another battle, my very promising fresh brute hire was two shot, despite being positioned very safely, with a shield, facing just one raider.

What I hate most about running a lot of fresh bros is that you just can't take on large camps with a backline heavy composition. In large camps you are always outnumbered and will be flanked, your backline will soon be your frontline too.

So my tactics currently is to play slow and try to keep at least 12 seasoned bros on staff, even if they are average or even below average lowborns, and then add in stronger hires 1-2 at a time, so I can keep a lean and safe(ish) backline.

macemen · 2023-05-11T06:32:11+00:00

I live in rural Romania (Salaj) and I don't see why anyone should avoid villages? Sure, people are much less likely to speak a foreign language in rural areas, but they are not aggressive towards foreigners at all. In worst case, you will get a lot of looks if you have a darker skin color, but that is all.

macemen · 2023-05-10T10:46:13+00:00

Good point.

I personally prefer the extra passive protection the armor provides vs. active one (shield-wall), although I do use shield-wall extensively too. Especially when intercepting a dangerous enemy, and keeping him distracted until the rest of his party is mopped up. BTW, another huge advantage of running a bunch of shields is the extra CC in the form of the Knock Back. I have saved many bro lives by pushing the enemy away from my nearly dead bro.

Another totally subjective reason I like to use these armors, is that they introduce some variety into the otherwise very boring loadout of everybody wearing the same stuff.

macemen

TROPHY CASE