icthulu
Recruit
As I help my Kingdom conquer their latest enemy I am coming across issues with trying to make a foothold into new lands.
Luckily I stocked up on hundreds of units of multiple foods thinking that once again I would be the only one bringing food to a siege, which is nice for free inf. but seems to expose an issue with the AI's armies. I wouldn't mind if when the AI forms an Army they get 200-300 free food.
AI lead armies seem to completely ignore large 50+ armies passing by and instead focus on their bracket of: patrol, raid, defend, or conquest. While on defend mode, I don't mind it having this behavior, all other instances I would be very grateful if they attacked any large armies that are within sight, or a comparable sized army broke off to attack them as too many times I join the liege's army to enjoy the siege aspect only to see them just let 250 unit armies walk by to attack my towns and villages. I do understand they are a lot slower and can't easily catch armies, but it happens so often it's an issue.
Enemy army reformation seems to happen too quickly. I gave up joining the assaulting army to instead try to snipe arriving reinforcements and defend the frontier fiefs, but they happen so much and so often it just turns into war of attrition. Regular armies of 75-150 would storm through my lands so often I just never have an opportunity to replenish my forces. I keep getting endless streams of prisoners to sell off, though war is exceedingly profitable, but unless I buy the lowest of unit tiers or stock up on looters it's only a matter of time before my army dwindles down to a couple dozen units. I hope you might consider slowing down the army creation rate, or add some incentives to build doom stacks first before invading lands to give me time to leave my city and round up some units before. For an example, I had purchased with inf. a city on the front as the AI wasn't letting me get a city any other way. And while I could beat back the onslaught of single leader armies for several months without issue, there was never enough time to leave my city and head back to the heartland of the Kingdom to replenish troops. So starting with 120 units, killing them 10 to 1 along with constantly imprisoning or executing leaders hand no impact. Hopefully you might consider a harsher setback for AI clans when their leader is taken. As of now, it seems to have no impact at all.
Couple asides, could you reduce the looter and bandit spans by half at least? Playing this game feels like I am part of a RTS version of Fortnight with these guys running around all the time. An exaggeration of course, but there is no way to clear out the constant bandits and looter spawns for even a day before they are back at it again. If there was a slider in the options that would be welcomed for those that don't like the aspect being so aggressive.
For the bandit hideouts, I have no idea how anyone can clear out those camps with 20+ units in them as you have your armies might reduced to an elite team in order to approach, but the reward for risking your best units pales in comparison to the cost of getting them in the first place. Even when the camp is just 5 bandits, the loss of a single elite vet is not worth the risk. As a matter of RP sake you want to keep your citizens safe, but it feels like the game only punishes you for dealing with them at higher levels. I like the mechanic and just want to see it implemented better.
This is a great game, and I have enjoyed every minute of the 40+ hours I have played. Worth every penny, and I can tell how much time and effort you put into this. It shows, and I am glad that you are getting a lot of exposure on it's EA release. Look forward to further developments!
Luckily I stocked up on hundreds of units of multiple foods thinking that once again I would be the only one bringing food to a siege, which is nice for free inf. but seems to expose an issue with the AI's armies. I wouldn't mind if when the AI forms an Army they get 200-300 free food.
AI lead armies seem to completely ignore large 50+ armies passing by and instead focus on their bracket of: patrol, raid, defend, or conquest. While on defend mode, I don't mind it having this behavior, all other instances I would be very grateful if they attacked any large armies that are within sight, or a comparable sized army broke off to attack them as too many times I join the liege's army to enjoy the siege aspect only to see them just let 250 unit armies walk by to attack my towns and villages. I do understand they are a lot slower and can't easily catch armies, but it happens so often it's an issue.
Enemy army reformation seems to happen too quickly. I gave up joining the assaulting army to instead try to snipe arriving reinforcements and defend the frontier fiefs, but they happen so much and so often it just turns into war of attrition. Regular armies of 75-150 would storm through my lands so often I just never have an opportunity to replenish my forces. I keep getting endless streams of prisoners to sell off, though war is exceedingly profitable, but unless I buy the lowest of unit tiers or stock up on looters it's only a matter of time before my army dwindles down to a couple dozen units. I hope you might consider slowing down the army creation rate, or add some incentives to build doom stacks first before invading lands to give me time to leave my city and round up some units before. For an example, I had purchased with inf. a city on the front as the AI wasn't letting me get a city any other way. And while I could beat back the onslaught of single leader armies for several months without issue, there was never enough time to leave my city and head back to the heartland of the Kingdom to replenish troops. So starting with 120 units, killing them 10 to 1 along with constantly imprisoning or executing leaders hand no impact. Hopefully you might consider a harsher setback for AI clans when their leader is taken. As of now, it seems to have no impact at all.
Couple asides, could you reduce the looter and bandit spans by half at least? Playing this game feels like I am part of a RTS version of Fortnight with these guys running around all the time. An exaggeration of course, but there is no way to clear out the constant bandits and looter spawns for even a day before they are back at it again. If there was a slider in the options that would be welcomed for those that don't like the aspect being so aggressive.
For the bandit hideouts, I have no idea how anyone can clear out those camps with 20+ units in them as you have your armies might reduced to an elite team in order to approach, but the reward for risking your best units pales in comparison to the cost of getting them in the first place. Even when the camp is just 5 bandits, the loss of a single elite vet is not worth the risk. As a matter of RP sake you want to keep your citizens safe, but it feels like the game only punishes you for dealing with them at higher levels. I like the mechanic and just want to see it implemented better.
This is a great game, and I have enjoyed every minute of the 40+ hours I have played. Worth every penny, and I can tell how much time and effort you put into this. It shows, and I am glad that you are getting a lot of exposure on it's EA release. Look forward to further developments!
