Proper Path before Demonis?

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by Nevar

Wait, what does the Valkyrie medal ACTUALLY do? I also thought like Xargon did, given how it says "rest in between battles."

If you use a Valkyrie for their ability, they say "can't ask me again in 15 battles". Or something.

The lvl 2 medal lowers this by 1 to 14.

However, I can't see the current tick, or remember how many rounds it was the LAST time I asked. I swear the number of rounds they say changes each time to something higher...

[ckdamascus]

Anyway, yeah I'm getting super impatient now and I think I will run a lighter army and just strategically kill "invincible" armies for now.

Just ran to the Freedom isles and it seems that I "overpowered" armies in Greenwort that I wasn't supposed to.

I think the path was supposed to be explore any of the islands like Freedom Isle and Merlasser to get the army type you want and level up.

Crossworld's "problem" was the maps were pretty rigid and if you got unlucky you couldn't get a certain race/army at all until it was too late or got lucky with a beatable "Impossible" map guardian that was non-jukable.

[Zechnophobe]

Originally Posted by ckdamascus

Anyway, yeah I'm getting super impatient now and I think I will run a lighter army and just strategically kill "invincible" armies for now.

Just ran to the Freedom isles and it seems that I "overpowered" armies in Greenwort that I wasn't supposed to.

I think the path was supposed to be explore any of the islands like Freedom Isle and Merlasser to get the army type you want and level up.

Crossworld's "problem" was the maps were pretty rigid and if you got unlucky you couldn't get a certain race/army at all until it was too late or got lucky with a beatable "Impossible" map guardian that was non-jukable.

It's a weird thing. You lose all your viking units in the Dark Portal incident, but then get a pretty large selection. Just do the 'port' question from the guy as soon as you arrive in Greenwort, and that'll give you a boat to explore these other lands with. No problemo.

I may actually have to try playing through using Orcs. See how that goes.

[namad]

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

It's a weird thing. You lose all your viking units in the Dark Portal incident, but then get a pretty large selection. Just do the 'port' question from the guy as soon as you arrive in Greenwort, and that'll give you a boat to explore these other lands with. No problemo.

I may actually have to try playing through using Orcs. See how that goes.

i'd love to play through using orcs, but how do you do it? where can you recruit them?

the first 4islands are 75-90% viking recruits and then the first 3areas of the main continent are 60-80% human recruits! where's my random crossworlds game style

[Zechnophobe]

Originally Posted by namad

i'd love to play through using orcs, but how do you do it? where can you recruit them?

the first 4islands are 75-90% viking recruits and then the first 3areas of the main continent are 60-80% human recruits! where's my random crossworlds game style

You can do the port quest in Arlania before clearing any of it, and I think without any fights. Do it, and travel to the Isles of Freedom (Kitano has the map) and you can get orc troops from then on. Not exactly the 'entire' game through, since first 4 islands are still mostly viking, but not too bad.

[Saridu]

It's strange, the first four viking islands are very rigid , we all felt railroaded and forced to use less than great viking units (okay I'll make an exception for soothsayers - that loki's touch ability is fantastic! - but usless against the hordes of undead good design).

But once you get to Darion, the game suddenly opens up and you can get human, viking, elves and orcs with some dwarves thrown in, with as little as one quest gate!

Strange approach, I think they were trying to build authenticity (Vikings fight with a viking army!) - and make no loss more challenging (if that's your thing) by making the vikings crappy is comparison to the other races.

I mean who arrived it Darion and thought, hah Rune mages, Royal griffens and Paladins! Who needs them, I' going back to the homeland for another full army of vikings!

Before i get bashed just pointing out that the vikings aren't imho a good balanced army, I would takes even dwarves any day over them. Now maidens are good - if you can get them in sufficent numbers, soothsayers as I said above are good for the Loki's touch, Jarls are okay as tanks go but numbers again could be a problem, I've seen 30ish can't see it been viable (Note I haven't played past Demonis so I don't know if the Viking islands replenish at that point) - I would take Royal Griffens over them in a heartbeat (even with the bugged morale bonus to humans)

[Zechnophobe]

Originally Posted by Saridu

It's strange, the first four viking islands are very rigid , we all felt railroaded and forced to use less than great viking units (okay I'll make an exception for soothsayers - that loki's touch ability is fantastic! - but usless against the hordes of undead good design).

But once you get to Darion, the game suddenly opens up and you can get human, viking, elves and orcs with some dwarves thrown in, with as little as one quest gate!

Strange approach, I think they were trying to build authenticity (Vikings fight with a viking army!) - and make no loss more challenging (if that's your thing) by making the vikings crappy is comparison to the other races.

I mean who arrived it Darion and thought, hah Rune mages, Royal griffens and Paladins! Who needs them, I' going back to the homeland for another full army of vikings!

Before i get bashed just pointing out that the vikings aren't imho a good balanced army, I would takes even dwarves any day over them. Now maidens are good - if you can get them in sufficent numbers, soothsayers as I said above are good for the Loki's touch, Jarls are okay as tanks go but numbers again could be a problem, I've seen 30ish can't see it been viable (Note I haven't played past Demonis so I don't know if the Viking islands replenish at that point) - I would take Royal Griffens over them in a heartbeat (even with the bugged morale bonus to humans)

I generally agree on most points. It was weird they put things on rails for a good chunk of the initial gameplay, and then suddenly let you go pretty much wild (though not completely).

I don't think they INTENTIONALLY made the vikings bad. They actually have a decent group of units:

Skald, Berserker, Soothsayer, Jarl, Maiden

That's a pretty decent force. Jarls tank, Maidens and Berserkers do good damage, soothsayer and resurrect are solid, skald supports. Heck, Jotuns are a complete beefcake unit if you want to load them up, though they aren't particularly good other than that.

The issue really, is that the Human units are INCREDIBLY strong now. Royal Griffons + Paladins was already a good strong combination before the degenerate rune mage unit was added. As cool as the Maidens are, Paladin's are that, plus a total tank, and do AoE heals, which are often more valuable.

Heck, even the human Bowmen is much much stronger than most other archers, due to its ability to slow, chill, and burn targets, depending on the need of the scenario.

[Dragnipurake]

Originally Posted by namad

i'd love to play through using orcs, but how do you do it? where can you recruit them?

the first 4islands are 75-90% viking recruits and then the first 3areas of the main continent are 60-80% human recruits! where's my random crossworlds game style

You can purchase all Orcish units from the 'Mysterious Parcel', which can be obtained the moment you have access to Arlania. Check out the Mysterious Parcel thread for more details.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by namad

i'd love to play through using orcs, but how do you do it? where can you recruit them?

the first 4islands are 75-90% viking recruits and then the first 3areas of the main continent are 60-80% human recruits! where's my random crossworlds game style

You can also purchase orcs on the Freedom Islands which come fairly early in the game (check with Kitano).

[Xargon]

Originally Posted by ckdamascus

If you use a Valkyrie for their ability, they say "can't ask me again in 15 battles". Or something.

The lvl 2 medal lowers this by 1 to 14.

However, I can't see the current tick, or remember how many rounds it was the LAST time I asked. I swear the number of rounds they say changes each time to something higher...

Are you sure about this? I think it does indeed reduce rest time in battles. That warrior skill reduces only the Olaf rage skill rest time (and valkyrie rest times display one less than they actually have) and the valkyrie medal decreases those rest times, I believe... I won't get around to testing this conclusively right now, but maybe someone else has already done it? And yes, I think the rest time of dialogue abilities increases by one or something like that each time you use it.