Value of th new units: Your Thoughts

[vicheron]

The Rune Mage is interesting but not powerful enough to justify storing up your runes. They should have had some other creatures that use stored runes so you could at least build an army based on it.

[ckdamascus]

It all depends on your game play though. That said, all the rune buffs are CAPPED at 20 spare runes.

Yeah, I have like 40 spare runes from every category, and the bonuses cap.

That said, the top of the line ability (20 magic runes) is.. SHEEP. Too bad it is so random, but hmmm maybe I should use phantom spam on the rune mages to increase the odds of sheeping entire armies.

So, it is not that bad to keep 20 spare runes from every category as an Impossible Mage.

That said, I might be stuck, but I think I just found a solution (phantom rune mages haha).

[edit]
actually, now that I have two rune mages, splitting them up is extremely handy since I now have a fairly good chance of sheeping whoever I target. I can't afford to phantom them yet, as the leadership is too high.

[onepiece]

@vicheronThat would be too powerful or extremely weak.

Since the purpose is creating a unit that gets stronger the more runes you have, thus getting stronger while you don't have better skills, the opposite loses the meaning of sacrificing skills for a stronger unit.
Since most people will have almost the same number of spent runes in every walkthrough (or total number of runes colected), there would be almost no difference from a few runes more or few runes less because every rune would add too little to the overall power.

Think of the Assasin abillity "find weakness" but gaining 0,5% per attack instead of 5%.

[DGDobrev]

In a way, that rune storing strategy will suit the Paladin perfectly. Fight well, lose few units, get Neatness level 3, buy all level 4-5 items and break the ones you will not use. They will yield a substantial amount of runes, which you can happily stockpile for stronger Rune Mage skills.

That's a tactic I will surely try out. A party of Paladins, Knights, Archmagi, Rune Magi and Gorguanas will be a very interesting one.

[Colbert30]

I love rune mages, they make excelent support units. Have I mentioned they can res black dragons? Yes, they can!

[KarlosCV]

Rune Mages are interesting, totally worthless for the first 3/4 of the game and absolutely wonderful for the rest. In the beginning they are just way too expensive, money and lship wise, and it's much more preferable to use your runes, not stockpile them. Later on though extra runes start to pile up and that's the time to recruit some RM. Combine them with black dragons, paladins, and two shooter units (skeleton archers and bowmen are the best IMO) and you have a dream team.

Witch Hunters can have some uses, especially around the middle of the game and only because of their magic shackles ability that don't have the the lship limit (unlike your spell). Later on I had so much initiative that I didn't bother with any shackling. It was much simpler just to pound everything to the ground in the first round with my skeleton archers, bowmen and black dragons (actually that's maybe the biggest drawback of both KB games - the last third of the game is way too easy, there's no need of any finessess and elaborate strategies anymore and most battles are basically over in the first two rounds).

I didn't use orcs, again, mainly because they don't have any decent ranger units (severe distance penalty) and also it takes time for them to accumulate enough adrenaline and start to deliver some real damage. But I can be wrong, since I didn't have the patience to test them thoroughly. But they sure can be tough enemies. It still seems to me, even with the addon, that they're frustrating to play with AND to play against.

Faun is actually a very useful support unit, they finally make royal thorns reasonably useful.

All in all, it's a good addon, although humans still seem overpowered and too bad the devs haven't made other races, especially lizards and demons, a bit more useful. Anyway, thumbs up for Katauri, hope Crossworlds will sell well and cannot wait to play KB2 )

[ckdamascus]

Curious, do you play in impossible mode and what class do you play?

Bowmen and skeleton archers both suffer from range penalties, just like orcs, but I agree they have great potential for serious damage. Or is the orc range penalty even shorter than the bowmen an skeleton archers?

I figured early game the rune mages can revive the cyclops, which is really handy since you get those guys on bolo.

I didn't realize they could do this, bleh. Actually it has been a while, I wonder if inquisitors can also raise cyclops too? Hmm.

I'm assuming you were a warrior class since you mentioned high initiative.

I'm trying to make the orc dream team work with a paladin right now. wish me luck.

I do miss insane ranged units.

[Metathron]

Originally Posted by ckdamascus

I figured early game the rune mages can revive the cyclops, which is really handy since you get those guys on bolo.

I didn't realize they could do this, bleh. Actually it has been a while, I wonder if inquisitors can also raise cyclops too? Hmm.

Huh? That's not true, unfortunately, only time back works on them.

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by Metathron

Huh? That's not true, unfortunately, only time back works on them.

Rune Mages can revive black dragons (the hardest unit to revive), are you sure they can't revive cyclops?

[onepiece]

Could be since the stone ability of the Cyclops says they are immune to spells of healing and resurrection.
Need to check that (first need to find some cyclops XD)