TBS Age of Wonders: Planetfall - AoW gone to space

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

like a Wraith that was immune to physical damage

Wraiths are kind of a funny unit. On paper, they can kill like 90% of every single unit in-game because they no-sell purely physical attacks. They also feature AOW1's Undead bullshit immunities to pretty much everything, so they will ignore like 50-25% of your magical rolodex, and barely feel a buncha stuff. Add a simple "Enchant Weapon" that's dirty cheap and the Wraith's dark hood made of foulest dark sorceries and pure, malevolent evil oozing into reality, falls away to reveal... a glorified T1 unit

The only reason the AI can't cope with them, is because the AI is too dumb to realize what's happening. Closest thing to "coping" it can do, is probably the fact that the AI loves to enchant random t1 units garrisoning a t1 town somewhere in the underground that nobody cares about.

In AOW terms, its a weakness equivalent to the Aliens from Signs. You know, the ones that were weak to water.

Oh noes a single swordman with a weapon enchantment, my one true weakness!

Like the world's lamest Nazgul ever.

And then they nerfed it in AOW2, making it kinda... huh, whatever. Even through everyone and his mother in 2/SM has a magical attack now.

 

[Citizen]

nly real gripe with AoW1 and 2 is that I have to invest in magic. And in 3 whatever my style of play, the sovereign is gonna be cavalier as fuck.
Plus I am strategically impaired so I never get far in these games anyway.

But investing in magic in AoW1 is a suicide, melee killing machines is the only way to build ur leader and heroes. U only need stun lightning spell and heal to restore between battles. All other points go into defence + stun and freeze on hit

 

[Lacrymas]

"Enchant Weapon" ... kills wraith...

I'm 99% sure that doesn't work, I've had a single wraith kill 3 stacks of enchanted units on the last map of the campaign.

 

[cvv]

So reading the feedback it seems Planetfall is the same deal as AoW3 - weak at launch but likely to be great in 2 years with 10 balance patches and 3 expansions?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

So reading the feedback it seems Planetfall is the same deal as AoW3 - weak at launch but likely to be great in 2 years with 10 balance patches and 3 expansions?

Where did you read such feedback? Dudes are still talking fantasy AoW here.

 

[Lacrymas]

I thought they would shred it as well, but they didn't. Maybe they weren't enchanted with Enchant Weapon, but they were all sparkly and shit and I *thought* I checked their enchantments beforehand. Only units with default magic attacks (like Astras) can consistently kill it.

 

[visions]

I thought they would shred it as well, but they didn't. Maybe they weren't enchanted with Enchant Weapon, but they were all sparkly and shit and I *thought* I checked their enchantments beforehand. Only units with default magic attacks (like Astras) can consistently kill it.

Sounds highly dubious. Maybe they were enchanted with Stone Skin? Maybe they were blessed with Nature's Blessing or something similar from some magical location? Seems probable if they were all enchanted. The AI does enchant its units a lot but all units in three stacks seems more than usual.

I've been replaying the AoW campaigns in a row this year and I'm sure as hell that when I cast Enchant Weapon when facing wraiths, they die like flies.

 

[orcinator]

I'm surprised how unpolished everything is, I expected more from them given how long it's been since they started showing off the factions.
The mos egregious thing that I found so far is the presence of naval units. Statwise they're not too bad but the game doesn't have any coastal or water cities so they're completely useless, especially since the research to get them in on a dead end branch and they have the same prerequisite as your faction's air unit which is actually useful.

But I'm sure one of the dozes of expansions parajew has planned will address this(assuming the game even sold well enough to warrant a naval expansion).

 

[BING XI LAO]

I thought they would shred it as well, but they didn't. Maybe they weren't enchanted with Enchant Weapon, but they were all sparkly and shit and I *thought* I checked their enchantments beforehand. Only units with default magic attacks (like Astras) can consistently kill it.

Perhaps you're thinking of the Undead Reaper? Even the basic priest can win a 1v1 with a Wraith 33% of the time. Any basic units with Enchant weapon have a good chance against the wraith, though it does have lifestealing to supplement its dumpster-tier stats.

 

[Lacrymas]

Eh, maybe I wasn't paying attention, but the matter of fact is that even 1 wraith is sufficient to hold off stacks of the enemy's units on the final map (which is more tedious than difficult tbh). When things do get hairy, like the aforementioned Astras, I teleport my main stack to my main base and take care of that personally.

 

[BING XI LAO]

Ja, much as I love the game, playing vs AI has become totally boring for me. I even tried a magic-only-on-heroes, no DEF, run and got bored still. Maybe I should do it again with a mod that makes all magic cheaper, though.

In a recent PBEM someone used wraiths against me, but since I saw it coming and had air galleys, I was able to always have priests in place against them (though it's very amusing that air galleys and wraiths can never attack each other). Given that Enchant Weapon can be cast on a unit 12 hexes away, I think Wraiths are a fair bit underpowered against human players. But then again, archers are very dominant in MP and they can't use enchant weapon in aow1.

 

[anvi]

So reading the feedback it seems Planetfall is the same deal as AoW3 - weak at launch but likely to be great in 2 years with 10 balance patches and 3 expansions?

I think it is best to assume that is the case for every game.

 

[Commissar Draco]

So Dwarf Campaign is only two missions? Just as I got baron mecha for my dorf Hero (But why his daughter becomes Boss? WTF you Dutch sodomites?!) the campaign ended and I was ''allowed'' to plays as ugly butch dyke negress aka amazoon.



Vangard are bunch of cucks and Dorfs are cucked too glad Did not payed for this game.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

So Dwarf Campaign is only two missions?

I understand they all are. The whole campaign thing is just an excuse to set the stage up for scenario maps I guess.

 

[fantadomat]

Yeah,the game is not even worth pirating.

 

[Lacrymas]

Tbh, I think that was expected the moment they announced they are making it.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Hehe, I only play skirmish maps. I don't care about the campaign.
Also, Dvar are my favorite so far.

 

[thesheeep]

I might get this at a very, very deep sale.
Usually I only care about the campaign and will maybe play a scenario or two. Certainly not worth the price they are asking for.

 

[orcinator]

why are all the newer AOW games capped at 8 players per map, when the original allowed for 12?

The cap for Planetfall is 12.

They even take advantage of this for the final mission by letting you choose between two sides or neither and then having to fight 5-10 enemies (one starts off as an ally if you pick neither).
Too bad that mission seems almost unbeatable on the harder difficulties thanks to the busted faction invasion mechanic that spawns never-ending waves of progressively stronger enemies at your borders if you're at war with a minor faction, and the final mission not only starts you off at war with them, it doesn't let you make peace.

Well it's probably doable if you choose a side and rush the enemy HQs with your high level hero stack, but siding with neither spawns way too many enemies to handle unless you do everything perfectly or there's some trick to slowing down the invading spawns.

 

[vota DC]

Mechanic wise Trumph new games have more potential for campaign, no idea why they don't make better than 1.

 

[Raghar]

What happened to the big Epic Triumph campaigns? The AOWIII campaign was kind of weak,

Different programmers have different skills.

 

[rvm1975]

What happened to the big Epic Triumph campaigns? The AOWIII campaign was kind of weak,

Different programmers have different skills.

"Campaign" is about creativity and imagination. It is not based on skills. More on talent I think. And decent IQ level for both sides.
And you want deep, interesting, non-linear story blah blah blah ... in what ? in 4x strategy game with advanced tactical battles?

lol

despite all we have background stories why some factions doing some things ...

 

[Alpharius]

Finished the first non-tutorial Vanguard campaign mission, and it was beyond boring. Basically i've ran around the map with a few stacks completing "kill this stack of neturals and get a pile of crap as a reward" quests for 80 turns and thats it. The AI didn't attack me once even though i was at war with one if them for like last 40 turns(picked max difficulty too). Will probably uninstall if the next mission is the same.

The tech tree is overflowing with useless shit. Economy is your usual generic civ\endless legend\whatever mix. Combat seems kinda decent, only exterminating t1 bugs with t1 riflemen gets old real fast (about 90% of the fights were like that in the fist mission). Story is meh so far.

Also whats with all the participation award "quest" spam every turn? Like build 2 of x buildings and get 10 energy, build 1 of x unit and get 5 food. I'm surprised they dont give awards for pressing end turn button.

I remember liking AoW3 campaign much more though not exactly sure why.

Overall: 2\10 Glad i didn't buy it.

 

[Cnaiur]

Haven't played enough to say anything useful on the campaign or scenario gameplay, but with the 1.04 patch it's definitely in a better state performance wise than AOW3 was for a long time.

I'm already disappointed though in the lackluster hero upgrades and unit abilities (% increase, x dmg resistance etc). Where are the interesting abilities that really change the way you use units in combat?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Where are the interesting abilities that really change the way you use units in combat?

You get some useful stuff but that's hidden under prerequisites of the bland upgrades.