TBS Fantasy General II by Slitherine Games

[Lacrymas]

The problem with winged valkyries is that they cost liquid mana ....which you get from the swamps you are trying to use them in. I suppose the swamps are just a slog in general and if there's a way around that it's not obvious or easy. Bomber birds do two things very well - survive and help other units survive. They do siege damage like the trolls, but are infinitely harder to kill because melee units can't target them and they are fast. Outside of that, they have a special ability that conceals your units in an AoE around them. Which means lizard drakes and other fliers ignore injured units so they can heal or not die. It can also work in the middle of a battle to conceal units from archers. I got a very clutch save on a thane who got surrounded by lizards and could only move 1 hex, I had to conceal him with the birds in order to defend him from archers and use other units to block melee enemies from going through that area (because units are obviously revealed if an enemy is standing right next to them). I like the siege birds in other words. I wouldn't use more than 2, though.

 

[Shadenuat]

Woah they made addon to play lizardmen? I love giant crabs.

 

[Lacrymas]

Woah they made addon to play lizardmen? I love giant crabs.

"Yes" and "old". You also literally get giant crabs.

 

[Parabalus]

So, I began the barbarian campaign again, this time on legendary, and I forgot you have to choose what you want to become and get a buff depending on your choice. I suppose choosing to become a leader (it gives you a +1 morale and +10% aura) is the best option? The +50 health and 20% damage to only Falirson is eh and the +1 speed and 20% cost reduction to berserkers seems extremely underwhelming. You are obviously going to get more damage from the 10% aura rather than just 20% to Falirson. On top of that, you can chain chug healing potions, so +50 health is basically worthless unless you get destroyed in one turn.

I'm just starting a new one with the beastmaster - not so sure about this choice. Are the 10/20% damage multiplicative or additive?

The cost reduction is really powerful because it drops liquid mana and weapons by 1 each on all upgrades, so cleavers go from 6/3 to 4/2. Speed is always decent.

Station either Falirson or the unit with the blood oak buff

What's the best use case for this buff? Upgrading to thane eliminates the -1 unit penalty, but it takes a while since you want to train the axeman up until you evolve to thane. Wolves->spirit wolf?

Can you get an empire volunteer before this oak? Don't think so.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'm just starting a new one with the beastmaster - not so sure about this choice. Are the 10/20% damage multiplicative or additive?

The cost reduction is really powerful because it drops liquid mana and weapons by 1 each on all upgrades, so cleavers go from 6/3 to 4/2. Speed is always decent.

Station either Falirson or the unit with the blood oak buff

What's the best use case for this buff? Upgrading to thane eliminates the -1 unit penalty, but it takes a while since you want to train the axeman up until you evolve to thane. Wolves->spirit wolf?

Can you get an empire volunteer before this oak? Don't think so.

1. The path - the real choice is between warrior and berserker path. Leader gets the same aura thanes get and it doesn't stack. I suppose leader might be worth it if you intend to get only 1 thane to spread the love around, but the other two choices are ultimately better. Whether you choose warrior or berserker path depends on whether you'll use berserkers in the first place. Like I said previously, I'm not super sold on berserkers, they fall off in usefulness past the early game on legend difficulty even in cleaver form. However, the cost reduction is super useful for early game missions if you do intend to use berserkers. There are two problems with warrior path - bear-rider Falirson doesn't do magical damage even with that summoned hammer spell and archer Falirson deals almost no damage even on lower difficulties. Imo, there is literally no reason to take warrior path on archer Falirson at all, he'll never do enough damage for it to be worth it. There's a case to be made with bear-rider Falirson if you get the item that converts your attacks to magical damage and it's perhaps a legit choice if you want a more long-term benefit from the path choice. I ultimately went with the berserker cost reduction on this playthrough and found it extremely useful in the early game (up until the Thing maybe), but warrior is also ok if you don't like berserkers (which is a very justifiable opinion).

2. Blood Oak buff - the choice is between axemen and Thane. Axemen benefit because the 20% damage reduction is against all damage types, so it helps against magic damage, and the +2 morale helps if you are going kinslayer because they have the lowest morale. They suffer the least from losing a model because they and javelin maidens are the only fully upgraded ones to have more than 5 models in a unit, but putting the blood oak buff on javelins is obviously not worth it. Thane benefits only from the damage reduction because it's extremely hard to rout a single entity unit either way, so the +2 morale is a bit wasted, but you also don't get a debuff to damage done. I went with Thane. Wolf mother isn't a good choice at all because she shouldn't be getting attacked in the first place and has retreat anyway. She isn't a good unit in general, lol. As far as I know, you can't get an imperial unit before the blood oak mission, but they would be a better choice if you could. You also can't enchant the wolves with it because they can't interact with treasure spots in this scenario.

3. Wolf upgrade - unfortunately, the wolves aren't very useful regardless of upgrade, but the spirit wolf is better, yes. If you could somehow buff the spirit wolf's survivability a lot, then it's a nice damage dealer which has magical attacks and that's always great to have. The best use of the wolf is treasure spot hunting, especially if you give the spirit wolf a life leech item.

 

[Parabalus]

You also can't enchant the wolves with it because they can't interact with treasure spots in this scenario.

Think you can tame a wolf, at least Falrison was lvl 2 for me by then. But had problems dropping their morale enough so I didn't try it.

unfortunately, the wolves aren't very useful regardless of upgrade, but the spirit wolf is better, yes. If you could somehow buff the spirit wolf's survivability a lot, then it's a nice damage dealer which has magical attacks and that's always great to have. The best use of the wolf is treasure spot hunting, especially if you give the spirit wolf a life leech item.

Yeah, I know. But that's the only other single-entity really. Not sure if you could tame a bear, but I think you would be stuck with their 'weak'?

 

[Lacrymas]

If you could tame a wolf, they would probably be the best choice for the oak buff. The problem with spirit wolf is that it's very squishy and dies when someone looks at it funny, so the damage reduction would go a long way to alleviate that, along with training from heroes and maybe even other buffs (like the Light of Handola from the swamps). I don't think it's possible to tame a bear this early, considering that single entities are extremely hard to rout without roars or spells, but I don't know what exactly you mean by the bear being stuck with weak because I didn't actually tame any animals while playing with archer Falirson. I thought it was like the wolf mother's charm that goes away in 5 turns until the very end of the campaign. Do tamed animals get a weakness debuff? If the debuff icon is grey, it usually never goes away, but I really don't know how taming works.

 

[Parabalus]

If you could tame a wolf, they would probably be the best choice for the oak buff. The problem with spirit wolf is that it's very squishy and dies when someone looks at it funny, so the damage reduction would go a long way to alleviate that, along with training from heroes and maybe even other buffs (like the Light of Handola from the swamps). I don't think it's possible to tame a bear this early, considering that single entities are extremely hard to rout without roars or spells, but I don't know what exactly you mean by the bear being stuck with weak because I didn't actually tame any animals while playing with archer Falirson. I thought it was like the wolf mother's charm that goes away in 5 turns until the very end of the campaign. Do tamed animals get a weakness debuff? If the debuff icon is grey, it usually never goes away, but I really don't know how taming works.

The bears you encounter are 'Famished dire bears' which have a 'weak' debuff.

I think it might be possible to do it, there is a ruins there in the SE, and if you luck out you might get a - morale item, but too much work and RNG.

Looks like if you Triple Shot a dying enemy it'll die once for each arrow, meaning you get 3x its XP and items.

 

[Lacrymas]

Ah, yeah, I remember now. Bears are super strong, so even with a permanent -20% damage debuff it would be worth taming one so early. That arrow thing is definitely not intended, lol.

 

[Parabalus]

The various letters and maps you can loot, and have to find on the main map for loot are really nice touch. Can't really think of something similar in other games.

 

[Lacrymas]

Is that what you have to do with those? lol. I thought they were clues for things in the battle maps and I never tried to find them.

 

[Parabalus]

Is that what you have to do with those? lol. I thought they were clues for things in the battle maps and I never tried to find them.

Yeah, they're also not really too difficult - usually give units with unique traits or purples.

 

[MuckMan]

Played the Invasion campaign on and off over the last couple of months. Really enjoying it so far, playing Gladius after playing FG2 feels like a downgrade, they could have made so much more with the battles in Gladius. I am out of the Swamps and got all that juicy mana but those missions were a slog imo. How much more is there to the campaign? Am I at the midpoint? Two-thirds?

 

[Lacrymas]

Around two-thirds, I'd say, but you still have quite a few missions. Gladius is different beast entirely and requires multiplayer to really shine, but it's great even in single player, just not as focused on sp as FG.

 

[MuckMan]

Around two-thirds, I'd say, but you still have quite a few missions. Gladius is different beast entirely and requires multiplayer to really shine, but it's great even in single player, just not as focused on sp as FG.

Sure, but I miss simple things in Gladius like forrests breaking charges etc. things like that, it did not help that I played Gladius the first time after playing FG2.

 

[Lacrymas]

Around two-thirds, I'd say, but you still have quite a few missions. Gladius is different beast entirely and requires multiplayer to really shine, but it's great even in single player, just not as focused on sp as FG.

Sure, but I miss simple things in Gladius like forrests breaking charges etc. things like that, it did not help that I played Gladius the first time after playing FG2.

Are there charges in Gladius? Forests block line of sight in Gladius (along with reducing damage from ranged weapons iirc) and differences in elevation can screw you over quite badly.

 

[MuckMan]

Not entirely sure about charges, it has been a while since I played Gladius. What I meant is, just taking the battles into account, FG2 is way more fun and tactical (different terrainn and abilities of your units etc.) than Gladius imho. You have more to manage in Gladius obviously. What you listed is basically it. Forrest block line of sight, gives damage reduction and reduces your movement with most units. In FG2 you can hide your units in the forrest, they break charges of incoming units, reduce damage of incoming fire, some units a especially good at moving through the woods and getting the drop on enemies etc. The only thing I am not entirely sure are the differences in elevation, as is are there any in FG2?