Pathfinder Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Game of the Year Edition

[Desiderius]

Here's the dialogue that gets you a free General:



I was assuming it was a Demon-only choice, but maybe it was just added to help people who lost their General in Ch 2 or something.



This is the "Vengeful and Stern" General. Smells like Vaporware. I'm leveling her up to see if there's a quest or something. Don't know if those units came with her or if they added those from high Morale or something.

 

[Haplo]

Don't buy HKs (although if I'm not mistaken they've been buffed too).

But why?
They are typically the backbone of my army in later Act 2 and also first half of Act 3. Before the cavalery upgrade (light cavalery is pretty much useless, deals little damage and dies when the enemy looks their way), they are the most mobile unit, quite tanky and capable of dealing a little damage as well (frankly no units deal good damage before upgrades).

Because you can only afford one or the other without spending party gold and Clerics offer more unique effect (independent source of heal). But sure with Caster General HK would be fine too I guess but then your General is healing instead of nuking.

Smite also bypasses DR. HKs look like they’ve been buffed but if you just want tanks there’s all sorts of units to play that role.

Imagine not having enough Finance points to easily fund one batch of each of Clerics and HKs every week.

 

[Haplo]

Until Cuirassiers, Hell Knights were my MVPs

Cuirassiers? Did you miss Greybor/do his quest too late?

How does Greybor give new troop type?

When its time to decide the cavalery upgrade, ifyou have Greybor on the council (need to do his quest 1st), you get the option to go with Hedge Knights - not as tanky as Cuirassiers, but still quite durable, while dealing WAY more damage and with a 20% for Critical Hit (like Crusaders).

Hell Knights are great for the strategic layer early, tanky, high movement, decent damage. Late strategic who cares, your general and ranged forces will instanuke everything.

Relics are pretty hit or miss.

No shit. I especially like how it's basically random how many weeks it will take to make the raw material into an item, and what the resulting item will be. Basically have to use a guide. And iirc the relic handling ties up your logistics which is the most important task type.

You know that if you right-click on the phrase in brackets you can see what item you'll get, right?
Its only somewhat hit-or-miss on the first stage, when you decide item type.

And its Diplomacy, not Logistics.

 

[Jaedar]

You know that if you right-click on the phrase in brackets you can see what item you'll get, right?
Its only somewhat hit-or-miss on the first stage, when you decide item type.

And its Diplomacy, not Logistics.

Iirc some of them have three stages. And hit or miss on first stage is already bad enough.

 

[Yosharian]

I don't mind it, especially as I don't remember not getting what I wanted ever.

 

[Desiderius]

Imagine not having enough Finance points to easily fund one batch of each of Clerics and HKs every week.

Why only one? Have you found the recruit button yet?

Iirc some of them have three stages. And hit or miss on first stage is already bad enough.

Mod finder has a mod that shows all options and what they do.

Hedge Knights are pretty pricey.

 

[Lambach]

This is the "Vengeful and Stern" General. Smells like Vaporware. I'm leveling her up to see if there's a quest or something. Don't know if those units came with her or if they added those from high Morale or something.

99.999% sure that's just flavor text and she's the same as any other General, except you get her for free.

And they could've at least started her off at a higher level, ffs. What good is a fresh-out-of-the-womb General when you likely have another 2-3 who are much higher at that point in the game?

It's so representative of what is probably Crusade Mode's greatest problem, or at least one of Top 3. You get to make so many choices which, allegedly, all have different pros and cons you have to weigh, but 80% of them are just garbage which you objectively have no reason to pick unless you're LARPing or you intentionally want to make your life harder.

Option 1 - [Good] Do X (gain 300 Leadership points, Crusade Morale improves by 10)
Option 2 - [Chaotic] Do Y (gain 1000 Leadership points, 5000 Finance Points, Crusade Morale improves by 20, Sofia Vergara jerks you off with her tits)

This kind of stuff happens a lot, and clearly, unless you're very dead-set on playing a Lawful character that never breaks character (which is not actually reflected in the game, ever), there's just no reason to pick Option 1.

 

[Desiderius]

What good is a fresh-out-of-the-womb General when you likely have another 2-3 who are much higher at that point in the game?

Uh, you don't. It fires right as ch3 starts. Free General (6000 Finance) is great value there since you want Finances to go to getting infra up so it's tight. And zero EXP is also non-issue since you can just give it your army to clear out some low level foes that wouldn't give your main General much EXP anyway to level it up.

Only problem is that it starts with *no* abilities (unlike other Generals that get two), and there's no way Vengeful and Stern were intended as just flavor.

This kind of stuff happens a lot, and clearly, unless you're very dead-set on playing a Lawful character that never breaks character (which is not actually reflected in the game, ever), there's just no reason to pick Option 1.

Sometimes, more often all the options just blow.

 

[Haplo]

You know that if you right-click on the phrase in brackets you can see what item you'll get, right?
Its only somewhat hit-or-miss on the first stage, when you decide item type.

And its Diplomacy, not Logistics.

Iirc some of them have three stages. And hit or miss on first stage is already bad enough.

Don't remember many/any such items TBH.

 

[Haplo]

Imagine not having enough Finance points to easily fund one batch of each of Clerics and HKs every week.

Why only one? Have you found the recruit button yet?

Because each week the 1st stack of mercs is pretty cheap, but the price increases expotentially for following batches and there are other ways to use your Finances (like recruiting trainable units or building stuff), so its not worth it.
Maybe except 1-2 bonus HK batches at the very beginning of Act 3 to get the ball rolling nicely.

 

[Lambach]

Uh, you don't. It fires right as ch3 starts.

If you don't have 2 Generals at level 5 minimum (one of them should be even higher) at the start of Ch3, you're doing it wrong.

 

[Haplo]

What good is a fresh-out-of-the-womb General when you likely have another 2-3 who are much higher at that point in the game?

Uh, you don't. It fires right as ch3 starts. Free General (6000 Finance) is great value there since you want Finances to go to getting infra up so it's tight.

Finances were never a limiting factor for my infrastructure. Neither would be yours if you didn't invest so much in mercs.
Materials were.

 

[Desiderius]

Imagine not having enough Finance points to easily fund one batch of each of Clerics and HKs every week.

Why only one? Have you found the recruit button yet?

Because each week the 1st stack of mercs is pretty cheap, but the price increases expotentially for following batches and there are other ways to use your Finances (like recruiting trainable units or building stuff), so its not worth it.
Maybe except 1-2 bonus HK batches at the very beginning of Act 3 to get the ball rolling nicely.

That’s not the case with the first search. It’s the ones after that that are prohibitably expensive.

 

[Haplo]

Imagine not having enough Finance points to easily fund one batch of each of Clerics and HKs every week.

Why only one? Have you found the recruit button yet?

Because each week the 1st stack of mercs is pretty cheap, but the price increases expotentially for following batches and there are other ways to use your Finances (like recruiting trainable units or building stuff), so its not worth it.
Maybe except 1-2 bonus HK batches at the very beginning of Act 3 to get the ball rolling nicely.

That’s not the case with the first search. It’s the ones after that that are prohibitably expensive.

But why Search? If there are merc types I want to hire, I don't want them to dissapear from the roster. I want to hire more next week.

Search is okay if there are no mercs I like, I suppose.

 

[Desiderius]

What good is a fresh-out-of-the-womb General when you likely have another 2-3 who are much higher at that point in the game?

Uh, you don't. It fires right as ch3 starts. Free General (6000 Finance) is great value there since you want Finances to go to getting infra up so it's tight.

Finances were never a limiting factor for my infrastructure. Neither would be yours if you didn't invest so much in mercs.
Materials were.

The big Cleric stack is why I breeze through ch 2 while you guys are complaining about Gargs and Incubi. No need for a second General in Ch 2 where there are no moving Demon armies.

 

[Haplo]

What good is a fresh-out-of-the-womb General when you likely have another 2-3 who are much higher at that point in the game?

Uh, you don't. It fires right as ch3 starts. Free General (6000 Finance) is great value there since you want Finances to go to getting infra up so it's tight.

Finances were never a limiting factor for my infrastructure. Neither would be yours if you didn't invest so much in mercs.
Materials were.

The big Cleric stack is why I breeze through ch 2 while you guys are complaining about Gargs and Incubi. No need for a second General in Ch 2 where there are no moving Demon armies.

Who's complaning? Gargs are easy with a Mage General.

Incubi are a bit of a pain, but you simply want some tanky units for that, remove the glass cannon stacks... and again, get a mage general.

 

[Desiderius]

Imagine not having enough Finance points to easily fund one batch of each of Clerics and HKs every week.

Why only one? Have you found the recruit button yet?

Because each week the 1st stack of mercs is pretty cheap, but the price increases expotentially for following batches and there are other ways to use your Finances (like recruiting trainable units or building stuff), so its not worth it.
Maybe except 1-2 bonus HK batches at the very beginning of Act 3 to get the ball rolling nicely.

That’s not the case with the first search. It’s the ones after that that are prohibitably expensive.

But why Search? If there are merc types I want to hire, I don't want them to dissapear from the roster. I want to hire more next week.

Search is okay if there are no mercs I like, I suppose.

You buy one Cleric stack in ch 2 then search for the second. It should cost the same as the first (unless I just managed to hose myself - pretty sure this is the case). I had just enough Finances to buy all available units.

Unless you’re skipping a lot of days you wouldn’t accumulate enough Finances in Chapter 2 by forgoing Mercs to make a significant difference in ch 3, and would make ch 2 significantly more difficult.

I’m not hurting for infra (all Inns up in first three days), just saying that 6,000 Fin is a significant chunk of change. Mats are relatively cheap to buy with party gold to get rolling.

Taking my time with Armies does slow down income somewhat in ch3.

 

[Lambach]

The second General in Ch2 is there to get some levels, so I start Ch3 with a strong one right off the bat. Same logic for the third General in Ch3 (getting prep'd for Ch5).

The big Cleric stack is why I breeze through ch 2 while you guys are complaining about Gargs and Incubi. No need for a second General in Ch 2 where there are no moving Demon armies.

So that's one stack of Clerics? Interesting how you breezed through Gargs based on Smite Evil, when there are multiple Garg stacks there and Clerics can only Smite once.

 

[Daidre]

This kind of stuff happens a lot, and clearly, unless you're very dead-set on playing a Lawful character that never breaks character (which is not actually reflected in the game, ever), there's just no reason to pick Option 1.

I think most of the crusade cards options constructed in the same way - 2 standard options on top, which are available to everyone, and 2 options that require certain Companion or Mythic Path - those are always much better. It is not so noticeable if you recruit and keep all available companions, but I regularly see grayed out "Arushalae is not available, what have you done to her you asshole" option on the crusade cards.

 

[Desiderius]

Weird thing about Mage General is that Energy Points are supposed to be limiting factor but that you’re rewarded in every way for going slow which makes them moot.

You’re effectively rest spamming.

 

[Haplo]

I only bought limited mercs (mostly clerics and HKs) and can't say I've ever struggled.

 

[Haplo]

Weird thing about Mage General is that Energy Points are supposed to be limiting factor but that you’re rewarded in every way for going slow which makes them moot.

You’re effectively rest spamming.

Yeah, and they are plentiful anyway. I never take bonus Energy abilities/buildings.

 

[Desiderius]

I breezed through Gargs because my General makes all my units non-useless. Smite is just gravy.

Big Cleric stack is also bigger heals though which is good in tougher fights where foes like to target Clerics (so heal is Swift).

 

[Desiderius]

I only bought limited mercs (mostly clerics and HKs) and can't say I've ever struggled.

We’re talking about ch 2.

BTW the Amulet the Nabasu in Market Square drops can be sold for the price of Irabeth’s Army.

 

[Daidre]

Weird thing about Mage General is that Energy Points are supposed to be limiting factor but that you’re rewarded in every way for going slow which makes them moot.

Or you build Alchemist Labs and have almost endless mana. Learn to use instruments that game gives you desi, rest spamming and sitting on your ass was never intended design direction no matter how much you like it.