I battled my way ahead through this game.
Now I find I am stifled. On the US server I have only 1 world I play in. I can't advance anymore because I only am at the start of the fairy-chapter and so cannot negotiate anymore because I need orcs. I also cannot battle anymore so there is no way to advance.
I had resigned myself to the problem of the orcs, the fighting got steadily worse, but with a lot of effort it was doable and there were the tournaments to keep me occupied.
After about 6 months the fairy units were finally released and they are worthless. The droneriders are less valuable than the swordacrobats. The mage is less valuable than the sorceress.
And where trainingtimes have been greatly reduced for all those units they introduce the cerberus with a ridiculously high training time.
With the new system I can fight about half the amount of tournament battles I used to before it gets completely impossible, so that is pretty much out now as well. What the heck is left of the game? Collecting goods. Wow.
My main world (on the dutch server) I'm in the woodelves chapter. Battle is way beyond impossible. Even when I do find an encounter where there are only 5 or 6 opposing units they are so ridiculously overpowered I don't have a chance. Last try was against mostly heavy melee. The opposing knights were hit my my mageunit, limiting the damage they would do. And yet with only 1 strike, that one knight unit killed over half my squad of treants which were supposed to shield my archers...right.
There simply is no way to win. This is not balancing the game, this is stomping down on the players who have invested much time, effort (and in many cases diamonds) on the game. It is a gross disregard for their customers and I am beyond enraged.
Lets see, a short recap on the battle system and how it affects my play.
I spent most of the last week producing units and trying them in different combinations, mostly to no effect. There just is no way to win anymore. Meaning that all that is left to do for the next months is waiting and collecting goods.
I need about 1160 more KP's before I get to the end of the fairychapter, then nearly another 300 to unlock the orc-armouries so I will be able to breed orcs to negotiate.
All in all about 1460 KP's. None of those will be coming out of battles since the battles I face I'm unable to win. With the way it is now, I may be able to get about 40 kp's from a tournament, which helps a bit, but hardly enough and certainly not as much as before. Meaning that by far the most KPs will have to come from the hourly gift. With a Tome of Secrets wonder that makes 25/day. Let's add another 5/day as the tournament results, but then I'm really pushing it. 1460/30= 48.67 days. Say 7 weeks. Since I can't play every day, I lose at least one day a week, so let's add another week to compensate.
Great! That means that even in the most favorable situation I can look forward to 8 weeks of doing nothing but collecting goods, which is about as exciting as watching grass grow.
To make it even better I took a look at my dutch city. I'm the woodelven chapter there, but also no luck (or rather, no chance to win) with the battles. I have no reason to assume it will get much better here, so after those 8 weeks of doing nothing but collecting goods I can have the joy of 1 week time spending all those goods negotiating provinces and opening them up to finally get some expansions, but by then I'll already have all the ones in the research tree so I will only need them for the ridiculous amount of mushroom-factories one needs to get through the extremely boring orc-chapter.
Probably by then I will be able to win some fights due to greater squads, but even so, after that I know I'm going to be stuck again after doing a week, or 2 at most, of battles.
Now what in the name of Hades is balanced about this?
This is what I see about the units...
Swordacrobats: best as cannonfodder to distract other units. I often used them that way, so not much changed there except they do less damage to opposing units now and seem to be able to take less hits so they die even sooner.
Elite archers: reasonable against mage units, but hardly strong. The damage against heavy melee is much, much less than I expected. And any other unit that even looks at them crosseyed makes them drop dead of fright.
Treants: just so much tinder now. By the time they come into action they are always decimated since opposing archer-units are so huge they are lucky to even reach any oppponent. And even if they do they hardly do any damage at all. And taking waaaay too much damage from opposing light melee units.
Granite Golem: Arguably the best unit before the change. Now at best decent against light units. Too vulnerable to everything else. Can't stay out of reach of the heavy melee due to their shorter range.
Sorceress: Another candidate for the best unit before the changes. Now there's not much left. Her high initiative is a laugh because it means she will be before her own troops which are needed to shield her. And if you do put her in front you're lucky if she gets in 2 hits before she's slaughtered. Most success I have had with the new version was by having her skip her first turn. But then what good is that high initiative? Except making her the prime target for even more opposing units.
Cerberus: Good against archers and mages. However, the trainingtimes are way out of sync with all the other units. And though opposing cerberus1 units seem to be able to gobble up my treants without too much trouble due to the huge numbers in their squads my own cerberus units are good only for a quick first strike against their target units and then end up dead after their 1 attack.
Drone-riders: ??? Less powerfull than the swordacrobats. Whyever would such a unit only be available so late in the game. And what does it add to the game? It's nothing more than another version of the light-melee unit so it doesn't add anything except that it looks nice.
Blossommage: same deal. Comparable to the sorceress. Can't see any reason for it being a late-game unit. Can't see any real reason for adding it since it doesn't do anything really different.
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I will need orcs to negotiate. I am almost through with Chapter 3, 5 techs left, working on workshop upgrades now, and haven't fought and won a battle since the second tier of Chapter 3. 
