1st ever "Penny-Arcade Hero Academy Tournament" Toilet Bowl Champion!
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
Any word on an Android release? I'd really like to get in on this but when I tried to download the game on my iPod Touch 2nd Gen it told me it wasn't compatible.
Any word on an Android release? I'd really like to get in on this but when I tried to download the game on my iPod Touch 2nd Gen it told me it wasn't compatible.
From their FAQ: Yes. We are working on bringing Hero Academy to Android, but have no further details to discuss right now.
It's not much, but at least you know that they're working on it.
Battle.net/SC2: Kwisatz.868 | Steam/XBL/PSN/Gamecenter: schmads | BattleTag/D3: Schmads#1144 | Hero Academy & * With Friends: FallenKwisatz | 3DS: 4356-0128-9671
The best thing to do is to just experiment. You can play out your 5 moves per turn as many times as you want, until you're happy with your choices. You just tap the circular pie-pieces picture in the lower-left corner and it will reset you to exactly where you were at the start of your turn.
Also, if you tap the gear icon in the upper right and then choose "replay," it will replay your opponent's last move again. I find this is helpful to remind me what is going on in the game a bit, as well as what the opponent might be trying to set up for the next move.
Pay attention to the range at which each piece can attack. You can double-tap on any item or location (or use the question mark and tap) to get detailed information about it. So, you can look at the card for a Necromancer, for instance, to see that he can move two spaces at a time, but has a damage range of three spaces. After a while, you'll remember it all and won't need to check, but at first, I checked those things constantly.
When a card says that you can move X spaces, or fire X spaces, you should consider diagonal moves to be two spaces. Think of it as walking forward a space and then walking sideways a space, rather than a single, diagonal move.
With the exception of the grenadier, who can throw "over" other pieces, you can put one of your pieces in front of your crystal or another of your pieces to prevent your opponent from hitting what you are protecting.
The council priest has a heal range of two spaces, but has a strong heal. The dark elf healer has a heal range of three spaces, but it isn't as good a heal. The drawf paladin has a two-space heal (that I think is not as good as the council priest heal) that heals herself in the process.
Do not get frustrated if you lose. If you're playing with folks in this thread, you are going to face some fierce competition, but don't treat them as individual games, just play a few and learn as you make mistakes. You learn in this game the way you get the hang of Starcraft and all of the layers there. Play a lot! I'm always up for more games!
Battle.net/SC2: Kwisatz.868 | Steam/XBL/PSN/Gamecenter: schmads | BattleTag/D3: Schmads#1144 | Hero Academy & * With Friends: FallenKwisatz | 3DS: 4356-0128-9671
I think Brew's about to get his win #2 against me, so the final matches should probably be able to get underway early this week!
I've still got a one in a million chance at finding a small thermal exhaust port right below his main port, and I think I have the advantage in our 3rd match, but if the final two end up being ani_game_bum and Brew then that sounds about right to me. They're very likely the two toughest opponents I've faced in this game.
I wish we could set the game back to that pivotal moment when you knocked out my wraith and explore how the match would've developed if I hadn't decided to abandon him and press on your crystal (which we now can see was a decision 54hp too hasty ;-)).
I don't remember the specifics of the situation when you knocked him out, but I remember that my best option for keeping him running would've likely led me to lose several other units, and likely also my foothold on the purple tile.
I should've taken some screenshots of some of my alternate-universe options as I tried to think of a way to get that last impaler deployed into a useful (and not-dead) position. They all looked like they'd be futile, but one option I considered was to retreat and form a sort of lumbering 3-priestess tortuga formation around her to escort her forward. If you didn't have so many weapon-upgraded units on the board, it might've had a chance of working!
I was actually surprised you decided to abandon that monster. It was kind of a hail Mary on my part. I figured you would revive him, eat my upgraded spear thrower but not finish up fully healed allowing me to try to take you out with the other impaler(maybe?).
Anyway, nothing's decided yet. If I cant protect that Crystal to the end, you still can take the game.
I got 2 screenshots I can post. My items are showing but I figured you know them already
Edit: Resized the pics.
Brew on
1st ever "Penny-Arcade Hero Academy Tournament" Toilet Bowl Champion!
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
I was actually surprised you decided to abandon that monster. It was kind of a hail Mary on my part. I figured you would revive him, eat my upgraded spear thrower but not finish up fully healed allowing me to try to take you out with the other impaler(maybe?)
That second impaler of yours was a big limiter in my options. I'm pretty sure I had a potion handy for the wraith, but since you left your attacking impaler forward...
Resurrect, potion, attack forward impaler -> I think this ended in a knockout but not eat/stomp, and your priestesses were close enough that you'd be able to rez and kill my wraith next turn
Resurrect, no potion, attack & eat -> this got rid of your impaler and healed the wraith a lot, but not enough to keep him safe from your second impaler on the following turn. This would've left your other impaler on my attack boost square with me not having much offensive power to unseat her.
Resurrect, potion, wraith flees -> this was my only option for keeping my wraith alive, but you would have then claimed my attack boost square with your impaler, killed my upgraded priestess, and still have had action points to spend elsewhere. This was my favorite alternate option, but it also would've meant me completely giving up my pressure on your lower right crystal.
I'm sure I'm getting some details wrong since I don't remember the exact setup, but that's the gist of why I decided to take advantage of having the purple tile and several forward units to see if I could just go for it. If your rear impaler was just one step further back, everything would've been different. And if I recall, in a lot of my options in that round and others, just 10 hit points on your forward impaler made the difference in stopping me.
54 friggin' hit points on that crystal! If this were bowling I'd stomp my foot to get that last wobbly pin to fall over.
wonderpug on
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JacobyOHHHHH IT’S A SNAKECreature - SnakeRegistered Userregular
FINALS GO!
Work has let up on the kicking of my ass, so I've sorted out the finals between @ani_game_bum and @Brew. (P.S. Congratulations!)
I've done the roll on Invisible Castle and ani_game_bum won the coin flip, getting the right to go first in Game 3. ani_game_bum, let us know if you decide to go first in Game 3 or not.
The other games are set up as before (one started by ani_game_bum, one started by Brew).
By the way, if you can let us know what's going on in the game as you're playing, it would make this much more exciting.
By the way, if you can let us know what's going on in the game as you're playing, it would make this much more exciting.
Yes, screenshots as you go, please!
And not that it matters for the final results, but I did squeak out a win on the 3rd Brew/wonderpug match. The tiniest of opportunities opened up for me to squeeze in my impaler to chip away the last 54hp on his crystal.
wonderpug on
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ani_game_bumOptimistic, Rule-Breaking Nice GuyThe Final World/DestinationRegistered Userregular
Work has let up on the kicking of my ass, so I've sorted out the finals between @ani_game_bum and @Brew. (P.S. Congratulations!)
I've done the roll on Invisible Castle and ani_game_bum won the coin flip, getting the right to go first in Game 3. ani_game_bum, let us know if you decide to go first in Game 3 or not.
The other games are set up as before (one started by ani_game_bum, one started by Brew).
By the way, if you can let us know what's going on in the game as you're playing, it would make this much more exciting.
Good luck!
Thanks, Jacoby, for getting the final round going and, again, setting up the whole tournament. I will take the first turn of Game 3. I'll do my best to take screen shots as Brew and I compete in this fine championship match of combat and wits, but won't be able to upload them until the evening EST hours where I will have more free time.
@Brew, good to see you and battle against you again! Let's have some fun and best of luck to the both of us!
@Brew, good to see you and battle against you again! Let's have some fun and best of luck to the both of us!
See, now you've got me imagining your avatar saying that. And then speedlines.
GameCenter: ROldford
Switch: nin.codes/roldford
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ani_game_bumOptimistic, Rule-Breaking Nice GuyThe Final World/DestinationRegistered Userregular
Game 1 pits Brew (noguru) and I on the new Teleport field. I open with an Archer and a Cleric occupying the bottom left Assault Boost and Teleport tiles within striking distance of one of Brew's crystals.
Ooh, the classic Oben Schräder opening. Will Brew counter with the standard Frischling defense, or opt for the riskier Ankh Twister gambit?
I find that Thibault cancels out Frischling, don't you? Unless the enemy has studies his Agrippa, of course.
That would make defeat...
inconcievable.
Jacoby on
GameCenter: ROldford
Switch: nin.codes/roldford
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ani_game_bumOptimistic, Rule-Breaking Nice GuyThe Final World/DestinationRegistered Userregular
edited March 2012
Game 1
Opted to deploy and position heros instead of taking shots of closest crystal.
Game 2
Brew wastes no time and advances to the Assault Boost tile and proceeds to chain lightning my heros and bottom crystal.
Knockback the Wizard and take over Assault tile w/ Cleric healing up my Knight.
To all, let me know if this play-by-play is what you are needing or if I am breaking any pic size rule and need to make them smaller or hide them behind spoilers. @Brew, let me know if you have anything to input on the turns. Not trying to be a post hog, just trying to give the readers/viewers what they want :-)
Edit: My PC is being difficult all of the sudden, so they may not be any match updates for a while. I'll continue to to play and screencap as much as I can and share when posible. Thanks!
If you've got the stamina to do these play by plays, I think it's a lot of fun to see, especially since these matches are the culmination of a nearly 2 month endeavor.
UGH! This game! THIS GAME! My brother has never beaten me in a game. I have always been his superior in any game we play, BUT NOT THIS FUCKING GAME! No matter what I do, my Dwarves are crushed by his elves (or humans, but mostly elves). Both teams can easily rez downed characters and one team even has a ranged stomp! My team has shitty heals and limited movement making stomps pretty fucking hard. What are the dwarf's strengths exactly? They get slightly stronger buffs from squares and good aoe damage? Is that it or am I missing something? I feel like I'm doing SOMETHING wrong. But I feel as though I've tried every strategy I can think of.
And is their tank ALSO their healer? How does that work? The Palandin doesn't really suck up enough damage to tank well, and she certainly can't heal for shit.
I see on the official forums the devs are going to be giving the Dwarfs a big buff, that day can't come soon enough!
Nerdrage aside, what a brilliant game! I love the little details that went into everything, like the awesome AWESOME animations.
Wishpig on
WARNING: Picture below may cause spontaneous growth of facial hair and/or body hair.
UGH! This game! THIS GAME! My brother has never beaten me in a game. I have always been his superior in any game we play, BUT NOT THIS FUCKING GAME! No matter what I do, my Dwarves are crushed by his elves (or humans, but mostly elves). Both teams can easily rez downed characters and one team even has a ranged stomp! My team has shitty heals and limited movement making stomps pretty fucking hard. What are the dwarf's strengths exactly? They get slightly stronger buffs from squares and good aoe damage? Is that it or am I missing something? I feel like I'm doing SOMETHING wrong. But I feel as though I've tried every strategy I can think of.
And is their tank ALSO their healer? How does that work? The Palandin doesn't really suck up enough damage to tank well, and she certainly can't heal for shit.
I see on the official forums the devs are going to be giving the Dwarfs a big buff, that day can't come soon enough!
Nerdrage aside, what a brilliant game! I love the little details that went into everything, like the awesome AWESOME animations.
I highly prefer dark elves myself, but when I do play dwarf I like two use the grenadier, upgrade him as much as I can, and then push him forward to the best center board position I can find and have him closely backed up with a paladin, who may or may not have some upgrades. Bonus if I can bubble one or both before they move out.
A lot of other races exposed forward pushes can fail even when backed up with a healer because the person just has to take a turn to set up and then kill the healer, circumventing the offensive piece, who now is exposed, with a unit BEHIND them likely. The other player may lose a piece but you will likely lose both the healer and the attacker and whatever upgrades you had on them, which in my experience is more than 2 between the two units.
With the dwarves this tatic works pretty well for me BECAUSE the healer is also a tank. The Bubble is a deterent often, similar, but opposite to a pre-scrolled unit. The dwarves also have a great healing potion in the grog, because of it's after effects.
If playing on the new map I like to try and take the center square which is the only power attack boost square on the map, with an upgraded grenadier who can atk 3 away, with aoe dmg, and even lobs OVER other units so you're not stuck slapping the knight in your face, but can instead directly attack the real threat behind him, like a healer.
Now your only problem is stomping. dark elves have necros to range stomp, and humans have their fire bomb that stomps, dwarves have to get more creative. I don't have a good answer, so far it's been a base by base situation for me and not one easy answer/strategy for stomping.
With dark elves I drool over a fully upgraded necro, with dwarves it's the grenadier, only difference, one does aoe and the other does ranged stomps. Personally I think the ranged stomps win.
I've been playing dwarves a lot recently after getting a little burned out on my beloved elves, and while definitely need whatever help the next patch is going to bring them, I think they're better than they get credit for.
I love upgrading paladins. A weapon upgrade means her heals are more in line with a council cleric's, with the bonus of boosting her ability to self heal. Even without the upgrade, I'll often stick a paladin on the attack boost square in my territory if there is one. The only other units that really benefit are the grenadier, who you'll want to be moving further forward, and the annihilator, who you either want protected in the back or charging ahead for a suicide run.
I also really like giving full defense upgrades to paladins, with or without the weapon upgrade. With defense upgraded, they're just about as tough to kill as a knight... but they can heal themselves and others, and when they attack they don't lose damage potential from knockback the way a knight does. People also often don't expect you to go on the attack with a healer, so I often catch people by surprise. They find that they can't knock out the paladin in a single turn, letting me either retreat her or booze her up for another turn on the attack. And there's also lots of situations where the enemy units are softened up from grenadier/gunner AOE so she can smash them in fewer moves, or better yet, units with an armor debuff lingering from an earlier annihilator attack.
Unsung dwarf hero #2 is the gunner. His damage amount and type make him "equivalent" to an archer or an impaler, but his damage dropoff makes him seem pretty lame. And, well, he kind of is. But! Just like the elf monk wasn't that bad before he got buffed, the gunner isn't that bad right now, before they give him whatever buff is surely headed his way. You just have to think of him as a high damage melee unit, who occasionally has a chance to do aoe trick shots. Those aoe opportunities don't always present themselves, but when they do the gunner can pump out some amazing damage. I know the grenadier is the popular choice for upgrades, but most of the time I'm just as happy to give them to a gunner. An un-upgraded grenadier can still soften up a bunch of targets while staying safely out of range, and an upgraded gunner is more able to go in for the stomps without dying.
Finally, the drill spell. The drill (pulverizer?) is pretty awesome. If you can find a good opportunity to take advantage of its crystal-attack splash damage, fine, but most of the time I find myself using it for single target damage, which it does better than the other two teams' spells. It gives you your two chances to have that single-target burst damage that the dwarves are otherwise really terrible at dealing out. When used along with attacks from another unit, it can give you that one extra hit needed for a knockout or stomp, just like you normally get from a scroll. Four scrolls in your arsenal, essentially.
The Tribe will be the most unique team yet to be added to Hero Academy, right down to their new board. The board will feature "Barbed Crystals" that can actually attack nearby enemies once per turn. If you're playing on the Tribe map, approach crystals with caution! The team make-up itself is also very different from the traditional unit and item distribution that many of you have dissected for the existing teams. For example, the Tribe gets two of their Chieftan Super Units. Among their other changes, they have access to four haunches of meat that acts somewhat like a healing potion and scroll combined - they each heal an ally for up to 700 hitpoints and increase that unit's next attack by 175%! When you start to play with the Tribe, you'll find out very quickly that their aggressive tactics play unlike any other team we've released to date. Get ready for a fight!
I don't know how in the holy hell the warrior & axe thrower abilities are going to be balanced, let alone two super units and four potion/scroll combos, but I can't wait to find out!
Some more info from their forums (underlines mine):
The Tribe is definitely the most unique team we've put together to date. Their "deck" isn't quite put together like the other teams are. For example, they have a shield and sword upgrade, but no helm. And as I mentioned in the blog post, instead of scrolls and healing potions, they have four hocks of meat that both heal and supercharge them.
Virtually everything they do, even defending, is about attacking. Their armor upgrade actually deflects some of the damage back to the attacker. And wait until you see the Chieftan's whirlwind attack
And there are pictures of the new map (three crystals each!) and some units in action over here at Touch Arcade.
Yeah, I'm thinking poor defense and weak healing? And maybe no 3-movement units aside from however the superunit charge ability works? Maybe even something crazy like an innate negative damage resist?
Also, if you look at the second screenshot on Touch Arcade, the barbed crystals look like they have a range of 2, and the barbs might go away after you damage them (from the look of the wilted middle crystal on the right).
@ani_game_bum please feel free to do the play by play updates. I probably don't have the time to do that consistently so will be doing our community a service! I am taking screenshots and uploading them to imgur if you end up needing any material. If your PC is on the fritz then let me know and I'll try to pick up where you left off.
I'll try to opine on the turns as well but most folks can draw their own conclusions anyway just by looking at what we do.
The new team looks pretty overpowered at first glance, but then again, so did the Dwarves and we see how that turned out
1st ever "Penny-Arcade Hero Academy Tournament" Toilet Bowl Champion!
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
The blue spell is a Typhoon. You drop it on the map, and it sends huge typhoon waves outward in each direction from that vertical row of squares. Enemy units are pushed from that origin point accordingly. If someone's getting all up in your grill, you can kick their whole team back a bit.
Game 1 (up to turn 9):
Since the last screenshot ani beefed up that mage with a sword and moved his archer onto the power square. I spawned an impaler below my crystal.
I moved my necro down and turned that archer into a little ghoul.
Ani then proceeded to push forward with his mage to do 1200 damage to my rear crystal and damage my impaler a bit.
I moved the impaler up past the crystal, killed and stomped the mage
Game 2 (up to turn 8):
I attacked his priest with a mage to get some more damage on the crystal and kill the priest.
Ani spawns an archer, kills and stomps my mage letting his priest expire
I move my archer forward, put armor on her and kill his archer
Brew on
1st ever "Penny-Arcade Hero Academy Tournament" Toilet Bowl Champion!
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
@ani_game_bum if you decided to start the 3rd game then go ahead and start it now. May as well have all 3 games run in tandem. Unless you want me to start one :P
1st ever "Penny-Arcade Hero Academy Tournament" Toilet Bowl Champion!
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
Oh hey I just realized. Are we doing bronze match too? I want to see jamwarrior and wonderpug duke it out!
1st ever "Penny-Arcade Hero Academy Tournament" Toilet Bowl Champion!
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
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JacobyOHHHHH IT’S A SNAKECreature - SnakeRegistered Userregular
Ah why not. Just one game at a time though as we're under no pressure now. I'll let Wonderpug kick off.
If you're feeling burnt out from the tourney, I'm open to something zany for the bronze match like dwarves vs dwarves. I'm also game for just sticking to council/elf if you like.
Ugg I actually lost a PUG last night with a random. I was totally blindsided by someone who actually had a pretty decent crystal rush strat on the "1 crystal each" map.
I saw it coming, he went first, I just never got dealt the pieces to counter in time. I was able to prolong it and sacrafice a piece to take out his archer+sword, but he already had his ninja out, also with a sword upgrade already.
I'm determined to beat him in the rematch and so far I'm happy with the progress.
Posts
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
From their FAQ: Yes. We are working on bringing Hero Academy to Android, but have no further details to discuss right now.
It's not much, but at least you know that they're working on it.
basically this
Also: Good Luck Finalists.
The best thing to do is to just experiment. You can play out your 5 moves per turn as many times as you want, until you're happy with your choices. You just tap the circular pie-pieces picture in the lower-left corner and it will reset you to exactly where you were at the start of your turn.
Also, if you tap the gear icon in the upper right and then choose "replay," it will replay your opponent's last move again. I find this is helpful to remind me what is going on in the game a bit, as well as what the opponent might be trying to set up for the next move.
Pay attention to the range at which each piece can attack. You can double-tap on any item or location (or use the question mark and tap) to get detailed information about it. So, you can look at the card for a Necromancer, for instance, to see that he can move two spaces at a time, but has a damage range of three spaces. After a while, you'll remember it all and won't need to check, but at first, I checked those things constantly.
When a card says that you can move X spaces, or fire X spaces, you should consider diagonal moves to be two spaces. Think of it as walking forward a space and then walking sideways a space, rather than a single, diagonal move.
With the exception of the grenadier, who can throw "over" other pieces, you can put one of your pieces in front of your crystal or another of your pieces to prevent your opponent from hitting what you are protecting.
The council priest has a heal range of two spaces, but has a strong heal. The dark elf healer has a heal range of three spaces, but it isn't as good a heal. The drawf paladin has a two-space heal (that I think is not as good as the council priest heal) that heals herself in the process.
Do not get frustrated if you lose. If you're playing with folks in this thread, you are going to face some fierce competition, but don't treat them as individual games, just play a few and learn as you make mistakes. You learn in this game the way you get the hang of Starcraft and all of the layers there. Play a lot! I'm always up for more games!
I've still got a one in a million chance at finding a small thermal exhaust port right below his main port, and I think I have the advantage in our 3rd match, but if the final two end up being ani_game_bum and Brew then that sounds about right to me. They're very likely the two toughest opponents I've faced in this game.
Switch: nin.codes/roldford
I wish we could set the game back to that pivotal moment when you knocked out my wraith and explore how the match would've developed if I hadn't decided to abandon him and press on your crystal (which we now can see was a decision 54hp too hasty ;-)).
I don't remember the specifics of the situation when you knocked him out, but I remember that my best option for keeping him running would've likely led me to lose several other units, and likely also my foothold on the purple tile.
I should've taken some screenshots of some of my alternate-universe options as I tried to think of a way to get that last impaler deployed into a useful (and not-dead) position. They all looked like they'd be futile, but one option I considered was to retreat and form a sort of lumbering 3-priestess tortuga formation around her to escort her forward. If you didn't have so many weapon-upgraded units on the board, it might've had a chance of working!
Anyway, nothing's decided yet. If I cant protect that Crystal to the end, you still can take the game.
I got 2 screenshots I can post. My items are showing but I figured you know them already
Edit: Resized the pics.
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
That second impaler of yours was a big limiter in my options. I'm pretty sure I had a potion handy for the wraith, but since you left your attacking impaler forward...
I'm sure I'm getting some details wrong since I don't remember the exact setup, but that's the gist of why I decided to take advantage of having the purple tile and several forward units to see if I could just go for it. If your rear impaler was just one step further back, everything would've been different. And if I recall, in a lot of my options in that round and others, just 10 hit points on your forward impaler made the difference in stopping me.
54 friggin' hit points on that crystal! If this were bowling I'd stomp my foot to get that last wobbly pin to fall over.
Work has let up on the kicking of my ass, so I've sorted out the finals between @ani_game_bum and @Brew. (P.S. Congratulations!)
I've done the roll on Invisible Castle and ani_game_bum won the coin flip, getting the right to go first in Game 3. ani_game_bum, let us know if you decide to go first in Game 3 or not.
The other games are set up as before (one started by ani_game_bum, one started by Brew).
By the way, if you can let us know what's going on in the game as you're playing, it would make this much more exciting.
Good luck!
Switch: nin.codes/roldford
Yes, screenshots as you go, please!
And not that it matters for the final results, but I did squeak out a win on the 3rd Brew/wonderpug match. The tiniest of opportunities opened up for me to squeeze in my impaler to chip away the last 54hp on his crystal.
Thanks, Jacoby, for getting the final round going and, again, setting up the whole tournament. I will take the first turn of Game 3. I'll do my best to take screen shots as Brew and I compete in this fine championship match of combat and wits, but won't be able to upload them until the evening EST hours where I will have more free time.
@Brew, good to see you and battle against you again! Let's have some fun and best of luck to the both of us!
See, now you've got me imagining your avatar saying that. And then speedlines.
Switch: nin.codes/roldford
Brew opts with Dark Elves and opens similarly with Necro and Monk at the top right Teleport/Boost tiles.
Game 2
Opening moves on 2nd game field matching Council vs. Council. Brew puts his Archer on point and on attack boost tile. Upgraded my Knight w/ helmet.
I find that Thibault cancels out Frischling, don't you? Unless the enemy has studies his Agrippa, of course.
Switch: nin.codes/roldford
Opted to deploy and position heros instead of taking shots of closest crystal.
Game 2
Brew wastes no time and advances to the Assault Boost tile and proceeds to chain lightning my heros and bottom crystal.
Knockback the Wizard and take over Assault tile w/ Cleric healing up my Knight.
To all, let me know if this play-by-play is what you are needing or if I am breaking any pic size rule and need to make them smaller or hide them behind spoilers. @Brew, let me know if you have anything to input on the turns. Not trying to be a post hog, just trying to give the readers/viewers what they want :-)
Edit: My PC is being difficult all of the sudden, so they may not be any match updates for a while. I'll continue to to play and screencap as much as I can and share when posible. Thanks!
And is their tank ALSO their healer? How does that work? The Palandin doesn't really suck up enough damage to tank well, and she certainly can't heal for shit.
I see on the official forums the devs are going to be giving the Dwarfs a big buff, that day can't come soon enough!
Nerdrage aside, what a brilliant game! I love the little details that went into everything, like the awesome AWESOME animations.
Image by Sharpwriter on deviantart.com
I highly prefer dark elves myself, but when I do play dwarf I like two use the grenadier, upgrade him as much as I can, and then push him forward to the best center board position I can find and have him closely backed up with a paladin, who may or may not have some upgrades. Bonus if I can bubble one or both before they move out.
A lot of other races exposed forward pushes can fail even when backed up with a healer because the person just has to take a turn to set up and then kill the healer, circumventing the offensive piece, who now is exposed, with a unit BEHIND them likely. The other player may lose a piece but you will likely lose both the healer and the attacker and whatever upgrades you had on them, which in my experience is more than 2 between the two units.
With the dwarves this tatic works pretty well for me BECAUSE the healer is also a tank. The Bubble is a deterent often, similar, but opposite to a pre-scrolled unit. The dwarves also have a great healing potion in the grog, because of it's after effects.
If playing on the new map I like to try and take the center square which is the only power attack boost square on the map, with an upgraded grenadier who can atk 3 away, with aoe dmg, and even lobs OVER other units so you're not stuck slapping the knight in your face, but can instead directly attack the real threat behind him, like a healer.
Now your only problem is stomping. dark elves have necros to range stomp, and humans have their fire bomb that stomps, dwarves have to get more creative. I don't have a good answer, so far it's been a base by base situation for me and not one easy answer/strategy for stomping.
With dark elves I drool over a fully upgraded necro, with dwarves it's the grenadier, only difference, one does aoe and the other does ranged stomps. Personally I think the ranged stomps win.
I love upgrading paladins. A weapon upgrade means her heals are more in line with a council cleric's, with the bonus of boosting her ability to self heal. Even without the upgrade, I'll often stick a paladin on the attack boost square in my territory if there is one. The only other units that really benefit are the grenadier, who you'll want to be moving further forward, and the annihilator, who you either want protected in the back or charging ahead for a suicide run.
I also really like giving full defense upgrades to paladins, with or without the weapon upgrade. With defense upgraded, they're just about as tough to kill as a knight... but they can heal themselves and others, and when they attack they don't lose damage potential from knockback the way a knight does. People also often don't expect you to go on the attack with a healer, so I often catch people by surprise. They find that they can't knock out the paladin in a single turn, letting me either retreat her or booze her up for another turn on the attack. And there's also lots of situations where the enemy units are softened up from grenadier/gunner AOE so she can smash them in fewer moves, or better yet, units with an armor debuff lingering from an earlier annihilator attack.
Unsung dwarf hero #2 is the gunner. His damage amount and type make him "equivalent" to an archer or an impaler, but his damage dropoff makes him seem pretty lame. And, well, he kind of is. But! Just like the elf monk wasn't that bad before he got buffed, the gunner isn't that bad right now, before they give him whatever buff is surely headed his way. You just have to think of him as a high damage melee unit, who occasionally has a chance to do aoe trick shots. Those aoe opportunities don't always present themselves, but when they do the gunner can pump out some amazing damage. I know the grenadier is the popular choice for upgrades, but most of the time I'm just as happy to give them to a gunner. An un-upgraded grenadier can still soften up a bunch of targets while staying safely out of range, and an upgraded gunner is more able to go in for the stomps without dying.
Finally, the drill spell. The drill (pulverizer?) is pretty awesome. If you can find a good opportunity to take advantage of its crystal-attack splash damage, fine, but most of the time I find myself using it for single target damage, which it does better than the other two teams' spells. It gives you your two chances to have that single-target burst damage that the dwarves are otherwise really terrible at dealing out. When used along with attacks from another unit, it can give you that one extra hit needed for a knockout or stomp, just like you normally get from a scroll. Four scrolls in your arsenal, essentially.
Info on draft revision to the map with just two crystals
And...
WARRIOR
(Class: Fighter) - Can instantly K.O. any wounded (at or below 50% health) enemy unit. (25% for crystals)
AXE THROWER
(Class: Shooter) - Deals 100 extra damage to enemies above 50% health. (25% for crystals)
WITCH
(Class: Caster) - Explodes fallen heroes at range to damage nearby enemies.
SHAMAN
(Class: Support) - Healer whose healing spells chain through multiple allies, even heroes already at full health.
CHIEFTAN
(Class: Super Unit) - AOE fighter who can pull surrounding enemies close, or charge out to attack distant enemies.
More info and unit pictures here!
I don't know how in the holy hell the warrior & axe thrower abilities are going to be balanced, let alone two super units and four potion/scroll combos, but I can't wait to find out!
And there are pictures of the new map (three crystals each!) and some units in action over here at Touch Arcade.
Also, if you look at the second screenshot on Touch Arcade, the barbed crystals look like they have a range of 2, and the barbs might go away after you damage them (from the look of the wilted middle crystal on the right).
I'll try to opine on the turns as well but most folks can draw their own conclusions anyway just by looking at what we do.
The new team looks pretty overpowered at first glance, but then again, so did the Dwarves and we see how that turned out
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
Game 1 (up to turn 9):
Since the last screenshot ani beefed up that mage with a sword and moved his archer onto the power square. I spawned an impaler below my crystal.
I moved my necro down and turned that archer into a little ghoul.
Ani then proceeded to push forward with his mage to do 1200 damage to my rear crystal and damage my impaler a bit.
I moved the impaler up past the crystal, killed and stomped the mage
Game 2 (up to turn 8):
I attacked his priest with a mage to get some more damage on the crystal and kill the priest.
Ani spawns an archer, kills and stomps my mage letting his priest expire
I move my archer forward, put armor on her and kill his archer
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
Switch: nin.codes/roldford
If you're feeling burnt out from the tourney, I'm open to something zany for the bronze match like dwarves vs dwarves. I'm also game for just sticking to council/elf if you like.
I saw it coming, he went first, I just never got dealt the pieces to counter in time. I was able to prolong it and sacrafice a piece to take out his archer+sword, but he already had his ninja out, also with a sword upgrade already.
I'm determined to beat him in the rematch and so far I'm happy with the progress.
I hope they boost the crystal health a little as well, but just moving them further back should really help things.