Wolves campaign frustration

[vaalen]

I have played FOG2 since it came out, and bought every DLC.

I have enjoyed the campaigns in the original release and the first three DLC, winning a number of them.

But there is an apparent change in Wolves which I find quite frustrating. In the Charlemagne and Basil the second campaigns, The only ones I have attempted to play so far, I have run into battles that I cannot win, even on level 2 difficulty.

In Charlemagne, it is the sixth battle, where you cannot use your field army, having a choice between local garrisons or a force of Slavic allies to fight a Saxon revolt. Both armies are quite inferior in quality and size to the Saxons. I have lost four times in a row to the AI, and the battle appears unwinnable. This really takes the fun out of the campaign for me. This is particularly frustrating because you cannot advance in the campaign unless you win the battle.

A similar thing happened in the Basil 2nd campaign. In the fourth battle, you have a choice between fighting a very good Fatimid army with your greatly inferior local garrison, or you can use your field army...which cannot replace any of the losses it suffered in the previous battle. This means it is too small and fragile to have any real chance.

To be clear, I do not mind refighting a campaign battle I lose if there is a reasonable chance of winning it. But not when there is very little chance, due to the size and quality of the troops involved.

A simple way to solve this problem in existing campaigns would be to give the player a choice to move forward in the campaign even if a battle is lost, with his field army losses replaced, if the field army is involved.

I request that this option be offered in the next patch, for all campaigns.

I also think the emphasis in the campaigns should remain with the field army of the historical leader, as the battles where all you can choose are local garrisons
or allies are far less interesting, at least to me, and do not allow you to use the improvements in quality your units have gained through experience. But having the option to move forward even if you loose would solve this problem as well.

Those players who do not like to have this choice do not have to use it, but I want the option for myself and those who do not want to be trapped into fighting
the same almost hopeless battle over and over again, hoping for a chance to be able to move on in the campaign if they can somehow win it. That is not fun, and games should be fun, in my opinion.

[melm]

At least Basil II's campaign is winnable even on deity level. Just be confident that you can win it.

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[rbodleyscott]

Sorry you are having difficulty with those stages. If you cannot get past them any other way you could temporarily turn the difficulty down to Centurion level, which will temporarily raise the quality of your army and lower that of the enemy.

[Paul59]

The thing about campaigns is that no two campaigns are exactly the same, the maps and force compositions will be different in every battle, so it is very hard to make comparisons.

Bearing that in mind, you have to take my experiences with a pinch of salt, but I have won both campaigns on Emperor (Static) difficulty. In the fourth battle of the Basil II campaign I took the option of using the rear echelon army and was surprised that it was quite good quality and much larger than the Fatimid army. The only slight problem was that I only had one cavalry unit. I won the battle very easily, 0% to 41%.

With the Charlemagne battle, which I think is actually the 8th battle of the campaign, it was a much harder task, but luckily I had a nice hill to base my Obotrite infantry line on, and won 21% to 49%.

So I would say that these campaigns are far from unwinnable. To be honest, I had far more trouble with the Arab Conquest campaign.

But I think your ideas for an option to skip a stage are worthy of consideration, obviously a hit to the campaign score would be sensible. It can be very frustrating to be stuck on a particular campaign battle.

[vaalen]

Sorry you are having difficulty with those stages. If you cannot get past them any other way you could temporarily turn the difficulty down to Centurion level, which will temporarily raise the quality of your army and lower that of the enemy.

That might work. How would you change the difficulty of a campaign that you are in the middle of?

[rbodleyscott]

Sorry you are having difficulty with those stages. If you cannot get past them any other way you could temporarily turn the difficulty down to Centurion level, which will temporarily raise the quality of your army and lower that of the enemy.

That might work. How would you change the difficulty of a campaign that you are in the middle of?

Go to settings. It won't fully change the difficulty, because it won't affect the army points up until that stage, and won't affect the army points in the immediately forthcoming stage. (Although it would for subsequent stages). But it will temporarily adjust troop quality if you set it to Centurion. If you don't want Centurion to affect your army reinforcement points for the following stage, reset the Difficulty to your normal setting just before the battle ends. (This is because your reinforcement points for the next stage are decided when the battle ends, not when you pick your strategic choice for the next stage.)

[vaalen]

Sorry you are having difficulty with those stages. If you cannot get past them any other way you could temporarily turn the difficulty down to Centurion level, which will temporarily raise the quality of your army and lower that of the enemy.

That might work. How would you change the difficulty of a campaign that you are in the middle of?

Go to settings. It won't fully change the difficulty, because it won't affect the army points up until that stage, and won't affect the army points in the immediately forthcoming stage. (Although it would for subsequent stages). But it will temporarily adjust troop quality if you set it to Centurion. If you don't want Centurion to affect your army reinforcement points for the following stage, reset the Difficulty to your normal setting just before the battle ends. (This is because your reinforcement points for the next stage are decided when the battle ends, not when you pick your strategic choice for the next stage.)

Thank you, Richard. I will try it.

[vaalen]

Dropping the difficulty level to Centurion did work. I can now move on to the next part of the campaign. A very easy victory, and a very short battle, but it worked.

Thank you Richard, for the solution.

[Bombax]

Like the OP, I've bought every expansion that's come out up till now. But I'm also getting increasingly frustrated with the campaign module. Too many times I choose an interesting match-up, only to find myself at a random point in the campaign lined up against an 'ally' army that's composed of completely different troop types from the opponent I originally chose. While I can see the intention was to introduce a note of variety and unpredictability, for me it's no fun when - as in my last campaign - I end up chasing an army of light troops around the battlefield with my knights and spearmen. Whether or not I win in the end isn't the point. What it feels like to me is an exercise in frustration, about as much fun as chasing a hoard of flies around the house with an old-fashioned fly swatter. In fact it's starting to put me off the game.

[Gnaeus]

See this thread: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 92&t=92003. Not a perfect solution, but it works well enough until there's an option to restrict opponents in the sandbox campaign.

[rbodleyscott]

See this thread: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 92&t=92003. Not a perfect solution, but it works well enough until there's an option to restrict opponents in the sandbox campaign.

We plan on adding a toggleable filter for sandbox campaigns in the next update, with three settings:

1) Default: Campaign may involve other enemies as well as the main protagonists and their local allies.
2) Focused: Campaign may involve historical allies local to both main protagonists, but not attacks by other enemies.
3) Duel: Campaign will only involve the main protagonists. (Although the player may get the option to seek troop contingents from his local allies)

[Bombax]

> We plan on adding a toggleable filter for sandbox campaigns in the next update, with three settings >

That would be fantastic Richard!

Gnaeus: thanks, I'll take a look

[vaalen]

The filter giving choices for the sandbox campaign is an excellent idea. I had stopped playing the sandbox campaign some time ago because of the match up issue, but this will get me to return to it.

Thanks again, Richard.

[Gnaeus]

Player suggestions often seem to mysteriously appear in the next update. The support on this game is really extraordinary.

[Bombax]

The support on this game is really extraordinary.

I agree, best ever. We're very fortunate.