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Post by Julius CMXCIX on Aug 21, 2011 21:36:03 GMT
I recently had a go at Great Emperor's The Way of the Warrior on Hard difficulty. At times it really is very difficult, but happily never in a way that is totally frustrating.
Two of my favourite passages of play in any scenario are when you have to raid three logistics site, and when you have to defend the fortress. The first requires planning and swift execution because if you charge in you'll probably fail to manage even one of the three tasks. The second has the enemy attacking from all angles in escalating waves. They seem easily manageable at first but if you get tactics or strategy wrong you'll be overwhelmed at the end.
I would actually say that in terms of challenge The Way of the Warrior is better than Ulio. Ulio on Hard is very good, but has a tendency to require intricate micromanagement all the time which can get a bit wearing.
What are the most challenging scenarios in your opinion? What makes difficulty entertaining rather than frustrating?
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Post by Basse on Aug 23, 2011 14:49:46 GMT
I haven't played either of those campaigns in years, but I remember both of them as very good, and very challening. Granted I was a lot lousier of a player then than I am today, but I found the standard level very well suited for me. The only type of challenge I can think of that would be a personal favourite is stealthy RPS micromanagement, when it's done well. It's very un-AoK and reminds me more of games like Robin Hood: the Legend of Sherwood, one of my all time favourites. But I can't for the life of me think of any scenario that uses this a lot. I know I tried using it with varied results in ADOC, and the prison scene in Gwyndlegard was meant to be very stealthy, but it didn't become as good as I had hoped. Other than that I can't think of any particular challenge that I like the most. I enjoy any challenge, as long as it's well-made and not frustrating. The "hit the turtle" square in PBP3 is one of my least favourite challenges.
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Post by The 'Associate' on Aug 23, 2011 15:39:24 GMT
Tsubasa's tale was very epic on hard, so much fun typing a number and +5 attack And I killed the last boss by cheating. While there was a conversation, I killed his monk.
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Watson
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Post by Watson on Aug 23, 2011 18:10:45 GMT
Ah, yes. Stealth ("Commando-type scenarios") based gameplay is the best.
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Post by Julius CMXCIX on Aug 28, 2011 13:07:51 GMT
I'm surprised that you both say that, as frankly AoK is not very well suited to that style. It's too hard to tell where units are supposed to be looking to do anything precisely. You may remember a square in PbP2 with an overly strict stealth bit. Pretty much the only time it's been done convincingly in my opinion is in Ulio, where the design makes it very clear how it works.
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Post by Watson on Aug 29, 2011 11:56:28 GMT
Bah! Why Calchar Wood then!? I used to play this game quite a lot. The finer scenarios featuring this kind of play seem quite well-executed, actually, despite AoK not being suited for this kind of play. Out of curiosity, what is your least favourite challenge/type of challenge?
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Post by Julius CMXCIX on Aug 29, 2011 14:30:41 GMT
The stealth elements in Calchar Wood are rudimentary, which is why it works. Once units start moving around, very few designers pull it off even moderately well. For the most part however, simply explaining to the player what will lead to discovery is enough. But most people don't do that (or can't due to poor execution) and so it often doesn't work well.
I've grown to dislike extreme micromanagement where you have more than one unit under your control.
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Watson
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Post by Watson on Aug 29, 2011 15:18:38 GMT
Super-micromanagement is woefully over-used anyways.
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Post by Julius CMXCIX on Aug 29, 2011 16:45:50 GMT
Another silly thing you often see is millions of bandit attacks that are really easy to fend off. I abused this terribly in my first scenario.
Actually Tannenberg is not very good in terms of a challenge. On hard difficulty everything hinges on having a couple of assassination squads and taking out enemy heroes. This is incredibly annoying because your powerhouse heroes repeatedly decide to attack some irrelevant knight instead, forcing you to micromanage very carefully to prevent defeat by your units' stupidity. With very little strategy, Tannenberg is actually highly over-rated in my opinion. Hattin is much better.
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Watson
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Post by Watson on Aug 29, 2011 20:45:43 GMT
Good God, not this. I even annoyed myself with this in a scenario I made.
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Post by Julius CMXCIX on Sept 6, 2011 21:02:47 GMT
One thing I liked was in Chapter One of Ulio you have the option to recapture Aguric's fallen castle. It's doable but difficult, especially on hard difficulty. It was a good optional extra.
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Post by Watson on Sept 6, 2011 21:05:36 GMT
I never managed to do that. Even with the help of the army.
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