I have to say I'm suprised at all the compliments the Allayi are getting with no regard to there disadvantages which heavily outweigh the latter. I won't bother doing a whole review of them till I completed my first run, but at the momment they are not as good as any other faction I've played as. Sure the unique, sure there very cool which is why I just wish they were as good as other factions.



p.s. I don't think the food stockpile tactics works as well as you think, since your having to spend double the food to get one worker you quickly reach a point where the amount of food needed to create one worker is in no way worth a +4 to one resource or even a +9

someguy216 wrote:


p.s. I don't think the food stockpile tactics works as well as you think, since your having to spend double the food to get one worker you quickly reach a point where the amount of food needed to create one worker is in no way worth a +4 to one resource or even a +9

It works well to kickstart your new cities, however. At least until you research upgraded stockpiles, which makes them more viable mid-late game, but I personally skip that tech.

Allayi seem fine to me except for one detail. Later in the game it's becoming hard to get strategic resources because they get claimed, and with the limited expansion it's challenging to acquire them through traditional means. Maybe consider a 3/4 Era technology allowing aspiration of claimed resources?

Propbuddha,



How would you rank the Allayi in your EL Faction Tier List?



Regards,



Marc

Pearls are adding a lot of unfun micromanagement imo.It should be only one season and not both.

Hmmm...does the Seeker's charge debuff reset when another seeker attacks the same target next turn? It seemed like it did in my last battle. I attacked from far with one seeker group and got a big attack debuff then another seeker group attacked from closer and the enemy attack increased. Unless this was a morale thing which I failed to notice.

deity seems significantly harder now with AI better understanding the value of truce.



And playing on normal map against 5 AIs i could notice how the expansion disaproval can hurt them. Their lack of population seems to hurt science too, so apparently, Ardent Mages governors will be pretty sweet for these guys.

Skyfins are just delightful game design.



I still can´t find much use for about half the blessings though.

BPrado wrote:
deity seems significantly harder now with AI better understanding the value of truce.



And playing on normal map against 5 AIs i could notice how the expansion disaproval can hurt them. Their lack of population seems to hurt science too, so apparently, Ardent Mages governors will be pretty sweet for these guys.

Skyfins are just delightful game design.



I still can´t find much use for about half the blessings though.

I actually have an Ardent Mage governor on my third city right now! lol

Science is where I lag the most. Pearl science stockpiles help a bit in the early game, but I definitely do need an Ardent mage governor.



I also had an awesome moment. I've been holding back the necrophage hordes with just 4 units + hero (2 seekers and 2 monks) for 10 turns, at a chokepoint to one of my cities, while a tower of fidelity does its work (incidentally, it's too weak, units regenerate the damage the turn after). Through safe retreating, I've successfully manoeuvred the main necrophage army on a thaw and kept it there for a turn until it melted. It is beautiful to watch an army just sink. I've since then been fighting battles selectively , retreating when needs be and using the hero to counteract the poison while monks do their thing, bringing the necrophage invasion to a complete halt. It is awesome.



I've also noticed that the AI has become smarter when it comes to reinforcing armies. Several times now, the AI refused to send reinforcements for battles it knows it would lose, even when the power balance is in their favor. I think they took terrain into account, which would be awesome.

is it me, or are there way less luxury resources deposits?

I just beat my first game with the Alayi! A quest victory, to be exact.



It's not easy trying not to get crushed at the beginning because of the city numbers, but toward the end the approval buildings and luxury items made a huge difference and I ended the game with 7 cities. Which is quite an improvement over 2.



Getting pearl is sometimes a bit tricky mid-game/late-game. You have to either steal them from other Empires (who closed their borders) or you gotta roam the oceans and get a few pearls here and there.



But there is one thing I'm wondering now... Could it be that Hissho = Alayi?!

Did anything happen to the standard odds on ruins? I´m having a terrible time with those guys.

Kulzar wrote:


Getting pearl is sometimes a bit tricky mid-game/late-game. You have to either steal them from other Empires (who closed their borders) or you gotta roam the oceans and get a few pearls here and there.

One way to counter that is to hire a Forgotten hero and equip them with the pearl accessory that gives them Auriga Affinity 3.

BPrado wrote:
Did anything happen to the standard odds on ruins? I´m having a terrible time with those guys.

I think they changed something with odds on ruins, but I forgot what they did exactly. But I haven't noticed anything unusual in my playthrough.

I know Search Party is slightly better, but last two games i got 0/6 streaks in the first 5 turns, and nothing unusually good after that. That hurts them more than it hurts forgotten.

patch1.4 wrote:
"Search Party" technology is more efficient: it also increases by 5% odds to find loot and 5% odds to find a quest, in addition to reduce by 10% odds to find nothing.

Could be useful now to research ?

I've been researching Search Party for a while now. Not sure why the lack of popularity, but if you're playing Allayi I would suggest taking it regardless. In terms of optimization, there's probably very little reason to pick it up on Hard unless you're playing Allayi.



I'm almost certain that this is a bug. But, after researching Endless Roads (or w/e it's called) the rate of receiving awards from Ruins seems to drop exponentially. I get vastly lowered chances of attaining any rewards or quests at all.



I would much prefer if Ruins always gave loot and sometimes gave quests as an aside. Further, I would prefer if the Loot Rate increasing Skills/Tech increased the amount of Loot/XP you receive when searching instead.



These were my thoughts playing the game over the last dozen or so games. The RNG in this game isn't so bad. But, I don't really enjoy the "all-or-nothing" approach to combat/ruins and other things. Leaving too much to chance has never excited me as a player.



Edit:



Can anyone else confirm that the Health Regeneration bonus in Light Form is not working properly? This should noticeably increase regeneration from 5% to 15% I believe.



Also, Militia are not benefitting from the Initiative Bonus from the Allayi's trait.



The Sidequest "The Accidental Desecrator" Avenging units (Centaur) can attack the Skyfin while it's extracting resources.

Just one game on easy to check how Allayi works before going back to higher difficulties (normally play around hard).

IMO they're too dependent on getting lots of pearls each winter. This way seems to make they overpowered in lower difficulties, where AI easily open borders or make peace, and allows you to collect lots of pearls, completely controlling winter effects and having enough to buy all blessings & building all buildings you need. No checked, but I've got the feeling that this same reason can make them underpowered in higher difficulties, where AI close borders just the turn after meets you, making this way more difficult to collect this appreciated pearls (which you'll need even to produce city districts).

Still didn't try in hard+, so if anyone feels it different or found a tactic to compensate will be glad to hear about.



And about the quest, on turn 130 I was on the chapter asking to capture 3 cities. Decided not to do it, and instead play a bit with the faction and try the new winter. Just considering:

- Fighting two Scyter armies? I won only due to lower difficulty. Perhaps you'll want to delay some chapters to have better/more armies before this goes on.

- Fully hyperium armor on my hero. This is one of this thing you have to plan ahead once you know the history, but first time takes you by surprise.Gives a felling to just do A to take B and researching techs or placing Skyfin in a location which will have no sense other way.

Good job for first time quest, but you need spoilers if you want to get a quest victory in higher difficulties.



Just last thing: it seems to make search party and endless mechanisms better techs than used by other factions, as they give you a way to find more pearls (at game start with search party having less nothing on ruins and mid game with EM by searching again the ruins in your territory).

lo_fabre wrote:


Still didn't try in hard+, so if anyone feels it different or found a tactic to compensate will be glad to hear about.

I think immediate neighbours close borders almost automatically (at least on Serious). Empires that are far away from you don't, however. So it should be fine to still have open borders with some empires.



But a tactic one can use to bypass closed borders is to hire a Forgotten hero and equip them with the pearl talisman that grants them Auriga Affinity 3. This will allow you to grab pearls undetected.

For extra pearls in the late game, consider researching the era IV tech (endless mechanisms?) to scout ruins another time.



Haven't finished my first Allayi game yet. Midgame, six cities, normal difficulty. It could still go horribly wrong but right now they're all fervent, and I've got loads of money to get resources.

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
I think immediate neighbours close borders almost automatically (at least on Serious). Empires that are far away from you don't, however. So it should be fine to still have open borders with some empires.

That's exactly the behavior I found when playing hard+ before this expansion, an therefore my concers about they performance when rising difficulty.

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
But a tactic one can use to bypass closed borders is to hire a Forgotten hero and equip them with the pearl talisman that grants them Auriga Affinity 3. This will allow you to grab pearls undetected.

Good idea, didn't thought about this. I think that with this new expansion you'll have an option to put your hero directly on the map. Still I've seen that you can detach you hero from an army, so anyway you'll be able to get your hero alone.