I think Roving clans are very powerful early-mid game due to their OP mercs. Mercs still won't keep up with t3 adamantium though.



Necrophages are quite powerful as well from the point they get the proliferator. I'd argue that overcapped armies are kinda broken atm though.



I'm surprised on Ardent Mages getting so few votes. I think they have the scariest rush, very good units all around and they can get extra 2 unit army before turn 10 with their faction quest for free. Their hero has damage boost 3, which is scary as well. I'm not sure they can be stopped if they come to kick your ass at turn 15 or 20. Stun spell is ridiculously OP, once they get it I'm not sure they can be beaten in fair combat at all.



If judging purely from unit lineup perspective and not counting starting heroes, traits, quests, etc. it is highly dependent on what minor factions you can get. Some major factions have good lineups all around, while some have 1 unit that makes the game and need some minor faction units to cover the weak spots.



A bit more detailed review of unit lineups (again, this doesn't account for any extra abilities factions have):



Wild Walkers

• Ranger - 5/5. Not as OP as it once was, but good. 2 things going for this unit: 4 range and highest ini in the game out of major faction units. Given they always strike first with high level glassteel bows they can deal heavy damage before the enemy can even act. Against 2 speed melee they will be able to attack at least twice before the enemy gets a chance to act. Against ranged their superior ini is also important. They are vulnerable to high health cavalry as they should be though, so I'd leave them as is.
• Shaman - 1/5. I don't see anything going for it atm. You can safely skip it and do not miss anything though.
• Tenei Walker - 3/5. Decent "tank" unit, but many MF have units that are better at this role.
  
  

Overall feeling: 4/5



Overall I feel like unit linueup is pretty strong, but the ranger alone makes it. If you get a good MF tank you don't really need the other 2 units.



Vaulters



Marine - 3/5. Decent shooter but that's it.

Dawn officer - 2/5. Below average generic cavalry.

Titan - 3/5. Decent tank and defensive impulse is kinda interesting, but it doesn't help to protect your marines.



Overall feeling: 3/5



Pretty much any unit in the lineup has a better alternative from MF. However, they can be very powerful with high tier gear and technolover trait. It seems to be bugged atm though. But if working properly it would make them 4/5 or even 5/5 mid-lategame.



Ardent Mages



Warlock - 4/5. Speedy melee unit with huge damage dealing capacity. Will wipe any other major faction age 1 infantry easily. A bit fragile, but other stats make up for it.

Zealot - 5/5. Good damage, aoe, good ini and attack debuff with wands (the other weapon seems very bad in comparison). The only weakness seems to be fast melee and higher ini shooters (like rangers).

Eneqa wing - 4/5. Good flyer with good all around stats. Special ability is decent.



Overall feeling 5/5



Good tank seems to be the only thing they miss, but these are plenty among MF.



Roving clans



Dervish - 4/5. With charge 2 and stun is a very good cavalry unit.

Kassai - 4/5. Tanky fast ranged unit with somewhat low damage. All around seems good.

Yirmak - 2/5. Low health for the cost, damage is good, but with good gear difference with dervish is negligible, while dervish has much better abilities.



Overall feeling 4/5



2 out of 3 units are good, however they do not seem to work very well together. But that's easily fixed by MF and mercs.



Necrophages



Forager - 2/5. Quite weak infantry unit statwise. Disease is decent however, so with better gear goes up to 3/5.

Necrodrone - 4/5. Good flyer with good stats, abilities are decent.

Proliferator - 5/5. Rated based only on the off combat ability to spawn foragers (which is broken in its current implementation imo). Otherwise would probably be 2/5.



Overall feeling 4/5 going up to 5/5 with heavy proliferator-forager abuse.



Proliferators seem to be the core here, but imo should be tweaked into something more consistent in terms of gameplay. Forages need a buff however.



Broken Lords



Stalwarts - 4/5. Good tanky infantry with good abilities.

Ryder - 3/5. Slow cavalry with non functional life drain. Stats are pretty good however.

Bishop - 5/5. With low damage its damage can be quite inconsistent which can be frustrating. I would change attack malus into a smaller damage malus. Regardless, the unit seems to be very good (one of the few good supports).



Overall feeling 4/5



Drakken



Drakkenling - 2/5. Health is very high for a starting unit, but damage is obscenely low.

Wyvern - 3/5. Somewhat below average flyer.

Ancient - 2/5. Low damage support with poor support ability. At least health is pretty high.



Overall feeling 2/5



The worst unit lineup in the game imo. Luckily they can access extra minor factions earlier than others, so hopefully this can fix things a bit. I would expect more from freaking dragons though.



Cultists



Preacher - 1/5. A tie between him and Shaman for the worst unit in the game. Making things worse this is a starting unit.

Fanatic - 3/5. Decent cavalry statwise, but lacks any special abilities.

Nameless guard - 5/5. Very strong archer statwise, however decked out rangers or zealots will be better imo.



Overall feeling 3/5



Being a military faction the starting military is very weak. I'm not sure that superior defenses of their capital can save cultists from a rush.

From high to low:



Ardent Mages : Although they don't start with ranged units, they get a few early on from their quest. Additionally, their ranged units are both AOE AND support debuffers. Their starting hero often has Army Damage 3, giving a massive early game advantage (+50% combat power or more). Add in a battle stun spell from mid game on and they are unstoppable (although other spells are lackluster). Brokenly good



Vaulters : Early access to ranged units (all ranged units too good). Ranged hero gives both army health and damage, along with extra range. Gain large bonus from holy resource. Quite good.



Wild Walkers : Early access to ranged units. Another ranged hero. Although not quite as good stat-wise as vaulters, they do get an extra range. Still very good.



Broken Lords : Dust bishops are actually quite good. Units also have some sustain in battle, and can insta-heal outside it. Unit stats aren't that great, but very good utility outside that.



Roving Clans : Alright ranged units. Fast. Would probably consider them average.



Drakken : Heal is pretty useful. Initial hero often has + army health, which is nice. Nothing else here is particularly useful. Weaker than average.



Cultists : Starting unit is garbage, even for a support. Entirely dependent on minor faction units, but the villages are hard to keep, and the units can't be upgraded, so they are always at a disadvantage to a well-equipped army. Highly dependent on what villages they find. Haunts? Might be ok. Ettin? They are screwed.



Haven't played as necrophages or seen them in any of my games yet, so can't comment on them.

The idea of the Cultists is to overwhelm enemy armies with all of your minor faction villages, which you should be able to get many of different factions, even just in the areas around your city. You just need a lot of units, so having a large number of Ettins isn't so bad. Except for a Ceratan only army, I think all of the minor factions you encounter should do well in an army composing of only their type.

I have Roving Clans at #1 and Vaulters at #2.



Roving Clans: Mercenary Comforts stacking with Hero health boosts leads to 300hp units early game and 700hp units late game.

(I think Mercenary Comforts should apply only to Privateer armies - not armies lead by heroes)



Vaulters: Expand freely and at will + holy resources.

The factions have different power depending on how far the match has progressed. Also, as was stated, they have different economic power which can affect their military power.



I haven't played Vaulters yet aside from tutorial, but they seem like they'd be 1st or 2nd place overall because of good economy and excellent ranged unit



I would say that Broken Lords are the strongest late-game because an army of bishops with super gear seems 100% unbeatable. Before they get a bunch of super-geared bishops they can also take advantage of instant heals using dust. That said, I find that they totally suck early game. I don't know why people say their starter units are good — they seem like crap, although maybe it's just because I'm into fast/ranged units. I don't see them surviving past early/mid-game when there's aggressive and smart opponents playing.



Roving Clans maybe take #3, or possibly #4?. They tend to have excellent mobility so that they can retreat fights they can't win, and can abuse their range and speed in the battlefield as well (when possible) which is great, but can be countered.



I don't know about the rest, but I would think Ardent Mages would also take #1 or #2 because of the resurrection flyer (just mass these and it seems like it would be impossible to die), as well as spells and other stuff.

I've only really given 2 armies any real decent shot in manual combat, and 1 with auto combat. Biggest thing I can say though is that Range seems broken overpowered...



Necrophages



Foragers -

Crappy useless basic infantry. Considering they're also the same "weak garbage minion" spawns as what the Era 2 unit makes for free...? Never build one. Defense or shields don't add up to much in this game.

Necrodrone -

Only decent unit you actually have. It flies, covers a lot of ground, does decent damage, and poisons. Overall not bad, I'd say it would be a great basic unit. Unfortunately we have Foragers... so these need some refitting overall too.

Proliferator -

Good idea, poor implementation. The unit itself looks awesome, but doesn't actually pull off much. Misses a lot, not even sure what its support ability is... I'm understanding its main function is to create an infinite army essentially but that's where I'm saying poor implementation. Not fun at all? Auto auto auto.



Feedback & Review: Overall the concept of the army in motion is fantastic, however it's just not at all being carried out in game appropriately. Instead you have a faction that is capable of sometimes creating enormously weak armies. The idea would've played out much more interestingly if you'd instead given some time into making the race play a little more uniquely. For instance, instead of equipping and making axes and claws and equipping armor, how about imbuing the creatures abilities and stats from a strategic resource mutation? What's different then? That they're not items! You don't retrofit an army, you select an army and mutate it. Cool! Maybe even a unique research option for BI-MUTATIONS? Now those armies you spawn on the fly CAN be upgraded to a useful state IF necessary (Still expensive!). Now it also removes the ability to make very strong and unique units who equip a variety of gear for specific bonuses, but that's where you gain one perk for the loss of another, though I'd recommend putting some actual effort into balancing. A true difference.



Broken Lords



Stalwarts -

Decently tough infantry. Nothing special and their racial bonus just makes them more of a hassle at first, and overpowered later.

Ryder -

Not sure what this unit is good for? Takes more damage than Stalwarts, moves slowly, does less damage than Stalwarts... Suggest never researching.

Bishop -

Great unit! But overpowered I think... Once you put a decent weapon on him with high enough attack and then amp up his damage everywhere else....



Feedback & Review: Another wicked idea just not being implemented properly... I may hate the way their towns look, but this entire race is really neat. The faction itself causes the army to be useful or not, entirely depending on the length of the game. Expensive and inefficient early on, unstoppable later. If the game was balanced a bit more, ok... but even then you're just replacing food with Dust, and giving a slight bonus to dust. Which in the end just eliminates half the techs that would help you grow your city faster. Fortunately, your heroes make any of that pointless anyways so on the flip side you now just have that many less tech not to actually have to worry about. Overall I could see this being the design behind the faction but... the heal with Dust thing just seems like a forever broken issue. Can't use it early, overpowered late. I don't think you should do that to units, I can't see how you could hope to balance that. However you COULD somehow have them just heal normally but it's something you have to activate at a Dust cost per turn. Perhaps the hp/turn is greater than average as a result of being a toggle and costing Dust?



Vaulters



Marines -

Awesome and powerful ranged unit. Tack on a Hero with increased range and yeah. For some reason the AI doesn't even try to fight you with these guys and they just stand there watching themselves die.

Dawn Officer -

What the hell is this unit good for other than dying? Oh yeah, he moves far... Well I'm glad the Impossible AI like to just spam these.

Titan -

Dunno, never bothered. Marines were too powerful and after wasting a research on Dawn Officer I decided to not test my luck.



Feedback & Review: I'm going to be honest, I have no freaking clue what Technolover does... I put equipment on, look at their stats... activate Holy Resource and their stats are still the same... So anyways, Marines tend to be good anyways. I did Holy Resource + Tier 2 Glassteel equipment and they pretty much won me the game. At first I'd try mixing in some other units, like decked out Harmonites with stun hammers and dawn officers with something... Well, the dawn officers died pretty quickly and did little damage. The Harmonites couldn't even make it to the enemy army before dying, but my Hero and the Marines took everything else in one shot. I also at one point had Tetike "tanks" and Marine "snipers"... even then, just having the marines turned out to be better. So, there's nothing good I can say about this faction so far. It's difficult to comprehend, and even despite that, nothing seems to stand a chance against your single army.







So if I were to play entirely against myself, I feel it would be Vaulters > Necrophages >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Broken Lords

Please make Heroes faction-specific. I don't want to fight Vaulters while fighting Necrophages while playing as Vaulters. Chuck in some minor faction heroes for variety if you so please. (And then rewrite whatever quests want you to hire another faction's hero.) This ruins immersion.

Here is a small feedback about the military of the factions I tried.



Necrophages

Foragers are pretty cheap and usefull for their task : meatshield. They can be decent infantry unit once equiped, I like them in a defensive role to shield the proliferator, or with high initiative to immobilize the targets for Necrodrone kills. Necrodrones are very strong, and can be both good scout or good killer. Proliferators are very usefull also, they serve as damage dealer support in combat, and are a huge cash machine thank to all the foragers they spawn that you can sell for dust. Usefull both for combat and economy, a must have.

On overall I would say that the Necrophages military is pretty strong, one of the best.



Broken Lords

The Stalwarts look not so impressive at the beginning, but once equiped defensively and well supported by some Dust Bishops they become monstruous with their ability to leech life and the heal they receive. Ryders look broken with their ridiculous life drain ability (5hp par attack at lvl5, for a unit who have 200+hp..), but apart from combat they are decent scouts. The instant heal via dust is also a huge ability past the early game.

On overall I would say that the Broken Lords military looks very strong, maybe the strongest of all I have tried.



Drakken

Drakkenlings are nice meatbag, with huge life but quite poor damage. Once well supported by some damage dealing units they can be good for their defensive role. Wywern look very usefull in the Drakken army, as they can fulfill both scout and damage purpose. Ancient are nice support, but look quite expensive for their true added value in combat.

The Drakken military looks well balanced, with good scout ability wich synergize nicely with the style of the faction.



I played with the Rovin Clans and Vaulters, but did not enough test their military, so I would avoid any missjudged comments. They look decent but probably under the Necrophages and Broken Lords.

Regardless of their military potential I feel that the Vaulters are overpowered because they can tp their armies, meaning they can conquest easily and defend as well.



Dawn officiers are bad but♥Titans are powerful.

MANoob wrote:


Vaulters



Marine - 3/5. Decent shooter but that's it.

Dawn officer - 2/5. Below average generic cavalry.

Titan - 3/5. Decent tank and defensive impulse is kinda interesting, but it doesn't help to protect your marines.



Overall feeling: 3/5



Pretty much any unit in the lineup has a better alternative from MF. However, they can be very powerful with high tier gear and technolover trait. It seems to be bugged atm though. But if working properly it would make them 4/5 or even 5/5 mid-lategame.





Broken Lords



Stalwarts - 4/5. Good tanky infantry with good abilities.

Ryder - 3/5. Slow cavalry with non functional life drain. Stats are pretty good however.

Bishop - 5/5. With low damage its damage can be quite inconsistent which can be frustrating. I would change attack malus into a smaller damage malus. Regardless, the unit seems to be very good (one of the few good supports).



Overall feeling 4/5

I think that the Vaulters are a 4/5 and the Broken lords are a very weak 3/5.



What makes the Vaulters/Mezari strong is that they have it all. Strong infantry, cavalry and ranged. You can only have 3 MF units (market place excluded). Until you get all 3, you can do much with your native units. I think you forgot the teleportation ability. That alone makes them one of my favorite military factions.



Now, the Broken Lords are okay as far as units go, but their inability to heal without dust.. actually their inability to do anything without dust cripples them. Early and mid-game, it's a balancing act between expansion/conquest/development, and not in a good way. Every single other faction can do all three. Not these guys. Another problem is that their heroes don't regenerate like the Stalwarts do. To me.. that's a huge problem.

Nasarog wrote:
I think that the Vaulters are a 4/5 and the Broken lords are a very weak 3/5.



What makes the Vaulters/Mezari strong is that they have it all. Strong infantry, cavalry and ranged. You can only have 3 MF units (market place excluded). Until you get all 3, you can do much with your native units. I think you forgot the teleportation ability. That alone makes them one of my favorite military factions.



Now, the Broken Lords are okay as far as units go, but their inability to heal without dust.. actually their inability to do anything without dust cripples them. Early and mid-game, it's a balancing act between expansion/conquest/development, and not in a good way. Every single other faction can do all three. Not these guys. Another problem is that their heroes don't regenerate like the Stalwarts do. To me.. that's a huge problem.

Well, I was not considering any other traits the factions have outside of the units themselves while giving these ratings. Teleportation and Veins of Auriga indeed make Vaulters one of the stronger military factions later on. I would also change some of the marks I gave here, for instance forager would definitely go up to 3/5 due to great ini and dawn officers are also better than I gave them credit for with great ini and 2h weapons (default shield setup makes them look weaker), so probably 3/5 as well.



I would still rate early Vaulters as 3/5 because earlygame marines are quite bad with their low ini and average stats. With Technolover (mostly) working they turn out to be much more powerful later on, endgame maybe second only to AM actually. Until that kicks in however most of their units are average/below average for their class.



Broken lords do indeed suffer problems with healing earlygame, however their heal with dust ability is actually a big military advantage later on allowing them to keep constant pressure. I never use BL heroes as generals earlygame, I agree that life drain would be nice and make sense for them. But your 1st hero makes a good governor and it's much better to hire a Drakken hero to lead the army (will solve a lot of the healing problems too). All BL units are quite good stat/ability wise.



So I'd say if rating units alone I'd still keep my ratings BL being 4/5 and Vaulters 3/5 progressing into 5/5. If rating the factions as a whole, yeah, Vaulters will probably easily crush BL in era 2 with tons of strategic resources and technolover unless BL manages to rush Vaulters early on.