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09-11-2015, 06:32 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-11-2015, 06:32 PM by Ry Vor.)
For commentary from playtesters on the feel and abilities of the 3rd Cycle Kingdoms.
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I played the Pirates and the Amazons, two very cool kingdoms.
The Pirates take the place of the Underworld and get outstanding agents, although they don't get the cool agents orders. They started with three excellent fleets in each sea and some excellent leaders. Seriously good leaders along with a Trait that guarantees that any surviving leaders get promoted from every unusual sighting. I very quickly obtained a Warlord along with many artifacts.
The Pirates cam create a Pirate's Cove on turn 4. Which gives the, 20,000 gold each turn! This really took the off a lot of the pressure to obtains pcs early, which was fortunate. Like the Underworld, the Pirates are dispersed and have a hard time claiming territory. Combined with the new Merchant Fleet order that lets you earn 1,000 gold per fleet, I had a solid 32,000 gold evry turn plus the pcs. It was a very solid kingdom and a lot of fun.
Did I mention that they also started with a hidden capital? So did the Amazons.
The Amazons were pretty sweet, and murder in the Plains. They have outstanding mobility, can 565 a number of different races, and have great leaders. Their best Trait was Devout, which allowed them to eventually have 5 High Priestesses at half cost and with half cost divinations. The new HP rules don't allow them to die, only get exausted, so Devout kingdoms can gather a lot of information very quickly.
Lord Diamond
Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.
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I played the Tyrant and Illusionist in this pre-alpha game
Illusionist was not fully ready yet. But is based in Arcania and starts with a hidden PC. A Pure Mage with Supreme Magic ability meaning they raise wizards and at a cost of 7k with magic potential of level 9. Also they start with a P4 as the other Pure mages do. I see lots of potential with the Illusionist and look forward to seeing what the full compliment of abilities will be.
Tyrant. As the name sounds is very capable of forcing there will upon others. What may surprise some is just how strong the tyrant is in political defense. Once they get there grip on you it is hard to take it away. The Tyrant is not the strongest for political offense but does hold there own. Starting with 7 PC spread across the southern regions with there capital able to start in any of three different southern regions. I really enjoyed moving my 6 groups around the board and recruiting from my 7 different 565 troop options. I started turn 15 with two main groups one having 29 brigades and the other 32 brigade. Different brigades types of orcs, goblins, tyrants, ogres, trolls, wildlings. The tyrant does have its draw backs very few politicals and magic is 1.33x more effective vs them. Give there ability to make large army groups I can see a bad TY day in the future when I Mage comes and crashes there party. Lucky for me I did not have to encounter this.
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I had the new kingdom The Atlantians and the newly positioned The Warlock of the Mountains. I thought both were pretty powerful and a lot of fun.
The Warlock in the Mountains, with no Dwarves, allows a pretty explosive early growth. Its certainly different from sharing Amberland with the Giants. With not playing expertly, I had a P8, P6, and P6 with decent leaders and maybe five different racial brigades of from green to regular to veteran (a new characteristic of 3rd Cycle - brigade experience), including a brigade of Mammoths. I think an expert player will be hard to beat as it stands now - quite different from how the Warlock has done in 2nd Cycle.
The Atlantians have a certain flair to them. A mainly nautical kingdom with Atlantis as a hidden capital, they require a different approach, but had no problem taking control of the Eastern Steppes. I kept increasing my navy in Drowning, and the Atlantians really cruise across the sea, with Mastery (trait) at sea for movement. They also are a balanced kingdom that have good possibilities politically and while not great magically, I had a couple power 4's and 3's on turn 15. I probably should have made a better effort for the high council. I did have a level 12 agent.
The Terrain Characteristics makes tactical decisions more important. You probably don't want to take on the Sacred Order or Amazons in the plains. The Cimmerians can do night attacks and have a Winter attack advantage, along with lots of recruiting abilities.
The wizard kingdoms in general have gone from not much in terms of special abilities in 2nd Cycle to a more robust collection in 3rd Cycle. Some are still under construction, especially the Necromancer and Illusionist.
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Closing this thread to get comments in more current threads on 3rd Cycle.
