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[ZebioLizard2]

Walls on major citadels and forts makes it alot easier to defend against wandering deer. I've sat one to three archers at home and it could deal with the wandering wildlife, also it seems random spawns was toned down a bit as well.

Typically what tends to take cities or your stuff in general tends to be wandering roves of gangs/bandits/soldiers, but one doesn't tend to die to deer.

[Muz]

Haha, CoE 3's animals was a lot better than CoE 2. I don't even notice until people bring it up. It was a glitch on the levels of carp in old DF. If you were a necromancer or some other slow start character, the deer were a more serious threat than AI.

[Frumple]

... so. Folks that have played this more than me. Anyone know of a more direct/consistent non-loot means of getting items than summoning stuff (demon lieutenants, one of the necromancer spells I'm forgetting) and stealing their kit? Demonologists and necromancers are so far about the only ones I've found able to generate items, and with them it comes with... things... attached to the items. And are also a bit of a crap shoot as to what you're going to get (if anything).

[Majestic7]

I haven't played Enchanter enough to know if he can make items nowadays. Otherwise, you keep what you kill! You keep what you kill!

In general, wandering heroes and monsters occasionally have items you can nab. Certain locations - battlefields, old temples, ziggurats etc - might have items that you can find the first time you visit them, usually after defeating indies guarding them.

In general, most items are really underwhelming but some, like the rod of chain lightning, are quite powerful.

[IWishIWereSarah]

I had some items when recruiting commanders, mainly mages. I don't remember with which nation that was, but I think one of the more magic-oriented ones (mayge warlock or priest-king)

[Majestic7]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. Mages and heroes have a chance to come with a magic item or two on the go. This is especially true for higher level wizards.

[Frumple]

Basically no, then

Good to know, though. And yeah, recruits and some summons, are about the only means I've noticed myself for "farming" items, with summons being considerably more reliable. There's a few one offs (elemental royalty or demon lords, ferex) that have seemingly unique items, too.

That I've noticed so far: Mound Kings (Minor summoning, necromancers) -- random basically anything, not guaranteed. Best variety, since the kings have full item slots, but the mound kings themselves are fairly rare, and there's no tell what, if anything, you get. Probably the easiest to get en masse, though, if you have the resources, and the lowest resource sink of the three I've noticed. Plus major summoning brings those mounted guys that can pump out four minor castings per turn, giving you a lot of chances to get a king. And major summoning itself to get those horsecritters is likely to give some really nice bodies to stick the kings junk on.

Demon lieutenants (similar name, demonologists) -- set items based on what you get. Frost/fire brands, demon whips, some kind of rod I forget what does. Most reliable -- the items are guaranteed -- but least variety.

Dragons (call dragon, trolls) -- random accessory slot, not guaranteed, but rather likely. Can't exactly mass them due to the silly expensive cost, but you can get some nice stuff.

No telling how many I've missed, heh.

[E. Albright]

There's a few one offs (elemental royalty or demon lords, ferex) that have seemingly unique items, too.

The four Horsemen have unique junk. Ancient graphics, but shiny, special gear. [Edit: nope, I take that back; I just saw a random dwarf running around with the Sword of War, and the Horsemen have been conspicuously absent from this particular game...]

[Kruniac]

Pirated this, DRM ended the game on turn 2.

Saw enough to immediately purchase it.

Going to be dying repeatedly for a while.

[Muz]

Haha, similar experience with CoE 3. Pirated version didn't have Pale Ones. Been buying all the CoEs since.

[Cthulhu]

Pirated and got past the crack, will probably buy it after a while though.  It's starting to reach the level of complexity to actually be good.  The others were always too broken to enjoy, too many frustrating elements.

I love the new ritual system, makes things way more complex and dynamic than the old way of two or three things per class.

Killer Moose syndrome is still there, they've made a nod to it too.  Moose are bigger than elephants, eat trees, and eat people if there's no trees around.

[Kruniac]

Pirated and got past the crack, will probably buy it after a while though.  It's starting to reach the level of complexity to actually be good.  The others were always too broken to enjoy, too many frustrating elements.

I love the new ritual system, makes things way more complex and dynamic than the old way of two or three things per class.

Killer Moose syndrome is still there, they've made a nod to it too.  Moose are bigger than elephants, eat trees, and eat people if there's no trees around.

A moose conquered my castle with all inside. I was ashamed and depressed.

[Frumple]

I want to say it's either the witch or the druid that can actually summon giant moose for one of their upper level spells. Match for the biggest things in the game, they are, though one of the less appealing results for the spell that nets 'em (imo). But yeah, there's at least two different sizes of moose. Also illusionary moose can trample! I'm not sure how it works, but it does.

[Cthulhu]

I think the biggest problem with the game right now is the enemy's tendency toward doomstacks.  Increased difficulty just increases the amount of resources enemies gain from nodes and they're very efficient about scooping up as many as possible.

Senators and Barons especially go apeshit with multiple 150+ stacks coming down on you.  If you're not a very late game necromancer or something with the resources to plow through these armies over and over you're gonna get worn down eventually.  And even if you are, that shit's boring.

I managed to get Ba'al as a high priestess.  He's pretty rad.  A spooky floating head with level 3 dark prayers and two spellcast slots.  Rupture is a burst 100 that usually hits 20 or 30 people for 1-7 magic damage.  Not crazy good but against chaff armies it can easily wipe out a good-sized chunk.

High priestess really starts ramping up overall once she gets her grand mastery.  It takes a long-ass time to get there since she needs 480 sacrifices and her good spells eat towns, though.  Grand Blood Feast summons a Nephil and a squad of Rephaim, but Feast of the Dead is the real shit.  It summons an undead Malik and four or five Ditanim.  Not only are they as stronk as the other giants, they're ethereal.  Also unlike most undead they heal naturally.  They can easily cut through hordes of chaff while the mages rupture everybody. 

That actually segues into one of the issues I've been having with the game.  Since you can't manufacture gear it's a lot harder to properly thug/SC.  And you can't script your armies to make it work better either.  The Malik and Ditanim are good because they're already ethereal, the others just die inevitably.

I don't think it'd be getting too much into Dominions territory to add army scripting and manufacturing items.


Not enough to bump.  Got another endgame scenario, this time with Voice of El.  I feel like Voice of El would be really exciting to play against, but playing as it is pretty boring.  They're extremely resource-hungry, with gold and relics.  Multiple rituals that need ot be cast multiple times, more expensive each time, but in exchange most of the effects of them are long-term and passive.

The seven seals are pretty rad.  Cracking the first one gets you random flagellant chaff spawning in villages, along with the occasional saint who'll gather them up and lead them around for free.  Later seals get more powerful spawns including packs of templar knights (the only controllable freespawn you get) and angels.  Angels themselves range from pretty garbage to crazy strong.  Archangels get mass combustion and falling fires and can smash small armies pretty easily.  Very late game you also get Ophanim who are invulnerable to non-magic damage entirely, and get like three smites per turn anywhere on the battlefield.

All their freespawns are crazy strong for their cost (first seal is 50 relics, next is 100, and so on) but you can't control them so they tend to lone wolf, which really limits them.  A couple ophanim supporting a real army would be unstoppable.  Crusades and inquisitions also spawn huge armies with templars and siege equipment.  All their freespawns like that are friendly and capture and convert territory for you, making El really passive and boring.  You just sit there while your angels take over.

Then there's the four horsemen and the shit that goes down at the seventh seal.  The horsemen are doom horror tier, pestilence diseases the entire battlefield and death leads a massive army of zombies and skellingtons, plus he zombifies everything he kills.  I didn't see the others, unlike your freespawn the horsemen are their own faction so you can't see what they do unless they attack you.

When the seventh seal opens all kinds of crazy shit goes down.  Plagues infect random armies, forests burn down, and awful monsters infest the world.  Locusts with crowned human heads, disease demons, giant scorpions, all kinds of shit. They're aligned with horrors so they attack everything, including neutrals.

The final seal honestly is a little disappointing.  It's not as apocalyptic as you'd expect, it puts on a ton of attrition with the plagues but the monsters aren't that strong and a big army can still push through them.  I also didn't see any Grigori which was disappointing, but I guess they'd be more suited to High Priestess. 

I've also heard that Satan is imprisoned in a pit somewhere in the Infernal plane, but if he is he didn't make an appearance, though the final seal does say "the bottomless pit is open"

[Micro102]

After playing this for a while I just don't see it being worth the price if you also have CoE3. Thew new races and battle screen and planes of existence are cool, but not 25 dollars cool. It feels more like DLC than a new game.