I think the trouble is that experimentation is the key in developing your own meta-strategies. It’s hard to experiment and see what works and what doesn’t when the “theoretical meta” is changing ever round. You have to improvise already by crafting a strategy that is based on what the game actually gives you in the early rounds.
It’s a balance, and I think daily jail hits the perfect spot as it isn’t an always moving target, yet also keeps the meta very fresh everytime you sit down for a session. We’ll see how it goes!
Been really looking forward to Duos mode, it just adds another layer of strategy and coordination. Freestyle mode is a big surprise and because it was an idea I had in the shower a couple of months ago, you can all thank for me for it being implemented in the game.
Hopefully we’ll get to hear more about the underlords tomorrow. Do they help your team fight? Do they just apply passive effects that alter how you play? Maybe one guy gives you a 6th draw and extra bench space or something? Stay tuned I guess, cause I have no idea.
Yeah I have no idea either. I hope that they don’t give buffs to particular alliances or heroes, as all that will do is make you railroad a certain strat going into a match and discourage improvisation.
Totally agree. I really hope they aren’t something like “reduce the cost of all elusive units by 1”. But I could easily see it being something like that. Fingers crossed it’s more interesting than that.
When I said “help your team fight” I actually meant as a unit on the board, so it isn’t a big surprise to me. A game dev friend and I were actually out for a couple beers a few weeks ago and talked about how auto-battlers were basically the next logical step of card games, and some ideas of how we’d do one of these games, and having your guy on the board was actually one of the big things. It kinda makes sense.
The talent customization is a pleasant surprise though. I wonder if the next phase of testing will feel weird/overly same-y with only 2 underlords. But hopefully they’ll be able to phase some more in relatively quickly.
The eponymous Underlords. Two available right now. They are a unit on the board and you get upgrades to their abilities via traits.
Duo mode for coop battling.
Additional heroes and alliances.
Rework and rebalancing of almost all old heroes and alliances.
Jail. Each day 8-12 heroes are banned, preventing too stale or too predictable a meta (great addition IMO).
New UI (meh).
Among the stat changes is a doubling of all health values while abilities and damage did not get buffed at the same rate. This means fights are slower and less bursty.
I am really enjoying playing with the new update. Underlords are an interesting addition that I think will really come into their own when more are added. The new heroes/alliances, and rebalances to the existing ones, all look good.
Haven’t had the chance to duo yet, but I like that you can duo against bots.
The UI feels like one step forward, one step back. More information is conveyed on the screen, and it no longer feels like an enlarged mobile UI. Yet it also has some baffling decisions, like the huge animated underlord at the corner of the screen taking up alot of space for no reason. It also doesn’t feel as thematic or cosy, a bit more sterile. I am not sure how much of my reticence is the fact that it is new. I think the UI needs another pass before 1.0, perhaps something that somehow brings together the best elements of the old and new one.
I don’t think I like the game any more after the big update. Even after at least a dozen games on the new patch, I still have no idea of what’s happening in the battles or why they’re ending the way they are. It just feels like units either die instantly or hang around on a sliver of live forever.
At first I thought that the discomfort was due to the changes to the heroes and alliances, since basically nothing was the same as the last time I played. But I got used to the alliances and heroes eventually, and it didn’t help. So I think it must be the Underlords.
The turbo mode (whatever it’s called) dropped a couple of days ago.
Start with 5 heroes
Only need 2 units for a 2* and 4 for a 3*.
-Automatic level progression every two round
No interest payments
No neutral fights (you just get items for free at certain intervals)
No hitpoints (four losses and you’re out)
The games are certainly quick… I played half a dozen games, and was out from each in less than 5 minutes. It didn’t feel like a very compelling mode though. I found it impossible to pivot away from a bad build, felt no ownership over the team, and really missed the guns vs. butter decisions on when to spend money.
That’s weird… Part of the game is getting the experience to have educated guesses on why you won or lost the previous round and which builds work well. It’s not supposed to be easy to do that, as having hard rock paper scissors interaction would make the game too shallow.
I can see why it would be frustrating if you keep losing (inferring that maybe I’m wrong) and have no idea why. It would be good if the game could present some type of information to help players understand other than the Stat bars.
Knockout is an interesting mode that they still need to polish, but it’s a great way of speeding up the experience of auto chess by 10x. I also think the main mode could be shortened by 5 or so minutes a match.
I tried a game yesterday after not paying much attention to this for the past few months and I’m impressed with the level of polish they added so far. Definitely looks like they are starting to differentiate from the basic auto-chess model and taking some chances with new mechanics.
Probably needs to be tuned up a bit more so I doubt I’ll do more than play a few games of it but I’ll definitely check back again.
