I think I took your advice and played a random map a few times. I mean I really am looking forward to Scott Lufkins new AOW: Sci Fi (tg he posts those developers videos) but for some reason I just couldn’t get into to AOW3 – and I actually really loved AOW 1-2. I may try again.
It shouldn’t. It’s a bad bit of tutorial work but once you understand how to deal with it it’s not a big deal.
Whoa boy the intro mission with the Space Marines was way harder than I expected, but I won. I guess that it was default set to easy? D:
Yeah, it’s highly educational though, or at least mine was. I’ve played another game with SM and am now playing one with Necrons. It’s impressive how asymmetric the sides are, the Necrons really feel dramatically different from the SM. I’m enjoying them a lot.
I think it’s a relatively hard game for a number of reasons. The AI is actually pretty good and knows when to retreat to regroup and how to focus fire. Also if you follow the quest lines at least somewhat there are some really tough units that will spawn up out of the middle of nowhere and can heavily disrupt your plans.
Some great beginner Space Marine tips here:
Wish I’d of read that before doing the tutorial.
I’ve been very impressed by the tactical AI. It is perfectly content to swoop in, do some damage, and then retreat to lick its wounds. It actively rotates fresh troops to the front and withdraws damaged ones so they can heal. In other words, it’s a giant pain in the ass, just as it should be.
That raises an interesting question about something I’m unclear on. What’s the differences between claiming a resource tile (changing it to your color) vs. making it part of your city or placing a fortress next to it? Other than the obvious defensive bonuses, that is.
Explained here:
Capturing the resource gives a flat +2 bonus. Controlling it with a fortress gives the city +20% bonus.
So for races other than Space Marines, you have to have the resource inside the city walls for the extra bonus.
Its not explained well at all in the game. But the more I am learning on my own the more I am liking this game.
First off, thanks for the link there, that’s very clarifying.
For other races, what does “inside the city walls” mean? This has been my other major confusion - is there any point to claiming the tile, or is having the city adjacent to it sufficient?
When you build the claim tile project in the city and pick the tile with the bonus on it, that whole city gets a bonus. So plop that city next to the +20% research bonus and build all your research there. The tradeoff is that there’s no building space on that tile for buildings, but it’s a good reason to specialize your cities for their tile yields (eg. an imp guard player enjoys life a lot more if you can find and get a city onto an ore bonus tile).
So just having the city next to it doesn’t do that, I actually have to claim the tile to get the % bonus. Correct?
Correct.
Put a unit on it -> capture -> flat +2 bonus
Put a city near it -> claim it -> +20% for the city (Fortresses send the +20% back to the SM HQ)
This is all independent of the tile yield bonus iirc.
Much clearer , thanks!
OK, so put a city near it but don’t claim it is equivalent to having put a unit on it. That is incredibly not clear in the game, so I appreciate the clarification!
No , you have to capture it no matter what.
You claim it for the bonus.
@Sareln did you play all the campaigns? I saw each faction has one. Are they worth the time needed? Or does any one stand out?
Huh? It gets “captured” just by putting a city next to it, that’s not in question. That gives the flat bonus, claiming the tile adds the % bonus, or at least that’s what I’m understanding here.
I thought it gets captured by walking a unit over it. No?
Putting a unit on a tile, OR putting putting a city directly adjacent to the tile will achieve the same effect. You probably never noticed b/c you’re nearly always claiming all the tiles with units ASAP and the cities come much much later.
I played the campaign missions to the end for Tyranids and Space Marines. I played some conquests as Imp Guard and Necron. I still suck at Orkz.
Edit: The campaigns are okay lore wise, they’re kinda just full of spawning gotcha’s mechanically though.
Either way. The act of building a city or fortress adjacent also captures it.
Units can capture the resource tile, thereby providing the flat +2 bonus.
Cities that have a city tile adjacent to the resource tile can use the Claim Tile build action to claim it, thereby adding it to the city, which provides a +20% to the city. For the Space Marines, they can also remotely build a Fortress adjacent to the resource tile for the same bonus.