Strategy & Tactics : Dark Ages

Games
1

Is anyone else playing this? I’ve been semi-obsessed with it for the past couple of weeks and enjoying it quite a bit.

It’s from HeroCraft, Russian developers/publishers who were behind games like:
Strategy & Tactics : Wargame Collection
The King of Dragon Pass remake
Pirate tactical RPGTempest
and mobile port Warhammer 40K : Space Wolf which is actually better on PC

All that previous experience developing and publishing games shows in Dark Ages. Beautiful campaign maps with little animated details like cloud shadows and birds, smoke rising from burned out buildings, etc… The hand drawn unit cards and general cards look great, as do the splash screens for the scenario descriptions. Music is also very well done, with several period style pieces that play in rotation and add to the atmosphere.

The UI is attractive and fairly well designed. Do not pay attention to the screenshots on Steam, the game is still in Early Access, and last week it had an update the completely overhauled the UI in terms of the way the information for generals and armies was presented as well as how combat is presented. It works much better now, and is much easier on the eyes.

The real meat of the game though is the strategic layer. There is no building and queuing in the game, units are recruited immediately (via cities and sometimes other provinces) and do not have turn-based upkeep. You are limited by your amount of income each turn (determined by the provinces you control) and your access to provinces that offer recruiting (not all villages, towns and castles have every unit available). Losses can be replaced (at a cost) in towns and castles, and units gain experience with each battle they survive. Experienced units and generals make a big difference when going head-to-head with a similar size enemy force. Factors like terrain, weather, morale, formations, unit experience and the traits of your general all factor into the attack and defense ratings of your armies. Put it al together properly and you can defeat a larger force with a smaller one, or ignore these factors and watch your superior numbers get defeated.

Every scenario has main objectives you must achieve to complete the scenario and move on, but also secondary objectives that provide far more “Glory”. Glory is used to purchase upgrades and modifications to units, and to place your most useful generals in a Pantheon where they can be recalled for use in the next scenario. You can also use Glory to hire famous generals from history and add them to your Pantheon. There is never enough Glory for everything you want to upgrade and buy, so achieving secondary objectives becomes an obsession very quickly.

Overall the game is interesting and enjoyable. You can save mid-scenario (and collect the Glory for any objectives you’ve achieved to that point), so it’s as easy to play for 20 minutes as it is for 2 hours. The developers are very active, pushing fixes and changes out fairly often, so I expect the game will only get better by it’s official release. I’m curious if anyone else on QT3 has tried this yet, and what your thoughts might be.

2

I’ve had it on my wishlist a while because I love Tempest and I just got Space Wolf (you’re right, it’s very good), so I’m becoming a fan of these folks.

3

I tried a demo, or some really early version of the game quite a while ago, but I can’t remember how I found it before it got on Steam. Even at that early stage, I saw promise. It is great to hear they have followed through on it, and thanks for bringing it back to my attention.

4

I got this a while ago. At first I didn’t care for it, as I didn’t like the way the combat is automated. Then it dawned on me that it’s a non-fantasy Conquest of Elysium, in that the game play is centered around which troops to recruit and what formations to set them in, and I started to appreciate it more.

There have been some significant QOL changes in the last couple of builds, but I’m holding off to see what the official release looks like.

5

Last night I started the third scenario. Part of what I like about this game is that objectives are added mid-scenario and change your entire strategy. For example, in the third scenario I started out with a simple enough task, eliminate a religious cult faction that had risen up in the territories I had just conquered in the previous scenario. The catch was that the cult had destroyed both bridges leading to their provinces, creating a small “island” of sorts, and the only way to assail them was to go all the way around and ford the river at a low point on the opposite side from where their main castle was located.

One of the optional objectives was to quell this uprising within 10 turns, so I poured all my efforts and resources into two out of my three generals, and sent them to the ford and into cult territory. Meanwhile, all the other factions were either allied with me or neutral, so I didn’t have to worry about attacks on multiple fronts. No sooner had I stepped into cult territory though, then a separate uprising occurred, taking out 3 out of the 4 towns/castles of my ally all at once and putting several large armies on the map that were instantly hostile to me. New objectives appeared : put down the rebellion and capture it’s leaders.

Since I was already committed to eliminating the cultists in 10 turns, I forged ahead, watching as my own lands were slowly taken by the rebels. To add insult to injury, not long after the rebels appeared, Norse Raiders appeared along the river and began capturing some of my territories as well. New objectives appeared again, defeat these Raiders. At this point, I thought I was truly screwed and almost started over. But, I did hold the town and castle of the former cultists, and even though I had two weakened armies and a third general with ZERO troops, I was fairly isolated and safe up on the “island” the cultists had created. I had a small but steady income from those provinces, and figured maybe I could turtle up for a bit and see what happened,

That strategy worked, as soon the rebels and the raiders ran into one another and weakened each other. I combined all my remaining forces under one general, and sent him to the ford. Meanwhile I slowly used the meager income from my handful of provinces to recruit a second army over several turns. Once the second army was ready, I sent both my armies across the ford to recapture my former capital town. The rebels had only one army nearby, weakened from defeating raiders, so I was able to take back my town and hold it. During those turns I saved up enough money to purchase a fourth general, this one with the ability to build Storehouses in certain provinces. Storehouses provide 10 additional income each, and that adds up very quickly over several turns.

It took around 30 turns of careful money management and sweating out some close battles, but by turn 40ish I had a steady income from Storehouses and recaptured territory, had rebuilt 3 strong armies, and was working on a 4th. From there it was only a matter of strategic forward movement and the proper application of a couple of mercenary armies, and victory was mine around turn 65. In the meantime I had completed every single optional objective, for a total of over 1100 Glory.

It was after midnight. I’d planned to play for about an hour at 10:00. So yeah, Strategy & Tactics : Dark Ages is one of those games…

6

I’ve been playing another Herocraft game, Tempest, a whole lot lately and enjoying it. When I’m done I plan to return to Strategy and Tactics : Dark Ages as well. In the meantime, I bought a couple of Herocraft bundles from Otakubundle that contain the game, so here are some FREE Steam keys for Strategy and Tactics : Dark Ages!

X2PG6-$QETH-E0$Q$ - Replace all the $ symbols with the letter synonymous with the flying honey-making insect

9C#7C-X4#G5-I2ZN5 - Replace the # symbol with the first letter in the word Pirate

Please post if you claim a code, then come back and comment on the game once you begin playing.

7

I claimed the 2nd code. I will try the game later tonight.
Thank you!

8

Someone took your first code but then couldn’t follow directions. :)

9

So does that mean A)it’s no longer available…or B) that someone needs a more straightforward hint?
B. it’s B right?

10

No, I mean I put that code in (with B’s) and it said it was a dupe code.

11

Aw man, that sucks. I already owned S&T:DA, so it isn’t me. I’ll check the code again soon and if it’s a bum one I’ll complain to OtakuBundle and see if they replace it. Sorry man!

12

I’ve played the tutorial and the first scenario.

-I’m still trying to understand the effect of formations.
-It would be nice to know what kinds of armies you can recruit in city before getting there.

  • it crashed while playing the first scenario, just after I declared war to everyone.
  • Recruiting general is very hit and miss. Sometimes you get awesome general, sometimes complete loser (for the same price).
13

Somebody could have grabbed it without stating so.

14

This is certainly what happened, which is what I was referring to with my original comment.

15

Gotcha. By directions I thought you meant the clue, not the request to post if you claim. My misunderstanding.

Well to anyone still interested, the bundle I linked above goes until January 6th, and if you use code WINTER15 you save an additional 15%, making the cost of the bundle only $1.69. That is a STEAL just for Dark Ages, but given that you also get Tempest (which I’ve very much enjoyed these past few weeks) and Warhammer 40K : Space Wolves (which is also good) and the PC port of King of Dragon Pass…it’s a ridiculous value.

16

Formations are not as important (yet) as the game makes them appear to be. I think this is something that they are working towards for later on in development? For now, the best results seem to come by paying attention to which units receive bonuses for being in front/back/flank and placing accordingly. Also, mixed unit armies ALWAYS fare better in battle. I try to maintain a mix of heavy/light infantry, at least a couple of archers and one or more mounted units in each of my armies.

Usually the larger a village, town, city or castle, the more troop variety is available. But yeah, it kind of sucks to not be able to mouse over a town and see available units for hire.

On recruiting generals, it is totally random. You can tell the game to give you a new choice the next turn, cycling through until you get a decent one, but obviously that doesn’t help when you need a leader ASAP. Don’t auto-pass on the crappy combat generals though, as some of them have special abilities that make them very desirable for defensive positions. One such ability is building storehouses. These will add income to lands in your control, and that income can quickly make for a much needed advantage in later scenarios.

Also make sure to hire/use the mercenaries liberally. The more expensive mercenaries are fantastic for adding to your army shortly before a turning point battle, but even the cheaper ones can be very handy for defensive power when the AI tries to sneak around to your lightly defended home city and take it.

Not sure what might have caused your crash. Thus far I have not experienced any technical issues with the game.

17

Thanks for the info.

I wanted to play a little bit before bed. I was really into it and didn’t notice i played for 2 hours. The game froze again at the end of my turn. I think my computer was telling to to go sleep.
Instead I came here to reply to you! Up yours computer!

I like that you can make a scenario has hard has you want by doing or not that optional objective.

It’s been awhile since I played a game that made me do “just one more turn”.

18

Jumped back into this over the past couple of nights. I’m playing the 4th scenario, where you start out with half the map (which you conquered in the previous scenario), but all three of the other factions are allied against you and the Hansa pops up early on (with a monstrous 800+ army stack) to make things even more complicated.

I spent the first night trying to hang onto most of my territory while whittling down one of the three other factions. That was a big mistake, as you just don’t have enough armies or income to fight a war of attrition over all your territories. So last night I decided on a fall back and hold strategy, letting the other factions slowly take my southern territories without a fight while I moved all four of my armies back to defend the two regions you must hold (or lose the scenario). I built those armies up to max, redistributing the veteran units some of them started with and making sure each army had a good unit mix.

I also hired a new general who had a “9” command rating (meaning he can command the maximum number of units) AND the Construction ability, giving me two generals who could build storehouses (I carried the other over from previous scenarios). After building a half dozen storehouses, my income level is high despite all my southern territory loss. I put this income and the armies to good use, picking off any armies that strayed to close to my home territories. This led to my capturing two of the three faction generals that are part of the secondary objectives, as well as thinning the ranks of the other factions a bit, though that monster 800+ Hansa stack is still wandering around in the eastern territories. I’ve reached the point where I have enough manpower and money to start retaking some of my territories, and as long as I move slowly, regroup after battles, and avoid letting that monster stack sneak around behind me, I should be in a good position to win the scenario along with all the secondary objectives.

Don’t forget to use your victory points to purchase upgrades at the Forge between scenarios. Upgraded units are the ONLY way to match up against some of the armies in the later scenarios. When their stack is at 525 and yours is only 400 max because you haven’t upgraded, you’re not going to win any battles.

19

Played cautiously aggressive last night and am now well on the way to rolling up the scenario. I had to take on that 880 Hansa stack (and capture their town, both were part of the secondary objectives), so I hired a new general, loaded him up with raw troops (still used mixed units to get all the good bonuses) then supported him by hiring the second best mercenary outfit available. I sent them out to engage the monster stack…and they both got steamrolled. Completely destroyed. BUT, in their sacrifice they whittled the Hansa stack down to a much more manageable 400, and I was able to send one of my most valued generals with his veteran troops (550+) and wiped out the Hansa stack, a second much smaller army they’d formed, and captured their town. Secondary objective accomplished!

After that threat was eliminated it was simply a matter of using two of my better generals/armies to keep the two south-western factions bottled up in their forest area (by eliminating any armies they tried to send up the road towards the rest of the map) while I used my other three, and eventually four, generals and armies to retake all the eastern territories, defeat the third factions armies, and eventually capture their capital, eliminating the faction and checking off another victory condition. All the while my income continued to grow through captured territories and the construction of a few more storehouses. Money is the key to success in Dark Ages…troop replenishment, mercenaries, new generals, these are the tools to achieve victory.

I did learn that formations can be more useful than I’d first thought. When facing several pitched battles I discovered that your own losses can be pretty heavily mitigated if you can find a formation and unit mix that allows for you to exceed the enemy’s numbers on each of the three fronts (left flank, center and right flank). If the enemy has significantly higher numbers than you on even one of those three fronts, you will lose units to complete destruction on that front. If you can mix and match formation and units to have better numbers on all three fronts, you will still take losses, but chances are all of your units will survive. This means you can replenish them at the nearest town or castle, and they will retain some of their experience. This is a huge advantage over hiring a new full unit that comes in at raw recruit level of experience. If you want to get your stack numbers into the high 500’s and 600’s, veteran troops are a must have.

20

Wow, I could have sworn I’d posted in this thread later than January 4th…but I guess not.

In any event, I finished Strategy & Tactics : Dark Ages. Played through all of the available scenarios and accomplished all of the optional objectives in each one. The final four scenarios are quite challenging and take a significant amount of time if you’re trying to achieve all the optional victory objectives.

The two scenarios where you play as the Babylonians have huge maps with a dozen factions, some allied with one another, some not. They are challenging and the mix of completely new units makes for a totally different feel at first. Once you get the hang of a good unit mix (hint, 9 elephants may seem great, but doesn’t always win) you can really get rolling, but you still need to pick your opponents carefully, know when to turtle up a bit, and watch out for events that occur mid-scenario. These two scenarios were the most fun I had playing the game.

The final two scenarios, where you play as Mongol tribesmen, were smaller in scale, but no less challenging. Again, new units mean new tactics, although you quickly learn that a mix of two specific units is pretty much a perfect army that will win 90% of all it’s battles. The biggest challenge in these scenarios was getting your income levels up enough to field multiple armies (I recommend bringing a Storehouse general into the scenarios from your Pantheon) and weeding through all the mediocre generals until you can recruit those nice 9 unit generals with the good characteristics. Lots of “show me a new general” each turn until you get a good one.

Overall I very much enjoyed my 40+ hours with Strategy & Tactics : Dark Ages. While the developers have moved the game from Early Access to Released status, it does still need some work. There are units shown in the Forge upgrade paths that don’t exists in any scenarios, and there are only 11 scenarios in total. The tutorial could be a little more polished, and some of the optional objectives could use a rethink (mainly the turn-based ones that leave little margin for error). While the game is complete and entertaining as is, I do hope they continue working on it to address these concerns and add content. If they released a 10-pack of additional scenarios for $10, I’d probably buy it.

Final Verdict : A good indie strategy game with a lot to offer, that’s maybe one patch away from being complete. If you can get it on sale or in one of the many bundles it’s appeared in, I’d recommend it.