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hellcat23 -> 5 Games on Beginner - Help Please (6/11/2020 7:01:29 AM)
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5 Games on Beginner
This game is amazingly compelling and I haven’t seen anything like it in years.
However I’m running into some serious walls on just Beginner setting and would like to run this past some folks and see what they think.
So here’s a quick lowdown on my first 5 games…
First game on a moon… I don’t really know what I’m doing. I play an hour, read some manual, watch some youtube – mainly DasTactics, play some more & repeat. It becomes fairly obvious my supply logistics is in bad shape. It is such a mess I start to become despondent but I keep plodding away and trying to figure things out.
Just as I feel I have got a handle on the logistics and start to put it right I get attacked pretty hard by a major power and it’s war! My logistics starts to run into the green but this war seems endless. I am starting to think maybe I should restart when a message pops up saying I’ve won as I’m too big for anyone to take on or something like this. News to me but I’ll take the win.
(Narrator: It was the only win he would get…)
Second game small planetoid. I’ve got up to date on the youtube tutorials, read the manual and feel pretty good about logistics. Off to a good start, my area is locked in by mountains on both sides and I’ve settled pretty much top to bottom of the map in the area I am in. The mountains are at least 8-10 hexes thick on each side of me so don’t think I’ll be able to afford to run any roads or rails across them anytime soon. That’s fine with me, hopefully I can set to work on growing my empire quietly. I’ve made contact with one major power and my spies seem to be showing me there is only 1 other major power. There seems to be 13 cities and I have 6 of them.
Time passes and I use it to get my logistics and supply and all my resources in the green. Everything seems to be going well. I can see the other major power area and he controls the other 7 cities. 6 vs 7 seems almost a fair match. He is blackmailing me constantly and I can’t seem to raise my relationship with him. Suddenly it’s war! I have no real idea how I am going to take the war to him due to the mountain ranges and cost of road / rail building. No need to worry he is coming to me and oh my he has a lot of troops! He only comes from one side and that seems to be where all his cities are, the other side I am still probing minor powers and trying to eke out some more territory before the mountains.
The onslaught begins and I manage to draw a thin battle line running pretty much top to bottom of the map by pumping out some units fast and getting them into place. I’ve read about how machineguns are good on defence and I have put brigades into defence and hold the line formations with HQ cards. My line is thin and mostly 1 hex deep, his attacking horde is 4 to 5 hexes deep and stacked up! Doesn’t seem quite fair. I start to ponder what I’ve learned for my next game as they hit my line fully expecting them to wash over me.
Hold the line indeed! My brave machinegunners (mostly) put up some staggering kill numbers. I’m getting multiple turn reports of 8000 to 10,000 enemy dead for a loss of around 2000 of my own. Amazing! I’m trying to replace my losses each turn and try and just defend rather than push into the mountain range where I quickly run into supply issues. But the enemy just keeps coming, they can take 10k losses per turn and not blink. Even worse they are now coming with serious tanks and assault guns. I have no answer to that. I try and throw out some AT guns but they get destroyed very quickly. They eat up the southern part of my line and break through. It’s over, my economy couldn’t have stood it any longer anyway.
Maybe it was a blip, the mountain ranges were a problem for me to traverse, perhaps the next map will be better? Maybe if there isn’t just one major power they will fight each other instead of me? Maybe the huge wave of enemies 4-5 hexes deep was unusual?
Game 3 – Seth Class
Rolls up interesting looking deserty planet, no indiginous life – that’s a shame I haven’t seen any alien life yet at all…
OK lets start expanding, gonna head south with my militia and army on turn 1. What’s that blip there some kinda unit? I move a couple of units next to it but don’t reveal it. Mysterious… end turn 1.
Oh he’s not alone? Coming up from the south there are suddenly OMG how many counters? I count 40. I still can’t see what they are. Turn 2 emergency mode move everyone towards this horde. I have bad memories of the last game with a wall of enemies. Not again! Not so soon!
I reveal the first counter… It’s an arachnid! ‘I thought it said no alien life?’ I can hear my militia shouting to each other. This first counter of spiders is a little ahead of the blob. Are they all arachnids? I move 5 counter round it, almost surrounded. Let’s fight!
No damage.
What? We didn’t do hardly any damage to this one arachnid unit and there’s a whole blob of them?
End turn… (CENSORED STARSHIP TROOPERS)
Yes the whole 40 counter blob are all Arachnids. By Turn 8 it’s all over for me and the miltia.
Game 4 – Boreas Class
Hey ho, that last one must have been one of those procedural blips. It was quite funny really and at least it was over quick.
Gosh there are enemy counters on Turn 1! Hope they aren’t Arachnids, phew just slavers. Militia Advance!
Turn 3 – It’s all over, lost everything to a slaver horde. On Turn 3! On Beginner!
Game 5 – Limos Class
OK at this point I am feeling very bruised. I’m gonna take it very carefully this time. Even when exploring early. I’ve learned a bit more like about colonists and also about founding new cities / zones. Maybe that can give me an edge over other major powers?
Limos Class – oh my – what a beautiful map? Inland lakes, mountains and rocky plains. Definitely the best looking map yet and lots of options. There are still mountain areas that look impassable but perhaps there are ways around them and yes with careful exploration I see there are ways through or around in some places. Off we go.
70 turns of expansion. What a joy. We even have an AI we can chat to and we get some amazing GR tanks (Romulus and Veloceraptor) that make winning wars against minor powers easy. We are rocking mostly buggy, trucks and infantry. The distances between cities are huge!
There’s a major power across the mountains to my left, I keep them sweet. There’s another major to my right and we are on ok terms. I set up a small line of machine gunners where I think they will come if they decide to aggress.
I’ve covered almost top to bottom of the map and I’m snaking my roads and rails between lakes and mountains. I’ve made 4 additional cities on top of the 4 I have picked up the normal way. I’ve connected it by rail, supply is in the green. All resources are in the green. I’ve discovered nuclear power through a card and even have a nuclear power plant. There is an occasional radioactive hex for me to farm but very few. All cities have barracks, hospitals, offices, universities and we are growing a lot of food.
The only issue I have is some zones don’t have enough population yet because I founded new cities but they are all functioning ok. I get the occasional separatist leader normally someone I fired but all is well. I know it is only a matter of time until a major power declares war.
After 70 turns it’s war! The major power on my right has started to expand towards me but I was ready. I set up a line and we have discovered gauss weapons so that should be a surprise to them.
The enemy cities are closer together than mine and one is about 4 hexes from my battle line. Here they come in a line about 30 to 40 hexes long. 4 hexes deep in places. My line is holding well and we are putting up good numbers. We are losing 500 to 1000 per turn but we are killing 5000 to 8000. We are defending in some places but also pushing towards their first city.
We are outnumbered big time again and I just cannot put out the same number of units, and if I could I wouldn’t be able to maintain them. Already got food problems and with more vehicles being made my fuel and metal are also taking hits. Despite all that we take the city and we hold onto it. Our line has stopped them from getting anywhere near my own cities. But even so we are losing food, money, metal and fuel. I have roads running right up to the front lines so supply is also good and showing green but the enemy keeps coming.
My units turn red and then black as money and resources deplete. I have sold what I can to try and maintain but there’s no more to be done. The enemy has not suffered in the slightest from the loss of the city and now other major powers I didn’t even know about are declaring war on me in the South. Economically it’s all over for me, we cannot hold and even if we could the sheer numbers of the enemy seems overwhelming again.
What a shame. I loved this map!
I go back a few saves before war was declared and try to buy some time by using the money cards on diplomacy to keep the major power from declaring war. Relations are about 10. I spend a 1000 card. It goes up to 16. I spend a 400 card the next turn. Relations is at 20. I need to be at 30 to get something going and I am out of cards. Next turn they donate money to me to improve relations. I readily accept. I check relations on my turn hoping it has now gone up to 30. Relations have gone down to 6! eh?
So what’s up with this game? Is it a rogue-like?
Major Powers seem to have something like 10, 20 even 30 times the amount of units available once war starts and no amount of I take 1000 losses and you take 10,000 losses seems to phase them or slow them down at all.
If battle lines can be across the map top to bottom there’s no way to sneak a force into their territory and gobble up their resource points. And if there was how do you get across a mountain range and stay in supply? You can’t defend yourself to victory in this game either.
How can all this be on Beginner setting?
I mean I like a challenge but this is way off. I’m loving the game, the mix of wargame and exploration and building. It’s truly an amazing game but can we please get the difficulty settings under control. I’m not a casual by any means but this is brutal.
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