Game Balance Issue

[craider]

I started a game in tutorial mode. After 50+ or so mission, the game has developed into an area where I wish the enemies are more aggressive to match my templars.
Then I started a brutal campaign as I wanted more challenge. It was tough and for my life I cannot seem to pass the third mission Divided We Fall. I must have played over 20 times to no avail. I started a crazy campaign and am able to pass that level. I managed to pass this level due to using a berserker in the setup as previous combo did not particularly work. What I mean by completing a level is to finish it without any casualties.
That has got me thinking, in tutorial mode the game towards the end enemies are too easy. It would seem past a certain stage the templars can solo the corridors without any problems. It defeats the team purpose when individuals can be a one man wrecking army. I think there is a need to beef up the enemies towards the end to keep up the challenge
The brutal difficulty seems too hard in the beginning. Its brutal not mission impossible. Maybe I lack the skill to play at this difficulty but I wish tutorial difficulty end game stages has brutal characteristics. The dilemma is normal is no fun towards the end while harder settings like brutal seems impossible to play in the beginning.

[slayernz]

craider, I've always found that no matter how experienced my team is, the Narvidian Dawn campaign is brutal. Also, if you don't use more than one specialist, do the Vestmarch campaigns for a challenge, especially if you don't boost your ammo supplies. Your Berserker will have a very busy time, especially the third campaign.

Brutal is doable if you start very cautiously. Avoid going gung ho and always have overlapping fire until your team has a little traction.

[johndramey]

Hey there craider! First of all, hope you are enjoying TA. The game definitely takes a little getting used to, but what you mentioned is a relatively normal observation. The differences in the difficult levels are... extreme. I, and a few of the other board members, prefer Brutal for that very reason. Brutal is supposed to be very difficult, and you will generally experience quite heavy casualties. Well, at least until you build up enough honor to kit out an A-team of sorts.

To be honest, the tutorial actually has a very difficult level bunched into it. Maybe the brothers need to reexamine the balance of it for the lower difficulty levels, but I remember that we had to tone it down a couple times when it was first introduced due to it wiping our Brutal squads.

Also, keep in mind that the campaigns are each given a difficulty rating. As your squad moves up in honor and you get more and more skilled, you should be trying to move into the "moderate" or "hard" campaigns. If you become really comfortable you can go try Narvidian Dawn .

If you are finding Normal too easy and Crazy too hard then you can either move into the "easy" campaigns with your crazy squad or take on the harder campaigns with your normal squad. My recommendation would be to take the easier campaigns with the harder difficulty, as each difficulty level gets progressively harder and require different approaches. If you get too used to Normal then you can learn bad habits that won't help you too much at the higher difficulty levels. Crazy and Brutal are functionally the same, the enemies are just a little easier to kill at Crazy.

If you have other questions please feel free to post them here. There are a few of the long term TA players around that are very knowledgeable, and we would love to brainwash you into joining our number!

*edit* See! slayernz beat me to responding! haha

[fallen]

craider - welcome to the forum and thanks for the feedback on the game! Brutal is intended to be extreme and force you to play your very, very best. I have personally beaten the Tutorial on Brutal and I know that some of the hardcore vets here on the forum have as well. We strive to provide a real difficulty scale that means the highest levels are over the top insanely hard.

On the point about scaling up enemies to be more difficult in later levels, we have been looking at it recently as we talk about enabling larger squads in the game, as you'd want to have the enemy forces auto-scale to the troop count (4+) as well. Maybe you'll see some action on this one soon!

Thanks for posting!

[craider]

Thanks for the quick reply guys. Looking back maybe I didn't explain my game well. I started a tutorial game on normal mode. Then I started a new brutal rapid deployment team and took the first easy campaign. Was stuck in the 3 lvl called divided we fall. It starts with your team split into 2 on two different drop points. The first two lvl I used soldiers and scouts so my newbie hydra starts this lvl with minimal ap. it seems to me that in order to pass this level I have to train my hydra from the start else there is no way to beat this lvl. If this observation is true, then it seems there is a preset way to play in order to pass. Brutal on easy campaign seems hard at least for the first few missions when we are short on kit and honor. Also coupled with the poor accuracy and limited ammo, it just seem impossible.
I am assuming from the replies that on brutal it is possible to complete this level without casualties. But is it possible to complete it if your hydra is still a newbie?

[fallen]

craider - Hydras can be a bit tricky to use extremely effectively and really need a good cover strategy early on as well. Have you read some of the threads on Hydra strategy that johndramey and others have started? Certainly, any level where you squad is split doubles the difficulty, so this ones like a particularly nasty one!

[Cyrus]

The first level of the Moons of Uchot-something is most veterans' favorite training level because it allows you to stay in one place and defend until your reach 25 kills. This works well when your Templars are still working with less than 6 AP. You can do this mission and abort the campaign after winning, then start it again.
It gets you normal XP but almost no honor, so only do it until you have 6 base AP on all your troops and feel confident you can handle more missions.

[johndramey]

craider - That could be your problem right there, the first easy campaign (Moons) is actually really hard in my opinion. I usually save that campaign for the end of my easy runs. I tend to start my squads on Stardock Raid, then Tour of Duty (a moderate campaign, but easier than Moons) and then go back to Moons.

I try not to do the "finish a mission, abort campaign, redo mission" way of getting XP, but you shouldn't feel bad about doing it. Since I avoid restarting at all costs and make myself bull through campaigns I tend to run squads with very high casualty rates on Brutal. I think my current squad (The Black Sheep) have over 13 dead knights!

The Hydra is, indeed, tricky to master. You can go check out the tips and tricks thread where myself and a couple others have posted our thoughts on them; click here to go to the thread. If you don't like them, don't worry! Hydras are definitely an acquired taste, and you can always try out the Neptune. They are much more straightforward in their use, and can (arguably) be more useful in most situations.

For me Brutal is just that. I relish losing knights and scraping for honor. After losing all those knights I finally have a squad that is pretty much kitted out, but I'm excited that most of them are hitting their prestige cap. That means that I get to start a brand new team of meat... I mean knights to toss into the grinder. TA is about killing xenos and losing knights, don't worry if you lose a couple because that is just a learning experience!

[fallen]

Hmmm, does the team agree we need to move Moons out of "Easy"?

[slayernz]

I didn't think the Moons campaign was that hard ... but it does involve you learning the levels a bit so you know how to plan your strategy. That's probably true of most of the campaigns though

[johndramey]

Oh not at all, fallen. Moons is one of the easier campaigns, but if you go into it cold it can be a bit challenging. Like slayernz said, it just requires you to have a decent grasp of the mechanics and a little planning.

[Cyrus]

Moons has a few hard levels, I got completely stuck on Brutal "Gatecrasher" with my fresh-out-of-tutorial squad. It has way more spawns per turn than say Stardock Raid or Tour of Duty and tough ones at that. I kept running out of ammo before making it out of the large open area.

I find that before you get 6 AP, your squad is too crippled to effectively do missions that require a lot of movement, which is 90% of them. It's one of the very few design choices in TA that just don't work for me, so I repeat the Moons level until I have 6 AP and then I go play campaigns.

[craider]

Thanks to Cyrus for the hint on aborting and getting them levelled up. What I am interested to know is whether linear progression through the easy moon campaign on brutal without aborting is doable. Actually I read those hydra thread before I used them. johndramey, I do not like casualties especially just into my 3rd mission, any loss of knights makes the next level harder. Well, I might have to change my thinking that casualties is expected in brutal just that I dont think it should be too early in the game.

[fallen]

craider - from the design standpoint, anything goes in Brutal, even early casualties (or levels you can barely beat without losing soldiers).

[Cory Trese]

Half the fun of new rules is figuring out how they make Brutal harder.