Help! Arcatta 3 The Winding Valley

[Pinbot]

Great game! Thanks for creating it.

Thanks for the help. I've still got problems though.

You can't hold cities with Initiates because they still only have 4 hit points. An injured Sniper still has an attack of 4. Also, you need at least two Initiate attacks against a Sniper in a city to keep him from bouncing right back with a full heal. It's a bloodbath! If the AI ever can spare a shot, he damages the Apprentice on the mine reducing the cash flow. So, I'm operating under the assumption that I need to get a second one out there ASAP. If I try and build up an invasion force closer to the two cities, the AI gets a lot of shots at the Apprentice(s)

By turn 7 things are looking ugly. By turn 10 I'm out-numbered to the point where it's hopeless. No matter what, the AI still earns money on all his properties. Even if manage to hold the two north-most cities, he still manages to squeeze out a few tanks and stash a couple of snipers in the woods. It really seems impossible to me. I just can't get units (that can survive) out in the field fast enough.

[Hiro_Antagonist]

Well, until I have a chance to give the mission another go, all I can say is that it definitely is beatable.

I know a couple of people who just beat the entire campaign -- I'll ask them if they have any tips.

[Pinbot]

Thanks. I really appreciate it.

[Hiro_Antagonist]

Here's what one of my friends sent me about this mission:

==============================

well, after playing that mission a few times, my advice would be not make any iniates at all ever, skip the first turn and make an archmage, then make an apprentice the next turn, get your original apprentice up to the goldmine (he stays there all game), then attack! keeping a couple apprentices around at all times to heal your guys (concentration). By turn 7 I had the northern most city covered and by turn 10 I had all 3 cities covered and no enemy units whatsoever around

[Pinbot]

Wow! That made all the difference. I guess I had a couple of mental blocks regarding putting out units as fast as possible and trying to hold the mine one turn too early. By not giving evil a target, I managed to keep both the starting units alive for the whole mission. Just trying to stop up the cities over all was a losing proposition. Slaughtering the enemy's high value units and then stopping up the cities worked like a charm. I won on turn 19!!! Thanks a lot guys!

You know, this game is a lot deeper than I had initially thought. The interesting variety of skills and spells for each unit really takes it beyond something more generic, like Advance Wars. I liked the demo a lot, but the full game has so much more. Every race is completely different.

I've got to ask: Are you going to do a sequel? You know, if you added city building in the tradition of Civilization, and had huge maps, you might be able to leverage your "lunchbreak" gameplay into an epic 4X game. Don't get me wrong, I love this game as it is, but I think there might be more potential in your excellent design than you realize.

[Hiro_Antagonist]

I appreciate the kind words!

At this point, nothing formal is planned. Nobody would like to see more come from this rules set than me, but only time will tell if that will actually happen.