Support Units: a foundation of every good tactical TBS

from Elemental Forums

As a huge fan of tactical turn based strategy games, I wanted (after several months of lurking) to inquire about support unit equipment and to make some suggestions as well. Please forgive me if this is already instituted in the beta, but here are my suggestions:

 

1. Faction/racial differential support units. I find the equipment customization unit building portion of Elemental to be a very interesting idea, but if that equipment only turns out to be relegated to melee vs archer units, I'll be quite sad indeed! In regards to the different races/factions, I believe that some kits should be restricted based either on (1) unit size or morphology (ie. bipedal, quadrupedal, large or small) (2) sovereign magical affinity (light sovereigns cannot grant "torturer" kits and dark sovereigns cannot grant "super healer" kits) or (3) initial player sovereign abilities.

 

2. Sub-sovereign magical units. I think that aoe casters, disablers, dispellers and other support units would GREATLY round out any good army! Even better tactical decisions could be made by restricting certain types of support units to different factions and races (as per suggestion #1)

 

3. Mobile units. My Tactical TBS background mostly consists of the Age of Wonders series, but those games still serve as (IMHO) excellent examples of good TBS games. I feel that that series (or, more specifically, the unofficial patch for AOW:SM) implemented tactical mobility correctly. One strategy would be to lure the AI into your magical domain and then attack with mobile light cavalry. The cavalry would be weaker, but capable of launching a "first strike" against an opponent's support units. Couple this with a magic attack, and you could weaken a stack greatly with some throw-away units! To implement mobility in a similar fashion (quick and light based on armor kits or lightly armored and heavily armed) would be excellent!

 

If all of these features are already in the beta, well, consider me a happy camper!

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Well, I'm pretty sure there are going to be different kits you can equip your soldiers with (scouting is the only I've actually seen, but perhaps medical?). All magical units will be imbued by their sovereign directly at the expense of essence, so they will be incredibly rare and on the level of heroes. There are also magical creatures, but those will also be few and far between as I understand.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

There will be horse cavalry. Hopefully there will also be rare Dragonfly cavalry, and even more rare Wyvern cavalry. Even the odd Champion or Sovereign riding an Umberdroth (likely accompanied by several lesser Umberdrtoh).

Sions will allow magical support, at least for certain powerful Fallen Sovereigns.

It would be nice to be able to attach a medical kit to certain units. Perhaps medical kits should be more expensive than their effectiveness, and grant a Radius of coverage, so as to decrease Med-Kit spam?

It would also be nice for units to be able to carry more than one weapon (but only use one at a time) ... think Pavise Crossbowmen.

It would also be nice to have Combat Engineers, like Sappers, and Seige constructors. With the ability to make those things that stick in Cavarly Hooves, like anti-cavalry barriers (essentially slows down cavalry that run over it, reducing their charge and a small chance for the Horse, whom is in pain, to break discipline and run bezerk). In addition, Sappers could dig underneath walls, in order to collapse a certain portion of a wall. Seige constructors could build Basic Seige Weaponry on-site during a proper Seige, so that Battering Rams, Ladders, and Seige Towers could always be rebuilt for sucessive City Attack attempts, if regular Seige weaponry was not built.

It would also be nice to have Ninja packs (seriously) to make having the army hidden be more likely, and to be able to be even MORE hidden while setting an ambush, and giving better ambush bonuses.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree with the original posters sentiments.  The game won't be all it can be without doing most of what he is talking about.  I know there will be differences in kingdoms but I haven't really seen how/if this effects units yet.  At least it looks like #3 will tried to be addressed as Brad talked about horse cavalry in other post a while back.