[gameplay/tactical] Suggestion to improve tactical combat

My personal take is that tactical comat is the most important aspect of a game like this

from Elemental Forums

The tactical portion of the game seems very weak. Another game I very much enjoy is King bounty (ap/l) which does not have city building but mostly tactical combat. I tried to figure out why it seems so much stronger in that department. I think there are a couple of reasons. First the actual combat options seem to be more varied. You can place obstacles; mix long and near combat (in a fashion more varied than simple archers allow) and perhaps the grid format make movement options more limited; the ability to isolate or corner off an ind. opponent is more limited.

 

A few suggestions to try (at least internally to get some ideas on possible changes)

a)  some sort of polygon during tactical combat only (hexagon or octagon)

b ) Greater range of movement between troop types (some can move 5 some can move 1 during combat)

c ) Ability to surround enemies with two armies; if done so they enter the battle field at different locations

d ) Spells that can create different type of defenses (either obstacles that block attackers; or fog that hinder range) during combat

e ) More unique special attacks for troops (charge for calvary  that can only be used once or twice during combat; of course then you would need calvary type of troop); troll or similar that can throw rocks with >> damage but are very vulnerable to fire (of course enemies would now need better ai to know to target them with flaming archers or fire spells); ... (there are many possibilities here)

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Any way those are just a few ideals.

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Ideas!

There is a game, Age of wonders II, that allready has nice tactical combat with things mentioned above! Actually, Age of wonders has ALL the features mentioned above! I wonder if you28 actually had that game in mind!

As I recall, AOW tactical combat also had (with all the previous points):
1) sieges - with walls and various magic protection, also more siege weapons

2) strength of long range weapons diminishes with distance, also it had different ranges with different weapons. Actually, it was long time ago, so I don't remember if it was strength that is reduced or the probability of hit, probably later, but nevertheless...

3) Flying units (and different type, floating units, but that is similar to ground units)

4) Units were using theirs future move (action) points for counterattacking. In Elemental, unit can actually double their attacks per turn (attack and counterattack)

So, the tactical combat in AOW was great, only thing lacking was the AI, which was rudimentary, it could have been exploited easily (But, than again, so can it be in Elemental).

The thing I like in Elemental tactical combat are squads, they add something new, just that! One thing I would add is that the damage done with the attack and counterattack is simultaneous, for a start, so that I can't kill 3 units in a turn without they even had a chance to land a blow!