Hello,

I am greatly enjoying the newly released FE beta. The current tactical mechanics with a new running initiative system, unit designs with traits, and 3-6 types of damage like piercing vs piercing armor has greatly enhanced my tactical experience from E:wom.

In addition, the added depth of champions and much more accessible, powerful magic, and monsters with various attributes and traits is also a MASSIVE step forward. In particular champions will need to be carefully balanced, but others have discussed that elsewhere.

I think the fundamental unit design system with trained units has room for improvement, and in improving that I would suggest an even deeper tactical system. However, I don't want flanking and facing of units - in my opinion that's an abhorrent "feature" that is realistic but not fun. I also do not want to give any significant value to tactical terrain.

I would like to make two suggestions for improvements, that are closely tied together. These suggestions are intended to fix the particular problem of FACTION VS FACTION TRAINED UNIT FIGHTING BEING RATHER BLAND.

Suggestion 1 - mutually exclusive traits from groups

The first step towards improving tactical combat is allowing for much more unit abilities and "stuff" in the traits available. Most of the traits are "un-fun" in the sense that they may be powerful, but add nothing to the gameplay experience. And then there are some traits that, in my opinion, are great mostly because they're contextual - for example, the trait that increases attack when under 50% health, or the trait that gives +3move and initiative on first round of combat.

The step forward is to add mutually exclusive traits. Why is having mutually exclusive traits important? Because it prevents the user from building glass-cannons, super-tanks or units with huge utility from different abilities.

I would suggest that instead of 3 traits of any kind, you remove those, and add 3 "groups" of traits. The unit design will still contain 3 traits, but can only have one from each group. If you choose Muscle from Group 1, you can't have any other from Group 1.

Group 1: Offensive traits: These are traits that specifically boost the offensive nature of the unit, or unlock new melee/archer abilities.

Muscle - +3 strength.

Veteran - +2 accuracy.

Untouchable - Unlocks a special ability with normal damage that cannot be counter-attacked

Desert Ambusher - When this unit is attacking an enemy army in a desert tile, this unit gains 40% damage for its first melee/bow attack

Push - Unlocks a special ability. The unit pushes forward into an enemy unit, forcing them away from their tile unless they resist. The push deals an attack at 75% of normal strength.

Heart of the Zerg - When this unit outnumbers any other humanoid unit it is attacking (including heroes), it deals 25% more damage

Mosterslayer - Works only against non-humanoid enemies. The damage of this unit increases the more damaged its target is. If enemy is missing 40% hitpoints, it deals 10% more damage. If enemy is missing 60%, it deals 15% more damage.

Berzerker - When this unit attacks, if the attack is not dodged, this unit gains 10% attack and loses 5% defense for 3 turns. This bonus stacks, but the duration does not increase. When the duration expires, attack and defense returns to normal.

Heart of Fire - Unit gains +3 fire damage for each fire shard owned at the time of completing training. Costs mana.

Slayer - When fighting against an enemy with higher level, this unit gains 20% damage.

Group 2: Defensive traits: These are traits that specifically boost the defensive nature of the unit, or unlock new defensive abilities.

Constitution - +3 constitution (constitution scales well with level-ups)

Hitpoints - +2 hitpoints (hitpoints does not scale at all with level-ups)

Lucky - When attacked, 50% of suffered critical hits will turn into normal hits

Of the People - When defending any city, gain +2 accuracy and another 0.5 per citylevel

Mountainpeople - When this unit is occupying Hills terrain or Mountainside, gain 20% defense

Never Die - This unit always has 1 higher troopcount than it should from suffered on damage. A 6-man unit that has suffered 50% damage would normally have 3 men, with this trait it will have 4.

Aura of Fire - When any enemy attacks this unit, the enemy unit suffers fire damage equal to its troopcount*3. Costs mana.

Counter-attack - unit may counter-attack once per turn, but deals only 30% damage with that counter-attack

Fireborn - Ignores 33% fire damage, cold damage deals 20% more

Fated - If this unit is killed in combat, it is returned to life with 1 hitpoints and Escapes combat. This can only occur once in the unit's existence. (tooltip needs to tell whether it has happened already) Costs mana.

Group 3: Tertiary traits: Traits that can impact everything in a unit, but does so in a far less dramatic manner.

Spellresist - gain 3 spellresistance.

Healing - unit re-gains 1 extra hitpoint per turn in strategic mode

Garrison Training - When stationed in a city, this unit has a 25% chance to gain 1 experience per strategic turn. This does not stack with similar bonuses from city Improvements.

Underpaid - Unit wage is reduced by 20%. When stationed in a city, this unit has a 25% chance to lose 1 experience per strategic turn. This cannot cause the unit to lose a level.

Animosity - (Fallen only) When this unit is in Kingdom environment, it gains 10% attack and defense

Animosity - (Kingdom only) When this unit is in Empire environment, it gains 10% attack and defense

It is important to understand that these traits may also vary greatly in their cost. They do not need to be perfectly balanced against each other, indeed they cannot be, since many are contextual.

Suggestion 2 - Rock, Paper, Scissors

First, the game needs a basic rock paper scissors mechanic. That means something like this, with bonuses around 10-20%:

- Spears deal extra damage against mounted units

- Mounted units deal extra damage against archer units and a little against two-handed units

- Archer units deal extra damage against spear units and two-handed units

- Two-handed units deal extra damage against spears and shield units

- Shield units are super-strong against avoiding archer attacks and spear damage

(if a mounted unit equips a shield or a two-handed weapon or a shield, it doesn't gain those bonuses - it's still mounted before all)

Note that these are in addition to the already existing damage and armor types in FE.

But now the good bit, which is also why this thread is in two suggestions. When a "unit design" equips these things, he will ALSO gain the option of additional traits from the groups above that are ONLY accessible because he's holding a particular weapon, shield or mount. Note that these groups are the same as above, so you can't choose both a weapon trait and one of the other ones listed under Suggestion 1. These traits further enhance unit strengths, or remedy weaknesses.

Group 1: Offensive traits:

(Spear) Spear Wall - Unlocks ability that can be used instead of attacking. Unit gains +1 counter-attack that deals 60% of normal damage until next turn.

(Two-handed) Shieldbreaker - Any strike against a unit with a Shield ignores all defensive properties the shield gives.

(Mounted) Trample - When attacking an unmounted unit without shield or spear, this unit deals 50% more damage.

(Shield) Return the favour - When this unit has been attacked, it will gain 15 accuracy against that particular unit for its next attack

(Archer) Hail of Arrows - Unlocks an ability that allows the unit to attack at 50% increased attack, but 33% less accuracy

Group 2: Defensive traits:

(Spear) Foothold - Always deals counter-attack against mounted units. Such attacks deal 60% of normal damage

(Two-handed) Sweeping Strikes - When attacking an enemy, will also deal 25% damage to any other adjacent enemy unit

(Shield) Defend - Unlocks ability that can be used instead of attacking. Unit gains 100% defense and 10 more ranged dodge

(Shield) Shieldwall - Any enemy unit that is adjacent to this unit, but attacking another unit, will have 25% of its damage transferred to this unit

(Mounted) Pressing Body - As long as this unit is not Outnumbered by its attacker, this unit gains 25% more blunt defense against unmounted humanoid units

(Archer) Skirmisher - When this unit is attacked, but manages to dodge all attacks, this unit will also move one tile away from the attacker

Group 3: Tertiary traits:

(Mounted) Charge - Gain +1 movement first turn in combat

(Spear) Quick position - +10 initiative but -1 movement first turn in combat (allows unit to reposition quickly before combat begins)

And that's it. The TL;DR here is, that the game should introduce two new systems. First, the game should support mutually exclusive traits. Second, the game should be tuned to a rock, paper, scissors type game, where additional traits available from particular roles increase strengths or decrease weaknesses.