Slitherine

For those players (like me) who have gotten infuriated at times with the crap heroes I got throughout a DLC campaign, this tidbit of a trick is for you (in case you haven't thought of it yourself already).

I always play with Killer Team and have gotten really good starting three (or four if continuing a new DLC with an imported core) only to get absolute garbage thereafter. It always made me wonder: "If I only knew what would have come throughout the rest of the campaign..." Same goes for a just "okay" starting four; Maybe the real goodies were waiting in between the later scenarios?

For those who don't already know (who this post is largely aimed at), when you begin a campaign all of your heroes are already decided for each map at the outset. That's why if you were to reload, you will always get the same one at the beginning of each map. So...how to know if your set collectively will be any good without spending all that time playing a dozen maps before finding out?

You use this cheat to "scout out" the hero list:

runany Victory 0

(Instantly triggers victory in the current scenario and proceeds to the next campaign scenario.)

Copy it and pasted it at the beginning of each map and then move on to the next scenario and repeat. But before you do, save the file!! If you do this multiple times, each one will require a unique name, like I used "Seville (turn 0)a," and "Seville (turn 0)b." Keep track of them to determine if overall it is one that you are going to be satisfied with. Yes, it is still annoying, but not as bad as spending hours of play time deep into a campaign to find out you've gotten absolute shit.

I guess it is a sort of cheating in a way, but also not cheating in cherry-picking your heroes and still allows a randomness and craziness that in my experience is unavoidable even when using this "scouting" method.

In my testing, you can get a wide variety of quality heroes, but understand that even with the best of lists there is going to be some crap included. It isn't going to be "well-balanced" by any means.

Hope this helps bring some sanity for those you were wishing for it but didn't want to outright cheat.

A second 'trick' you can try: switch between colonel and general.
You get a different hero depending on difficultly.
Major tracks colonel, and higher tracks general.

dalfrede wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:50 pm A second 'trick' you can try: switch between colonel and general.
You get a different hero depending on difficultly.
Major tracks colonel, and higher tracks general.

I have never played below "General" (the middle difficulty). Is that maybe why I've never seen a Rapid Fire 2x hero given to me randomly? Not even in the vanilla game. Or am I misunderstanding what you mean?

Me personally, I do part take in the ritual to 'start' with some good hero power by rerolling my Killer Team a few times. As long as I'm off to a good start, I'm fine to let the dice land where they will after that.

My main save file is somewhere on the tail end of 1940 and while it sucks to have 3 or 4 First Aid Heroes and still no Envelopment Overwhelming Attack combo and no Double Attackers....

I do have several zero slot and reduced slot and ignore entrenchment. It's definitely influenced my force quite a bit, which is a good thing. For example, I use more non-Pioniere infantry because almost all of them ignore entrenchment anyways.
I like to play with Overstrength a lot, so all those slot reducer heroes fits me very well too.

adiekmann wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 9:48 pm Is that maybe why I've never seen a Rapid Fire 2x hero given to me randomly? Not even in the vanilla game. Or am I misunderstanding what you mean?

I have never seen a Quad Gun [2x] hero randomly either.
The switching between Colonel and General gives you a regular random hero, not necessarily better, just different.

when u get a random u dont want, ditch him and type "cheat NewHero" in chat to get a new random hero. way more convinient than scouting 15+ maps

adiekmann wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 9:48 pm

dalfrede wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:50 pm A second 'trick' you can try: switch between colonel and general.
You get a different hero depending on difficultly.
Major tracks colonel, and higher tracks general.

I have never played below "General" (the middle difficulty). Is that maybe why I've never seen a Rapid Fire 2x hero given to me randomly? Not even in the vanilla game. Or am I misunderstanding what you mean?

I got two Rapid Fire 2x heroes right after the game was released. I am certain it used to be possible but isn't anymore.

If you check Horsemans AAR, Herr Pferdman rides again, here in forums you can see one of the heroes from Killer Team is Rapid Fire 2x.

Jase79 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:50 pm I got two Rapid Fire 2x heroes right after the game was released. I am certain it used to be possible but isn't anymore.

If you check Horsemans AAR, Herr Pferdman rides again, here in forums you can see one of the heroes from Killer Team is Rapid Fire 2x.

The default armies in AO39, AO40, AO**, all include a 2x hero.
The random hero list is imbedded in the game and does change from time to time.

The 'cheat NewHero' does not use the list for random heroes.

Grondel wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:49 am when u get a random u dont want, ditch him and type "cheat NewHero" in chat to get a new random hero. way more convinient than scouting 15+ maps

Yeah, I did that before but still felt guilty like I was cheating. This method was something in between. Your suggestion also gave me an overpowered hero list which also seemed unnatural. I am not trying to avoid any and all lesser quality heroes; that's part of the game as Kerensky was saying. But I also grew frustrated at times when I got a really lousy group of them too. I applaud those who play "1 hero per unit limit" or even no heroes. I think this game would be pretty difficult at medium or higher difficulty if you did. And yes, I know there are those who have done it and like that level of challenge. I'm just not one of them.