Slitherine

The topic title says it all.
The tutorial is neat, but when it comes to teaching how the game works, it does a piss poor job. The manual is a joke and it would be very generous to even call it a getting started guide.
In this respect, the UI is also a total failure as the tooltips - where there are any - are completely devoid of any helpfulness.

I got through the tutorial just fine, and also through most of the first orc mission, but in the end, I was unable to beat it. And I don't really know why.
Throughout the mission, I have noticed some of my units appear to be more effective against certain other units ... but I have no idea why. Combat predictions are all over the place, and I'm puzzled by things like getting a kill prediction of 10 when the enemy unit is only 4 units strong ... and when my attack actually only kills a single point of strength, this doesn't make things any clearer.
I've also had a full strength unit make an attack with 0 losses predicted ... and *poof* disappear into thin air. It didn't explode, I think the enemy didn't even fire a shot, it just disappeared. Is that a bug or somehow intentional? I have no idea.
For most of the mission, I quasi-randomly picked units with good predictions and tried to pick off the Orc units. More often than not, this worked.
In the end, with no full-unit losses until this point, most of my army surrounded that last orc unit fortrified in the southeast. The one with 40 strength. And I just couldn't put a dent in it. My artillery shells bounced off of it. My tanks barely caused any damage. Most other units had horrific combat predictions, like -1/-18. In the end, I attacked anyway, because turns were running out. My infantry was obliterated. My tanks mostly failed to do any damage. Mechanized vehicles made suicidal attacks to little effect. In the end, that unit had still more than 30 strength left when the scenario ended.

So, could someone please give me a primer on how to beat the mission and on what to look for in units and so on?
Thanks in advance.
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rezaf

This message appears at the start of every mission, it is especially important for the more complicated mission assignments as the one you are playing.



To recall this message at any time, this button in the bottom right part of the UI will bring up your objectives to be re-read if necessary.



As mentioned here, your goal is not to destroy that Warboss, but merely to surround him with units. As I recall, he fires off a message prompt with Voice Acting when you move your first unit within adjacency to him, as an indicator you are on the right track. He's tough as nails if you disobey your orders and attack him outright, but he's nice enough to oblige you if you follow your mission orders and surround him instead.

drop the difficulty down until you feel a bit better at it, or re do the tutorials again as it does help, then maybe play the same battle a few times and see what you have learnt

Lol, I guess I'm getting to the age where one shouldn't keep playing when he's tired and should rather go to bed.

I actually did read the briefing, but had to abandon the playthrough (save the game), do some chores, then I browsed these very forums and only then did I return to playing the level ... and I'd forgotten about the specifics. Thanks for the polite question to a rather idiotic question Kerensky, and my apologies for asking it in the first place.
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rezaf

we all did the same, it's one of those mission like a few in the game that can have you pulling your hair out, the i key is your friend and tbh gets used a lot...

i like it later in a different mission when you do 98+% of a mission and told you have failed it, as you forgot what you main mission was and just happy to go about shooting Orc's when tbh you should be doing something else

rezaf wrote:Lol, I guess I'm getting to the age where one shouldn't keep playing when he's tired and should rather go to bed.

I actually did read the briefing, but had to abandon the playthrough (save the game), do some chores, then I browsed these very forums and only then did I return to playing the level ... and I'd forgotten about the specifics. Thanks for the polite question to a rather idiotic question Kerensky, and my apologies for asking it in the first place.
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rezaf

Not at all a problem.

In fact, mission objective explanation, especially complex ones that go beyond 'smash all enemy grab all VH' or ones that changed during the course of the mission, was a major sore point during BETA testing. We really tried to improve visibility and presentation of mission objectives in more ways than one.

I lost the last mission of the tutorial because I went ork hunting and forgot to grab the last victory hex :/
For some future release maybe you could thing of adding a list of objectives and check mark the finished ones before every turn, maybe below the turn number display? this would help especially if you dont play the whole mission on one go or the objectives change.

Heh I lost the last training mission too, I'd entered the hexes but hadn't occupied them for the Aquila to appear.

I just assumed they were captured. Nerp. Loss!

Sometimes the objective markers can be somewhat obscure. I lost most of my battalion during the Legio Metallica escort mission. It said bring the Titan to the Victory Hex 'Warning - do not put other units near the hex' so I deployed around the hex. Suddenly Gargants. Blapblapblap heavy losses. I'd assumed it was a warning not to put stuff on/around the vicinity of the hex. Turns out it meant don't even attempt to go south towards to the hex. Just fling the Titan at the hex.

I think more specifically clear instructions, or ways to avoid instant and unescapeable loss would be great. The warning of the Gargants arrival was at the endturn, if you give players maybe 2 turns after to flee the area....

Plus change the Victory Hexes to be very visually distinct when capture, the small Aquila or Ork Icon at the bottom can be lost in all the UI quite easily.

Still, minor points to be sure It was kind of fun to roleplay the massive casualties when the Reaver was lost.

Ive just played a mission where objectives change. I had to capture 4 or 5 hexes and when I killed some artillery on a hill Ive got a pop-up saying that I have to retreat I think at least 5 units to the right edge of the map. After a few turns I didn't know how many exactly so I pressed the "i" button. Problem is it still displayed only the original objectives. I'm not sure if this was a one time glitch.

Mission updates not changing the re-callable display is a cause for concern, yes you are correct on that!

Beetlelord wrote: Plus change the Victory Hexes to be very visually distinct when capture, the small Aquila or Ork Icon at the bottom can be lost in all the UI quite easily.

I also found this quite difficult to determine. Something more obvious (such as a different colour when you/the Orcs hold an objective) would be great.

When the objective changes, maybe we can add a map marker, like A or B.