The pack attack.. where every unit in hiting range, hits.. Its completely unbalanced. Destroys any tactical game-play, and ultimately makes armor and heroes useless. Get my hero surrounded by 3-4 enemy units. Normally if I have the right spells, or HP pots, I can tank them.. not anymore.
Thats not just 3-4 times I'm getting hit, thats 16 times or more I'm getting hit. Each doing all 4 of their damage.. thats insane amounts of damage being thrown around. I dont have time to heal or use an HP pot as a saving grace, or an attempt to retreat, they 1 shot my hero with sometimes up to a whomping 80 damage on a lvl 5 hero.
To keep your hero safe you have to bring your glass cannon fodder soldiers to the front, and coddle your hero like he's a newborn all game, or you'll run the chance of him getting 1-2 shot and having permanent stat reductions.
With the current "pack attack" system, there is no tactical sense, no chance or time to do any strategic thinking, or using spells at just the right time. Its "throw everything you got in 1 push". No thinking required. Do you have more units? you won!
It should not be "He who has more soldiers wins" It should be "He who has the most tactical sense wins". Whats the use of having tactical spells when the only real time you get to use them usually is the first few turns before everything on the map is getting 1 shot?
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That being said, it also destroys any fun in the matches, as there is only 2 ways to fight.
Either A) Create nothing but horsemen with the +3 movement +3 attack skill and rush everything on the first turn and completely decimate the enemy army. (This is basically an auto win on everything, no matter what).
Or B ) Move your units up 1 by 1 right next to each other.. Which is boring. Its basically 1 wall of soldiers, and even then the battles always focus from middle outward to get the most hits in possible.
And again its ALWAYS, who ever has the most soldiers.. wins.. Since even having 1 extra squad, can ultimately net you hundreds of extra damage output. Which is just over-kill.
A -good- battle mechanic for a game will allow the said person to have a chance at coming back if he plays his cards right, this cannot happen with the current swarming mechanic, at all, even if its nerfed down, unless its nerfed down to the point where its pretty much pointless. In which case, why even have it? A -good- Battle mechanic will allow a person losing a chance to come back, and not simply due to 1 magical lucky crit, but playing his cards right and working the battlefield. Again, cannot happen if your losing in its current state.
9/10 of the battles currently were won or lost before the battle even started. This is not a good battle system for a game.
Edit: Ok so I had the "Swarm" mechanic wrong of how it works, however, it DOES essentially work exactly how I described it above, minus every one getting its attack dmg in. Otherwise, nothing in my post changes.
Edit 2: I do want to say, I agree that the swarm attack mechanic -can- work. But its certainly not adding anything strategic or fun to the battles in its current state for most people. Its all about glass cannons, and having more squads.. thats it.. Thats not strategy. Thats a hallway attack with no room for strategy.
Edit 3: This is something someone said below, and my response is exactly what I'm talking about, of how this sort of mechanic strips your ability to win when you otherwise could.
Quoting petrasvu, reply 16
I think its fine. If your hero gets surounded with 5 stacks of units (while he is lvl 5 besides ???) then:
1. You atacking not your match...
2. You are not doing strategy at battle: block some enemies with other units you have, use bashes to spred them a bit or impale to reduce numbers in stacks. Its realy easy to controll battle and swarm is fine. By the way defender hero realy can hold 3 stacks of skeletons with guard skill and healing spell (or pots).
My Response:
Your assuming I'm not already doing this. Which I am.
5 stacks of units my Hero can 1 hit. Normally, each one of them wouldn't be able to kill me. They are at half strength. My Hero has high initiation, which means for every 1 move of them, I can attack next.
So what happens?
Swarm attack happens, and they 1 shot my hero.
What would have happened if there wasn't swarm attack?
Squad 1 Attacks, my hero takes damage.
My hero moves, and kills them
Squad 2 attacks, my hero takes damage.
My hero moves, kills them,
Rinse and repeat, while throwing in a heal once or twice.
See the issue here?
