Mind if I riff a bit on that bad boy?
"Cyclopean Vanguard"
300 Gold (*Only Deployed at a Giant Cave )
6 hours / league
1 x 600
15% saving throw to all mortal units in an army with the Vanguard (including the vanguard)
Before combat takes place, the Cyclopean Vanguard makes a single Strength 250 attack.
Want to see a case study of Elves in progress in Nightmare Iron Crown?
Enchantress every 12 hours followed by 8 witches and 2 eldgermages making ridiculous amounts of mana for my Ent party to dominateā¦ just have to wait 2 weeks now for all the zombies to come unless a dev wants to just go ahead and award a win 
As long as King and Queen zombie arenāt out, this is a ridiculous combo - donāt think I should be able to hold my own in that kind of situation.
Thatās nice. Iāve been in a game like that before (well, maybe a little less out of control than that). It is hugely satisfying if you manage to win though, and the only way that is even possible is through some of the symbiotic relationships like you are taking advantage of. Those are the moments that can be abused in a lesser game, but make me very thankful of them in a game like yours.
On another note, I saw there were no towns left, but two open player slots being advertised. I clicked join to see what would happen and I actually joined the game (out over the upper left ocean). Interesting. I canāt do anything, and I didnāt actually mean to be here, so I sent you what resources I actually had and I guess I will wait out the ending (thankfully Iām premium and donāt have to worry about losing the game slot).
I wish you the best of luckā¦ it looks like youāre going to need it.
I agree about needing the luck. I now see (since I joined the game) that you only have 9 ents there. A bad roll on the saving throw (even at a fraction of a percent) and you lose an ent. After so many battles, I think you going to end up being whittled away.
Well, this is what I was trying to say when people were telling me 36 mana was too much for the Storm guy. Its not that hard to get that much mana rolling!
Love it.
Also very cool.
This map is a very extreme case. You basically have every living unit on the map in a single town. Besides that Iāve also pointed how OP the Eldermages can be; they probably actually need to be tuned back a bit. Dark forest witches also fall on the little more powerful than average side.
Its a bit of a different thing between the Elves and Humans (by design, obviously). The elves have a relative bounty of spellcasters, so when the Eldermage comes out, he can create an obscene amount of mana, which then in turn is used by the other spellcasters, who then in turn help generate more mana. Its a neat trick when in works, but its really not that hard to set up. One Eldermage in the backfield and two spellcasters within three leagues, and you are well on your way.Place a seconf Eldermage in the vacinity and it gets wonky.
On the other end are the Humans, who dont have an easy way to generate mana besides mana pools and valour. This makes mana a much more precious resource for the humans.
Honestly, a Stormfriar equivalent in an Elf deck probably works with 30+ mana, simply because its not that hard for Elves to get mana.
A simple nerf for the Eldermage is to remove the distance aspect to his power, make it only those in his stack. It makes it still super useful, but does take away its uber-utility quite a bit.
Well yes, but thats where the games co-op is supposed to start coming in handy. One player elf, one player human "
Ah ha! Thatā¦ makes a lot of sense.
So maybe think about taking this to its logical extreme? I mean, the problem with the Stormfriar is that his effect is localized, so we (players) tend to think locally. Its also hard to eke out a lot of any one resource from a cooperative group. Mana, in particular, in my experience, is the most difficult resource to accumulate in numbers even with cooperative allies.
The idea that you have to get resources to power an effect isnt how I have been looking at the gameās design thus far. I shall alter my approach accordingly.
What about global effects? Big stuff. Stuff that would take mana/gold/valour well in excess of 30+? Have you experimented with that at all beyond the named Immortals? Give the factions something big to work towards,
Alright next up ā the Hydra.
This one is easy, it stinks that it is so limited in its movement. It is a wonderfully powerful unit in general, but its utility is super limited.
Why not give it the option to move at some interminably slow speed over non-marsh/swamp? Something like 8 hours/league? This makes its cost a lot easier to swallow, and generally follows the Trollās lumbering pace.
More thoughts ā
Little Wizard. He needs a nerf. Iād suggest a 30 minute cooldown per card in the playerās hand. As it is, its not hard to get out a 1000 power nuke at range for a measly 6 mana and a 12 hour cooldown. That can be huge.
Of course, if the push is to get players to purchase hero coins to buy cards ā mission accomplished. But I have seen him break a game simply by using the meta and holding 20+ cards in a players hand.
A 30 minute cooldown makes it so the player has an interesting shoice to make. Keep it at the 5 cards and do a respectable 250 damage with a mere 2.5 hour cooldown, or go big, massacre a giant zed stack, but then the Little Wizard goes into a long cooldown cycle.
Little Wizard: Posible alternate solution, make it cost 1 mana per card.
normal 5 cards for 5 mana
10 cards for 10 mana which is the same cost as dwarf cannons.
The cooldown seems fine as they canāt do the reinforcement trick
I like this solution. There is no code for being able to change the mana based on the size of the power, but I might have a think about adding it.
Honestly, I have a million little ideas rolling around in my headā¦ but I trust youāll do whatās best for the game and bring discussions to the forums when you need other ideas.
Feel free to post those ideas! Iād love to read them. Even if I donāt have time to comment on every one.
(Also: I donāt always make the right decision first time )
One thought that I had on powers was to for some units make the ability āfreeā but use a āreloadā cost in mana or else require a ālongā rest. For example Elven Archers ability might be free to use the first time with a 24 HR cool-down. you could use it again before then, but it might cost 4 mana and reset the 24 HR rest timer.
Of course you could continue to use it over and over again, but each time the costs would become slightly higher, 6 mana to reload the second time, 8 for the third, 10 for the fourth, etc until the player decided to wait the full cool-down of 24 HR to reset back to a āfreeā shot with a 4 mana āreloadā.
I like the idea because it creates a āstressā level for the units. Youāre required to dis-engage them for a longer period of time to get them rested, but in the heat of combat you might decide to keep āburningā mana as a resource to gain a short term tactical edge.
10 Mana for the Blunderbussās current damage is too much. Feels like a giant waste of mana compared to the 500 Rng Dmg the Artillery can dish out. Would like its mana cost in the 4-5 Mana range.
(Also, is Artillery meant to generate as much Valor/Mana as it deals in damage? I can often do infinite Artillery because each Artillery shot spends 10 Mana & generates 5 Valor, then I cash in 10 Valor for 20 Mana.)