KickStarter The Legends of Eisenwald Thread

[Darth Roxor]

How about Zmiter's motivation for helping us though?

Dun remember. But considering that some of his "help" includes throwing your honour into the dirt, I think he might just be getting a kick out of it

 

[Erikolaz]

I wanted to complete the Masquerade campaign, but the quests keeps breaking, and I don't want to restart for a 3rd time.

Can someone spoil me on the plot? What happened to the Baron, and was there any relevance to the main campaign?

 

[RoBoBOBR]

The addon will definitely come out in April

 

[Darth Roxor]

such is life in the zone

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

Things are slow especially with the new Steam approval process. Translation is also slow. We were pushing for this Monday (everything is ready) but Steam approval wasn't there. It will be next Monday though for sure! Steam and GOG and biggest LoE discount!

 

[Modron]

Standalone expansion out on steam and gog now buy it.

https://af.gog.com/game/bastard?as=1649904300

Base game and Blood of November are also heavily discounted at the moment as well.

 

[Ippolit]

Hi, i bought Eisenwald due to the sale but i am not happy with some of the fonts. The descriptions are hard to read. What can i do to improve the quality?

 

[Invictus]

Just got the game in the GOG sale, looks pretty good and seems the expansions make for a much polished experience... any suggestions for first time players?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Just got the game in the GOG sale, looks pretty good and seems the expansions make for a much polished experience... any suggestions for first time players?

Knights are a decent choice for the first time. Pay attention to what rumours and stories you listen to in taverns, they'll be of use sooner or later. If there's a hard fight that's stopping you dead, consider hiring a mercenary or two. They cost upkeep so don't keep them around indefinitely unless you can manage the upkeep.
Bandits may end taking over allied territory, which is a good pretext to move in, liberate that territory and claim it in your name.

 

[hilfazer]

Just got the game in the GOG sale, looks pretty good and seems the expansions make for a much polished experience... any suggestions for first time players?

Everyone gets XP as time passes. Everyone except your party. You are special. If you take your sweet time enemies will become stronger. It has it benefits since harder fights grant more XP but if a battle becomes too hard you may need to hire mercenaries (who will drain that extra XP as well as money).
Not all units are available for recruitment from day one. Some are unlocked later.

Day starts at 6:00 and ends at 21:00. Prices during night are unfavourable to you so do any trading during day.
Prices differ between shops and in case of items you sell they depend heavily on item category.
Shops reset at 9:00. Their selection isn't randomized (or maybe it's randomized at the start of the map).
Mercenaries take their daily wages at 9:00.

Hire a healer if not two. You'll be spending less money on healing and more on items.
Don't be afraid to buy cheap items in the beginning of the game. Every little bit counts and cheap items have pretty good power/price ratio.
Buy defensive items so you don't have to heal that much. Getting hit for more than 1/2 HP gives a wound. Wounds are not only a debuff in combat but also can only be healed in churches so they drain your money.
The higher unit's willpower the more healing it receives and the cheaper healing this unit is. Good thing to have.
Initiative is another good thing to have, it helps pretty much everyone, even spearmen once they learn Counterattack. Baroness with a bow doesn't want it, she actually wants to lower her ini so a priest can buff her before her turn
Healers usually want to be fast but sometimes having them move after some enemies took their turn can save your unit.
And there's damage. Since damage in this game isn't randomized it can matter a lot but it can also matter little. It's not bad to have damage but i prefer a defensive approach.
Pay attention to armor and weapon types.

Now, weapons:
Swords are for their initiative, you use them on tanks. You want ini on tanks so you can move them forward early and force enemies to attack them. Not that many units use swords, mostly nobility do, so your 'tank' will either be a knight hero or esquire (or better). Sword also have counterattack but it will deal 5 damage vs any enemy that matter so it's not a game changer.
Axes ignore 50% of armor, that's a lot. Be wary of enemy axemen. High ini helps your axemen kill enemies before they move but if your team is tough enough you can consider dumping their ini.
Spears do a free (weaker than normal) attack against approaching enemies who don't flank spearman. 'Wait' function can be useful for low level spearmen, high level spearmen will use Counterattack. Counterattack is brutal.
Maces debuff target's ini and damage. You want high ini on your stunners so they can stun enemies before they attack. Maces work well for healing heavy parties.
Crowbills - i didn't use them. I guess those are good vs guys with tons of armor but you can do well by stunning them and using axes/xbows.
Bows - 2 attacks deal lots of damage but also suffer twice as much from target's armor. If i were to use archer i'd have 2 of them so they can drop someone before he acts.
Crossbows - much less ini than bows, less damage but with 50% armor piercing they are 4 times better at getting through armor. If i had one ranged unit i'd make it an crossbowman to help my melee getting through enemy front line.
Halberds - 2h axes with 70% armor penetration. They will not be available to you very early but your enemies may use them. So beware!

There are other weapon types but they appear later.


Night reduces initiative, willpower and ranged damage. If your enemy has lots of ranged power consider fighting at night. Sieging is usually better done during night.
Less willpower means less healing but getting much less ranged damage can be worth it. I tend to go light on ranged units to have an edge at night.
Nocturnal Combat makes unit ignore nighttime debuffs. It can be gained through potions and, later, passively via equipment.

Most potions are waste of time. But they can be used to skip a turn and save your unit from walking into enemy's spear

Ranged units have damage penalties when shooting over 3 hexes. It can be beneficial to put your units further from enemy archers. If you use 'Wait' your own ranged units will be able to do full damage to enemy's melee.

Some specific items to keep an eye on:
Fortified Heater Shield - reduces armor penetration by half.
Bascinet - lowers stun by 1 level. Most stuns are light so they'll be removed completely.
Spiked Mace - mace with medium stun. One of the best weapons in the game and it can be obtained already in 2nd map.
Protection from Arrows - +5 ranged defense, so 10 less damage from bows. Priests refuse to equip it so it has to be some witchcraft.
Winged Spear - while killing with Counterattack is the best thing that can happen some enemies will refuse to die from it and hit you. This spear lowers damage taken considerably.
st. George amulet - Good for anyone. Priests accept it and it's hard to increase their ranged defense.


Talents:
Commander tree - good stuff. Cohesion works for everyone, not just for the hero. Siege Master works better than description suggest (which is good as it would be meh otherwise). Extra unit, while (generally) not as tremendous as in Disciples, is very good.
Feudal tree - it delays better stuff, avoid.
Class tree - if you play as baroness fill Commander tree first. Mystic may rush it for ghost summoning. Not sure what a knight should do, Commander tree is great but there's really good 2h weapon on 5th map. Horses kick ass but they are unavailable during sieges.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Interesting reading there hilfazer

I've just started this game, I'm on the second map, the one after the prologue/tutorial map. I got a little bit side-tracked and found myself just wandering about killing random red armies, like peasants, woods brothers, gangs & angry beggers etc & hit upon some brainaches regarding some mechanics. If someone could explain the following it would be great:

1) Is healing a bad idea? There seems to be no way to get ahead of the curve by taking on these small mobs, the healing always costs more than the reward. As a result, even without mercenaries, I can't turn a profit. Should I be avoiding the grind trash or should I be avoiding healing... somehow?

2) Is levelling up my army worth it? Or should I just let them die and then recruit someone better down the line? Also relates to the cost of healing versus the cost of purchasing a new unit; & if you go for a recruit rather than heal policy, do unit locations constantly restock units or do they only have so many before they're permanently out of stock for the rest of the game?

3) How does gold income work? I got two villages and a mill while pissing about, resulting in my gold being "+50", but I never noticed my gold going up. what does the +50 relate to? Is it per day? Per month? Per year? Do I have to collect it from somewhere or is it automatic?

I guess I'm kind-of liking the game at the moment, but I can't help but feel that the tutorial has left out some really quite important information. I'm also surprised, from reading this thread rather than from any in-game info, that the world gains exp while the world turns whereas you don't if you just stand there and don't do anything, which is a bit annoying for someone who hates timed games and prefers to piss around a lot in games. You'd think this would be fairly crucial base-mechanics info for a tutorial...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Gold income is per day. If you're too worried about the world levelling up, hire some troops, garrison them and collect them later when they're levelled up.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Gold income is per day. If you're too worried about the world levelling up, hire some troops, garrison them and collect them later when they're levelled up.

Thanks for the reply, but you've raised more questions: how do you increase your army beyond 5/5? do garrisoned soldiers count towards your 5/5? How do you garrison armies without a castle?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Is levelling up my army worth it?

of course it is

like holy shit what kind of question is this my nigga

Is healing a bad idea?

you mean paying for it at churches and shit? it's p much necessary

you should get a healer girl to hedge the costs though

how do you increase your army beyond 5/5?

each castle you capture raises the army cap

do garrisoned soldiers count towards your 5/5?

nope

How do you garrison armies without a castle?

there are buildings like watchtowers or manors where you can leave dudes

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Is levelling up my army worth it?

of course it is

like holy shit what kind of question is this my nigga

Like I asked, is it better to buy a cheap guy & level him/her up or just flat-out buy a guy/gal already levelled up a bit. No-one goes to the next map, buying a new lvl 1 dude can be cheaper than healing a similar unit.

Like holy shit its a question about value for money in a strategy game my nigga...

 

[Darth Roxor]

Like I asked, is it better to buy a cheap guy & level him/her up or just flat-out buy a guy/gal already levelled up a bit.

if you can afford buying a better goy, buy him

but you always want to start with cheapo dudes and proceed to level them

 

[agris]

Darth Roxor how do i install ms office everytime i google it i just underlined blue text and lots of words?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Darth Roxor how do i install ms office everytime i google it i just underlined blue text and lots of words?

Close your eyes and you won't see the blue text anymore.

 

[Citizen]

1) Is healing a bad idea? There seems to be no way to get ahead of the curve by taking on these small mobs, the healing always costs more than the reward. As a result, even without mercenaries, I can't turn a profit. Should I be avoiding the grind trash or should I be avoiding healing... somehow?

Do it like it's HoMM or Disciples. When you fight trashmob just left one weak melee enemy alive, then just stay near him blocking for a few turns while healing your party. You can't block forever, but there are some abilities that let you skip turns without attacking. Or just plan the battle to maximize healing.

2) Is levelling up my army worth it? Or should I just let them die and then recruit someone better down the line? Also relates to the cost of healing versus the cost of purchasing a new unit; & if you go for a recruit rather than heal policy, do unit locations constantly restock units or do they only have so many before they're permanently out of stock for the rest of the game?

Yes. It's much easier with some high-level units.

3) How does gold income work? I got two villages and a mill while pissing about, resulting in my gold being "+50", but I never noticed my gold going up. what does the +50 relate to? Is it per day? Per month? Per year? Do I have to collect it from somewhere or is it automatic?

Collect it man, it's medieval ages, no way to transfer villagers' taxes to your credit card.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

So yeah, this is quite a fun game. Or, rather, it's a fun game struggling and fighting to get free from the quicksand of many little issues tugging it down every step of the way.

I've just started map 5 of 8/9 (9 being 8.5), and the game has that magical "just one more turn" vibe that all good strategy games should have, such as HoMM & AoW etc and each time I start a map I don't want to stop playing until I've finished the map. Itemisation is good as is levelling up your hero, much like the modern King's Bounty series. Troop variety is interesting and the different strengths and weaknesses of all the different weapon choices and specialisations gives this game something more unique to itself.

The main questing is both interesting and entertaining with lots of different ways to complete what you need to do without being overly-cryptic or obnoxious. Well, at least in so far as knowing what you have to or could do, actually going about achieving what you know you want to do might be a different story, but that's a different topic. Its mostly witty and tongue-in-cheek but without being cartoony or parody, it strikes a great balance here.

The quicksand? There's a lot of it, and it's this that makes it hard for me to reciprocately "play by the rules". It's this that makes it harder to restart the game after having a few hours break. It's this that makes it harder to just drop-in and play for a few spare hours rather than a huge session. An itemised list of the quicksand so far:

1) The difference between main quests and side quests. In game terminology: Quests and Notes.

There seems to be very little rhyme nor reason as to why some quest information is regarded as main while other quest information is regarded just as notes. In map 2, for example, there's a 'quest' in the main quest list that does not in any way affect your main quest. This should have been a notes quest (the skull and the non-existent 'South Gate'). Meanwhile, in map 3, you get swarms of information about a 'Swallow Tower' which all gets shuffled into the notes section, even though this tower becomes crucial to the main quest only a short while later. Perhaps because it was theoretically optional main quest questing, but there ya go.

And then there are pieces of information in the Notes section which don't actually have a quest attached, they are just lore dumps which relate to later either notes or quests, without being bundled with them. Further, main-quest scrolls get moved to the 'Done' section as soon as you complete them, whereas notes do not, they just stay in the wall of quests regardless of whether you've done everything you can with them. Because the notes are usually overly cryptic and obnoxious, it's doubly irritating having to reread all of the notes every 15 minutes to double check you haven't forgotten something relating to your current area, and that reread doesn't ever shrink from working through them.

This is also not helped by having practically all the notes quests be given to you all at once in a gigantic game-stopping lore-dump every time you enter an alehouse. There you are, bouncing along, building up a great rhythm of quest solving, combat and exploration when, WHAM, all of a sudden you have 5 to 10 fan-fiction cryptic stories to read through, no, plough through, each one seemingly a few pages longer than the last, most of which are full to the brim of flowery non-language and non-communication which usually results in a 2 line summary in your notes. And then that summery often doesn't even help you much.

Tbh, my reaction to this kind of retardation is simply to google the bits that make zero sense at the end of each map before moving on. Tbh, I'm not honestly that 'bothered' by spoilering myself on this kind of stuff in a strategy game. Prime example: Map 3, you're at the ferryman and, obviously, he needs a quest solved. This quest involves you looking for a needle in a haystack as a result of an alehouse lore-dump with fuck all relevant details: "go find the stash, it's on the map somewhere, bro!"... (don't forget, everything is a race against time in this game). I struggle up the side of a mountain (see later points) clicking furiously on any path that looks clickable, only to find that this path is just one of the gazillion red-herrings and just think "this is neither fun nor engaging, this 'puzzle' requires neither thought nor insight, its just wander round like Forest Gump until you get lucky", so I just googled the location then got on with the game. (Oh, and the location turned out to a major diversion into a mountain range I'd already visited three times and was already quite fed-up of re-visiting).

And this kind of shit happens again, and again, and again. In all kinds of weird and non-interesting variants. Map2: The aforementioned 'South Gate' that doesn't even exist in the game. Map 3, when you get a message about a rockfall in a specific spot, go solve the quest and return to the exact spot, only to find out that that spot is not where you need to be to solve the quest given to you on that spot. Google *sigh* google *sigh* google *sigh*.

2) Pathfinding generally is atrocious.

I don't know what it is, but the game simply doesn't register whether land is passable or not most of the time. You can click furiously on a specific spot and your horse wont go there. You move your camera a bit and zoom in and out a bit and, WHAM, suddenly your horse can now move into that pixel it couldn't previously. And, of course, for many of these needle in a haystack quests it's all about that pixel.

There is no clearly defined difference between passable land and non-passable land. It's usually just a matter of clicking furiously around an area that looks vaguely passable and then establishing a route based on whether a bunch of footfall arrows shows up as a result. The mouse pointer, a gauntlet, has a red X on it when you can't move somewhere and no X when you can. Except this doesn't actually work in practice and you wont be able to go to a click marked with no X and you will eventually find a path hidden in a pixel that had previously had a red X. I think it's to do with the isometric camera view being combined with a top-down map design. The polygons of the trees getting in the way of the ground pixels & etc (?).

You can be standing in the exact spot required for a quest and get nothing, then, just out of frustration, start clicking all round your horse and suddenly your horse will lurch forward one pixel and trigger the quest destination. Sometimes it can take three of four furious clicks sessions to get the horse to move the three or four crucial pixels forward. The movement is a basically in the HoMM format, but without a turn-based limit, and yet a 20 year old game had no issue with this kind of shit whereas this new game seems to think it's some kind of unfathomable quantum science.

3) Vanishing loot.

Just to make all the above even more nihilistic, the end result of a lot of these mind-numbing needle searches is some rare piece of loot. Sometimes great, but often just kinda-great. The hero, obviously, will wear all the great loot and carry it over all the maps. But the just kinda-great loot? That will usually be attached to your primary levelling lackeys. Who will then suddenly vanish after a map or two. Taking all their loot with them. So that 'quite interesting' ring of +1 this, +2 that and +% the other, that you spent probably half an hour of in-game time finding, might only be good for 10 minutes of game-time. 10 minutes where it might not even find use before you're teleported to the next map.

But, of course, you have no idea which half hour is waste and which is worthwhile. Not everything in a game should be or needs to worthwhile, but in this game this specific problem is suffering from being vastly exaggerated by the above two points.

So here I am, at the beginning of Map 5, looking at a relatively gigantic map full of content and instead of thinking "can't wait to get into that", I'm thinking "can't wait until I've recovered my stamina required to battle through the quicksand so I can get on with this otherwise enjoyable game".

 

[Darth Roxor]

Tbh, my reaction to this kind of retardation is simply to google the bits that make zero sense at the end of each map before moving on.

you must have huge problems with reading comprehension if the those things are "retardation" that "makes zero sense"

also, they are supposed to be secrets, and so are supposed to be semi-cryptic; you are blaming the game for yourself being too dumb to find them

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Tbh, my reaction to this kind of retardation is simply to google the bits that make zero sense at the end of each map before moving on.

you must have huge problems with reading comprehension if the those things are "retardation" that "makes zero sense"

also, they are supposed to be secrets, and so are supposed to be semi-cryptic; you are blaming the game for yourself being too dumb to find them

Quoting the developer:

The conversation with the Gravediggers was clear. But, I see that the Summary Notes beside the in-game map are less clear.

So, I print this out for the next person who may need the info.

Quest: Undead at the Graveyard in Way Home Scenario

Conversation:

Hero: So these are the feared undead! All I see are scavengers covered in grave dirt! From the smell of you, one could be forgiven for thinking you were the dead.
Bandit: Your worship, take pity on us! We are here against our will – our master ordered us to come here!
Hero: Who is he?
Bandit: A rich man from Quellburg! He didn't tell us his name, but he paid us well. We meet on the other side of the city bridge at an appointed time.
Bandit: There is a watchtower over there and a big stone not far from it. When the watchtower's shadow covers the stone he is always there, waiting for us.
Hero: Alright, I will check. If you have played me false, it will not go well for you.

Summary Note beside the Game Map:

The undead turned out to be gravediggers looting buried bodies. According to their words, they sell their finds to some rich man from Quellburg. He meets them by a large rock in the shadow of the watchtower near the south gate.

What "south gate"? On the map, the watchtower is shown with a "gate" or "door" on its south side. So, maybe the "south gate" refers to the watchtower "south gate" as shown on the map. However, in the 3D game environment, the watchtower does not have a south gate. Of course, Quellburg is to the south -- but, its North Gate faces the meeting place.

For what its worth.

Quoting the replies to the developer:

This quest really needs some kind of re-working. The quest log is so obscure. "South gate" that does not exist...

I think it's a translation thing. South gate, rock must mean the southern most bridge on the map - next to the guard tower. I was way unclear with this one.

yeah, that one took me forever. I was like "the south gate... of what?" I tried hanging out south of the graveyard at night fall, I tried to go around Quellberg to see if there was a tower down there...

I finished this one randomly. I was headed back to recapture the villages near my lands from bandits and trying to get there before the one village was occupied by multiple enemy forces at night and randomly found the guy hanging out near that watchtower.

And, no, even the conversation with the gravediggers was unclear: Over the bridge near Quellburg is all you have that's relevant, and that's a quarter of the map. The watchtower and stone bollocks is just that, complete bollocks. The summary note only recalls the bollocks & then adds in another completely new bollocks, that of the non-existent "South Gate".

The actual answer to the quest is:

Okay then, I just solved the thing. Well for those who wonder, it has nothing to do with a watchtower or the south gate of Quellburg (which by the way doesn't exist, the bridge is in the north of Quellburg). You just have to wait until DUST, not dawn, around 7pm, just in front of the house across the bridge in front of the city of Quellburg (the one near the deserted village).

Because "Google is your friend" is a meme for a reason.

And if you want to know where the retardation really lay, lets have a look at another dev quote regarding this 'quest':

Yes, our game requires some reading. If you look at your quest log, it will say that when a shadow of guard tower will cover the big stone, a man will be near that bridge. It will be around dawn, 6 or 7pm I think...

Because dawn is commonly found at the end of the day.... [not to mention the only reference to time you have for the quest is "at the appointed time", which means... anytime... which means it's non-information. Dur.]

 

[Citizen]

Tbh, my reaction to this kind of retardation is simply to google the bits that make zero sense at the end of each map before moving on.

you must have huge problems with reading comprehension if the those things are "retardation" that "makes zero sense"

also, they are supposed to be secrets, and so are supposed to be semi-cryptic; you are blaming the game for yourself being too dumb to find them

Quoting the developer:

The conversation with the Gravediggers was clear. But, I see that the Summary Notes beside the in-game map are less clear.

So, I print this out for the next person who may need the info.

Quest: Undead at the Graveyard in Way Home Scenario

Conversation:

Hero: So these are the feared undead! All I see are scavengers covered in grave dirt! From the smell of you, one could be forgiven for thinking you were the dead.
Bandit: Your worship, take pity on us! We are here against our will – our master ordered us to come here!
Hero: Who is he?
Bandit: A rich man from Quellburg! He didn't tell us his name, but he paid us well. We meet on the other side of the city bridge at an appointed time.
Bandit: There is a watchtower over there and a big stone not far from it. When the watchtower's shadow covers the stone he is always there, waiting for us.
Hero: Alright, I will check. If you have played me false, it will not go well for you.

Summary Note beside the Game Map:

The undead turned out to be gravediggers looting buried bodies. According to their words, they sell their finds to some rich man from Quellburg. He meets them by a large rock in the shadow of the watchtower near the south gate.

What "south gate"? On the map, the watchtower is shown with a "gate" or "door" on its south side. So, maybe the "south gate" refers to the watchtower "south gate" as shown on the map. However, in the 3D game environment, the watchtower does not have a south gate. Of course, Quellburg is to the south -- but, its North Gate faces the meeting place.

For what its worth.

Quoting the replies to the developer:

This quest really needs some kind of re-working. The quest log is so obscure. "South gate" that does not exist...

I think it's a translation thing. South gate, rock must mean the southern most bridge on the map - next to the guard tower. I was way unclear with this one.

yeah, that one took me forever. I was like "the south gate... of what?" I tried hanging out south of the graveyard at night fall, I tried to go around Quellberg to see if there was a tower down there...

I finished this one randomly. I was headed back to recapture the villages near my lands from bandits and trying to get there before the one village was occupied by multiple enemy forces at night and randomly found the guy hanging out near that watchtower.

And, no, even the conversation with the gravediggers was unclear: Over the bridge near Quellburg is all you have that's relevant, and that's a quarter of the map. The watchtower and stone bollocks is just that, complete bollocks. The summary note only recalls the bollocks & then adds in a new completely new bollocks, that of the non-existent "South Gate".

The actual answer to the quest is:

Okay then, I just solved the thing. Well for those who wonder, it has nothing to do with a watchtower or the south gate of Quellburg (which by the way doesn't exist, the bridge is in the north of Quellburg). You just have to wait until DUST, not dawn, around 7pm, just in front of the house across the bridge in front of the city of Quellburg (the one near the deserted village).

Because "Google is your friend" is a meme for a reason.

And if you want to know where the retardation really lay, lets have a look at another dev quote regarding this 'quest':

Yes, our game requires some reading. If you look at your quest log, it will say that when a shadow of guard tower will cover the big stone, a man will be near that bridge. It will be around dawn, 6 or 7pm I think...

Because dawn is commonly found at the end of the day....

I believe it's a translation issue. Google is not your friend, this thing is:

Spoiler

Finding solutions to quests and puzzles in internet kills enjoyment, and is one of the main reasons of the decline in games.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I believe it's a translation issue. Google is not your friend, this thing is:

Spoiler

Finding solutions to quests and puzzles in internet kills enjoyment, and is one of the main reasons of the decline in games.

So on the one hand you're saying the quests are indeed fucked for some translations, but on the other hand you still think it's decline to just google the answer so you can actually get on with playing the game?

I'm sorry, but...

 

[SausageInYourFace]

I remember that quest on the first map too, it was indeed confusing, I never figured it out. My solution: getting over it and doing something else, its just one shitty little sidequest so w/e.