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Preview RPG Codex Re-Preview: Legends of Eisenwald

Infinitron

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Tags: Alexander Dergay; Aterdux Entertainment; Legends of Eisenwald

Aterdux Entertainment's medieval strategy RPG Legends of Eisenwald was one of the first generation of Kickstarter RPG projects. Successfully funded all the way back in May 2012, Eisenwald ended up having a long and somewhat torturous development cycle, and despite a positive Codex preview in December 2012 and a Steam Early Access release in October 2013, it seems to have gradually fallen off our radar, seemingly another relic of the more optimistic early days of crowdfunding. But in spite of our disregard, Eisenwald's development has quietly soldiered on towards completion, and Aterdux leader Alexander Dergay never lost faith in us either. With the game now due to be released very soon, Alex provided esteemed Codex contributor Deuce Traveler with an Early Access key. His mission: to give the game a second look, and report his findings. Here's a snippet from Deuce's impressions:

'Time is, time was, time is past'. Ok, I admit that I was just looking for an excuse to use that famous quote, but time is the most significant concern you will have in this game. You will need to muster as large a force as you can in order to take down your opponents, but mercenaries have both an initial cost and a daily upkeep which you must be able to meet. Acquiring territory will provide your character with additional daily revenue, but you will need to pay for better mercenaries as the game progresses to take on your increasingly challenging foes. No amount of daily revenue will truly be able to feed your army's increasing appetite. For example, at the beginning of the game, I was able to get by with a couple of pitchfork-wielding peasants and a monk as part of my front line. The monk was especially resilient and able to deal some righteous damage to my sinful enemies. However, just a few hours later, my peasants and monks were no longer adequate against the enemies I was facing, despite their having gone up a couple of levels during their tenure. I found myself considering whether to hire a single higher level noble swordsman to replace them, but his daily cost was close to the three peasants' combined, and I was worried that he would not be enough to hold my front line along with the pikeman I had been using.

Since the game's difficulty was constantly increasing, I was initially unsure whether the enemies were scaling to my character's level or whether they were truly becoming tougher over time. At one point, just when I felt ready to destroy the forces occupying my family's fortress, I suddenly found my men and resources decimated by a random encounter that came out from the west, making me wonder if all random encounters from that moment on were going to be that difficult. Once again, Alexander Dergay provided an excellent explanation: "We had first the idea of scaling the enemies to a player's strength but we decided against it. So, yes, we try to keep everyone interested with harder battles by design. I think you probably ran into one of the two raubritters in the Way Home chapter. So, the enemy forces are the same but since the world is alive and even enemies have their own tasks, they grow in experience, including their garrisons. I personally think scaling the enemies is almost cheating... when you run into a tougher opponent, maybe it's best to avoid him at the moment and take him later on. For us on our own it gets increasingly difficult to balance the game since knowing how it all works makes combat seem sometimes too easy for us. We rely these days on feedback of players and we added those harder encounters after quite a few players told us they needed more and stronger enemies. There is even an achievement for beating two of those raubritters." Props to Alex - I haven't gotten the opportunity to kill robber barons since Darklands. As you can see, though, time is your enemy in this game. You have to take on some of those side quests, but you can't ignore threats for too long while doing so, because your enemy is also on the move and getting stronger.
Read the full article: RPG Codex Re-Preview: Legends of Eisenwald
 

Drowed

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Nice (and maybe a bit wordy) read. The game looks promising so far, let's see how it will be on release.

It reminds me of Expedition, somewhat, and that's a nice thing.
 

Deuce Traveler

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Thanks for posting this, Infinitron !

As stated in the article, Alexander Dergay was very approachable and has been quite the Codex bro with several of us members here that have had a dialogue with him. I wish him the very best with this game.
 

mindx2

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Yeah, Alex is a true Codexian Bro who seems to still have that passion so many developers lack today. He doesn't spout off a bunch of buzz words when talking about his or other games. Get a chance to talk to him and he'll give you a history lesson on strategy games and the good/bad mechanics associated with each title. I am really looking forward to this one.
 

Aterdux Entertainment

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Hey, thanks for this preview! Combat is a thing we will need to explain and show properly. It does seem simple in the beginning but later on there is much more to it...

I was able to get by with a couple of pitchfork-wielding peasants and a monk as part of my front line.
But why oh why would you get peasants into your army? :) They are weak, don't level up, no surprise you felt weaker than enemies - they grew in XP and no matter how you fight or upgrade peasants remains peasants. I was following a Russian letsplayer, he played with three peasants on the easy level. He gave up at the end of the second chapter even though I though he would ran into issues much sooner. Peasants + mercs is a really bad combo.
 
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Played a few months ago - I liked it a lot but I did have a few issues with it.

Is there going to be a more sandbox mode rather than just the campaign?
 

Aterdux Entertainment

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Cool. Glad I pledged to this.. Also, Aterdux just got the Brofist of the Beast!
Already past that :)

Played a few months ago - I liked it a lot but I did have a few issues with it.
Is there going to be a more sandbox mode rather than just the campaign?
There is a scenario in the game right now called Cursed Castle - this is more sandbox, little story, just a few side quests and rumors and lots of combat and castles to conquer.
 

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Good write up. I'll keep my eye on this. :salute:

Thanks! Let me know if you are ever able to do that 'Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble' review with me. :lol:

Deuce Traveler - as always - a very good read, thank you!

I'm glad you like it. I'm just happy to contribute to this prestigious magazine. :obviously:

Hey, thanks for this preview! Combat is a thing we will need to explain and show properly. It does seem simple in the beginning but later on there is much more to it...

I was able to get by with a couple of pitchfork-wielding peasants and a monk as part of my front line.
But why oh why would you get peasants into your army? :) They are weak, don't level up, no surprise you felt weaker than enemies - they grew in XP and no matter how you fight or upgrade peasants remains peasants. I was following a Russian letsplayer, he played with three peasants on the easy level. He gave up at the end of the second chapter even though I though he would ran into issues much sooner. Peasants + mercs is a really bad combo.

Because I was being a cheap bastard at the time. I found spending more for less but more efficient troops was indeed a good way to go.
 

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Good preview and good game (so far). Just started to play it myself. Like in the preview the combat felt a bit confusing but I liked Alexanders reasoning behind it!
 

Aterdux Entertainment

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Because I was being a cheap bastard at the time. I found spending more for less but more efficient troops was indeed a good way to go.
Yes, so the only use of them was to spend less gold :)

Peasants are cheap but then they occupy a castle support slot so you can't hire anyone else who is good, so the only way to get out of it is hire mercenaries but then your goal of saving money is gone. Mercs need to be paid every day whereas for regular troops you need to pay only once when you hire them.

In a way, Prologue emulates what one needs to do in the game - get regular troops, work with them, for bigger goals like taking over castles hire a merc or two and dismiss them afterwards.
 
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Peasants are a last resort - cost very cheap, could be used as cannon fodder or placed in garrisons etc.


kIKjmDw.jpg
 

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Good read, game is shaping up nicely, and about time too. It has been in my Steam library since forever.

The idea of a re-preview is silly, though. I was hoping the AoD one was just an incident, but apparently this is becoming a thing. Stop this madness, I say. While we still can.
 

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The idea of a re-preview is silly, though. I was hoping the AoD one was just an incident, but apparently this is becoming a thing. Stop this madness, I say. While we still can.

If the game is so long in development, a re-preview is not the best thing but why not? Especially since the ones in charge felt that putting us into Codex curation list on Steam based on 2 year old preview is not the best thing. I think it's a good compromise in this case.
 

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Good read, game is shaping up nicely, and about time too. It has been in my Steam library since forever.

The idea of a re-preview is silly, though. I was hoping the AoD one was just an incident, but apparently this is becoming a thing. Stop this madness, I say. While we still can.

There was an Underrail one too.

The best way to stop it is by encouraging game developers to release their games faster. ;)
 

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If the game is so long in development, a re-preview is not the best thing but why not? Especially since the ones in charge felt that putting us into Codex curation list on Steam based on 2 year old preview is not the best thing. I think it's a good compromise in this case.
Personally I am against recommending Early Access games, unless they are already complete to play (but then, why Early Access?), but it does not bother me too much.

There was an Underrail one too.
The best way to stop it is by encouraging game developers to release their games faster. ;)
I forgot about Underrail re-preview, maybe because it had very little substance (or maybe it was the AoD one that was lackluster? - I forget).

Anyway, if we are doing re-previews mostly to justify recommending long-unfinished games, something is not right here.
 

Infinitron

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We published this preview because Alex asked us to and because Deuce Traveler volunteered to do the work and turned it in.

Don't really understand what the issue is here
 
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