Post by mummra on Mar 16, 2024 23:05:13 GMT -6
WORST Fire, Crispin: Not only does this Legend have the laziest plot and least interesting characters it's gameplay offerings are the most mediocre as well. The inability to gain Followers or train/hire units means the player has nearly no strategic flexibility. There is no real opposing Faiths either so this quest is going to play out practically the same way every single time since there will be no interference from roaming AI units aside from a few small parties of Marauders. Crispin is a Fire Sorceress Lord and this isn't a tactically interesting character-type: the only real choices the player has with her in combat is whether to use her Mana mostly for damage or mostly for buffs. Her pitiful Defense also means the player frequently has to babysit Crispin through combat since keeping her alive is mandatory. The one particularly unique feature of the Legend, the Sundial Key, could've been used for a logic puzzle since it must be used at both the right place and the right turn. However this unique artifact is totally wasted, the Sundial Key just forces the player to wait around until the right turn since there's nothing clever about its implementation. The combat encounters throughout the Legend are quite dull, mostly just low-level Marauder units. There are no enemy thieves and few enemy mages, none of which are mandatory fights. The player himself gets no access to thieves or mages (besides Crispin) and the units provided are rather dull, mostly slow dwarves. The final combat is against the Air Legendary Creature, the Ice Drake, and the Ice Drake alone. If the player has played the standard game he likely has already fought and killed the Ice Drake and there is nothing unique about this particular encounter with it. The Ice Drake that sometimes spawns in the Air Great Temple on a Hard standard game is accompanied by Fae Slingers and other units, which makes that a more difficult encounter than anything in this Legend. The Ice Drake also has a combat AI flaw that is easily exploited as it will prioritize shooting Ranged Attacks at Crispin if she is in Range while ignoring all the other units, allowing the player to just dodge slow projectiles until the Ice Drake is killed by Crispin's party. The only two kinda fun moments I had from this Legend was getting the rare chance to control a Grendel unit and 'feeding' a unit of dwarves to the Kraken. Otherwise, a totally forgettable campaign and much shorter than the rest too.
Death, Zefnar: I think this Legend has some amusing writing but it falls short in gameplay. For much of the Legend the player is limited almost exclusively to using Skeletons, which are slow, weak, don't heal passively, and are just overall shitty. Perhaps some interesting strategic considerations may have been required due to such unit restrictions, perhaps well-timed use of mercenaries may of been necessary but most of the enemies you engage with your Skeletons are weak Life barracks troops. Thus victory in these early battles mostly comes down to bringing a big enough mob of shitty Skeletons to beat down the shitty Staffmen facing you. Zefnar is a Necromancer Lord but there's no especial need to use his spells cleverly, kill as many Elven Archers as you can with Curse and use the remaining Mana to Raise Skeleton and that's pretty much all the fights for the first third of the Legend. When you gain the spell Raise Shade just switch to making Shades instead of Skeletons and that will get you through most of the next third. The final third of the Legend is the only part that pits you against a proper AI Faith, Life, but by this time you'll have access to the Lich Legendary Creature and Vampires and can typically steamroll the Life Lord through brute force for a mindless victory. Despite the text saying you must defeat the "Army of the Phoenix" I haven't found the Phoenix Life Legendary Creature during this Legend, which is disappointing as that would've been a better ultimate foe than the Life Lord. This Legend is also on the short side, although given how little there is to it at least it doesn't outlast its welcome. The only traits of Zefnar's Legend I particularly liked was the fact it lets you use the otherwise unavailable Necromancer Lord unit and how annoying the writer made the Death King, which made overthrowing him a satisfying moment [Laugh out Loud]
Earth, Beow: This Legend is a mixed bag that's disparate parts add up to the most average experience among the Legends. The Legend starts off quite slow, with simple boring objectives further hindered by Beow being a Burglar Lord unit, a Lord that is notoriously slow in both damage output and movement. There is no real strategy or tactics in the beginning besides abusing Stealth and the AI's near-total inability to counter Stealth. Once the player gets the Dwarf Warrior Ivald and Wizard Aegir the combat gets a bit more interesting. Some of the artifacts unique to this Legend are cool: Nagling and its huge Attack bonus against Orcs is one of the few artifacts that can significantly change how you'd utilize a champion but it is so situational using it keeps you on your toes. Gontherine's Ring has a totally unique downside of causing increased diplomatic hostility between Faiths and is also an obvious reference to the "One Ring" from Lord of the Rings which is a neat treat for Fantasy geeks. The wide variety of scrolls that can be found make using Aegir potentially much more interesting than most Wizards. I did appreciate that the Legend included AI-controlled Faiths (Life and Order) and that there were more options for dealing with them then simply destroying them or ignoring them. The gimmick of stopping the rampaging dragon Vyrm (Fafnir) before he razes too many villages was cute, although the actual battle against him is forgettable since, like the Ice Drake, his combat AI is easy to exploit. The Legend offers a few memorable combat encounters, such as the battle for the Order Great Temple and final battle with the Orc Warlord. The Legend also becomes more interesting strategically when you gain control of the Order buildings, a shame it happens near the end.
Death, Zefnar: I think this Legend has some amusing writing but it falls short in gameplay. For much of the Legend the player is limited almost exclusively to using Skeletons, which are slow, weak, don't heal passively, and are just overall shitty. Perhaps some interesting strategic considerations may have been required due to such unit restrictions, perhaps well-timed use of mercenaries may of been necessary but most of the enemies you engage with your Skeletons are weak Life barracks troops. Thus victory in these early battles mostly comes down to bringing a big enough mob of shitty Skeletons to beat down the shitty Staffmen facing you. Zefnar is a Necromancer Lord but there's no especial need to use his spells cleverly, kill as many Elven Archers as you can with Curse and use the remaining Mana to Raise Skeleton and that's pretty much all the fights for the first third of the Legend. When you gain the spell Raise Shade just switch to making Shades instead of Skeletons and that will get you through most of the next third. The final third of the Legend is the only part that pits you against a proper AI Faith, Life, but by this time you'll have access to the Lich Legendary Creature and Vampires and can typically steamroll the Life Lord through brute force for a mindless victory. Despite the text saying you must defeat the "Army of the Phoenix" I haven't found the Phoenix Life Legendary Creature during this Legend, which is disappointing as that would've been a better ultimate foe than the Life Lord. This Legend is also on the short side, although given how little there is to it at least it doesn't outlast its welcome. The only traits of Zefnar's Legend I particularly liked was the fact it lets you use the otherwise unavailable Necromancer Lord unit and how annoying the writer made the Death King, which made overthrowing him a satisfying moment [Laugh out Loud]
Earth, Beow: This Legend is a mixed bag that's disparate parts add up to the most average experience among the Legends. The Legend starts off quite slow, with simple boring objectives further hindered by Beow being a Burglar Lord unit, a Lord that is notoriously slow in both damage output and movement. There is no real strategy or tactics in the beginning besides abusing Stealth and the AI's near-total inability to counter Stealth. Once the player gets the Dwarf Warrior Ivald and Wizard Aegir the combat gets a bit more interesting. Some of the artifacts unique to this Legend are cool: Nagling and its huge Attack bonus against Orcs is one of the few artifacts that can significantly change how you'd utilize a champion but it is so situational using it keeps you on your toes. Gontherine's Ring has a totally unique downside of causing increased diplomatic hostility between Faiths and is also an obvious reference to the "One Ring" from Lord of the Rings which is a neat treat for Fantasy geeks. The wide variety of scrolls that can be found make using Aegir potentially much more interesting than most Wizards. I did appreciate that the Legend included AI-controlled Faiths (Life and Order) and that there were more options for dealing with them then simply destroying them or ignoring them. The gimmick of stopping the rampaging dragon Vyrm (Fafnir) before he razes too many villages was cute, although the actual battle against him is forgettable since, like the Ice Drake, his combat AI is easy to exploit. The Legend offers a few memorable combat encounters, such as the battle for the Order Great Temple and final battle with the Orc Warlord. The Legend also becomes more interesting strategically when you gain control of the Order buildings, a shame it happens near the end.
Good reviews, but the Phoenix army does exist and provides (IMO) a good challenge.
Here is the starting position on the phoenix army. Also, I find the Earth quest (Beow) to be quite challenging but enjoyable myself.
