Yes, that's what I meant. Even for the ones priced "correctly" the designers seemed to put too much price into some abilities. That evil armor (Dark Armor?) costs 410 for 2DEF, and 2 abilities (can't remember the names, but it was Unholy attack and protection from holiness). Chicken shield 3DEF, 3RES was 350. Whatever the abilities give, they can't be worth 3RES and 1 DEF.

The only ability I'll take any day over any over any primary stats is the Pike's First Attack ability.

On level 8 of Cult now. Goblin to Orc. I chose Life Stealing instead of Regeneration. I have to say I liked Regeneration better, even though it's cheaper (10 vs 15). Life Stealing doesn't work too many times (when defending, when attacking machines...). Still, made it more challenging at least, though I'm reaching a stage where it doesn't matter.

Also the AI is so bad. I mean I've seen terrible AI in turn based strategy games very often, but this sometimes makes horrible decisions. Hero against battering ram. I click Auto to make it quicker and my hero casts that death cloud spell on it.

Also when Autoing carryover selection. I can understand the AI not having same priorities as me and carrying over units, but why carry over 2 weapons. OK, maybe we switch weapons depending on monster, by why carry over two pikes...

Is the Pike a fixed item in the non-trade-route level 2? I got it for both Keepers and Cult there.

Personally I never bother with items, unless it's that cheap Bog Shield.
I prefer units for as rapid expansion as possible; at least one one flyer for scouting and harassing, one "champion" (Orc Warlord, Human Cavalier, Giant), one "burrower" (Goblin Beetle or Dwarf Mole) and one or more healers, and maybe some cavalry. I also like the Undead Wraith with its Physical Immunity. The rest goes into mana.
On Hard difficulty I never bother with Heroes. Unless you meta game and make a "mana battery", several good units are more useful IMO.

As for the AI, this one is a classic: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/screenshot-thread.72409/page-944#post-6003053

The Holy Protection is questionable, since other attack types will cut through. Provides some protection against Solar Flare, I guess?

I'm assuming the other ability was Unholy Champion, which gives +2 attack and +2 damage (30 skill points of stats which stack even for a 10/10/10/10 hero) for each melee swing on a good/pure good aligned unit. That's a really good ability...when it applies. If you're going down either Evil route, it's a decent ability since you'll definitely be up against Good aligned units, though I wouldn't carry it on an item because other things are better value for the carry-over points (like a hero).

Chicken Shield is probably so expensive because it is +6 stats in a single item slot.

They have different niches. Regeneration is useless mid-turn, but guarantees a full health hero at the start of each turn. I think I like Life Stealing a little more because it can offset attrition from battle quite a bit, especially when you command the battle and can manipulate the enemy to avoid suffering extra swings.

Yeah, manipulating the AI of your own units is important. :)

This is probably a case of the hero trying to attack in the only way he can while he is waiting to enter melee range. Heroes don't close to melee range until the 4th turn of auto-combat, but they are allowed to cast spells from turn 1. To prevent a hero from casting spells in auto-combat, make sure they have a spell either mid-cast or finished-but-waiting-for-you-to-release-it.

I don't know; I don't think so.

Yeah, I think the Chicken shield is priced right (though for me superfluous, since I already have them at 8). My point was it's cheaper than the armor despite being better.
I have a beetle that stayed with me since level 1 goblins. I imagine I'd rely more on units if I wasn't playing the superhero style. Maybe I'll try a game in the future where like you suggested I'll invest more into a magic based hero. The way I have it now, other slow units simply can't keep up.

For me the priorities are:
Pike for First Hit
Hero for mana battery
Beetle with 40 speed; useful to quickly go after hero and sit on those towns while they migrate
Enough Mana to cast windwalk (and haste) on day 1
Other items that bring my stats to 10 (I leave them at 8)
Other units; starting with fastest.

This is hilarious.

Got ring of regeneration in one level so I had the best of both worlds. Too expensive to carry over though.

I just noticed the game has a real time clock bottom right. That's so cool! More turn based strategy games should have this.

Yeah, the ring of regen is really nice, but far too expensive to carry over.

Yes, now you can see just how late you've been up playing "Just One More Turn". :)

I swear, I can usually keep track of time when playing FPSs, action games, RPGs, RTSs or whatever, but for turn based strategies and management simulation games I've often started playing for half an hour before going to sleep and finished when it was getting dawny outside.

By the way, I'm trying a slightly different skills progression for Cult path. I took Wall Climbing and Defense first, but then I took Vision IV before doing Attack and Resistance; and I then I took Movement Points and Extra Strike before Damage.

Taking Vision quickly was a good idea; it was lower priority during Keepers, but I liked it so much I had it right after finishing the Goblin levels here. I don't often take quality of life skills in video games, preferring stuff with more tangible effects, but this is extremely helpful. Plus I'm going to be overpowered anyway.

As for delaying increasing my damage, I figured extra strike first will give me more chances to Life Steal. And indeed it's not so bad, but I the low Damage made me realize the *defensive* role high Damage has. More damage means they get less chance to hit. Now I often have to take 3-4 hits against anything better than infantry and this means that many more hits for them. Heck even infantry usually dies with 2 hits, so even with first strike they each get a hit against me. It adds up.

I think I prefer Cold Strike which I took for Cult as opposed to Lightning Strike I had for Keepers.

What do other strike types give? I think Fire causes burning, and Poison makes you poisoned. These two rarely cause extra damage when I use units that have them.

Yep. XD

Sometimes I finally take a cue from my body when I start nodding off in the middle of a fight and miss an attack or something, and I head to bed for the night. Sometimes it is the dawn's light that lets me know that sleep would be a good idea. Maybe after I finish this turn...

I've started buffing attack alongside defense. Def maybe 6-7, then Att 5, then Def 8-9, then more Att. Extra Strike when attack is 7+. More damage around then, unless I'm feeling a need for extra Resistance because of status effects.

Wall Climbing ALWAYS first though, unless I get another source of bypassing walls before then. I'm pretty sure I lost a multiplayer game because I took an extra point of defense at level 2 instead of Wall Climbing; I couldn't get past a tower to assault a solo hero, so I took a different path into the dark and got jumped and utterly wiped out. Things snowballed badly from there.

I like Lightning Strike because it doesn't dispel when the victim is hit, and it has a higher chance of proc-ing.

-Lightning Strike stuns for 1 turn. Unit can't take action or retaliate, and they have -2 def. I don't think it lowers resistance.
-Cold Strike freezes for 3 turns. Unit can't take action while frozen, but they'll unfreeze if they get hit. I don't recall whether it lowers stats and whether it prevents retaliation on the hit that unfreezes them.
-Death Strike curses a unit, which lowers resistance and I think it inflicts a Death Vulnerability (increases damage from death aligned attacks and spells). Condition lasts 1-3 days; I don't remember how long.
-Entangle Strike entangles a unit for 3 turns. They can't take actions, -2 def, and can't retaliate. This can be fatal very, very quickly.
-Holy Strike can inflict a condition (dazzle?) that lowers some stats (attack, at least). Condition lasts until the start of the next game turn, I believe.
-Poison Strike inflicts poison, which lowers all stats by 2 for 3 days.
-Fire Strike inflicts burning, which last 3 turns in battle. Each turn a burning unit suffers an attack from fire with 4 attack, 1 damage. Note that this is an attack, not a hit, so the unit may take 0-3 fire damage over the course of the burning condition. I don't think it lowers stats, but I might be wrong.

I haven't seen an unfreeze when hit. They stay frozen.

-The condition from Holy Strike is called Vertigo.

-The Cursed condition also prevent natural healing while it is in effect.

-Cause Fear isn't technically an "X Strike" ability, but it also may proc on melee hits. I think it lowers stats, and it forces the affected unit to run (triggering attacks of opportunity!) for a turn.

-The Turn Undead condition forces undead units to try and flee for (I think) 3 turns. I might be misremembering, though. It doesn't come up much.

For me max is 8. I rely on items to get it to 10 (and if I don't find items then no problem).
For keepers I did: Wall climbing, DEF till 8, ATT + RES till 8, DAM till 8, then Movement + vision + extra strike

Maybe I'm crossing my wires with Shadow Magic, then. Or perhaps it is re-procing?

Wouldn't happen every single time.

Also, if it was re-procing it would last again for 3 turns.


Probably SM changed it.