Weaker AI Elves & Dwarves

[SnuggleBunnies]

Any chance of somewhat weaker non mannish factions in the future, Webba?

I personally see 1 drawback and 2 benefits to doing so. The drawback is that attacking these factions would pose less of a challenge to the player.

The first benefit would be immersion - the Dominion of Men would feel more real if Elves and Dwarves actually started losing their lands to men as the campaign progressed.

The other benefit would be an increased challenge for certain factions - Khazad Dum in 3.2 is totally safe from any threats, as Lothlorien will never fall, and the road to the west is optional. Other factions also have entire fronts protected by these passive factions for the entire campaign. So I think weaker Elves & Dwarves would make for a more dynamic, variable campaign - what happens between the various mannish factions already varies quite a bit, making the more static non mannish factions stand out more.

[Wambat]

Because you cannot nerf the income of these factions due to game mechanics (same problem with Shire) the only best way to control these factions is to nerf their population growth. Making their units weaker will not really work since they make so many units you would have to make them ridiculously weak to stop them being a deterrent. Hobbits are about as weak as you can get, and their huge stacks mean they still often do not get attacked by the AI factions until quite late in a campaign. Making Elves and Dwarves weaker than Hobbits would be a bit out of line. Bear in mind, it appears the AI factions will always prefer to attack non-passive factions first, given the choice.

[webba84]

I am still trying to make this happen, but as Wambat points out there are quite a few challenges in the way. There will be futher tweaks in 3.3 since we haven't really explored all the things we can do now that the playable Elves and Dwarves have their own campaigns.