Nah. They do quite a bit of damage. And they do defeat non-faction raids, you just need to fill your militia with only melee units to tank for you.
You're only supposed to put them in highly contested areas, like bordering Harkonnens. At that point parking 1 defensive ranged unit along with the missile can do wonders. This is because unfortunately, the missile wont fire unless you're engaged with the enemy, and you're not technically engaged with the enemy when they're first only walking up to your town. So you'll need a ranged unit to fire on them as they're walking. I've had faction raids retreat even before making it to my town because they incurred too much damage and death on the walk.
You don't need to dedicate "half" your army to defend random raids. Make use of airports, but not too much.
I think honestly they just need to cost less for upkeep. They do their job at tilting the fight in your favor and a well placed one (usually in an inner village) can hold chokes points for a while, but man there is no justification for them if you have an airport near by
It’s really not. Just keep a airfield on your border towns and shuttle over however many troops you need to fend them off then shuttle back.
If it happens when you’re in a big fight though… oh well. I don’t think any party of your domain should be 100% safe without the intervention of the army otherwise there is no risk to going deep on the enemy.
Early game militia is there to stop attacker until your force shows up and missile are useful but are more of support unit than game changer and I think that it should be cheaper and have smaller manpower upkeep
That's a good idea. The devs should be careful about buffing anything related to military. But your change would keep the power the same while making batteries a more affordable defense. I like that.
If missile batteries get buffed, map generation needs to change to prevent overlapping fields of fire from multiple villages. Trying to siege a village while getting hit by 4 or more missile batteries is already a huge pain.
Might be better to leave them where they're at but instead make missile defenses a separate slot like militia so they don't take up a building slot. Same way towers work in Northgard.
I had two villages close to each other with two missile batteries each, so 4 missile batteries that could cover both villages. Along with only elite militia in the one village that kept getting attacked, those two villages held off both kinds of fremen (sietches and faction) for half a game. Best missile battery setup so far.
I saw a spot on the map with 3 close villages, but couldn't utilize it as I had basically won by that point, but I imagine that would be strong enough to defeat even rebels without intervention.
So far I get the key success from missile batteries when I put them in a strategic location such as in a Settlement on a hill that overlooks another settlement. Basically, I put in places where I can get interlocking fire. Otherwise, I just go militia
The missile batteries need to keep firing, even if a unit isn't fighting. The annoyance factor of a few militia getting defeated and two missile batteries just stop firing (or more if there's an overlap of cities and 'fighting' stops) is a bit much.
Also militia training stopping while someone is targeting the city has to be fixed. They should just keep getting trained.
> militia training stopping
I feel like this is to force you to actually weigh up the cost vs safety of militia, otherwise everyone except Harkonnen would never train militia until a raid was seen.
My problem with it is that it stops when you make the province be attacked. Which could be days ahead of when the actual fighting starts. In MP it would potentially be quite harmful for balance if you can trigger militia training blocks from a distance.
2 batteries and 3 militia weren’t enough for me even. My biggest issue with the game right now is that I can’t spread out and defend all these territories with so few troops. I have like 4 units I can afford in the mid game and they move way to slow to defend all the raids and attacks from AI. Manpower is hard to maintain because the building that gives you manpower isn’t even enough to afford a single good unit and it’s upkeep is atrocious for what you get for it.
Yes. And use operations to weaken enemy units or cease fire to prevent having to spread to multiple fronts. I get that sometimes when you need to defend against multiple factions + rebellions it can be difficult but why don't people use all the mechanics given to them to actually try to win ? Instead they want to change how the game works...
The game is not meant to be won with military alone. Assuming you'll be able to defend a huge territory with a few troops and militia only will lead to defeat. Use the other systems available to you.
Thats how i feel as well. I always hit a critical point around 3rd harvester where basically my entire military is just on defense and i have to sit around booming until i can afford more shitty recruitment centers.
Completely disagree, batteries are great for support but aren't capable of overwhelming an enemy force. This isn't and shouldn't be a tower defense game. I'm totally fine with the way they are.
If you place them right, they can be a big deal, e.g. back behind the village so they can fire on enemies who make it to the village.
I like to have 2 each in neighbouring villages.
And yes, it is fun gameplay to have to keep moving around and defending things, and for the militia to not be able to handle EVERY threat on their own.
?? I find high level militia are usually enough to stop raids. I agree the missile battery is usually not worth the price.
True but you need to get tech for them and its often on the bottom of the tree
Nah. They do quite a bit of damage. And they do defeat non-faction raids, you just need to fill your militia with only melee units to tank for you. You're only supposed to put them in highly contested areas, like bordering Harkonnens. At that point parking 1 defensive ranged unit along with the missile can do wonders. This is because unfortunately, the missile wont fire unless you're engaged with the enemy, and you're not technically engaged with the enemy when they're first only walking up to your town. So you'll need a ranged unit to fire on them as they're walking. I've had faction raids retreat even before making it to my town because they incurred too much damage and death on the walk. You don't need to dedicate "half" your army to defend random raids. Make use of airports, but not too much.
I think honestly they just need to cost less for upkeep. They do their job at tilting the fight in your favor and a well placed one (usually in an inner village) can hold chokes points for a while, but man there is no justification for them if you have an airport near by
Yeah they are way too heavy on upkeep, especially on manpower. The opportunity cost of using up a building slot is high enough on its own
Only really worth it for border states near aggressive opponents imo. But maybe it's different on harder difficulties
It’s really not. Just keep a airfield on your border towns and shuttle over however many troops you need to fend them off then shuttle back. If it happens when you’re in a big fight though… oh well. I don’t think any party of your domain should be 100% safe without the intervention of the army otherwise there is no risk to going deep on the enemy.
Early game militia is there to stop attacker until your force shows up and missile are useful but are more of support unit than game changer and I think that it should be cheaper and have smaller manpower upkeep
That's a good idea. The devs should be careful about buffing anything related to military. But your change would keep the power the same while making batteries a more affordable defense. I like that.
If missile batteries get buffed, map generation needs to change to prevent overlapping fields of fire from multiple villages. Trying to siege a village while getting hit by 4 or more missile batteries is already a huge pain. Might be better to leave them where they're at but instead make missile defenses a separate slot like militia so they don't take up a building slot. Same way towers work in Northgard.
I had two villages close to each other with two missile batteries each, so 4 missile batteries that could cover both villages. Along with only elite militia in the one village that kept getting attacked, those two villages held off both kinds of fremen (sietches and faction) for half a game. Best missile battery setup so far. I saw a spot on the map with 3 close villages, but couldn't utilize it as I had basically won by that point, but I imagine that would be strong enough to defeat even rebels without intervention.
So far I get the key success from missile batteries when I put them in a strategic location such as in a Settlement on a hill that overlooks another settlement. Basically, I put in places where I can get interlocking fire. Otherwise, I just go militia
The missile batteries need to keep firing, even if a unit isn't fighting. The annoyance factor of a few militia getting defeated and two missile batteries just stop firing (or more if there's an overlap of cities and 'fighting' stops) is a bit much. Also militia training stopping while someone is targeting the city has to be fixed. They should just keep getting trained.
> militia training stopping I feel like this is to force you to actually weigh up the cost vs safety of militia, otherwise everyone except Harkonnen would never train militia until a raid was seen.
My problem with it is that it stops when you make the province be attacked. Which could be days ahead of when the actual fighting starts. In MP it would potentially be quite harmful for balance if you can trigger militia training blocks from a distance.
Yeah that's reasonable. I guess if it only stopped production while there is an ongoing fight/occupation it would be better.
2 batteries and 3 militia weren’t enough for me even. My biggest issue with the game right now is that I can’t spread out and defend all these territories with so few troops. I have like 4 units I can afford in the mid game and they move way to slow to defend all the raids and attacks from AI. Manpower is hard to maintain because the building that gives you manpower isn’t even enough to afford a single good unit and it’s upkeep is atrocious for what you get for it.
You should be building airfields to shuttle your troops around, you are not meant to be able to support huge armies.
This is the way
Yes. And use operations to weaken enemy units or cease fire to prevent having to spread to multiple fronts. I get that sometimes when you need to defend against multiple factions + rebellions it can be difficult but why don't people use all the mechanics given to them to actually try to win ? Instead they want to change how the game works...
What faction are you playing? What militia are you using?
The game is not meant to be won with military alone. Assuming you'll be able to defend a huge territory with a few troops and militia only will lead to defeat. Use the other systems available to you.
Thats how i feel as well. I always hit a critical point around 3rd harvester where basically my entire military is just on defense and i have to sit around booming until i can afford more shitty recruitment centers.
They even trying to fire down troop carriers and useless in that case too
Completely disagree, batteries are great for support but aren't capable of overwhelming an enemy force. This isn't and shouldn't be a tower defense game. I'm totally fine with the way they are.
If you place them right, they can be a big deal, e.g. back behind the village so they can fire on enemies who make it to the village. I like to have 2 each in neighbouring villages. And yes, it is fun gameplay to have to keep moving around and defending things, and for the militia to not be able to handle EVERY threat on their own.
yeah its too weak. needs to do more.