The Last Warlord--an indie ROTK strategy game

[Sakae Wu]

Things seem to be moving slowly, but usually I play pretty long sessions (with big gaps in between these days). Would you say that the game moves along at a healthy clip, or is it a bit on the sluggish side?

Are the menus onerous to navigate? IV was the worst for that.

Does in-game time pass appropriately? Sun Ce's Jiangdong invasion is usually a good litmus test for that.

From what I've seen so far, starting out seems a little more sluggish than the Koei games. Mostly due to the draft pool.
Once you get a good foundation and a nice mix of officers things start moving pretty quickly. I'm 7 years in (202) and have 9 cities, 54 officers and about 200k troops. 6 of those cities are "feeders" for the capital so I don't really have to recruit much or worry about food or money.
Also, when you sack a city in TLW you get gold, food and troops from the defeated force which I think is more realistic and really quickens the ability to get the city up and running.

Not having qualified officers for certain techs really slows your research which was a big issue for both Ma Teng and Han Sui.
Yuan Shao already has Elite Pikeman and Liu Zhang just got Chu-ko-nu squads with repeating crossbows, while I'm still trying to get up the armored knight tree.
The monthly disasters really bogs things down for everyone. For instance, Han Sui's Liang has been hit with blizzards every single year, sometimes every city. There's also riots, earthquakes, droughts etc, which seem a little too common. It just diverts your resources and time into repairs or helping refugees instead of conquest.

The AI is kind of sporadic from what I've seen. Some seem overly aggressive while some just seem to turtle.
In my game, Yuan Shao finally took out Zan but then allied with Lu Bu and Zhang Yan. And Cao Cao who was attacking Liu Biao successfully just made an alliance with him. I'm not sure if some of this is in reaction to what the player is doing or not.

I think Gray Riders covered #2 pretty well~
Sun Ce's heading west in my game and with no events going on, it just feels like a random sandbox type game to me.

Edit:I think with each turn being a month rather than 10 days, it gives the feeling that things take quite awhile. In X you could upgrade a small city to a medium one in a couple months if you had enough officers. In TLW it takes years no matter how many you have.

[Gray Riders]

I've learned the important lesson that sending officers two turns away to hire a "very low" or "low" chance to employ free officer isn't a bad idea. I've picked up some good officers like Li Yan and Zang Ba doing this the last few turns.
Edit: One funny thing about being powerful is as soon as you border some of the minor powers they start sending gifts pronto.
Edit2: I found an epic bug.
*Go to check if I can spread a rumor in one of Liu Bei's cities, but decide not to.
*Something seems off when I return to the main city screen.
*Realize I am now playing as Liu Bei.

It repeated a few times, including with other rulers, until I actually DID order a rumor spread. It stopped after that, even after reloading.

Meanwhile, Lu Ling Ju and Chen Gong have both appeared as free officers. Where in the world has Lu Bu vanished to? If he isn't with Kong Rong when I enter the Central Plains I'm going to be so confused.

[Sakae Wu]

Meanwhile, Lu Ling Ju and Chen Gong have both appeared as free officers. Where in the world has Lu Bu vanished to? If he isn't with Kong Rong when I enter the Central Plains I'm going to be so confused.

Maybe he dies in 199? He's not in the Guan Du scenario (200).
I'm playing with longevity on, so he's still around in my game.

That's true about taking chances with "very low" odds. I usually miss, but once or twice I hired on the first try.
On the flip side, it took me 6 tries to hire Xun You with Xu Huang that started out with normal chances

I tried that rumor bug, but it didn't work for me haha. That's a pretty weird one.

[Gray Riders]

Maybe he dies in 199? He's not in the Guan Du scenario (200).
I'm playing with longevity on, so he's still around in my game.

That's true about taking chances with "very low" odds. I usually miss, but once or twice I hired on the first try.
On the flip side, it took me 6 tries to hire Xun You with Xu Huang that started out with normal chances

I tried that rumor bug, but it didn't work for me haha. That's a pretty weird one.

I'm not going to lie, before the bug fixed itself I was going to use it to take Kong Rong and see if he had Lu Bu or not. If I never find him I'll be forver (for a week) wondering where he went to. Did Kong Rong execute him? Did he escape (CAN prisoners escape?)? Did he die of natural causes in jail?

I actually wonder what happens if another force takes over a city with prisoners in it. Zhang Liao and a few of Lu Bu's other ex-officers are still locked up in Xiao Pei, years later.

[Sakae Wu]

I'm not going to lie, before the bug fixed itself I was going to use it to take Kong Rong and see if he had Lu Bu or not. If I never find him I'll be forver (for a week) wondering where he went to. Did Kong Rong execute him? Did he escape (CAN prisoners escape?)? Did he die of natural causes in jail?

I actually wonder what happens if another force takes over a city with prisoners in it. Zhang Liao and a few of Lu Bu's other ex-officers are still locked up in Xiao Pei, years later.

I was curious about Lu Bu, so I tried Yuan Shao and fast forwarded to mid 200 and he was still alive. So, maybe he was executed or did join up? It's a mystery~
Btw, Yuan Shao starts the game with Armored Knights and Crossbow units, which seems a bit much. It took my Han Sui 7 years to get Knights and now I'm just mowing people down with Ma Chao, Xu Huang and Pang De.

I've never seen prisoners escape, but maybe it's possible. I had one of Li Jue's officers in the slammer I had completely forgotten about for over 2 years. And I just let him go since I couldn't hire him. Wu Xi I think it was~

Have you had problems with your transports being attacked by bandits? It seems mine are always getting jacked, even with high security and top shelf officers in charge. It's getting a little annoying

[Gray Riders]

I was curious about Lu Bu, so I tried Yuan Shao and fast forwarded to mid 200 and he was still alive. So, maybe he was executed or did join up? It's a mystery~

I'd guess like the later ROTK games that officers who were executed or died in battle live past their official death date.
I'm guessing he's working with Kong Rong. I'm actually tempted to max out Spy funds and start researching the Spying techs so I can find out.

Btw, Yuan Shao starts the game with Armored Knights and Crossbow units, which seems a bit much. It took my Han Sui 7 years to get Knights and now I'm just mowing people down with Ma Chao, Xu Huang and Pang De.

Yeah, I think they should tone Yuan Shao's tech in 194 down a bit. It's kind of crazy.

Have you had problems with your transports being attacked by bandits? It seems mine are always getting jacked, even with high security and top shelf officers in charge. It's getting a little annoying

Yeah, unless I have a full 5 stars in Success it always seems to get hit by bandits. One of the devs on steam said putting troops in the transport makes it safer.

Edit:
*Well, I lost Wu to a glitch.
Specificially, the battle extended to several turns. I saved to continue later; when I did I was unable to control battle and lost because automatic siege defense doesn't seem to factor the walls and defenses in very much.

I'm not sure anyone is really following the AAR at this point so I think it's done. I think I gave a decent idea of how the game plays, in any case.

[Sun Fin]

Thanks for your time describing the game Gray Riders! I've read it all and have been finding it interesting! Still torn over whether to buy it or not though .

[Zyzyfer]

Still following but understand bowing out. Thank you for your efforts~

[Gray Riders]

For completeness sake I'll mention that Lu Meng finally appeared in late 200 thanks to the waiter. He was in Hui Ji.

[LiuBeiwasGreat]

I enjoyed the AARs and have decided to pick this game up when some more of the bugs are ironed out. Wu being weaklings well make it easier to crush the traitors