Exp:Conq Expeditions: Conquistador - Two More Review

Expeditions: Conquistador

Myrthos

Cave Canem
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While our review of Expeditions: Conquistador will be published later today, here are two other reviews.
RPGCodex
Throughout the game, you’ll combat an array of foes: Aztec, Totonac, Spanish, Mayan, Carib and Taíno. The combat map requires that the player be clever in positioning his/her troops in order to minimise ranged damage taken, to funnel the enemy into choke points, and to cut off access to the player’s own ranged units. There are several different combat modes on offer, from survival (survive ten turns against hard odds), to cutting off an enemy’s retreat (prevent enemies from reaching an escape zone), escaping an enemy yourself, and of course, straight up melee. As I mentioned above, the player is able to deploy a number of aids in combat—barricades and traps—which give the player an advantage in directing the flow of enemy movement; beware, however, that the enemy can sometimes employ these same tricks.

The combat AI has been, in my experience, very good if not excellent. The enemy will attempt to flank your position; they will focus fire on a weakened, cursed or poisoned companion; they will make a bee-line for unprotected ranged units, or undefended zones which would allow them to outmanoeuvre the player. Occasionally, they will suffer a bout of stupidity, and charge straight for the player, usually falling in the process, but overall the AI is intelligent and solid and on harder difficulties provides a firm tactical challenge which can easily stop the unprepared player in his/her tracks.
The Leet, 3/5
Expeditions: Conquistador looks nice however lack polish, players and NPCs glitch here and there which shows the lack of polish however the environments look highly detailed and nice and sharp especially during combat.
When it comes to venturing in the wilderness, the sense of danger heightens which impressed me as it feels eerie and lonely until you come to any signs of civilization. The cut scenes look like a series of paintings you would see at your local museum which didn’t do it for me however it does manager to tell the story.
Replay value comes in the form as multiple difficulty levels and a multiplayer skirmish mode.
More information.
 
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Interesting, codexers, unlike me, say that AI is excellent.
IMO it's not - as I've already stated in another thread, your doctor, the source of unlimited health (endurance) is almost never focused, while their doctors are most times easily accessible to shutdown first.

This doesn't mean that the game is not very good. It is, only AI isn't.
 
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Interesting, codexers, unlike me, say that AI is excellent.
IMO it's not - as I've already stated in another thread, your doctor, the source of unlimited health (endurance) is almost never focused, while their doctors are most times easily accessible to shutdown first.

This doesn't mean that the game is not very good. It is, only AI isn't.

I agree. It is somewhat deliberately dumb on normal of course, but even on the highest setting it didn't seem very strong. In general I only got in trouble if the opposition had a considerable numerical advantage.
 
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Interesting, codexers, unlike me, say that AI is excellent.
IMO it's not - as I've already stated in another thread, your doctor, the source of unlimited health (endurance) is almost never focused, while their doctors are most times easily accessible to shutdown first.

This doesn't mean that the game is not very good. It is, only AI isn't.

Um what difficulty did you play it at? I played it on insane and i had to be careful with my doctor.
 
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Um what difficulty did you play it at? I played it on insane and i had to be careful with my doctor.

I am also playing on insane (+ironman). And while you need to be careful with your doctor, they don't focus him. Actually they don't focus anyone for more than a turn if even this was really a focus.
The AI basically just tries to "attack somewhere" and the different troops don't interact with each other but just act on their own. The doctors rarely heal other units. And they continuely block their paths. So if there is a path with is one spot small and they could move 3 units through there easily one after another, they might move the slowest first, block the whole path, move with the two others to the other side of the map where they find an additional path. Next turn the "slow" unit moves on and then the other two might reconsider the path again…it's a real mess and can also easily exploited by using chokepoints to your advantage.

While you should watch out on insane, the AI is definitely one of the weakest points of the game.
 
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The AI focuses on injured followers - apart from that, I did not notice any pattern to target selection.
 
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While I am thinking about it: They are also often using melee classes in ranged combat while they would do far more damange in close combat.
 
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What difficulty setting is best for expirienced gamers to have challenge & fun?
 
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Insane Ironman. No kidding. Don't expect Xcom EU difficulty by it.
 
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Insane Ironman. No kidding. Don't expect Xcom EU difficulty by it.

That's probably good advice for a seasoned TB player. Ironman is a good choice because you can roll with defeat, there are few actual fail states in the game where you cannot continue.
As a note, you can actually go beyond "insane" with the individual difficulty sliders, which allows you to up enmy damage further, lower your own and choose the sudden death option (followers can die directly in combat instead of just becoming wounded).
 
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Thank you both for the advice. I'll start the game with this difficulty setting - hopefully next week.
 
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I am also playing on insane (+ironman). And while you need to be careful with your doctor, they don't focus him. Actually they don't focus anyone for more than a turn if even this was really a focus.
The AI basically just tries to "attack somewhere" and the different troops don't interact with each other but just act on their own. The doctors rarely heal other units. And they continuely block their paths. So if there is a path with is one spot small and they could move 3 units through there easily one after another, they might move the slowest first, block the whole path, move with the two others to the other side of the map where they find an additional path. Next turn the "slow" unit moves on and then the other two might reconsider the path again…it's a real mess and can also easily exploited by using chokepoints to your advantage.

While you should watch out on insane, the AI is definitely one of the weakest points of the game.

Hmm that's weird. My doctor was always aimed and enemy doctors always healed, even revive from time to time. As for the blocked paths yeah those were kinda hilarious. Funnier still is that ranged units went round aswell.
 
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I think I'll restart on Insane - playing on difficult right now, and finding the combats too easy. Hopefully they'll toughen up the AI in patches, as otherwise I'm enjoying the game considerably.
 
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