Re: Coe
I actually bought both CoE3 and Dominions 3 on the exact same day. I can definitively see the interest in a faster-paced game, but I have to admit that I prefer Dominions 3 by a lot.
The main problem I have with CoE3 is the sheer amount of game-breaking luck involved in absolutely everything. In my limited play experience, it's not uncommon to be gameover by turn 5 because a stack of 6 monsters invaded your capital. Or that you fail to control your very first summon which kills your main character and army early on. Or that the game just refuse to let you buy new heroes for a long time.
It works both ways, too. In my first won game, my witch learned Mass Polymorph and Mass Charm when upgraded. The result was that 1 cast of Mass Polymorph destroys pretty much 50% of the enemy army. Cast it twice? You've just destroyed the enemy 100-strong army with nearly no casualties. Mass Charm was more along the line of 25% each cast. What this meant is that no matter what army my enemies brought, they would lose and my army would get bigger. Since there's no supply issues or long distance attack spells for the vast majority of characters or reliable assassin units, there's nothing they could do to stop it.
Everytime you summon something, it's all random. You might get a pack of useful gelatinous cubes, or you can get a useless cat familiar. Get a few useful summons in a row early game and you are well on your way to win. Get a few useless in a row early on (or worse, fail controling good summons) and you are knocked out of the game.
If the game gave you better starting ressources (Actual noteworthy income or bigger starting army or some starting money/magic) then you could at least stand a chance to get back in the game if luck's against you.
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