strongest and weakest faction

[nightwatch]

is there a strongest and weakest faction? or is this more balanced in this game?
we are going to buy demons/lost, but my missus hates the look of some of the,  as in creepy! so are the more down to earth westerners/sarasins as competative? as in most games the demons /baddys are allways better?

[Bork]

all the factions have strong and weak points to them but from my experience its demons and westerners who tend to domininate with demons being slightly ahead, IMO lost are at the moment are the weakest of the factions, despite being far better in combat than most i hardly ever see them win and ive never lost to them, doesnt mean to say there bad they just need to be played correctly. play with what models you like and develop your own tactics and army lists. helldorado is a balanced game and you have to put more thought into things than you'd think to be successful with the best of army lists.

i suggest playing scenarios too, they really do even the odds and make things far more interesting to play.

[Dogmeat]

I would`ve put Westerners at the bottom personally.  Too low a CMD.

I think most of us agree that Demons are probably the easiest to make a good force out of.  Not to say they can`t be beaten or anything, but most things support each other well.

The other factions really depend more on support so need a bit of practice to use.

[nightwatch]

can i ask, are the mercs an army as such or independent models to join your force?

[Bork]

both, you can use entirely mercenary army or have them join other factions with some limitations.

i wouldnt say westerners are bottom, lost suffer from the same lack of CMD points but i always struggle most against westerners, its the armour mostly. the lost ive more or less thrashed every game ive had against them and saracens bar lancers seem to be quite weak, ive never played a full merc list so cant comment on them.

the game is so brutal and fast paced its so easy for one side or t'other to come out on top. i find once a side has taken 2-3 casualties more than the enemy its very difficult to recover the game. combat is simultaneous so everything has an equal chance and surprisingly since demons lack any armour that they come out on top.

[Clousseau]

I play Westerners and find Demons the hardest to beat.

On the other hand demoed at gamesfest today using the Westerners and Lost starter sets and it was 2 games each. My son then made it 3-2 to the Loast when we played a game before packing up.

As with many games it's the scenarios that change the nature of the game and can make a 'weak' faction stronger, or vice versa.

[Dogmeat]

can i ask, are the mercs an army as such or independent models to join your force?

Both.

As Borks already said that though, I just thought I`d add a little.  Mercs seem to be the faction that I have most success with.  They are quite a diverse rag tag bunch with lots of little special rules.  Depending on what Officer you take, you can also take some models from other factions (Westerners and Saracens anyway).

Plus, the Golem is rock hard.

*ba dum tish*

[nightwatch]

mmm, right thanks, i love the look of the lost and the demons, so if i went for lost which are possibly one of the weakest factions, could they be made much better in their week areas by adding mercs up to a good fighting level to take on the demons?
it seems like demons are the ones to beat, are they unbeatable? if not who beats them most?
while i would go for demons first i don't want to have a strong force while my wife plays something else that's always beaten, hence my thinking for going for the lost with a merc contingent, but what other faction?

[Bork]

adding mercs surely could boost them up, theres some pretty great merc models out there. lost arnt so bad its just i dont have trouble beating them. for me its the lack of CMD points that punish armies. i normally clock 9 CMD points with my demons and i generally get twice as many as my opponant, it makes a huge differance to the game.

demons are a double edged sword, whilst hitting hard and having lots of CMD points and good orders they lack armour and have to rely on healing to keep them going, without asaliah or samiel on the table they go die so easily. lost suffer mainly because of their individual high cost and therefore low numbers and the fact that combat is simultaneous, it doesnt make them useless but you need to play them carefully.

demons certainly are the best consistant game winners, the rest are evenly matched more or less but at the end of the day its the better play who wins and especially so if you use the scenarios. its even stevens then as the object isnt a straight up scrap and any force can take the win.

demons are not unbeatable by any means, i loose maybe 1 in 4 games with them on average and when i loose i tend to loose pretty badly.

[Rho]

From the experience in our Hell Dorado Group of players at first the demon players were strongest, however once we played scenarios and everyone simply learned how to use his troops more efficiently it evened out pretty much. If I'm not mistaken in the near future along with the first expansion stat changes are about to come, so they might 'balance' a thing or two that way (if there should be any need at all).
As it is, the game seems fairly balanced, it is a hell lot of fun to play and no one in our group feels he has done the 'wrong' choice in having picked a potentially weaker faction. We chose the faction(s) we liked best from design and are very happy with that.

[nightwatch]

thanks for all the help guys, ive gone and ordered a lost for me, and the westerners for the missus,(she just couldn't handle the look of the demons) i wanted the demons but feel to get used to the game lost/westerners would be a more balanced bet.
i also ordered isha, and the golem, i want estruscilla stix as i think he/she looks cool on paper but cant find it, is it with the saurav-geet?
can the marshal of hell (giles) only command a merc army, think im right in that as using the online army builder to check what units go with each faction.
anyways now you can all wait for just played and silly question time to follow

any players in east devon?

[Dogmeat]

can the marshal of hell (giles) only command a merc army, think im right in that as using the online army builder to check what units go with each faction.
anyways

Correct.  Some Merc officers have an ability called Prestige that lets them hire troops from other armies.  Gilles doesn`t have this though and can only hire troops that are already Mercs.

now you can all wait for just played and silly question time to follow

Look forward to it.  New players are the lifeblood of the game and all that.   

[Clousseau]

any players in east devon?

Try registering/looking here;
http://nearbygamers.com/

I'm a bit too far away by the way! But I will be at Warfare in Reading running HD demos if you can make it that far.

[BeBert]

Zaebas did you hear about this ?

This is a set of scenario to play in organized game (like tournament) during a limited period.
Part one and two are over and their compiled results are known.

You may use it to determine strong and weak faction, but results comes also from players and scenarios.
For example daemons have no good results but to my mind it is cause by the fact they are the more difficult to master.
Moerover some faction are good against somes and bad against others.
For example Dameons are good against saracens which is maybe the strongest faction.

So in first part, ranking was (from winners to losers) :
- Losts
- Saracens
- Deamons
- Westerners
Mercs were too few to count

In part two,
- Saracens
- Mercs
- Losts
- Westerners & Daemons

To conclude, all factions are quite balanced, i only advise against Westerners (for the moment) since to be competitive you have only one possible strategy (grenadiers + doppelsodner) and this is not fun.

[Bork]

i can attest to that particular strategy not being fun im on the recieving end of it more or less every time i play