Post by Gerd von Rundstedt on Oct 17, 2022 18:58:18 GMT
Alright, I can actually do this. Feel free to comment on any of the choices.
Please note the following:
i. I do not have the most recent update, and as such I do not have Wallace nor do I have any information that would be specific to the new conquest, Epic Battles, or Ottoman Invasion.
ii. I have not ever used the following generals - William Wallace, Empress Matilda, Su Dingfang, Chinggis Khan, or William the Conqueror and I will not be reviewing them. In addition, I do not have Robyn Hoode's bow.
iii. I have much more experience with the earlier versions of Arthur, Saladin, and Olga than the current ones. I have still used the current ones extensively, but not as much.
iv. I will not take price into account.
So, on with the show!
S Tier:
Proof of Honor - You all knew this was going to be here. Two top-tier generals, equipment to make other generals top-tier, a huge amount of different currencies, and fragments galore. You get all sorts of stuff from this and you absolutely deserve it. Plus, it doesn't feel like instant cheating because you get it gradually. Yay for a clean conscience! Easily the best price performer on this list definitely absolutely 100%. *whispering in my ear* WAIT WHAT?! THEY RAISED THE PRICE?! SCUMBAGS! At least I can feel smug in that I bought it before youse guys. Peasants. Yeah, this is the only one in S tier, and that was a surprise... to no one.
A Tier:
Charlemagne - The number one IAP general I got that I can recommend is Charlemagne. Obviously he isn't as good as a PoH, but he is fantastic. His privilege is probably the most overpowered ability in the game, allowing you to get some insane extra bonuses in battles. And I haven't even started on his extra general slot! All joking aside, his privilege is worth his price alone. And that is fortunate for him, as he himself is... pretty mediocre. Still a rock-solid Melee Cavalry. Plain and Mountain Fighting is... passable? Melee Cav expert is great, particularly because his item gives the defense bonus rather than the attack, so he is even more well-rounded of a unit. Speed naturally plays to the strong suits of Melee Cav. All in all, good. Writing this I realized that he perfectly plays like a Melee Cav unit. He's fast, well-rounded, and solid, but not great. Bad unit too, but good purchase rewards. Still, definitely buy him, if only for his privilege. S Tier privilege, B/C tier general, split the difference and get A tier.
Richard Coeur d'Leon - Not much I can say that hasn't already been said except that I absolutely hate him. He is annoying in how perfect he is, he breaks easily, and I will never like the Templars. He's great, his rewards are great, his unit is something that I can't bring myself to say that starts with "gr" and ends with "eat", his item is rock-solid, his active is a great team skill. He has a privilege that is, guess what, great. A tier through and through.
B Tier:
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi - When I first got him, I was not expecting for him to be this high. But in LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE UPDATE he has been buffed, and his price has not been changed one bit. Literally the second most godlike price performer. His active is OP, particularly with Caesar helping him, he is great with a Mamluk, which I may mention is absolutely broken. Even with a Cavalry in the early game on him he will be amazing. Good rewards, great unit. Just a shame that his weapon comes so late. He makes Territory mode SO much more enjoyable than the boring grindfest mess that it is, if only because he makes it even more grindfesty. Nothing I can say about him will not change what ET will make him next. Alright, only half as a joke, I will bet any one of you MONEY that he will be buffed in a future update. Guarantee it. Absolute Nuke. Oh yeah, AND his privilege is the second best in the game. Goshdarn ET, making their infinite number of IAPs amazing so that none of us feel cheated by them.
Attila the Hun - You know how I said that I did not expect Saladin to be that high? Well, I did not expect Attila to be this LOW. When the game was first released, he was MASSIVELY OP. He was the god of the archers, he was amazing in campaign and conquest alike. Made speedrunning possible for even someone like me (that is, before, stoic , andrei , and hrabrimalitoster entered the chat). He was a massive boon in campaigns due to his privilege. He had a powerful unit that were actually pretty common, allowing us to max it pretty easily. Amazing privilege, GOD-LEVEL general, who could possibly ruin him? Well, apparently, ET. In later updates, everyone and their grandma was an archer god. His privileges were still good, but not as good as the massively buffed privileges of other generals compared to him. He was still great, it was just that there were other people who did the job almost just as well. Furthermore, many thought, why get him at all if his Hero Legend is for free anyway? Still great, just upstaged by his comrades.
C Tier:
Julius Caesar - This man is a BOSS. He has a couple of things holding him back from being better than Attila, but if he didn't have them, I would put him in A-Tier. First of all, he is undisputably the best gen in the game for the good old Counter-Ravenna-Woad combo, allowing him to be a huge threat in campaigns while still being relatively tough. He won't break the first time he's hit, unlike SOME people *cough* Richard *cough*. His passive skills lead to a LOT of damage, and he's actually a pretty good admin, with his item and his Strategist. But his crowning achievement is a LEVEL 4 CALMNESS. I don't know if you guys appreciate the gravity of that statement. LEVEL 4 CALMNESS. And he's the only one with it. He with Saladin get to trigger Detain EVERY OTHER TURN. Him with Olga? Trigger Master Arsonist EVERY OTHER TURN. His biggest setback is having neither rewards (I mean, to be fair, PoH is a reward in and of itself) and the killing blow of having absolutely no privilege. I mean, that's one of the major things I am looking for in a general - their privilege makes or breaks them. And, like Attila, Beowulf, and Robin Hood, he has no Hero Legend, one of the most fun game modes. Furthermore, he gains no extra points in archery with his item. That's pretty bad. In addition, his infantry skill and points are pretty superfluous - I'm not putting a Counter Infantry on for damage, I'm getting them because I want to protect my archers. I had to think really hard on whether I wanted to put him in B or C tier, and I decided that I would put him in C just because he is just a better, privilegeless, support version of Attila.
Olga of Kiev - Alright, you guys know how much I liked her, even before she was buffed. That was because I just WANTED to like her because it was such a joke when SHE of all people was an IAP. In all honesty, she's not great. Good, but not great. She's got terrible rewards and a terrible privilege, and she herself is only about as good as Beowulf. Putting aside her ridiculously bad rewards, her special force is actually pretty good. It fits her well, and is pretty strong. Especially when it is transferred, it becomes purple-tier for the price of a blue. She can singlehandedly jumpstart your economy in campaigns, as you can get her to 270 Admin pretty easily, or a 135% increase in the value of the nearest city. I will maintain that she is the best Consul in the game, still beating Justinian because, especially with the new features, Negotiation Master just barely beats out Lobbyist. In terms of actual fighting, she is critically hampered by the fact that she is essentially stuck to a city (because that's where she gets the most value) and the fact that her stats aren't great. And also that she only has three skills. But fortunately, those three skills are fantastic! Master Arsonist deals 33% damage to someone. That's insane. Melee Infantry Expert is obviously great. Leadership is amazing now that Morale was buffed and works really well with her unit. So yeah, not great, but good. Other factors are trash, but she's just nice if you have a couple of dollars.
Beowulf of the Geats - This man perfectly sits between the mediocrity of D tier and the averageness of C tier. ... *crickets chirping* ... In any case, he's a perfectly fine general without a privilege or Hero Legend that is essentially a worse Harald Harardra with an item. That's all he is. I mean, he gets continuously high morale, but he lacks Navigation which is something that was one of the biggest boons to Harardra. Outburst is okay on infantry, much worse than on cavalry but it's passable. Snow Fighting is absolutely useless. His skills are low leveled. Output, Morale, but he gets nothing else at all. Can't even use any units that actually last longer than a turn. The book was better. Not much else to say. Mediocre. But to be fair you're not getting PoH for Beowulf. Now lets talk about the biggest disappointment in the game...
D Tier:
Robyn Hoode -
Otto I - I mean, he works fine. His special forces are nothing much, I REALLY like that they near tripled his rewards, that was great. His skills are all wonky, he's a pretty good support gen with his Guide, but why would you spend real money on a support general? He doesn't really work well with ANY real special force other than Jannissaries and you need at least one Teutonic Axeman with him, which means that you need to replace a Jannissary with a Teuton. Furthermore, neither of them have any mobility buffs, so you are stuck either replacing ANOTHER Jannissary on him with someone with mobility points OR you need to waste the SUPPORT general's only point of support (Guide) on himself, who is a mediocre general all in all. Oh, did I mention that he ALSO has a CONSUL skill despite having no points for it PLUS Mountain Fighting, further lending credence to the idea that he needs someone with a mobility buff or spending Guide on himself. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Both Jannissaries AND his item are locked until almost the very end. His privilege is pretty average, just saving you a bit of gold. I would rather have ARTHUR'S privilege than his. When ANYONE shows up with something worse than Arthur, there is a problem. But other than [all those points that I just said], he's actually pretty good. His stats are great, and if you actually give him an item, a Teutonic Swordsman, and two Jannissaries (believe me, a near impossible task), and use Guide on himself instead of Charlemagne, he can be pretty great. Plus, he is usually my go-to guy for putting them on generic units in campaigns. Otherwise, he's really weird and bad. Wow, this rant went on a LOT longer than I thought.
F Tier:
Arthur Pendragon - You know how I descended into rage on the last one? That won't happen now; all I feel about Arthur right now is pure, unadulturated resignation. The only thing awesome about this guy is his name. Also his Hero Legend is pretty fun. And maybe Guinevere is cool that you unlock her with him, but she is still garbage. And his SF is pretty okay, I actually really like War Axe Cavalry. Alright, i'm done with positive things to say about him (I promise). this guy is TRASH. I would dare say that the old version of him was better, because at least the old version had decent hybrid ability. Let that sink in. Old Him, whose active, and thus the main selling point of him, was ENGINEERING, was still better than this piece of absolute garbage. First his active. Call to Reinforcement. Regain a quarter HP. Even setting aside the most major argument against that (that War Drums are literally some of the cheapest usable items out there), Melee Cavalry, even at level 17, do not get above 700 HP. They are at maximum, with the brandiest newiest update that I don't even own, 640 HP. A quarter of that is 160 HP. Even if you multiply that by 3, that is not a lot for every five turns. 480 HP is often the damage sustained in a SINGLE trun let alone 5. For his Master of Assault, he can only use it on two Cav units, one of which is near impossible to get for even pay players. So you are stuck with just one unit (War Axe), which just so happens to have very, VERY limited mobility when it comes to terrain, which brings us to his next skill, Mountain Fighting. Yeah, Arthur needs to continuously be in a plain, otherwise he will go at a speed of around 2 spaces a turn, which is... not good. I don't even need to explain how bad Fortification Expert is. Melee Cavalry is the single worst unit in the game, unfortunately, and War Axe isn't fantastic enough to make up for it. Everything about him is terrible, and the extra rewards ET gave out don't make up for it. His ONLY redeeming quality is Cav Tactician and an okay item. On a scale of 1-10, he is a 3. He's still around an average for a gold tier general, but certainly not an IAP.
Please note the following:
i. I do not have the most recent update, and as such I do not have Wallace nor do I have any information that would be specific to the new conquest, Epic Battles, or Ottoman Invasion.
ii. I have not ever used the following generals - William Wallace, Empress Matilda, Su Dingfang, Chinggis Khan, or William the Conqueror and I will not be reviewing them. In addition, I do not have Robyn Hoode's bow.
iii. I have much more experience with the earlier versions of Arthur, Saladin, and Olga than the current ones. I have still used the current ones extensively, but not as much.
iv. I will not take price into account.
So, on with the show!
S Tier:
Proof of Honor - You all knew this was going to be here. Two top-tier generals, equipment to make other generals top-tier, a huge amount of different currencies, and fragments galore. You get all sorts of stuff from this and you absolutely deserve it. Plus, it doesn't feel like instant cheating because you get it gradually. Yay for a clean conscience! Easily the best price performer on this list definitely absolutely 100%. *whispering in my ear* WAIT WHAT?! THEY RAISED THE PRICE?! SCUMBAGS! At least I can feel smug in that I bought it before youse guys. Peasants. Yeah, this is the only one in S tier, and that was a surprise... to no one.
A Tier:
Charlemagne - The number one IAP general I got that I can recommend is Charlemagne. Obviously he isn't as good as a PoH, but he is fantastic. His privilege is probably the most overpowered ability in the game, allowing you to get some insane extra bonuses in battles. And I haven't even started on his extra general slot! All joking aside, his privilege is worth his price alone. And that is fortunate for him, as he himself is... pretty mediocre. Still a rock-solid Melee Cavalry. Plain and Mountain Fighting is... passable? Melee Cav expert is great, particularly because his item gives the defense bonus rather than the attack, so he is even more well-rounded of a unit. Speed naturally plays to the strong suits of Melee Cav. All in all, good. Writing this I realized that he perfectly plays like a Melee Cav unit. He's fast, well-rounded, and solid, but not great. Bad unit too, but good purchase rewards. Still, definitely buy him, if only for his privilege. S Tier privilege, B/C tier general, split the difference and get A tier.
Richard Coeur d'Leon - Not much I can say that hasn't already been said except that I absolutely hate him. He is annoying in how perfect he is, he breaks easily, and I will never like the Templars. He's great, his rewards are great, his unit is something that I can't bring myself to say that starts with "gr" and ends with "eat", his item is rock-solid, his active is a great team skill. He has a privilege that is, guess what, great. A tier through and through.
B Tier:
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi - When I first got him, I was not expecting for him to be this high. But in LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE UPDATE he has been buffed, and his price has not been changed one bit. Literally the second most godlike price performer. His active is OP, particularly with Caesar helping him, he is great with a Mamluk, which I may mention is absolutely broken. Even with a Cavalry in the early game on him he will be amazing. Good rewards, great unit. Just a shame that his weapon comes so late. He makes Territory mode SO much more enjoyable than the boring grindfest mess that it is, if only because he makes it even more grindfesty. Nothing I can say about him will not change what ET will make him next. Alright, only half as a joke, I will bet any one of you MONEY that he will be buffed in a future update. Guarantee it. Absolute Nuke. Oh yeah, AND his privilege is the second best in the game. Goshdarn ET, making their infinite number of IAPs amazing so that none of us feel cheated by them.
Attila the Hun - You know how I said that I did not expect Saladin to be that high? Well, I did not expect Attila to be this LOW. When the game was first released, he was MASSIVELY OP. He was the god of the archers, he was amazing in campaign and conquest alike. Made speedrunning possible for even someone like me (that is, before, stoic , andrei , and hrabrimalitoster entered the chat). He was a massive boon in campaigns due to his privilege. He had a powerful unit that were actually pretty common, allowing us to max it pretty easily. Amazing privilege, GOD-LEVEL general, who could possibly ruin him? Well, apparently, ET. In later updates, everyone and their grandma was an archer god. His privileges were still good, but not as good as the massively buffed privileges of other generals compared to him. He was still great, it was just that there were other people who did the job almost just as well. Furthermore, many thought, why get him at all if his Hero Legend is for free anyway? Still great, just upstaged by his comrades.
C Tier:
Julius Caesar - This man is a BOSS. He has a couple of things holding him back from being better than Attila, but if he didn't have them, I would put him in A-Tier. First of all, he is undisputably the best gen in the game for the good old Counter-Ravenna-Woad combo, allowing him to be a huge threat in campaigns while still being relatively tough. He won't break the first time he's hit, unlike SOME people *cough* Richard *cough*. His passive skills lead to a LOT of damage, and he's actually a pretty good admin, with his item and his Strategist. But his crowning achievement is a LEVEL 4 CALMNESS. I don't know if you guys appreciate the gravity of that statement. LEVEL 4 CALMNESS. And he's the only one with it. He with Saladin get to trigger Detain EVERY OTHER TURN. Him with Olga? Trigger Master Arsonist EVERY OTHER TURN. His biggest setback is having neither rewards (I mean, to be fair, PoH is a reward in and of itself) and the killing blow of having absolutely no privilege. I mean, that's one of the major things I am looking for in a general - their privilege makes or breaks them. And, like Attila, Beowulf, and Robin Hood, he has no Hero Legend, one of the most fun game modes. Furthermore, he gains no extra points in archery with his item. That's pretty bad. In addition, his infantry skill and points are pretty superfluous - I'm not putting a Counter Infantry on for damage, I'm getting them because I want to protect my archers. I had to think really hard on whether I wanted to put him in B or C tier, and I decided that I would put him in C just because he is just a better, privilegeless, support version of Attila.
Olga of Kiev - Alright, you guys know how much I liked her, even before she was buffed. That was because I just WANTED to like her because it was such a joke when SHE of all people was an IAP. In all honesty, she's not great. Good, but not great. She's got terrible rewards and a terrible privilege, and she herself is only about as good as Beowulf. Putting aside her ridiculously bad rewards, her special force is actually pretty good. It fits her well, and is pretty strong. Especially when it is transferred, it becomes purple-tier for the price of a blue. She can singlehandedly jumpstart your economy in campaigns, as you can get her to 270 Admin pretty easily, or a 135% increase in the value of the nearest city. I will maintain that she is the best Consul in the game, still beating Justinian because, especially with the new features, Negotiation Master just barely beats out Lobbyist. In terms of actual fighting, she is critically hampered by the fact that she is essentially stuck to a city (because that's where she gets the most value) and the fact that her stats aren't great. And also that she only has three skills. But fortunately, those three skills are fantastic! Master Arsonist deals 33% damage to someone. That's insane. Melee Infantry Expert is obviously great. Leadership is amazing now that Morale was buffed and works really well with her unit. So yeah, not great, but good. Other factors are trash, but she's just nice if you have a couple of dollars.
Beowulf of the Geats - This man perfectly sits between the mediocrity of D tier and the averageness of C tier. ... *crickets chirping* ... In any case, he's a perfectly fine general without a privilege or Hero Legend that is essentially a worse Harald Harardra with an item. That's all he is. I mean, he gets continuously high morale, but he lacks Navigation which is something that was one of the biggest boons to Harardra. Outburst is okay on infantry, much worse than on cavalry but it's passable. Snow Fighting is absolutely useless. His skills are low leveled. Output, Morale, but he gets nothing else at all. Can't even use any units that actually last longer than a turn. The book was better. Not much else to say. Mediocre. But to be fair you're not getting PoH for Beowulf. Now lets talk about the biggest disappointment in the game...
D Tier:
Robyn Hoode -
Otto I - I mean, he works fine. His special forces are nothing much, I REALLY like that they near tripled his rewards, that was great. His skills are all wonky, he's a pretty good support gen with his Guide, but why would you spend real money on a support general? He doesn't really work well with ANY real special force other than Jannissaries and you need at least one Teutonic Axeman with him, which means that you need to replace a Jannissary with a Teuton. Furthermore, neither of them have any mobility buffs, so you are stuck either replacing ANOTHER Jannissary on him with someone with mobility points OR you need to waste the SUPPORT general's only point of support (Guide) on himself, who is a mediocre general all in all. Oh, did I mention that he ALSO has a CONSUL skill despite having no points for it PLUS Mountain Fighting, further lending credence to the idea that he needs someone with a mobility buff or spending Guide on himself. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Both Jannissaries AND his item are locked until almost the very end. His privilege is pretty average, just saving you a bit of gold. I would rather have ARTHUR'S privilege than his. When ANYONE shows up with something worse than Arthur, there is a problem. But other than [all those points that I just said], he's actually pretty good. His stats are great, and if you actually give him an item, a Teutonic Swordsman, and two Jannissaries (believe me, a near impossible task), and use Guide on himself instead of Charlemagne, he can be pretty great. Plus, he is usually my go-to guy for putting them on generic units in campaigns. Otherwise, he's really weird and bad. Wow, this rant went on a LOT longer than I thought.
F Tier:
Arthur Pendragon - You know how I descended into rage on the last one? That won't happen now; all I feel about Arthur right now is pure, unadulturated resignation. The only thing awesome about this guy is his name. Also his Hero Legend is pretty fun. And maybe Guinevere is cool that you unlock her with him, but she is still garbage. And his SF is pretty okay, I actually really like War Axe Cavalry. Alright, i'm done with positive things to say about him (I promise). this guy is TRASH. I would dare say that the old version of him was better, because at least the old version had decent hybrid ability. Let that sink in. Old Him, whose active, and thus the main selling point of him, was ENGINEERING, was still better than this piece of absolute garbage. First his active. Call to Reinforcement. Regain a quarter HP. Even setting aside the most major argument against that (that War Drums are literally some of the cheapest usable items out there), Melee Cavalry, even at level 17, do not get above 700 HP. They are at maximum, with the brandiest newiest update that I don't even own, 640 HP. A quarter of that is 160 HP. Even if you multiply that by 3, that is not a lot for every five turns. 480 HP is often the damage sustained in a SINGLE trun let alone 5. For his Master of Assault, he can only use it on two Cav units, one of which is near impossible to get for even pay players. So you are stuck with just one unit (War Axe), which just so happens to have very, VERY limited mobility when it comes to terrain, which brings us to his next skill, Mountain Fighting. Yeah, Arthur needs to continuously be in a plain, otherwise he will go at a speed of around 2 spaces a turn, which is... not good. I don't even need to explain how bad Fortification Expert is. Melee Cavalry is the single worst unit in the game, unfortunately, and War Axe isn't fantastic enough to make up for it. Everything about him is terrible, and the extra rewards ET gave out don't make up for it. His ONLY redeeming quality is Cav Tactician and an okay item. On a scale of 1-10, he is a 3. He's still around an average for a gold tier general, but certainly not an IAP.
