So after the update I only tried the last two maps, didn't replay the first 9 yet.
Two Bugs
-The previous glitch I mentioned before about city capture lvl persists when loading a map, so you can save, half capture them turn 1, load back and they stay half captured so you can capture them in 1 turn, also other way around where your half captured cities you capture that turn and then you reload, they are back at full uncaptured state, but you can just half capture them again and reload to negate that negative drawback
-I think Shadowgift didn't work the 2nd time you use it in it's debut map, which also make me find out that if you brainwashed all but 4 enemies, then kill the 3rd to last enemy instead of brainwashing, it causes the game over scene where
and then transition to the victory screen with most villagers brainwashed because you triggered both the Victory and Defeat condition I reckon?
Shadowgift worked fine on the map after (the final map after update 0.45) even when Shadowgift is used a 2nd time.
So far about the game:
-Brainwash is always fun, it's the first thing I set my eyes on each turn what to convert to my ally, gives the feeling of looting the enemy.
-It's a bit hard to distinguish allies from enemies if I set my hp value in numbers. Putting the settings to HP bars makes differentiating allies from enemies a lot easier, because the hp bars are colored red for enemies and blue for allies.
Might be nice if the hp numbers for enemies and allies are in different colors too?
-For me, the difficulty is too easy even on hard mode (all maps beaten 1st try on hard), but it's probably with my Advance wars and Wargroove experience. I don't mind the difficulty too much as it's still enjoyable to play (a harder difficulty is probably something to look at after finishing this game?). If you ever add an even harder difficulty on the previous maps, I gonna replay them again to challenge myself.
- Linked to the previous problem that the enemy ai is very poor, but it is probably fine since they usually start with a bigger advantage compared to you in hard mode.
-Unit balance seems mostly fine so far, I don't know how much the Paladin's are worth as you can't buy them yourself, but from the other units, they seem mostly fine in their roles.
Villagers: cheap meatshields to protect your more valuable units, can also capture cities and sometimes poke enemies when that is needed or the enemy is low on hp.
Scout: high movement and good dmg and matchup vs anything but Paladins. Pretty affordable cost, all these traits makes them the most spammable unit for me, they kinda serve as the tank for Advance Wars in versatility
Archers: very deady even against Paladins if they get a chance to shoot at them, highly recommended when playing defensively as they can't move and fire and need to be defended by other units. One of the best answer against enemy early paladins rushing you in hard mode
Pikemen: seems kinda like glass cannons as they can hit very hard, but don't take it well in return. Kinda similar role to archers that they are better on defense due to their poor movement and you probably wanna use Villagers as meatshields to protect them from enemy scout/paladin attacks as it's a bad matchup if they get hit first.
-Are there any thoughts about options to healing units? Unless I'm missing something, doesn't seem like you can do that right now. I don't mind if it's like this as it gives me more reason to preserve my important units hp.
I used my weakend units to chip enemies into killing range to keep important units at full hp units when they land the killing blow and then eventually send the low hp units to their deaths as their best purpose seems to be death fodder if they can't be healed. I quickly found out how punishing it is to not have a full hp Fionne in the early game to consistently land killing blows against enemy scouts from near full hp as it eats into her dmg each time if you don't preserve her hp.
