Shadow Empire | Minos Tribe | Ep. 004 - Our "Allies" Turn Cold, BATTLEMODE ENGAGE!

Shadow Empire is my favourite strategy game, a masterpiece 4X/Wargame hybrid from VR Designs, published by Matrix. In this new series, I ramp the difficulty up to Hard and play on what I expect to be a fairly difficult planet in the hopes of testing the AI out properly.
You can find the game at www.matrixgames.com.
explorminate.co

[@lethrington]

To be a viewer, watching Battlemode be barely holding together any kind of exterior border at all with all his unfriendly neighbors. His economy is struggling to get started still, and he has so little ammo that the incorrect soviet ammo myths are actually applicable here. Battlemode: "Lets go invade our Major neighbor." Me: Panicking.

[@battlemode]

Haha you saw this one coming didn't you? :D

[@Fallout3131]

This series has me hooked

[@battlemode]

That's great, thanks for the feedback! Definitely my most popular series yet and I think it's the best one I've done so far.

[@LeoPanther]

War was probably inevitable. Getting an alliance win with a victory pact is nice. Still having a major neighbour sitting on your lip would make anyone nervous. Let's hope you can indeed settle this quickly so you can focus on expansion again.

[@battlemode]

Well, it was a nice idea anyway...

[@oneg3096]

Fun to watch so far, thanks for making and sharing this! btw you can raise units/armies not at 100%, it's possible as long as it's above 50%, it's actually a good idea sometimes to do just that as you can't move an army that was just created, and by next turn when they can move they probably gets the rest of the replacements missing from a 100% anyway. Good luck!

[@battlemode]

Yup, good point. I tend not to do that with Brigades but often do with Corps amd Armies later in the game

[@foolerysworld3324]

Really enjoying this series!

[@battlemode]

Awesome! More incoming

[@adrianthompson5250]

I notice that to your east, there is something of a natural chokepoint between to mountain ranges. Would be a good place for another zone as there may well be oil deposits in the desert beyond.

[@battlemode]

Good call, once the war is over (as of ep.010 I'm still fighting) I'll check that out, cheers

[@eddieballgame]

Definitely & interesting episode & your thought process seems logical per the early attempt to conquer this neighbor. Can't say I would have been this aggressive with the quality of present troops. But...now there is no turning back, I suspect. Good luck!

[@battlemode]

Definitely no turning back on this one haha

[@0MVR_0]

vindicated from the initial assessment, yet your situation is still optimal. A strong ally stands at arms length with a modestly defended stronghold/trading station between.

[@battlemode]

Oh, it gets worse don't worry haha

[@jRsqILVOY]

I never knew about the map view when planning attacks!

[@battlemode]

I don't use it much but it can save time if you do

[@Trifler500]

Just FYI, you don't need the High-Velocity Guns tech to get artillery. The only thing it unlocks are the high-velocity guns for tanks. Tanks can still use HE guns without it. The only thing I'm not sure about are the towed AT Guns.

[@battlemode]

Hmm are you sure? I was 99% certain that anything with a big barrel on it requires HVGs, including AT Guns and Artillery.

[@Trifler500]

@@battlemodeI'm sure. I regularly hold off on researching that tech. You even confirmed it in your previous game when you designed a tank without that tech. :) It just listed the HE barrels and not the AP barrels.

[@OznerpaGMusiC]

From what i gather, every road fork/split reduces supplies down each road by half. You can use traffic signs to manage it, but after many hours of play and reading guides the traffic sign screen still makes zero sense to me lol. so how my simpleton mind handles it is I would disconnect that road going into enemy territory from your capital Minos; and I would disconnect the road from Minos to Zafariria Ruins, and instead connect Zafariria Ruins to Hollister, reducing 4 roads out of Minos to 2 roads. Map reference: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKDJh3Roh8ySnpIsi=Zu0UJOYY0QzUhgea&t=1344

[@battlemode]

Hey thanks! Really helpful. Just a heads up, this was recorded a month or more ago so I'm afraid you won't see your advice taken. But it's really helpful to comment with it anyway as people do read them and you'll be helping people who are!

[@cthan1174]

and again another great entertaining video

[@battlemode]

Cheers! I appreciate the kind comment

[@Trifler500]

Regarding the spies seeing everything in a zone thing: I agree with you, but perhaps Vic doesn't want to put too much work into changing that since he mentioned a while back that he hopes to eventually add things like launching satellites and some sort of space layer. Just a thought I had when you mentioned it.

[@battlemode]

Yeah there's gonna be cool stuff coming thete I reckon!

[@Mazth]

I don't actually know how much irl time a turn is supposed to be, if it is long it could make sense, or one could opt for a system that gradually reveals more over turns, speed would increase with more spies, not just amount of information provided

[@Trifler500]

@@Mazth More info over time is a cool idea.

[@CoderDonut]

This is my first time watching this game or anything of yours, but I can't stop watching! This series is sweet. Do you have any advice for a first timer trying this game? It's definitely got some complexity going on

[@battlemode]

Welcome! Glad you're enjoying it! I'd say that this series is not a great tutorial, I made a big mistake quite early on, however it does show how to recover from a near loss a bit later on. For a new player I'd play on a small Siwa class world, turn off all story events and DLC and play it on Beginner. It's a difficult game and that's difficult enough when you are learning. Also, take time to read the manual as you play, and lesrn the UI inside out. I did a Top 10 tips video waaay back, that might be helpful too

[@AbuHajarAlBugatti]

Attacking the neighbors with mostly militia made me nervous. Lets see where this goes. They atleast needed lots of artillery as help and some more recon buggys. Sadly the force that invaded them before was quite small otherwise this would be good idea

[@battlemode]

I tend to do that to get recon points before sensors/air recon missions/motorbikes etc. Militia are there to die as far as I'm concerned :D Not really, but ... kind of...

[@henrythewhite]

Oh no, our trading partner! I do hope you can do more diplomacy-focused play. Aren't you able to eventually incorporate groups somewhere down the line?

[@battlemode]

Diplomacy is a little odd in Shadow Empire at the moment. For years it was so powerful it made winning the game incredibly easy, then it got a well needed nerfing but I think it might have been overdone a touch, at least according to some of my viewers. I haven't really tested it out and I had intended to in this game. I need the Foreign Affairs Council ASAP.

[@AbuHajarAlBugatti]

@@battlemodethe stratagems are super powerful. I kind of wished for a different system than it all being cards at random. But it works. But yes atleast when I played a year ago it was quite easy setting off huge rebellions in other nations. There is barely a round where I didnt use strategems as they are way too useful. From inside to outside politics, research, giving you tons of money or manpower or ressources at a click, they can give you very powerful buildings that produce infinite energy or steel or water. Defo not something to overlook. Aside from startagems to please your politicans loyalty. I would say I got pretty good at the game. One thing I found out is the more cities you found the better. Had atleast basically no setbacks aside the initial extra food/energy/steel and workers needed to build it up into a small city

[@wojszach4443]

why high velocity guns have such bad high explosive rounds? is it size? nah, faster round goes thicker shell gets=less space for fun particles

[@battlemode]

Sounds about right! "Fun Particles" lol

[@wojszach4443]

@@battlemode there is apso forbidden tuna, angry play doh and more

[@merrydiscusser6793]

Friendly Neighbor that likes you a lot: "Hey Battlemode, I will probably like you less in the future." Battlemode: "KILL IT WITH FIRE !!!!" Also Battlemode: "I just ordered a surprise attack on a neighbor I had good relationship with since basically the beginning of the game. Why are all my commanders upset by that? Strange." Yeah, I don't think I will get into that game. Looks like just too many moving parts and things you have to pay attention to, and not enough ways to get some automation going.

[@battlemode]

You can ignore a lot of the detail as there's actually a lot of built in automation but yeah, it is a big, meaty game for sure. I get why some people don't get on with it, this is my jam though

[@AbuHajarAlBugatti]

Took me 10 hours to fully understand all parts of the game but the detail and realism in decisionmaking makes the game special and rewarding

[@telleryoutube4458]

algorithmssss

[@battlemode]

Hehe thanks!