The purpose of this hotfix is to address a small number of mostly technical bugs and minor balancing issues before the Holiday period. There are no significant gameplay additions or rebalancing, we’d like to gather more feedback from players and our metric system before we would judge that worthwhile.

We know that there’s some significant feedback across the scale on Wood Elves in particular at the moment, much as there usually is with any new release as people find their feet with them. And while we’d like that to settle down first, be sure that we are reading all of it.

However, while we are putting this hotfix into beta, we thought we would take the opportunity to clarify a couple of recurring points.

Playing as Wood Elves is too tough.
It’s intended to be a challenge to lead the Wood Elves, and that comes both from the degree of micro you need to exercise in battle and their general mechanics which demand that they play differently from other races. Looking at some of the feedback, some players are really connecting with that and enjoying it, however some aren’t and we will think on how we flag up different playstyles in future factions and make them easier to understand for people who would otherwise expect the norm.

Notwithstanding that there will be some people who just don’t get on with a particular playstyle, and that’s fine, hopefully with a diverse line up there will be something for everyone. Safe to say though that we don’t intend to homogenise the races, and we feel that making them more unique rather than less is the way to go.

Waywatcher is costed too high/underpowered.
We’d agree, and in the hotfix we have reduced the unit by 100 gold to a new price of: 1100. The unit has also been given: +20 missile range and +4 Armour Piercing Missile Damage.

Waywatchers are missing an ability, modders found it!
No, there’s a placeholder in the code, but it wasn’t used for anything in the end.

Wildwood Rangers don’t stack up against other units too well.
Again, we’d agree, and the unit has been rebalanced with the following stat changes: +2 Melee Attack, +7 Melee Defence, +5 Armour Piercing Damage. With these changes the unit is much more formidable in battle and can now defeat Empire Greatswords one-on-one.

Forest Dragons are too weak.
We’d disagree here; Forest Dragons are the hammer of the Wood Elf army, compared to the anvil that is the Treemen or Treekin. It’s best use is in more of an overwatch supporting role, where you can pick off enemy stragglers or crash into a combat where the Treemen/Treekin are acting as an anvil and holding down the fight.

They have not been designed to be thrown into mass combat, due to the other units in the diverse Wood Elves roster and will quickly succumb to spear and pike if used in this manner.

They have poison attacks in their arsenal which can be used to help slow and reduce the enemy damage output and are easily healed with Life casters in the Wood Elves ranks.

Buffs for standing in woods are great, but Welf units do shoot the trees…
All be it that Wood Elves use magical arrows, they do use the same physic based rules as our other missile units from the other races, so do need clear lines of sight. That being said they can very efficiently kite larger enemies into the forests and woods hampering the enemies movement by 20% whilst still being able to fire at them.

Wood Elf archers are the worst in the game, when they should be the best!
Quarrellers, for example, will outshoot them toe to toe, but if you are toe to toe with Quarrellers something has gone very wrong already. The strength in Wood Elf archery comes from precision, manoeuvrability and the wealth of additional abilities and ammo types which make them a much more flexible threat on the battlefield point for point. Other ranged units will do more technical damage in terms of a straight number value, but that is ignoring the full package.

Having said all that, we’ve made their edge more obvious in the hotfix, giving all infantry-based Wood Elf archers the greatest range in the game to help players get the most from their shoot and run strengths. Changes include:
+20m Range (All archer units and characters)
+4 Missile Damage (Glade Guard/Glade Guard [Hagbane Tips]/Deepwood Scouts)

It is hard to conquer the map and hold all the outposts.
Playing Wood Elves where you try and do that will likely end in defeat for all but the most canny player. Raiding and winning then giving up outposts as you move around the map to achieve your longer term objectives is an absolutely viable tactic and certainly one of the largest problems a player trying to play a traditional conquest-style game could struggle with the ideology of. It’s worth approaching differently and seeing how you get on.

Welf Lords get access to Lightning strike later than other Lords.
Woods Elves get the Lightning Strike ability later than other Lords, due to the abundance of new unique buffs that we have given them in their various skill chains. No other Lord can specialise in the same vein to improve their army to become as effective in either missile or melee combat.

HOTFIX PATCH NOTES
- Fixed a rare crash that could occur when continuing Campaign save games created on older patches.
- Increased the frequency of matched combat animations for Great Eagle units in Battle.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the Cloak of Isha Quest Battle to not have any trees in it.
- Sally out Battles for the Wood Elves will no longer load into Battle maps with mountainous/impassable terrain.
- Added missing Wood Elves playstyle icons for French and Spanish in the Front End for the Campaign.
- Updated the Italian and Korean localisation.

WOOD ELVES CAMPAIGN BALANCE PASS
- Reduced the colonisation cost for ruined settlements when playing as the Wood Elves in the Grand Campaign.
- Asrai Lookouts (Outposts) will now generate 50 income per turn.
- Adjusted the penalties when running at an Amber deficit:
> 0 to -10 Amber: Reduced rate of replenishment.
> -11 to -20 Amber: No replenishment, but do not suffer from attrition.
> -21 to -99 Amber: No replenishment and suffer attrition (no change from before).

WOOD ELVES BATTLE BALANCE PASS
Glade Lord (Includes mounted variants)
+ 20m Range

Glade Guard
+ 4 Missile Damage
+ 20m Range

Glade Guard (Hagbane tips)
+ 4 Missile Damage
+ 20m Range

Glade Guard (Starfire Shafts)
+ 20m Range

Glade Riders
+ 4 Missile Damage

Glade Riders (Hagbane Tips)
+ 4 Missile Damage

Deepwood Scouts
+ 4 Missile Damage
+ 20m Range

Deepwood Scouts (Swift Shiver Shards)
+ 20m Range

Waywatchers
+ 20m Range
+ 4 Armour-Piercing Missile Damage
-100 Cost Reduction [1100] (Custom battle & campaign)

Waystalker
+ 20m Range

Eternal Guard
- 50 Recruitment Cost (Custom battle & campaign)

Eternal Guard (Shields)
- 50 Recruitment Cost (Custom battle & campaign)

Wildwood Rangers
+ 2 Melee Attack
+ 7 Melee Defence
+ 5 Armour Piercing Weapon Damage

Wild Riders
+ 5 Charge Bonus