I can believe that. I played that mission before release. In that version I had to rely on some stupidities of the combat-AI that made it inefficient with their spell-usage, like wasting destruction-essence to buff the attack of a stack of pipers that then would play their instrument instead of attacking.
Or that the AI didn't know how to properly use Muskets.

The AI was improved in 1.0.2 and doesn't really make these kinds of mistakes anymore. They put their essence to good use and have a good understanding of how to use their units.

That battle was hard enough before as it required certain things to trick the AI into wasting their essence on inefficient things.
But now that it uses their tools properly, I have a hard time imagining how to do that.

Maybe I give it a try to see if there's a change since my attempt one month ago.

Originally posted by Ail:

I played that mission before release.

How's that possible as the campaign came out with release?

Originally posted by LexGeneralis:

How's that possible as the campaign came out with release?

Oh, not sure if the NDA extends after the release. Some people who were really active on the discord shortly before release got an invite to playtest the final campaign. I was among them.

Wait, there actually was no NDA. They just kindly asked us not to spoil anything.

Originally posted by LexGeneralis:

Maybe I give it a try to see if there's a change since my attempt one month ago.

All right, let me know how it goes tried more and im convinced its broken.

Originally posted by Ail:

I can believe that. I played that mission before release. In that version I had to rely on some stupidities of the combat-AI that made it inefficient with their spell-usage, like wasting destruction-essence to buff the attack of a stack of pipers that then would play their instrument instead of attacking.
Or that the AI didn't know how to properly use Muskets.

The AI was improved in 1.0.2 and doesn't really make these kinds of mistakes anymore. They put their essence to good use and have a good understanding of how to use their units.

That battle was hard enough before as it required certain things to trick the AI into wasting their essence on inefficient things.
But now that it uses their tools properly, I have a hard time imagining how to do that.

Thanks for validating me. Felt like I was missing something.

Lucky you only need to win last missions on overwhelming for the achievements.

Yeah I can feel that. The Barya campaign is designed really well in that it really tests your knowledge of the game and how units work with these breakneck puzzle bossfights that you barely make it out of alive, so you can efficiently work your way up again for the next brick wall.

It was a challenge even for me and I've played the game to death. You've really gotta pull out all the stops with cheesing it. Iirc for the first mission you need to make heavy use of dreaths having first strike, musketeers being able to attack multiple times with spells and your pikeneers being the ones to soak up damage, while keeping losses at a minimum. Using spells for damage doesn't come up as often as you want at this point in the game, but it's also an invaluable option. It's difficult for sure but once you have the formula down it is very much designed for you to make a comeback, even after you take heavy losses after bossfights.

Was very well doable. I tried a change and bring my musketeers in front. Unfortunataly the assassins got them and I lost most of them.
Other casulties have been minimal. I combined the tinkerers and split up my pipers instead.

Once you gather enough essence for justice even in round one you take down hellbreaths and that's basically it. Not even a need for a single fireball.

So, my recipe was:
- split pipers, join tinkerers
- put musketeer to the front to agro sassanids and brutes
- keeping pikeneers alive and as main DMG dealer as much as possible (which means using initiative, buffs on them)
- destroying hellbreath with justice as soon as you get enough essence
After some tries with these tactics and some luck I've managed to secure victory on Overwhelming difficulty for this fight