I have recently been addicted to the Total War mode of "War and Civilization". To be honest, as a viewer who watches KPL and LPL all year round, I am very sensitive to the competitive nature of this type of strategy game. This game combines the city construction of "Civilization" and the troop restraint of "Age of Empires". The pace is indeed much faster than traditional SLG, but after playing it for two seasons, I feel that the balance is a bit interesting, but also a bit problematic.
Let's talk about the advantages first. The 50V50 team battle design is really similar to the large-scale team battles of MOBA, but it also tests command and resource scheduling. In the current version, the strength of the infantry stream and the archer stream is quite close, at least not like the dominance of one in some games. Moreover, the interactive mechanism between the city wall and the barracks is well done. The attacker has to seize the opportunity to demolish the wall, and the defender can use the terrain to pull. This sense of game is quite rare in mobile games.
But the problem is also obvious. First of all, the cost-effectiveness of cavalry is too high. Its high mobility and charge damage have resulted in many high-end games where cavalry go around and cut into the back row, and infantry become cannon fodder. This reminds me of the jungle hero in a previous version, whose damage exceeded the standard and was directly cut. Now the cavalry has a bit of that feeling. In addition, the technology bonuses of civilization characteristics are too different. For example, the early economic bonus of some civilizations is too outrageous, resulting in super snowballing ability. The outcome of a team battle depends on the technology tree from the beginning, which somewhat weakens the operating space.
More importantly, the matching mechanism of Total War mode is currently not very reasonable. There are often fifty active bosses on one side, and all AFK and low-cost players on the other side. The experience is very poor. As a competitive player, I feel that this kind of multiplayer battlefield needs stricter tier stratification, otherwise it will really become a gold-crushing or population-crushing game, and the strategic component will be greatly reduced.
Of course, the overall foundation is very good, especially the unit control and terrain utilization, which already have the potential for e-sports. I hope the official can look more at the high-end game data, adjust the cavalry values, optimize the matching algorithm, and balance the characteristics of civilization. If each version can have a clear tactical ecology like KPL, this game might really become a new dark horse in strategy e-sports. 🕹️