You saw that correctly: the Swordsman's reflect ability stacks, so if you have a lot of Swordsmen in the exact same spot, then hardly any projectiles will get through. This makes for a nice combo with the shield: against ranged units it really pays off to protect a single Swordsman with a shield, because if another Swordsman can join him, they reflect more projectiles.

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The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.

Good to know, its nice to get feedback from you guys

I'm really hoping that the sword nerf will make it easier for Aztecs to rush Chinese, because if dragon is not getting nerfed, then that is the only way Aztec will have a chance against Chinese. It's impossible to beat a dragon rush with the way things are now, spamming jaguars does nothing as the Chinese user will eventually push you back (most likely with stacked swords).

To be honest I've really been turned off to this game because dragon is unbeatable with no nerf in sight (yes I have tried countless strategies to counter this both as Chi and Az, nothing works). Thanks for the memories, Ronimo, looking forward to a sequel (if any).

Yeah dragon dumbs down the game IMO, its like you're on a time limit to beat a chinese player if your playing aztec or viking. If its a chi mirror if he uses dragon your on dragon better not be too far behind and then it becomes a match about who has more units when both dragons come out.

When ever I play chi, the only time when I lose after I dragon some one is if they were already in my base killing some workers and taking out all my budahs. Other than that its a win.

I might have a solution to this whole Dragon thing.

How about you make it so the Dragon (and for that matter, the Boulder and the Hammer of Thor) can only take away up to 50% of a worker's health?

The workers already have a 40% resistance to regular spells, so why not apply this type of idea to the ultimate spells? Technically, all 3 factions can use their ultimates to completely wipe out the opposing team's workers under the right circumstances.

If you can see the opposing team's workers, the Vikings can drop a Hammer on them, and pretty much wipe all of them out.

If you're the Aztecs and you're on a map with "forks in the road," you can tell the Boulder to avoid towers and go straight for their workers, again usually wiping them out in the process. Unless, of course, you're on a map where you can put a tower in front of the gold mines. But you get the idea.

The Chinese just have it the easiest, as they don't have to worry about towers or fog-of-war.

Attacking workers is a good strategy, nothing wrong with it. But when it's fairly easy (for the Chinese, TOO easy) to use ONE spell to COMPLETELY destroy someone's economy, I agree, it dumbs down the game. The ultimates should be devastating, but the player should still rely on their forces to finish the job.

What do y'all think?

So ... when exactly is the patch due?

Dragon needs to be re-done completely, not just a tweak like decreasing damage or increasing research/mana cost. I was thinking some kind of rapid-fire balls of fire in lieu of the current n00bstream. At least this way skill would be required to take out a decent amount of workers.... also, decrease the amount of fuel so you couldn't just spam it. You could increase the mana cost as well I guess, but the changes I mentioned before would be enough, I think, if done properly. If you went with a tweak how about increasing the dragon's movement speed significantly, and decrease the fuel?

The problem is, with Chinese- they already have the most powerful units in the game and some of the most useful and utilitarian spells compared to the other 2 factions (except maybe mind control): do they REALLY need the best ultimate spell too? I understand Chinese need some kind of counter to mind control, but when there's nothing the Aztec can do about dragon, where's the balance in that?

As you mentioned Chinese do have it the easiest when it comes to worker decimation, but it's not only the instant-access: Chinese have the best units in the game, and with the low cost of Buddhas (with high benefits) it makes it quite easy to turtle and dragon extremely early. The conditions required for the other 2 factions' "ultimate spells" are too unrealistic. Thor's Hammer costs the same amount of gold to research and has the same mana cost- but which is more effective? Aztec's boulder can be deadly, but the fact that it gets stopped by towers makes it pretty much useless (coupled with its friendly unit-killing ability), especially since Aztecs have the most expensive tower- they are unlikely to be able to control the map in terms of towers (Chinese have the advantage here).

Like others I am wondering when the patch will be released. I assume most of the time is spent on getting Sony approval and working on the Move support?

The balance patch is now online on PSN! This also adds Move support to Swords & Soldiers. If you try to start the game, the patch should automatically download.

We will definitely be monitoring the results of our balance changes and are of course also looking forward to hearing your feedback on them!

I downloaded the patch for the PS3 version, but for some reason, it doesn't seem like the balance changes were implemented. For me, the Swordsman still costs 90 gold to research and the Catapult still costs 150 gold to produce.

Dunno if it matters, but I'm not using the Move controller the play the game - still the standard PS3 controller.