Can't play anymore. Game is Broken.

Make people pay time or money to level their units, and they'll expect some benefit. The upgrades can cost AP, but they'll want a favorable cost-benefit ratio in most circumstances. It's a "reward" for their "work" and gives a feeling of achievement and growth.

Of course, "favorable cost-benefit ratio" is exclusive with good balance. And so you get this problem. People want leveled units to be clearly better, but making them clearly better puts the game as a whole in a bad place - "pay to win" and a dearth of meaningful choices.

(Even before the most recent patch, I was thinking of list-building in terms of "how many units can I get in? Okay, how many AP do I have leftover? Those, I'll use to 'upgrade' the units I have." It was startlingly successful.)

My logic leads me to the same place it always has: if you want to make a wargame, then make a wargame. Do away with XP and unit costs (so the only cost of a unit, or its 'upgrades', is AP).

If you want to make an RPG, then make an RPG. Build on the sweet theme we already have, add in a narrative and a 1p campaign, and give us the ability to customize units' appearances and names without cost.

Don't make something awkwardly halfway between the two. It'll just make the wargamers hate the narrative elements (XP and ducat costs, in this case) and the RPGamers hate the wargaming elements (complex cost-benefit ratios).

If you want to make an RPG, then make an RPG. Build on the sweet theme we already have, add in a narrative and a 1p campaign, and give us the ability to customize units' appearances and names without cost.

You apparently missed the first 2 Cyanide attempts at Confrontation. Trust me when I say...the direction they've got with this game is a BIG step in the right direction, because their 2 previous games were:

something awkwardly halfway between the two.

I would love to have a great adventure/RPG game in the Confrontation universe. Hell, a video game version of Rackham's old RPG "Cadwallon", if done well, is the best thing they could do with the IP, in my opinion. However, Cyanide has already demonstrated they don't have what it takes to make the game I'm talking about. Sorry Cyanide, but it's true. The first 2 Confrontation games were half-baked. There was SOOOO much more that could be done with the setting, but I don't trust Cyanide to do it right beyond Dogs of War (which has shown to be pretty fun, overall).

i didn't play the first confrontation game, but aarklash legacy got lot of positive reviews (check steam if you dont believe it) and i would recommend you the game as it is very tactical. Other than that, this game is quite different and i doubt you can compare them effectively, other than the fact they are based on the same universe.

about high level units cost/benefit...i agree levelling them should make them stronger but not so strong that you are forced to play with few elite units to have a chance. Currently lvl 5 is a pain to reach and after almost 40 matches (from lvl 1) with my grave guardian still have to reach it. It doesnt bother me too much but it will in the moment that i feel it is necessary to reach that level to be competitive.

Lets be honest : right now the only units that are worth levelling are the casters as their power increases drammatically when they level, while the elite units have a much lower power curve, in terms of raw power.

ie: a lion mage lvl 3 with recovery can easily double their damage output and has access to 1 more spell, while a grave guardian lvl 3 just increase its utility with taunt or martyr (martyr is cute and good flavor wise but self damaging an expensive unit is a big NO-NO btw)

You apparently missed the first 2 Cyanide attempts at Confrontation. Trust me when I say...the direction they've got with this game is a BIG step in the right direction, because their 2 previous games were:

something awkwardly halfway between the two.

If you couldn't tell from the moniker I've chosen - I've been following the Rackham IP over the years, including Confrontation: Age of Rag'narok and its pre-painted plastic; the bizarre CMON enterprises; and the latest video games from Cyanide. It's a testament to the quality of the IP that so many vultures are picking at Rackham's corpse.

I have not played Aarklash Legacy. I've heard that the gameplay was interesting but the story was comically off-theme. DOW has engaging gameplay and a solid theme (darker than Rackham's approach, but not completely wrong); but DOW's meta-game suffers from a lack of focus at present.

The specifics are what they are, and there's little point in talking about them now; balance will progress. If the devs have plans to allow units to buff their stats directly, as was possible in the miniatures version of Dogs of War, warriors will have more interesting options and versatility.

This comes down to basics of the game's design that should have been definitively decided a long time ago. Make a wargame or an RPG. Don't mix constraints.