Ruins

[Pillager]

KGB,

It might take a hero's presence to convince an army to march into dark caverns populated by horrible monsters.

Piranha,

If defeating a ruin is just another stack battle, I will just keep on pumping my heroes' command ability (which is all I do now). It would be nice if a ruin demanded your hero to be more of an adventurer and less of a leader....this would force a player to specialize a hero in one area or the other, or to make a jack-of-all-trades hero (which wouldn't be an exceptional leader or adventurer).

If a ruin was a one on one battle between the ruin's guardian and the exploring hero, players would be encouraged to buy strength and critical strike (and perhaps other combat bonuses yet to be available). I don't think that these are worth taking at the moment, so this would be a positive change.

[KGB]

Pillager,

It might take a hero's presence to convince an army to march into dark caverns populated by horrible monsters.

Even though they face those same horrible monsters daily above ground? Even though half their population (Dwarves, Orcs, Spiders, Minotaurs etc) might be made up people who prefer to live underground? Even though many of those ruins are clearly above ground structures? Nah, I'm not buying that explanation

That's why if ruins are going to be regular fights then any units should be able to venture into a ruin. Ruins to me are meant to be specific hero tests (esp when they come from a quest). That's why I prefer some kind of hero vs guardian solution. Although I proposed a modified DLR solution with varying survival percentages it could take something else into effect as well (I suggested maybe a minimum level needed to search L2/L3 ruins) like adding the critical strike percentage to the heroes survival percentage so you had Base Survival Percent + (Hero Strength-Monster Strength)*5 + Critical Strike Percentage.

Note: You are right about the other hero skills besides command, positive stack attack, negative stack attack bonus's not being useful. A lot of that though is because they are too expensive. At 7 points for +1 move it's too expensive to consider. But if it was 4 points for +1 move it might be a lot more attractive to take.

KGB