wolves

This forces you to change tactics/army and that is not a bad thing

I'm not sure I follow; you can change tactics because it happens turn 1; given that armies normally move away from the city it sounds like you are suggesting that you always travel with two armies side by side so you can pick the type of troupes require per fight ?

Not really a problem, high initiative/fast moving units like wolves are really weak so you don't take that much damage even if there are several. Just move the weakest unit back and finish them off with your full strength units.

I disagree with the statement "This forces you to change tactics/army and that is not a bad thing".

Tactics is maneuver, quick decision, weapon versus defense. Not the lack of options / choices. I agree with the poster that the ability to array forces before contract is very important and is a key piece of tactics that has actually been removed with the "faster into fights" design of LH.

I guess you missed this comment:

"will very likely die the first round."; would love to move the dead back

LH made wolves a lot deadlier, in my game a single group can do upwards of fifty damage, so yeah while there health is low, there attack is very high now, because of their increased swarm bonus.

I also see both in this case, more interesting enemys are welcome, and I like the idea behind giving wolves that trait, but dying in turn one is not fun, especially because I saw even really strong (but slow...) units die.

And what should the adapted tactic be? Sending only one Level 8  tank into the battle or an initiative-Monster or pimping all of my units with magic just to kill some stupid wolves and hope that the wolves "only" deal 60 damage?

The other possibility is accepting casualties, that is realistic, but I think the secret of strategy games is a mixture of challenge and fun resulting in a chance to handle critical situations.

My fast hero casted Haste on Brother Sparus who already made some levels and had over 50 HPs, Sparus was next and I let him build his palisade, than he died after the third wolve-attack.

Could happen, but was not funny.

Honestly, I think this might be more of an issue with how swarm calculates... and Wolves having stupidly high initiative.

Here's a couple thoughts...

Swarm should be a separate trait that units have. Possibly with an increase in units per square, and a massive penalty in attack and health. For things like spiders that are actually supposed to swarm.

Swarm should not apply when attacking enemies adjacent to an ally. That is to say swarm shouldn't apply in front line melee combat between two armies.

Wolves have a special trait that allows them to do bonus swarm damage. With their high movement and initiative, it can be pretty brutal, especially early game.  While they are vulnerable because of their non-existent defense, if they get to go first because of their initiative, they can do some damage.

I would say in general swarm has made the early game a lot harder. Mobs of wolves, darklings, even mites, are going to benefit from swarm more then the player since they have the higher numbers. I like the swarm mechanic quite a bit, but I imagine it needs to some thought/tweaking. 

My suggestion would make it so that you only get swarm damage if you have more of your units adjacent to the target then your opponent. Sort of a quasi-flanking type of bonus to damage. 

Yeah, I've had the wolves kill a couple of my units before I got to do anything.  "Weak" indeed.  The third attack from one did 20 damage non-critical, and it's only got 5 attack.  That's a huge bonus.

Wolves are more dangerous now, I can't see anything wrong with that.

Personally, I like swarming, and it really makes taking on wolves an interesting challenge. You're facing glass cannons: fast, dangerous to low level units, but with very low HPs. This means any units you've got that have higher initiative, and/or have "command" (make one other unit of yours move next, even if they've just moved), are important. It also helps to have stoneskin up and running, and it's good to have units with ranged magical attacks. Summoning a warg is a good tactic, too.

The real issue here is your units dying before they can even act. That is no fun at all.

Here's the tactic: if you see wolves in the early game, run away.  Because wolves will swarm and devour your starting army.  Monsters only move 1-square per turn, so you should have no trouble avoiding them until you are ready to face them. 

Use your main city to produce a couple more units while you explore and start quests with your sov.  Once you have 4 units in your army you should have no trouble squishing all the low-level mobs.

Then their threat level should be raised.

Wolves are hugely OP now.  I've had much greater difficulty with some weak / medium wolf battles than I have with other units that are supposedly of a higher difficulty.  Threat level would be one way to handle that ... but I dislike the idea of a wolf pack being a tougher foe than some of the massively powerful magic critters or even opposing Empires in the early game.

And the dark wizard, and darkling shamans, and the rock spiders, and every monster in the game should have its threat level raised to "It Can Kill You". 

Wolves are only slightly more dangerous than darklings and bear cubs.  Those are pretty much the weakest units in the game, except for the units the players start with.

Not to be too pithy about it, but if you don't ever want to die you should play on an easier difficulty.

That's not the point. The purpose of the threat level indicator is to give you an overall idea of how dangerous the monster is. If a dragon was listed as "weak" we would complain. Wouldn't we? And that's the OP complain about wolves. Their threat level is higher than listed. So the either the threat level is raised or wolves are weakened.

StarkeRealm touched on a good point about the swarming of armies attacking each other. I think if you have a mirrored swarm (ex: three units in a standard line formation vs three units of the same) the mirrors should cancel out their swarm bonus. It also adds another layer of tactical depth to have a line of units mean something both defensively and offensively.

I'd also really like to see positional damage as well, such as flanking bonus. But I'd settle for mirrors preventing swarm-cheese. Though I think if Stardock had it so we could set up our units in battle before it actually started, or even a window that opens up showing a grid where you would like your units to start in a standard fight would be greatly helpful.

we have talked internally about increasing the threat level calculation for the swarm bonus trait (which would up wolves threat) and lowering their initiative... thanks for the feedback

Their threat level is only high when you are just starting, depending on circumstance.  If you raise the wolves threat level, then you need to raise everything else accordingly.  But there are so many far more dangerous creatures than wolves.  It's just that wolves are the most dangerous low level monster, again, depending on the circumstance (They're not at all dangerous if you have equal numbers of units or any semblance of armor).

It's possible that the wording is to blame, that saying that wolves or darklings are a "low" threat is misleading.  At the beginning of the game, every monster in the game (from darklings to dragons) can and will destroy you given the right opportunity.  There are no bunnies to slaughter to rack up experience.  But, IMHO, wolves and darklings definitely belong on the bottom wrung of the danger spectrum.

Yes, they can really put you through the wringer.

This is very frustrating. There should be a difference if i attack the wolves vs. if i mistakenly stopped moving near wolves and they attacked me. If I initiate the attack on any monster i shouldnt be caught unawares with my pants down and at the start of the battle wondering who is going to die first. At the least not against low level beginner mobs or a small band of 3 low level wolves. Usually when you decide to attack something you have some sort of plan formulated for the force you are going in with. The issue here is that since you cannot dictate where you place your troops at the start of the battle you are left to rely on the programming algorithims and initiative stats to decide what will happen right off the bat.

I have noticed that in LH tactical battles that sometimes you do start off to one side or the other now instead of just straight across from the enemy, i just wish this was more planned out and not so random feeling. Sometimes i have had units almost intermingling within the ranks of the enemy which is pure chaos and can be fun and frustrating.

Basically i want to group my army however i see fit at the start of a battle. maybe we could select from a few different formations or something like it.

I also wish we had some sort of "you surprised the enemy" and now have some tactical advantage at the start of the battle. This should work both ways and may have to do with some specific trait or your level vs the enemys level.

This is quickly becoming the top request from the LH beta.  That's what you get for finally making tactical battles interesting, Stardock!

I do not mind the wolves it just there mobility needs a nerf. Not only do they start first they have high mobility and they swarm 1 NPC at a time. I rather face tougher wolves with lower mobility.