Expeditions: Conquistador - Development Report @RPGCodex

RPGCodex has an article offering some development info on Expeditions: Conquistador based on a visit to the Logic Artists studios.

The combat in the preview build of Conquistador that we got our hands on felt very basic at some points, and it seemed the optimal strategy was often to focus on bringing down single enemies, going from enemy to enemy. When faced with this opinion, Wæver ponders for a spell, and then says: “I think the tactical challenge in our combat doesn't necessarily come from the system itself. The actual battlefield is hugely important in terms of what you can and cannot do. We really focused on getting a lot of different layouts in and also different configurations. Sometimes you're flanked when combat begins, sometimes you're only attacked from one side, sometimes you're surrounded, or your dudes are spread out.” Eskildsen adds: “yeah, or you have to reach a certain part of the map.” “Yeah,” Wæver continues, “we also have different victory conditions. All this requires different tactics, obviously. I think that we just focused on having a flexible combat system more than having a super-complex one. So that you will have to kind of analyze the tactical situation more than the system. There are a fair few battlefields where if you just kind of play them on autopilot – simply advance and try to take the enemy out – you will get creamed, because a lot of the time there's more of them than of you. So a lot of the time you have to think “hmm, how do I get these guys to where I want them, how to get them in a position where I can flank them?”” Wæver and Eskildsen add that the preview build contains only 15 battles out of the full game's 75, that these are among the first battles the team actually designed (and therefore have simple, flat terrain for example), and that these battles are at the beginning of the game and are therefore easier than what you can expect in the game's later stages.