This is a good game, but I feel upgrades are a bit broken (it's almost always better to just buy a new unit). It also finishes too soon - another 4 or 5 levels would be great.
What does it mean by "Your game must end" for the 40th level badge? I'm at that level but don't see how the game ends. Do I have to lose all my party on something?
The game is too easy and there are too many variables. Having to deal with hero XP, your XP, faction relations, millions of achievements, objects and different units just means that none of them matter that much. Upgrade something somewhere and you're fine.
Finished hardcore - in case it helps for anyone else, as rogue I had 250 eggs, 4 slot bowgun, militia on gravity gun, sheriff on shotgun, ranger on HMG. Had villa 12 and used two slots on grenades & repair hammers each. Had 107 hitpoints & sandbag L9.
I'd also got to L96 as noble by going bowgun/bowmaster, though I think you'd probably have to restock spam (by restocking and refreshing the window when you run out of action potints) until you get a 5 or 6 slot bowgun with 2x speed/ 1x autofire/ 2x damage/leech or similar. You don't really need armour pierce as noble because you already have anti-armour as a skill.
58 is the hardest level. I did it with the first set of homing missiles, lightning and big laser. While you wait for the latter two to reload, fire missiles. Use lightning when there're lots of enemies on screen. Use big laser when you can see spawn points forming. It still takes a while though...
Some of the boss levels are a bit of a grind. My method for finishing on hard was to spend as little as possible early on and spend bonus points on interest up to 50%.
I found sticky shield to be a nuisance. Only useful later on when you have the freeze bonus for the last handful of levels.
Heat seaking missiles are very useful for boss levels, makes them a bit more bearable (L40 is pretty tough without this bonus).
Chapter 8 on hard - first turn: make battleships from all your factories (you have to move one to free the slot). Move all your ships into one block. Use subs to stall enemy attacks. Keep planes behind lines.
When enemy's first turn does little damage, counterattack. You'll likely need more ships from your factories. Always attack with your strong vs. his weak - e.g, missile boat vs. sub, sub vs. destroyer. You need to defend a couple of turns, then it's just mopping up. I can probably do a video if anyone's still stuck.
This game was fun - when I realised how to do laser spam I figured that was the only tactic I was going to need to get the impossible badge, but turns out you need to do lots of different things. I award 5.
droihl: Probably they had finished more maps than you, so had more skill points. I found this map really easy for what it's worth (infact, every map in this version is easy compared to reclaim the throne). Get two points in paving, all the fire mage points, spam fire mages, don't bother upgrading them, win.