Re: EA Oceans of Land - (Noob game) [running]
 

Oh, I love those! I just recently experienced the joy of finding TWO groups of them right next to my capitol in a game... the hard way, of course. Those guys are strong enough to kill the vast majority of expansion parties a player would be fielding early on. Even the hinnoms and the niefels of the world have to be careful when tangling with the wind masters. And they like coming with items too! Like eye shields.

Re: EA Oceans of Land - (Noob game) [running]
 

Its usually nice having strong indies close to your capital because once you beat them you will be able to recruit them yourself which can be a huge advantage.

Re: EA Oceans of Land - (Noob game) [running]
 

Most mages you find w/indies are actually not recruitable.

Re: EA Oceans of Land - (Noob game) [running]
 

Wind Masters are no exception to this :). Also Bloodhenge Druids.

Re: EA Oceans of Land - (Noob game) [running]
 

Guess who was hanging around with 2 Blood Vines in the next indie province I sauntered into? :)

I'm learning the value of direct scouting in this game...

Re: EA Oceans of Land - (Noob game) [running]
 

LOL, sounds like some serious work needed to get your empire to expand.
One other question: when scouting the game tells you roughly how many units there are and of which type, but is there a way to check those units' stats in game?
I don't really have a clue, for example, wether 20 cavemen are able to slap the living daylights out of my 40 man army or not...

Re: EA Oceans of Land - (Noob game) [running]
 

There is no way from the strat map if thats what you mean. However, you could just have your scout attack while set to retreat, then right click the cavemen.

Alternatively, you could look it up on the wiki.

Re: EA Oceans of Land - (Noob game) [running]
 

Vines are ALWAYS accompanied by those guys in my experience. So if you see vines, assume bloodhenge druids. They also like to accompany woodsmen, so I always check woodsmen provinces to see if there are any vines or druids around before committing to an attack.

Cavemen! http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Caveman

But yes, if you want to check what's in a province, a scout set to retreat is a good idea. This also lets you confirm the exact numbers of units that are in the province. Of course, the scout needs a retreat route or it will die.

Re: EA Oceans of Land - (Noob game) [running]
 

Ah, attack and retreat. I've never thought of that. Thank you!

Re: EA Oceans of Land - (Noob game) [running]
 

Of course there is the pressure to expand. Some nation guides I have seen say that by the end of the first year you should have around 10-12 provinces.

As to Blood Vines, I didn't send in a scout so on the map it looked just like a bunch of weakling forest dudes. Except in battle there were only about 8 of them and Blood Slaves made up the majority of units on the indies side. By the end of the battle this was not the case ;)