Re: Fortress to Province ratio
 

Not being able to spend all your gold is more a function of scales and race than implimentation.

Some races its very very difficult. For me, with tien chi for example, I can never get my upkeep to be more than 12-15% of my income.

So in which case, the next time I play, I try to cut the order back one click. Nations with a sacred strategy, and usually those with high resource costs, I think are probably more the culprit than your playing style.

And remember - more forts = more income!

Re: Fortress to Province ratio
 

Hmmm, okay. I just checked my current game, and in early spring of year 3 (~24 turns in) I've got 30 provinces and 5 forts, one of which I took from EA Agartha.

Definitely it's best to spend most of your gold, although banking 10% as a strategic reserve isn't necessarily a bad idea. (If you can buy full production at all of your forts a strategic reserve is mostly unnecessary, but if you're using forts to produce mages the strategic reserve can fuel a troop buildup. It can also be useful to have gold reserved for plopping down PD at need.)

-Max

Re: Fortress to Province ratio
 

Prior to capturing new territories from other nations, my fort ratio is determined by the amount of free money I have. If, after recruiting all my best mages, and then all troops available I still have a significant amount left over, i will build another fort.

Re: Fortress to Province ratio
 

I usually build 1-2 additional forts myself in early game. Other forts I take over from other players. If I reach the "late game, too much money and nothing to spend it on" phase of the game, then I tend to put it into forts+temples, too.

Re: Fortress to Province ratio
 

In mp puting fort on all vp provinces is quite important to prevent quick wins by some teleport/sneak/flying thugs/armies.

Re: Fortress to Province ratio
 

I will build a few forts early on at key strategic points and to avoid having to move men over difficult terrain, but by late game, I just take them over from others. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif aka "We DO Not Sow".

By late game I actually find them a hindrance at times when for example I want my mages to be researching in a province, but also involved in defense. Having a fort makes that a problem and I have actually destroyed forts for that reason. Also, by late game, conventional troops are less relevant so I'd rather be spending my money on mages.

Re: Fortress to Province ratio
 

Some of you have mentioned in this and other posts that you aim to have 20 provinces by the end of year 1 (12 turns). How is this possible? The most I have got after the first year is about 6 or 7.

Can someone please explain (or point to a thread) that shows what you do each turn to get this?

Re: Fortress to Province ratio
 

Basically, a pretender that can take one province/turn from turn 3 or 4 forwards, preferably without any troops support. That will basically double your expansion rate.

Very high-power bless is another option, but it depends on a nation. Strategically fast (mapmove at least 2), resource-cheap sacred units are more useful than slow, resource-intensive sacreds, and having multiple attacks will double Water 9 or Fire 9 bless effectiveness, and quadruple Water 9/Fire 9 bless effectiveness. MA/LA Vanheim's mounted Vanir with F9W9 bless are perhaps the most common example.

Learning to expand well with national units is also important. Most expensive unit isn't necessarily the best, because numbers matter, and "missile units scale better than melee units". The latter means that even though X number of melee and missile units are both unable to conquer a spesific province, 2*X missile units can conquer it, but 2*X melee units can't. This works especially well with nations like MA Marignon, who can boost their crossbows with Flaming Arrows in middle-game.

Re: Fortress to Province ratio
 

Mercs can help in the early game because they don't cost extra resources, just gold. Other than that, it depends on your nation, but most starting armies can do pretty well against indies on the default settings (independent strength = 5) if you just toss in 10-20 missile units. A key point: use your Prophet or other priests who can cast Sermon of Courage or (even better) Sermon of Courage + Smite.

Beyond that, it's hard to get specific without talking about a nation and/or pretender build. Here's a link to a DAR (During Action Report) that I just started: http://bluishcertainty.blogspot.com/...-part-one.html

You'll see that it's early fall (Turn 6) and I own 7 provinces. I did take a good bless (E10N6) and one tough province (knights) was conquered using a blessed Adon after my mercs got slaughtered, but 3 of the 7 provinces were conquered using the starting army + Prophet + 1 turn's worth of slingers, plus one Ahiman Anakite. One province is of course my capital, and the seventh province was conquered by the aforementioned mercs on the third turn before they got killed against the knights and heavy inf. (Turn 1, Prophetize starting commander and send out scouts. Turn 2, look at intelligence reports and decide who's weak, send out troops. Turn 3, battles actually occur. In this case I took 2 provinces on Turn 3, none on Turn 4 (picking up troops) 1 on turn 5, and 2 on turn 6.) I'll probably try taking at least one territory per turn with both of my current armies until they suffer some kind of disastrous defeat, and build more armies at home in the meantime. One thing that can slow down expansion is getting too worried about casualties, and thus trying to build up overwhelming force before you attack. It's usually not necessary, and you can skip tough provinces in most cases and/or leave them as perimeter guards.

Really, most indies are pushovers.

-Max