Re: A newbie asks...
 

Yes, PD appears immediately as you buy it. More buying, more units, effective immediately. You cannot see it outside of battle (the manual tells you what nations gets what units though), nor can you take units from it or move it around or get your money back in any way. MA Tien Chi also gains points of PD overtime as a side effect of its dominion, but it's a really marginal increase.

The PD soldiers replenish automatically to full at the end of the battle if you win it.

Not sure what you're talking about re: "a few odd units that I don't recall building", but it's not PD. Some commanders automatically generate troops around them though - for example, the Celestial General creates human soldiers wherever he goes, the Vampire Queen summons vampires once in a blue moon etc... It's usually mentioned in the unit's flavour text.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Province Defence is militia. They are the farmers and bakers and blacksmiths running out to defend their province. They are untrained, no formations, rabble that charges the enemy. They dont show up because they arent an "army" until attacked. And even then they arent much of one.

But they can hold off many events. They can spot scouts and spies and seducers and assassins moving thru your area. They dont need monthly upkeep charges. And they dont get used up as long as you own the province no matter how many times they fight.

Always get at least one point in PD. That gives you a commander that can at least tell you who attacked if someone takes the province from you. Otherwise you get no report.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

One time I took over half a guy's nation with scouts. He was mad

Re: A newbie asks...
 

You see them only in battle. They're there as soon as you pay for them and will return in every battle. You'll never see them on the overland map, you can't put them in regular armies and take them away.

The few odd units may have fled from other battles?

Re: A newbie asks...
 

As ever, thanks, much clearer! I suspect the random units are down to any number of possible mental oversights :) But clearly not PD.

So if I win a battle in my PD province, my PD is straight back to whatever I bought. If I lose --- or the AI loses against me --- do I assume the "province winning" power inherits PD back at 0?

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Yes, if someone wins a province it wipes out PD and Temples. Those are considered to be loyal to your pretender.
If you are going to lose a province and want to "salt the earth" (deny them resources) then castles, labs, population, and peace (unrest) have to be destroyed manually by you before you leave.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Gandalf, do you ever sleep? Are you ever not here? :)

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Yeah, the equation is fairly simple : if after the battle, you still own the province, PD is immediately back to full. This happens even if that province takes multiple successive attacks BTW - PD will replenish in between each fight.

If at the end of the battle, someone else owns the province, PD is set back to 0 for everyone - the loser won't get back his PD by retaking the province, either. So if for instance you teleport a guy in, wipe the PD, then your thug gets bumped off by an invading army moving in the province in the same turn, your opponent will have kept his province but lost all the PD.
Which is why few people invest too much into it generally, since a decent raiding party can cost you all that sunk investment.

General rules*: 1 sees off non-giant scout takeovers, 5 takes care of single casts of call of the wind / arouse hunger / call of the wild, 10 will catch a scout sneaking around once a decade and 15 will usually resist random barbarian attacks and the like which can be handy if you've got high misfortune scales.

Anything above that is probably a waste for general purposes, although dropping some quick PD just before a major defensive battle can be sensible if you have spare change and the additional soldiers won't be a liability.

*Disclaimer: these numbers are general values provided for information purposes only and the exact thresholds vary in practice depending on the soldiers your PD gives you. Your mileage may vary. By purchasing this PD you implicitly accept that it will suck, as well as any and all consequences of such suckage. Do not feed your PD after midnight. Warranty void if removed. If your PD lasts for more than 4 hours, consult a physician.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Dropping the quick PD in before a battle can be especially good if you can teleport a few mages in, but can't get any troops for them to hide behind.

They may be able to buff the PD to a useful level or they may just be able to rain destruction from behind disposable meat-shields.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

PD is available instantly, but never moves and only defends the province it is built in. It's not a "unit" and has no upkeep, it's just static defense that joins the battle if you are attacked.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

PD values vary vastly per nation. A 20 PD is not a bad idea for Abysia, but it's certainly a very bad idea for Machaka for instance.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Often PDs can be actively detiremental, if the weaker troops in the PD causes your elite troops or thugs to rout.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

That used to be true, but then they stopped paying me.

Now its more like 1-2 days on, and 2-4 days off depending on health.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

A morale question (I think), if I may...

Is there any benefit for troops to be near their commander in battle? Maybe morale? Otherwise, can I set up, say, some members way up top-left and other members way down bottom-right and their commander elsewhere, and it makes no difference?

On a related note, I noticed Redeyes saying weak PD could cause elite troops to rout. So I'm guessing routing troops cause others to undergo/fail morale checks?

(P.S. What did I just read about "squads of less than 4 members having to undergo special morale checks"?)

Re: A newbie asks...
 

No benefit to troops being near their commanders.

A commander with the Standard ability gives morale bonuses to troops near him, but it doesn't matter if they're in a squad he commands or not. Just if they're in the Standards AoE.

Large amounts of weak PD dying/routing can hit the 75% limit causing the whole army to rout automatically. Except berserkers, etc.
From the manual, 50% overall casualties causes morale checks every turn from then on.

Normally a squad only checks morale if they take "heavy losses", a squad under 5 members check morale if they take any damage.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

A very quick question: I am about to start my third game. I thought I'd go for "Dawn of Dominions", and pick an "average" difficulty nation.

Is the intention from the description that I have to click through to create 11 AI opponents (1 for each nation) and then I play the 12th nation I select (I'll have to write down the names of the "average" ones to remember:( )? Is that what the map is intended for? (Thought it would be pre-saved like that if that was the idea, a bit confused:confused:)

Thanks...

(Oh, and BTW, does that "star-symbol" against only that one game signify anything?)

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Just pick your nation, then add 11 random AI opponents. It'll pick the right ones. (At least it has for me.) When you go to select nations you'll see that all the others are grayed out.

I believe that's why it has the star.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Oooohhh, good idea, thank you! I shall do that. So the map is indeed intended for 12 players, I wouldn't have realised that if I hadn't read the description!

Umm, any recommendation for which of the four "average" nations I should try? Have played my first two games with human-type units and fire magic, looking for a change (but I don't want to go near blood yet:shock:)...

Re: A newbie asks...
 

A few more questions/observsations (all SP):

1. I don't really see the point of forging much? The majority of my commanders happily don't have any orders: I don't want them killed for the troop rout, so I'm not going to fight with them. The occasionaly definsive thing, but that's it.
2. As I understand it, each fort takes from adjacent land; if my forts overlap I am actually losing a bit? So I don't build many forts.
3. In current game, I think I am beating AI because of the PD I build as I go. What is the maximum PD the AI ("normal") would build? Should I limit myself to same cap?

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Each fort uses 100% of the production of the province it is in, and some percent of surrounding provinces. If an adjacent province shows a production of zero, surrounding forts have fully used it. Otherwise, there's still benefit to building a fort there, even though it is a sub-optimal use of gold.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

The percentage of surrounding resources is the admin value of the fort, which is why Fortified Cities on plains can still work, even with drastically low resources.

Forest and mountain forts ofc tend to have very low admin values so they are only worth building if the province has good resources.

THe basic items you can forge are mediocre, basically; they can help, but only situationally considering their price. However, once you get to Construction 4 or so, a lot of items come available that can drastically improve combat performance or provide big advantages strategically. For example, you can get items that improve a mages magic skills - enabling them to cast tough spells, or forge items otherwise unavailable. You can also get weapons that cause enemy armies to run away, or that cause area damage.

Also, later in the game most nations can summon very tough very mean commanders that only get tougher and meaner with gear. Eventually you reach a point where the vast majority of recruited troops cannot effectively harm such a commander, and even magic spells can bounce off like ping pong balls.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

The primary use of forts is to recruit mages or to guard valuable provinces (chokepoints or very good magic sites). But mostly for the mages. Therefore, you usually want the cheaper/quicker forts. Admin value and defense are secondary.

As DeadlyShoe says, items are mostly used for building thugs/SCs. It's sometimes worth equipping mages for battle, almost never regular commanders. Maybe bows or spell casting items.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

@krpeters
ok, so: i think you're saying: if adjacent province shared by 2 forts, the %age that fort#2 gets does not "come out of" the %age fort#1 gets? and i guess if you build fort#2 adjacent to fort#1, fort#2 gets 0 for fort#1, and fort#1 remains as it was?

@deadlyshoe
understood, i haven't reached "later", i either win or lose early. it was just that some post talked about doing loads of forging, but i think i get the picture; i shall forge less :(

@thejeff
i know you're right, but i just don't seem to need/build so many mages, what do you want me to do with them? :confused: i can recruit what i need, mage-wise, back at my capital?

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Well, the only way you can really get a feel for items is to forge things and try them out in combat. So don't be afraid to experiment. Like I said though, I would recommend at least hitting Construction 4 if you want the items to be actually useful. :)

The more mages you get the better off you are actually. Any mages that you don't actually need in the field can be researching to improve your magic. Some nations can use mages for leading armies too, and basically dont need to recruit any other commanders.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

I realise about the extra mages can research. But I just read in that "House Rules Against the AI" thread that I need to limit myself to just one researching mage per laboratory :hurt: Till now I built loads mages and researched.

But even saying that, thejeff was saying I needed forts to build even more. I can build plenty from just one fort. Oh well.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

You are actually following those house rules?

No, you don't always need to build more forts. It's a good idea to build forts when you have an economic surplus or when you find a site with interesting independents; minotaurs are really cool!)

If you run out of money recruiting as much stuff as you can you shouldn't build more forts. If you don't need more troops, it actually happens, it might be a good idea to build another fort to get more mages.

You'll get ahold of the proper balance pretty soon.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Thats actually kind of a silly house rule, since Research is one area the AI has no problems keeping up with humans. At least on Mighty and Impossible.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

You don't need to limit yourself to one mage per lab - that's an approach someone mentioned using to give themselves a challenge when facing the AI in SP games, but I don't think anyone would recommend that a new player play that way.

I think that the "House Rules against the AI" thread (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44783) is primarily more experienced people talking about how to keep the SP game interesting for themselves when they've found that they can routinely beat the AI on the hardest setting. If you're only on your 3rd game and not automatically setting the AI to the highest difficulty setting, you may not be at the point yourself that you need to adopt the approaches mentioned in that thread.

There are some interesting ideas in that thread, but that approach in particular of intentionally tying a hand behind your back (ie. not having many mages researching) seems like something that only an experienced player should do. In your case, since you're still getting to know the magic system, choking off your research like that is going to keep you from finding out about a lot of the mid and endgame magic, which means you're missing out on a big part of the game.

If you're playing against the AI set to impossible and the game is too easy, you're winning every time nearly without effort, then sure, use some of those tricks to keep things interesting. Otherwise...

Basically, by not making forts and only making mages at your capital, you're teaching yourself a style of play that would likely get you creamed in a multiplayer game. A veteran player might do something like that to keep SP interesting, but for a new player to do the same you may be giving yourself bad habits.

Re: A newbie asks...
 

Thanks for all the tips. I guess I just get racked with guilt thinking I might be taking advantage of the pooor AI :)