Re: Province Defence?
 

Good point. Its also a good idea to keep in mind what type of PD you are likely to get and compare it with the recruitable units in that province. Sometimes you can HUGELY boost the defences of a province by doing PD and then adding some of the locally recruitable archers, or knights, or sometimes even just an extra commander or two.

Re: Province Defence?
 

You always know where the PD starts from, so placing a mage or 2 in the centre to cast buffing spells is probably the best and cheapest way of having a very good defence.

Have the mages cast the spells then retreat, just in case your PD loses.

Re: Province Defence?
 

Oh yes, PD is wonderful in SP. When facing enemy gods or anything I need to tire out, I like to send in a good stack of PD before my real troops. Sure, the PD gets killed, but the fatigue starts to build and some of the chaff gets cleaned out. Then your real troops, who you expect to do the killing, arrive and have a good start.

Another point about PD is that Mechanical Militia and Fata Morgana give you decent additional PD, but they only turn on when you have one or more points of PD. Those are very powerful defensive spells and, when combined with 11 or more points of PD, they really make a mess of AI. Once I have one of those, I stop worrying about defense and go entirely offensive. In multiplayer, they may not be the best use of gems, but they do make you a lot harder to take out.

Re: Province Defence?
 

Also, one other point about PD that makes a big difference in some situations is that they don't demand any upkeep. If you're playing a nation with very low gold income (maybe a heavy blood nation, or LA Ermor) minimizing upkeep is vital. If you "real" troops are summons with no upkeep it can be a good idea to supplement them with PD rather than with recruited troops if you're not actively invading someone else.

Re: Province Defence?
 

Looks like there is a PD hard cap at 125. I was unable to build more than that in a recent SP game I had "won" and was goofing around in. (default map settings, ME C'tis)

I don't know how "useful" that info will be in any situation anyone cares about... but it is kinda nice to know that you cant make yourself completely invulnerable to the ai (just mostly) using PD.

Re: Province Defence?
 

I think that info is in the game manual, too. Atleast I remember reading about it.

Re: Province Defence?
 

hehe, then my tidbit is redundant on top of being useless http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif

oh well. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Province Defence?
 

What would you folks suggest for an alternative to province defense for those nations where PD is useless, such as any of the ape kingdoms?

Re: Province Defence?
 

well if we are theory crafting here i would say minimal PD(either 1 to act as a tripwire or 10 to catch sneaking enemies) and back up quick reaction forces deployed to cover as many provinces as possible.
Now whether that is worth diverting sorely needed troops from the front lines to cover your rear areas is another matter all together

Re: Province Defence?
 

I dont think any PD is "useless". If for no pther reason than to take the hits while other units do the work. A nation with PD of shooters isnt going to well by iteself, and a nation with PD of infantry isnt either. But for the bow-nation Id buy a commander and some infantry then set them forward so the PD shooters dont get wiped out so quick, and maybe position them to the sides since the PD shooters are going to appear in the middle. Then for a nation of PD infantry Id get a commander and shooters so I can set the shooters to the flanks, and set them back abit so they dont appear on the battlefield too far forward drawing the attacks. And many can benefit from some decent flankers such as knights set for hold-and-attack rearmost.

Try making use of your PD and boosting its weak points rather than ignore it because it does so badly by itself.