Re: Questions about PD and other
 

Maybe It'd be a better idea to get rid of a little sloth and add some productivity perhaps?

Even though you're theoretically saving resources, in the long run you're wasting gold. If you were to hire a couple armies to act as PD, you'd save a lot of gold and have a better force.
You could...
place them and script them as you please
move them to wherever they're needed to defend
push forward with them so that your front lines are always defended
etc...
Their biggest plus over PD is their mobility.

You got a nice idea for working with what you got, but why settle when you can change what you got to start with?

Re: Questions about PD and other
 

People talked about a PD mod before - just using mod commands you could alter PD quite a bit. It wouldn't make it any more complicated, but it could be more useful/subtle.

Re: Questions about PD and other
 

Still, BigDisAwesome... I see no reason not to go with a mobile army, except that even with prod+1 my forces would be limited. By going with a little sloth and misfortune, I've got a huge research strat planned out. We'll see how it works, but even headed in the opposite direction its been rough expanding as Agartha. I've had a couple good situations... but with my current build I can afford 190 gold at a key province a LOT easier than forty troops. Doesn't mean I won't put some support there- but I don't even get archers or cavalary.

So, I have the option of a). Building no pd, and building forty lackluster troops in a turn, or b). Buying 20 pd, and building 20 lackluster troops who will support my superior golems. As a point of perspective, CTIS heavy infantry costs 15 resources. Agartha heavy infantry 27. Admittedly, some nations rival Agartha in resource cost for HI, but most nations also have chaff outside of indies. I don't.

Re: Questions about PD and other
 

I don't see where you're saving gold, since you're not paying to maintain those PD troops. They're maintenance free, so that has to be a factor in the long run, right?

Re: Questions about PD and other
 

Does the AI use PD?

Obviously, you *must* win against PD otherwise it is a waterloo!!!

Re: Questions about PD and other
 

Put me in the PD crowd. I like to have at least 11 PD in each province and prefer at least 21 in key provinces. At chokepoints, I'll go even higher.

Re: Questions about PD and other
 

I think that "the long run" is definetly a factor. In a small-map blitz game PD is a very different consideration than a long game, and different yet for a large map.

It also has a relaxing factor for the people who always complain about micro-management of every little thing in the game.

I think that everyone agrees that you really need to get at least ONE PD in every province. Then, depending on the nation and how good its PD is, for some reason I tend to go 6, 11, 21, 35. Factors are defense against attacks such as Call of the Winds, nearness to my castle, important provinces such as high population or important recruits, and finally having a castle there.

Re: Questions about PD and other
 

All right, stupid question here I suspect, but why 11 and 21 (mentioned by both Warhammer and Gandalf), and not 10 and 20?

10 gets your PD doing at least minimal patrolling (what's 11 get you but one more of each?), and 20 nets you the second commander and first "elite" unit, unless you're playing one of those x1/2 races like giants. Why the extra '1'?

Re:
 

There are 2 reasons to buy PD. One is to fight with any other troops to defend the province, and for this purpose 11 is just 10+1. The other is to provide deterrence to prevent attacks, and for this purpose 11 is the same as 20.

If you look at the scouting report messages for how well a province is defended, the messsages like "undefended", "one commander and a few...", "extremely well..." correspond to ranges of PD numbers. I don't know that is has been confirmed by dev comments, but in Dom2 conventional wisdom was that the ranges evaluating strength of PD were 0, 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, etc.

So if you plan to fight 11 is just 10+1. But if you are trying to get the AI to not attack a province, buying one more from 10 moves you from the 1-10 to 11-20 category, which is often enough to make the enemy not attack, or prefer a different province.

Sill

Re:
 

Exactly. In any game I play I ALWAYS try to take 1 more than an even number. On stats, or level settings, or armor, whatever. It often saves you when the program makes comparisons.

I think in Dom3 it also matters when its comparing PD to the stealth number on a unit for catching it. Since they have stealths like 10, 20, 30 then I figure 11, 21, 31 might be good PDs. (not tested)