Re: is the AI cheating
 

PD 50 cost 1250 gold, PD 75 cost 2850.
If it can stop 100-150 troops, since he's worried about 400 to 500 it'll often just get destroyed. Or it'll sit in the backfield and never get used.
Use PD to stop the nuisance attacks. You need real forces to deal with the main armies.

As for supply, even new he can deal with supply issues better than the AI can. Boosting supply is a standard way of boosting the AI. It might help him, but it'll help the AI more.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

Hmmmmm...
First - if province has high PD, AI may decide not to attack right now and concentrate army in one armored fist. You can see this army - so you can move your forces or attack with FfA. Second - large army attacking defended provinces become smaller and smaller :) I use this tactic when playing against opponents with weak troops: their armies cannot enter in my territory deeper, than 3-4 provs. And forth - my favorite protective enchantment (Mechanical Militia) work only if province defended with PD

Re: is the AI cheating
 

There are many ways to steal commanders. Various nations have units that can seduce, some can summon units that seduce. There are also spells that can be used in combat such as Charm or Hellbind Heart.

There are also spells to steal commanders from their province which makes it easier. Summon them to a province with a lab and gang up on him with units that can do Charm or Hellbind Heart spells. Wind Ride or Winged Monkeys can steal a commander away from his army.

Even if you just kill steal them and kill them it still can break up a large army into smaller lagging ones that are easier to kill off. And if you arent able to make make it useful by getting him to one of your provinces, then an interesting twist is an assassin that can do charm or hellbind. In a missed assassination, you can make it yours. Then a combat will follow in that province with the charmed commander fighting his old army buddies. If no other commanders are there you can watch the guy rout his old army for you.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

When I was new I tended to use small numbers of large armies. This doesn't really work very well. You need to keep your armies more mobile, so you can be in many places at once. A few more hints that may help you.

1. The AI tends not to send large armies against other large armies. If you have a large army in a province, they may attack you, but the main body of troops will probably go to another province.
2. One thing that helped me a lot when I was new was using PD in areas I expected to be fighting in for a while (no more than 40). You can't stop huge armies with it alone, but if you hide your real army behind the PD, it will take most of the losses for you and allow your troops to kill the enemy while sustaining few losses.
3. Try to get the riches from beneath and gift of health globals up. They're very army-friendly.
4. Bless strategies are the easiest to win with.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

Nice hint, Gandalf. Thanks. My next duel will start soon - and I`ll try to surprise friends
About "Monkeys" or smth like this - as I know, it`s just a way to kill commander, not to capture. Or I`m wrong?
And last question: "Charm" works when attacking Elemental Kings, powerful undead commanders or demons?

Re: is the AI cheating
 

"Flying monkeys" and "Wind ride" are good for capture because you transport enemy commander to you - you can have mages with Charm set up and ready + the enemy commander is alone so he always gets targeted by Charm.
As far as I know "Charm" and similar spells do not work on (1) pretenders (2) mindless. Works on everything else.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

I tend to script one or two efforts into each mage to try and convert the enemy. Mages who cannot cast such spells are scripted to start out with some sort of hold spell like vine or paralyze. If I cant convert the guy in two tries then I figure its time to shift to kill mode.

Try to keep the PD down in the lab you are doing this at. It kinda sucks to see a really useful commander get taken out by over zealous local militia.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

Battle order of 5 spells? Looks useful. But if commander has high MR or some protective artefacts? Maybe better to keep one close-combat specialist with good weapon and armor?


Well. But if enemy decide to attack with "distant summon" spell? Maybe better keep invisible defence squad instead of regular or PD?

Re: is the AI cheating
 

Its a gamble either way. Mostly if depends on the type of PD you get. Getting alot of long range archers would not be good, nor are flyers. A defence squad could be good since you could script it to just be a standing front-line which would only be deadly if the enemy reaches them.

Re: is the AI cheating
 

"Read the guides and various national threads. The tactics and strategies may seem arcane, but they are tired and true. "

I did, using the Man - archers & knights. I have 15 provinces, he has 15 provinces. However, 7 of his have been "unrested" above 100 continually by teams of bards, and he is still able to throw hundreds more troops at me than I can generate.