Re: High PD kinda useless.
 

Yeah PD is well-used as renewable fodder. Tho when playing agains the AI, I found that the best use of PD was convincing the AI that you were "strong". Putting heavy PD on aggressive AI borders made them think twice about attacking you, and it seems the AIs are technically at peace until they make thier first attack on you or vice versa.

Re: High PD kinda useless.
 

Keep in mind also that everything has its pros and cons. Particularly in this game. If you think its worthless it usually means to look at it again. Using the gold on queued units can be better but not every time.

PD is a way to catch spys and scouts.

PD is a way to defend a province such as one with a lab without cluttering up the commander and units displays.

PD is instant and does not rely on resources to make them.
There have been times when I had alot of money and was about to be attacked someplace which I really didnt want to lose. Cranking up the PD there was something I considered to be perfectly acceptable in costs.

Taking a forward location at great losses can mean its a good time to pump some of your capital gold into PD for that province to give you time to create and move up a replacement mobile army.

Gandalf Parker

Re: High PD kinda useless.
 

Some nations such as Pythium have weak province defense and some nations such as Jotun have very powerful province defense. The main reason I stopped playing Machaka was because their province defense had me losing provinces deep inside my territory to little weak spells like call of the winds. On a map of 400+ provinces it's unrealistic to place troops and commanders in all provinces for spells like 'call of the winds'. Sure eventually a global spell can be casted to help, yet I'd rather be investing my gems in an offensive strategy instead of placing a band-aid on some weakness in the nation.

Hopefully we'll see some improvements with province defense in the upcoming patches.

Re: High PD kinda useless.
 

Yes even tho Dominion_3 has more gold available the computer opponents rarely invest in province defense. Personally I would setup the computer opponents to place a minimum of 8pts in province defense and then have them invest 2% of their total gold into province defense for existing provinces. And provinces with forts/castles and/or high gem income should have a minimum of 15 province defense.
It's sad attacking a computer opponent only to discover their average province only has a total of 4pts in province defense after 35 game turns passed.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/fear.gif

Re: High PD kinda useless.
 

PD was changed already. Jotunheim, as an example, gets just few giants. Other nations get lots of (often weak) troops.


Commander at def 1: Machaka Chief
Units at def 1+: 3xMachaka Militia, Machaka Warrior
Commander at def 20: Machaka Commander
Units at def 20+: Machaka Hoplite

Stronger than it used to, but still quite weak. However, you can afford to buy more province defense. You might be forced to go a big higher with Machaka than you would with other nations, but you have Heat 2 for extra points. 60 units you get from PD 15 should rout a Call of the Winds.

Re: High PD kinda useless.
 

Thanks for the info Endoperez... I might give Machaka another try.

Re: High PD kinda useless.
 

From what people have posted, Jotunheim gets only 1/2 a troop per point of PD, that's half what they got in Dom2. I call that nerfed, wouldn't you?

Re: High PD kinda useless.
 

For Border provinces i try to go pd20, maybe as high as 30-40 if its very important or i have no army near. As a general rule of thumb i try to place one recruited archer/crossbow in a province (atleast) for each point of pd. I add battle mages if i have cheap mages with great spells (any nation with e2+ is good(as are many others), summon earthpower, spam bladewind) because, while you often want them with your main armies the sort of damage they can do is amazing (nether bolts, bladewind, falling frost/fires, a few of the clouds ect)

Re: High PD kinda useless.
 

Thank Bruce. That's from the manual. You know, from the nation lists. All the PDs are listed there. And all the castles they build on various terrains are listed there.

Re: High PD kinda useless.
 

Half a Jotun Militia and half a Jotun Javelinist. That's about one point per PD. Javelins thrown with Jotun strength have pretty good range and insane damage.