Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

I have now uploaded my guide to the Strategy Wiki.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Not really, so good choice.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Actually, now that I think of it, that reminds me of Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares. In a way, a starting province with no exits is an ideal defensive position. C'tis can do decent research off of its starting death income and using sacred shamans; I suppose you *could* play the game out from your unassailable home base until you had Astral Travel researched, and then start dropping Gateways everywhere. In the short-term you could be dropping occasional Calls of the Wild ("Antarans attack!") or Arouse Hungers, just to pick up some cash before the provinces get retaken. A very strange but possibly fun way to play, if you have the patience--and a fast enough computer that you don't mind processing 80 turns of doing nothing before you get Astral Travel. (Buy one shaman, hit "Next turn.")

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Yes, I have many fond memories of that game too, though now Sword of the Stars has replaced that game, for me. There may be no Antarans, but I do get visits by the System Killer, Slavers, and Von Newmann machines who eat all my ships and spawn new ones right there.

I've found the Slave Warriors surprisingly effective, at least against certain independents. Still, 10 deaths is 120 gold... I took down three or four provinces with 40 of them. Not quite certain how they didn't all die on me, but I suspect it had to do with their extra 'bite'. If you're facing mostly light infantry, militia, and archers, 40 Slave Warriors can take down several provinces before they need to reinforce. If some farmlands in the area, it'll pay for itself. I just put them at the back of the field, and hold-attack. Gives the enemy forces time to spread out, and most indie archers too long to fire accurately. They're less likely to run, and are faster than the rest of your early forces.

My starting strat still needs work. My most recent game - which I may still win - I only had eight provinces by around the end of the first year. Advice is welcome. I set my pretender to a Scorpion King, fire and earth approx 5 or six, dominion around the same, and 2 order, 1 productivity, 2 heat, 1 luck, 1 death, 1 magic. Medium random map, one ulm standard easy opponent, rare random events. Going pretty well against the low-level AI, and I'm getting familiar enough with the basics to start seeing more and more of the big picture and better cost analysis of the situation. Realizing that such and such move costs me more than I gain, etc. etc.

Any advice for avoiding curses on my big bad pretender? It seems like it has 100 precision, 50 range, and no MR resist roll.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

I like Elite Warriors even more than Slave Warriors. They generally have better stats where it counts, and with a scale cuirass, they are more durable. To minimize loses when using either Slave or Elite Warriors bring along some City Guards or Heavy Infantry. Place the Guards/Infantry at the front of the battlefield and put the Warriors to the far side and back a bit of your center force. If you set it up correctly, your heavier troops will absorb the arrows and initial blows of combat, while the Warriors come in from the side to cut the enemy forces down. I have gotten lucky a few times while doing this and lost none of my units, though most of the time you will lose a couple.

If your pretender doesn't usually take much damage during battles, a Curse shouldn't be much of a problem. To avoid Curses you probably could bring along Elephants (if you found an independent province where you can recruit them) and place them on the front lines. They should be targeted instead of your pretender, unless your pretender has more hp. It is best to simply not bring your pretender into a battle where you think he will be Cursed though. If your Scorpion King does get a bad affliction, you can heal him with a summoned Fairy Queen, but you won't get access to her until far into the game.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Slave Warriors are nice, but Elite Warriors are even better. With high attack and a long weapon, they can often repel attacks, and combined with their generally good Protection for early age they work even better for expansion than Slave Warriors. They do cost a little bit more in terms of resources, though. Personally I expand with a mix of Heavy Infantry and Elite Warriors, but I don't know if that's optimal.

I haven't found any real reason to take Production on C'tis, since even their top-line troops are resource-cheap. (10g/15r looks expensive for the Heavy Infantry until you compare it to LA Agartha's 30g/37r Blindfighter.) But hey, if you've got it, flaunt it--your main limitations in expanding will then be producing enough commanders to lead your armies. Fortunately C'tis starts out with two army commanders (because it has no scouts). Eight provinces by the end of the first year is still kind of slow; what's happening?

I did a quick run on a random map with the settings you describe (F5E5 awake Scorpion King, Dom 5, scales as described). I avoided hiring mercenaries even though that speeds up expansion because I get the idea you don't do that (and it's kind of a cheap tactic vs. the AI).

Turn 1: Build a shaman, whole bunch of elite warriors. Set taxes to 130% in home province, patrol with one army, lizard lord becomes a Prophet, Scorpion King researches Evocation. End with 150 gold in the bank.

Turn 2: Set taxes back to 100% in home province; send starting army w/ EWs to conquer a small nearby province. Buy another shaman and 10 Elite Warriors. (I'll probably build 30 and then set out conquering.) Keep researching with the SK and shaman. (I really have no idea what to do with an awake pretender, since he doesn't have magic yet and I don't think he can solo indies.) End w/ 403 in the treasury.

Turn 3: Buy 1 PD in newly-conquered province. New resources from conquered province allow me to build 13 EWs this time. Send 1st army out to conquer another province (swamp, so few resources expected), w/ support from Scorpion King. (Need 9 more RP to reach Evoc-1, and the shamans can supply 10. Leave SK unscripted so he will probably cast Fire Darts, which will be researched by the time battle starts.) End w/ 478 in the bank.

Turn 4: Newly-conquered province had gold and silver mines (+160 gold), plus 67 resources. Very strange for a swamp, but lucky. We took that province with 4 losses (out of army of 28), so I'll have my prophet meet us with reinforcements in the next province (23 EWs, all that's been produced so far) while I build another 19 in the home province. (By the time the prophet gets back there will be 38 EWs waiting, my second expansion army). Build a shaman, too, of course. (Build a lizard lord/commander when necessary to lead an army, but otherwise a shaman.)

Turn 5: Lost 3 units in most recent battle, so with reinforcements army #1 is in good shape. Build 24 or so EWs in the home province, and a shaman. Avoiding a province of barbarians, I'll send army #1 to attack a bunch of deer tribe warriors while my prophet heads home. End treasury 628. Four turns have passed so far and I've conquered 3 provinces.

Turn 6: Conquered another province with army #1, minimal losses. Prophet collects army #2 (44 EWs), sets out to conquer the couple of remaining provinces next to my capital. At the capital, I switch to building chariots instead of EWs. Gold in bank 515.

Turn 7: Army #2 took moderate casualties (9/44) taking an archer province. I probably should be playing more carefully--I didn't use any archer decoys. Income is 701, treasury is 613 after buying another 8 or 9 chariots to go with the 7 already produced. It's fall and I own 7 provinces, and should be conquering 1 or 2 per turn from here on out.

Turn 8: Archer decoys did reduce my losses in conquering a jaguar tribe warrior province and archer/militia province, although maybe I should have used two because my decoy for army #2 got a limp from an arrow and got outrun by the rest of the army (7 losses total). Army #1 is doing fine, no losses this turn, and the SK has started casting Flare (reached Evoc-2) but has a minimal impact on battle. I've got a lizard heir sitting in the capital with 17 chariots, ready to start expanding in a third direction (only I'm on a map edge so I really don't have another direction, may have to waste some turns moving to a frontier instead of attacking) and have 1252 in the bank before purchasing anything, and 762 income from 9 provinces (including my capital). Since I don't really have any need for research just yet, I might detail some of my shamans to site search while another begins a fort at a choice location.

Curses on the pretender: avoid lizard man provinces. They can, and like to, cast Curse. Most other provinces don't seem to cast Curse, even ones that have access to Death magic for Spirit Curse.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Oh, I certainly agree Elite Warriors are nice, and better in combinations.

But when I had a little save snafu, I didn't recruit till turn 2, or expand to turn 3. With over 1200 in the bank and few resources available, even if I had conquered, Slave Warriors are excellent. A few more resources? 2 or 9? Thats an 4 fold difference. So, that one team led by a common indie commander w 40 slave warriors took out around 2 or 3 provinces on its own. The last two were brought in with the assistance of a half-strength elite warrior squad, but when I picked the targets carefully, the slave warriors were quite effective in a pinch, and didn't suffer anywhere near my expected casulties.

So, yeah, a team of slave warriors doesn't match up to elites, even counting the resource difference. But given the opportunity (extra gold, around 480), the need (behind a bit), and the targets (farmlands expect some fiscal return and no cavalary or heavy infantry- i waited until the elites were ready for those), they make an excellent indie fighting force with a minimal expenditure of time. Given how, of course, they are somewhat pricy, they're not a strategy to factor in at before you start a game. They are, however, highly useful as something other than cannon fodder under specific circumstances. Better yet, their strategic speed of booth slave and elite allows for coordination of reinforcements than is available with heavies.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

When playing single player, or against secondary armies of human players early in the game, consider adding a company of Runners to your arsenal.

I used to look at every stat except speed, and wrote off Runners as cost-inefficient. But by the time the enemy army breaks, the Runners are there to chase and kill many of them before they manage to escape.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Good point about the resources; I was thinking in terms of gold as the major limiting factor. I like Ramshead's point about using heavier forces as a decoy; these could be either Heavy Infantry or City Guards (for mapmove 2).

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Oh... Good point, SelfishGene. Heh. Show no quarter. I'm not used to thinking mercilessly enough, but the enemy troops are loyal enough its now or later.

So, do you do anything in particular to keep them from rushing into battle too soon, or do you give them no special treatment, just flanking or whatnot?

That's an interesting read, MaxWilson. It'll probably be quite enlightening when its not a work break or 3:30 in the morning. I'll definetly read that 8 turn report again. Oh, and yep. It was a lizardmen independent that cursed me right away.

Do you have any particular strategy for getting astral gems (If I'm completely opposed to an astral/rainbow pretender?) It seems almost entirely useless to send shamans around searching. It's gone much easier on my attention span to convert five to ten nature/death gems into astral, than cast the ritual monthly. But if its best simply to reallocate all my shamans and have em search a good portion all at once, I'll give that a try too.

Oh... this might go without saying for more advanced players (but I'm a n00b), but despite being strictly land-dwellers, the C'tis nation does surprisingly well at expanding into the sea. Certainly, many nations can do better, and not just the sea-dwelling ones... But you have ready access to swarms of undead. And while zombies make poor fishies, they don't need to breathe, either. The enchantment path will let you ritually summon skeletons and undead mages pretty soon.

So don't discount sea expansion just because you don't have amphibious troops, water magic, and haven't found a province that offers them. You can get fifty undead in the water by turn ten (does that add up properly? I can get the gems, but the research?), and you'll probably be able to find some entry point that doesn't need fifty undead. However, you can get a lab underwater, and just imagine swarms of undead and shamblers attacking the enemy from their rear flanks. Probably won't be that glorious, but the AI can overlook a small group of water provinces, and when the enemy's pretendder and capital are right at a convenient checkpoint blocking off a section of the map... go around? Or at least, just don't stall for time when your borders meet, expand to new frontiers. So... is this a good tactic?

I've only gone as far as using undead to attck an underwater province- successfully. But I haven't gone on to capitilizing it yet. I'll do that tomorrow. And report on whether I'm full of it, onto something, or stating something completely obvious to anyone but a n00b like me.