The #1 Difference New Players Must Know For MP
 

Province Defense DOES NOT "scare" a Human Player like it does a computer player. You may surprise the Human Player once, or get lucky because he thinks caves are dark so he doesn't bother to decoy your non-programmable archers, but you are not going to stop, scare, or more than slow down a Human Player with Province Defense.

Province Defense is usefull for dealing with VERY WEAK raids, and giving your real army a boost if you know there is going to be a fight in that province. Both these are legimate uses.

Putting 30 PD in multiple provinces will get many Human Players to attack you, as it tells them where you have put your gold.

Re: The #1 Difference New Players Must Know For MP
 

Plus, don't waste your money on things that you don't need. Especially temples/labs. If I see a temple in a province which isn't behind the walls of a fort then I know that attacking that province will tear down the temple, which equals to a 400 gold loss for you. If I find a lab in a province that I conquer then I thank you for the chance to equip my commanders with the newest items and gems and stash away looted items that I found. But since you shouldn't leave your research magi undefended, you certainly wouldn't need a lab in the woods, unless you can recruit a mage with a new magic path there.

Building temples in almost every province you have is a sure "ATTACK ME" sign for other players, as it's a waste of gold.

Re: The #1 Difference New Players Must Know For MP
 

But do put some PD everywhere. At least one point. And I'll usually put enough, at least in the early/mid game to stop the early remote attack spells (Call of the Winds/Wild, ARouse Hunger, Imprint Souls,etc)

Re: The #1 Difference New Players Must Know For MP
 

I think the biggest difference is diplomacy. From what I've seen of MP games, you /need/ to work out a peace treaty with some neighbours, before attacking the weaker one. In most cases it seems successful players sign a NAP (non aggression pact) with the first person they meet pretty much without hesitation. Being the third nation in a little group all in one area when the first two already have a NAP is basically asking to be killed and chopped up between the two of them. People like to win fights and most of the time that means double teaming you.

Re: The #1 Difference New Players Must Know For MP
 

The biggest difference between the AI and Human players is that humans actually use magic (i have never seen the AI to use more than 1 or 2 random mages per battle).

As an example, in one of my early MP games, i created an undefeatable army of 200 principes with Pythium and sent them to attack Marignon (or Abysia i forgot which one) and i lost all of them in a battle where the enemy fielded just 10 F2 mages with some bodyguards. (A fireball kills 3 principes per cast, so with 10 mages spamming fireball i lost 30 principes per turn).

The other important thing is that players at least the good ones will adapt themselves to your tactic if you are at war with them, so its not like against the AI where you can field always the same armies and always win.

Re: The #1 Difference New Players Must Know For MP
 

I played some SP games and never heard about PD stopping AI. How does it work?

Re: The #1 Difference New Players Must Know For MP
 

Not always. There are times when having lots of temples is quite reasonable. If you are using your dominion as a weapon. Or if you are bumping up your dominion to assist with a spell (like GoH) or to produce more of your sacreds.

Re: The #1 Difference New Players Must Know For MP
 

Sure, there are uses. But expect them to be attacked. Heavily.

Re: The #1 Difference New Players Must Know For MP
 

My best advice for the new MP:

"Do not spit in the wind, do not pull the mask of the ole Lone Ranger, and don't mess around with Slim."

Besides that, do a little research and find out who keeps their treaties-and who is notorious for breaking them at the 1st opportunity.

In God we trust-everyone else pays cash.

Re: The #1 Difference New Players Must Know For MP
 

The AI will generally be disinclined to attack you if you invest heavily in PD. I don't know the specifics, but PD 15 in the neighboring provinces seems to work well.