border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

How do you manage your borders while you go fight a war in another corner of the map?

I also bring up the defense of the newly conquered provinces to 10. I find that with a decent income bordering provinces can be raised 20 or 30
(sometimes 40 : 30 -> 40 costs ~$350 ). These can hold of moderate armies by themselves while I fight a war on another front. It sucks of course if you loose the war with a 40 defense province as this means loosing $820 worth of investment.

Do you folks instead use local garrisons? Does all this change greatly in the late game? (where I have never been yet)

Yg.

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

This really depends on the nation you are choosing. The maximum I ever set any provincial defense at is 21. The expenditure of money is not worth it past this point (and even lower for some nations) because you can field much better armies than PD would be able to create. If you have a problem with players snatching your rearmost provinces by either Stealth or spells, I usually change my lines so that patrollers make it harder, or reply in kind with spells to retake them. Alternatively you can have a 'mop up' army that can take care of anything the PD can't handle.

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

Buffing provincial defence by much is sadly a waste of gold most of the time. It's rare that it will be able to do much, save hold of lighter inscursions and perhaps spies.

You really need a fast defending army in order to hold your borders. Provincial defence is simply the backup and canonfodder for this force. Use remote summoningspells to bolster defences if your army is outmanouvered.

Late game you will be pushing huge armies around that no mere militia will hope to stand against. But by this time is usually apparent who is winning and it's time for desperate measures to bring the "pusher" down. Assassins, powerful summoning spells, remote attack spells and clashes of huge armies on multiple fronts decides the outcome by this time. Invest no money in militia except in essential provinces like chokepoints, gem and gold centres and the province were your pretender is hiding.

[ January 21, 2004, 21:13: Message edited by: Wauthan ]

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

Never stop at 10/20/30 because some things are figured that way. Stop at 21 which will make it act in the 21-30 range.

I tend to use 6/11/21/31
I always put at least 1 no matter how poor I am. 6 if I feel its fairly safe. 11 for ones with important recruitable units or labs. 21 for REAL important locations. 31 for castles

This is variable depending on the race. Jotun for instance gets much better results from defense and can run at 3/6/11/21

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

In MP I usually buy 5 to avoid enemy scouts claiming my provinces unopposed, it costs only 15 gold and is worth the expense. I buy 10 where I want to deter enemy infiltrations. Sometimes up to 20 for nations that have good militia, like Jotunheim, in inner provinces I want to protect and where I can't recruit local troops (because of low resources). And only 1 for Ashen Empire and Soul Gate, so there's always a leader to lead the dominion-summoned troops.

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That's a mystery for me. What's the benefit of "acting in the 21-30 range"?

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That's a mystery for me. What's the benefit of "acting in the 21-30 range"? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hmmm OK I did a search for it and see that Kristoffer tossed a comment in on that which left it alittle gray.
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...=000941#000007
Still there is good info in that thread.

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Ah OK. I thought you meant something about patrol effectiveness. Thanks for the link anyway.

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

Here's one other consideration (I think) when discussing a standing army vs. the PD. You don't pay upkeep on PD, and when PD wins, all losses are regenerated. Actually I'm not 100% sure on either of those, but I'm like 99% sure http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Depending on the length of the game and the number of PDs and size of standing armies the initial PD cost vs. the upkeep will have different break points for where its effective and where its not. Thats still an oversimplified view though, as often depending on terrain, your reaction force will still be slow to get anywhere, and sometimes even supplies will be an issue for them. Then again, the reacaion force will probably be stronger than the equivalent amount of PD...

Its a question that isn't quite as simple as some make it out to be. There are circumstances where its simple, but likely more where it isn't so cut and dried.

My 2c anyway http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

The benefit of not having to pay upkeep on the PD is huge. Army upkeep can eat up 80%+ of your income every turn.

Having a real army defend in a province with decent PD is a great asset. I ususally design my unit set up to incoporate the start location of PD units. I leave a gap in hold/attack troops in the center so that the PD cannon fodder can charge out quickly. I want those free infantry units to take the first wave of attacks and spells.

The AI also takes PD into account when deciding who to declare war on and attack. If you have lots of low-PD provinces, good chance you could be the next target.

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

LOTS depends on what nation you have chosen as some nations have great units for defending. For example Machaka's units have 0 protection so a simple tennis ball will kill them... so for this race province defense has very little value. Now Marnignon has units for province defense with 12 protection... thus much more valuable and worthwhile investing.

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">100% correct, and quite important.

As others have said, the nation makes a big differece - some are better than others, and some have specific levels that are good. IIRC you only get arbalesters with Ulm, up to level 19. At 20 you get a leader, but he usually doesn't fight. At 21+, you get men in chainmail with shields, who are great against most threats and complement the arbalests well (buying them time to reload and fire again before getting overrun), but now it's getting expensive to get them, and having a squad of them is much more effective than having one or two, so there is reason with Ulm to go up to the mid-twenties or higher, but it's a big investment which may not be worth it, particularly in a multiplayer game. The goofy truism "the best defense is a good offense" is often somewhat worth reflecting upon.

PvK

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

I wouldn't phrase it as you "only" get arbalests with Ulm's first 20 points. With good armor, decent fighting stats, and a short sword, arbalests are among the best defense troops even without arbalests. Ulm's province defense is weaker than Jotunheim's, but still comparable to Marignon or Abysia.

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

I was going to actually post something like this in the next few days but slightly different.

How do you manage your frontline borders when you are fighting a war?

If you don't keep an army on every border you can find yourself chasing around enemy armies wreaking havok behind your lines.

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

This is where mobility comes in very handy. Mobility can win you more wars than pure strength. This is also why Supercombatants are so dangerous/good. Keep your lines held by either Castles, armies, or by offense and killing supply. Spells like Call of the Wind, Call of the Wild, Horde from Hell all make terrific 'mop up' spells that will let you harrass or kill armies inside your lines. If used in conjunction with flying armies/units and good guessing you can kill an army that breaks through your lines without much trouble.

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

And let's not forget the wonderful spell Army of the Dead. For just 10 death gems you can plop an army of 40 longdead (plus a longdead commander) somewhere as an instant reserve. In places that have seen some decent combat recently, you can also get an additional up to 20 souless (plus a souless commander). These 62 defenders, added to a PD of 11 or 21 tend to discourage the AI from attacking that province. If the AI masses enough forces to threaten the province so defended, you'll have the great joy of then being able to use Fires from Afar and other mass-slaughter spells to disrupt the upcoming festivities. Not to mention the various commander-killing spells. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: border management and defenses - do you use them? up to what value?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I just meant "only" in comparison to what Ulm gets with 20+ in defense. Having enough HI to hold off the enemy for a few turns, can multiply the effect of the arbalesters.

PvK