A newbie question
 

Hi everyone!
I am new to D2 (just started playing the demo) and to this forum...on to my question: I have read some reviews saying that there was a lot of micro management involved in D2; after a few turns into the game, I am starting to understand what they meant; do you have some tips that could help "reduce" the workload; because I only got a handful of provinces and 2 fortresses, but I canno't imagine how "painful" it should be in the late game...
Oh, and BTW I was just wondering something: sometimes, I try to buy multiple of a nuit, like a Jotun Gode, but I can't, even though I have enough ressources and gold; is there any kind of limit???
Thanks for you help!

Re: A newbie question
 

The Jotun Gode is a sacred unit, and there are strict limits to how many sacred units (of all types combined) can be recruited in a province. That number is displayed on the troop recruiting screen. It's typically something like 6 to 9 for your capital.

Re: A newbie question
 

The number of holy units you can buy is dependent on your dominion strength if you have enough gold and resources, iirc.

Edi

Re: A newbie question
 

The Gode is a commander. You can only make one commander each turn.

Re: A newbie question
 

Makes sense. It's also listed on page 23 of the manual, section 9.6, fifth sentence. What's not clear is whether the phrase "Dominion strength of the Pretender God" refers to starting or current (ie: boosted by temples) dominion strength.

He must have very low dominion in the province he's trying to recruit in. I've never had this problem myself, as I'm always very diligent about pushing my dominion.

Re: A newbie question
 

To clarify: one commander per province per turn.

Re: A newbie question
 

yes thanks to all for so many quick answers, I was just reading the D1 manual and saw that I could only recruit one commander per province and per turn, and that the Jotun Gode is actually a commander!
And, to the other part of my question???
Maybe I was not clear enough: just want to know what expreienced players think of micromanagement, and how they do it; for instance, it doesn't seem easy to keep track of all your units and what they are doing...as I have said, I only have a handful of units for the moment, but I remember that during a turn, I forgot to move one of my scout...
so any tips are greatly appreciated!!!

Re: A newbie question
 

Use shortcut key 'n' to scroll inactive commanders, it helps. Also, F1 (overview) screen cuts micro a lot. Developing a habit of doing things (first, move scouts, then, mage forging, finally something else) in some order is something I've found comforting - until you notice you've done turns without actually thinking about it. That's the scary part.

Re: A newbie question
 

The 'Nation Overview' screen is your friend. Be sure to use <F1> liberally, and the <TAB> key to hide/show what's in your provinces.

<TAB> can also be used to hide/show your researchers in the main and 'Army Setup' screens.

<n> will circle thru your idle commanders. Be sure to assign tasks to everyone before ending your turn.

Use <M> (cast monthly ritual) when you want a mage to cast the same ritual (usually summoning rituals) endlessly.

Rename your commanders (you can't do that once they got an heroic ability, fame has its drawbacks too) to something meaningful (meaningful to you, but not to your enemies if possible), when you want them to fulfill specific roles.

Use the pool button when you want to transfer gems or blood slaves to your lab.

Use <Ctrl-1> ... <Ctrl-9> to memorize scripts, and assign them to your leaders using <1> ... <9>.

Re: A newbie question
 

The Ctrl-1 ... Ctrl-9 scripts can also hold commands for units. However, commander and units scripts are not combatible.

To use those scripts, hover your mouse pointer over the commands of the squad/commander you want to save or which you want to assign one of the saved orders, then press the key combination.

Re: A newbie question
 

Thanks for your suggestions! I already love the "n" and F1 butttons :-)
but I don't understant, what do u mean by scripts???
ANyway, I have started a new game with Jotunheim, a 8W5E Niefel Giant; I am wondering a few things: how often do you look for magic sites??? because I have only search for one with my pretender when I was awaiting reinforcements; most of the time I prefer to conquer a new province; should I search more???
How do I use magic out of combat??? for instance, if I want to cast a spell that allow me to detect earth magic sites (it's a level 2 thaumaturgy spell, and I have just researched it;
I have built a few temples, but I was wondering whether those I built really close to my capitole were really useful... sorry for those new questions :-)

Re: A newbie question
 

Scripts are a set of commands for your armies and commanders .

I cannot help you regarding how often to search for sites, as I am not doing it enough myself (you do not want poor advice, do you?).

Ritual spells (that are cast outside battle) require a spellcaster who must be in a province with a laboratory, and you need enough magical gems when giving your mage the "Cast Ritual" order. The gems must be available in storage at your laboratory as well (gems on the caster should be counted for casting the ritual, but I have never attempted it).

Temples are helpful to recruit priests (in the provinces that have these units) among other independent units, but you should use them near the line where you are facing an enemy Dominion. Preaching is also an effective way of increasing your Dominion, and having a temple in a province gives your priests a virtual +1 bonus for preaching purposes in this province. In other words, a Priest with a level 2 in Holy Magic can only raise the Dominion of this province up to level 2, while the same Priest would increase the Dominion of a province with a Temple up to level 3.

Lastly, with every five Temples you have an increase of 1 of your Dominion strength, which is a rating of the spiritual power of your Pretender. A higher Dominion strength enables you to convert provinces more quickly, and makes you more "resistant" to enemy Dominions/more likely to convert provinces under an enemy Dominion.

Re: A newbie question
 

Orders for your troops to follow. Press t when you have an army selected.

Re: A newbie question
 

Thx Alneyan and Molog!
If I build a new lab (I only got one for the moment) can I use the gems from the other lab??? I mean, are gems automatically transferable??? And who creates lab??? I suppose magicians. Ah, and how do I give gems to my commanders???
As to Magic sites, Angerboda the Great Hag just came, and he is a A3 D3 N2 B3 magician so I guess he will be my "site searcher"; but he's has 13 pts of research also...

Re: A newbie question
 

To be more precise: You select provinces, in some of which happens to be an army of yours.

And there are orders for the squads and for commanders seperatly.

By pressing "t" you get to the army setup screen. Next to the green minimaps there are the orders. Squads can only have one order (leftclick on the "click here to set battle orders"), commanders can have 5 single-turn orders (those above the line) and a following 'general' order.
e.g. (hold)(hold)attack nearest or (fireball)(fireball)(fireball)(fireball)(fireball) cast spells
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: A newbie question
 

Labs share a collective gem and item treasury.
With the current Version of Dom2 (not shure about the Demo - you're playing the Demo, aren't you?) there are multiple way to access the lab and the treasury.
At first try selecting the province, then leftclicking on the "laboratory" tab or use "l", or F5..8 (some of these may not work with the demo, though)
You'll get to the "magic ressources treasury" somehow. Click on "transfer gems to commanders". You may select the target commander by left-clicking on the commander shown at the top.
Or you may select the commander on the strategic map first, open his inventory (right-click) and left-click on the long tab on the right.

SHE .. you better get that right. I meant, you're a Pretender, but not her real god, yet.

Yes, in the beginning she is a quite good sitesearcher. You should see to have a province searched within 3 turns after conquering it. Unless you have enough gems already, and/or you're only some turns away from getting the sitesearching spells and/or the appropiate commander to cast them.

hope this is helpful
A.

Re: A newbie question
 

Any spellcaster is able to create a lab, and your Pretender might be able to do so even without any kind of magic path (that would be helpful to avoid the "losing your laboratory on turn 2 while you have no spellcaster available" symptom).

Gems (and magical items incidentally) are available in any laboratory of your Empire, and are "teleported" where they are needed.

To transfer magic gems, you have two solutions:
- Either go to the Laboraty of the correct province, then to Magic resources, and then to Transfert Gems to Commanders.
- Or more simply double click on the "personnal gems" part of your Commander's inventory. If you want to give them magical items, a double click on the rest of their inventory directly brings you to your magical item storage.

In both cases, your Commander needs to be in a province with a laboratory; you will only be able to transfer gems and magical items between commanders otherwise.

Re: A newbie question
 

This a major tactic for carrying supply items (work for the whole province, even if on a sneaking unit) and for ferrying gems to mages at the frontline.
You may 'deposit' some gems on one of the sneaking food carriers, so the mages don't use them all up in one turn. (They are much less prone to this with the latest Versions of Dom2, though)
A.

Re: A newbie question
 

lilu, dunno if this is what you are doing but a big hurdle for me (in terms of MicroManagement) when I first started playing was that I built units in *every* province, *every* turn. By doing this I thought I was "maximizing production" or something. But the truth of the matter is that you should be building almost exclusively from your forts. National troops are superior to indy troops (those available in conquered independent provinces) in almost every case. There are of course exceptions to this, most notably that some indy mages will give you access to magic paths, but in general it holds.