Couple of questions
 

I'm sure these have been asked before, but these are stuff that are left after doing some digging on the forum.

1. I was thinking about trying some of the mods. Can anyone give some reccomendations on some good ones?

2. I haven't played for over a year, and have forgotten pretty much everything. Is there a guide or thread in particular that goes over the basic strategies of orders and such for the combat phase?

3. Playing as Ulm, I have a pretty good item production line going. I have no clue how to kit out the various mages/priests in my army. Any suggestions on some good item combos?

4. Quick question about supply. I constantly run into the problem of starving troops since I like big stacks. Do the various items that aleviate this problem work on the whole stack? Or just troops under the command of the guy holding the item? Can I give these to priests that I bring along for instance?

5. Commanders: Particularly combat oriented commanders...I was wondering if people recruited them with no intention of them ever commanding any troops. Hire a few commanders, kit them out, give them orders to charge and stick them with your normal army stacks?

6. The spell system is so complicated. Do you guys normally give your mages discretion to cast their own spells? Or do you micromanage them and give them specific spells to cast?

Re: Couple of questions
 

1. Conceptual Balance makes a good job in balancing the game. It's used in many multiplayer games.

Other mods haven't been discussed much. They appear, and then exist but are often forgotten. I'd recommend my Ulm Graphics Improvement - it makes Ulmish shields look a bit better, and does nothing else. Personally, I like it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

3. I'm not so sure about item combos. It's the effects, not the items, I'm interested in. As an example, one could get Quickness and some protection with very different ways, e.g. Boots of Quickness and Weightless Chain Mail, Jade Armor and Girdle of Might (helps a little against the increased encumberance of the Jade Armor), etc.
Usually, you want your mages to have booster items (Earth Boots, Crystal Coin) or reinvigorating items (Boots of the Messenger, Girdle of Might, Amulet of Resilience), possibly protective items (Boots of Stone, Weightless Chain Mail, light shield and/or missile protection), and items which increase their abilities for combat (Boots of Quickness/Jade Armor, Eye of Aiming).
Human melee commanders aren't usually worth giving items. They can use things like Sceptre of Authority and Skull Talisman, though. The commanders who are tough enough to survive in battle are different, and sometimes worth giving items. Jotun Herses are a good example. Also, lots of summonable units are good. The important things with Thugs or more powerful Super Combatants is to keep them alive (high prot, def, regeneration and/or life draining, luck, etherealness, lots of magic resistance, as many resistances/immunities as possible) and causing damage (multiple attacks, Quickness, Fire/Astral Shield, Breath of Winter or e.g. Rime Hauberk), with as low encumberanace as possible and with reinvigoration if Encumberance isn't 0. If enc is 0, the unit will only get fatique from spells and spellcasting.
Wraith Sword is very powerful with Conceptual Balance Mods, Starshine Skullcap gives magic resistance to anyone, high-def weapons like Sword of Quickness are generally good.

4. Supply items affect the whole province. If the same commander has two same items, only one has any effect. Because of this, it usually is worth it spreading the items out to many units. However, Scouts are usually preferred, as they don't die as often.
Remember that Endless Vineskin is the most economical choice, and that Summer Sword also exists.

5. I sometimes do that, but they would have to be quite powerful to be worth the gems. Jotun Herses can be like that. Sometimes I recruit cavalry commanders and give them bodyguards (units with Guard Commander order) and try to use his slightly better combat commands to target the enemy commanders or mages.
With Ulm, Black Lords can be powerful, but are still weak against magic. While testing with Conceptual Balance, I found that the national heroes have much more potential as combatants.
Usually it's better to give them ranged weapons. Commanders can Fire Rear.

6. I usually script my mages. Usually it's quite simple, like Body Ethereal, Eagle Eyes, Nether Darts for my Seithkona. I don't script all of their five spells every time.
If you hover your mouse above a commander's orders and press Ctrl+number (0-9), that set of orders is saved. You can give the same orders for any other commander by hovering the mouse above his/her commands, and then pressing the number you saved the set of commands in.

Re: Couple of questions
 

Gosh! I didn't know that! Where have I been? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Couple of questions
 

I think that was added in a patch. I'm not perfectly positive about that, though.

It's surprisingly less known, considering how useful it is. And not that hard to grasp, either.

Re: Couple of questions
 

Heh, you guys have got too fast machines; I'm reasonably certain that one of the hints the game provides between turns is exactly that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Couple of questions
 

i have a fast(ish) machine, it took me atleast 4 times looking at that hint to find it all out (its not easy considering how rare it is) without it i would take almost as long doing my turns in blitz games as other people http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Couple of questions
 

I don't remember either, but I think it was either added as last minute change before the game went gold (definitely after manual was printed) or in the first patch. Note that game shipped with version 2.02, not 2.00. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Couple of questions
 

Actually there are 2 tips in the game about that feature.

Re: Couple of questions
 

But a lot of tips that you can't read on a mid-range Pentium/Athlon unless you're playing on something like the Faerun map - really ought to be a 'pause' option, or an option to view all tips.

(So people don't have to know that the tips exist in text form on a web site somewhere.)

Re: Couple of questions
 

You can just write that down as a tip http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Couple of questions
 

Thanks for the info, everyone has been really helpful and I am starting to shake the rust off. A couple more questions have surfaced in my new game that I wonder if any of you could help with.

1) Summoned Commanders - Typically what do you use the bigger, buffer generals that have the stats for a melee monster, but also have 3-4 in a path? Like say the Troll King, or any of the Unique Elemental kings? Do you use them as static mages? Or use them as melee machines and just self buff?

2) Weapons - I prefer not to deck out every commander with a Life stealing weapon. I typically save Wrath Swords for Bane Lords. There are so many weapons however, but I am curious what Artifact class weapons do typically like to forge?

3) How do you guys move troops to the front when you have a large empire? I have troops that are capitol only, so I still use my capitol as a recruiting zone. I am fighting a war on two fronts, and it is about half way inbetween both fronts. But...it still takes forever to get them to either front. Also, I had to pull resources from one front to the other, and that took forever....I had to basically hold out till relief from the western front arrived. I am wondering if there is a more efficent way than hoofing it.

4) I am able to pretty much summon anything at this point in the game, except blood stuff. What do you guys tend to rely upon in the various schools?

5) I am having a huge problem with friendly fire. I normally end up causing most of the casualties in the two of my most relied upon summons....Clockwork horrors, and Pale Riders. Both give me very cheap flanking units. But....once the 3rd round hits, the friendly fire starts mounting. I set both units up to race down the flanks and engage archers and/or rear units. They get mauled when the come back to help out the infantry, and when they are chasing fleeing units. Is there any orders or placement that can help minimize friendly fire?

6) As Ulm, could you give some suggestions for scripts for the smiths...all my combat smiths have fire 2 Earth 3.

Re: Couple of questions
 

These two tie together : on a large map, having troops walk is impractical, but there's two magic paths that can move armies : astral and nature. (In theory, 3 paths, but the death spell is bugridden and essentially kills the army.)

So : if your national mages can't get high enough in nature or astral, get yourself an Ether Lord or Couatl for Gateway-ing troops, or a couatl, ivy king, lamia queen, or tree lord to move troops via Faery Trod. Gateway is limitted to travel to friendly controlled labs, Faery Trod is limitted to forest-to-forest travel, but if the game goes on long enough, Thaumaturgy-9 has Astral Travel, with no restrictions. Also : The GateStone gives free Astral Travel at const-8, if you get it.

Re: Couple of questions
 

smiths with magma eruption=good, as for kings/queens they are best as scs but guys like trolls good support casters. as for no using life draining weapons if using cb then i agree as they have been toned down, almost all artefacts are useful and to get troops to the front try to get flying ship. good summons are: massed vine ogres (cast by vine-kings or units with the vine hat thing), abominations, ghost riders, tartarians and a few others

ps:try to give all your thugs/sc's luck, regen and reinvig

Re: Couple of questions
 

Does any spell allow you to move multiple commanders? Due to the limited Army setup screen, I tend to gather stacks independant of eachother, and then move them to a central staging area. For example, right now at one of my rear forts, I have 2 smiths summoning what i intend them to lead, a Black knight Commander with his calvary, and am in the process of filling out a Ulm commander with infantry. I have additional mages moving to a midway rally point at which they will sit till the Ulm infantry is done.

If they are all personal spells however, I will have to change the way I recruit recruiting only infantry in rear areas, limiting rear recruiting to indie mages. I would also have to setup a series of labs behind the front lines where stacks could form up.

It is hell trying to issue orders when commanders are presant that aren't ment to be in that particular stack.

Re: Couple of questions
 

No.

Re: Couple of questions
 

Well, first of all you should move all your summoners to the securest lab closest to the front. What is the sense in summoning some units only to make them walk all the way there? With summoning, your mage is like a factory and if your factory can walk then it should http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

You should definitely move the bulk of your slow troops with magic. Moving additional commanders to the front can be done with Flying Boots. Just forge some up and hand them out to new commanders as they leave for the front. Then drop them off at the closest lab to the front for the next commander.

Re: Couple of questions
 

In my current game I am using your suggestion, the flying boots one...its working quite well. Normally though, I don't have one front. So I keep summoners at the half way point so they can get to either end relativley fast.

As far as the troops are concnered, do most people use 25 LD commanders? I notice some people saying they rarely use mortal commanders opting for mages instead. Most mages have a natural LD of 10, 10 isn't big enough for one squad in my armies. Unless you deck out your transporters in magical LD enhancing gear, I'd assume you'd need a lot of em to ferry troops around.

Re: Couple of questions
 

well, if you assume that you are generally trying to recruit a mage every turn, you generally will end up with a lot of them lying around, ready to transport your troops around, not to mention being the real damage-do'ers in battle later in the game.

this might not be the case in a poor world, but otherwise, lots of mages shoudl be the norm (at least when i play).

Re: Couple of questions
 

feel free to make non-mages in indies, thats what i do (or use a summoned general)

Re: Couple of questions
 

That's something I'd like to see improved, somehow. Fortresses are important because they allow one to recruit mages, and every turn a mage is not recruited is "wasted". Mages are useful all the time, in battle, for research, rituals, summons, leading summoned units... Non-magical commanders are just used to lead troops. There is no comparison between them in the terms of usefullness. So if one has the gold, and a choice between a commander and a mage, or even a priest, the commander shouldn't be recruited.
I would like to use national commanders, but it isn't worth it as often as I would like. So I have to recruit indy commanders, usually able to lead 25 units. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif
This was even worse in Dom:PPP though, as normal 40-gp HOly-2 Priests could lead 25 soldiers.

Re: Couple of questions
 

regular commanders are rarely worth buying unless you're trying to slow down assassins.

Re: Couple of questions
 

or need someone to transport your troops and are far away from any mage recruitment centers

Re: Couple of questions
 

Or simply have commanders who are either sturdy, dangerous, or have good leadership : commanders with a leadership of 50 or 75 are _certainly_ a good deal for moving archers, infantry, and vine men to the front.

(Mind - I still think vine men / ogres should require magical leadership, especially as they're mindless and all.)

Re: Couple of questions
 

THEY CAN MOVE VINE MEN!>!?!?!?!/11!!one....what have i been doing all my life?

Re: Couple of questions
 

I have a much better perspective on things after playing with Van. As Ulm, I found National commanders key, as Smiths while great, only have 10 natural Leadership. Mid game, individual squads were close to 50 men, so they were key.

Playing as Van however, there is no real reason to build the non mage commander, unless you were out of money. They have mages that also are Generals, with great leadership.

Is there any other race, like Ulm, who really need to build national melee commanders?

Re: Couple of questions
 

I would say Nifelheim has this requirement more than anyone else, since indie commanders tend to die to the various cold radiance that their units sometimes produce, and their ideal commander/mage (Nifel Jarl) is way to expensive to recruit every turn. Hence, you make Herses or their various priest types if you can afford it. They can melee well when blessed, I've seen a prophetized Jotun Jarl take down weak indies by himself. I haven't tried base Pan without using their mages heavily, but I imagine their commanders would be pretty good thugs as well. Trouble is, there are never enough castles at the beginning of the game, and when I DO build them, I get research-greedy and summon mages anyway http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Couple of questions
 

Jarls are cool, what with their 50-man command strength and blessing/undead-zapping priestliness. Although Gygjas have 25 leaderships, so they can cart a fair amount of troops along with them, plus you have a hard time getting up to 50 jotun troops together.

Re: Couple of questions
 

Not the way I play Jotunheim... Mass Hirdmen (Hirdgiants?) with Ice Pellet Stick backup!