Questions about reconnaisance.
 

I was wondering what the different forms of recon do, and how they rate against each other. The few methods of recon I'm aware of are scouts, magic and dominion spread. I'm mainly curious about how accurate the information is from these different things. Sometimes I'll look at a province and I'll see that it has 30 defenders, and the next turn I will see that it has 20. Is this because Indies change every few turns? Do they grow as the game goes on? Or, is it simply that the different forms of recon give variable results? Sometimes I even seem to find magic sites when I scout a terrain, or get the specific name of an enemy commander, and sometimes not.

Also, is there any way to learn the stats of enemy commanders without actually having to fight them in battle? Are there any other useful bits of recon I can gather that I have not mentioned here?

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Re: Questions about reconnaisance.
 

The best form of recon is a quick leader (especially a flying one) that attacks a province and scripted to (retreat). (as long as there's a nearby "allied" province to reatreat to)
That's not what you asked, but atleast its something that you might not have known otherwise http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Questions about reconnaisance.
 

Good tip; thanks. Is there any way for a defender to make sure these kind of scouts die for their efforts, or does the attacker always move first? It would be cool if, in Dom3, they accounted for this tactic by not giving a battle video to the attacker if his force is completely wiped out in turn 1. Otherwise, it sounds like this little tactic is unstoppable.

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Re: Questions about reconnaisance.
 

Well, if a mobile unit is willing to charge the enemy army and then run away, shouldn't he be able to report what he saw?

As far as killing those kamikaze scouts, the defender always goes first actually. So, flying defenders, or spellcasting defenders, and sometimes archers, can kill them. The player still gets to watch the scout die, though.

There's also a difference between a scout and a spy. Spies can inspire unrest, but they also give more accurate scouting reports, can report on magic sites, and can report on the defenders of a besieged castle.