[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by PhilD:
OK, it's official, I suck at this game.

I tried copying the exact same setup, and at turn 12, I am now the proud owner of 14 Provinces, with a monthly income of 550 Gold. I am ahead in Provinces and in Income (barely; Arcoscephale is just behind), but my research is way behind everybody else's (I found 2 Libraries for Sages two turns ago, but don't have the cash for Labs).

That is not actually far from my results and perhaps with a few adjustments in play would be roughly the same. At the start you need to quickly develop a plan for the terrioroy you wish to take not just take whats available. You want the shortest land borders possible and to border as few AI's as possible. Its important to leave the AI with expansion routes early (hopefully straight into monster indies) and to make sure you raise defenses on border provinces to ~11 to discourage the AI from attacking. When tensions are high/peace is important a dross army stationed on the border can be enought to discourage the AI.

Play a bit with the exact positioning of your Groups vs different indies to reduce casualities. Minor deployment differences can make a big difference and nailing the start is well worth it.

Oh, and some of my Sauromancers are rebels; they keep casting Raise Dead instead of the Terrors they've been instructed.

I didn't have much magic by t.12 - just what the Prince got me as Sauromancers are needed at the front, to keep casualties down, or for searching. Being behind in research in this period is generally fine.

Tis a pain how often scripts are overridden. I find it very annoying that Sauromancers with 1 water are not much use as they use their quickness to cast a bunch of stupid spells instead of terrorizing opponnents. I think mages should have a strong bias towards casting the Last spell they were scripted to cast.

To HJ:

Slinger are good but I'm focusing on troops to attract archery and Dancers early. Later Slingers will come into their own.

I have thought about Air but to be honest find the thought of high Astral more appealing for Twist of Fate plus extra magic resist. At this point Air is low on my list of bless effects especially as I can usually trick archers into shooting at the wrong target.

I haven't tried high fire yet Patrik as most of the sacred troops I'm looking at have a good attack but need the extra defensive bonuses to make them almost unkillable when used carefully. Machakan Black Hunters have good enough stats already to look at high fire but a I feel Machaka needs decent dominon scales so I have been cautious so far.

A side point which I haven't posted on this group - try using the Lord of the Desert Sun to cast Eagle Eyes then Fireball. The results are impressive - Nature plus Fire 2 or more is pretty handy.

cheers

Keir

[ November 19, 2003, 19:52: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]