[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
But concerning the importance of speed of expansion I ask myself if you think you could have done anything to expand a tad faster without the strategy being to risky.

With the caveat of risk-avoidance? No. I could have used a smaller force to beseige Pythium, but that would have risked more casualties and an even longer time to breach the gates. I could have built more combat units and fewer casters, but that's a really bad idea in my view. The main issues, as you can now see from the posted maps, is that I ran into Pythium on my only land expansion route, and Ashikaga is also close by. My next direction to expand is northwards into the woodlands. But I won't be doing that until I bottle up Ashikaga. My economy and position is strong enough that I can lay seige to their capital and then build a second army to go munching on other provinces.

Another big problem, that is not evident from the maps, is that the rich river farmlands to the east of Jotun are held by sizeable indy forces (50+) composed of heavy cav, heavy foot, and crossbows. I've been unwilling to risk my SC wyrm solo taking them on, and without magical support (I haven't studied Evocation yet for my Seithkonas) my Jotuns would take a serious beating from the cav/xbow mix. So I'm chewing on Ashikaga first, then I'll deal with the forests to the north, then the farmlands to the east, then the Atlantians. Well, that's the current plan, FWIW.

EDIT: as can be seen from the maps, until I wiped out Pythium on turn #18, I pretty much had to do everything in my power to get rid of this cork in the neck of the bottle I began the game in (the peninsula). Excepting the castle's ballistae, Pythium's troops were considerably weaker than the indies I'll be facing in Saeborea and Helmshire. Ashikaga is tougher than the indies, but the indies aren't a looming threat. The sooner I face Ashikaga the weaker they'll be. I cannot rely on them to bleed themselves on Atlantis or Man. They've already expanded in my direction, which was ominous. Better to face them now than later.

EDIT2: Now that I've pushed some decent dominion level into those indy farmlands to the east, I can probably take them on with my wyrm solo, since the wyrm will have nearly double the HPs that it has in zero dom.

PS - IMO, speed of expansion, while certainly important, isn't an overriding priority in SP as it is in MP. IMO, it's not as important as making sure you are ready before you begin your land grab. Better to "waste" a turn or two and have overwhelming force than to rush and fail. There's also a hidden side benefit. I often let AI nations do some of my site searching for me!

[ February 18, 2004, 22:34: Message edited by: Arryn ]