[Taqwus]

Originally posted by Tuskerlove:
Okay, I've been pining to play this game for over 6 months now and I finally broke down and purchased it.

Some questions for the experienced players:

#1 How do I find, recruit or summon more elite leaders. It looks like you get one automatically after a few turns but I've run into problems fighting with my pretender god (battle afflictions that can't be healed) so I've been trying to use other leaders as generals and use my pretender god as a source of finding magic sites form province ot province. Is this a good or bad tactic?


You're -automatically- getting leaders? Hm. Are you playing Ermor, specifically Ashen Empire or Soul Gate?

In any province, you can recruit troops and commanders based on the locals that were there when the province was conquered. Feudal provinces (knights, longbowmen, heavy inf) for instance generally let you recruit the same. In provinces that never had indies (capital provinces), these don't exist.

If there's a fortress, you can recruit your national troops -unless- you're a water nation and the province is on land (exceptions for R'lyeh hybrids and star children on coastal provinces) or vice versa.

Certain magical sites also let you recruit more troops if you've found them. A Grey Tower won't let you recruit Grey Sages for instance if you don't yet know that it exists.

If you don't actually have national troops to recruit, and you're automatically getting leaders, you're probably playing one of the Dead Ermor themes. That's the way they work -- these get auto-generated troops (based on dominion and presence of castle, IIRC), plus you can explicitly order unholy priests to reanimate undead, plus you can order mages to summon troops (the usual magic tree, plus Ermorian-only summons) given the appropriate gems.

Using a pretender to search for sites can work. Note that all the magical paths (not holy/unholy) have spells that can locate all magical sites in the province within that path, e.g. Augury finds all fire sites in a province, while Dark Knowledge finds all death. These can be very cheap and possibly a better use of time since searching with a mage also requires moving, and is not guaranteed to be complete unless you have level 4 in the relevant paths. There's also the expensive Acashic Record that finds all magical sites including holy/unholy.


#2 How do I create these artifactss and uber gear everyone is talking about. I have research all branches of magic equally for the 1st 75 turns and now have lvl 5 in all branches of magic. I'm uncertain what needs to be done to create the better equipment.


(1) Research Construction.
At the beginning you can build trinkets. Levels 2, 4, 6, 8 let you build more powerful items.
(2) You need a mage with sufficient power in the relevant magical path or paths (max 2). For instance, a Ring of Wizardry will not even be listed for a mage who's not Astral 5 or more, and Elemental Armor requires at least 2 Earth, 1 Fire.
(3) Select mage in lab, and command him to forge an item. Base cost for each path is 5*2^{n-1} where n is the level requirement. For instance, that Elemental Armor requires 10 Earth, 5 Fire IIRC.

There are additional rules, such as the Construction-8 items are all unique and cannot be rebuilt unless destroyed (e.g. owner dies and nobody gets it), and certain commanders, items, spells and sites provide discounts.



#3 If I have over 600 of each of the gems in the game does that mean I'm doing something wrong? I really haven't empowered anyone but my pretender god and I'm not certain if that is a good or bad idea.


Eeek!

You could probably be summoning better troops with those, if not casting rituals or global enchantments or forging. For instance, Gift of Health is a lovely global. Heck, fire/earth gems can be readily turned into money if that's what you need.

Gift of Health, the Fairy Court summons, and the Chalice will all help you with afflictions, BTW.


#4 Why can't I build fortresses and raise province defense in the water?


You're a land nation. No land nation can deliberately raise province defense (T'ien Chi order dominion could automatically do so at one point, not sure if it still does), and if you want a castle there you'll have to take it, find it (magic site), or cast it (certain spells let you create fortresses, incl. one that's underwater).


#5 Re: Fortresses should I build them in every province or only in strategic areas? I have the Castle as a choice but I'm not certain how multiple fortresses benefit or hurt you when placed close together.


Depends on cost and reason. Too many castles can suck the resources out of neighboring provinces, but that may not be a problem to you. Going bankrupt would be, however.

If you have very very cheap low-admin castles, however, then you probably were planning on building hordes of them anyway for protecting your temples against raids, Ghost Riders etc.



#6 Most annoying problem: How can I lose a battle with 100 troops against a neutral territory holding 4 units. One territory holds a mage and some other elite troops and I can't defeat them with my fully equipped pretnder god with over 100 troops (how can this be possible?)


Possible. Bogus the Troll Raider and friends are fairly formidable, although they're not nearly as such against lifeless troops because that wraith sword won't heal Bogus then.

Fight with better troops, or better equipment, or better tactics, or if you must, with larger masses. Magic -- both in preparation (forging, summons) and battle -- can make a big difference, too.


Thanks for any tips/advice you might give me here

JD

Good luck and welcome aboard.