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clhannah said:
sorry -- I've played litterally dozens of combinations of pretenders, scales, magic, races. I have probably started over 50 games with the same basic results. Ulm mostly, aran map (the first one), between 4 and 8 opponents, normal AI.
>are well served by putting 10 PD . . .
I have been using 20 PD with constant recruiting in outlying provinces -- doesn't even slow them down. I'm talking less than 20 turns and they have multiple stacks of forces that dwarf my defences.
It seems to me either the game is terribly overbalanced to the attacker, or I am missing something critical.
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Oh! Let me guess - you're taking the 'default' independent strength of 3? If so, you'll find the game easier if indies are set to about 5 or 6 (6 seems to be the default in most MP games). The problem is that 3 allows the AI nations to really conquer a lot fast, which allows them to have huge armies, which allows them to ... Well, you've seen what it lets them do.
The game balance _is_ somewhat in favor of the attacker, I think - this helps avoid stagnant wars of attrition where nothing changes hands much. The trick is to use this to your advantage.
One thing you're doing wrong,
especially in the first 10 - 20 turns. _Don't_ build 20 PD! If you're building that much PD, you're not building mages and armies. PD has an inverse ratio of cost effectiveness - the first PD troop costs 1 gold, the 19th costs 19; it just isn't cost effective to build 20 PD everywhere. For that matter, it's rarely cost effective to do that anywhere, but there are exceptions.
20 PD costs you about ... 200 gold. Try building something more along the lines of 1-5, until you have enemy neighbors. Once you have neighbors, 10 or 11 can serve as a deterent to the AI, and that's about all that you generally want to build, unless possibly you're Jotunheim. (Again, exceptions, but good rule of thumb.)
Build armies instead. Take more provinces more quickly. You aren't expanding quickly enough, so the AI gets provinces, gets more gold income, can afford more troops more quickly, expands even quicker, builds _more_ troops, and rolls right over you. Vicious circle, and the way to break it is to go more on the offense.
As you yourself noted - the attacker has some advantages in this game.
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>Build castles strategically;
I have built the highest deffence castle (dark citidell?) in a string of 4 provinces, recruited balanced forces and shuttled them to the front, and lost in an eyeblink.
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Ouch! Again, you're spending _way_ too much gold on defense, and crippling your offense and army (which is also your defense).
First - 4 castles in the first 10-15 turns is usually too many, until you've got a lot more experience. Second - the dark citadel is _not_ a good castle to use. It's too expensive, too slow to build, and did I mention, _way_ too expensive?
You're much better off with a watchtower, a castle, or a fortress. (Other decent ones that take more thought are the mausoleum and wizard tower.) The Last four on the list are almost never used by experienced players; a shame, but too many good players have simply found that they don't work - not cost effective, plus you spend 600-750 on a castle, and the enemy has 4 or 5 turns to attack you and waste all your gold.
Try building maybe _one_ fortification in the first 10 turns, two tops. Lower PD, but a lot more troops, and try to expand faster. Large nations field bigger armies and crush small nations, generally speaking.
And do try setting the independent strength to 5 or 6 - it makes it a little harder for you to expand, but it really sets back the AI more.
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>or at least to kill some commanders . . .
>Assassinating his commanders also helps . . .
this is interesting -- have a flying attack or fast force target rearmost troops -- suicide squad specifically for the invading commander. Hmmm. bLast the army when it can no longer move.
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Several nations also actually have assassin commanders. In an assassination, only the assassin, a randomly selected enemy commander in that province, and his bodyguards are in the fight. (And the AI often doesn't use bodyguards, and even humans forget them until they lose a mage or two.)
Good luck!