[earcaraxe]

Hi!

Im quite new to the game, but have read a great many posts in these forums and played many SP games. And only 5 MPs so far (all of them 2 vs 2 in small (35ish) maps).

I have just played vs one of my friends on a 40 province map, EA pangaea vs his tienchi. i tried to overwhelm him with maenads and built only pans (and bought most of the mercs). I had gained the upper hand as for quite long there were no battles between us except the ones with my mercenaries. Then came the time when I deployed my maenads with pans busy casting wooden warriors and swarm (I was rushing with my research with great sage (knowing that there is hardly any time in such a small map)). He followed his usual strategy this time too: took good scales for strong economy and amassed archers and the tower-shielded infantry (and as many mages and priests as possible, with quite little research). Experienced players surely know now that my army - although superior in numbers - barely could even inflict any casualties when our main forces met. His victory was so obvious to me that after a couple more battles i gave up.

1) any general ideas to counter this above strat? I know its coming if he plays tienchi)

2) I can come up with different strategies with pangaea, but would like to give maenads some more tries. Any ideas how can i improve my chances? I guess im missing on something (probably not even a few things but many).

There is little time to research other things, this time i managed alter5 and conjur3 (for summon EP).

When the decisive battle began i was having more provinces, equal income (with turmoil vs his order) and 3 castles vs his 2.
Pans are expensive, so i barely had money for anything else.

3) One more: he always builds only very few extra castles and always on big farmland. Even sometimes near my main army: he comes (with his main army), conquers the farmland, buys a big PD and waits 5 turns (sometimes conquering neighboring provinces. Attacking him is suicidal because the high PD and the possibility of him not moving)If its suboptimal strategy how can i take advantage of it?

thanks for all the answers.