A newbie asks...

[DeadlyShoe]

The percentage of surrounding resources is the admin value of the fort, which is why Fortified Cities on plains can still work, even with drastically low resources.

Forest and mountain forts ofc tend to have very low admin values so they are only worth building if the province has good resources.

I don't really see the point of forging much? The majority of my commanders happily don't have any orders: I don't want them killed for the troop rout, so I'm not going to fight with them. The occasionaly definsive thing, but that's it.

THe basic items you can forge are mediocre, basically; they can help, but only situationally considering their price. However, once you get to Construction 4 or so, a lot of items come available that can drastically improve combat performance or provide big advantages strategically. For example, you can get items that improve a mages magic skills - enabling them to cast tough spells, or forge items otherwise unavailable. You can also get weapons that cause enemy armies to run away, or that cause area damage.

Also, later in the game most nations can summon very tough very mean commanders that only get tougher and meaner with gear. Eventually you reach a point where the vast majority of recruited troops cannot effectively harm such a commander, and even magic spells can bounce off like ping pong balls.

[thejeff]

The primary use of forts is to recruit mages or to guard valuable provinces (chokepoints or very good magic sites). But mostly for the mages. Therefore, you usually want the cheaper/quicker forts. Admin value and defense are secondary.

As DeadlyShoe says, items are mostly used for building thugs/SCs. It's sometimes worth equipping mages for battle, almost never regular commanders. Maybe bows or spell casting items.

[JonBrave]

@krpeters
ok, so: i think you're saying: if adjacent province shared by 2 forts, the %age that fort#2 gets does not "come out of" the %age fort#1 gets? and i guess if you build fort#2 adjacent to fort#1, fort#2 gets 0 for fort#1, and fort#1 remains as it was?

@deadlyshoe
understood, i haven't reached "later", i either win or lose early. it was just that some post talked about doing loads of forging, but i think i get the picture; i shall forge less

@thejeff
i know you're right, but i just don't seem to need/build so many mages, what do you want me to do with them? i can recruit what i need, mage-wise, back at my capital?

[DeadlyShoe]

Well, the only way you can really get a feel for items is to forge things and try them out in combat. So don't be afraid to experiment. Like I said though, I would recommend at least hitting Construction 4 if you want the items to be actually useful.

The more mages you get the better off you are actually. Any mages that you don't actually need in the field can be researching to improve your magic. Some nations can use mages for leading armies too, and basically dont need to recruit any other commanders.

[JonBrave]

I realise about the extra mages can research. But I just read in that "House Rules Against the AI" thread that I need to limit myself to just one researching mage per laboratory Till now I built loads mages and researched.

But even saying that, thejeff was saying I needed forts to build even more. I can build plenty from just one fort. Oh well.

[Redeyes]

Originally Posted by JonBrave

I realise about the extra mages can research. But I just read in that "House Rules Against the AI" thread that I need to limit myself to just one researching mage per laboratory Till now I built loads mages and researched.

But even saying that, thejeff was saying I needed forts to build even more. I can build plenty from just one fort. Oh well.

You are actually following those house rules?

No, you don't always need to build more forts. It's a good idea to build forts when you have an economic surplus or when you find a site with interesting independents; minotaurs are really cool!)

If you run out of money recruiting as much stuff as you can you shouldn't build more forts. If you don't need more troops, it actually happens, it might be a good idea to build another fort to get more mages.

You'll get ahold of the proper balance pretty soon.

[DeadlyShoe]

I realise about the extra mages can research. But I just read in that "House Rules Against the AI" thread that I need to limit myself to just one researching mage per laboratory Till now I built loads mages and researched.

Thats actually kind of a silly house rule, since Research is one area the AI has no problems keeping up with humans. At least on Mighty and Impossible.

[Hrum]

Originally Posted by JonBrave

I realise about the extra mages can research. But I just read in that "House Rules Against the AI" thread that I need to limit myself to just one researching mage per laboratory Till now I built loads mages and researched.

But even saying that, thejeff was saying I needed forts to build even more. I can build plenty from just one fort. Oh well.

You don't need to limit yourself to one mage per lab - that's an approach someone mentioned using to give themselves a challenge when facing the AI in SP games, but I don't think anyone would recommend that a new player play that way.

I think that the "House Rules against the AI" thread (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44783) is primarily more experienced people talking about how to keep the SP game interesting for themselves when they've found that they can routinely beat the AI on the hardest setting. If you're only on your 3rd game and not automatically setting the AI to the highest difficulty setting, you may not be at the point yourself that you need to adopt the approaches mentioned in that thread.

There are some interesting ideas in that thread, but that approach in particular of intentionally tying a hand behind your back (ie. not having many mages researching) seems like something that only an experienced player should do. In your case, since you're still getting to know the magic system, choking off your research like that is going to keep you from finding out about a lot of the mid and endgame magic, which means you're missing out on a big part of the game.

If you're playing against the AI set to impossible and the game is too easy, you're winning every time nearly without effort, then sure, use some of those tricks to keep things interesting. Otherwise...

Basically, by not making forts and only making mages at your capital, you're teaching yourself a style of play that would likely get you creamed in a multiplayer game. A veteran player might do something like that to keep SP interesting, but for a new player to do the same you may be giving yourself bad habits.

[JonBrave]

Thanks for all the tips. I guess I just get racked with guilt thinking I might be taking advantage of the pooor AI