Early Game, Mid Game, and End Game... What's the goal of each?

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Argitoth:
END GAME - Give up because the micromanagement is too harsh and you've just lost your pretender for the second time and realize you overlooked a few things of your enemy.

Well that's certainly worthless advice. Giving up is cowardly, and teaches one nothing, so one just goes on repeating mistakes. One learns the most from struggling on, the worse the challenge, the more one should learn. That is, if one is open to learning, instead of whining about losing and how unfair life, the universe, and everything is.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Argitoth:
END GAME - Give up because the micromanagement is too harsh and you've just lost your pretender for the second time and realize you overlooked a few things of your enemy.

You're just sore that you got your sorry little butt whooped by Mivayan. Your empire could not POSSIBLY have THAT much micromanagement. Although you did very well at getting your butt kicked piecemeal, from what reports I saw from my scouts.

Spacepain, I suggest you ignore the little man. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. Never give up, never surrender! A warrior fights to the death! Next time, stand up and die like a man!

[ March 15, 2004, 05:24: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Spacepain:

quote:

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Originally posted by Norfleet:
Like in life, the objective of Dominions II is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.

Sounds like somebody has been playing TOO much dom2...

Well, the tricky part is one can only be beaten by the easy AI so many time before one is slightly discouraged... I've taken an estudious approach to becoming rather good at many other game and been met with considerable success, so why not apply that to this game? Whilst, I certainly don't plan on becoming a pro by being simply book smart, I do hope to figure out the general outline behind a "good way" to play dom2.

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Learn which independent provinces you can take easily and early. These are not the same for all nations. After a few games (preferably with the same nation), you should be able to take the first provinces with very few losses.

Hint: Barbarians hit pretty hard, but they have little protection; they're perfect targets for archer nations, but will inevitably cause losses to melee troops (even with good protection). Knights and Longbowmen are tempting as they're good to recruit, but they're hard to kill early; avoid them until you can swamp them quickly.

What constitutes the early/mid/end game will depend a LOT on the map size and number of AIs. With large maps or few AIs, you'll probably have to fight a single AI instead of a multi-war; what this will look like will depend a lot on which nation this is (although AIs tend to not use their national forces enough, with the exception of Dead Ermor).

Try to build Fortresses. If you're like me, you're not building enough. Yes, they're expensive, but for most nations, your national troops should be most of what you buy, so this means building fortresses. Don't build them next to each other, still, as this gets counter-productive.

Oh, and send scouts around. Even if you hear that the AI is predictable. Shield your armies and borders with scouts; that way, you'll know if an enemy army is likely to reinforce the province you're planning on attacking, and you'll see the enemy moving to attack you.

[Taqwus]

For an easier game against AIs,
(a) Don't enable Ermor, unless the scenario forces it to be Broken Empire. Other AIs aren't too good at dealing with Ermor and the job will basically be left to you -- ugly if you start on opposite ends of the map.
(b) Try relatively few players on a moderate map. Five AIs on Aran or Karan should be manageable; there's enough room to expand without worrying about a war against multiple AIs early unless you get really, really unlucky with placement.
(c) You might want to play with landlubbers only (no Atlantis or R'lyeh), as striking back as a landlubber is tricky for many.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by PhilD:
Oh, and send scouts around. Even if you hear that the AI is predictable. Shield your armies and borders with scouts; that way, you'll know if an enemy army is likely to reinforce the province you're planning on attacking, and you'll see the enemy moving to attack you.

I rarely send scouting forces against the AI, whereas I do so extensively against humans. The stealth ability of scouts is relatively poor, and the AI's tendency to splatter forces around everywhere and buy up large quantities of PD means that they'll get caught fairly often. The AI's behavior is simultaneously predictable(in that it will rarely surprise you) and erratic(in that there's no apparent rhyme or reason to what it does at times), so unless you're very experienced in how it operates, scouting will not tell you very much you didn't already know.

This does not apply to human opponents! Information is the key to survival against a human opponent, and you MUST scout, lest you be in for a nasty surprise.

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:

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Originally posted by PhilD:
Oh, and send scouts around. Even if you hear that the AI is predictable. Shield your armies and borders with scouts; that way, you'll know if an enemy army is likely to reinforce the province you're planning on attacking, and you'll see the enemy moving to attack you.

I rarely send scouting forces against the AI, whereas I do so extensively against humans. The stealth ability of scouts is relatively poor, and the AI's tendency to splatter forces around everywhere and buy up large quantities of PD means that they'll get caught fairly often. The AI's behavior is simultaneously predictable(in that it will rarely surprise you) and erratic(in that there's no apparent rhyme or reason to what it does at times), so unless you're very experienced in how it operates, scouting will not tell you very much you didn't already know.

This does not apply to human opponents! Information is the key to survival against a human opponent, and you MUST scout, lest you be in for a nasty surprise.

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Let's remember that Spacepain is having trouble beating the AI... so even if the AI feels predictable to you, it may not be so for everyone. Until the AI feels really predictable, scout. Then scout some more. And when you get to MP, scout even more. Build scouts in every able province until they walk on each other's toes.

[ywl]

Originally posted by Spacepain:
What constitues and what you should do during each phase of the game, beginning, middle, and late, is one topic that the goal for most if not all nations is probably similiar.

As of present I understand that early game is a giant land grab, mid game is collection of magical resources, and gradual build up of small advantages, and the end game is when you let loose all the stored up magical goodness.

Am I wrong in this methology? It could easily explain why I am being beaten even by the easy AI....

Your methodology is correct.

What nation are you using? Each nation has some trick on how to use their units effectively. Man, for example, can be quite different from Ulm.

What do you mean by beaten by easy AI? It can mean two things: First, you're not expanding as fast as the AI. As a rule of thumb, you should be top on province, gold income and (usually) gem resource by turn 20 of the game. Second, you don't know how to handle the attack of the AI, which usually occur after turn 12 to 15. For that, you'll need to get used to how the AI behaves.