Early game expansion rate

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Reverend Zombie:
What are minimum goals that I should be trying for in order to survive to mid-game in terms of:

[snip]

In the early turns, maximizing your income should be your primary goal - with gold you can buy mages to research and/or locate magic sites, you can buy troops to expand faster and thus gather even more gold, and you can raise buildings to strengthen your emerging empire.

There are a few cases where you need to push reasonably fast for a specific research target - typically for a SC pretender to be able to buff him/her/itself before a battle.

So basically it's (5) first - which typically means (1) since these 2 points are strongly correlated, and sometimes (2) at the same time - which may require (3) if you aren't good at research, but OFC (3) requires (5). When you're good at (5), the rest should be easy to get.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Tuskerlove:
Turn 1:
Take 1st territory

This is a recipe for probable disaster with independent strength of 6 or greater.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
This is a recipe for probable disaster with independent strength of 6 or greater.

He did say he was new at this. Maybe he's unaccustomed to playing at anything above Indy-3, where they likely wilt when you so much as breathe on them, as opposed to slaughtering anything but a potent national army or buffed SC.

[Vynd]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tuskerlove:
Turn 1:
Take 1st territory

This is a recipe for probable disaster with independent strength of 6 or greater.

---

Yeah, after a few tragic mishaps I have concluded that it is safest to at least wait until you have scouting reports, on turn 2, before attacking anything. And if Indep strength is moderate to high, you may need to wait even longer while you research spells to buff your SC, or simply build sufficient troops with which to defeat the Independents.

How quickly you need to take provinces would also seem to depend on how strong the Indeps are. As for a number of provinces to shoot for, I would divide the number of provinces by the number of players and concentrate on getting approximately that many, before turning my focus to other matters. Defensible borders are also nice to shoot for, albeit difficult to achive.

And I think Nagot is right. It's all about the Benjamins. Get lots of territory so your income is high, and that should allow most everything else to fall into place.

[En Forcer]

Well, call me crazy but I've always played with Indep strength of 9. Work for every territory and make the AI work for hi ya know?

And it really cuts down on explosive growth. Heck, I've lost my Pretender to more "white flags" than to any AI nation....

I try to avoid territories with lots of crossbowmen or Heavy Cavalry until I have a big army (usually by 20 turns or so). Crank out scouts and TRY to set up defensible chokepoints (as opposed to a perimeter). Meanwhile my pretender is busily researching at home. That sort of thing.

Although many are the occasion (often through my inept handling of defense) that my pretender has to take to the field to save the day...

Sometimes you guys amaze me. Like you're some kind of unstopable wave rolling over the enemy. Sheesh! If only I were so lucky! I'm still fighting for my life at turn 50 and sometimes even as far as turn 100.

[Starfighter08]

Originally posted by En Forcer:
Well, call me crazy but I've always played with Indep strength of 9. Work for every territory and make the AI work for hi ya know?

And it really cuts down on explosive growth. Heck, I've lost my Pretender to more "white flags" than to any AI nation....

Same here. I don't like the race for territories that medium and low Indep strengh result in.

Higher Indep means more chokepoints and strategically interesting situations than just painting the map green (or whatever color).

I try to avoid territories with lots of crossbowmen or Heavy Cavalry until I have a big army (usually by 20 turns or so). Crank out scouts and TRY to set up defensible chokepoints (as opposed to a perimeter). Meanwhile my pretender is busily researching at home. That sort of thing.

Since I play with a similar style, what races/pretenders do you usually play with that strategy?

Although many are the occasion (often through my inept handling of defense) that my pretender has to take to the field to save the day...

Sometimes you guys amaze me. Like you're some kind of unstopable wave rolling over the enemy. Sheesh! If only I were so lucky! I'm still fighting for my life at turn 50 and sometimes even as far as turn 100.

More fun that way. If the Indeps are too weak the game turns too quickly into WWI with a frontline across the whole map and Somme like meat grinders for battles. I don't like it since it's completely out of character.

[En Forcer]

*Same here. I don't like the race for territories that medium and low Indep strengh result in.*

Since it's a world of turmoil, doesn't it make sense that the globe is peppered with barbarian and civilized kingdoms alike? Honestly, I don't see why there isn't a unique banner and artwork for every single territory. Or have barbarian tribes covering several provinces but that rarely (if ever) go conquer.

*Higher Indep means more chokepoints and strategically interesting situations than just painting the map green (or whatever color).*

Yep. I regularly depend upon buffers of indeps to protect my borders. Nothing like a stack of heavy cavalry, heavy infantry, and crossbowmen led by an indie hero to make the AI think twice.

Since I play with a similar style, what races/pretenders do you usually play with that strategy?

Well, I started with Ulm, and am now on Man, Tuatha theme. For Ulm I had the Lady of Fortune (I love the extra fortune bonus) and of course +3 luck on the scales...made for some beefy random events but production sucked from my +3 turmoil.

Now I have a rainbow sage with 4 in everything. I really dig my Tuatha generals (although horridly expensive) and the bards make excellent scouts. And with 1 nature magic they can provide fire support or research so they don't have to sit on their ***.

My "3rd generation" armies are made up of about 30-40 Vine Ogres and about 50 longbowmen. A couple of these guys and there isn't much that can bother me. Wind Guide and Aim tend to help the longbowmen really well (I don't have easy access to any fire skill mages so Fire Arrows sits unused).

I still have some old school armies with stacks of infantry and militia roaming about.

Hey! Here's a thought. I could copy my save files and you could see what I've done? Just tell me what files to send.

*More fun that way. If the Indeps are too weak the game turns too quickly into WWI with a frontline across the whole map and Somme like meat grinders for battles. I don't like it since it's completely out of character.*

Talk about out of character. I have a high priest who I got from a random event and he sorta fell into being a blood mage, well now I have him summoning fiends and I just don't feel right being nature guy AND summoning demons....

seems un-Tuatha-ish ya know? And I probably shoulda gone with the Lady Tuatha for a Pretender but I REALLY wanted those blessings at the start and didn't want to give up the points....