Alexander's Ever-Expanding Tome of Knowledge, pt 2

[HoneyBadger]

I'm just going to keep on bumping this until someone stickies it.

[Edi]

It's not going to get stickied, period. Want an easy permalink to it, make one in your sig. There are other threads that are more worthy of being stickied, but aren't, so this one is not going to get any special treatment in that regard.

[SlipperyJim]

I don't think this would work for multi-player, but it's great against the AI.

Get "in his face" by taking a province near an AI opponent. If this province is a "chokepoint" on the map, that's ideal! Then defend the heck out of that province. If you have decent PD, buy as much as you can afford. If you have any commanders that summon allies (maybe even freespawns!), park a few in the province. Build a laboratory and set a couple of mages to monthly castings of some sort of cheap summon.

Basically, the idea is that the AI will try a big push with all available troops to kick you out of your province. If you can resist that push, then you can grind up an insane amount of your opponent's resources. Then, each subsequent attack will be easier and easier to repel. While he's wasting troops by throwing them against your unbeatable defense, your armies can conquer other provinces to add to your strength. He's stuck at a standstill, while you're still making progress. Guaranteed win for you!

A human opponent will figure out what you're doing quickly, and the trick probably won't work. But the AI seems to fall for it nearly every time.

[MaxWilson]

I'll mention in passing that another reason it's easier to defend a chokepoint than to attack armies is that you have easier access to gems for big combat spells (Flame Storm, Rigor Mortis, Shadow Blast, etc.).

-Max

[SlipperyJim]

Very true, MaxWilson.

To clarify: The point of the meat-grinder is not just strong defense. That's good, but it won't win the game. The point is to keep your opponent distracted and wasting resources while you are making progress elsewhere. He throws all of his troops into the meat-grinder. You capture provinces, search for sites, and generally build your empire.

Then you return and crush him when you have an overwhelming advantage.

Needless to say, this strategy works exceptionally well if you can combine it with some other strategy (or strategies) to strangle your opponent. For example, heavy use of spies, blasting his provinces with hostile magic, raiding parties behind the front lines, etcetera....

[HoneyBadger]

Well then, Edi, I'll just keep bumping it into infinity.

[MaxWilson]

<Ahem> While I'm all for keeping the Tome expanding, bumps should probably include a useful tactic, whether it's original or a link to one posted in some other thread. Like the Fog Warrior hydras, for example. Or the scorched earth hydras in the same thread.

(Personally, I largely ignore the stickied threads because it's hard to tell when there's new material.)

Army setup tip: if you're having problems with cavalry munching your mages, set the mages on the extreme lower edge of the setup box, with a squad of units in front of them and a squad of units directly above them. Since attack-rearmost will only cause units to move forward and laterally, not backward, and since it's impossible to place units further down than the bottom of the box, any cavalry will always run into one of the two blocking squads. This is better than a single large squad on "Guard commander" for a couple of reasons: your mages aren't in the middle of the guards (vulnerable to javelins, etc.), and they're also further away from the attacks ("Guard commander" guards sometimes get right in the same square as the mage unless they're size 4, which won't block attackers from meleeing your mage). On the down side, you need a commander in the middle of each blocker squad to anchor it unless you want to risk "Hold and attack," which leaves you vulnerable to "Hold and Attack Rear." You might risk it if you used "Hold and Attack Cavalry," though.

-Max