Questions about PD and other

[HoneyBadger]

The best thing about PD is the morale consideration. More troops = better morale, which can literally be a life-saver.

[HoneyBadger]

Oh, and if you're playing Niefelheim, you're going to want to aim for a PD of 50. That's 25 militia-jotuns and 15 spear-jotuns, which is decent, but not massive, PD, believe it or not.

[Sombre]

Uh,.. I don't think you ever want to /aim/ for a PD of 50. Especially for the Jotunhiems, whose PD is actually one of the worst.

And PD doesn't always help with morale either, since there are often crappy militia troops in there that just run off and get killed en masse causing your casualty percentage to be higher in total and risky a rout.

[HoneyBadger]

I disagree. Yes, they have crappy PD, but that crappy PD consists of a handful of very tough troops-the problem with their PD is that you can't rely on it by itself, you have to augment it. Slap a Niefel Jarl and maybe a handful of support-troops, and it's really, really hard to beat.

It's almost 1200 gold in troops that never need to eat, never need a leader, and never get afflictions. It's not something you want in every single province, but having 50 PD and harnessing it in a few key provinces can be really powerful.

You don't have much to worry about the Jarl routing because of the PD, with his high morale and ability to bless himself.

[Archonsod]

thejeff said:
Maybe because I tend to play against Impossible level AIs? At least the initial attacks tend to have 4-500 troops. Even 100 PD isn't going to stop that for most nations.

Depends on the nation and their PD troops, and also whether the AI has decided to be sensible or not. A good PD force (Abyssia for example) can be lethal, especially if backed up with a mage or two. Of course, like I said it depends on the AI, It tends to put forward useless armies as often as it does credible ones.
To be honest, I'd be surprised if the AI managed to beat the high PD when it's fielding that many troops. Generally it's had them starving for a couple of turns first, and what takes the field looks more like your local hospital's casualty ward than it does an army.

[Gandalf Parker]

I like to use alot of PD in chokepoints. Or if its far away from my castle and I need a quick fix to stop a sudden attack.

I usually try to pad out my PD with something helpful. Adding a captain or two can really help its morale. If it has no archers then adding archers or crossbowmen or even slinger can help. If no mounted then knights help.

The PD of course is mindlessly scattered in the middle of the map and charge forward. So a purchased group set off to the flanks with smart scripting can make use of the distraction that the PD provides.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Please tell me if I'm interpreting this correctly...

50 points of PD for MA Agartha costs
(1+50)/2*50= 1275 gold
And for that I get
1st point: 1 Cave Captain 1 Agarthan Light Infantry, 1 Agarthan Infantry.
19 points: 1 Cave Captain, 19 LI, 19 I
20 points: 1 Cave Captain, 20 LI, 20 I, 1 Pale One Captain, 1 Pale One Soldier
50 points 1 Cave Captain, 50 LI, 50 I, 1 Pale One Captain, 30 Pale One Soldiers.

Regularly, 50 light infantry are 500 resources, 500 gold. Regular infantry are 1100 resources, 500 gold.
Thirty Pale One Soldiers are 600 resources, 300 gold.
Total regular cost, disregarding captains, is 2200 resources, 1300 gold. Not a bad deal... Throw in a mage who can cast darkness, four Earth Readers with Earth Boots scripted to cast Earth Power and various E4/E3 spells... Or Iron Bane. And its still way too much money invested, but a lot of precious resources saved for my sloth 1 Agartha. At that point, I'd probably go with another fortress instead, but I'd like to know if I have the math right before thinking too hard.

[Shovah32]

You probably have it right but remember that you cant script, place or move the troops.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Certainly. But its not like I want them to hold while my nonexistent archers fire. If I can properly guess their position and action, I've got the necessary wall of meat for Curse of Stones to have a very nice effect. Or various other spells. Throw in Darkness and I might be tough to take out, barring assassination. Or the ever common undead.

Problem is, with my current scales, I can barely recruit 5 infantry a turn from my capital, depending on the map. Given the scarcity of my troops, even 10 PD is a godsend. I don't have low resource troops outside of summons. So, agartha and 1 sloth... ooh, gotta love PD. At 19, I get about 40 units at 190 gold, zero resources. And they'd normally cost me about 400 gold, 500 resources.

[HoneyBadger]

Personally, I'd really like to see PD expanded considerably. It's a great idea-a real milestone in strategic tooling-and it should be utilized to it's full capability.