Some beginner gameplay and strategies questions

[Olm]

Regarding expansion with combat pretenders:

Don't neglect protection! IMO prot 12 is by far not enough, especially if you haven't got a decent shield.
All your fear, awe and even petrification of the Gorgon (a great SC pretender!) will help you nothing against a good bunch of ranged units.
As MA Man I met a Wyrm as well as a Prince of Death early in the game with a medium sized army of Longbowmen (~30).
The Wyrm barely escaped due to his high HP, the PoD due to flying. They both didn't stand a chance.
So prepare for ranged units. High protection is the easiest. If you don't have it you should have ethearelness, mistform, air shield or something the like.

[Amhazair]

Originally Posted by Olm

Regarding expansion with combat pretenders:

Don't neglect protection! IMO prot 12 is by far not enough, especially if you haven't got a decent shield.
All your fear, awe and even petrification of the Gorgon (a great SC pretender!) will help you nothing against a good bunch of ranged units.
As MA Man I met a Wyrm as well as a Prince of Death early in the game with a medium sized army of Longbowmen (~30).
The Wyrm barely escaped due to his high HP, the PoD due to flying. They both didn't stand a chance.
So prepare for ranged units. High protection is the easiest. If you don't have it you should have ethearelness, mistform, air shield or something the like.

Then again, 30 longbowmen is a more serious ranged* threat than you'll find in most any independent province, while the independents will at the same time be more predictable due to (lack of) scripting. It's true medium protection won't come even close to save you in and of itself, but it's enough to lower the damage from the average hit enough to survive the few that come through when coupled with other defences. (Awe and massive fear for PoD, Awe, fear and regeneration for the Wyrm, to take the ones you mentioned. Both of which are classic examples of exapnsion pretenders who make do with medium protection.)


* The ranged part is important here, since ranged attacks ignore awe. Against independents this can be partially worked around by standing far back and scripting a couple of holds before attacking, leading to the archers shooting from maximum range, which, coupled with significantly worse stats than your Manx longbowmen will have most arrows scatter around the target and hit their own melee buddies instead, with the ones that do hit doing an average** of -2 damage due to protection. This is though, why I included massed crosbowmen to the "dangerous" independents, as crossbow shots do have the punch to do damage when they do actually hit.

** Can't remember what's the actual statistical term for what I'm trying to say. Median maybe? In any case, you know what I mean.

[parone]

plus, remmember Man's longbowmen are bada**, higher stregnth and precision. and with any buffs(read windaid or fire) they are an awesome anti SC/anti thug weapon if the appropriate counter measures aren't taken.

counters to counters to counters...that's why everytime you click on the message that says "there was a battle it..."it's cool, even if you mostly get smoked, like me

[parone]

one semi negative about LA ermor, tho, is basically, you have to rush them. and it is a non productive rush(for the rusher). other players who are scouting can wait for you to rush, then hit your back door.

so you can be kind of damd if you do, damd if you don't vs LA Ermor. i have no idea how you would nerf them, since they r so different from other nations, and i am very inexperienced.

but it would seem something could be done to make them easier to play against.

[Kobal2]

Originally Posted by parone

one semi negative about LA ermor, tho, is basically, you have to rush them. and it is a non productive rush(for the rusher). other players who are scouting can wait for you to rush, then hit your back door.

so you can be kind of damd if you do, damd if you don't vs LA Ermor. i have no idea how you would nerf them, since they r so different from other nations, and i am very inexperienced.

but it would seem something could be done to make them easier to play against.

That's only if you're playing with suicidal people, because stabbing Ermor's neighbours gives Ermor a better chance at survival, which means it gets more time to nuke more provinces and generate an unstoppable critical mass. Then everybody dies. It's in nobody's interest to help Ermor in any way, shape or form.

Also, if you get do rush them early, it's not a 100% unproductive deal: you get 15 shiny death gems per turn out of it, as well as whatever D sites Ermor had been in a hurry to uncover (and those provinces likely won't be raided either, since they'll starve everyone and don't produce a single coin). Plus, y'know, you're not in danger of getting rolled by Ermor any more, so there's that too .

[parone]

if a province is totally dead, is there anyway to regenerate it with neutral scales?