New, trying to get into game-but i am failing

[Psitticine]

Originally posted by tkobo:
Are there any tricks to increase my resource production so that i can field more troops ?

A province can only use half of its full resource level without a fort, so the first thing I'd say is to make sure you have a fort in any province you wish to use as a production center. I usually only do so in special provinces, such as those that'll make an excellent "hardened point" for a border or that feature special troops I'd like to recruit in large numbers.

The main way to increase the resources available to forts is to make sure you've conquered all the provinces around your forts. Fortresses bring in a percentage (equal to their admin value) of the resources in friendly surrounding provinces, which is taken first from the unusable portion of those provinces' resources.

There's also a spell (one unfortunately not available in the demo) that can boost your resources. It's called Riches From Beneath, is a level 6 Enchantment spell, requires power 5+ Earth magic, and has a base cost of 70 Earth gems. It's a global ritual spell that boosts your resource level in each of your provinces based upon the strength of your Dominion in that provicnes.

Originally posted by tkobo:
Also, what are the green drops in the battle view ? Poison ?
And if so,are they affecting the units they appear over ?

Yep, poison, and they appear over the units as they take poison damage.

Originally posted by tkobo:
Is there some way to know what the other effects are in the battle view ?
Like the flash of white light that appears on units ?

There's no list, but most will tell you what they are if you keep an eye on the upper lefthand corner of the screen. That's where the announcements of who is casting what appear. The corrosponding graphics plays as the announcement of the spell casting appears.

As for the specific white light flahes you mentioned, do you mean the columns of light coming down from above? Like divine spotlights? That's the Banishment spell. I can't think offhand of another spell that uses a white flash, but there are probably several. My brain's a bit tuckered out right now.

After the spell-casting, you can right click on a unit (try hitting space to freeze the action if things are moving too fast to grab the unit) to see a statistics page for it. Lingering spell effects, poisoning, and so forth are shown on this page. (On a side note, you can also right-click on the stats shown on this page to see a breakdown of what is affecting them. Those breakdowns are available outside of combat as well, and are a handy way of finding the hard numbers on how your units are being affected by blessings, a friendly dominion, and so forth.)

[st.patrik]

Originally posted by tkobo:
Are there any tricks to increase my resource production so that i can field more troops ?

Also, what are the green drops in the battle view ? Poison ?
And if so,are they affecting the units they appear over ?

Is there some way to know what the other effects are in the battle view ?
Like the flash of white light that appears on units ?

One at a time:
1st Q.: resource production can be increased three ways that I can think of: 1. random events that boost resource production; 2. conquering the adjacent provinces to a high administration castle (the castle will 'suck' whatever percentage of resources from all adjacent friendly provinces - click on your castle to find out what this number is); 3. taking 'productivity' scales when you design your pretender.

Additionally of course you could just build more castles...

2nd Q.:Yes green drops are poison, yes they are affecting the units you see them on

3rd Q.: What spell is cast (spells are responsible for all the flashs I know about in the battle scenes) is listed at the top left hand corner. You can go look up a spell if you don't know what it does.

-

In addition, I can't help but add my 2 cents worth when it comes to tactical combat:
The main question you have to answer is whether you will defeat your particular enemy most likely by missile troops or by infantry. Clear examples would be on the one hand tribal cavalry, and on the other barbarians. With the former you'll want to start right up at the line and charge straight in, because they won't do you much damage in melee. With the former you'll want to stay well back and pour missile fire into them, since they have little armour and will be hurt quite badly by it.

The same principle goes for nations too, to an extent. some nations (Abysia comes to mind) don't have missile troops, so that will change your strategy when facing them. Other nations have very strong missile troops, which you'll want to be exposed to for as little time as possible.

So generally I go with the 'hold-and-attack infantry while firing with missile troops' OR the 'plow right in' approach.

[tkobo]

Okay, i have now been able to expand without any real problem pretty freely in the 40 turn demo.

Archers ,formations and castles made all the diffence.

thanks all.
Now i have some thinking do to.

A few Last questions.
The game does not have a time limit right ?
IE no turn limit preset in the victory conditions right ?

How is the balance ? In the demo those udead guys seem to powerful.
Is this better balanced in the full game ?

[Nerfix]

No time limits i am aware of.

Yes, it is better balanced. For example, you get a spell called Solar Briliance that kills all undead units in the batlefield.

[ October 30, 2003, 05:27: Message edited by: Nerfix ]