Assorted newbie questions...

Originally posted by olaf73:

1) What are the advantages among weapon types? I know that the longer a weapon is, the better. And, one of the descriptions for a magic morningstar in the manual mentions that all morningstars get a bonus vs troops that use a shield? How much and what kind of bonus though?

As posted by others below, the advantage of longer weapons is their ability to repel (which is explained in the manual). Most units with more suvivability (higher protection etc) are armed with long weapons.

3) What kinds of orders do you give your troops? I know this is vague, but I am looking for some pointers. How many of you set specific spells to be cast? Do you have 'default' orders for certain troop types/armies? Etc.

This is usually determined by what I am fighting or a general 'what I think best' or 'what I think will hurt the opponent most' thought process. Things that work well are those stated below. Also any way you can get to engage units into commanders is good. This is often tricky, but if you know how and where people place their commanders and can gun for them a little more. As for spells, I always set specific spells. If you let the computer do it, more often than not they will be too 'defensive' and engage when they have too much fatigue or when the battle is half over.

7) Forts/defense level. Similar to my question about battle orders above, I am looking for some general tips on how to use fortresses and provincial defense effectively. Relating to defense, the manual lists some charts showing what kind of troops you get at defense levels 1+ and then 20+...but what does that mean? Do you get extra troops at just those break points? Some of them dont make any sense to me, like .5 Slinger for Jotunheim 20+.

Each nation has it's own way of using provencial defense. But I personally always put at least 3 points into every province as soon as I get them, then scale upwards depending on what nation/need and passive patrolling I need.