Newb Strat Q. - Dealing with incursions ?

[Kel]

Alright, thanks for all the replies! I didn't realize the AI's plan used PD as a high priority. That should definitely help in SP games.

MP games, my goal, are probably much more unpredictable, strategy wise but is there any other generic MP advice for the newb (concerning the rampaging army topic) ?

- Kel

[ceremony]

(1) Threaten something of his that is more valuable to him than the damage he is doing to you by rampaging through your provinces, and hope he needs to use his rampaging army to counter that threat.

(2) Make sure to recapture as many provinces as you can without confronting his main army. If an enemy army gets loose in your backfield, there comes a point where he can't replace his losses (unless he is reinforcing himself with flying units and/or summons, in which case you're in trouble) and you can make a loss in battle catastrophic if he has nowhere to retreat.

I had a situation where an opponent built a lot of temples and my response was to build a large army and break through his lines on a temple-razing mission. It worked for a while, but he kept building enough province defense and scratch recruits that I'd lose a few units each battle that I couldn't replace. Eventually, he assembled a large enough army to defeat my force which had been reduced by this attrition, and I had nowhere to retreat when I lost.

I think I plowed halfway across the Orania map on that run, though, so it cost him a lot of money in province defense and recruits to slow me down to the point where he could defeat me. In the end, the result was trading a large army and my pretender for about 10 razed temples (2000 gold) plus the cost of his PD and recruits. I think I came out on the short end.

[BkWyrm]

Sometimes it can also be useful to hire some mercenaries (if the right type are available) and send them rampaging through poorly defended provinces as a form of disposable troops. This can allow you time to repair any damage to your infrastructure and amass an army for the follow-up/mop-up to your mercenaries swathe of destruction.

[Taqwus]

Magic also helps. Remember that magic takes place before movement, so a sudden barrage of Seeking Arrows or Earth Attacks might halt or bisect an enemy army when the surviving leaders blissfully continue their move orders while now-leaderless troops remain.

[PDF]

About PD usefulness (except to tick AI ), it mainly depends on *what* you get as PD : Ulm PD is strong for example, and Vanheim or Marignon ones are good also. But Arco, Pythium or Machaka get crap that won't stand against anything..