Some humble Tips and Advice for beginners

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by PhilD:
Also, one should keep in mind that PD always start dead center on the battlefield, with no special orders (so that defaults to Attack Closest for non-archers, and Fire Closes for archers, I believe). It might be important if, say, you are Abysia and have PD commanders with a fire aura: if you have non-Abysian troops stationed there, they will typically get burned by the PD commander's aura. So if you're building indie units in a province that might get attacked, it may be a good idea to have a commander and set them apart from the center. (I've lost a good number of troops to this)

I always take my automatic Province Defense army into consideration. For many of them you can turn a mediocre PD force into something powerful by adding shooters. If any province can make any shooters I try to add the same number as the PD I put there.

Some nations can use more commanders, some gain alot of boost by adding flyers. Its different for each one but definetly worth thinking about.

[tinkthank]

Hey thanks for all these helpful comments and additional information.

PhilD asked whether I made a boo-boo in saying that a fortress is also useful for taxation purposes: not just raking in resources from surrounding neihbors but also in improving their taxation structure. Nobody commented on this. Just wondering: does that mean I spread nonsense or I got it right?

And on Phil's helpful comments on Empowerment: Yes, sorry, you are right. I was actually thinking of a different situation, one I hadnt spelled out: When you want to forge an item with TWO path requirements, say: water3 and earth3; you have a water3 mage, but no earth, and you dont see a chance of recruiting both somewhere else.

[Nethog]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
PhilD asked whether I made a boo-boo in saying that a fortress is also useful for taxation purposes: not just raking in resources from surrounding neihbors but also in improving their taxation structure. Nobody commented on this. Just wondering: does that mean I spread nonsense or I got it right?

I was under the impression that there was extra income generated in provinces with fortresses based upon Saber Cherry's "Newbies and Confused People ..." thread that you cited in your original post. Under "Section VIII: How to Choose a Castle" he states:

Gold production in the province is increased by (Admin/2)%

So is Saber Cherry right or wrong?

Originally posted by tinkthank:
Hey thanks for all these helpful comments and additional information.

PhilD asked whether I made a boo-boo in saying that a fortress is also useful for taxation purposes: not just raking in resources from surrounding neihbors but also in improving their taxation structure. Nobody commented on this. Just wondering: does that mean I spread nonsense or I got it right?

I believe this is the of the nonsense variety. Having a fortress doesn't do anythign to the 'taxation' portion, only increased Gold from Admin.

I was under the impression that there was extra income generated in provinces with fortresses based upon Saber Cherry's "Newbies and Confused People ..." thread that you cited in your original post. Under "Section VIII: How to Choose a Castle" he states:

quote:

---

Gold production in the province is increased by (Admin/2)%

So is Saber Cherry right or wrong?

---

It is Admin / 2 %. So Fortified City with 50 Admin gives 25% increase in Gold in the province it is built.

[tinkthank]

But has nothing to do with surrounding provinces? (E.g.: this income increase is not affected by the fact that you own 0 or own all of the surrounding provinces?)

[Arryn]

The income of the province with the fort does not increase due to the ownership of adjacent provinces. The resource and supply level of the province with the fort, OTOH, does increase as nearby lands come under your ownership.

[ March 06, 2004, 09:20: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[tinkthank]

Excuse me for digging this out of the basement, but I wanted to add one thing which may seem obvious.

- hitting the f-1 button will give you a "nation overview", which becomes much less confusing for a newbie when you then hit the "tab" button (which then does not display your troops). This is an invaluable tool once you have more than a dozen provinces or so. Check the columns "taxation" and "unrest", for example: see any problems? Forget where you had those nasty brigands and lowered the tax rate to douse the unrest? F1 will help you. Not sure which provinces have what province defense? F1 lists them all. Which provinces do you still need to search for those desperately needed earth gems? F1 shows you where you searched and which results you got.
Forgot where Dingbat the Commander with the Summer Sword is? Hit "tab" again, and you can find your commanders quickly.
The task of micromanaging your empire becomes *that* much less confusing with f1.
I found this out way too late.