Alexander's Ever-Expanding Tome of Knowledge, pt 2

[SlipperyJim]

Very true, MaxWilson.

To clarify: The point of the meat-grinder is not just strong defense. That's good, but it won't win the game. The point is to keep your opponent distracted and wasting resources while you are making progress elsewhere. He throws all of his troops into the meat-grinder. You capture provinces, search for sites, and generally build your empire.

Then you return and crush him when you have an overwhelming advantage.

Needless to say, this strategy works exceptionally well if you can combine it with some other strategy (or strategies) to strangle your opponent. For example, heavy use of spies, blasting his provinces with hostile magic, raiding parties behind the front lines, etcetera....

[HoneyBadger]

Well then, Edi, I'll just keep bumping it into infinity.

[MaxWilson]

<Ahem> While I'm all for keeping the Tome expanding, bumps should probably include a useful tactic, whether it's original or a link to one posted in some other thread. Like the Fog Warrior hydras, for example. Or the scorched earth hydras in the same thread.

(Personally, I largely ignore the stickied threads because it's hard to tell when there's new material.)

Army setup tip: if you're having problems with cavalry munching your mages, set the mages on the extreme lower edge of the setup box, with a squad of units in front of them and a squad of units directly above them. Since attack-rearmost will only cause units to move forward and laterally, not backward, and since it's impossible to place units further down than the bottom of the box, any cavalry will always run into one of the two blocking squads. This is better than a single large squad on "Guard commander" for a couple of reasons: your mages aren't in the middle of the guards (vulnerable to javelins, etc.), and they're also further away from the attacks ("Guard commander" guards sometimes get right in the same square as the mage unless they're size 4, which won't block attackers from meleeing your mage). On the down side, you need a commander in the middle of each blocker squad to anchor it unless you want to risk "Hold and attack," which leaves you vulnerable to "Hold and Attack Rear." You might risk it if you used "Hold and Attack Cavalry," though.

-Max

[vfb]

That looks like a great tactic, Max. Another advantage of the extra commanders is that they have a chance to eat up assassination attempts (rituals or actual assassins) that might otherwise target your mages.

[HoneyBadger]

Bumbs for this thread inevitably *do* include a useful tactic. Maybe not by me, but this one, for example, has garnered 2 so far. I'm going to keep bumping it because I feel it's a very useful, important resource that everyone new to these boards should have immediate access to, and if Edi won't sticky it, then I'll just bump it as a "good deed".