Sliding scale province defense

[Saint_Dude]

Well perhaps PD could simply be enhanced (more so for the non-rush nations)? More units and better units would help.

As it is PD works very well in SP, but is nearly useless in MP IMO. It is too expensive and too weak to fend off any of the rush nations in the early game. And it is simply too weak to fend off anything but scouts and black hawks in the later game (an exaggeration I know, but late or mid-game armies totally disregard PD).

A PD of 25 combined with a starting army for a non-rush nation is about equivalent to an indie 7 prov. I.e. a push over for a handful of elephants or rush-worthy sacreds. Even after several recruiting periods, most capitals are no tougher than indie 9 provs. From both a thematic perspective and from a gaming perspective, it would make more sense if nation capitals were much tougher nuts to crack in the early going. Perhaps capitals could start with a PD of 50?

[Saulot]

"Perhaps capitals could start with a PD of 50?"

I would definitely approve of this change. Capitals should be pretty tough. Any thoughts KO?

[CUnknown]

I disagree about starting PD being 50, but I agree that it should be selectable as an option, like playing with more or less resources and stuff.

[Theonlystd]

Well 50 pd would still be pretty worthless for some nations.


Off the top of my head Lanka and the non ebil apes Pd is pretty useless even for games vs the Ai

[MaxWilson]

The way I see it, capital PD is just free meat-shields to combine with your researchers. It's not supposed to be extremely tough (it's only worth about 250 gold), but it's useful for the librarians. I think I'm opposed to the idea of giving an initial 50 PD at capitals, in the base game. PD by itself should not be capable of fending off very many attacks. If you wanted to houserule that weaker nations have some immobile defenders for their capital, though, that could be kind of cool. It wouldn't stop enemies from stomping all over their empire, but it would make decapitating strikes less possible.

-Max

[Jazzepi]

MaxWilson said:
The way I see it, capital PD is just free meat-shields to combine with your researchers. It's not supposed to be extremely tough (it's only worth about 250 gold), but it's useful for the librarians. I think I'm opposed to the idea of giving an initial 50 PD at capitals, in the base game. PD by itself should not be capable of fending off very many attacks. If you wanted to houserule that weaker nations have some immobile defenders for their capital, though, that could be kind of cool. It wouldn't stop enemies from stomping all over their empire, but it would make decapitating strikes less possible.

-Max

I don't think PD in the capital really fixes the problem. IF you get rushed by a double bless player using Vans, and they conquer all your territories except for your capital, you're just as screwed as if they walked up to your main capital and took it over in the first place.

Jazzepi

[MaxWilson]

Except that the possibility of a comeback at least exists. You've still got some income, and a bunch of researchers, and a little bit of gem income. If the rush player gets distracted elsewhere you might be able to bust back out--probably not to win the game, but at least to make him pay.

-Max