Questions regarding my strategies

capnq · #1 April 26th, 2008, 11:04 PM

Quote:

superdestructo said: Another time I was in a stalemate with Oceana on land/sea. [...] Eventually, I just started mass-blighting the oceans about a dozen times per turn and generally trying to win by attrition. Is there a better way?

IME, getting a dominion kill against an underwater nation is easier than trying to fight them in the seas.

Ironhawk · #2 April 27th, 2008, 01:51 AM

Generally speaking, the early and mid game are the only times where hordes of troops will benefit you. Even if you pursue a land-denial strategy as you appear to outline in your post. Eventually, a skilled opponent will simply start fielding stuff that literally cannot be beaten by any size of mortal army. The most common of these tactics are the anti-personnel SC and the battlefield-wide damage enchantments. Once these strategies become available in the mid-late game, large groups of unsupported mortal armies actually become a liability.

As for your Dragon army: they would probably be pretty effective vs human troops, but in the grand scheme of things its a criminal waste of gems. A single large SC with a moon blade or a handful of properly protected mages casting Opposition or Control could defeat that army pretty easily.

Dedas · #3 April 27th, 2008, 02:57 AM

That is why you support those hordes of units with powerful buffs and thugs. Overwhelming an enemy late game can be pretty devastating if done well.

Endoperez · #4 April 27th, 2008, 03:24 AM

How soon do you start building a second castle? It isn't too hard to conquer two provinces, the second not next to your capital, and have you scout start building a castle in the second one on turn 4, as MA Ulm. If you get lucky, you can have three or four castles by turn 16. Then you can churn out researcher-mages to get on to the magic race.

Read Baalz's guide to Marverni, posted about a week or so ago. It details very nicely what a magic-heavy nation can do in the endgame. Pythium can do that in addition to having strong military; Ulms usually have more trouble.

Dedas · #5 April 27th, 2008, 03:33 AM

I always build my second fortress on turn 3 as MA Ulm to take advantage of Ulm's fortress production bonus. It also helps in defense as most of your units have map move 1. The third castle I place a little further away so to maximize the other two. My motto is: "no province without a fortress should have left over resources"; unless there is something I want to build there of course.

Endoperez · #6 April 27th, 2008, 03:55 AM

So you build a fort on the first province you conquer? Hm. Do you do that even if there are no resource-heavy provinces around you?

Oh, and I did all my tests without a combat pretender. I wanted to see how good expansion I could get out of Ulm without pretender's help.

Dedas · #7 April 27th, 2008, 05:01 AM

If I'm very unlucky and the adjacent provinces to my capitol are barren wastelands, I would not build my second fortress so close. This is rarely the case though.

I have found out that getting that second fort up and running as fast as actually possible helps Ulm immensely with both expansion and research. I would even go as far and say that it is in fact necessary when Ulm against great players.

Good fortresses is one of the thing Ulm is good at so one should try to maximize that. Do not go for the cheapest fortress but rather the best mix of administration, cost, defense and build time. In Ulm's case that would be the citadel and to peg-castle. If placed correctly you will get great many resources and awesome defense, buying you time to get your slow troops into position if you are attacked.