Opening Gambit

Zorfwaddle · #1 November 23rd, 2011, 04:53 PM

I play SP Vanilla, usually with an imprisoned pretender, especially with a large map. I usually bump the taxes up to 200% for the first turn, then reduce to 100%, while patrolling with the commander. Scout scouts. Hire the best mage possible on the first turn then prophetize. For MA Man I go with the mother; the crone tends to go old age too early. Turn two I hire another combat mage. Turn three the party sorties for the easiest province and I hire another mage to start researching. Turn four I hire another scout and return party to capital if I took a lot of casualties, otherwise I head for another weak province. Then I alternate scout and research mage. I try to maximise research and grab surrounding provinces as quick as possible. I hire scouts from those indy provinces as soon as possible so that the cap can do the research mage thing. I also will hurry to generate a search mage, a ritual spell mage and a construction mage.

I have not taken the jump to playing MP; I understand that my opening will leave me pretty vulnerable to rush attacks :-)

JonBrave · #2 November 23rd, 2011, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorfwaddle

Hire the best mage possible on the first turn then prophetize.

Same as I was saying above! Though if you read, it turns out not to be the best idea

But in what you are saying above, why are you hiring so many scouts so early? Can't see you need many

Zorfwaddle · #3 November 23rd, 2011, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonBrave

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorfwaddle

Hire the best mage possible on the first turn then prophetize.

Same as I was saying above! Though if you read, it turns out not to be the best idea

But in what you are saying above, why are you hiring so many scouts do early? Can't see you need many

I guess it's the ex-spook in me... I prefer to get a bunch out in every direction, for a little intel, recce and surveillance :-)

As for the mage thing, I like to be able to bring down as much variety of artillery as possible, holy or otherwise. If I get a chance, the prophet gets as many path enhancers or empowerment as possible.

JonBrave · #4 November 23rd, 2011, 05:37 PM

IMHO (SP), you don't need more than one scout at the start. It's not like you're gonna be going far, or doing anything about distant lands. On the turns you're making more scouts, why not make, say, more researchers?

Starbelly Geek · #5 November 23rd, 2011, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonBrave

IMHO (SP), you don't need more than one scout at the start. It's not like you're gonna be going far, or doing anything about distant lands. On the turns you're making more scouts, why not make, say, more researchers?

There aren't very many nations for which the nation-specific scouts you can hire at forts are really better than the indy scouts. If you want lots of scouts (and that can be a useful thing), hire them in indy provinces without forts. I like to use indy scouts to build forts, too. Hire tough commanders and mages in your forts, maybe spies, rarely assassins, never scouts.

LDiCesare · #6 November 24th, 2011, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorfwaddle

As for the mage thing, I like to be able to bring down as much variety of artillery as possible, holy or otherwise. If I get a chance, the prophet gets as many path enhancers or empowerment as possible.

aka putting all your eggs in the same basket.
Not only will you suffer much more should your mage die (even in SP - like really bad luck with a ninja attack or coming across Bogus's gang), but you also prevent yourself from having one more smiter on the battlefield. Instead of having one smite-mage + 1 other-artillery, you get only a single mage that casts a single of these spells.