PBEM game: The first step (Running)

[Molog]

Things haven't gone exactly the way I wanted them to go. I'm still going to go on till the end and if I fail I can always start chanting the loser mantra "I might not win, but I can surely influence who does win".

[Agrajag]

Molog said:
Things haven't gone exactly the way I wanted them to go. I'm still going to go on till the end and if I fail I can always start chanting the loser mantra "I might not win, but I can surely influence who does win".

How about "I had a chance of 1:8 in the first place"?
Maybe "I knew I was going to lose from the get-go"?


EDIT:
A question for the experts:
Which is more dangerous, a province of Tribal Warriors + Tribal Archers or a province of Heavy Cavalry + Heavy Infantry?

[Saber Cherry]

Agrajag said:
EDIT:
A question for the experts:
Which is more dangerous, a province of Tribal Warriors + Tribal Archers or a province of Heavy Cavalry + Heavy Infantry?

Knights / Longbows or Heavy Cav / Heavy Inf are very dangerous.
Tribals are not dangerous at all. You might want to use archers against them, as they have little armor and no shields. They also use daggers so any melee units can repel them, even units with axes or shortswords.

[The Panther]

The heavy cavalry provinces are one of the hardest ones to take, especially early in the game. There are three level of HC provinces where they have increasing levels of armor. The only way to know which you are up against is to attack with a scout on retreat and examine the armor on the cavs during the battle.

The lowest level of armor is not that much harder than the standard Heavy Infantry province. The middle level is getting very tough, and the highest level is even tougher than the knight provinces.

On the other hand, tribal warriors and tribal archers is quite easy. They suffer from the usual low morale problem of barbarians. Try to get them to retreat with your own archers guarded by high protection infantry spaced around the battlefield as targets for the enemy arrows. It is not unusal to take such provinces with 0-2 troops lost, especially if your infantry comes equipped with a shield (which protects from incoming arrows).

[Agrajag]

Thanks for all the tips, almost everything you said was useful, and now I have a much more sound attack plan.
I think I'll have to submit my turn tomorrow though (to the disappointment of everyone, Im sure) since its pretty late and Im pretty busy :\

[Oversway]

This is what I usually do to go after knight or calvary provinces earlier on in the game:

The army
--------

A group of militia or otherwise cheapo troops (one of the few times I buy them). I put these near the front of the tactics box. Have them attack closest or hold and attack, doesn't matter.

A group of good line troops. Slow, high armor, decent morale.

Crossbowman set to fire calvary (or fire closest, it usually doesn't matter since mounted independant troops are almost always at the front due to high movement). You can count on 1 or 2 volleys

The concept
-----------

The militia are there to absorb the lance attacks and maybe slow the calvary down a little. They'll pretty much get mowed down and you can have a good laugh. You want just the right amount - the best is when the calvary kill all of them, because its annoying to have them retreat all over your provinces.

Your line troops are there to hold the calvary in place while your xbows hurt them with . The more the better. Having a priest with sermon of courage or fanatacism helps here. If you have some spare battlemages with armor piercing/armor negating spells (stellar lights is a good one with evoc 1), or poison or fear spells, it can only help.

--

Again this is more for early game. You can do a lot more nasty things to calvary once you get some high powered magic going, or assassins, or whatnot. But I find that calvary provinces are usually high gold and that can really help early on.

Also, there are many ways to augment this. Sometimes I try to set it up so some weak prot but heavy hitters (like barbarians) attack the calvary after they hit the line. I'd say it the barbs help about 50% of the time. Although even when it does work, the barbarians are just useless fodder. Better to have more line troops if possible.


I'd be interested if others do things differently.

[Ironhawk]

shmonk said:
Yes, but how do you expand at 2 a turn and still search the sites you've conquered and still do research? It seems to me that you can either conquer first and search later, or conquer and search at the same time, while still deciding when to do research.

Its a balance, as with all things, shmonk. But you first need to acquire the province in order to search it, right? So, better to put all your efforts into grabbing every possible province before your enemies can get there before you. Then go back through and search them all for the mid/late game power. Occassionally, if I am desperate for gems and feel confident of my research situation, I will send out a mage in the early game to do a lot of searching.

[sushiboat]

Turn 14

Pangaea cast the global enchantment Mother Oak. The province tally is: Machaka 12, Ermor 11, Marignon 10, Arcosephale 8, Jotunheim 8, Pythium 7, Pangaea 6, and Man 6. Machaka has a new fort and so now has a total of two, along with Ermor. Machaka had a substantial rise in income and is now the clear category leader. Pangaea increased gem income (i.e., Mother Oak), as did Jotunheim. Obscuro the Hidden Master and the Armored Fist of God are available for hire.

[Molog]

Turn 14

I cast mother oak a couple of turns behind on schedule.

I prepare for expansion.

Ermor is now leading in everything, except income.

Rexors barbarians have died.

Edit: Don't forget that clams and fever festishes don't show up in the graphs.

[sushiboat]

Molog said:
Ermor is now leading in everything, except income.

Ermor is second in provinces and fourth in research.