How difficult is this game?

[Fenris99]

VedalkenBear said:
Fenris: In regard to expansion, you generally want to take one province _or more_ starting from the third turn.

Gah! That's a lot!!

[VedalkenBear]

But, IMO, virtually required. General flow for first few turns:

1) Prophetize your non-scout commander, recruit mercs if you can (assuming they're any good), purchase troops and mage (if possible)

2) Send initial army + Mercs after easiest nearby province. Keep recruiting troops. One idea is to build another 'leader commander' to keep bringing new recruits to the army so that your initial commander doesn't lose turns going back to pick up more troops.

[Fenris99]

How do I defend territories that have been conquered? Do I leave armies behind or keep pushing forward with them?

[llamabeast]

Recruit "province defense" (PD). To do this, find the "Defense" number in the top left bar thing, and increase it. Then you create a standing militia that will defend your province, that automatically replenishes any losses it suffers and which costs no upkeep. It's very helpful.

[thejeff]

The general early game advice of averaging at least one province/turn for the first year applies as long as you have indies to conquer. Turtling vs rushing really begins when you start running into other nations.

In the expansion, in an SP game, don't worry too much about defense. Independents don't attack, so all you have to worry about is random events. Once you have a border with another nation, defend that. Buying up PD is the usual defense, maybe supported by a few troops to cover your PD's weaknesses.

[Endoperez]

As for buying PD:

level 1 always shows you who conquered the province. Spending 1 gp for that is very much worth it.
1-3 PD, depending on nation, is enough to beat enemy scouts, small groups of fliers, etc solo guys that your enemy might want to use. In multiplayer, most provinces have PD in this area.
11 PD has a small chance of finding and fighting against stealthy enemy forces or commanders. In single-player, buying some PD in provinces neighbouring enemy nations can keep the AI from attacking you.
21 PD has a bit better chance at finding the enemies, and it starts getting troops of better quality. All nations get another type of commander, who is sometimes a mage or a priest. This much PD is rarely used even in SP, but in some cases having lots of automatically replenishing units is worth it even if you can't script them - even in MP.

Quality of provincial defense varies wildly between nation. The nation list at the end of the manual also describes the units the nation gets from its PD. Some nations have excellent PD, some have useful PD, some have very, very weak PD.

[Fenris99]

I'm confused. Province Defense automatically recruits troops?

[llamabeast]

If someone attacks your province, the troops you will have in the battle will be any actual troops you have there, plus an extra force of a size determined by how much PD you have there. They will fight in the battle for you, but you can't see them apart from that. You can't move them around. If another enemy attacks, they will be there again, fully replenished. They are meant to represent local militias and defensive forces.

There is at least some explanation of PD in the manual. Also in the nation descriptions for each nation, it tells you what defenders you get for each point of PD (e.g. you might get an archer and a light infantry for every point). For PD values above 20 you start getting stronger, more elite troops present - but mostly PD above 20 is a waste of money anyway.

[Fenris99]

I see. Thank you.

Will the AI attack my provinces a soon as it comes in contact with me?

[VedalkenBear]

AFAIK, the AI picks on players and territories that it sees as weak. For the player aspect, this is generally comparing the Army Size graph scores. For the territory aspect, this is generally a place with no troops and little/no PD. So, as should be pretty commonsensical, having a large army, and having it at your borders with an enemy, should deter that opponent from attacking you.