my first AAR - Arco DL, first 6 turns - newbie

[Neophyte]

First after action report:

My Pretender: Arcoscephale Daughter of the Land, Fortress, W5D4, Dom5, T3G2L3M2, 7 points left: Jane, Harvester of Sailors, Goddess of Suicides. I wasn't going to report the name, but the Goddess of Suicides seamed interesting.

No mods applied.

Map: Orania, Indy Str 6, Special Sites 50, 1 province.

Opponents all normal AI: Manchaka, T'ien Chi, Pythium and Mictlan

Starting position: #228 Iron Pass

Turn 1: Research set to 10 pts to construction (2 turns), balance to evocation. Recruited 1 Mystic (A1W1E1), 1 Elephant and 2 Companions of the Heart (CotH). Pretender set to research. Scout to Umidor (213).

Turn 2: Scrying: Scythia (235) ~50 barbarians, Muspel (238) ~60 amazons and nightmares (high in plans for initial conquest to gain nightmares, but will wait until sure of success). Scouting: Umidor (213) 40 Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers. Mystic set to research, construction 10, evoc & enchant each 6. Recruit 2 CotH (not enough for 2nd Mystic, no more 1st turn Elephant or only 1 CotH). Scout to Andoria (197).

Turn 3: Scrying: Gol Phalas (247) ~60 militia, longbowmen, knights – ouch!, Resting Heights (225) ~50 militias and hvy inf. Scouting: 30 Militia & Lt Inf. Recruit Mystic (F1A1E1), 1 CotH. Scout to Father Fire (208). Research in construction completed, shifted to Enchant 14 (1 turn) and Evoc 8.

Turn 4: Scry Dragon Ridge (225) ~60 Militia, Archers and Hvy Inf. Scout: 20 Militia, Hvy Inf. Mystics forge Ice Sword and Ench. Shield. Recruit 2 CotH. Scout to The Promised Land (229). Research in Ench completed, changed to Alt 10, Evo 3.

Turn 5: Equipped Jane with both items, sent her to Umidor, down to 20 Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers. Recruited a Priestess. Mtd. Comm. With all units and Mystic (F1A1E1) sent to Scythia (225) with ~50 barbarians.

Turn 6: Mictlan declared war, Anthromachus appeared. Pretender died in battle, so I gave up to start over.

Lessons learned: Equip pretender better (maybe research construction only to level 4 to get Shield of Valor and/or alchemy to make armor). No elephant on turn 1. Attack a weak independent earlier with army, not pretender – maybe after recruited 6 CotH and a priestess.

Lately I've been playing Arco with D/L pretender on Orania with various magic paths, etc. I like to have dominion at 4 minimum, and have come to rely on amazons. I'm still a newbie, so any comments would be welcomed. I like Arco's scrying and D/L's water gems. I like high turmoil and luck because it's fun / box of chocolates effect. I've been adding Death for sites and Skull Mentor, but since that is mid game, maybe I should try a different 2nd path or maybe just W9. Hmmm – I think I will try W9 next.

[RedRover]

Read and enjoyed your (too-short) AAR.

IMO you quit too soon. When your Pretender dies, your Prophet and Priests get the "Call God" order. Each turn, a unit with this order generates its holy level in points. As soon as the point total hits 40, your Pretender reappears in your capital, minus a level in every path.

This is a setback, and significant this early in a game, but in solo play, IMO, you have a reasonable chance of still making a go of it.

Also, AI nations declare war on a very abstract basis. (I personally think they read the scales and hit you if your average rating is higher than theirs and your military compared to theirs does not meet a minimum threshold.) In any event, unless they actually have an army on your border, I suggest you just ignore them.

Incidentally, you can manually save a turn before you host by hitting Alt-Tab to get to your desktop, then drilling down to the game file and copying the three datafiles to another location. Otherwise, as soon as you host, the game overwrites the files and you can never go back to the previous turn. If you have saved the turn files, you can plug them back into the same map and continue with the game, although randomized elements (like mercenaries) are likely to develop differently.

When I started, I was happy to discover that games I played with the demo could be continued with the full game.