Is it best to send troops out to all the surrounding area, possibly spreading yourself thin;

or

go all out in one direction, possibly taking over the castle next door?

It depends a lot on your starting location, your diplomacy with other players and the location of your resources in relation to the natural barriers.

After you analyse all you should be able to gain a second sense of where to concentrate your forces while also of course sending forth the necessary units to gather your resources.

Hope that helps.

rex

Last Edited : Monday, 10 September 2007 - 19:53

Thanks, anything I get helps.

Seriously though ...
it is a lot of "playing it by ear", but there are players who do seem to be able to pick out targets for a quick easy kill with a tactic known as the "rush tactic".

rex

Oh, ok ill check that thread out then. thanks agian.

Well Arthur,
I see the thread you mean, but the rush tactic goes back a few years and you would be surprised how many folks tend to leave their castles undefended while they venture about or how many folks tend to be inactive So that their castles can be taken without much of a fight.

Anyway there are players who have become proficient at spotting easy prey who tend to drop their guards I guess, swooping down on them using large numbers of mostly scouts within the early turns of the game.

I haven't read that thread to which you refer.

rex

Last Edited : Monday, 10 September 2007 - 20:26

First thing is usually to secure resource piles and buildings in your immediate vicinity. From there, you can either explore out and try to get resources that aren`t as close or you can launch an early offensive against someone. Like TR said, you may want to play things by ear when deciding to get more resources or attack.

So it all goes back to expierience in situations and hoping you make the right call I guess.

Maybe I dreamed I saw that thread, oh well. If I find it ill say something. I guess I was thinking of hoard rushing or gangbanging.

A common tactic is to send out 2 pop scouts to swipe all the resource piles you can, as far from your castle and easy resources as you think is safe... or even not so safe! Getting a jump on resources is extremely useful. Having a lot of gems for upgrades is important, wood for ballistas, metal for macemen, etc. Losing a 2 pop scout is not a game ending tragedy but getting in a fight with your whole army right off the bat sure can be!

I suggest getting a marketplace and Tax Reform early on too. Tax Reform brings in an extra 1000 gold per turn. Marketplaces are useful for selling your excess resources, the earlier the better, before the price drops too low. Beware selling too much, though, you will need resources soon enough. On some maps this makes more sense than others, especially rich maps like the Dragon Lakes map where there are a lot of resources, Ancient Island has few, so selling resources on that map may be fatal.

I see what you mean Mog.

Personally when the campaigns were getting filled and inactives were at a minimum, I would try to go after the closest, toughest opponent near me as soon as possible for two reasons:

1) just to be sure to get an opponent
2) and because if I'm going to play, I like a competitive game

However, yes I guess it takes experience to learn about the other players (that is, their habits good and bad).
I guess it also pays to check the ranking screen to see how active players are.

Of course scouting is invaluable So be sure to make a few one or two pop scouts for that purpose.

PS:
If you're interested in tech research, I once had the following techs and upgrades in a game by turn 17:

Castle:
+ Taxes
+ Commerce
+ building materials
+ Military
+ Tax Reform
+ Market Wares
+ Archery Basic
+ Advanced Training
+ Advanced Weapons
+ Advanced Armor
+ Expert Weapons
+ Castle Protection
+ Cursed Travel

Barracks:
+ Advanced Archery
+ Expert Archery
+ Advanced Melee

These can be done by carefully budgeting, gleaning the necessary resources at the right time and also selling some resources to raise the necessary gold to buy tech like tax reform for example, but that shouldn't be more than about 1500 gold to raise and of course as Mog indicates necessitates a market place being built after researching commerce.

Players will strip parts of their castle that are not strategically located including as many as three castle towers in order to sell resources to raise gold and resources to buy necessary techs.

Folks used to go all out to get expert melee and So Macemen by about turn 9 or 10, but enhancing basic troops with weapon and armor advancements has put that off for many.

rex

Last Edited : Monday, 10 September 2007 - 21:49

Ya, at first(training) I tried to get heavy calvary first, but that seemed really ineffective. squire/ballista/spearmen group is working for me in a dual that I am in so Ill see how that turns out.

i tend to like to get to expert troops, but mainly ballistas first, as those are the most effective against mace. cuz the majority players get mace as there first major troop.

In my humble opinion, sending mace into a fight without squires and at least scouts ahead of them is a foolish venture, as mace tend to go down to ballista quickly. Get those hammer-men next to squires and lower and whoa! You''ve got yourself a slugger.


Jmac D~S

I see what you mean, espeacially since i just found out squires have range def bonus

How worth it is Tax Reform? I always wondered about that one since it doesn''t actually tell you how much extra gold you''re getting per turn...

Well it is questionable as to which tech path to follow because *tax reform* does take some sacrifice to procure. For example, I did experiment and found that I could put one maceman into the field by turn six if I went all out to do so and that is letting several other things go though including everything necessary to get *tax reform*.

To my knowledge *tax reform* gives an extra 1000 gold/turn.

PS:
I tried to weigh the worth of that one maceman and at 30/30 a/d he can attack and kill about nine scouts in groups of three before dying himself I think.
That was with the mace continuously attacking though which wouldn't really be possible So that the scouts would get several more defensive retales and would cause the maceman to be much less effective.

rex

Last Edited : Wednesday, 12 September 2007 - 00:31

I have found that getting the market tribute 1 and 2 and then selling the gems tends to give more than tax reform in the short term plus it helps with wood, metal and stone supplies.
I think it also gives a bit of gold as well.

Tax reform is only 1000 gold per turn.

Well, yes, but if you are adding 1000 per turn for 6000 gold, in 6 turns you begin making a profit. You`ll need those gems when you go to upgrade your barracks. 1000 gold is usually a quarter of the money you are making early in the game and can make a huge difference in ability to buy stuff. Go ahead and don`t get it, I hope I`m next to you in a campaign!