Ok, you now know most of what you need to win. You have the basic analysis of troops (1.1, 1.2, 2.1) and buildings (2.2) - you have the description of the strategies required to win (3.2) and can now use as much political punch as you need to achieve your aims. (3.1)

But you still need a way to bring it all together. Massive armies of marksmen do no good if an experienced player keeps luring you into traps.

This lecture will be more open than most as people add their own tips to the pile. But here are some to start you off...!

1) If you buy the wood panelling tech, your wood costs for buildings go up. But walls don't cost an wood, so you're getting extra health for free on the new walls...!

2) Siege weapons DO NOT kill ordinary troops. Ok, they do - just nowhere near enough. I've covered it already, but I've seen it tried enough in battle games to say it again!

3) You have a stack that has, say, 140% battle points. As you know, as soon as you move it'll drop back down to 100%. But if you move all the squares you can in a single move, you can cover several squares and still keep 100% BP - essential for stacks like comms who need BP to take over buildings.
If you still don't understand, take two stacks over 100% BP. Move one of them as far as you can in one go. Move the other a square at a time. See which has the most BP

4) To scout in a battle game or a campaign game when your opponent's online, move your scout unit (or other fast unit) half it's point allowance in the direction you want to investigate. Refresh the map, see where everything is, then move it back. Scouting without the pain of losing your scout when it gets shot at

5) When you shoot/attack a stack and it retaliates, you take away a future chance to fight back - especially in battle games. Try to attack a stack several times in a single strike/turn/between hours and use the least valuable of your units first. Once you absorb the retal attack(s) you'll be able to get free shots in...

6) DON'T CHARGE. Scout first, gather information and see what you're getting yourself into. If you don't you might find nasty surprises waiting for you when you launch that attack...!

7) When you attack, there are 'priority' targets you should aim for if they're left open:

a) Simplest of all, loose units - especially ranged units. But take care someone isn't leaving you bait

b) Resource buildings are prime targets. If you can starve the supply lines, you'll eventually win the war.

c) If you can smash a barracks or two, go for it! You'll cripple your opponent's production (provided he doesn't have spares, which is usually the case), cost him the upgrdes he invested into that barracks and could force him to rebuild it - without the construction tech to make it cheaper, barracks cost at least 1000 of each of the major resources (2000 of gold I believe, without checking). Even if it costs you a stack of catapults to do it, it could be very worthwhile if you hit a barracks churning out marksmen...!

8) Use battle games to experiment. If a troop resembles a chocolate fireguard in terms of usefulness in battle games, odds are it's not much better in the campaigns...!

9) Marketplaces can get you out of some tricky money situations
Actually, quite a lot of situations...!

10) If you ever get completely stuck without a gempond for a long time, use the 'Resource Generation' (or whatever it's called) to bail you out. Failing that, get the markets to help you out, if the price is right...

11) Lots of small stacks are very good at obstructing opponents and scouting around. Maybe even buying you an extra turn or two to 'unload' those ballista bolts
A turn or two not sound good enough? Have you ever borne witness to several hnudred of your troops letting loose at once? (ARROWS, not waste... )

12) Make sure you only fight one b

And never ever fight two c or three d. It's a suicide.

--

"If you still don't understand, take two stacks over 100% BP. Move one of them as far as you can in one go. Move the other a square at a time. See which has the most BP "

This looks like a bug, and it shouldn't happen, don't you think?

BTW, CTD, great lectures.

Not bug,it just represents a single move order for a fully rested unit.Being given two move orders in a turn would realistically leave the unit more fatigued.

The b,however,is a bug and should be squashed on sight.

Last Edited : Monday, 3 March 2003 - 20:36

I think this is about the most useful part so far

Thanks CTD.


*goes in search for the B to ensure he doesn't take it on with two C's or even another D*

Ok, so it didn't post the lot

But it should have read:

12) Make sure you only fight one battle at a time. Fighting more than one battle for prolonged periods of time gets you killed

Or at least, that was the gist of it
Occasionally the forum cuts off long posts like that. Not sure why.

I missed out the highest priority target of all - commandeers. If someone's advancing on you intent on capturing your kingdom, go for any exposed comms. If you get the lot, (s)he's either forced to back off or destroy everything instead. If you have a second kingdom, you may well be preventing a catastrophe...!

Thanks CTDXXX!, this is hours of knowledge in one spoonful.

yeah ctdxx all your wisdom has transformd us into mean lean wol fighting machines just remember the student will become the teacher one day )

I've always done that..

If I had a choice between Comandeers or some other lower leveled troops.. Id' always shoot the comandeers.
I don't like their capabilities

after getting stomped in my first game and loosing my castle with over 60 grand in gold but 2 of everything else lol i come to realize the importance of commanders so yeah theyre high up on my target list as well

If I can continue to hold off their other troops despite taking a one turn beating, I'll take out commanders over anything else - I can rebuild my troops, but only if I have the resource buildings to do it. But again, that comes with the caveat of only if I can continue to hold of their troops a few more turns - resources don't do me any good if they get in my castle and start tearing stuff down.

Last Edited : Friday, 21 March 2003 - 10:28

Then again, better that than them arriving and taking over hundreds of troops still in the barracks...!

There is always a point where producing more troops is folly.

*bump*

*Bump* for our Newbies

Bob