This is a campaign-strategy based on the current system Feb. 2005. 10 player map.

My player-name is VivaChe, welcome.
The strategy is based on my experience, and i have a lot specially in high ranked games. If you follow the rules of this strategy youīll have a high techup and more troops than your opponent. Only a few, i would say maybe 15 players are able to have a better techup than iīll show you in this strategy.
Some other facts that are important, if you play 12hr games you should have a look every 8 hours, slow games every 12-16 hours. Skirmish (8hrs normal) 6-7 hours. Fast more often. Sure you have to sleep too.
NAPs and Alliances: Try to avoid alliances, 5-turn warning NAPs are the best you could do (a Non-Aggression-Pact that ends in 5 turns after a message. e.g. message at turn 40, you can start to attack at turn 46). write the agreements in your LogBook, thatīs why you have it. message with the players around during the game, that way you are normally able to avoid a 2 vs 1 situation.

So in the end itīll be your skill that makes the difference. But iīll say a few words about how to improve your fighting skill too. In the part "Moves:" are some tips that make the difference.

Turn 0-1:
TechCentre: Taxes
upgrades: upgrade on goldmine, woodmill, metalmine.
Moves: First think about how to move, what to move, where to move. you are able to access every goldmine at turn 1 or 2, on the way you are able to take over one ressource building (which? -> depends on where the goldmine is) so move to this ressource building on the way to the goldmine with 1 Commandeer and 1 other stack. itīs more important to take over the ressource buildings so donīt loose bp while destroying the piles next to your castle. Move to the ressource buildings with the other comm and the other stacks, take them all over at turn 1!
Send messages to the players in the game you know and ask them where they are, sure you have to tell your position too. that way you normally know already at turn 1 or 2 some of your neighbours.
Build: blacksmith
Deploy: one stack with 5 troops in every barrack (no matter which). Donīt produce comms you donīt need them.

Turn 2:
TechCentre: Military
Moves: Move with scouts (54) spearmen (81) (if swordsmen (68) are closer to gempond move with them instead. but spearmen are better) , archers, 1 comm to the gempond.
the 5pop stacks should be deployed now in stacks of 15 when scouts, 20 when swords, 25 when spears. use them to destroy the piles around. take care donīt get over lvl 1 (200 exp, no worries normally not possible) you have to send them later back to the castle in the barracks to deploy more troops in them.
If you donīt have enough gold sell your towers and palisades (only that many as much gold you need!). you can choose at this time already who will be your opponent so first destroy the palisades and towers that Donīt face the border of your current opponent.
Build: military academy (build the buildings with the commandeer stack that is not on the way to the gempond)
Deploy: top up the stacks as described above and move them.

Turn 3:
TechCentre: advanced training
Moves: You should have reached the gempond, attack the bandits etc. with your armies in rps-style, your comms are there cause of the attackpoints. so keep them close to your troops. The starting unit (spears or swords) that is left (not on the way to the gempond), should destroy piles around. Move the commandeers that have build back to the castle asap.
Build: Training guild (if lack of ressources turn 4 possible too.)
Deploy: in one barrack a 5 pop stack of commandeers.

Turn 4:
upgrades:upgrade experttraining in both barracks, itīs possible to have it in both barracks at turn 8! upgrade to squires in the barrack with spears till turn 5.
Techcentre: Building materials

continued 2 posts above.

Last Edited : Thursday, 10 February 2005 - 14:24

.

I'd change one thing specifically above. Do your upgrades to your resource buildings on turn 1 (immediately after building the blacksmith). Simply no reason not to get every hour of resource production out of it you can.

continued.
Turn 4:
Moves: take over gempond (no upgrade on gempond!). Move to the next ressource building around and keep on killing barbarians. one of the starting commandeers has to be in the castle, move him next to the other commandeer stack within the castle and donīt move from now on with this stack.
Build: if you build now your training guild do the techup with building materials first and then start to build.
Deploy: top up the stack of comms in the one barrack and move them in the other barrack.

Turn 5:
TechCentre: Commerce
Build: start to build third barrack, within the castle. with stacks of 54 comms and 36 comms youīre able to build it within one turn easily. no upgrades so far on the new barrack, produce for example scouts.
Moves:

Turn 6:
TechCentre: Tax Reform
Build: build Marketplace before Tax Reform please...

Turn 7:
TechCentre: Archery
Upgrades: Upgrade in the new barrack to Ballista. Upgrade in the other left barrack without advanced units to Macemen asap.
Moves:

Turn 8:
You have now or next turn the best income you could reach with one castle. You produce Macemen, Squires, Ballistas imo the best army if one castle belongs to you are macemen, squires and Ballistas. it is possible to have 1 barrack with expert training and 2 with master training if you have one castle with this ressources. 3 Master training barracks are to expensive you wonīt be able to deploy all troops, or only if you produce basic troops.

Last Edited : Saturday, 12 February 2005 - 18:22

so im guessing this protects from a early rush ?

tyler good point

your doing all this fine and dandy work
and i am doing the same thing but i send my scouts your way and get there as fast as possible

**hi Viva by the way**
then i move my scouts around adn kill off your comms, i know i can kill the first stack and probly get the 2nd one to 10 or less before you close in on me

now your kinda in a jam

and while your recovering i build up pikemen and scouts in big numbers and come from two opposite sides with some comms following

i close in and storm through the holes in your pally and use the comms to take your resource buildings(thnx for the upgrades on them)

and then while your retaliating and my forces are weakening you think your gona kill me off soon
i come with reinforcements of falshioneers(or mor epikes and scouts) and with some nice ranged troops

archers in big numbers work wonders

---a good reference of this scenerio is lms5 where i did this to jaja

iīll keep on writing this. this weekend i should manage to write 2 more turns

Last Edited : Wednesday, 9 February 2005 - 16:29

hey viva your advice is good, heck when i first started playing way back when i based my playing on your pointers and they are good

im just providing a contrast

well i usualy ahve my stuff filled by turn um 4
i would give you my way but its kind of evil and ill jsut show you if we ever engage

Gamer, tyler,

He'd kill both of you, probably at the same time.

His advice is very solid and is followed in general by pretty much all the top players in this game. I do tend to deploy a 3rd stack of comms early so I can repair resources, build buildings or support the killing of barbarians faster.

LOL ... I bet he would kill them both at the same time. This strat is good to see in writing, I have failed miserably at perfecting it as well as Viva has. Heck, I bet I use this as a reference in the start of my next game.

Well done Viva.

This is my first post here since I started a thread entitled "Intelligence" and a young fellow said that "intelligence is an oximoron" or something.

We all have to adjust our idea of an ideal "tech-path" when we get attacked. That should be understood and I guess it might make sense to "flow-chart" alternative "tech-paths" but not many folks seem to have taken the time to put it together for us.

Anyway because "Viva" is ranked "#3 Overall Champion" and because he was taking the time to show us how he does it,
I did take the liberty to start "flow-charting" it but that's not easy either so now I have an excuse to stop (i.e unless "Viva" will please continue).

TR

Come on Viva u know u want 2

im not saying viva wouldnt kill me, heck ive had my run in with him back when i was a beginner

and now i just started playing again after like a 1.5year break so i suk badly but i like to see holes in plans lol

But this advice is assuming that someone isn't attacking you. Obviously if something ELSE happens in the game even the BEST strategy would have to be altered.

I know you were just playing devil's advocate, but this is just a turn by turn general strategy--I think it goes without saying (at least for the "vets" and other "distinguished" players) that if someone ATTACKS you that said strategy will have to be altered.


I see this as looking at the "economic" side of the game (at the start) and not the "battle" portion (which you brought up). Viva's advice is just on how to maximize your financial gains in the long run with a good start (which becomes ever increasingly important as you rise through the ranks).

Thanks for actually taking the time to write this down Viva, I know that there were some real gems of knowledge in that post that I have overlooked in my own gaming.

If someone attack at turn 5, chances are he'll be defeated.
Because there must be a troop commitment that otherwise can be used to pick up resources and suchs.
I can adapt to ballis very quickly and just back a little bit and fire away from towers.
Normally such an early rush doesn't work, you need to be VERY good, and play a bad player.

true gurilot

and im gona do my devils advocate thing

u dont always have a gold mine or gem pond around to go to lol

otherwise this is good stuff and i gota say i use kind of this model myself

If you follow now my strategy here are some simple rules that belong to this strategy and it would be nice if you would follow these rules:

- Try to avoid situations where you are fighting together with other players against one player.
- If someone moves through your territory with only a scouting unit first ask what he wants or just say him he should leave your territory immediately. Give him a full turn time to answer, then you can attack.
- If someone is moving in your territory with a whole army without any message it is your right to attack him with full forces.
- Stick to your agreements, if you said youīll attack at turn 40 you can attack at turn 40 not a single turn before.
- If a player is better than you and defeated you, donīt destroy your whole castle (barracks and all this stuff) because the other player "earned" this, he played better than you. And what do you want with all those ressources while your eliminated.
- If a player is not able to play this game for some days, it is honorable to talk about a ceasefire for that time.

Last Edited : Sunday, 13 February 2005 - 03:26

The suggestion about an early rush against someone using this strategy:
The player who uses this strategy has to change it if he is rushed, i think we all know that.
But the player has moved stacks in different directions of his territory so heīll be informed if someone is coming with a large army. He has send messages to the players around knows where some of them are and will get informations where the other players are. Maybe he has agreed to the first NAPs and so he knows who may come to fight and from what direction.

Thoughts about early rushes:
The player who rushes has to fight about two turns away from his castle and his barracks. So if he deploys troops heīll need 2 turns to have them on the battlefield (the area around the other castle). If "my" player (the one who is attacked) changes his tactic, itīll immediately change the situation, cause he donīt need 2 turns to move to the battlefield.

Thoughts about your tactic if a fight with different trooptypes, walls, towers and outposts begins:
First step:
Analyze the forces of your opponent and compare them with your forces. You need some 5pop stacks of scouts to do it, and youīll lose some of these scouts. But the information you gained is more important.
Second step:
You have to follow your strategy, your opponent should only be able to answer your attack. He should not be able to follow his own strategy. What i mean is, you attack, but you attack not as he expected, he has to think about his strategy, and at this point he starts to follow your strategy. And then he is the one in the defensive position, he only reacts on what you do. And heīll lose.
Third step:
Choose the right strategy, only examples:
if you have more range tech up to towers and move on while building towers, try to destroy his range that way so that your range forces are overwhelming in the end.
if you your opponent has a lack in a certain troop type, for example only a few sissors, kill them with your range and change your troop production to paper.
step:

Last Edited : Saturday, 12 February 2005 - 13:23

If there are any suggestions, ideas, a different way to play at a certain turn, or even better an own strategy. I would appreciate it to see it written down here.