Some (economic) advice to the good guys

So you are one of the good guys? One thing you will have to know if you want to be on the winning team in War of the Dark God is that playing Alliance and Dark followers requires vastly different styles of play. This does not just go for the individual nations but for the team as a whole. In brief the two alliances are different in many ways:

  Alliance Dark Followers
Nations based mostly on standard economy NI, OQ, HE, EK, CE, Dw, (EW) Sm, QoW, Gn, Tr, PP
Good standard resouce potential (men, arms, gold) Dw, Ew, HE, EK, (NI), (CE), (OQ) Sm, Tr, Gn (QoW) (PP)
Simple military (with fewer unittypes) EW, HE, Dw Sm, Tr, VL, So, PP
Tactically complex nations (special powers) (HE), (NI), Dr VL, So, Bm, Gn, PP, QoW

Nations based mostly on standard economy: All of these nations must focus aggressively on expansion in the early game. Expansion means controlling hexes and expanding cities to the maximum extent possible. Standard economy also "tends" to mean better expansion potential, but more on this later.

Good standard resouce potential: Means that the nation has possibility to control nearby hexes relatively uncontended by enemies (monsters are a pest for all nations save the Beasmaster so monsters are not part of the equatation) and/or expandable cities. Two things decide if a city is expandable, namely the availability of gold and manpower and the potential gain in population and gold. Those nations written in brackets lack either gold, free (uncontended) space or has limited (population/tax/trade) gain from expanding cities

Simple military: This means they the nations have fewer unittypes to choose from and/or that conventional wisdom dictates that only a few unittypes are usefull.

Tactically complex nations: These are nations which have special powers and/or manage resources in a special way that is unique for that nation. The nation's success is therefore closely keyed the the player's grasp on these special abilities/limitations.Those nations written in brackets are only marginally more complex than average either due to limited number of special powers or because army movement is keyed to a navy (PP actually fall in both those categories and are hence termed complex).

Looking at the table above some issues are obvious:

  1. The dark side has six tactically complex nations, the alliance has three, two of which are not so special after all (NI and HE).
    1. The dark side has five nations that are limited in their number of different (usefull) mass units, the good guys have three.
    2. The dark side has a vast superiority in special tactical powers (Strike spells, teleportation, advantages from monsters and powerful special units).
  2. The alliance nations have an overall better expansion and growth potentials, althought there are exceptions.

1. Is largely in the favour of the darkies however you look at it. 1a is mostly advantageous to the experienced player or the bright novice. 1b is mostly player dependent, for experienced players it is a definite advantage, for the novice the possible pitfalls often limit the overall advantages. 

2. Is the conerstone to the long terms success or failiure of the alliance. Only if the expansion potential is exploited aggressively can the alliance hope to match the dark god followers.

To sum it up: Dark side nations require adaption, innovative thinking and profound ability to get the orders "right". Alliance nations require a keen eye to resource administration and expansion.

The dark side nations have a profile best matched by players with a few games under their belt. Unfourtunatly an expecienced dark team playing and communicating effectively tends to win every time.

The second point is only advantegeous to the player who realises its importance from turn one (or thereabouts). This is what this document is all about. Giving the alliance a fighting chance, even if composed of all new players.

A Dark team worth its money will have erected two obelixes by turn 6 (at the latest) and probably one more by turn 10-12 or so. Since the dark team knows where the powerspots are they have the initiative. This will also increase the dark team's power as the nations of the Sorcerer, Queen of Wey and Pirates of Pyr gets notably enhanced as additional obelisks are erected (and none of these three are pushovers initially, mind you!).

The billion dollar question is: How does the alliance stem the onslaught of a tactically more advanced adversary which keeps getting stronger and which can pick and choose its mode and point of attack more freely!

The answer is (of course): By becomming even more stronger and powerful itself and by anticipitating the focus of the next offensive.

Focusing on the long term

In order to do this it is important to optimize the ressource production of the alliance and share the resources available. For the alliance to win there are some ... well ... facts of life you might as well accept (or you'll surely loose). It is like the mandatory opening moves in chess, the experienced player knows what to do out of experience:

Fact 1

Optimize future resource production before you share the resource, expecially gold.

You optimize gold production:
1. by expanding your cities every turn to the maximum extent
2. by disbanding aas much medium and light infantry as you can spare on turn one
3. by controlling hexes containing needed resources (iron, wood, food, men)

Ad 1. Expanding cities will incerease city trade income and increase your taxbase. An size 3 increment (costing 150 gold in turn 1) producing 30 extra men from turn 1 will return the investment in 5-6 turns in taxes and city trade and end up producing an overall surplus of several thousand gold come the endgame. Expand your cities before you transport excess gold (did I write excess gold?!) to your whining allies. This way you will keep having a surplus (which you can share with your whining allies later on :-).

Ad 2. They are not worth spit in combat so disband them unless you really need them and regain the arms they carry and have them pay taxes untill you recruit again. The arms part is important: Trade is nessessary but expensive. The longer you can provide your own troops with (unimported) arms the better.

Add. 3. You'll need food to feed your expanding cities, iron and wood to produce arms (saving gold instead of costly ressource transport) and men to increase your taxbase as getting gold is of course paramount. Hills hexes are the best econominc hex in this regard. But every nation should have a wood hex or two wooded hills to provide wood for arms.

In order to illustrate the economic effect of expanding a city I have included a small spreadsheet illustrating the development in income for a typical human nation that expands an unfortified city two times in turn one. This is a constructed example but the numbers are realistic enough.

Tax efficiency factor: 25%
Total population: 3030
Enlisted population: 1050
Population Pool: 1980
Taxes: 495
City trade per size increment: 11
Trade effeciency factor: 100%
Initial city size: 10
New city size: 12
Cost in gold per size increase: 100 gold

Turn

pool

Populatio
in units

Effective
production

Potential
Production

No of pop.
decayed

Equilibrum
number

Total
Taxes

Additional tax
added pr. turn

Effective added tax
pr turn.

Added
City trade

Acc. Income

0

1980

1050

0

323

303

3030

495

0

0

0

0

1

2000

1050

20

323

305

3230

500

5

5

22

27

2

2018

1050

18

323

307

3230

505

5

10

22

54

3

2034

1050

16

323

308

3230

509

4

14

22

80

4

2049

1050

15

323

310

3230

512

3

17

22

119

5

2062

1050

13

323

311

3230

516

4

21

22

162

6

2074

1050

12

323

312

3230

519

3

24

22

208

7

2085

1050

11

323

314

3230

521

2

26

22

256

8

2094

1050

9

323

314

3230

524

3

29

22

307

9

2103

1050

9

323

315

3230

526

2

31

22

360

10

2111

1050

8

323

316

3230

528

2

33

22

415

11

2118

1050

7

323

317

3230

530

2

35

22

472

12

2124

1050

6

323

317

3230

531

1

36

22

530

13

2130

1050

6

323

318

3230

533

2

38

22

590

14

2135

1050

5

323

319

3230

534

1

39

22

651

15

2139

1050

4

323

319

3230

535

1

40

22

713

16

2143

1050

4

323

319

3230

536

1

41

22

776

17

2147

1050

4

323

320

3230

537

1

42

22

840

18

2150

1050

3

323

320

3230

538

1

43

22

905

19

2153

1050

3

323

320

3230

538

0

43

22

970

20

2156

1050

3

323

321

3230

539

1

44

22

1036

21

2158

1050

2

323

321

3230

540

1

45

22

1103

22

2160

1050

2

323

321

3230

540

0

45

22

1170

23

2162

1050

2

323

321

3230

541

1

46

22

1238

24

2164

1050

2

323

321

3230

541

0

46

22

1306

46

793

528

There are several importaint points to be seen here:

  • The additional income in the three turns following the investment are 27 gold, 27 gold and 26 gold respectively
  • In 4 turns the entire investment (in gold) is returned
  • At the end of the game you nation will have accumulated over 1300 gold as a result of the 100 you spent initially
  • It would take controlling two average hexes (one hills and one plains/woods) to gain the same growth in population and gold income
  • It is a simplified calculation. Its premises are easily disrupted by for example recruitment, which will deplete the taxbase (but recruitment would deplete the taxbase even if you did not expand the city)
  • Expanding you cities early on is the best way to optimize your gold production
  • The above does not neccessarily hold for the Elven and Dwarven nations because their populations grows much slower. On the other hand their city trade incomes and city trade factors tend to be much higher than the corresponding human values.

Fact 2

Three alliance nations has a surplus of gold and even more importantly a high gold production potential: HE, EK and Dw
Two nations will likely lack gold badly (all will at some point but that is more general): CE, EW
Four nations have food to spare: EK, NI, Dr, EW
Four nations will have wood to spare: NI, EK, Dr, EW
One Nation will lack food: Dw
One nations will (initially) have excess iron: Dw
All other nations will (initially) lack arms but expecially: CE and EK

In conclusion:

  • It is paramount that CE recives gold and arms probably from turn 1 or 2, so prepare for that.
  • It helps the dwarves immensely if they recive additional food and wood from EK, then they can ship arms to all allies in return
  • EK and EW will run out of arms around turn 2-4
  • EK should concentrate on expanding cities to the maximum extent and extending the army with heavy troops before considering sending out gold to allies
  • HE Should send modest amounts (100-200) gold/turn to CE until turn 5
  • OQ, NI, CE, EK, Dw, (EW), (HE) should expand their cities on turn one (and two and three and...)
  • All alliance nations should start controlling at least one but preferably two hexes in turn 1 (I know this is near impossible for NI.....dont flame me...)
  • Agree on which nations gets to control which hexes in advance: Let Dr and EW split most wood and wooded hills, let the dwarves get most hills and mountains, leave the plains for the human nations, reserve some northern hexes and one of the free cities in the north for NI so they can get a piece of the action....

Preparing will increase your long term chance of survival and prosperity immensely.

Fact 3

Your light troops are not worth keeping. Disband them and recruit some heavy troops instead. Another constructed example:

Lets for the sake of argument assume that the nation above has the following troops:

Unit Total cost Total upkeep

100 HI *

70*

 30*

100 HI *

70*

 30*

150 MI **

45**

 30**

100 MI *

30*

 20*

100 LI *

20*

 10*

100 LI *

20*

 10*

100 Ar *

30*

 10*

  50 Ar 

15

 5

100 Cr **

30**

 20*

  50 MC *

70*

 30*

Note this larger than most starting armies.

For a grand total of 1050 drafted taxpayers. Now had all of these been in the nations pool the taxbase would have been 757 gold instead of 495 gold, a difference of 262. While this is in itself significant there is also the saved upkeep to consider: an additional 175 gold for a grand total difference of 437 gold (yes war is expencive). Of course disbanding all your men is not a viable long term strategy, this is after all a wargame :-). The trick is to disband those troops where the additional tax generated and the saved upkeep can pay for better troops AND which are also ineffective in combat. The table below illustrates it:

Unit Total
cost
Total
upkeep
Combat rating
Disband cost =
+)
(cost + upkeep) +) 
Tax value per turn +)
Combat value=
+)
Combat rating   +)
Disband cost   +)
Time of return+)

100 HI *

60*

30*

19***

3,6 5,3 1½-2

100 HI *

60*

30*

19***

3,6 5,3 1½-2

150 MI **

45**

30**

10***

2 4,0

100 MI *

30*

20*

10***

2 4,0

100 LI *

20*

10*

5***

0,6 3,3 1

100 LI *

20*

10*

5***

0,6 3,3 1

100 Ar *

30*

10*

8(4)***

2,0 4,0(2,0)

50 Ar

15+)

5+)

8(4)***

2,0 4.0(2,0)

100 Cr **

30**

20*

10(5)***

2,5 4.0(2.0)

50 MC *

70*

30*

47***

10 4,7

+) Per standard unit
*) Double standard unit size
**) Three times standard unit
***) Per individual
****) Tax each standard unit could generate in the pool

What do the numbers mean:

The higher the disband cost the less (economic) reason to disband the unit. Low disband cost means the the added tax and lower upkeep makes it favourable to disband the unit.

The combat value reflects the value in combat of a particular unittype rated against the cost of disbanding the unit. The higher value the better the combat rating per gold paid and hence the less reason to disband.

If you disband all your LI on turn 1 and re-recruit the population in turn 2 it is cost "neutral". In other words the saved upkeep and increased tax pays for the re-recruiting. Or you can re-recruit better troops.

If you disband your MI and your HI you will have to postprone your re-recruitment so that the new units first appear in turn 3 (you'll need to save the upkeep in turn 2 to make it cost neutral). The same goes for your archers and crossbowmen. Actually if HI reappear in turn 3 it is barely cost neutral.

Your MC on the other hand has to be out of circulation for 2½ turn, i.e. reappear in early turn 4, before disbanding it becomes cost neutral.

Example: Disband all LI, MI and Archers ASAP, recruit just enough HI to make up for this in total combat rating:

  • You'll save 85 gold in upkeep and gain 150 gold in taxes on turn one. Gold gained 235. Arms gained: 850
  • You'll loose a combat value of 5700(4600).
  • The lost combat value can be replaced by recruiting 300 HI: Cost in gold 180 plus 900 arms
    • If you are able to delay recruiting of the 300 HI to turn 2 and time the recruit order(s) so the new troops appear in phase 1 of turn 3 you will gain 75 extra gold in taxes compared to keeping the light troops (you disband 600 and only re-recruits 300 men of the 600 you disband provinding 300 happy taxpayers). You will also save the upkeep in turn 2 (as the new troops will not be present before phase 1 in turn 3). Add an additional 160 gold. Thus you end up saving 395 gold and retaining your overall military strength. Furthermore you'll gain 75 additional gold per turn forever after.
    • If you need to re-recruit at once you should time the arrival of the new troops in turn 2 phase 1. Then the overall calculations hands you 85 gold in saved upkeep and 75 gold in additional taxes on turn one. In turn two you'll have to settle for the addtional 75 gold from added taxes.
  • Recruiting the 300 HI is of course not free. The recruiting will cost 180 gold and the first turn they are in existence they will cost you 135 in upkeep:
    • If you use the first option the overall account will be:
      turn 1 235 gold in added taxes/saved upkeep
      turn 2 160 (income 300 fewer taxpayers) - 180 (cost of HI) = - 20
      turn 3 160 (income 300 fewer taxpayers) - 135 (upkeep of HI) = 25
      Overall gain: 240 gold (and a plus of 25 gold in income in every following turn)
    • If You go for second option the overall accout will be:
      turn 1 160 (income) -180 (cost of HI) = - 20
      turn 2 160 (income) -135 (upkeep) = 25
      Overall "gain": 5 gold (but also an additional 25 gold in income in every following turn)

The major points thus are:

Unless you have a specific need for a unit of LI, Ar or MI you should disband them first thing. You'll want some units to get on with controlling right away, and since HI and all types of cavalry gives you more bang for the buck, you'll want to keep those. In turn 2 or later you can redraft the same combat potential as you disbanded by recruiting HI and Cavalry with no ill effect to your economy. If you recruit half as many HI as you disbanded MI you'll even make gold on this because your taxbase will be larger while you retain your combat potential. The longer you postpone recruitment the more gold you'll have for expanding your cities.

The demi-human nations (HE, EW, Dw) should not follow the above strategy. They have no light troops to disband so disbanding light troops is strictly meant for human nations. The dwarves might gain from disbanding their gnome troops because those gnomes eat a lot, but then again the gnomes are useful for controlling those backwater mountains while you dwarven troops crack some skulls.

Fact 4: If you plan ahead you can match the dark team and anticipitate the location of the last two powerspots

When five obelixes have been erected all is not lost..not by a long shot. If you have expanded aggressively and accumulated resources or bled the dark followers from time to time so they have limited their expansion to a few hexes per nation, the alliance should be at par (or slightly stronger) compared to the dark team. What is paramount is locating the last two powerspots and "marking" them. Unknown to some players the powerspots are usually distributed like this: Two are initially controlled by each faction (although the alliance dont know where "their" powerspots are) and the last three powerspors are neutral. Expect the dark team to control those (or two of them at least) within 6 turns.

Once five obelixes are up the alliance priests cast sight and sense spells with 100% accuracy. If the Alliance knows the whereabout of the five erected obelixes (and they should if they have recruited a reasonable amount of scouts, 10+ per nation) it will take at most five sense/sight spells to locate the remaining two powerspots. This assumes that your team extrapolates the known power lines and casts spells at their intersections. Random casting of sense spells will only cost you precious mana....There is always a chance of second guessing the locations and casting just two spells for confirmation of course. Plotting the known obelisks on your map and actually drawing the powerlines is a great help.

Once the remaining powersports are identified you should concentrate large defences around them. Post a large mobile defensive force (tons of cavalry) near the remaining powerspots. Unless you have lots and lots of strike protection don't gather all your forces until the dark side moves in, intent on controlling. Then jump them and crush their armies.

Meanwhile use your superiour economy to buy armies that coordinate attacks on the already erected obelisks. Concentrate on the one(s) that is(are) hardest for the Dark God Followeres to regain when you succeed. Watch them panic as you tear down the fifth obelix, and the fourth and the third....

Remember to concentrate and coordinate your effort: Jump one enemy at a time and pound him until he is finished. Then go for the obelisk hex he guards. If you can take out one or two darkies without taking too many losses yourself then you'll win. Taking out one of the key nations like the Trolls, the Sorcerer or the Gnomes will weaken the Dark faction immensely. The Pirates of Pyr, The Beastmaster, Vampire Lord or Snakemen are easier for the dark faction to do without but any two will shift the balance of power in favour of the alliance.

The Conclusion

Build your economy initially.
Stab them in the mid game limiting their expansion and possibly take out an entire nation.
Grind them down in the endgame.

Good luck and may your gods be with you.

Niels Lademark