Jeff Braunstein's advice for players of human nations in
"War of the Dark God"
[Morten's note: Although some of the following is
specific to human nations, especially the parts pertaining to economy and
troops, there is also much which is sound advice for any nation.]
WARNING: This advice was made with the rules as they stood when
I played the first basic game playtest.
[Jeff played the Eastern Kingdom in the first basic
game playtest. The "changes" in military strength which Jeff refers to
later are those made between the first and second basic game playtest where
most mounted units were weakened -- Morten.]
Changes could have been made
that make some of this untrue. If so, complain to Morten. No,
don't do that. He has designed an excellent game. Message me,
and I will correct anything that needs it.
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The First (and most important) Rule: COOPERATION
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To win this game you must cooperate. Our team took full advantage
of the Onelist bulletin board and it helped quite a bit. You could
look at each other's turns and might pick up something they missed.
It gives experienced players an opportunity to give specific
advice to novice players rather than general recommendations.
Also, remember, you need to win with the seven fellow members of
your alliance. With that in mind, try and keep your rants in check
until they are much deserved. It is okay to get excited (as I well
know), but you need to keep in mind that these people could be
learning the game. Badgering them will not help them become better
players. I tried. Others have tried. It doesn't work. Also, everyone
will make mistakes. Even those who have played many previous games.
If it messes up your plans, change your plans.
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What to do on the first two turns.
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Expand your cities
I consider this the most important
thing you can do in the beginning. The investment you make
here will pay for itself in 4-5 turns. First off, you will
get the trade income the same turn you expand. Additionally,
your production of men will increase in the easiest way
possible. The total hexes you will add to your nation will
probably not produce as many men as you can add by expanding
your cities. Increasing your men is the best way to improve
your income. From adding 10 men to your resource pool in the
first turn, that will add 300-400 gold to your coffers during
the game. In my game, all my cities were at full size by
turn 14 (now, I would have made sure it was done earlier). I
consistently had 150-200 more gold produced than my allies.
Yet, I still wanted more to afford those better troops. Gold
is the key to having a strong military.
Disband your light infantry and archers
They are useless. With the
changes in military strength, I am not sure exactly what to
recruit. The first turn you won't have enough arms to recruit
a lot of quaility troops. I would probably try and recruit as
many heavy infantry as possible. The only possible reason to keep
archers would be to hit any giant ants that might be in your
area. Giant ants are a pain in the butt, capable of reducing
a decent army to dust due to their small size. Archers will
be able to hit them once before they reach you in the battle
phase. I'm not exactly sure, but I would say that roughly
twice as many archers as ants would guarantee minimum losses.
If you really want missile troops in your armies, I recommend
Woodsmen. They can shoot a distance of two, have a better military
strength, and are immune to bribe.
[Now they actually only shoot a distance of one -- Morten.]
That last is important if you
are going to use them for city defense when those rich nations
come calling at your castles with gold coins spilling out of their
pockets.
The only time you might want weak troops are when you need to
recruit very quickly to interrupt control. They are also good
for taking damage in a battle, since they will be the first to
be attacked. However, that is an expensive use of population.
Recruit scouts
A lot. At least ten. Send them every direction.
Even by sea. Sometimes having a scout searching in an ocean hex
will spot troop movements inland. That can be beneficial since
they can see where they are headed rather than just running into
an army and then fleeing.
Scouts will give you information on wandering monsters who are
certain to hinder your initial efforts to control new hexes.
Also, you will want to locate intelligent monsters and kill
them. This will prevent the Beastmaster from recruiting an army
of slobbering beasts drooling on your doorstep.
Recruit questers
I have included a section about questing
later on. I would try and get five questers as soon as possible.
Tear down useless expenses
Get rid of anything requiring upkeep that you won't be using.
Castles or forts with a four rating should probably be reduced
to one. Unless you desperately need the extra resources from having
a four rating structure, it is a drain on your income. The extra
three men lost from removing that rating are more than offset by
the 15 less gold in upkeep. Also, removing the rating makes it
easier to kick your enemies out should they gain control of
the structure. Due to the size adjustment in control time,
it is very easy to lose a castle during a turn. You won't want
to remove all the rating as that will destroy them and you will
most likely want (and need) the administration points.
Keep in mind that the above advice is not appropriate for the
walls surrounding a city. You will most likely want to keep
those defenses.
Scuttle your ships if you won't be venturing overseas. Most nations
will be more than occupied with events on the main continent
rather than risking
their forces across the ocean. I would recommend keeping one ship
just in case you want to send scouts overseas to watch the enemy
or a quester needs transport.
Recruit recruiters
This will free up your rulers to concentrate
on controlling hexes or leading armies with a good morale bonus.
Also, you will be able to rebuild very quickly should you lose
most of your military one turn, which will probably happen.
You probably want a general or two more captians.
A general can control if you need, but he isn't very fast about
it. More importantly he can recruit more quickly than captains.
You will find that a few phases can make a huge difference
in your plans.
The downside is that he costs more to maintain and you only have
one of them. With two captains you can have them in different
locations.
Questing
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There are two uses for questing. You can solve your given quest,
which is usually a very challenging endeavor. You can also explore
quest locations which typically provide gold and magic items.
I was not very successful solving my quest. As a matter of fact,
I made almost no progress, but I was
focusing my economic development on the military aspects rather
than the quest. Regardless of your questing reasons, the following
should give you a basic strategy for questing.
First off, you need to find quest locations. For this it is a good
idea just to send one quester out through hexes and locations looking
for places to explore. Rather than entering every place in force,
it might be a good idea to have another quester whose job is to
enter the location so you have an idea what is in store. A couple
places will have very fearsome monsters that can annihilate your
entire party. Not many, but a few. Keep the rest of your questers
in a group so they can easily beat what is inside without any of
them fleeing.
As far as solving your quest, I can't give much advice. Only one
person on our side managed to do that and it took him about 18
turns. You will almost certainly have to spend quite a bit of
gold or mana. Ask information about every detail you receive.
You never know where a nugget will be hidden. Experiment with
locate phrases because you never know which key words you will
need.
I would recruit knights if you can afford them, though make sure you
recruit a hero. In a pinch, knights can recruit heavy infantry
and heavy cavalry if you need to rebuild your military quickly.
A hero can recruit the terrain specific troops. Except for Woodsmen,
they aren't very useful, though they are immune to bribe. But
you can get a lot of them quickly if you need and in hexes where
your enemies might not expect.
Recruiting
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While I am not sure what the best recruitment combination will be
with the changes in the game, the way you recruit can significantly
help your economy. One of the best tricks is to start recruitment
one turn such that it finishes on phase 1 of the next turn. This
tactic means you don't pay upkeep on a unit that you will not use
that turn. The downside is that you won't be able to give that unit
orders the next turn since you won't know the unitid. There are two
ways to make this less of a burden. The first is to include a join order
where a leader character gets all the troops and you can move him
as needed. The second is to include expected orders for the unit.
If possible, try to use the first method. It allows
more flexibility and doesn't risk units running into enemy
camps.
Another thing to keep in mind is you don't want to deplete your
population by overrecruiting. Ideally, you want to recruit less
troops than the difference in production of men and men lost.
This will insure your taxpaying population grows. Obviously this
isn't possible all the time, but try to keep it in mind.
What to control
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The following list is my order of preference for locations
to control. Many things
can change your priorities. For example you might want to control a
hex that gives you very little benefit in order to deprive its
potential use to an enemy, like a hex with ruins that the Vampire
might want or a swamp the Snakemen or Beastmaster might want. Also,
it might be more convenient to control surrounding hexes prior to
the hex you might want, like if plains are near a mountain hex.
Also, keep in mind that another nation might get better benefit
from a hex than you, in which case it might be better to let them
control it. In my game (I was EK), the Druids and Elves controlled
all the forests north of my home. The Druid got 20 nature mana for
each hex and the Elves were able to significantly increase their
population using Elven Call. They took control long after I would
have, but it was of greater benefit to the alliance.
OK, on with the list.
- Cities: The bread and butter of the human nations. Good for other
nations also, but humans probably get the highest benefit from most
cities.
- Gold Mines: A great boon to your economy. Just keep in mind that
you will need the manpower each turn to use it. If you aren't going
to have it, let someone else control it.
- Hills: Ten men, plus 25 gold each turn. The best economic hex.
- Mountains: Only five men, but still 25 gold. The downside is they
take a long time to control.
- Wooded hills: Ten men and 10 gold
- Farmlands: Twenty men and a very quick control
- Plains: Only ten men, but also a quick control
- High Mountains: 5 men and 25 gold, but a very long control effort.
- Woods, Swamps, Jungle: Good for providing food and wood, but not
much for your economy.
If there are some hexes you can control in relative safety, then
it is worth sending a small group, maybe 50 light cavalry, with
a ruler and start controlling when you know the area is clear of
wandering monsters. I had one ruler and fifty cavalry control
two mountains hexes, one hills and a plains within the first 12
turns. If I had planned better, I would have gone for one or two
high mountains as well. My other rulers weren't idle, but this guy
sure gave my economy a early boost.
Questions I need to ask myself every turn
The following checklist should help you avoid frustrating and
dangerous mistakes.
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Do my leaders have a fleewhen set?
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Do my questers have a retreatwhen and (the correct) retreatspot set?
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Did I check to make sure my queued orders agree with my new submitted
orders? i.e. Are my queued orders sending my troops somewhere I no
longer want them to go?
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Do all my troops have the appropriate tactics?
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