does anyone else think province defense can be levied to quickly?

PvK · #1 March 29th, 2004, 06:42 AM

I don't think it's a balance problem, but in some cases it can be a little implausible. If you have a ton of cash reserves, it can make a bunch of troops appear instantly, often with nation-specific equipment/type. And, it can be done even in isolated provinces that don't have a ground route to the main nation. So in some cases, say Ulm summons some black hawks behind enemy lines, and when the enemy comes to reclaim their province, they find a bunch of Ulmish arbalesters and if enough was spent, heavy infantry of Ulm.

The free regeneration seems a little bit artificial/logically-strained compared to the costs of recruiting regular troops of the same type, too. For provinces connected to your homeland, though, it can sort of make sense following the apparent assumption that there are men with national equipment and training floating around but not part of the usable army until paid for. Assuming that, it's sort of like a reserve militia, national guard, or something. Still a little weird that their losses have no effect at all (except maybe the dead body level, and the experience levels of enemies that kill them).

It's not perfect, and a little gamey or illogical in unusual circumstances, but for the most part I think it works out reasonably.

PvK

Freyland · #2 March 29th, 2004, 06:47 AM

Okay, interesting point regarding PvK's example with Ulm. In my present game, I have taken a sea province which can now no longer trace a path back to my territory, thanks to the Atlanteans and their strange desire to reacquire conquered territory. I cannot enlist defense in this isolated province, which I assumed was a game mechanic based on said isolation. Is it something else, or does the "behind the lines" effect prevent the sudden application of local militia?

Jonathan

Yossar · #3 March 29th, 2004, 07:08 AM

Only Atlantis and R'lyeh (and maybe one more nation) can put province defence under water.

And I don't think it would be good to make it so that you can't put provincial defense in an isolated province. What if you've lost your capital and only have two provinces that aren't touching? Which one is isolated? What if your captial is isolated from the rest of your provinces?

[ March 29, 2004, 05:11: Message edited by: Yossar ]

Cheezeninja · #4 March 29th, 2004, 11:51 AM

You could just institute a rule where you can only buff up to the number of turns you've held the province, squared. Seems like a pretty reasonable fix to me, even though i kinda like the tactic of jumping behind enemy lines and bumping up PD even if it is 'gamey'.

Catquiet · #5 March 29th, 2004, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Yossar:
And I don't think it would be good to make it so that you can't put provincial defense in an isolated province. What if you've lost your capital and only have two provinces that aren't touching? Which one is isolated? What if your captial is isolated from the rest of your provinces?

I wouldn't like that rule either, but if Illwinter wanted to put it in, they could just say that any province not connected (however distantly) to a castle is isolated.

z0dd · #6 March 29th, 2004, 07:22 PM

I tested the limits of provincial defenses in a SP game I had full control of. I'm not sure if scale settings impact this, but in my game I could "only" bring the defense number up to 125, which costed a fortune.

I'm pretty sure 125 was the limit as I had well over 3k in my saving when trying to increase to 126.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge of such things can add to my findings.

Cainehill · #7 March 29th, 2004, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Yossar:
Only Atlantis and R'lyeh (and maybe one more nation) can put province defence under water.

Yep, one other nation can obtain PD in water provinces. I'm not sure what _kind_ of PD it gets, because I haven't yet had it attacked to see what troops are there. It'd be kind of amusing if it was a couple of corpses floating in the water on guard duty.

For those wondering (since no one answered when I asked in another thread), the land nation is :

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T'ien C'hi gains a certain amount of PD when order
in the province is high enough. I've not seen it go above 2 personally, but I have seen 2 PD show up in the ocean.