problems with provincial defence

[Aku]

Something that may help you against the AI is to put at least indy strength 6. The AI attacks everybody and you are always fighting a multi front war against them. Try out a game with indy 6 and see if that helps because it makes the AI advance slower. I never really played Ulm much so I will let others give advice on what to do with them. I have been playing multiplayer games for I think a month now and it is nowhere near like playing against the AI.

[FarAway Pretender]

You can also get a sense for where the AI is going to attack, which makes it easier to guard 2 provinces with 1 army. Doesn't work every time, especially when there's more than 1 AI adjacent to a given province, but it does help.

Depending on the map, one of the major challenges of the game is figuring how to expand without opening up "too many fronts".

[clhannah]

Very cool -- thanx guys ('n gals)
the high PD and multiple castles were (unsuccessful) attempts at warding off the inevitable multi-stack attack.

You hit it right on the head with the indy rating being too low. I suspected it was a basic element like this that was skewing the balance. between raising the indie strength and playing a smaller map I think I can make some progress towards actually beginning to learn how to play.

>Choke point take 6 smiths build a lab and have them research there that is usually enough to hold off a foe . . .

please explain this a little -- how can 6 smiths hold off an army?

-- clh

[DeathDaemon]

Blade wind and magma eruption are great spells. Use your smiths to cast these evocation spells. Not to mention use ironskin/invulnerabilty and summon earth power.

[clhannah]

just played my first dozen or so turns on a smallish map with indies set at 6. the game played much more as I expected it would, and I took my first enemy fortress. Could someone please post this detail in a FAQ / walkthrough for other boneheads like me?

thanx again
-- clh