Musings on getting the most out of the early game

[quantum_mechani]

thejeff said:

What strength indies do you usually play with?

I usually play high (8 or 9) and it takes awhile to build up an army tough enough to take even the weaker provinces.

As for prophets, while Smite is nice, I usually find that getting the full army blessing and moral spells at Holy 4 is at least as important. So I won't usually prophetize a starting commander unless the nation only has Holy 2 priests. Getting divine blessing is especially important if you're playing a bless strategy, obviously.

Most often I play at indies 6, but usually even at indies 8-9 you can find some easy indies to pick off while you build up force.

Taking the most extreme case of turn one patrolling (Caelum or Mackaka on 200%), I worked out some numbers. With all neutral scales they would gain 160-170 extra income that turn, in exchange for 15 gold per turn income. I can certainly see why someone would be unwilling to take that step, it adds up to a lot over the course of the game. On the other hand, by the time the lost income really starts to add up, it is a drop in the bucket anyway, while on turn two it is a huge windfall, likely to snowball simply from gaining the 'turn advantage' over other players.