Efficient use of SC against richer nation

[Taqwus]

vs. the AI? Wreck their temples (the AI does not necessarily protect temples very well), raise taxes to 200% in your path, interrupt supply lines if their armies are venturing far from their forts. Sieging is slow with SCs unless they're very, very physically strong or have siege-bonus equipment. That is, if you're going to use them separately.

Using them to lead your armies to destroy the invaders would probably be a better tactic, unless your mages and regular forces can do the job.

[jutetrea]

For me it less about taking the land then keeping it. There are about 8 or 9 300+ armies out there roaming around. I have like 2 reasonable armies and 4 good SCs. They walk over 50 PD no prob, especially the jotun. Pangaea, Jotun, Lanka, and van I think. For some reason everything was going well, then suddenly all 4 declared war and are not bothering to fight each other I've got t'ien chi so paths aren't a problem it just seems my use of magic is pretty inefficient.

[MaxWilson]

Boots of Flying do seem to be the answer, combined with the patience you learn in chess: first counter his possible moves before trying to smash his armies. You may end up defending some provinces unnecessarily (wasting a turn with your SC), but it's better than letting him penetrate your perimeter and wasting *more* turns pinning him down. Presumably you can find some kind of a chokepoint that's no more 2 or 3 provinces wide and hold that, which frees up your other SCs for a counter-strike (which is where Boots of Flying helps, since you can attack at the end of your movement).

Keeping your economy healthy seems to be important, too, building temples on newly-conquered land if you have good scales, gem-searching, and playing Sherman's-March-to-the-Sea if you have a weaker neighbor you can raid with a small army.

That's all I've come up with so far. Patience and the economy.

-Max

[MaxWilson]

I should also note that you *have* to have tactical superiority. You need to feel confident of defeating any one of his armies in a straight-up battle with PD on his side. If you can't smash any army he parks on your border, he can keep building up troops along your border, and your defending army is pinned (since you don't have the one turn's warning of him moving an army onto your border). And if you're that weak, you'll probably have to keep pouring reinforcements onto your border to match his buildups, and playing the Maginot Line game with a richer enemy is a lost cause. So you *must* have tactical superiority for the chokepoint strategy to work, and if you don't then you must either expand or research until you have it, while your defending armies buy time by dying bravely.

-Max

[Shovah32]

Also, if you have magical dominance while facing an economically and militarily superior enemy dont underestimate remote spells-there are a couple of army destroyers(ghost riders and some general damage spells) and nice ways to remove commanders(mind hunt, manifestation, earth attack, infernal disease) which can greatly disrupt an enemies plans. Magical dominance should gain you the advantage in mobility and versatility and, for taking out his big armies boost your mages up to either army destroying spells(high level huge AoE/battlefield spells or massed spamming of spells such as shadow blast and falling fires) or army boosting spells; I've seen boosted militia take out over twice their number in jotuns with priestly morale boosters and alot of buffs(army of gold, will of the fates, mass mistform spell and a few castings of weapons of sharpness)