A newbie asks...

[JonBrave]

I realise about the extra mages can research. But I just read in that "House Rules Against the AI" thread that I need to limit myself to just one researching mage per laboratory Till now I built loads mages and researched.

But even saying that, thejeff was saying I needed forts to build even more. I can build plenty from just one fort. Oh well.

[Redeyes]

Originally Posted by JonBrave

I realise about the extra mages can research. But I just read in that "House Rules Against the AI" thread that I need to limit myself to just one researching mage per laboratory Till now I built loads mages and researched.

But even saying that, thejeff was saying I needed forts to build even more. I can build plenty from just one fort. Oh well.

You are actually following those house rules?

No, you don't always need to build more forts. It's a good idea to build forts when you have an economic surplus or when you find a site with interesting independents; minotaurs are really cool!)

If you run out of money recruiting as much stuff as you can you shouldn't build more forts. If you don't need more troops, it actually happens, it might be a good idea to build another fort to get more mages.

You'll get ahold of the proper balance pretty soon.

[Hrum]

Originally Posted by JonBrave

I realise about the extra mages can research. But I just read in that "House Rules Against the AI" thread that I need to limit myself to just one researching mage per laboratory Till now I built loads mages and researched.

But even saying that, thejeff was saying I needed forts to build even more. I can build plenty from just one fort. Oh well.

You don't need to limit yourself to one mage per lab - that's an approach someone mentioned using to give themselves a challenge when facing the AI in SP games, but I don't think anyone would recommend that a new player play that way.

I think that the "House Rules against the AI" thread (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44783) is primarily more experienced people talking about how to keep the SP game interesting for themselves when they've found that they can routinely beat the AI on the hardest setting. If you're only on your 3rd game and not automatically setting the AI to the highest difficulty setting, you may not be at the point yourself that you need to adopt the approaches mentioned in that thread.

There are some interesting ideas in that thread, but that approach in particular of intentionally tying a hand behind your back (ie. not having many mages researching) seems like something that only an experienced player should do. In your case, since you're still getting to know the magic system, choking off your research like that is going to keep you from finding out about a lot of the mid and endgame magic, which means you're missing out on a big part of the game.

If you're playing against the AI set to impossible and the game is too easy, you're winning every time nearly without effort, then sure, use some of those tricks to keep things interesting. Otherwise...

Basically, by not making forts and only making mages at your capital, you're teaching yourself a style of play that would likely get you creamed in a multiplayer game. A veteran player might do something like that to keep SP interesting, but for a new player to do the same you may be giving yourself bad habits.