Early game expansion rate

Originally posted by Reverend Zombie:
What are minimum goals that I should be trying for in order to survive to mid-game in terms of:

Disclaimer: Let me preface this, that it all depends on the map/conditions of victory/nation/pretender. But I will answer in generalities as best I can.

1. expansion (X no. of territories by turn no. Y)

In the TTT a benchmark is 12-14 by turn 10. Depending on the size of the map. But assuming you don't run straight into another players territory and you path your army correctly, this is achievable in all but the most crowded of games. My minimum where I feel I am doing 'decent' is a Province a Turn until turn 10. Though this is slow going, if you are sacrificing those early provinces for something (like research, or gems), then it could be worth it.

2. research (level X in Y no. of schools by turn Z)

Like the Disclaimer said, this depends on alot of variabilities. You should have reached a Research Goal on the following turns 5, 7, 10, and 15. You can have earlier goals. (Like Raise Skeletons by turn 4) and this is hard to gauge, but I find myself setting goals based on those levels 5, 10, and 15 in particular.

3. mages/priests (no. of each for research & battle purposes by turn X)

Personally I only pull mage/priests from research duty if needed and I pull as many as I need and only those, as I don't want to hamper research. By turn 10 you should have a second fortress or in the end stages of one (Castle on turn 3 of 4). But I usually have 8-10 Mages by turn 10.

4. magic sites/gem income (again, X no. of sites found by turn Y, and/or X gems/turn by turn Y)

This is really a variable of the map. You want as many as you can get. I usually have one mage on search duty as soon as I recieve a site searching spell that I can use. I will also take a hit in research (unless needed) and put my entire crew of mages on a search to cover all provinces when I get it.

[Tuskerlove]

Turn 1:
Take 1st territory
Buy mercenary
Recruit a mage + any troops you can afford.
Have your pretender research spells the first turn.

Turn 2
Take 2nd territory with starting army
Take 3rd territory with merc army.
Buy second merc army
Recruit a mage + any troops you can afford.
Move pretender to 1st territory to search for magic sites.
Have your 1st mage research.

I follow this format ~ until turn 4 or 5 when I buy a priest and a commander to start castling and building temples.

I usually use the mercs for larger provinces that have more troops so I don't waste my own. If the mercs are down to a low number of men ~ I usually try to kill the merc off in turn three so a new merc is available on turn 4.

I'm very new to the game so I don't know how smart this approach is but I haven't had much difficulty against the computer on normal.

I think a big part of the game is developing magic sites as soon as possible to give yourself an advantage over the competition.

I'm curious to how good/bad this approach is.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Reverend Zombie:
What are minimum goals that I should be trying for in order to survive to mid-game in terms of:

[snip]

In the early turns, maximizing your income should be your primary goal - with gold you can buy mages to research and/or locate magic sites, you can buy troops to expand faster and thus gather even more gold, and you can raise buildings to strengthen your emerging empire.

There are a few cases where you need to push reasonably fast for a specific research target - typically for a SC pretender to be able to buff him/her/itself before a battle.

So basically it's (5) first - which typically means (1) since these 2 points are strongly correlated, and sometimes (2) at the same time - which may require (3) if you aren't good at research, but OFC (3) requires (5). When you're good at (5), the rest should be easy to get.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Tuskerlove:
Turn 1:
Take 1st territory

This is a recipe for probable disaster with independent strength of 6 or greater.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
This is a recipe for probable disaster with independent strength of 6 or greater.

He did say he was new at this. Maybe he's unaccustomed to playing at anything above Indy-3, where they likely wilt when you so much as breathe on them, as opposed to slaughtering anything but a potent national army or buffed SC.

[Vynd]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by Tuskerlove:
Turn 1:
Take 1st territory

This is a recipe for probable disaster with independent strength of 6 or greater.

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Yeah, after a few tragic mishaps I have concluded that it is safest to at least wait until you have scouting reports, on turn 2, before attacking anything. And if Indep strength is moderate to high, you may need to wait even longer while you research spells to buff your SC, or simply build sufficient troops with which to defeat the Independents.

How quickly you need to take provinces would also seem to depend on how strong the Indeps are. As for a number of provinces to shoot for, I would divide the number of provinces by the number of players and concentrate on getting approximately that many, before turning my focus to other matters. Defensible borders are also nice to shoot for, albeit difficult to achive.

And I think Nagot is right. It's all about the Benjamins. Get lots of territory so your income is high, and that should allow most everything else to fall into place.

[En Forcer]

Well, call me crazy but I've always played with Indep strength of 9. Work for every territory and make the AI work for hi ya know?

And it really cuts down on explosive growth. Heck, I've lost my Pretender to more "white flags" than to any AI nation....

I try to avoid territories with lots of crossbowmen or Heavy Cavalry until I have a big army (usually by 20 turns or so). Crank out scouts and TRY to set up defensible chokepoints (as opposed to a perimeter). Meanwhile my pretender is busily researching at home. That sort of thing.

Although many are the occasion (often through my inept handling of defense) that my pretender has to take to the field to save the day...

Sometimes you guys amaze me. Like you're some kind of unstopable wave rolling over the enemy. Sheesh! If only I were so lucky! I'm still fighting for my life at turn 50 and sometimes even as far as turn 100.