Okay, jfp3, this is how I play.
First of all, I primarily role-play in TBS games. I don't set out to win the game, but to experience it. Every major decision has to have in-character reasons. I don't declare war on other factions just because they are the AI and in my way to victory. This can mean, that my first war can be anytime between turn 1 and 200, or even later. In some games, I never go to war at all. I'm an average player at best (at least that is my impression) and more experienced (or simply better) players will probably scoff (or worse) at some of my strategies. Still, I manage to win most of my games at Challenging, so I must be doing something right.
My actual strategy depends very much on the map and the faction I'm playing, but the first steps are pretty much what everyone would do.
- I start training a Pioneer (or a Logging Camp first and then the Pioneer, if I begin near a forest) and use the most useful enchantments on the city.
- The first tech I research depends on the immediate needs. If I don't have Inspiration, I go for Knowledge. If my city has only 2 materials and I don't have Enchanted Hammers, I go for Restoration. In every other occasion, I go for Civics first. I usually stay in the civilisation tech tree until I have Trading and Mining, and switch then to warfare to get Leatherworking and Training. If it seems necessary, I switch to them ealier. Afterwards, it depends. If I have several high Essence-locations or have a lot of shards, I go for magic to get the necessary improvements to exploit them. Especially if I play a magic-heavy faction. Else, I stay in the civ tech tree. Warfare is usually low on my list, except if I play a warmongering faction like Magnar and Yithril.
- The sovereign and the first champion get sent out to scout and pacify the immediate surroundings. If I have any useful buffs, like Stoneskin and Evade, I use them on my sov. Otherwise, I save my mana. When it comes to monster, I don't take any chances at this stage and only attack what I know I can defeat without great problems. Bears of any kind get avoided like to plaque. Same goes with Wilding Shamans. Depending on loot, sov/champion, available spells and shards, Banished Ogres are usually manageable at level 3, level 4 at the latest. With the right traits and spells, you can defeat them even at level 1, but for me, that is too risky.
- It depends entirely on the faction I play, and on how dangerous the surrounding monster are, if I train any early troops. Usually, I only use summons, troops from quest rewards, and the tokens to bolster my army strength. I do this even if I play Pariden, though that may change with the next patch. Most games, however, I don't train troops at all, with the exception of Magnar and sometimes Yithril.
Contrary to what others say, you don't need lots of cities to win. At least that is my experience on Challenging. On higher difficulty levels you probably need to do this to offset the bonuses the AI gets, but I don't play on those, so can't say for sure. I usually end my expansion when I have enough cities and only build outposts to gain more resources. When this is the case depends on the number and quality of the city locations I find. This is hard to quantify, but the actual amount of cities can be anywhere between 7 and 3 on a large map. Maybe this example will help to explain it:
In my last game, playing Yithril against all 7 standard factions, I had a 4/2/3 starting location with a Water Shard and Scenic View. Great location for a Conclave. My starting champion was Kallus Hairto. He has the Obsession spell, which grants +3 Production per Essence per Material. Production was therefore no problem at all. A little to the west was a Clay Quarry, and further to the south-west was a city location. It had a yield of 4/2/2, a Fire Shard, Crystal Crag, and another Clay Quarry. Another location for a Conclave. The third city location in the near vicinity was a 3/3/3 to the north-east, right beside a Bone Ogre. The most extraordinary part of this location was, that there were five(!) Clay Quarries in the immediate area. I never saw anything like it, but you can see a picture of it here. It was a perfect place for a Fortress. After a hard fight against the Bone Ogre (which I almost lost), the location was mine, and I had the best Fortress in all of my games. This was around around turn 40. By turn 100 I had settled two more cities (the last one at turn 97), which I made into Towns. This was all I had (and needed) for the most part of the game, even though there were several more city locations. The game ended after 386 turns (or 44 hours) with a Master Quest victory, and one Gilden-city left standing (but only because Lord Markin begged for mercy).
I guess, other players would have immediately started to exploit the production-capacity of the Fortress to train huge numbers of troops, and begun to use them to destroy the other factions. I don't, because this is not how I like to play. Nor did I see any reason to train them yet. I did so later, in preparation of my war against Altar. This was around turn 200 and was my first war. It happened because Altar sent one of my champions out of their territory and right behind the gates of the Master Quest area. My champion couldn't escape and the only two ways to the gate were blocked by Altar's cities. Relias regretted his decision soon afterwards.
Well, this the general gist. I'm not sure, however, if I managed to explain it well enough. Words are not my strong point. Not at all.
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