Strategy guide for new people

from Elemental Forums

Hey guys,

So I have started to play FE recently and I have read the manuals for the most part. I do think I understand the game for the most part, but still I think I am missing some key points. My game always starts with:
(1) Building one or two cities(if possible)
(2) Focusing on buildings that provide support in research, city growth and less unrest.
(3) Research as much as possible to be capable of building the "wonders" as first.
(4) Leveling my heroes, upgrading them and searching for artifacts/magic weapons, etc..
(5) Enchanting my cities with magic(research, growth, mana and money).

So my game starts very well with the first part of a game and the statistics are on my side as I usually am the best or within the top first 3 players in the development of my kingdom/empire (power measure). However, the problem starts now, as most kingdoms/empires have already settled and the foundation of a third city is impossible (no resources left). At this point, my enemies keep growing, but I always stay on the same level, so that they become stronger than me in the mid-long run.

For example, in my game I always get these monster spawns everywhere, but these monsters are always far too strong for my armies. Because of these strong monsters I am not able to expand further, because they attack my armies and destroy them. When they do destroy your army I have noticed you will lose a lot of time to recover your army again, while your enemies keep growing. So during this part, I am unable to grow as I build armies again... 

I wonder if this has something to do with my settings?I play on challenging AI, as I like a challenge in every game. My other settings are always on moderate or random. So in my game random events occur moderately and I usually like random events, but I do not know if most of you guys use this in FE. The monsters that spawn constantly around my cities are far too strong for what I can handle with my armies and I always get stuck on this point. SO I really need advice on building my empire/kingdom further after I made the good start.

All help is appreciated!  :thumbsup:

12,693 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

If you cannot expand and the monsters are too tough, it helps having raise/lower land and build a military and... "expand"... in your enemies direction :)

I have been taking a longer break (Dam ok, I found all my old games back when I had my computer to the mechanics, and now I am lost to them xD). So I can only help you from memory, but a few things you CAN do if you ever stall in progress is

See the map:
build a few cheap scouts, if you are playing Magnar then use slaves! (just equip a slave with a staff, and give him the scout trait, build 10 ish of these and explore the world).

Every city is worth the struggle:
If you can build a city, it is probably worth it no matter the stats, the fact that you can just make it produce a few rather cheap troops and focus the city on money will almost always pay itself back in the form of research points, and that is if you need the extra income..

Level 1 hero to start with, I find 1 level 10 hero better than 2 level 6 heroes myself, and heroes share XP if they are stacked in the same group (One of the really vague mechanics!!).

Design some good combat units, go either up in the magical tree, or if there is no crystals use the warfare tree to get leather armour, and some better form of weapon, meat shields help tremendously.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Hmm,ok. I did not know that your heros share exp?? I always had 3 or 4 of them in one army,haha. Yeah, these monsters are a pain in the ass, but what I ask myself is, what if you cannot expand towards your enemy, because they are stronger than you? I mean yesterday I had 2 cities and two directions and I was facing three problems:

(1) 1 direction was blocked by incredible powerfull monsters.

(2) 1 direction was an enemy city, which I attacked in the end, but they were double as strong with their the army compared with my army.

(3) Random event led to the powerful monsters in my territory just walking around and attacking my army. Soon I was left without any army...

So this was the moment yesterday where I was unable to grow compared to my enemies.

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Luraz, reply 2
(1) 1 direction was blocked by incredible powerfull monsters.

(2) 1 direction was an enemy city, which I attacked in the end, but they were double as strong with their the army compared with my army.

(3) Random event led to the powerful monsters in my territory just walking around and attacking my army. Soon I was left without any army...

So this was the moment yesterday where I was unable to grow compared to my enemies.
End of Luraz's quote

I can't win all your games ;) I cant even win all MY games :)
(then again, last game I had was a "no city challenge"... Not for the faint of heart :D)
Cant say about the random events, some of them are not fit for the turn you can get them thrown at you, and sometimes they spawn rather unfairly (Had a HUGE spider army spawn all over my base turn 106 some patches ago... Instant lose for me ^_^)
I must say though, I do enjoy losing sometimes, makes me  try harder next time.

It is recommended in this game to start at a lower difficulty until you grasp the game concepts, it is rather unforgiving on some points. (Like not expanding enough).

Damn me and all my edits, but just came to think of, some people play on youtube, if you are totally lost you might find a good lets play somewhere.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree with Kongdej: you can't win all your games--at least not us mortals. I'm not sure I agree with the part about enjoying losing sometimes, though!

If I can't get a second city founded in a reasonable amount of time, I know it will be a short game for me.

I do have two tips for you. Monsters only move 1 square per turn. So, as long as you don't end your turn next to one, your army should be safe. Of course, if it decides to go after your city, that's a different story.

Also, if you create a custom race, I recommend taking master scouts. Being able to not lose movement over bad terrain is huge in the early game.

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah mate, I looked at YouTube and a guy was explaining the mechanics pretty well. I do not want to win every game, but I want fair chances for all players in a game and I have noticed that this game is unable to provide equal chances for all players, which really ruins the game. I just started a new game and look at this:

I started with 60% mountains all around me. So I had 2 directions to expand. Both directions were full of incredibly strong monsters... I mad a second city somewhere, but these monsters are really far too strong and they are everywhere. A dragon next to me and another huge threat, strong monsters around my cities. I can't even attack players, because of these monsters and so I am stuck again. I mean, my enemies all have double as many points than me, but the problem is really this starting position. 

I have no problem playing a challenging game and loosing because of wars, but this is ridiculous. The game starts totally unequally for all players and this leads to other players taking a huge advantage right at the beginning. Now, 3 AI factions declare war at me, but they are not even able to come near my cities, because these huge amount of strong monsters all around me, ha-ha. That is why I ask myself if I am maybe playing with the wrong settings... I play all settings on moderate, expect a challenging AI and every game goes wrong even with the guide from YouTube.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting coyote303, reply 5
I'm not sure I agree with the part about enjoying losing sometimes, though!
End of coyote303's quote

I'm quite a sadist sometimes in games... depending on how big a progress I lose though.
If I lose "rather early" (turn 100 is early in this case), its ok, But if I lose, and hereby lose several hours of progress I'm devastated ^_^.
Depends alot on my mood too, sometimes I just want to stomp the AI :D, thank you AI for never complaining :)

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Luraz, reply 6
I do not want to win every game, but I want fair chances for all players in a game and I have noticed that this game is unable to provide equal chances for all players, which really ruins the game.
End of Luraz's quote

You are right. If you play a random map, it won't provide equal chances for all. But the start you went on to describe was so awful, that it was obvious to just start a new game. Random maps are a 2-edged sword. They provide varying degrees of challenge, often force you to adopt new strategies, and make the start of every game interesting. To give everyone the same chance means getting a map that is boring and predictable.

Of course, the problem with the random map is you will get some starts that are simply unfair. However, since this is a 1-player game I think it's a fair tradeoff since you can easily simply try again.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

I usually like random, because just like you said, the game becomes interesting and not predictable. Yet, I think even with random map there should me some kind of way with an equal distribution of very strong monsters and city places. I mean, even though I had 60% mountains around my first city, there should be a second or even a third city next to my capital and with less of these strong monsters rampaging through my land. And are you sure its the random map generator mate? Isn't is maybe the map type generator? I already learned that you can put map type on temperate, so what more cities can be build on a map. This is actually partly that I want, as I have seen some really cool landscapes in random map type. I just want to have a random map, with equal places for founding cities and monster diversity. For example, I have seen some very cool blue stone atmospheres, but you can't build any cities next to them. It would be really cool to build cities at a place surrounded by blue stone, but now the only place you can build them is fertile lands... I mean I do not want to be in a place that is super green everywhere...

So, now I see a map dlc on Steam with a huge map, but I really doubt if I should buy this one. I do not want to get disappointed with this unequal problem, but this gigantic map seems very cool with fixed resources and monsters. So, what do you guys think? Buy map pack for Anthys map? Does Anthyss have an equal distribution of resources and monsters?  :|

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Luraz, reply 9
Does Anthyss have an equal distribution of resources and monsters?
End of Luraz's quote

I haven't bought it myself as I am rather poor.
Anthy's map... and all the premade maps, I think the monsters and resources
(resources being elemental shards, honey bee's and other stuff you need to construct a building upon)
is randomly seeded out throughout the map.

I think the land itself, and thereby also the city locations are the same for each playthrough though.

The map pack also contains several "Stamps" which is used by the map generator to generate even more random maps...
And if I had the patience I would have made several custom stamps myself :)

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Luraz-

 

What world and AI difficulty are you playing on?

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting davrovana, reply 11
Luraz-

 

What world and AI difficulty are you playing on?
End of davrovana's quote

Both challenging and I like it that way. I am able to keep up with the AI most of the times, but not when I get a terrible spawn with many mountains and extreme strong monsters,heheh. Challenging does not have any influence on the AI's strength of the armies,right? I read only some algorytms, which should make the AI smarter.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

[quote who="Kongdej" reply="10" id="3319069"]
Quoting Luraz, reply 9Does Anthyss have an equal distribution of resources and monsters?

I haven't bought it myself as I am rather poor.
Anthy's map... and all the premade maps, I think the monsters and resources
(resources being elemental shards, honey bee's and other stuff you need to construct a building upon)
is randomly seeded out throughout the map.

I think the land itself, and thereby also the city locations are the same for each playthrough though.

The map pack also contains several "Stamps" which is used by the map generator to generate even more random maps...
And if I had the patience I would have made several custom stamps myself

Sincerely
~ Kongdej[/quote]

Hmmm, yeah I am not that good in building maps,hehhe. Otherwise I would make some maps myself also. I mean, I love this game, but it is frustating that the game begins unequally for all players. Where some players have weak/normal mobs around three cities, others have one city surrounded by dragons, demons and mountains. I mean, lol, not really fair and then you ruined your game again... I wish there were more maps.

I am gonna start a new large map, but this time maptype temperate to see if this would me better.

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Luraz, reply 13
I am gonna start a new large map, but this time maptype temperate to see if this would me better.
End of Luraz's quote

Maptype have little effect on the monsters spawned, you will have to filter the monster density or world difficulty for this...

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

Ok, just started a new game which was a disaster again... Then I tried to develop my own map and it did not go well hehe...

The only thing I want is a big map with equal spawn of monsters and resources for city...Well, anyways thx for helping mate. If I am not able to think about something to make this starting point equal for everybody, than Im gonna give it up. There goes 30 Euros...

EDIT: Do you know how I can build this places for cities on a map? I am trying to develop my map, but I dont know what resource/object is called for new cities?

EDIT 2: I think I am gonna try the ecomental map mod  |-) . Lets see it this makes me happy.

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Luraz, reply 15
big map with equal spawn of monsters and resources for city...
End of Luraz's quote

You wont get this...

Quoting Luraz, reply 15
EDIT: Do you know how I can build this places for cities on a map? I am trying to develop my map, but I dont know what resource/object is called for new cities?
End of Luraz's quote

The city locations available depends on the terrain, lush grash etc.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

Ah,ok, cool. Well gonna try develop my own map now and this is my last hope. If it does not work, nothing left to do... BUT it should work as I make the resources;) I just hope I am not gonna ruin some other elements, as I am quite noobish in mod mapping.

 

Edit: one more question:)) I have just noticed, that when you make a map yourself and you put the map type on ecology, massive amount of tiles for cities have been developed, which makes me happy! So is ecology the best map for a lot of cities? Better than temperate?