NeoNick7

Agreed, but my situation was that both the Fortress and Conclave had the same essence-tile-yield. I've also had the plan to make Commander Henchmen but never got that far. I need to up the game-difficulty as I wipe the mobs and AI too quickly otherwise. And as I wrote in another thread, I found the below combination of Henchmen deadly together with a healing Mage with 1-turn cast Titan's breath (knocks all non-large or non-mounted enemies prone). Sovereig

[quote who="webusver" reply="7" id="3398633"] Its good to build fortresses on tiles with more essense to have more upgrades. As for conclaves - they just give more research and nothing special (imho) at high levels. So if I see a tile with less food, so there I develop a conclave. [/quote] In most aspects I agree with your reasoning around cities on food-tile-yields. Fortresses need to grow quickly to give the unrest or troop-training buffs early. As you write, the h

Thanks Merlinme. Sound advice [e digicons]:sun:[/e] training-time was not something I took into the equation. And as speed is paramount in the starting race, quicker training is imporant. And good to hear that waiting for population level to increase also is suboptimal.

Ok, I will try to recheck on my current /new/ game. Hopefully the AI-player has made trade-treaties. Until it's confirmed, it seems my statement should be disregarded.

[quote who="joeball123" reply="1" id="3365223"] Economic Treaties create a trade route between the capitals of the signatory factions, providing a 10% income bonus in that city. This treaty also lasts until cancelled, and I also don't really know what happens when one of the capitals changes hands or ... [/quote] Yesterday I invaded an AI capital and could see a +10% bonus in the list of improvements. If I remember correctly it said "Trade route". This needs rechecking but it

Playing the Dustbowl-map from the DLC, I went up in difficulty to Expert. This map has fewer Essence-tiles than any map I played on. My mage Sov has Air + Life and first Champion has Earth - which gives access to three troop buffs. This could give troop/Henchmen 2 or 3 of; Aura of Grace (+1 Init/ess), Aura of Might (+1 Def/ess) and/or Aura of Vitality (+1 Hp/ess). My first city (3/3/2) was made a Fortress and then focused on Pioneer-rush. I founded my sec

What does Manablast do? How does it change tactic/gameplay?

Good topic. I just ended a game on large map and think that is an advantage for my play-style. So I'm going to do medium and smaller maps, NO dense monsters (as my Sov gets to much Xp), NO frequent resources nor magic shards (perhaps even the lowest settings). This will make the game more challenging for me. And no more than one hero per army isn't a limitation in my play-style. I always do that as it gives better Xp to troops. Always 2+ heroes in an army would be a limi

Oooh, looks very nice and professional. [e digicons]:star:[/e]

I now think your strategy of bee-lining to Henchmen quickly is better with one possible addition. If you complete Charms (in Magic) and started Crystal production early, all Henchmen should get the magic gear to improve them +1 Init, +1 Hp, +1 Fire & Cold Attack . In my current game I waited for horses (as they are really expensive tu buy in the shop); both the research and production of horses. That wait delayed the Henchmen unnecessarily

Tamelands? Where pink rabbits live in holes and instill fear on the shiny armored knights? "Bring forth the holy handgrenade!" And the loot from them would be.... [e digicons]:S[/e] Sorry. :) I liked Antarians in MOO also and therefore this idea seems good. But the idea of creature-invasion could be used on monster lairs (which might be simpler to program). There could be a game setting where you opted for passive, normal and aggressive lairs. The aggr

[quote who="joeball123" reply="33" id="3397698"] ...although there are no dodge while defending bonuses that I know of. [/quote] The legendary pink "Bunny slippers" gives +10% Dodge plus another +20% Dodge when defending. But I agree that that this seems an exception, normally "while defending"-shields give Defence - so my example was not very good.

Thanks McBeef for the hotkeys. [e digicons]:sun:[/e] And yes Smeagolheart/McBeef, the Stealthy could be bugged, but unless you've tested it much, it's not enough to base such an assumption on two people's experience. But you point to a valid judgement; it doesn't feel worth it if your scouts can be attacked anyhow. EDIT: corrected the Stealthy trait. Thanks Parrotmath.

Race - if you want henchmen you have to take Atarian. (your strategy seems to build on them) I like henchmen a lot also. :) Traits - When you ask about traits, you don't seem to take any magic school as a mage - perhaps I'm misunderstanding? (It might also be easier to discuss if you split Faction choices and Sovereign choices.) As for starting strategy I try to rush Pioneers to grab good tiles and resources/shards. That is IMHO

[quote who="cicciotonto" reply="5" id="3397569"] you won't grow a 1-grain city to level 5 because you'll need >20 butchers across your empire (when you have them, who cares about a single city anymore?) and you'll need >10 to get to level 4, so you're basically stuck with a level 3 city. ... [/quote] Great info. I think my cities grows a bit slowly and was thinking of settling on some bad tiles without any essence on them. Now I know that those

[quote who="MechaGodzill" reply="28" id="3397601"] What exactly "does +10 (or any number) while defending" mean? Does it mean +10 when his side didn't attack to start the battle? [/quote] Edit/clarification: Yes, a unit with "while defending"-bonus will get the bonus if he doesn't attack/cast magic/use items. I think you can move and then pass/defend. You will get a shield over the figure - showing it's defending. E.g. Let's say you have a warri

Or you may have experience a random wandering into your tile? If I run a defensless Pioneer beside a powerful foe, it feels as they attack it often (so I stopped doing that) - it may be the purposeful attacking adjacent unit that is turned off? (referring to the last post on page 1 by Smeagolheart)

I think Defenders shield-wall should protect more than one unit. That would be one step towards me ever thinking of having a Sov as Defender. As it's now, I only consider Defender for my edited Henchmen (it gives lots of Hp so my Sov or another henchman can heal him when he tanks). Warriors (and probably Assassins) on the other hand are really useful and do not eat up my scarce mana. :)

When playing on a large map next time I will turn down the resourse-frequency. I would rather have them scarce so it's something to fight for. And if you miss the outpost-race you instead have to make a lvl 4 Fortress produce metal or a lvl 4 Conclave produce Crystal. But I see Primal_Savage use frequent to help the AI. Hmm, perhaps I should consider that aspect.

At first I was surprised that you didn't get the AI Sov's magic items (as you do in HoMM). This would probably be unbalancing, but I agree with more Xp or perhaps one random item from the AI. If the game doesn't track AI magic items (for some reason) then it can be just a created random item.

I also like the music in the game /great choices from the designers/ but would like more music options as a DLC. And even better if I somehow can control which musis/list is playing - as already suggested in Colonizaition. :) Think it was Heroes of Might and Magic 2 that had opera music playing in the Necromantic towns. A friend and me still occasionally refers to this "combination" - with a good feeling. It was a good music brought with a sense of twist/humour. [e

[quote who="McBeef" reply="22" id="3397304"] Another non-combat question, but doesn't really merit its own thread: are there hotkeys for next idle city, next idle unit?[/quote] Yes, you can use "Tab" for that. It cycles through both inactive units and cities without production. (I can customize a few buttons on my mouse and for LH I use Escape /which is useful in almost all games/ and Tab.) Anybody know what other hotkeys exist?

I tried hitting CTR + N a few times on the DLC-map Curgen's something. It seemed to produce different resources and even the tile yields (to my surprise) was different on the same staring position. So it seems even the tile yields can be random. Very shortly after starting on a good spot on the map, I realized I was squezed between two nations, the sea and Wildland. This was very early and I saw two Pioneers coming

Thanks Davronava and Trojasmic (I misinterpreted your text). :)

[quote who="StevenAus" reply="1" id="3397171"] Caravans eventually improve the roads (or something like that) which may result in better bonus? [/quote] In what way do caravans improve roads? Quicker travel for all units, just caravans or something else?