Victory Strategy

[ErrantConstruct]

I have a question for those who have played a good bit of the game. I've just gotten past the first mission with victory points, and was really disappointed. I like the slower build up pace of the early missions, which I understand may have been because they were tutorials, and really was put off by the rush to aggressive military action that I needed to take to win this past mission. Does the rest of the game continue the theme of build an effective economy simply so you can produce troops faster? I kept expecting some kind of non military path for victory, but when I neglected troops I lost quickly. I like the much slower pace of gameplay and planning the game seemed to encourage, but now it seems that everything is simply there to build your army rather than provide different ways to win. Anyone have thoughts on this?

[demonwolff]

There are 3 paths to pursue or any combination of the three. Getting a solid economy is important but if you don't have fortifications (a big one if going for tech or trade) or military you'll just get eaten away at.

[Daikoi]

You could say that it's a good thing that the campaign forces you to go thru all 3 paths rather than you only relying on one strategy.

Right now i'm at a bit of a standstill because of one of the ai's concentrating entirely on tech and there by forcing me out.

[Auchioane]

Like others above have said there are different ways to victory and it all depends on the style of game play that you enjoy.

I enjoy doing a tech race rather than a military race. With clerics you can conquer empty sectors with relative ease imo. Yes you still need an army to defend with when your sectors are not fortified. However fortifying sectors is pretty easy to do especially the first tier (wood palisades). Once you have a decent size empire with all the resources you need and your border sectors (sectors that have the potential to be attacked by the enemy) fortified you can then focus on the resources needed to build an army for more defense or for attack. Don't forget while your doing this you still need to be racing through the tech tree, that is where ultimately your advantage will come in late game (with better defenses, attacking and boosted economy).

I think for starters if you don't have any fertile land it would be advised to conquer a sector that does so that you can start bread and wheat production. These are the two base resources to start to conquer more sectors and techs with clerics which, most, probably already know. Books for the next tier of clerics (brothers) is a very simple resource to start producing especially since wood is an easy resource to collect. Turn that into paper then to books and you'll be able to conquer the mid tier techs with relative ease. This is something that can be started early game. Since the 3 buildings you need are easy to set up and keep going for the entire game. The later tiers and also the victory techs requires fathers which requires the use of rings. These are slightly harder to set up. Hopefully by this stage of the game you will have a sector with gold, iron and coal. Then its just rinse and repeat.

With the tech race you can have an easy 2 victory points (depending on the tech tree been used, one tree has 3 victory nodes) you should have the fountain of knowledge and the middle victory point. Then there are sub quests that MAY be able to be gained by the use of clerics / brothers / fathers. These are easy to achieve also. Then there are special sectors, these can also be taken by use of clerics etc. This way of conquering them saves the lose of military units. Just be careful when taking these have your army on stand by for when your clerics conquer the sectors so that your enemy doesn't pounce on undefended victory points.

Having some traders trading for resources your missing is also a wise move when doing a tech race. So that you can either have gold coming in or whatever your missing to supplement your economy.

For a trading strategy it is I find more complicated. Since rings are needed early on and sector conquering without military is pretty expensive(30-65 gold early on). However the gold that you can make by use of trade ports etc can supplement your early military production easily. Since most empty sectors (non-special sectors) only have 3-5 units these can be taken down with your military forces. Again with this strategy you need to use a mix of military and trading. Fortify boarder sectors is key to keeping your empire safe.

To start out with this strategy you need fertile land again for raising sheep. Once you have your wool production going its easy then to just keep pumping out clothes for sale and Hawker production. Selling some to supplement your military and keeping some for use to create hawkers. Once you have that set up you can then start to setup trading posts on the trading map. Hopefully by the time you need the next tier of traders (salesmen) you should have a sector with gold iron and coal to produce rings. When using this strategy try to conquer fertile land and sectors with iron and gold. Coal production can be easily done with turning wood into coal. The later traders(merchants) require even more iron and wood for wheel production. Set those up before you actually need them.

As for victory points there are a few points you can earn using this strategy. Again depending on the trade board that is been used you can have anywhere from 2-5 victory trading posts (default is 2) then there is the most trading posts victory point. So that is an easy 3 points, then you need to consider sub quests and special sectors. Some sub quests give a victory point for sending them a certain resource. Hopefully you will have a trading post that will provide this resource, or it will be asking for one your mass producing. There is also another victory point for having 25 gold more than the enemy which as a trader should be a piece of cake. If you have excess gold and have no idea what to do with it then just build a couple armies for defense and you should get a few more victory points by having a large army / conquering some sectors.

As for military I think its pretty strait forward. Produce jackets for sale to boost your gold reserves at the early stage of the game then producing military units from the tavern. Make sure you have food production as well (simple bread or fish to start off with then move up to fancy food). Conquer sector by sector and have iron miners / smelters set up to produce iron bars, then get wheelwrights and blacksmiths pumping out their goods. Remember that horses are easy to produce, just set up a couple wheat farms and 1-2 horse stables (horses DON'T need to be on fertile land) early game and by the time you need cavalry you'll have the horses ready. Wheel production I find is harder to set up but once its going cannons should be easy to produce so long as you have wheelwrights pumping out those wheels.

As for victory points for a military strategy there are a few ways however slightly more limited than the other 2 ways. Special sectors should be easy to conquer with a strong military force. There are also sub quests to kill of some units to gain that victory point. Then there is having a large army (easy to do with this strategy) and also having a large number of sectors. The main idea behind military is to either cut off traders from the trade ports or tech races from fertile land. As beer is a needed resource for tech and a link to ports is needed for traders.

A good idea for a military strategy is to pick sectors that are either far away from the enemy army or sectors that are vital to the success of your enemy. For instance taking out gold and iron mines can cripple a trader that needs rings, as well as tech racers. Also look at whats the shortest path to the enemy castle. Taking that out will remove them from the game.

Focusing on all 3 (military, science and trading) at the same time will cripple you. Since it is all about resource management and limited space trying to do everything at once is a bad move. Here is a quick reference guide:
Strategy - Supplement - Notes
Military - Trade - sell jackets and set up needed posts
Military - Science - Create beer for sale and also to grab military techs.

Trade - Military - Use military to conquer needed sectors and to protect.
Trade - Science - Use clerics to grab needed sectors and for grabbing techs to boost economy.

Science - Military - Use military mainly for protection.
Science - Trade - set up trade posts for needed resources.

Hope that helps.
Auch.

P.S. This all hinges on understanding the supply chain basics taught in the first few campaign missions.
P.S.S. Sorry for the long post.