Jeff Braunstein's advice for players of human nations in "War of the Dark God"

WARNING: This advice was made with the rules as they stood when I played the first basic game playtest. [Jeff played the Eastern Kingdom in the first basic game playtest. The "changes" in military strength which Jeff refers to later are those made between the first and second basic game playtest where most mounted units were weakened -- Morten.] Changes could have been made that make some of this untrue. If so, complain to Morten. No, don't do that. He has designed an excellent game. Message me, and I will correct anything that needs it.

The First (and most important) Rule: COOPERATION

To win this game you must cooperate. Our team took full advantage of the Onelist bulletin board and it helped quite a bit. You could look at each other's turns and might pick up something they missed. It gives experienced players an opportunity to give specific advice to novice players rather than general recommendations.

Also, remember, you need to win with the seven fellow members of your alliance. With that in mind, try and keep your rants in check until they are much deserved. It is okay to get excited (as I well know), but you need to keep in mind that these people could be learning the game. Badgering them will not help them become better players. I tried. Others have tried. It doesn't work. Also, everyone will make mistakes. Even those who have played many previous games. If it messes up your plans, change your plans.

What to do on the first two turns.

Expand your cities

I consider this the most important thing you can do in the beginning. The investment you make here will pay for itself in 4-5 turns. First off, you will get the trade income the same turn you expand. Additionally, your production of men will increase in the easiest way possible. The total hexes you will add to your nation will probably not produce as many men as you can add by expanding your cities. Increasing your men is the best way to improve your income. From adding 10 men to your resource pool in the first turn, that will add 300-400 gold to your coffers during the game. In my game, all my cities were at full size by turn 14 (now, I would have made sure it was done earlier). I consistently had 150-200 more gold produced than my allies. Yet, I still wanted more to afford those better troops. Gold is the key to having a strong military.

Disband your light infantry and archers

They are useless. With the changes in military strength, I am not sure exactly what to recruit. The first turn you won't have enough arms to recruit a lot of quaility troops. I would probably try and recruit as many heavy infantry as possible. The only possible reason to keep archers would be to hit any giant ants that might be in your area. Giant ants are a pain in the butt, capable of reducing a decent army to dust due to their small size. Archers will be able to hit them once before they reach you in the battle phase. I'm not exactly sure, but I would say that roughly twice as many archers as ants would guarantee minimum losses. If you really want missile troops in your armies, I recommend Woodsmen. They can shoot a distance of two, have a better military strength, and are immune to bribe. [Now they actually only shoot a distance of one -- Morten.] That last is important if you are going to use them for city defense when those rich nations come calling at your castles with gold coins spilling out of their pockets.

The only time you might want weak troops are when you need to recruit very quickly to interrupt control. They are also good for taking damage in a battle, since they will be the first to be attacked. However, that is an expensive use of population.

Recruit scouts

A lot. At least ten. Send them every direction. Even by sea. Sometimes having a scout searching in an ocean hex will spot troop movements inland. That can be beneficial since they can see where they are headed rather than just running into an army and then fleeing. Scouts will give you information on wandering monsters who are certain to hinder your initial efforts to control new hexes. Also, you will want to locate intelligent monsters and kill them. This will prevent the Beastmaster from recruiting an army of slobbering beasts drooling on your doorstep.

Recruit questers

I have included a section about questing later on. I would try and get five questers as soon as possible.

Tear down useless expenses

Get rid of anything requiring upkeep that you won't be using. Castles or forts with a four rating should probably be reduced to one. Unless you desperately need the extra resources from having a four rating structure, it is a drain on your income. The extra three men lost from removing that rating are more than offset by the 15 less gold in upkeep. Also, removing the rating makes it easier to kick your enemies out should they gain control of the structure. Due to the size adjustment in control time, it is very easy to lose a castle during a turn. You won't want to remove all the rating as that will destroy them and you will most likely want (and need) the administration points.

Keep in mind that the above advice is not appropriate for the walls surrounding a city. You will most likely want to keep those defenses.

Scuttle your ships if you won't be venturing overseas. Most nations will be more than occupied with events on the main continent rather than risking their forces across the ocean. I would recommend keeping one ship just in case you want to send scouts overseas to watch the enemy or a quester needs transport.

Recruit recruiters

This will free up your rulers to concentrate on controlling hexes or leading armies with a good morale bonus. Also, you will be able to rebuild very quickly should you lose most of your military one turn, which will probably happen. You probably want a general or two more captians. A general can control if you need, but he isn't very fast about it. More importantly he can recruit more quickly than captains. You will find that a few phases can make a huge difference in your plans. The downside is that he costs more to maintain and you only have one of them. With two captains you can have them in different locations.

Questing

There are two uses for questing. You can solve your given quest, which is usually a very challenging endeavor. You can also explore quest locations which typically provide gold and magic items. I was not very successful solving my quest. As a matter of fact, I made almost no progress, but I was focusing my economic development on the military aspects rather than the quest. Regardless of your questing reasons, the following should give you a basic strategy for questing.

First off, you need to find quest locations. For this it is a good idea just to send one quester out through hexes and locations looking for places to explore. Rather than entering every place in force, it might be a good idea to have another quester whose job is to enter the location so you have an idea what is in store. A couple places will have very fearsome monsters that can annihilate your entire party. Not many, but a few. Keep the rest of your questers in a group so they can easily beat what is inside without any of them fleeing.

As far as solving your quest, I can't give much advice. Only one person on our side managed to do that and it took him about 18 turns. You will almost certainly have to spend quite a bit of gold or mana. Ask information about every detail you receive. You never know where a nugget will be hidden. Experiment with locate phrases because you never know which key words you will need.

I would recruit knights if you can afford them, though make sure you recruit a hero. In a pinch, knights can recruit heavy infantry and heavy cavalry if you need to rebuild your military quickly. A hero can recruit the terrain specific troops. Except for Woodsmen, they aren't very useful, though they are immune to bribe. But you can get a lot of them quickly if you need and in hexes where your enemies might not expect.

Recruiting

While I am not sure what the best recruitment combination will be with the changes in the game, the way you recruit can significantly help your economy. One of the best tricks is to start recruitment one turn such that it finishes on phase 1 of the next turn. This tactic means you don't pay upkeep on a unit that you will not use that turn. The downside is that you won't be able to give that unit orders the next turn since you won't know the unitid. There are two ways to make this less of a burden. The first is to include a join order where a leader character gets all the troops and you can move him as needed. The second is to include expected orders for the unit. If possible, try to use the first method. It allows more flexibility and doesn't risk units running into enemy camps.

Another thing to keep in mind is you don't want to deplete your population by overrecruiting. Ideally, you want to recruit less troops than the difference in production of men and men lost. This will insure your taxpaying population grows. Obviously this isn't possible all the time, but try to keep it in mind.

What to control

The following list is my order of preference for locations to control. Many things can change your priorities. For example you might want to control a hex that gives you very little benefit in order to deprive its potential use to an enemy, like a hex with ruins that the Vampire might want or a swamp the Snakemen or Beastmaster might want. Also, it might be more convenient to control surrounding hexes prior to the hex you might want, like if plains are near a mountain hex.

Also, keep in mind that another nation might get better benefit from a hex than you, in which case it might be better to let them control it. In my game (I was EK), the Druids and Elves controlled all the forests north of my home. The Druid got 20 nature mana for each hex and the Elves were able to significantly increase their population using Elven Call. They took control long after I would have, but it was of greater benefit to the alliance.

OK, on with the list.

• Cities: The bread and butter of the human nations. Good for other nations also, but humans probably get the highest benefit from most cities.
• Gold Mines: A great boon to your economy. Just keep in mind that you will need the manpower each turn to use it. If you aren't going to have it, let someone else control it.
• Hills: Ten men, plus 25 gold each turn. The best economic hex.
• Mountains: Only five men, but still 25 gold. The downside is they take a long time to control.
• Wooded hills: Ten men and 10 gold
• Farmlands: Twenty men and a very quick control
• Plains: Only ten men, but also a quick control
• High Mountains: 5 men and 25 gold, but a very long control effort.
• Woods, Swamps, Jungle: Good for providing food and wood, but not much for your economy.

If there are some hexes you can control in relative safety, then it is worth sending a small group, maybe 50 light cavalry, with a ruler and start controlling when you know the area is clear of wandering monsters. I had one ruler and fifty cavalry control two mountains hexes, one hills and a plains within the first 12 turns. If I had planned better, I would have gone for one or two high mountains as well. My other rulers weren't idle, but this guy sure gave my economy a early boost.

Questions I need to ask myself every turn

The following checklist should help you avoid frustrating and dangerous mistakes.

• Do my leaders have a fleewhen set?
• Do my questers have a retreatwhen and (the correct) retreatspot set?
• Did I check to make sure my queued orders agree with my new submitted orders? i.e. Are my queued orders sending my troops somewhere I no longer want them to go?
• Do all my troops have the appropriate tactics?