Slitherine

Hi. New to this fantastic game and decided to do a lets-play series featuring the Kingdom of Kolchis. As of the time of this post I already have 20 episodes with an average of 5 turns (years) per episode. I plan to (if I survive haha) play out the entire campaign of 500 turns.
I am learning as I go and have eureka moments while playing or after an episode as I get used to the UI, the WEGO format, and game mechanics of course.
One thing I can say is that its a 'want to play one more turn' type of game.
Comments are very welcome, especially from veterans. Be kind though, as I am new to this title, though I have lots of experience with other 4X titles.
Cheers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcRXiJEb1Vg&t=54s

I wish you good luck for that. And I'm happy to come by as a spectator.

Faultierasai wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2024 10:25 am I wish you good luck for that. And I'm happy to come by as a spectator.

Read my comments under each vid. I blasting away with proven strats (that also work in MP) and exploits I mostly kept to myself.

OldCrowBalthazor wrote: ↑Tue Nov 26, 2024 8:59 pm Comments are very welcome, especially from veterans. Be kind though, as I am new to this title, though I have lots of experience with other 4X titles.

Ok, so I can't get this important message through YT autofilers, so here we go. The most important part of the game is calculating the movepoints AND buildings stacks for the appropriate missions and terrains given your current economy. I gave you some times on movement mechanics, economy and stack compositions already, so its time for the frontages checklist sorted by the most common terrians where actions takes place.

As you will see Mountaineer trait on the general is the best since it covers Hills/Arid Hills, Mountains and Alpines plus boosts your 5 Move Points units to 6 MP, so they can cross 2 Hills in a single turn. Obviously you want to fill out the whole frontage and have 2-3 reserves to account for the draws grind at the high defense terrain, bad rolls and create the wider draw gap (get away with more than 3 points lost margin). Keep in mind that if you have to axe smth for economic reasons its better to have no reserves, but the extra stack instead.

The format laid out as follows: squares shared by any types of troops (mostly infantry)/flanking squares occupied by the cavalry exclusively (since patch 1.04 IIRC which further nerfed AI who are easy to outflank now) with related defense bonuses, followed by harsh weather frontages, capped by some specifics related to the movepoints. You can time attacks for the Harsh season that comes every 4th turn, and you get the notification about upcoming winter in messages log, but its hard to find.

0) Straits (very few of them on the map) and BIG rivers (specified in the region pannel top left colored bubble) add +1 defense for every terrain type. But more importantly: extra +1 move cost for the regular rivers (0 in harsh), +2 for a Big River (+1 in harsh) and a whooping +4 MP for crossing straits. The most overlooked aspect when planning invasions and defenses.

1) Hills/Arid Hills (Desert version) = 6/2, +1 defense, 3 MP. 6/0 +1 defense, 4 MP for hills, 3 for Arid Hills.

2) City Assault (98% of the times) = 6/0. +2 defense, same in harsh. Remember the tip about Assault action executing only after the first impulse, so if it takes 1 MP to move out you gonna assault a region that is next in line unless opp hires new troops or pops out garrison. Due to all moving parts you will fight on the underlying terrain instead of city, but if you win city will be yours.

3) Plains = 10/4, 0 defense, 2 MP. 8/2, 0 defense, 3 MP in harsh.

4) Deserts = 8/8, 0 defense. 3 MP. 6/6, 0 defense, 3 MP or Scorched Desert (can't pass) in harsh.

5) Forests = 6/0, 2 defense, 3 MP. 5/0, 2 defense, 3 MP in harsh.

6) Mountains = 5/0, 2 defense, 6 MP. 4/0, 3 defense, 6 MP or Stormy Mountains (can't pass) in harsh.

7) Coastal/Open Sea = 16/0, 0 defense, 1 MP for coastal, 2 MP for open sea. 10/0, 0 defense, 2 MP for coastal, 3 MP for open sea in harsh. Ocean ti;es are the same as Open Sea, but can be Stormy (can't pass) in harsh. Marsh takes 1 MP for the ship travel.

8] Steppes = 8/6, 0 defense, 2 MP. 6/4, 1 defense, 2 MP in harsh.

9) Marshes (the best defense terrain besides highly fortified cities since no general bonuses exist for it) = 5/0, 2 defense, 4 MP. 6/0, 1 defense, 2 MP in harsh.

10) Alpines = 3/0, 2 defense, 8 MP. 2/0, 4 defense, always can't pass in harsh.

Thanks. Yeah YT censor bots have been out of control lately. I'm coping and pasting this in a doc I have with a lot of other information provided from you.

OldCrowBalthazor wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 8:58 am Thanks. Yeah YT censor bots have been out of control lately. I'm coping and pasting this in a doc I have with a lot of other information provided from you.

When you have time take a look at mods sub forum. Many players miss the pristine experience provided for free. Global conversion mods flashing out Diadochis prime times with wide array of new special mechanics, Dark Ages mod with much bigger scope covering the whole map and many more wonderful creations. Maybe you are interested in those periods for your next series.

SuitedQueens wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 9:30 am

OldCrowBalthazor wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 8:58 am Thanks. Yeah YT censor bots have been out of control lately. I'm coping and pasting this in a doc I have with a lot of other information provided from you.

When you have time take a look at mods sub forum. Many players miss the pristine experience provided for free. Global conversion mods flashing out Diadochis prime times with wide array of new special mechanics, Dark Ages mod with much bigger scope covering the whole map and many more wonderful creations. Maybe you are interested in those periods for your next series.

Looks like some fantastic stuff there. Thanks

OldCrowBalthazor wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 8:58 am Thanks. Yeah YT censor bots have been out of control lately. I'm coping and pasting this in a doc I have with a lot of other information provided from you.

I wrote this for Kingdoms, but very relevant for Empires. I added some explanations where necessary. Combined with frontages data that what you have to understand to get the big picture.

War
Rebuilding of the lost stacks and mobilization of them to the theater of war is lightning speed if you built up your regions properly (rushing tier 2 roads). Provincial capital placement is easy to manipulate by disassembling and then temporary increasing current Stewardship generation in the target region (Culture for Empires). No longer you have to keep your stacks in the capital to receive 25% Upkeep reduction. (compared to Empires)

Pillage is more profitable than ever for both Diplomacy (maximizes chance of rebellion to take the region without negotiations) and for the maintance of your stacks. You can afford to go into thousands of negative Gold imcome temporarily if you carefully LONG Term planned your targets, saved RGDs to create further supporting or surprise stacks right at their territory (less significant numbers in Empires), stacked resupply decisions that combined with Forage allow you to skip their walled and garrisoned frontier regions and penetrate in the belly of their empire.

Another aspect of the long term War planning is the blistering speed of blocking their Provincial capitals, hitting them everywhere to drain resource bases and National Authority (Culture in Empires to cut off their Legacy and drag them down into red on CDR), blocking their ports to put the further strain on the economy, obliterating their Vassals (auto absorb, dont have to negotiate), ensuring Passage Rights and Alliances to attack from the multiple directions and hide your wounded units on the neutral territory for Healing or use them as a buffer to sneak your forces to attack from the unexpected places.

Moreover, the long term planning takes into account the supply bases monitoring. Sometimes its prident to wait until opponent region gets a new POP, so their food supply is drained for the easy blockade. Which regions you want to grab on the way to their National Capital without Pillaging or during the naval invasions. In Empires Roman camps would pull the food extra food into the regions, so you can easily Pillage everything on your way and still be supplied. If you play against human player well garrisoned islands are particularly difficult to assault. You need 2 supply fleets rotating while you besiege them.

The most significant aspect of the planning is an examination of the terrain you have to traverse and fight in (take note on the rivers, and which unit/general mobility and stat bonuses for prevalent terrains will come inhandy), level of fortifications and garrisons (including Military Expertise bonuses), generals pool available to the opponent, availabity of vassals and allies, scouting of the main doom stacks to adjust your army compositions in order to not overspend, therefore having the higher flexibility (faster coverage of territory and ability to regroup and extend/collapse the frontages and compositions) due to owning more stacks.

But there are correlating aspects of planning for the aforementioned war times. The amount of specialized regions you have per province that maximize gold and metal for the upkeep (Metal less important in Empires), growth and health for the manpower (Mercenaries are safe in Empires, since there are no characters who can betray you, no regional penalties for firing them), Local Authority and Governors for the recruited units (not in Empires; want some buffer in your coeffers since you will be going in the large income deficits for the war time), Military building XP bonuses and spreading generals in 1 peasant units to provide further regional bonuses (not in Empires; not so much against AI cuz you will barely have any losses with a proper stack composition),

Trade system that basically doubles region values to allow you to maintain even larger forces. Diplomatic channels to exchange statuses, units and resources. Kind of alternative often forgotten source of income. Also a source of decent provincial units often optimized for specific terrains that you cant get otherwise without owning those territories. And having them can often mean going over Demesne limit after temporarily holding occupied territories (in Empires simply taking on more Size Decadence penalties and Admin Burden). That beyond obvious listed maluses increase the chance of generals betraying you and governors rebelling (not in Empires).

On the ground Pillaging regions besides obvious economical benefits helps to reduce their Diplomacy value as well, makes religious and ethnical conversions lightning speed - another aspect of long term planning. Retaliation action helps to rack up the War Score and weaken their potential accumulating forces that try to reinforce key points - you have to think in advance where you can hold and retaliate from while restructuring your main stack to meet the new challenges.

—————

There are more long term angles related to the other systems and exploits, but I promised to keep it short and to the point. I covered all major thesises for the long term planning of the war since the game flow dictated by your forces conquests. If you dont play ambitiously and dont think about win conditions: gaining Legacy through the wars with Legacy leaders while maintaining top tier Legacy passive generation, then you not truly playing the game long term, therefore such weird notions find a way to sneak in your thought processes.

Very nice write-up!

And if you start a new one please send a notification here!

Surt wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 3:57 pm And if you start a new one please send a notification here!

I PM you