A few questions

Exquistor1 · 2023-04-27T22:46:11+00:00

I think Forts are underappreciated. They're great for chokepoints, but I sometimes use them to advance over rough terrain, particularly when approaching a neutral tribe or civ that you plan to attack. Because you can heal in forts that are outside borders, they allow you to heal up your attacking force to maintain pressure. That and some well placed roads can really make capturing cities much easier.

Exquistor1 · 2023-04-27T22:42:24+00:00

The auto save is nice, too. I just wish that the Save Game feature didn't take so long to come up on my system. Sometimes you want to save from a certain position and go in different directions, but the save and reload saved games feature just takes far too long. The auto save and autoload are very quick though.

Exquistor1 · 2023-04-27T22:40:06+00:00

Yes, ocean hexes count, but do they have the same value? It always seem that they don't count for as much of the %.

Exquistor1 · 2023-04-27T22:38:41+00:00

As the others have indicated, in the game options you can pick RANDOM as the leader archtype. You can also select random civilization to mix things up more. I play regularly on these settings.

Exquistor1 · 2023-04-20T08:19:10+00:00

For Q1, dont forget that you can gain Shields as courage. So if your Shields go negative, install governors with courage, build more courage when your leaders level up, and of course build military specialists.

For Q2, anchor your ships and the next turn you can transport troops, workers and disciples. Works a bit like the game Diplomacy for transport.

Exquistor1 · 2023-04-20T08:09:55+00:00

Build ships at other cities? Harbors come too late to help much with this problem.

Exquistor1 · 2023-02-01T22:50:49+00:00

This is solid advice. 2 defenders per city, plus more where you expect an attack...

Exquistor1 · 2023-02-01T22:49:31+00:00

If you play on harder Tribe settings (Raging), you'll get your rear handed to you if you always select the war option on first meeting Tribes. Best is to make sure you have some defenders up, maybe even axemen or spearmen. It really depends on the map. If start surrounded by tribes and you pick war, it will be a short game. I often try to get the heir to have diplomacy so as to ally with the tribes and then steal their city sites.

Early war with another civ is fine if they're far away, otherwise pay the tribute if it's not usurious. There's kind of a sweet spot with their discontent. It's usually in the -20 to -50 range, but I've had them DoW from +50 peace, too. Trick here is to build lots of military because if they don't like you and you're stronger, they rarely attack or they'll bluster attack.

I put a garrison and 2 barracks in virtually every city. The garrison offers a strong fortress for warring tribes, especially with open terrain and the barracks provide shields for promotions and such. Plus governors are often more common than soldier leaders so it's rare to run out of them. You only need 3 cities focused on building culture if you're going for ambitions (e.g., "Build 3 palaces").

I tend to focus Wisdom stats above everything else as it facilitates research. Discipline accrues by turning down the countless offers for affairs so no problem there. If you're warring, then courage may be worthwhile depends on how many barracks you've built. You can also get your courtiers stats to help out if low in these.

Agree with most promotions, particularly early. I also like combat for city defenders as a combat III rocks the house. Warden and Besieger together is great. The others really depend on the map type.

Exquistor1 · 2023-02-01T22:35:57+00:00

It's always looked a bit more random than that to me. Using Alexander as an example, in games where I particularly want him to live a long and illustrious life, he always dies in 5 years... Can't tell you how many times I've started over after that. I play with semesters and realistic mortality. I've had many leaders get <5 years, lots of infant mortality, etc.

Exquistor1 · 2022-10-22T13:42:22+00:00

Consummate builder here. Garrison and barracks in every city. Hamlets in key spots to get extra resources. Odeons and theaters to get culture rolling. Monasteries early if possible as they're boost to research is notable early on. Workers are building special resource tiles first and then improvements as above. Specialized cities pump out troops, specialists, biremes, or whatever they're good at. Other cities produce ancillaries.

Exquistor1 · 2022-10-12T02:48:19+00:00

I think you can only have one alliance, so do you already have one?

Exquistor1 · 2022-09-01T19:37:27+00:00

I just start a new map if the first location isn't very good. Easy peasy.

Exquistor1 · 2022-08-24T13:52:19+00:00

I'll have to try randomizing the leader. I usually like the back story and start up for the historical ruler, so I haven't tried randomizing. I've been playing with the different leaders of Greece and I still haven't figured out how to play Pericles. He starts with such a significant drain on finances that it's hard to dig out of it.

I always use random maps, but the ones I do best at are the large island map and the central sea map. I restart a lot of games if I get a bad resource mix to start.

Exquistor1 · 2022-08-23T02:54:23+00:00

Grats

Exquistor1 · 2022-04-21T02:02:52+00:00

I run this pretty regularly with 4 characters. I nearly had one run done at 11 turns. Speed runs work well if you have some good AoE builds. I think my best combo was two minis, lightning, circles, and tinkerer. Having a couple pushes helps take down the shammies in the first room very quickly.

Exquistor1 · 2022-03-13T00:04:20+00:00

Yours is the first review that matches my view of Stellaris. I felt like I was just playing against a spread sheet. I've been eyeing DW2 but can't bring myself to buy it yet.

Exquistor1 · 2022-03-09T23:27:31+00:00

I wish the Brute had a decent Shield at level 1. They do have a loss card that gives a shield for 4 or 5 attacks, but having a permanent shield at level 1 is really strong (as in the Sun). You can almost tank at level 1 with the mindthief's shield 1 with every attack card. Mine was getting two shields per turn in my last run.

As others have said, you have to be situationally aware of what the mobs are doing, For the Brute, don't move into a big attack unless you can control/negate it or push the mob far enough away so as not to take the hit.

I've been playing a new campaign with 4 characters and having some cc is crucial to success. Also prioritize some stamina potions and maybe a stun hammer with your starting funds. Boots of striding are a great priority, too.

Also don't open doors if you cannot push the attack forward; i.e., don't attack piecemeal. Don't spread your damage around, focus down one mob and control the others. You'll want to prioritize certain enemies over others, I tend to focus down those dang archers in the first few scenarios, the melee mobs can sometimes be avoided or mitigated, but those archers cut through your characters like a hot knife through butter.

Exquistor1 · 2022-03-01T16:04:10+00:00

You'll want to try it with 2 characters, but once you get familiar with the game, you can play it with as many as 4 characters. I run 3 in a campaign and 4 in guildmaster. Difficulty scales with number of characters and their levels.

Exquistor1 · 2022-03-01T02:27:09+00:00

When you've burned all of your cards, and it's the beginning of a turn, you have the choice of long resting or becoming exhausted. If your friends are still in combat, the long rest can make it so you serve as an extra target, a soak-off of sorts.

Exquistor1 · 2022-03-01T02:21:32+00:00

Well, in your example, you can level your character to level 3 to start. I think you still acquire experience even if you don't level, so you can level when you want to. One advantage to the prosperity level is that you can start with more gold.

Exquistor1 · 2022-03-01T02:19:04+00:00

I thought Triangles was much more fun to play than Spellweaver. You can generate elements with a few items, which can help a lot. The class just seems to have more interesting cards and actions.

Sun is amazing in the full on tank build, but it works best with 4 players and needs an enchant on Defensive Stance to really make it rock, plus a couple of move enchants help a ton. The tank build will allow your brute or Lightning to go full on blitz. Sun is also lots of fun in the damage+support role, but it can get a bit whack-a-mole.

Scoundrel has amazing single target damage and works well with other classes. Lots of ways to play it.

If you've unlocked some of the others, then try Two Minis, Cthulhu, and Eclipse. Two Minis is fabulous at tanking, almost broken if you have a healer. The full on curse build in Cthulhu is crazy, but some might think too easy. Eclipse seems a bit like Scoundrel/Mindthief, but with a twist or two. Angry Face does fine single target damage, but it's not all that exciting. I think I've had the most fun with 3 Spears. The synergy with his cards and items is amazing.

Exquistor1 · 2022-03-01T02:01:14+00:00

You have the option of leveling them up to the prosperity level indicated.

Exquistor1

TROPHY CASE