FoG:Emp team multiplayer ALPINE WALL vers 3: running!

[JasonPratt]

Thanks for the detailed write-up Jason!  :bd:
Looks like I will have to assign my current army to Garrison duty for a while as I grow my army.

I think you start out with a fairly punchy army, so you should consider camping your heavies (I assume you have them) and assaulting somewhere useful next door. Otherwise your army may start eating you out of your only starting region!

Mouse over a region to get an idea if your army will be hampering food there. If the food text in the tooltip is red, reduce the number of troops there (somehow) pronto, or immediately increase food production this turn (or both).

[Tuna]

Click the Province filter, to see which regions you need to take to form your first Province.

[Tuna]

For Marco do you suggest raising levies to increase my army presence?

We'll form a protective buffer towards Aedui is you plan, correct?

QUESTION: How do I assess the defensive capablity of a province I am targeting to attack? In other words, how can I get a reading on how feasible it would be to take X province from Y nation?

In the beginning, just build lots of food buildings and breed people! You're gonna need em!

[JasonPratt]

(As mentioned in my post-turn message, but expanding and repeating here for better archiving):

Okay, I've got Isarus, so I'll be forming the Rhaetian province next turn, so my dirt-poor heavy-infantry who stumble around mountains and forests (and alpines) might possibly survive!  :P It's too bad I can't get around to gathering them up with some skirmish support and go take the rich plains south of me, but those are going to be fought over by EVVVERRYYYONNNEEE and I don't want to get involved with that messy catfight. Until / unless I have to.

Helvetia is my next assigned goal, and I think I'm going to arrange for that pronto, since if I take it (or Ysk does), then we'll have a direct corridor to send troops to help MD if he needs it. Speedy (Dalmatia) and Tuna (Bohemia) will have to work at creating their own corridors to us, I think, so we have a travel network for mutual support where necessary.

If I take Helvetia, I'll pretty much need to concentrate on picking up two of the other Germania Superior lowlands (forests) and form the SuperGermy province there as soon as possible. MD (notice he's called "Stropho" on Steam, btw, thus also in the game chat) wasn't going in that direction from his stated plans, and it shouldn't be much in the way of Yskonyn's Marcos. Once I bootstrap them up, I'll be able to expand better into the Alps of Germania Superior with their support, solidifying our control of that part of the Wall; and then if Ysk wants I can hand part of the SuperGermy lowlands over to him (with a short war -- no way to exchange regions in this game otherwise), as long as I can keep the province per se so that the alp regions can help support one another which they'll definitely need!

I suspect that will end my alpine expansion westward, with the Aedui being responsible (probably) for securing the rest over there. Along the way I'll finish out the other two Rhaeti regions (also in the Alps) with support from the rest of the province. That will leave the Alps to my east for Dalmatia and/or Bohemia to work on. (Dalmatia is likely to get there first.) I forget what that provincial area is called, but I don't plan to go after it.

That will pretty well box me in, so I'll focus afterward on upgrading my Alpine aeras (and my supporting lowlands) to be a Wall against southern aggression, and deploying task forces to help allies. That's rather far down the line, but that's my longterm goal.

...I guess if absolutely necessary I might take over Italy someday. Drat, yeah, someone will have to deal with Rome eventually, and that's either going to be me or Dalmatia, apparently.  (Or both of us?) First, build the wall.

[Yskonyn]

Marco was able to take Meno. Our scouts reported they had spotted a slightly inferior army, but it turned out  the sneaky bastards had more men hidden in the forest. Their quick light cavalry managed to single out our great General Flavio and he was slain.
Flavio was our best offensive General. He will get a proper burial ceremony.

I suggest Bohemia to take Sudetia directly East of us. I will go West and claim Agri Decumates, Moenos, Rhenus and North to Berronia, Taunus and Melibocus, which has been proclaimed a focus target for Marco by our great rules Heinrich last turn as well as proclaiming Adrana (west of Cheruscii) as a focus target.

It seems like Cheruscii will be our foremost enemy pretty soon. We call upon Bohemia to form a fist against the North Western aggression.

After the fierce battle for Meno, however, our troops need rest and recuperation. So we will have to focus on enlisting new men and getting our infrastructure going in the next few turns, rather than taking more land.

[Yskonyn]

Ok, our army is getting fit for some conquest next turn. I'll push a little further west.

Our leader has now designated a province of Bohemia as a focus target. How are we going to deal with this?

[Tuna]

Ok, our army is getting fit for some conquest next turn. I'll push a little further west.

Our leader has now designated a province of Bohemia as a focus target. How are we going to deal with this?

LOL, we're Allies stop looking at my land!.. You don't HAVE to take objectives, and it is a pain that the AI assigns objectives in your ally's land. Just focus on completing your province, and raising your civ to CIV III. Also move your Army around to regions that it won't starve in (if you're not attacking).

[JasonPratt]

True. My first assigned objective (the game has a list it slavishly adheres to) was the first area you conquered, Ysk, and I'm not going after it.

If necessary, we can work out temporary wars to trade regions off so that we won't be sucking decadence quite as much -- goal regions don't cost decadence and we get progress points for them, which in an alliance game helps everyone by helping each of us get stronger.

[Yskonyn]

Ok, perhaps I am thickheaded, but how do I see which areas are part of a greater province?
Is that the 'Germania Mediterania' designation?

[Tuna]

One the top of the mini map.. there is lots of 'filters' for the map.. I think the 1st one in the second row, lets you see the Provinces.. If not.. just hold you're mouse over them and you'll see which one it is.

The other one I use the most, is the one that shows you the revolt risk in the first row, but it actually doesn't do a great job.. so usually look at revolt risk in the 'ledger' or the regions.

[JasonPratt]

Ok, perhaps I am thickheaded, but how do I see which areas are part of a greater province?
Is that the 'Germania Mediterania' designation?

Yep, though it's Meteormania or Metroidvania or something like that. ;) Mediolamia??

I'm not going there in any case.

I can confirm the button showing provinces is the second or third on the bottom row (the row just above the actual minimap). Zoomed in enough they show the names of all the regions instead, but the color-coded groups still show the provinces.

[Yskonyn]

Thanks! That will help!

[JasonPratt]

Regarding "frontage" -- while I was correct about that being in a rollover tooltip, it ISN'T in the map rollover tooltip for a region. You have to click-select the region first, then it's in the rollover of the upper-left icon (about the geography of the region).

Anyway, I'm going for Helvetia next turn, before the Celts get it!

[Yskonyn]

Found the 'frontage' stat, thanks.

My forces were held off by the cunning forest people! I also saw that the target territory only had little food supply. After some recuperation I am going to try on the smaller province to the north east. It should provide a much better supply line at any rate.

Intel is rather sketchy I've found. All battle intel showed a defense of 3 units, but it turns out they always defended with 5.

[JasonPratt]

There may have been two units from a small garrison? The region tooltip doesn't include garrison defense numbers or strength at all.

We're in big trouble meanwhile: the Cheruscii have arrived on my doorstep in a monstrous 95 strength force (after tracing a path down Ysk's western border.)

The only way we currently have a chance to win, is for the Bohemians to come try to concentrate force with us and the Marcomanni. I don't think the Aedui will be able to help: MD is surrounded on all sides and needs all the defense he can muster just to hold off raids.

I'm pulling back from my just-conquered Helvetia victory (leaving a police-force skirmisher behind to help keep peace, and not eat all their food, poor things.) If we're "lucky" (for certain values of "lucky"), the Cherusks will attack me to their south after I leave, and suck famine for a while!

I recommend that you pull back away from them, too, Ysk. Our only hope of survival is that they won't attack and defeat us in detail. If we can provide them with easy conquests (away from MD!), we can draw them into a combined ambush, though that won't be easy to arrange.

Bohemians might consider declaring war on them and start nipping off their backfield toward their capital; however, your only open target is a 1-worker area, where you might starve.

On consideration, we should probably try to concentrate in or near the Marco capital -- it's the only place developed enough on the Cherusk border to possibly feed us all! They aren't at war with anyone (at all) yet, and we don't want to start a war until we can strike with weighted combined effort.