Second day

[butcher5012]

I started a new game -

Difficulty: Medium
World: Large
Side: Imperiam
World Shape: Continent
Turns to Date: 271

I started on a little contient with the Solar Dynasty, I started off pretty good but I got kicked around by the Bugs - losing two cities. After I forged four cities I started heavy research into military and food - I managed to build a few barracuda boats and Strike Aircraft. My neighbor the Solar Empire expanded quite a bit and I felt it was a threat since I could barely expand anymore - so I declared War. I just took about 8 cities - while he has quite a few troops - I have high armored vehicles and able to kick him around quite a bit.

I just made contact with two other Nations, although they have to bring troops by boats - each of my cities has a guard unit so I am able to hold off for now. So far everything is looking nice, I would like to take over the Solar Dynasty and build up a little more before I can plan an invasion anytime soon.

[butcher5012]

Ouch at Turn 301 I was basically overran - while my dozen units were strong, they simply could not heal fast enough for the increasing wave after wave of troops - I ended the game and will restart tomarrow, same setup, this time I plan to build a dozen more troops then I planned - and hopefully can conquer this time.

Basically I started with a dozen or so units, all Avengers or flying units - I could crumble 2-3 units down before I had to repair, however the AI had far more building capacity or were cranking them out far better then I could.

[azpops]

Garrisoning cities are a must. This game is not very forgiving of someone who leaves their cities undefended. I've found I need at least two units to garrison a city, more against a large faction. They do tend to produce units quickly and can overwhelm your garrison if not careful. I try to build artillery as quick as possible. They are very good for wiping out, or at least reducing the effectiveness, of large stacks of units, particularly infantry.

[butcher5012]

Garrisoning cities are a must. This game is not very forgiving of someone who leaves their cities undefended. I've found I need at least two units to garrison a city, more against a large faction. They do tend to produce units quickly and can overwhelm your garrison if not careful. I try to build artillery as quick as possible. They are very good for wiping out, or at least reducing the effectiveness, of large stacks of units, particularly infantry.

I did this today, on my third restart - I left avengers in each city upgrading them as I go. One thing I am not sure of if its a bug or not - I can upgrade for free the armor - weapons on the other hand cost money. I attacked a medium faction on my continent with one Avenger (tank) with one Avenger (Artillery). I just started producing airborne units so I left them as absolute backups.

One issue I do have is - the upkeep cost, was killing my money (gold). In the previous game I was unable to spend it because of my troop upkeep. In this game I am fortunate the opposing faction wasn't larger then me. There might be a misbalance in the size of the factions.

One thing I noticed is the Tech Tree (research) changes each game you create, on Hard mode - I started one game to build Avengers right off the bat (because the Bugs attacked me almost off the bat maybe turn 15 or so?) right around the time I get the message they were starting to expand.
Problem is no matter what faction I choose, they attack right off. There is no delay between the different factions, its almost on a time frame where if you don't have enough guards then you simply will be overrun and wiped out regardless.

Now I have noticed from the previous game where the AI built its faction up pretty large and attacked with many units (Easy mode) to this game (Hard mode) I must have a smaller faction I am dealing with as it really had no units to defend its territory. (previous faction had tons of infantry units mixed with buggies and tanks) where this faction had a handful of bikes and only two tanks. A variety of AI's can cause this, in which case I really like it - whether its aggressive or passive, makes for a pretty fun game in determining which can be an issue.

However in my second game I started tonight, I decided NOT to attack anyone and accept all diplomatic options I was given, even if I rejected them, none made any adjustment or changes to their game style (their mood would change, but no effect would come of it) For example one faction was on another continent and declared war with me, however it landed separate troops to attack the other faction on my continent and pretty much ignored my cities all together (and troops).

[Soheil]

Thanx for the feedback, i cant tell you how fun and interesting it is to read this stuff. Keep playing with different tactics and let us know how it goes and what happens

[butcher5012]

Turn: 251
Difficulty: Medium

I finally kicked the Solar empire off my continent, another empire (yellow) has only three small cities at the very bottom of my continent - I declared war and took one city, and left my troops to stand guard to see how the AI would react. Another AI (Purple) threatened me a few times (gimmie coins or face my wrath!!) I said haha in return. So far it seems the AI lacks a little in overall control, for one thing I don't see any of them fighting each other, secondly on the yellow empire - After declaring war and taking one city, he mostly tries to send troops behind my lines to attack undefended cities, he was successful once, however I retook the city and created a blocking point in which he couldn't pass me to get to any of the cities (doesnt try to use boats either).

None of the AIs seem to be aggressive at all, however in my former game it was highly aggressive (I guess it depends on a dice roll at the start of a game to see which empire gets what kind of leader?)

One note I do have, is I placed 5 units at the border of another empire, it sent a threatening message "remove your troops or else!" so I did for one turn then put them back - it sent another threatening message few turns later and I just left them there, nothing so far.

I opted not to start a 2 front war, instead picking off my opponents one at a time, I don't plan on attacking the reamaining two empires (Green and Purple) - I want to see how it plays out.