Newbie AAR - Grand Campaign 310 BCE

[Warspite1]

A little different from WITP-AE?

Have you ever played Civilization? That is where I learned to build up the infrastructure before going to war.

I seriously would not use successful tactics in Civ as a guide to Empires.

You will get crippled by decadence if you expand the speed you can do in Civ.

warspite1

Hello again Devoncop! Fancy meeting you here.

[Warspite1]

The Regional Panel (Continued)

Bottom Left: The Buildings Panel. Buildings fit into one of six types: Food, Health, Infrastructure, Military, Money and Culture (science, religion and Loyalty).

They provide the kind of these one can expect - allow the building of units, boost production, provide trade goods and impact the resources of a Region. There are bonuses depending on how many of a category you have.

I have a Tribal Council and a Furnace (Picts has a Fishery).

So in Caledonia I have 2 Citizens and 2 Slaves. The Citizens appear loyal (green bar) and these are at work for Food and Infrastructure. The Slaves are at work on Infrastructure and have an 8 Unrest level (compared to 2 for the Citizens). Picts have 2 and 1 respectively and one each are working in Infrastructure and one in Food.

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[Warspite1]

How does Trade Work?

A players does not decide who to trade with - this is done based on needs. So if a building requires trade then a suitable supplier will be located. There is a Trade Map which displays goods on offer, ranges and routes.

If a required trade good is not in range then the building will operate - but at a cost of 3x the trade price - but if sourced from within the empire then only half the cost is paid by the purchasing Region. Good job I have lots of Iron in them thar hills (but the selling region receives full income).

Trade goods that provide bonuses to buildings can only be sourced from the same or neighbouring regions. Em.... getting lost on some of this at present.

If you have enough Pre-defined Regions you can create a Province. I think that can wait for the time being....

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[Warspite1]

Okay so lets move onto Armies (always fun for war gamers!)

Turns are calendar yearly on a WEGO system. So moves are planned out and then executed by all.

Units are recruited from the Regions at a cost of Money, Manpower, Metal and Equipment + they have an upkeep each turn.

I click on my Army standing in Caledonia and see this.

I have the choice of re-naming the army. I won't do at this stage but this is a nice touch and should add a bit of fun.

The tutorial mentions a Leader Pool but I can't see anything like this - I guess Vacceius is my Leader Pool at present....

My Army is made up of I Scots Heavy Infantry I and II Pictish Infantry and I and II Pictish Skirmishers.

That was short and sweet - must be plenty in the manual.

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[devoncop]

"Hello again Devoncop! Fancy meeting you here".


.....I hang out in all the disreputable places

[Warspite1]

Onto Diplomacy now.

Civilised Nations = You have to declare war
Uncivilised Nations = You just cross the border.

At the top I click on Diplomacy near the centre and a box comes up (sadly pretty empty at this stage of the game as I am not speaking to not nobody). But clicking on nearby Hibernia brings up something else - looks like where I declare war, seek Alliances etc.

Mmmm that appears to be about it on that front. The tutorial then talks about the powerful Ledger tool (located from the top bar to the right of the national symbol. This looks incredibly useful but at the moment is simply a ton of numbers that mean none too much so I won't be exploring that now.

Other - Every 4th turn is Winter.

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[RangerJoe]

From what little that I read in the manual, you can get new leaders in combat.

[Warspite1]

From what little that I read in the manual, you can get new leaders in combat.

warspite1

And the way I fight, I'll probably need lots of them.....

[loki100]

From what little that I read in the manual, you can get new leaders in combat.

you don't.

if they die they are usually replaced but that is different

[Warspite1]

So I need to think about throwing myself into the game. I'm used to games that have structure in terms of what needs to be done and when. I feel a little overwhelmed here but we'll see what happens.

So I guess the things to think about are:

- what to build (buildings)
- what to build (armies)
- what to turn the population to
- what diplomacy there is to be carried out
- what wars are there to fight.

Turn 1 - 310BCE

Fair Weather.

The first thing I will look at are Buildings. I click on Caledonia and then the Construction button on the left of the panel. This brings up a further panel so I will have a look at what the manual says about this.

There are six buildings presented - one for each of the six categories mentioned previously. There is also a 'shuffle the structure proposals' button at the bottom. the manual says - 6.2.4. Changing building choice (shuffling) Each time you have the opportunity to create a new building you are presented with a random list of options. If you do not wish to build any of those offered click on the option to shuffle the structures. This will take one or more turns and then you will be presented with a new list of options. The cost of shuffling will be related to the current list of proposed buildings and the time spent shuffling will then compare this value to the per-turn infrastructure production.

Well I don't think there is any need to shuffle here. I like the sound of the Anchorage. This does not take up a building slot and produces some income. There is also a Cult Site which produces 5 Culture. I will go with the Anchorage and see what happens.

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[Warspite1]

Turn 1 - 310BCE

So if I read the information in the box correctly, this building takes two turns to complete, the structure cost is 15 (I assume this is a one off cost on completion) and I am getting 12 infrastructure per turn so that should cover it. There will then be an upkeep of 2 infrastructure per turn.

I am getting 15 Infrastructure thanks to the 3 x 5 population working in this category. There is no infrastructure from buildings but a -10% modifier for my Nation (1.5) = 14 (this must be rounded down) - then a 2 upkeep for the Furnace = 12. It is possible to stockpile Infrastructure.

A building for Picts seems a bit more difficult.....

From what Loki100 has told me I need Culture, and Pirate Ships. I can't build the ships at present and a Pleasure House provides Culture - although takes 8 turns and 60 Infrastructure. I have only 8 saved per turn but 8 x 8 = 64 so sounds affordable.

I don't see the point of buying armies when I'm not going to attack to I think I'll just go with this and see what happens.....

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[ess1]

Hello Warspite. Many thanks for this type of AAR. For me I find videos disconcerting as, at my age, refocusing on the arrow and listening difficult to say the least (he whined lol).

Dipped my toe into an MP Have 4 ageing tokens and have Capital taken by nasty Briganti thingies. Long way to go...

I seem to recall your AAR on War & Flames.

Anyway, many thanks and I hope you continue with this most instructive AAR.

Best,
ess1

[Warspite1]

Hi ess1 - thanks for the support. Please don't be backward in coming forward in the advice dept!

[Warspite1]

Turn 2 - 309BCE

Fair Weather

So, heart in mouth I click on next turn and a symbol appears in the centre right hand side that I click on and get this. Our glorious leader believes that this region should be an objective.

It appears I don't have to do anything about this for the moment - but I will gain/lose Legacy points for winning/losing objectives. I don't know if there is a time limit on this.

I am a little perturbed to see that the enemy will defend with 6 units - especially as I have only five..... But before I come back to military shenanigans I want to have a look at the numbers to ensure these make sense.

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[zakblood]

playing and learning by making mistakes imo is much better than reading and learning from a manual, did the beta, played the game to death, still not read the manual, then again at my skill level and ability it shows

looking forward to, well can't say,.

but when it comes, i'll be much happier than i am now lol

great game and thanks for the AAR

[Warspite1]

Turn 2 - 309BCE

So where do these numbers come from? Too late to think about that tonight.....

Okay the first rows are self explanatory. The Status Age increases by 1, and the status of my kingdom hasn't changed.

Similarly the CDR Ranking remains the same - meaning that I've dropped further down the ranking - and that is BAD.

In the top bar, left hand side there is a 'Money'' section. The manual states that the estimates, especially of money income, may be wrong due to the variability of the trading system (6.1.4) as key resources may cost more or less depending on where they are imported from (or cease to be available at all). I can't see how these numbers are arrived at and there is nothing in the Ledger or any of the overlays. But looking at the Regional Panels I see the 2 x taxation (1 in each region) and the income from structures (in this case the furnace) of 5. I'm not sure about the intrinsic production of 10 though - maybe just go with it. The same applies for Manpower, whereby the Regional Manpower is identifiable as the sum of the two Regions, while Intrinsic I guess is what it is.

The Metal positions stands as 4 and comes from the Furnace - although I am unsure as to why this hasn't increased turn on turn?? I can't see thee Metal is being used elsewhere so will keep an eye on this.

No changes to the Legacy modifiers.

The Population remain in the slots they started with, but I will move units to Culture when the Anchorage is built next turn.

Finally to the various stockpiles and turn increases/decreases

Food - How does this get calculated?
Caledonia
= 5 from Population
= 0 from Structures
= -6 from Population (why 6 with a 4 population?)
= -1

Picts
= 2 from Population (why 3? I have used Citizens in both)
= 5 from Structures (Fishery)
= -3 from Population (is the 3 = to the population?)
= 4

I can't see the answers to these questions in the tutorials or manuals so will skip if for now (I've probably missed it).

Infrastructure
This is all good and checks out against the detail in the Regional Panel.

Caledonia
= 15 from Population
= 10% from National Modifiers -1
= -2 from Furnace
= 12 per turn

Picts
= 10 from Population
= 10% from National Modifiers - 1 (rounded up from 0.8 )
= -1 from Fisheries
= 8 per turn

Money
Like Food, money seems a bit confusing as the 2 x tax and 5 x income from structures per turn matches with the top bar, but not the intrinsic production. Again I will have to leave that but the two numbers are different. But there is no money accumulated in this Regional Panel.

Culture

Culture of 10 is from the Tribal Council

Manpower

Caledonia
Like Food, I get Manpower of only 2 from Population (not 5 even though I have a Citizen there?)
There is also 10 from structures (but again I am not sure why?)
There is a 25% modifiers 3
= 15

Picts
2 From Population and the 25% modifier
= 3

Metal
I get 4 Metal from the Furnace, but this doesn't seem to be per turn as I remain on 8 and not 4??

Equipment
I am getting 5 and 4 respectively from Caledonia and Picts.... but why?

That leaves a few unanswered questions that hopefully I can pick up along the way.

I look at the Army. I thought the Army strength was 17 originally but that does not seem to be the case. So there is no movement on 23 - which is the total combat power of the 5 units.

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[Warspite1]

Turn 2 - 309 BCE

So I decide that I will put a Citizen and a Slave onto Culture (from Infrastructure) as this should leave me with enough Infrastructure to complete the Anchorage.

I will also start to expand my army as I wish to move into my new objective (and secure the Orkneys too). These units will take a while to come through.

Army Recruitment.jpg (94.82 KiB) Viewed 3825 times

[loki100]

food - remember your army eats before your citizens. Its one of the at start problems as even your small army is actually a drain on food production. Comes under control when you have the province formed up.

CDR - key is its relative, you can stay with the same ratio and still move up or down depending on the events in other states.

army - at a guess you put in a leader last turn. That turn all the units shed an experience level, so can really hit the reported combat power. T2 they will have reverted to their normal score.

though it makes the food situation worse, raise at least 3 more units (say 2 skirmishers/one standard inf), you'll need that to reliably beat the auto-armies in the unowned regions.

[Warspite1]

Turn 3 - 308 BCE

So as we enter turn 3 lets see what the damage is. Well its not good.....

I've got an ageing token.... which isn't very friendly.

[ess1]

Hi ess1 - thanks for the support. Please don't be backward in coming forward in the advice dept!

You do not really want to burden your good self with advice from me. I went all in with my 5 tokens and am now the proud possessor of only one (1)
Of course my unfortunate britsavs (thought I would mention Brex.. didn't you?) are up the creek.

Apologies to other unfortunates in MP