The Early Game is probably the most difficult part of the game, at least for me. You start with a baby Sov and a baby champ, in a dirty village of a few ignorant people (no techs), and surrounded by all kind of monsters. Developing a good foundation for your future empire will make the difference between a fun, a boring or a pain of game.
I started playing challenging in the betas. After the nerfing in released version, I had to turn to normal difficulty. Reading hear and there, and trying that, has finally made me turn again to challenging. So I'll share what I've seen that can make a more comfortable early game. I expect your feedback, as I want to try new playstyles.
Note: After completing it, I see this is more like a guide than a Collection of Strategies & Tips. I hope you understand that with the time in writing it, I will not delete it, so I will post it anyway. Maybe someone will find usefull things, and other ones give good feedback.
Note 2: The idea is focusing in the EARLY GAME only. Why? Sometimes games get stuck in the early/mid game, and the interest is gone. If they are hard, this may help. If they are easy, then we might go to another level of difficulty. As a last reason, playing always the same style is boring, so I want to try other playstyles.
- General Tips
Before starting a game, I'll tell some general things:
- Try to avoid save/reload as much as you can. The early game is when I see myself reloading more, but it is a bad habit. That will keep you far from learning good tactics. If you find yourself reloading 2 or 3 times the same battle, that means that you are not yet prepared for that, so don't fight. With time, you will find yourself finding better the proper moment for each battle. Of course, if you feel you need to do it, nobody should forbid, just try not depending too much on it.
- Tactical battle vs autoresolve. In early game, autoresolve means your weaker units and/or heroe(s), will die. Other times, you will succes with no damage compared with the damage you get doing the same tactical fight , so that is a risk that will send you to the above point. Fight in tactical to keep alive your waker units.
- Patience, safe playing and long-term planings will be your best allies, to (again) avoid the previous. Don't forget improvisation might be needed too.
Customizing the game.
- Default factions. I don't play default sovs yet, so I expect you tell feedback on better factions for the early game, and how to play them.
The best factions seems to be:
- Relias and the Altair. The have Wanderlust, and henchmen. I played little, but many people likes this.
- Karavox and the Krax. I really like the fortify skill.
- Magnar and the quendar. Basically because the slaves: cheap units. Try this faction to learn how to survive in a world without resources...you will find it is possible.
- Lord Verga and the Trogs. The jugernauts are very good but they are mid/late game, so i don't recomend for a confortable early game, unless customize the faction.
- Customizing factions and sovs. Good traits for early game:
* Binding Faction. It gives low level summonings with each shard (except Life). They are crappy, but free: your army power will increase soon, thus the level of your champs (they will be fighting more time and vs stronger enemies). When building shrines and temples, the summonings are a bit stronger. Weakness: You will need as many shards as possible.
* Wanderlust. Provides extra quests, and athican sword. I tried only once, but I don't like the quests mechanics. Many players do like it, and there is a Quest Loop that seems to be used to get tons of XP. Weakness: ¿?
Specially not recommended:
- Stealth. You will get bad habits, and lose part of the game.
- Master Scouts. Almost the same: once you get used to fast movement, it is hard to go back to the normal movement penalties...it took me a lot to renounce to it.
* Beastlord Sov. Probably the best profession for early game. I talk about it in other post, no more to say. Weakness: only at the begining (first tames).
* Take a rusty sword and the free +2 initiative item (edit: 1.02 change) for your Sov. You will give them to your first hero, and he will get that cool counterattack from the beggining.
- Setting up.
I recomend balanced or temperated maps and plenty of quests. Dense monsters too, but if you find them too annoying, set it down.
Moderate the rest, but again, as your wish. Moderate heroes might mean few, but plenty heroes might mean too many. Up to you. The difficulty, the same. Start low and go increasing as you feel more confortable with the game.
Starting the game
So now you are in the World, build your first city, and hire your champ. Don't worry too much for the tile, you will need more cities, so try to adapt your game to the scenario. Explore a bit if don't like your place. If it really really sux, just crtl+N.
* Set the taxes to 0. You can survive with loot for as many turns as possible. You don't need rushing buildings now. And you will win some turns in the production and research.
* Set the research. The best order I've seen and tried is: Civics>Restoration>knowledge > Trade (the insta-roads will help you moving)
* Build a lodging camp if possible. If not, a good near resource. If not, a market and bell tower.
* If the tile is good enough (something like 3/4/1 or more essence) you might build instead a Tower of dominion to increase future growth. I prefer to save it for unrested cities, but a good start deserves the best buildings.
* If city has essence, cast inspiration, enchanted hammers or meditation, depending on what you need. Each future city with inspiration will provide +research, that you will notice in shorter times in the early game. The same for the hammers and production. Meditation will give mana, if have essence enough or you are urgent for mana.
* The very first moment, keep both of your champs together, explore and pick easy fights. Give all loot to your champ, if your sov dies, you just lose mana, so tank with him to keep alive your hero. Don't split them untill you can give a good army (summonings, beasts, or your own troops - see now the strength of these traits?).
* Explore as much as possible. You need to know ASAP what new fertile tiles and resources are near and available.
* Open all quests that you can. Both heroes will get the full XP, while in battles, XP is halved.
* Once you have some good items, a few levels, and army, you might split them and keep farming. But you might join them again for new quests or difficult battles.
Your Next Cities
They will come when you have fertile and cleansed land. Settling near a strong lair will give you a big trouble later, so I think it is better not rushing, and pick safer places isntead of better unsafe ones.
In general, once you start building a pioneer, many others will come: you probably will need outposts to communicate the Zone of Control (ZOC) of your citiy (to decrease their unrest), to gain access to other resources, and to build more cities. It is possible you might put outposts in choke points or strategic places.
At this point, you probably have researched Trade, so instaroads connect your cities. Finish the second tier of Civics Tech, or research WarFare to get Mounts for your heroes. If you want to buy horses, you will have to set taxes now.
What upgrades should them follow?
Upgrading Cities
There are other posts dealing with this, so summarizing:
- A Fortress requieres no less than 4 materials, and at least 1 essence. Better 2. Discard any city that not provides this. I find that you need a good fortress and maybe a second one for cheap units while developing the main one, I'm checking this. but more fortress is useless.
- Conclaves will boost research, but only in the mid/late game, when they have the proper buildings. They need materials and essence for researching spells. How many? Well, there is a mathematical way to know how many towns are needed for each fortress or conclave, so I hope someone enlightens us.
- Towns. All the rest. They will provide the faction food needed for the growth of the above cities. And other interesting bonuses.
The Late Early Game?
I don't really know when the early game turns to the mid game, but untill now, you should have:
- 2 heroes around level 6-9
- 2 small armies of beasts/summonings/trained troops, one for each hero.
- 3-4 cities.
- The 2 first Civic tiers, and the first Warfare tier, including Mount.
From here, the game changes so much depending on many things (the traits, the faction, the resources, other possible heroes, the AI...) that might start the Mid game. And that is another story...
But if you feel so, I might extend a bit more...
