Originally posted by meredux
[b]Brian:
It’d be nice to see the list, though, just for kicks.
Tom [/b]
As promised, your suggestions for Bill. I post this for Clint to read through as well.
"Notes
I’ve divided this into three sections: that which you asked for, which I believe to be things you might include on a new player ‘hint’ sheet; those suggestions made by players which wouldn’t require any modification to game code; and those suggestions made by players which would require modification to the game code.
I realize this is in excess of your original request, but as part of my search to find the mistakes most commonly made by new players I picked up a number of oft-repeated comments on the workings and pitfalls of ME-PBM. Many of these go beyond the original assignment of drawing up a hint sheet. I thought that you may find the second and third sections in some way valuable, if only in review of the current game system.
Section 1: Suggestions for the Hint Sheet
I’ve divided the possible hints by ascending order number to more easily organize them. Those things which don’t fall under a specific order number are listed last. Many of these suggestions were spurred by the tales of error and confusion related to me by old and new gamers alike. I’ve only listed those which seem to crop up on a regular basis, as the exceptional cases are usually too situation-specific to qualify.
All of this is written in a non-user-friendly format. I’m assuming that you will be doing the actual writing for the hint sheet, turning it into something a new player can read. If I’m in error, drop me a line and I’ll convert it into text that new guys can understand.
Order 175: many neutral players are laboring under the assumption that once they change allegiance, their relations with the opposing side will be downgraded to ‘Disliked’. Conversely, they believe their relations with their new allegiance will be upgraded to ‘Tolerant’. A strong reminder of the true situation might be in
order.
Order 180/185: clarify that in order to make an attack on another player, your relations to that player must be ‘Disliked’ or ‘Hated’. It matters not a whit what his relations are to you.
Also clarify that in order to pass through friendly armies or fortified pop centers, either or both of the involved nations (depending on the circumstance) must have ‘Tolerant’ or ‘Friendly’ relations.
Commentary: it’s amazing how many people still get this wrong, even though it’s printed in black and white in the book. A reminder wouldn’t hurt.
Order 210: new players tend to go about challenging other people’s characters left and right. Warn new players that other nations may, and probably will, have characters far more powerful than your own. Be wary when issuing challenges!
Commentary: as an aside, you might consider listing all the dragon names in the back of the book under the Glossary section. Some new players mistake dragons for the characters of other people and challenge them, then scream in rage (rightly, I think) when said characters get eaten. It only makes sense that Bain, for example, would be able to tell a dragon from an orc, and in his wisdom choose not to challenge said dragon…
Order 290: tell new players that many lost artifacts are found via encounter, not the 900 ‘Find Artifact’ spell. I had a number people tell me that they located an artifact and then moved to the hex, only to find that they couldn’t pick it up with the 900 order. Clarify this for the new guys.
Order 300: post a strong warning against raising taxes too high, especially if you have alot of low-loyalty pop centers that aren’t fortified. New players will raise taxes 40%, not realizing that loyalty can drop drastically, which in the wrong circumstances can swiftly lead to disaster. This lack of understanding has led to a number of people dropping and/or their nations collapsing.
Order 400+: clarify that in raising troops, you can specify arms and armor from pop center stores. These items will be made with no additional order requirement, allowing the nation to bypass the ‘make arms/armor’ and ‘upgrade arms/armor’ orders. Too many new guys are still raising unarmed/armored troops, making the arms/armor, then equipping said troops.
Order 498: stress the fact that threats can be unreliable if the army commander doesn’t have a high command rank, or if the pop center is large/fortified/has a high loyalty. Many new players assume that if you have the minimum required troops, success is almost a sure thing.
Related note: clarify that pop center loyalty adds extra points to the defense strength, it doesn’t cut defense strength (e.g., a town with a 50% loyalty has 1500 defense points, not 500).
Related note: many players (alot of veterans, too), fight in the belief that their own pop centers will add their entire defensive strength to their armies if an army battle occurs in the hex. That is, if an army fights over the town described above, they believe the presence of that town will add 1500 defense points to their army EVEN IF THE ENEMY DOESN’T ATTACK THE TOWN. This isn’t true. Please point this out to the new players, they’re getting some very bad information on this.
Order 798: an old one, but clarify once again that in order to get more than transports, you MUST pick up ships. Players still don’t get this one. Also, this order can only be executed by the army commander, NOT a commander with the army.
Orders 850 & 860: stress that when marching without food, the hex values are multiplied by 4/3 and rounded up for EACH INDIVIDUAL HEX. I know it says this in the rulebook, but I get many complaints from new guys who multiply the whole path of march by 4/3, then round up.
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Carefully go over, once again, the turn sequence. Make it quite clear whether or not you pay for troops if they die in battle during the turn. Same goes for ships, fortifications, blown ports and harbors, revenues from pop centers lost to the enemy, etc. Players get quite stumped over this.
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Make sure players know that buys happen before sells. People mess this up regularly.
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You state incorrectly in the rulebook that a nation must have a capitol at all times. This is not so. If the nation loses it’s last MT during combat, then has one transferred to it with order 949, it lacks a capitol for most of the turn (since a capitol must always be at a major town, as per the rulebook). Point this out to new players as a way to avoid getting knocked out having someone else transfer you a new capitol on the same turn you lose your last MT).
Suggestions for Competent Play
(1) Don’t dive head-long into combat without first taking the time to determine the strength of the enemy. Do so through scouting orders, spells, or best of all by contacting players who’ve been in the game for awhile. Precipitous moves can be disastrous.
(2) Carefully compare the strengths and weaknesses of various troop types prior to recruiting them. Make sure your nation can support the troops you raise for the length of time you intend to keep them around.
(3) Food can be of critical importance to army movement. Make sure your armies have enough food to allow them to reach their intended targets, or that the targets are close enough that feeding the army isn’t required.
(4) It pays to concentrate your armies. Not only does this free up other commanders for critical tasks at the capitol, it also prevents your forces from being destroyed in detail by a much larger enemy force.
(5) If at all possible, always have a back-up commander for each army, preferably a commander/agent. This character will take command of the army in case the primary commander is killed, preventing the army from disbanding. A commander/agent can also guard the primary commander, making it less likely that he’ll be assassinated or kidnapped.
(6) An agent attack mounted against your nation can end the game for you if you don’t take the proper precautions. Assume the enemy will attempt to assassinate your army commanders and your characters at the capitol whenever the opportunity arises - then work to avoid that. Regardless of who your character might be or how powerful he or she appears, that character is always vulnerable to assassination.
Note: those new players familiar with Tolkien and/or I.C.E. assume that somehow their ‘name’ characters are invulnerable to agent actions (“surely Tarondor couldn’t be assassinated!”). Thus, they don’t bother to guard.
(7) Assume the enemy will have better characters than your own, or better artifacts until it’s proven otherwise. Don’t challenge enemy characters unless you’re reasonably certain you can defeat them. If an enemy has the opportunity to challenge your own characters, issue the order ‘215 - Refuse Personal Challenge’ if you don’t think you have a good chance of winning the combat. And remember - artifacts can easily be transferred, and they play an important part where
challenges are concerned!
(8) Try to pick and choose your fights to favor your own troops. Pay careful attention to terrain, climate, and tactics; these can spell the difference between winning and losing when facing an opposing force. Remember that the enemy has an advantage when fighting over one of his own fortified pop centers.
(9) It’s easier and faster to recruit a single troop type into an army than many different troop types. You can also train up a single troop type more swiftly since several commanders can issue the 430 ‘Train Troops’ orders during a single turn for the same army. However, having only one troop type in the army can limit your options concerning tactics, and may hinder your operations in terrain that doesn’t favor that type of troop.
(10) One of the fastest ways to train up characters with command skill is to attach two commanders to an army, then have the secondary command do 430 ‘Train Troops’ while the primary commander does order 435 ‘Train Army’. In this case, the secondary commander will get 1-5 skill points for being in the army when the primary commander does order 435, then get another 1-7 points for doing order 430 (for a total of 2-12 command points in a single turn). In this fashion, commanders with low skill scores can be trained up to adequate levels fairly quickly.
(11) Be especially careful with fleet movement; it can be extremely tricky. Ships are difficult and expensive to replace, so commit them only if the goal is worth the loss, or when you have no other choice.
(12) Pay careful attention to the loyalties of your pop centers. Those with low loyalties will fall faster to enemy forces, and emissaries may be able to come in and take troubled pop centers quite easily. This is especially true if the enemy is operating a company of well-trained emissaries in your territory.
(13) Seasonal changes make a big difference in the
production rates of many nations. Plan accordingly; plan in advance.
(14) Review the map carefully. The destruction of
certain bridges and fortifications can leave some nstions wide open to attack, or make it very difficult for the enemy to reach them. Use the terrain to your best advantage when placing pop centers, fortifications, and bridges.
(15) Consider putting down camps once you have a decent emissary or group of emissaries. Camps increase production and can later be upgraded to villages or better provide tax revenues. If you have a poor nation, camp creation may be the only way to remain a viable power in the game.
(16) Don’t let camp loyalty fall below 15. Once this happens, the camp has a chance of being abandoned each and every turn, wasting your investment. If at all possible, have one of your emissaries go to the camp and issue the order 520 ‘Influence Own’ until the loyalty score is 20 or more.
(17) Don’t base your economic health entirely on the sale of what you produce. If you’d go bankrupt assuming none of your sell orders are accepted (or if you miss a turn), then your nation is over-extended. And remember: an ally can’t save you from bankruptcy by transferring gold to your nation during the turn you go under!
(18) Gather intelligence whenever possible. Use agents to scout, mages to scry, and emissaries to take others as double agents. These tools are extremely useful in determining the strength of the enemy and what the enemy is doing. Information can be the key to winning the game.
(19) Try to keep as many characters as you can. Don’t let empty character slots remain empty for long. And when creating characters, concentrate on those which will fit your particular nation; avoid the ‘vanilla’ approach of making a few of everything (unless that happens to be just what your nation needs). Also, avoid making too many multi-class characters; they cost twice as much as a single-class character and take considerable training to become proficient.
(20) Communication with other players is often vital if you wish to survive, much less win the game. Attempt to establish contact IMMEDIATELY with the players of your allegiance and with neutrals, even if they aren’t within your particular region.
(21) Remember, there’s no guarantee that just because a player is in your allegiance that he’ll act to your benefit. Ultimately, only one person can win the game, and many will try to do so regardless of what kind of icon your armies sport.
(22) Be careful and cordial in your contact with other players. Don’t give away vital information to someone you don’t trust. Always be polite, and if at all possible avoid threats (especially with neutral nations).
(23) Read the rulebook. Then read it again. And again. Vital information concerning the execution of certain orders may be missed the first or second time through.
(24) PLAN AHEAD! Always plan at least five turns in advance. Make sure that all of your characters, goods, and gold will be in the right place at the right time. Look to the future and see where you want to be 10 or 20 turns down the road - then work towards this vision. PLAYERS WHO PLAN AHEAD ALMOST ALWAYS DEFEAT THOSE WHO DON’T!
(25) If you’re new to the game, one of the best things you can do is hunt down an experienced player who knows how things work. Don’t settle for anyone; find a player that gets good reviews from people other than his or her immediate friends. If you can hook up with a veteran, this player can give you pointers and advice that you may otherwise have to earn through hard experience.
(continued in next message)
- not a nice thing.
