Hi,
Aha! Dwarves raising tax rate to 100% ...
Bain in capital, increase taxes to 100%. Forget emissaries, all
new characters named with agent skill.
Not thought about the all characters with agents skill twist, though I'm never
happy starting without emissaries at all. I'd still name a couple for later on in
the game. Of course the whole strategy hangs on Bain starting at the capital.
All pops are fortified and aren't under threat from DS emissaries for
quite the while. Ship gold out like crazy to allies in need. Crank
out armies at all costs from every pop possible.
Exactly. I've done this four times as the Dwarves, all with similar results. Yes,
your loyalties fall like proverbial stones but then again, by the time DS emmys
target your mountain towns north of Mirkwood, they're probably going to have had
dragons on them for a while and will have rubbish loyalties anyway.
I'd be surprised if you needed to send gold out more than once. Any FP team is
well-equipped with nations more than capable of sending out cash to those in
need. The main advantage is that you can recruit like crazy. All new characters
should come with command rank, and be sent out to hire armies everywhere.
Literally. You've got the gold to do it - especially with the injection from
Mirrormere every three turns.
By turn 10, you can have a busload of serious theives working towards being
assassins.
Completely unexpected from the Dwarves. You'll have sacrificed not a single
troop and would have been able to significantly aid your allies economically.
This could well work rather well. Though I would concentrate on the commanders
first and foremost. The main advantage of the increased gold income is the
ability to recruit like a mad thing. This will really help your team big time -
and in most areas of the map too. Yes, a couple of agents could well work their
way up to being pretty decent, but I'd argue that one ought to be doing that
anyway.
The problems with this strategy are pretty obvious. Get a reputation for doing
it, or if the other side find out anyway, and you'll soon find you pop centres
vanishing from underneath you. It's not pleasant to find the towns in the west
suddenly visited by Murazor and Angulion. OK, you can stand the income loss, but
the Noldo and Arthedain wont be too happy to see WK armies suddenly appear. In
fact, as the WK I'd now make a point of checking the loyalties out there anyway.
It's a decent strategy for a game that isnt going to last very long - but for the
long haul I found that it cripples the position. you don't have much opportunity
to build camps that stay around for very long and even if you subsequently drop
the tax rate, your loyalties are shagged. After playing this strategy a few
times, I'd say that it's worth a shot for the first few turns, but think about
lowering the tax again by turn 5 or 6.
And most importantly, don't do it all the time - predictability is a death trap
in this game!
Colin.
