Which nations require the least micromanagement?

[Aezeal]

Seriously.. in MP, talking to my neighbours, checking if they've replied etc etc is way more time intensive than doing my turns

[Twan]

Thugs nations are for me the easier to manage. Ok you have to forge items, and give them to your thugs, but then you script them one time (often a very short script like quicken self, BoW, attack rear or mistform, bless, attack), then you just have to move them. Finally you just script one unit (or two if the thug need a buffer) to take 10+ provinces. And you rarely have to change you script.

On the other extreme nations whose main strength are mages (especially mages needing communions or gems to be effective) are the most micro heavy. You script dozen of units, with script changing often when your research advance or you have to adapt to your ennemy or the number of gems available (and you have to organize gem supply if you use gems spells) or mage order for communions (a nighmare when you merge armies). I wonder how I can love this kind of nations.

Giving orders for one mid-late game turn with a nation like Arco, Pythium etc = 2 hours minimum if I'm at war, same situation with Jotunheim, Utgard, etc... = 30 mn maximum (except if I hesitate 3 hours, paralyzed by the fear of losing some well geared champions).

[Ironhawk]

Aezeal said:
Seriously.. in MP, talking to my neighbours, checking if they've replied etc etc is way more time intensive than doing my turns

Yeah I agree with Aezeal. Once you become familiar with the game, the actual turns themselves dont take very long. I spend perhaps an hour or so on an endgame turn in an MP game. But the majority of this time is all spent in thinking about strategy, sending diplomatic messages, researching tactics, etc. Actually playing the turn only takes like 10-15mins unless I have some monstrous pitched battle or something.

[Xietor]

Likely the worst micro involves bloodhunting nations, followed closely by players that take misfortune scales.

Nations with terrible pd require more micro than nations whose pd can handle all but thugs.

So, taking those factors into account, play MA Eriu with strong income scales, luck, and rely on thugs for offense and high pd for defense.

[Tyrant]

Aezeal said:
Seriously.. in MP, talking to my neighbours, checking if they've replied etc etc is way more time intensive than doing my turns

This is so true, 'specially if Xeitor is in the game

[hunt11]

ermor on the actual battle field needs the least micromanagement, because all of your armies will be either massive hoards of chaff, or massive hoards of chaff with some special troops and priest, but the real time consumer is making sure that you don't fight a war where it's everyone versus you

[moderation]

Xietor said:
Likely the worst micro involves bloodhunting nations, followed closely by players that take misfortune scales.

Nations with terrible pd require more micro than nations whose pd can handle all but thugs.

So, taking those factors into account, play MA Eriu with strong income scales, luck, and rely on thugs for offense and high pd for defense.

What is it about misfortune that creates the excessive micro? Being raided by barbarians is somewhat annoying, but are there other random events to consider that create more workload for the player?

[Tuidjy]

There's also the messing with tax scales. The automatic taxes do not go
under 50%, which is a waste if your unrest is about 60%, which is quite
common with Misfortune 3.

But I recently finished a game with Misfortune 3, and 260 provinces on the map.
I do not think my micromanagement would have been any less with better luck
scales. When you have 20 teleport battles, 5 castle defenses involving 50-100
casters, and more raids/probes you can count, scales hardly matter.

Barbarians? Two mind hunts and a scout.
Unrest? Autotaxes will eventually handle it.
Twenty Fomorian thugs raiding your empire? Now that takes effort to deal with.

[MaxWilson]

Barbarians were my thought, but occasionally temples burn down, etc. I typically play with Misfortune-3 and hunting down a barbarian infestation every couple of turns is just a facet of life. I could avoid it with more PD, but letting flying thugs beat on barbarians for free experience is kind of fun.

-Max