Musings on getting the most out of the early game

[thejeff]

quantum_mechani said:
Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I usually (unless, say, I'm surrounded by heavy cavalry provinces) move out my starting army plus whatever I built on the first turn to start conquering on turn two.

What strength indies do you usually play with?

I usually play high (8 or 9) and it takes awhile to build up an army tough enough to take even the weaker provinces.

As for prophets, while Smite is nice, I usually find that getting the full army blessing and moral spells at Holy 4 is at least as important. So I won't usually prophetize a starting commander unless the nation only has Holy 2 priests. Getting divine blessing is especially important if you're playing a bless strategy, obviously.