Newbie Questions: Leaders & Terrain &&&

[jfp3]

Hail Gents -- another couple of questions for the Community.

1) Do leaders with of a particular Race receive a benefit when leading troops of their own Race? I know Undead do, but I'm wondering about the others. In that case I would know to build a lab and make a leader for each Race type in my game.

2) Is there ANY effect of terrain on combat besides the minor one which seems to affect both Attacker & Defender, thusly canceling each other out? I may have read wrongly in the StrategyWiki, but that seems to be the case.

3) How quickly do most of you start constructing Items for your leaders? I started about 20 or so turns into my current game, as I didn't even remember about them right away in my zeal to expand my Dominion.

4) How quickly should one designate a Leader as a Prophet? Can you designate another if he/she dies?

5) Do most of you do "interlocking" Fortresses? Where you build as many forts as possible but with a minimal buffer between to prevent "overlap"? Is there ever a case to build a string of Fortresses right next to each other in a suitable place like a mountain range pass?

Lots of questions I know, but hopefully some answers so I know whether to start a new game tonight or not heh.

6) Speaking of which, will the new patch kill an old saved game?

Thanks again Gents!

[K]

jfp3 said:
Hail Gents -- another couple of questions for the Community.

1) Do leaders with of a particular Race receive a benefit when leading troops of their own Race? I know Undead do, but I'm wondering about the others. In that case I would know to build a lab and make a leader for each Race type in my game.

2) Is there ANY effect of terrain on combat besides the minor one which seems to affect both Attacker & Defender, thusly canceling each other out? I may have read wrongly in the StrategyWiki, but that seems to be the case.

3) How quickly do most of you start constructing Items for your leaders? I started about 20 or so turns into my current game, as I didn't even remember about them right away in my zeal to expand my Dominion.

4) How quickly should one designate a Leader as a Prophet? Can you designate another if he/she dies?

5) Do most of you do "interlocking" Fortresses? Where you build as many forts as possible but with a minimal buffer between to prevent "overlap"? Is there ever a case to build a string of Fortresses right next to each other in a suitable place like a mountain range pass?

Lots of questions I know, but hopefully some answers so I know whether to start a new game tonight or not heh.

6) Speaking of which, will the new patch kill an old saved game?

Thanks again Gents!

1. No. And by the way, you need undead leadership to lead undead. It doesn't give a bonus or anything.

2. Swamps add fatigue each round of combat, but that's the only combat effect of terrain.

3. I usually wait until Construction 4. Unless you have units that are recruitable as good Supercombatants (SCs) or thugs, or an SC god, then waiting is better because good items cost as many gems as bad ones (but are cheaper in research).

4. ASAP, unless you get SC units or have a chance of summoning an undead leader (undead priests can summon undead).

5. I've done both, depending on my money and available troops to defend those fortress. Don't forget that once q a fortress is taken then you have to take it back, so too many is actualy a liability.

6. No, it shouldn't.

[jfp3]

Thanks for that quick answer.

More Questions already :-)

7) Are Archers a special benefit to a besieged fortress? Should beseigERS have extra Archers? Any difference?

8) Is Cavalry of any use whatsoever in a Siege situation? Is it just treated like any other combat unit?

Thanks again.

[K]

7. They don't make it easier to reduce a castle's defense, if that is what you were asking.

They are useful during battles in castles because once troops are jammed into the entrance, only archers really contribute.

8. Again, not in seiging, but they are good in taking castles because they move quickly and can start fighting enemy units past the entrance, thereby letting more of you units get into the fray.

Flyers add to reducing a cities defense, as we'll as any unit with a seige bonus.

[Gregstrom]

7: No. Fliers are a benefit to either side. Animals aren't much use. And mindless units are not much good as defenders.

8. Cavalry are the same as other units.

There's a whole section on sieges in the manual which is quite useful.

Edit: Ninja'ed. Darn it.

[MaxWilson]

1.) Click (or is it right-click?) on a unit's leadership stat to view the breakdown. By default, only the regular leadership is displayed, but it may turn out that a "Leadership: 10" guy also has 100 undead leadership and 50 magical being leadership (for leading elementals, statues, etc.).

2.) It doesn't quite cancel out--resisting a trample uses defense but not the attacker's attack. Same thing for spells like Earthquake, they'll be slightly more effective in swampy terrain because there's a defense check.

3.) Me, personally? Not until I get some SCs or booster items, unless I get into an early war. The only thing I tend to use gems for early on is site-searching for more gems. Edit: oh, yeah. And making skull mentors/lightless lanterns/owl quills.

4.) Usually I designate my starting commander. If I'm playing a nation with H3 priests I may wait and prophetize one to get an H4, or if my nation has good thuggable commanders I may prophetize one of those instead, or one with more mobility than the starting commander (e.g. flying) to lead sacred troops. If he dies, you can prophetize a new one five months later or so so it's not a big deal unless you're in a war or don't have any other priests.

5.) Occasionally I will build fortresses right next to each other. That's only if I'm using them as real fortresses and not as factories. The advantage there is that you can build one turn at one fortress and directly attack a sieging force the next turn at the other. It reduces your resources but gives a stronger defensive situation.

8.) Cavalry do have better defense and lower encumbrance than other units. That makes them potentially useful in castle battles even though they can't really flank.

-Max

[jfp3]

Just great info gents.

I wonder if I'm too bold in asking if there is a mod that does things like provide for defense bonuses for defenders in forest/mountains or opposite side of rivers -- movement cuts when moving through mountains/swamps or over rivers etc. Not that I'm quite ready for that before I play a lot of "Vanilla" myself, but just wondering if a mod like that has/can be done?

[Ironhawk]

Huh. I never noticed that battles in swamps imposed penalties. Guess I dont fight in swamps much. Does it effect units that have swamp survival?

[MaxWilson]

No, that's not possible with the modding commands provided. You'd have to hack the .exe in a serious way (to a degree that's impossible without the source code).

[Sombre]

Swamp survival means you don't suffer from fighting in a swamp. Same with the spell quagmire I believe.