am i just a really bad player...

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by Loren

Yeah, it's amazing how much the AI will bleed against a strongpoint like that.

That's unethical, and not much fun anyway! I try now to keep max PD at about 20.

I speak with experience as a very poor computer game player... so if I can do better than that, so can you

To the guy who said he wasn't winning on Normal, that is a bit worrying....

To the guy who said he hadn't bothered much with magic, there's the clue! If you're going to beat the Impossible AIs, you're going to need a bit of that (despite posters here who state they can beat the AIs without even looking at the screen!).

[Theonlystd]

Dunno hate to sound like im tooting my own horn

But really don't even need to go that magic heavy/gem usage if your nation has decent troops. The ai is so bad about starving armies,crappy units and poor placement.. You can route and destroy big armies with much smaller armies backed up by very little magiclly .


Wish the ai was better

[Knai]

Originally Posted by rdonj

It doesn't have to be summoning per say. Any means of gem use will help significantly. Creating gear for commander units to use or casting spells with gem requirements can be tremendously helpful. If you want to try a summons-based strategy, agartha has nice elemental summons that are easy to research and should be very effective against the AI. Atlantis and kailasa are probably the best examples of commanders-with-items nations available to you, though arco can do that too. Arco is primarily about mage communions though. Marverni is a pretty tricky race to play, especially against AI hordes. That's probably the one that'd be hardest to win against impossible AIs with without significant battle magic.

Arcocephale is tricky in the demo - the level 4 cap for magic really hurts communions, and they aren't exactly easy anyways. Agartha is probably the easiest nation to win with, given that they have commanders that are only a few items away from very heavy thug territory, if not actual SCs.

[rdonj]

Oh, it only goes up to level 4? I thought you could get to 6 :/ That makes things pretty rough, yes.

[Knai]

Originally Posted by rdonj

Oh, it only goes up to level 4? I thought you could get to 6 :/ That makes things pretty rough, yes.

There are a lot of very useful spells for Arco that are completely cut off. Mind Hunt, for instance, is among the best spells Arco has access to. Moreover, Arco's healers support use of it, and as such Arco probably uses it better than any other nation. Under a 6 cap, it is a viable useful spell - under a 4 cap, it is locked away entirely.

[krpeters]

Regarding AI opponents:

Quantity of AI opponents is a major factor. If you're playing against 2 or 3, with superior tactics you can wear them down and then start moving into their territory and taking over. But if you're playing against 6 or 9, if you demolish an AI opponent, you find one of his rivals moves in. Pound him, and the first has grown in strength to take over. Actually expanding is *very* difficult; you will find yourself spending most of your time fending off his offenses.

Focus your efforts on preserving your forces while demolishing his; don't waste troops trying to defend territory when a larger AI force shows up. Retreat, smash it when your forces have concentrated, then move back.

BTW, if you're playing the demo, you're at a huge handicap. You can't go thugging with research 4