How do you organize your turns?

[DonCorazon]

LOL! Sounds like my turns except I don't even have the piece of paper. Opponents who scout me must think it is some kind of head fake - why does he keep moving that army back and forth?

My magic lab gets filled with all sorts of junk that I don't remember why I forged it. And I usually balance my research just perfect so there is no overflow, then later I make one last minute forging change, forget to look and on the new turn, find I missed the key new research level by 2 points.

[sansanjuan]

Remembered this thread the other day. Bumped for new players that have not seen it.
-ssj

[WraithLord]

I like to first take a long hard look at the turn. Watch battles, check for found sites, events, scouts/scry reports and then I exit the game.

I usually wait at least a few hours but sometimes a day or two contemplating my options, threats, resources etc. If I'm at war I also think about my enemy, what did he do? what does he like to do? how does he equip his SCs etc?

Then I form a rough plan for the turn and near future and I write that down. I double check against the information and notes I wrote down from previous turns and update that. I have game plan document for each game I play or ever played (I kept them all, together with turn backups ). So I can go back and consult how I solved similar problems, like that player likes RoS ambushes and elemental protected SCs (and usually neglects MR). What did I do back then?- Maybe it can work now?
I also write everything worth note I see about everyone in the game. Army composition, important provinces, blood provinces, SC type, equipment stats and weak points etc.

Then I do diplo - which is fun

Last, I go through the mundane & somewhat boring phase of clicking all the consequent orders.

Oh and at rare turns of epic memorable battles I take screenshots displaying the battle from start to end. I keep all those screenshot for my screen saver.

[Gandalf Parker]

Mine is pretty much like everyone else.

The only notes I tend to take is if my scout watches a combat where one of the other nations fights independents. Some provinces are worth noting. Certain defenders, especially in a province such as mountain which is likely to provide extra resources, can be a goal to keep in mind as I expand in that direction. Even if I reach it with very little army left it can be a good spot to put PD into and start rebuilding an army there.

Also, in my turns the last thing I tend to do is to hit the mercenary screen to make sure I have my contracts up to date. I often hit the screen early on to pay-up the contracts before I start recruiting but Im so forgetful that I also check it just before hitting END to make sure. I hate that message that says my mercs have left for someone else. Especially if I was counting on them that turn.

[aaminoff]

The one thing no one has yet specifically mentioned is the moving boosters around mini-game. How can I manage to cast ritual A that requires paths X and Y at the same time forge item B that requires path Y and Z (all needing 5+ levels in those paths)... Ah, if I give my pretender the single-path booster and this other guy the ring of sorcery... Darn, where did that ring go? I could have sworn I had another thisle mace somewhere. Oh, I sent it off site-searching. Bother.

In contrast to sector24, I find I pull items to the commanders I want them on rather than going from the f8 screen. I mostly remember what I forged each item for, and then when I get to the plan of which that commander is a part, I give them the item.

[Gandalf Parker]

I have crappy memory. So ReNaming commanders can help. I often rename mages in ways that remind me of their skills, or not to move them, or where they are headed.

[Maerlande]

I'm fairly new to multiplayer but I have quite a few games on the go. So I'm using a mindmap outliner to keep track called freemind. I sketch out general strategies in one section, Another is intelligence including documenting blesses, sc's, gear choice, army selection.

Most turns I record a basic turn strategy. However, not every turn. I especially record plans for globals or big rituals so I remember why I forged that booster.

[Dimaz]

1) Read all messages, watch battles, look at the map in general, look for found sites.
2) Blood slaves - to lab or transporters, gems from items - to lab. I prefer not to click the pool button, since it can remove some important gems/slaves that shouldn't be removed. Besides I just like to see all this income 'in person'. Give obvious forged items to commanders. Moving scouts.
3) After some critical point in the game (first war maybe? don't know) here I usually just shut down the game and go to work/sleep.
4) When thoughts on the next turn are more or less formed, I continue with equipping other stuff for current tasks (sometimes they are not the same that the items were forged for), assigning armies and moving commanders. Usually I first look at the most important points on the map and analyze who can go where, then give the orders based on that, and then proceed to less important points.
5) Forging.
6) Search spells for unemployed mages.
7) Research for all others.
8) Recruiting.
9) Here I press F1 and scroll all the list looking for 'defend' order. Each case has to be explained.
10) Finally I adjust research levels.

I rarely write things down, usually I have them in my head, or most of them. The single exclusion here that jumps to my mind is Qwerty game where we had to forge gear for 3-5 SCs a turn and it was really hard to remember what was already done without notes, I just made a list of SCs that had to be equipped, the slots for each were represented by lines, and I crossed that lines when I gave order for corresponding item, also the same I had to do with province numbers and GR/trapeze.

[rdonj]

1) Change research distribution if necessary. Check new magic sites in case I found anything particularly nice.
2) Watch the battles I fought on that turn.
3) Immediately go and rescript anything that I did the previous turn that was stupid.
4) Equip newly forged items and figure out what I need to forge this turn.
5) Look at the state of my empire and take account of the threats I'm immediately facing.
6) Give obvious movement orders.
7) Go back to my mages doing forging and change orders around if there's anything critical I didn't notice before.
8) Recruitment.
9) Summons/rituals.
10) Finish giving attack/movement orders.
11) Diplomacy.

Once the game reaches the point where I am doing a lot of fighting I'll start sleeping on my turns before sending them in. I have aspergers which makes it incredibly hard for me to concentrate, and I think my best when there is nothing around to distract me. Often I will think of things that I hadn't realized or considered before that significantly alter my plans as I'm falling asleep, or when I wake up the next day. So in a game where I am in crunch mode, I add a step 12) of sleeping, and a step 13) of fixing any dumb mistakes I made the previous day. I make many of these, so step 11 is crucial.


Wraithlord, I would bet some of your files are worth their weight in gold :P. Not that they're likely to weigh much. But you get my meaning.

[WraithLord]

Yes, that kind of intel both on enemy nations and on my own can be devastating in the wrong hands at the wrong time.

See (long and boring) example from my last finished game of a random turn notes:

-> Turn 76:
EA: 
GR: 276X2, 29, 49 
SC: 
Raid: 80(131), 
Sneak attacks: 
HfH: 
Normal: 70(59), 	58(59), 217(192), 199(216), 97(102), 138(150), 112(104),
		241(223), 	
MH: 291(150),  
ID: 89(230, 141, )
Astral window: 293(150), 276(150),  
Reserve Army: 173 (Magoth teleport from 139)
VP 22 R'lyeh: Anti magic caster - teleport from 139 (cancel if R'lyeh can cast dome of protection),
Reserve army gateways from 216 to 4,
Water breathing equipment: 3/3 shambler suits, 3/3 RoWB
Position Burn to join assault

VP 117 Caelum: 
Teport SC from 282
Move SC from 143
Crumble from 134 and 284
Add two fairy queens for relief, flight and fog warriors

-> Need 2/8 water breathing rings
-> Flying boots to Nycofator at 266-> 284-> 298 
-> Teleport magoth from 139 to 173 and from there to 303

-> VPS round down:
Location	Controled by		Comments
222,		Pangaea,		Capital, probably very well defended
207,		Pangaea,		580 units, mostly chaff, lot's of mages and one Adon SC
293,		Ermor,			???
22,		R'lyeh,			40 unit strong army
118,		R'lyeh,			Under siege by Van
123,		R'lyeh,			Capital, ???
200,		TC,			Capital,???
276,		TC,			???
74,		Van,			???
79,		Van,			???
57,		Van,			???
1,		Van,			???
287,		Van,			90 units, Mech. man, living statues, 2 Tarts 

-> important provinces:

124, summon shadows
116, witches
125, Conj. 30%
216, Thaum 20%
68, enchantment bonus. controlled by Van
218, summon ghoul
134, Adept of iron order
297, summon devil
205, summon imp
143, conj. 20%
139, Illusionist
Uncastled labs: 93, 130, 240, 158,   205, 176, 211, 178, 121, 114,