Game01 Turn One

Month one.

I have a fairly nice starting position. I'm in a forest/mountain terrain giving my capital (Halemyre) extremely high resources at the penalty of a bit of a drop in income. To the north is a chain of mountains behind which are three easily defended territories. To the east is another forest/mountain chain beyond which lies a sea. Initially I will aim to expand southward and claim as much territory as I can before running into another player. After I find myself pushing up against another player I will redirect my efforts north, filling in the gaps I did not claim at the beginning.

Now that I'm in the game I can better survey my troops. My national units fit into three categories, infantry, calvary and fliers. For infantry I have Peltasts, Cardaces and Myrmidons. Calvary consists of Chariot Archers and Chariots, while for Fliers I have Icarids and Wind Riders. In addition I have Slingers but they are very inaccurate and weak. I will be better off hiring independent archers as I expand.

Infantry. Hmm. Peltasts and Cardaces are very similar units with identical stat breakdowns. The only difference is Peltasts carry two javelins to throw before entering melee, while Cardaces have a better quality helmet. If the Cardaces had a larger shield I would consider using them over Peltasts, but a better helm doesn't compare to a ranged attack. Myrmidons are heavily armed troops with very high defensive statistics and middling offensive. They are very slow and easily encumbered, so I may have over-rated them previously. It seems they would be effective at defending flanks/mages, I will experiment as I play.

Calvary. I am unimpressed by the Chariot Archer they are expensive at 55 gold/19 resources, and don't gain much in the way of useful archery statistics. Their precision is a little lower than slingers and damage is barely higher. I will stick with my plan of hiring independent archers. Chariots on the other hand are more impressive. They are as heavily armored as the Myrmidons, have a lower encumbrance and a high speed. They can also trample smaller units. A solid Calvary unit.

Fliers are where things get interesting. Icarids are a mediocre fighting unit, somewhere between Cardaces and Myrmidons in strength. They wear wing-harnesses allowing them to glide through the air. I don't think they will be significantly powerful, but could be useful for harrying the enemies back lines with a Hold, Attack Rear battle script. Wind Riders are the most impressive unit. Pegasus riding flying calvary, they are my sacred unit allowing them to receive the benefit of my nation's bless. They have high stats across the board and two attacks per turn, spear and hoof. They also have a map move of 3 making them potent raiders.

I also have a large number of commanders. The highlights are Myrmidon Champions (High leadership infantry commander) Philosophers (Cheap but powerful researchers) Mystics (1S/2? Mages, having a national Astral mage is always useful) Mage Engineers (Competent 1A/1E/1? mages) and Oreiads (Powerful 2A/1E/3N/1? Sacred mages with awe and a host of other abilities) altogether very powerful.

My starting army consists of a Myrmidon Champion leading 15 Peltasts and 15 Cardaces, a Scout and my Pretender. I send the scout south, turn my tax rate up to 200% and have the myrmidon champion patrol. My Pretender begins researching Construction. In my city I recruit a philosopher to begin amassing research points and two Wind Riders to begin amassing my army.