This will be yet another of my play-throughs. The purpose of this one will be to demonstrate a starting strategy for a race that has no particular 'overpowered' 'exploits', i.e. a race with none of the overly effective synergies that lead the player into a particular strategy.
This will be, at least in the beginning, a very meticulous description of every turn, and I will try to include the reasoning that goes with every choice.
Thus, do not hesitate to ask questions. I will post a save game of turn 1, as well, but I am asking you not to inform me of anything that I have not discovered yet - because of the comments and screenshots, I will not be going very quickly.
And now for the quick links.
Old play-throughs: .913, .915, .952, .98, .981, .982, 1.00.
The settings: The faction, the sovereign and the home rules.
Turns 1-28: Initial exploration, founding of the first three cities, contact with Karavox of Kraxis
Turns 28-50: Hostilities with Kraxis, conquest of three Krax cities, lost contact with Kraxis
Turns 51-65: Contact with Tarth, expansion and merging of the dominion, assimilation of the occupied cities
Turns 66-81: Peace with Kraxis, pacification of the homelands, contact with Pariden
Turns 82-91: Contact with Altar and Gilden. The onset of an economic race with Altar
Turns 92-104: Contacts with everyone but Yithril. Dominion push against Tarth. Altar grows unfriendly.
Turns 105-120: Liberation of the Northern Wastes. Dominion push against Altar. Contact with Yithril
Turns 121-127: The events leading to the war with Yithril
Turns 127-133: The war against Yithril
Turn 134: Diplomatic victory (with a number of victory screens)
Applaud !!
Victory screens
(also known as victory lap, or ego trip)
Jack, leader of Jacks. From turn 1, Jack has been fighting, and he never stopped.
Early on, he was joined by his first troop, and for a while, his role was mostly confined to drawing the attention of the enemy from the real damage dealers. As he adventured, he gathered a sizable army - two heavy hitters, one defensive unit and an unit of archers.
As he became a master dodger, his ability complemented by the fortifications erected by the brothers Sparus, he began to take on much stronger monsters - he would keep them occupied until the other units could gather, and rush in for a quick kill before the enemy could target anyone but Jack.
Once Jack got his hands on the Heart of the Glacier, his role changed again. With high initiative, great damage, double strike, and an assassin's critical chance, Jack became the most powerful damage dealer in the Kingdom.
Bacco the Governator. Bacco had a hard job. He was a scout, and had to take risks that did not always pay off. He got his nose and leg broken, but still persevered, fighting small monsters who wandered into the kingdom's borders. As he slowly leveled up, he became a governor, and concentrated on increasing Citadel's growth. He was also an Earth Mage, immobilizing enemies, smoothing his friends path, and allowing cities to expand into mountains, bays, and swamps.
Janusk. He was a merchant who brought hundreds of Gildars to the treasury, a governor that helped the dominion push into Altar, and a leader of the army which took two of Yithril's cities. He was not a great warrior, but he was a great soldier.
But lets not forget the other heroes of this victory. The cities of our kingdom. They made travel across the kingdom easy, they produced the Gildar and resources which made the army possible, their spheres of influence pushed Tarth and Altar back from our lands, and ultimately, it was their economic strength that enticed most other nations into an alliance.
And here is the continent, or as much of it as I know as of turn 134. We had a good starting location, relatively far from other sovereigns, except for Karavox, whom we chased away very early. There was a buffer of infertile land between us and Altar, which prevented border tensions until we were ready for them. Lets say a word about the other nations:
Karavox had a great start, and would have probably easily outgrown us if we had not interfered. Even while being attacked, he managed to settle four more cities, and launch counterattacks. He never recovered from his early setbacks, and that's a good a thing.
Relias developed very well, expanded beautifully, and had a great military. He started wars at the right time, but he picked opponents which were shielded by Magnar. But the time Altar declared war on Magnar, the game had been decided.
Verga could have won this game. The Trogs expanded, build a strong army, and attacked Kraxis, rolling them up and taking their capital is only a few turns. Yithril actually had the armies and the momentum... but not the time to use them.
Procipinee had expanded very well, and managed to take almost all of Karavox's outposts and resources. But she came out looking better than she would have, had Yithril been allowed to conquer Kraxis.
Markin did fine. He attacked Magnar at the right time, and had started rolling them up, taking their capital and moving further East.
Irane started very well, but needed to go through my lands to expand. I did not allow it. Even when she declared war on Kraxis and Resoln, I prevented her armies from getting to the action. Tarth had the might, but were not allowed to bring it to bear.
Ceresa started in a corner, and did not manage to get out of it. She remained weak, and was never a contender.
Magnar had a solid economy, but stuck to magic research and kept building slave based armies. He was pinned between three kingdoms, and that doomed him.
And now, the victory screens. There's not much to say about them. The Jacks won.
Well, this. is. it. Whew!
Baring questions, and those are of course very welcome, it's "Goodbye, Jack".
Beautiful and informative write-up. Thanks for your time and effort. Never put much thought into blunt weapons, always rush to spears after restoration. Will try it next game.
Lots of usefull information and new strategics to try, like: upgrading those initial militia specially designed for it, the rejuvenation seems to work fine, the early treaties with all nations, the power of lightning hammers,...
Thanks a lot for sharing it with us.
Great work here like usual, Tuidjy!
Fucking bear cubs.
Yeah, I could not believe when Bacco lost to it. He got hit once, missed the gambler strike, and then the cub mauled him.
Yea, 19 out of 20 times, the bear cub is an easy kill, but every now and then they get a dodge and some lucky mauls. Little bastards.
Awesome write up! As a new player you just helped me wrap my head around the game mechanics tremendously!
couple of questions though
1) why the hammers? Is it because part of their damage is lightening that gets through the def of the enemy ?
2) your strategy seemed centered around leveling up some early units to the point they become unstoppable. Is this pretty much a must have element to play on the higher difficulties?
would you consider doing a magic focused game walk through?
or maybe you already have?
as a new player magic just seems very weak other than buffing a city or the occasional slow of an army
Also bash never seems to go off for me, how much damage a hit were your guys doing towards the end?
trying to get an idea on bash %
1. Because hammers are what the basic club upgrades to, and because they allow you to use shields, which at 6 dodge/defense are significant.
2. Because the lightning damage not only ignores armor, but also scales with levels
3. Because bash's chance to work is equal to the damage dealt. When you deal more than 50 damage, you have a better than 50% chance to make the enemy lose a turn.
Actually, I consider Expert the highest "not high" difficulty. Things do not get hairy until ridiculous - that is what I enjoy the most, because unless I am playing really exploitative races, I have a good chance to lose on ridiculous.
That said, on high difficulties, you pretty much have to use all strategies you have access to - strong initial expansion, well developed cities, well upgradable units, a strong sovereign, etc... You need good units unless you have a substitute like tamed beasts, bound elementals, henchmen, and the like.
Against the best that Yithril was fielding - 40-60 per hit. They would knock the target down half of the time... but it did not matter as much, because they would often kill them anyway.
Tuidjy, thank you so much for these play throughs, as well as the intro guide.
One of the problems with FE is that it is hard for even an experienced 4X player to figure out some of the game systems, and your posts have made a huge difference for me, as well as being fun to read.
Nice play through, a very interesting read and several tricks that I hadn't thought of. Thank you for your time.
Yes, fascinating write up, thank you.
Just wanted to say great thread. I found this enlightening and it helped pass a good two hours of my lagging afternoon at work.
Hey, first off, very well done, that guide would have taken a long time to make with a lot of efford in it. I beated Expert twice now when not before, the thing is I think it is because of the wealthy perk, giving that extra money to rush production when 2 turns on it are left makes a HUGE difference. Can you beat expert without it? Because all those two turns rushing and the 2 soldier that would normaly take around 16 turns to complete for two instead of just two turns, is a major game changer.
Read the whole thing, great. Much appreciation for the effort.
With the help of this guide I have now completed the game on Ridicules difficulty!
congrats
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
