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| Thread: what to do? (chaining exercise) | |
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demarest
Known Hero
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posted October 13, 2013 09:53 PM |
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Edited by demarest at 21:59, 13 Oct 2013.
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what to do? (chaining exercise)
Long time player, love the game, was never very good. I play randoms against the computer. Lately, I've been trying to get better at chaining and not wasting time by visiting areas twice and stuff like that. To improve, what I've been doing is when I find a random map that I think offers me the chance to do better, I'll restart it and try to play based solely on what I can see.
Here is a save on day 1 of week 2 that I want to see what others have to say about what they'd do:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/86wvgi
On day 7, Crag (my main) settled a 2nd city and built a mage guild to get his spell book. I've been trying to read about chaining and one technique I've seen is that you want your main to focus on things that build the hero while your scouts/chain can clear the map. So I was thinking about hitting the well and marletto with Crag. After this, I get a little foggy.
I definitely want to hire Alamar from my 2nd city to help clear the veil there as well as gather the wealth. I'm not sure if I should have him grab my troops from Crag before doing so to maybe settle the backfield since I can just chain the troops back as needed.
Gold's kind of slim as you can see. There's some wealth on the ground around the 2nd city, so I'm not sure how much I can be spending. The Dwarven Treasury in sight can be toppled if I hire some 2nd week troops, but it's a bit of a ways away. Not much else of the veil is cleared just yet, so I don't have a clear idea of what Crag should be doing or heading towards the next few days.
Also, you might notice that I'm light on crystals and there's quite a bit of them (as well as a subterranean gate) to the east of my main city, as well as a unicorn glade. I want to prioritize that before the end of the week to make sure I have a chance at having enough crystals for Dragon Cliff week 2. However, I'd either have to suffer some losses going through the fire elementals to get there or waste a little time coming at it from "behind (under)." Plus, if I head that way right away, I might end up with enough crystals, but not enough gold.
I've seen more of the map in my last couple starts, but I was wondering what the pros would do given just the information that is available? Also, if you're bored, would you care to restart the scenario to judge how well I have (not) done in chaining thus far? There's an Observatory just outside my starting city, so it should be fairly quick/easy to judge. Just looking to up my game. Any helpful info/advice is welcome. Thank you for your time.
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demarest
Known Hero
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posted October 14, 2013 04:11 AM |
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Edited by demarest at 09:40, 14 Oct 2013.
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Here's how I ended up at the start of week 3:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/5xvcs3
I was so out of movement points at the end of week 2 that I was only JUST able to pick up the crystals I needed and flag the Unicorn Glade. I wanted to end up right about there so that at start of 3rd week, I could knock over the 2 Gryphon Conservatories, which I did.
I feel a little spread out at this point. From the week 2 save above, I sent Uland north to uncover some veil and found an easily taken Pandora's Box with a much needed 5,000 gold. Once up there, I had to step into the portal just for visibility's sake and I found a blue hero within range of my main and an undefended city just sitting there. This is how I ended up so spread out.
Later, I might come back to week 2 and see if clearing out my 2nd grassy area doesn't still lead to me being able to build for dragons in week 2 AND be a bit more organized. Still, I can't complain. On the other side of the subterranean gate was a 3rd Gryphon Conservatory which I was able to take all three, resulting in eight angels with only minimal centaur losses.
Is it better to clear out one area at a time or chain to be able to have a few cities on lockdown if they're close enough?
[EDIT]
Editing this since I had read somewhere that triple posting is a big no no. Plus I don't wish to keep the topic up top if it's not considered of interest to others.
Anyways, I reloaded the week 2 save from above and this time focused more on clearing out my 2nd grassy area. Here is that save and some observations to contrast it to my first week 3 save (in this post):
http://www.sendspace.com/file/mwmtsn
1) I ended up having to trade for a couple crystals to build for dragons at end of week 2 and to recruit them at the start of week 3.
2) I have less money at the start of week 3.
3) I have fewer cities.
4) I'm slightly better organized, albeit stretched across a very lengthy chain.
5) My main hero is better developed due to a pair of +1 level trees.
6) My heroes are in a worse position as they're not poised to take multiple Conservatories.
The biggest advantage to this alternate approach was a better developed main. However in the first save, my main quickly blew this main out of the water from taking over Conservatories.
The only other plus to the latter week 3 save was heroes were placed in better overall synergy. I believe this is offset by the fact that the first save was the result of a panicked surge to have enough crystals, flagged Unicorn Glade, and positioned for day 15 Conservatories. This was because as I strived for visibility in the first save, I happened upon an opportunity to destroy the bulk of an enemies army and waltz into his only city. Overall, I think this has proven to be justified.
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