I can see this being really really helpful for people who don't really know what they're doing with some of the factions (IE me with the Cultists).



So! Post some general rules of thumb and things to get quickly and other such helpful tips for each of the vanilla factions, preferably with an explanation of why. Feel free to explain minor factions and what they're good for in your armies, too, because that's something I haven't played around with much yet.

I'll take a stab... these are suggestions, not necessarily things everyone must do everytime they play...



Look at the faction units you will get in the tech tree. Pay attention to their types. Know that there are 5 types, and you will probably only get three of them. So if your chosen faction offers Infantry, Cavalry and Support, you need to look for minor factions that provide Flying and Ranged, or you can look to buy those from the Marketplace.



Advanced Topic: Weapon selection allows you to use a single unit type to counter multiple others. With a one handed weapon, they might counter Infantry and with a two handed weapon they counter Cavalry. This can alleviate the need for having access to all core unit types in some fashion.



Mobility is key throughout the game. An army comprised of high movement units will often be more important than one containing all unit types. Keep your slower units grouped in separate armies where they will automatically be called into fight in the region they are in and instigate fights/respond to threats with your fast movers.



If you aren't concerned with military, then choosing minor factions will probably boil down to location. If you are considering two different regions for conquest and both seem equal as far as being suitable for a city for your faction, then judge them based on the minor faction present and what bonus they will provide if/when assimilated. This won't matter if you don't plan to assimilate more than one minor faction of course.



No matter who you are playing, buy a Cultist hero as soon as possible to put in your city and put all levelling points in the Faction area.



Early on, put most of your workers in Food and either crank up your city population or spit out settlers for a fast land grab.



Look at the favored win condition for your faction. Planning to crush the world beneath your iron shod boots with the Wandering Clans probably won't work. Choose the appropriate faction for your playstyle. If you are new to one or more playstyles, try newbie settings on small maps against Cultists to better explore how to play those factions.



Influence is kind of an all or nothing thing. You can get away with very little of it if you don't care about the empire plan. But if you want some, you will probably want a LOT. I suggest ignoring it (and the empire plan) for the first few games. Once you understand the other resources and how to exploit them, turn your attention to learning how to best make use of Influence. If you plan to be talkative and interact with your neighbors a lot, you will want some Influence flowing in.



Be very focused in your research. Go after things you know you will make use of, not things you think you might want in just one place or at one time. If your gameplay focus is on research, you have more leeway here, providing you can make use of the things you research. As an example, grabbing the weapon/armor techs every other tier can be valid unless you are in a combat heavy game. You can ignore them completely for some playstyles/victory conditions and instead rely solely on the base item types for upgrades and those from heroes.

Darkbridger wrote:


Influence is kind of an all or nothing thing. You can get away with very little of it if you don't care about the empire plan. But if you want some, you will probably want a LOT. I suggest ignoring it (and the empire plan) for the first few games. Once you understand the other resources and how to exploit them, turn your attention to learning how to best make use of Influence. If you plan to be talkative and interact with your neighbors a lot, you will want some Influence flowing in.

I have to disagree with that. What's so difficult about the Empire Plan mechanic? It's totally not 'all or nothing thing', IMO. If you're playing aggressively, focus on military bonuses, you'll need them; if you're relying on strong economic, choose the bonuses which will compliment you the best; playing the Broken Lords - get that +dust plan! These bonuses are cheap and VERY useful on all stages of the game and you'll hurt yourself by refusing to deal with it. You totally don't have to take ALL the plans available with all the branches, just focus on one or two. That's the best thing about the Empire Plan, IMO.

with combat i've found you can go all 1 unit type. i usually go for high initiative with damage coming in second. That way my units always attack first. If you focus fire instead of allowing them to spread their attacks out you can eliminate units on the first round and get or maintain numerical surperiority. also, i usually skip the first weapon upgrades if i don't feel there's the risk of immediate attack. use that research for other things and try to go for palladium weapon upgrades.

Going one unit type you may have hard time against unit specializing against it, i.e. having Knight Slayer or Range Slayer, etc. Mixing 2 or 3 types of units with your hero is usually the best approach, IMO.

The best tip I have from my playtime (mostly with Necrophages) is to learn about the factions a bit beforehand, even if its just mousing over them when selecting your group. While it won't prepare you for every single game, it will help a lot with figuring out strategy when you first meet your neighbors. A Necrophage city moving in next door should set off very different alarms to seeing Wandering Clans banners go up, since they have different playstyles and are most likely going after different victory conditions.



As for Necrophage-related tips...

There is a great guide by Shrinkshooter on the Steam forums here, but a quick summary with a few of my own observations:

Since diplomacy (well, at least the peaceful kind) is not really a factor for necros and most of their unique bonuses affect your military, your focus will mostly be on war - you get less food from terrain, but gain stockpiles of food as you kill things, so get to killing the minor factions around you. Food and industry are the most important for your starting city, and a few heroes as governors will really help your infant cities take off. As for tech, boost your food and industry, then go wild with the military stuff and dust. A lot of their upgrades lower military and unit cost, so as long as you have enough food to expand, enough industry to crank out large armies, enough dust to support your large armies, and enough happiness not to have too many penalties (Wine is absurdly useful as a booster if you can snag it) you should be on your way to enslaving the world just fine.



If you are currently playing against Necrophages, just know they are most probably going to try and eat your delicious cities. Keep your cities protected or have a way to reinforce them quickly, and feel free to take advantage of them attacking another faction by sneaking in and wiping out a city or two yourself. After all, there are no bonuses for peaceful cooperation with the bugs!

Lexxx20 wrote:
I have to disagree with that. What's so difficult about the Empire Plan mechanic? It's totally not 'all or nothing thing', IMO. If you're playing aggressively, focus on military bonuses, you'll need them; if you're relying on strong economic, choose the bonuses which will compliment you the best; playing the Broken Lords - get that +dust plan! These bonuses are cheap and VERY useful on all stages of the game and you'll hurt yourself by refusing to deal with it. You totally don't have to take ALL the plans available with all the branches, just focus on one or two. That's the best thing about the Empire Plan, IMO.

These are suggestions for new players. Maybe I should have been clearer. There's nothing wrong with using the empire plan when you can afford it, and I never said it was difficult. By all or nothing I was referring to production. For new players I would recommend *not* putting any workers into Influence production. Only cultists and diplomats need to worry about Influence from the start. The rest can work with minimal input and make use of it where they want (assimilation, empire plan, etc). For new players I think those aspects of the game are the last that need to be learned and tinkered with. It's far more important to learn how to manage food, industry, research, dust and military first.



Also, I feel using an appropriate Hero in a city is far more effective than the empire plan until the later Tiers are available. Focusing on dust production over influence is a newbie-friendly recommendation. While Hero bonuses are only per-city, dust is more widely useful to the "vanilla" factions the OP asked about.