...and what I'm supposed to do about it.



Only my fourth game so I haven't mastered the mechanics by a long stretch, but I've played thousands of hours of other 4x games.



Started a game on Hard difficulty as the Vaulters. Mediocre starting spot, but not the worst I've seen. Started next to the Forgotten; by turn 10 they have expanded to the region right next to my capital. I quickly grab a region nearby, as it has glassteel, titanium, and two emerald spots.



I decide I'm probably going to have to fight the Forgotten. I wait a bit though because I wanted to gather some resources for upgraded weapons. (Maybe that's where I went wrong?). One of my Marines gets eaten by some wandering mobs on his way back from scouting. By turn 30, the Forgotten already are harassing my second city with a spy. Elsewhere in the world, the Drakken have 5 cities, and someone already has the "Kill 10 enemy armies" legendary accomplishment. Two legendary buildings have been built.



By the time I finally have a measly 4-unit army (of, granted, relatively strong units), I'm about to kit the Forgotten when the Cultists declare war on me out of nowhere. I fend off a 6-unit army and then a 5-unit army at my capital. The Cultists are 2 regions away, but I decide to counterattack instead of going for the Forgotten, thinking I probably just destroyed the bulk of their army. This is about turn 50ish. I head down to the Cultist city...



Turns out they have 3 more units sitting outside the city (just that I could see) and TEN more (including the 3 militia) inside. Just for grins, I infiltrated the city just to see how many upgrades they had. They had 13 city upgrades plus 4 boroughs. So, between 17 total city upgrades, and AT LEAST 21 military units, the Cultists had somehow popped out either a building or a unit about every 1.5 turns since the start of the game. HOW THE HECK IS THAT POSSIBLE? Not to mention all their units were either version 2 or 3, meaning they had spare resources to upgrade as well. Their overall industry was 90-something, which is better than what I had, but only just more than my two cities combined.



I won a game on Normal difficulty that didn't seem that hard at all. Three tries on Hard, and every time the AI just seems to vastly outstrip my production on every level. Hard is only supposed to give something like a 20% bonus, so I'm a bit at a loss.

I don´t know if that´s normal speed, I´m assuming it is. I also don´t know exactly what are the advantages for the AI in each difficulty. That said, as a general rule when playing harder difficulties of strategy games, you can´t expect or plan to beat the AI in terms of production. If anything, you have to try and see their strenght as a weakness somehow - like in the fact that if you conquer their cities, you´ll get that much more free buildings than in the case they didn´t have any bonus.



You can do many things to improve your own production. Get Husbandry Center(5 food/pop)+Canal Locks(+4industry/pop) in your capital or in a big region with 3 villages. Hire Cult, Necro or Wild Walkers governors. Use Empire Plans to get discounts on the things you´re building; but even if you do everything, a hard enough AI will always outproduce you. They are still beatable, mainly because they inherently can´t be efficient when planning and balancing short/long term, and because they currently can´t equip their units efficiently.



Be it fast or normal speed, at least from Serious on which is what I´ve played, you can expect war from turn 30 onwards. That means keeping an army capable of figthing full armies within range of your cities. If you want or need to scout from this point on, you need a couple of units exclusively for that.



Units die pretty easily too. The AI is a lot better in equipping the armies than it used to be, but it still doesn´t put so much emphasis in damage, that means a lot. If you improve the damage of your armies, through weapons or accessories, you can easily survive their waves of weak units inside your territory, in the first few wars with your neighbors. After you survive some 3 or 4 battles, then that army will start to have a level advantage on the following invaders.



With strong generals, like Drakken, Broken Lords, Cult or even Roving Clans, at this point you´ll be able to start invading those neighbors. The moment you start getting those huge cities, you´ll start to get crazy science, industry and possible influence. It´s important not to conquer small cities unless they have extreme strategical value.



After this well equipped army get a couple of levels on the masses of poorly equipped units of the AI, it´s already virtually invincible - especially if you manual to save dying units. Sometimes I auto against Endless AIs the entire game and barely lose units.

Sounds like the AI played the cultists rather well and unopposed. The cultist special ability is the conversion of villages, yielding the surrounding hexes for FIDSI income and upon conversion 1 military unit +1 more, on normal speed every 10 turns, I believe. If everything goes smoothly, it is entirely possible to have the first village by turn 10 and another every 5 turns after. By turn 50, I'd expect there to be around 25 military units of which a human player would have sold most to build better units. I don't believe the AI sells units... but the point is twofold:

It's rare for a cultist AI to play well, but if it does, it's fearsome.

If a cultist city is near you, destroy it as fast as possible. If that's not in your power, harass and raze their converted villages whenever you can.

The important thing to remember about Cultists is that the bulk of their army is given to them, they don't actually make them. Every village they convert gives them a free unit every few turns and all they have to do is retrofit them, which is relatively inexpensive comparatively.

rowyerboat wrote:
Not to mention all their units were either version 2 or 3, meaning they had spare resources to upgrade as well.

If this is true, they were not Mercenaries.



On the other hand, Nameless Guard 2 only means it´s the second design, not that it has strategic equipment, or even good equipment.



Something I might have forgotten to say is that you really really need strategic equipment from Tier 2 onwards. If you´re not in immediate danger, get the techs as the closing of Tier 2, but if people are knocking on your door by turn 30, you might want to get them right after researching Hydrology, so that you can start producing units with more damage instead of counting on retrofits. This also makes sure you have insignias on your Generals before Unwanted Oxidation (+50% cost on strategic equipment) kicks in.

Thanks for all the tips. It's definitely a fun game and I'd like to figure out all the nuances. I started another game, this time with the Wild Walkers (who I won with on Normal). So far so good. I'm in the lead after taking out a huge chunk of the Drakken, who were getting a little too big. It does seem like early aggression is almost necessary; there is some hardcore snowballing going on.



BPrado: you're right about the production advantage being universal in 4x at higher difficulties. I guess I had kinda forgotten how extreme it can be. I didn't know the cultists can have units given to them; probably explains it (although would they be "version 2"?).



I also was wondering why everyone was so gung-ho for governors until I just noticed the nice city-based accessories. Aha!

rowyerboat wrote:
I also was wondering why everyone was so gung-ho for governors until I just noticed the nice city-based accessories. Aha!

Just don't forget the skills governors can learn when they level up. Cultist governors in particular give unholy amounts of per pop and percentage bonuses to all FIDSI at high levels.

rowyerboat,



If you want someone to play with and chat with, hit me up sometime for a game. We could learn from each other and have a good time playing. I, personally, find it's more fun to test new waters with a friend or two in the boat with you.



You can find me on Skype at "valadeus" and on Steam at "Avilyss." The invitation is open to anyone. Just as a heads up though, I often have evening obligations (especially on Thursdays) and I am on Eastern time. If you hit me up for a game and I'm not available at that time, I'll work something out with you and plan for one with you soon.



Good luck and happy hunting!