BPrado wrote:




ps: what´s with the blue ruins?

The Endless Day quest that unlocks the Haunts hero.

Played some to test the "new" theory (play mostly like any other faction going to war) and it seems to be right.



I could not have been more wrong about Proliferators. I´ve been looking at Endless as if it was Impossible. You can afford to pump your city up before researching them on Impossible, so that when they´re available, you can spam them on three turns. Endless doesn´t leave room for that, you need to take 6, 7, 8 turns to get one by turn 40~50 at most. First because there will hardly be any Villages left after that, unless you barely hunt; and perhaps more importantly - because they allow you to keep leeching your enemy military. Every stupid army that crosses your border means that many more cannon fodder.



Their role is obivous, of course, but I had the timing wrong. They are early. You´re supposed to go for them first, like you went for Necrodrone when you were a baby faction.



I wasn´t taking screenshot because, honestly, I kinda forgot. There were interesting situations. I´m starting one right now.



"Just do it!"

-Shia



I gotta say for the record that, when playing necrofages, yes - you need full strategic designs even offline.



ps: oh, and you need them before turn ~60, because apparently FDTR is a thing after that

I tweaked my strategy after a massive tall Drakken rush on turn 30, and now I think it´s how I should have started the thread in the first place.



This Military Overview here shows clearly how much stronger I am now in comparison to any other previous game. Looking at the pictures of what was supposed to be my heavy infantry by the mid of the game made me realize I was way too late even in comparison to what I was used to before pausing EL for a while, not to mention in comparison to Endless.



The way it works right now, since the AI seems to fail at efficient designs, a strictly military game becomes a matter of offsetting their superiority in unit Levels (from tech superiority) and Quantity using the quality of strategics. If you go for the discounts really soon, it´s possible to have your intial army + a couple of choice units in full design and wreck havoc on the AI early on.



Something important to note about the other games is how much larger the gap always got between my armies and the strongest AI´s throughout time. Even investing huge amounts of industry on a large amounts reasonable units, my units would only be reasonable in practice if they were always a couple of levels higher. I was trying to beat the AI in its own game.



I still believe, although with no real evidence, that cannon fodder tactics can work in MP. They always have. I should try MP at some point. They work on Impossible anyway.



To the game!



Turn 1 - Great start for Necrophage, except I would totally trade some science for dust. Tech tree - A military approach dictates I need, above anything, availability of choices, which means having things to do and being able to do them. That means science and industry. Usually, the tricky part is that they are both dependent on population, thus food and approval. But necros don´t really need buildings for that. I tend to choose buildings for approval, but food ones are my last priority.



Turn 2 - Lots of good terrain to fight



Turn 4 - Either Vaulters or Wild Walkers are easy prey right at the beginning



Turn 5 - Micromanaging to stay on two pop while producing as fast as possible



Turn 7 - Capital. Winter prediction was long enough, so I decided to make the most out of the little tiles I´ll have for a while. When winter is upon me, then I´ll go for mint to replace the yielding.



Turn 9 - Technically, aren´t we all necrophages? I mean, they´re not monsters because they preffer not to eat things still breathing, right? bzz



Turn 11 - Finding the region with the luxury you need for Ka-Riss can sometimes be a pain when you keep a tight, isolated approach with no scouts. Last game I was on an awesome Tundra Rocks start (Tundra Rocks rocks) with plenty of cash so I bought a drone and it was wonderful, totally worth it. So much sight, so much movement, so much potential.



Turn 13 - From now on, since my Dust is short and can go negative at any moment because of winter, I´ll be spending only on retrofits and Ka-Riss. During the initial 10 turns it´s useful to rush one turn of foundry here, one turn of Geomics there in order to micromanage each building´s effect to what you need the most in x number of turns.



Turn 16 - Capital. Influence during settler to make sure I have a little to spare for this and the next Empire Plan.



Turn 17 - Three sisters of mercy, but one of them will be my little farm for proliferators for a while. Tech tree - with a little of luck and effort, even Necro can into Empire Plan level 2.



Turn 20 - Rushing emeralds for Ka-Riss. Empire Plan - going to make sure I have a backup plan in case money goes short.



Turn 21 - Hunting for food eco-friendly style.



Turn 23 - A bug has to eat.



Turn 27 - This should probably do for the first war, on whoever that might be. Remember Will of the Hive - more attack for declared war.



Turn 28 - A well placed ambush could be the first step to owning all of that orange there. It would have to be later, for a good reason.



Turn 30 - This dude will give me plenty of good reasons to wait a little.



Turn 32 - "I´ll just leave this here!" =D - Military Overview - when the game says you have about the same power, you´re already on overkill. That´s good, I like overkill.



Turn 33 - I´d probably be entering Era 2 around now on a regular Empire Building approach.



Turn 34 - Mints right now, seed storages after winter is gone. Tech tree - might change after Cannon Fodder.



Turn 36 - So fun.



Turn 37 - Around now I was being hit in the head by 120 damage Wyverns last game. Drakken is freaking insane. But then again, they are freaking dragons.



Turn 40 - BzzBzztbzzbzbzz Empire Plan - did I mention overkill? Just kidding, I´m positevely expecting the orange there to some huge problem. Another Necro would be very very annoying. Speaking of overkill, when you´re overwhelming an army and you have proliferators, never auto-resolve (in fact - never auto resolve.) or you´ll end up not creating potential cannon fodder.



Turn 41 - Warning!



Turn 42 - The orange being Vaulters makes things positevely easier. Military Overview



Turn 43 - Her marine. Used well, it could be trouble.



Turn 44 - No! Not like this.



That´s a nice addition, now I´ll probably just sit there for a while with a bunch of cannon fodder and bring the main army back. Even though she was the one who attacked me, they don´t take kindly to bumswhooping. I should declare war myself, very soon.



Comments? Please feel free

Going on, meeting new people.



I was so tired yesterday I said something wrong. My armies only have rings, they don´t have weapons yet. I´m putting them on in this cycle.



Turn 44 - Sieging. Gave up on sending Feeds back home, the xp is nice.



Turn 48 - Money is fine, I can sell battleborns, so I decide to hire Lakapassar as a future general.



Turn 49 - Fighting Vaulters early is much easier. I´m going for the orange, but if no one bothers the blue, they´ll grow really strong really soon.



Turn 50 - The city is mine, time to scout and get ruins before moving west to start actually getting territory. I´m not settling those regions for a while.



Turn 51 - I´m so stupid, they can´t be infected. I should totally have killed the village after realizing it, but I took some time to do it for whatever reason.



Turn 54 - I´ve actually retrofitted already, I´m missing some details here, I should make notes during the game =p



Turn 56 - Heading out with the last army



Turn 57 - Tech tree for now



Turn 60 - Warning! - This here will be the Empire Plan for a while.



Turn 61 - War



Turn 63 - This seriously pisses me off, great job designers, no sarcasm here



Turn 64 - Winter



Turn 66 - Heading in



Turn 69 - Meeting the Roving Clans, I´ll let him grow that city for me, don´t want many enemies while trying to deal with the light blue



Begin of Turn 70 - She moves to engage me, so I move just a little to allow her to perform the attack, which she does - Phase 1 - Phase 2 - Phase 3 - Phase 4 - Phase 5 - Phase 6 - Result. End of turn 70 - now I actually have good weapons.



Turn 71 - With my science climbing, now I´m planning to get my influence to a level which allows me level 4 military ministry when it´s available.



Turn 72 - Sieging for a while



Turn 76 - Getting that adamantian to complete FDTR. That means anything I´ll use early will be palladian, which means food and attack.



Turn 80 - Good proposition, I set the empire plan the same way as it was, take her city and then take the deal. I should totally not be able to do it, the decision about the deal has to lock everything else, since its value changes throughout the turn. Military Overview - ok, I´m a little worried now, but I´ll just assume that´s because she has some guardians and a lot of fortified people.



Now I want to connect the two main parts of my empire for roads and all the income. I need to stop making buildings soon and go back to building elite forces. I´ve only been producing garrison City Swarms for now because of my lack of strategics. I´m seriously considering hiring a Broken Lord governor soon.



Hope this helps anyone

Lots of free time for the good of the hive. Too bad for the Roving Clans.



Turn 81 - Damn this is nice. Hiring Wayra Sigo.



Turn 82 - Tech tree. Science going nicely as expected.



Turn 83 - The Roving Clans make my decision between settling and going to war rather easy.



Turn 87 - Tech tree. army army army bzzzz



Turn 88 - Last thing you want is to declare war on someone and in 5 turns discover your attack or approval are going down significantly.



Turn 89 - Also (i´ve done this) moving pop one side to the other to get just enough Influence and then forget everything about it and conquer a city. Don´t do it.



Turn 92 - Using Ka-Riss food bonus to grow my capital a little while Wayra Sigo boosts my forest rich city and gets level enough for building cost reduction.



Turn 93 - Retrofitting to face the incoming threat. Do the same on Feed´s army.



Turn 94 - Bad move. One tile up, and I wouldn´t be able to engage that army to the south without bringing the other army into the battle. This makes things easier.



Turn 95 - And to complete the mess, it attacks me even having the information that I have a freaking swarm around. This would be a short battle, so I didn´t use everyone, even going for the overkill. - Phase 1 - Phase 2 - Phase 3 - Phase 4



Turn 97 - Letting him settle that, I might even settle for a good peace deal to have another war later.



Turn 99 - Broken Lords out.



Turn 100 - New Empire Plan



Turn 101 - Another winter comes

Ok, learnt something else from this game. I probably took too many small cities from the Vaulters. This eventually meant I did not get a level 4 minitry like I had to in order to fight the blue vaulters.



On turn 122 she had Serum of Iteru, and started attacking me. I had just completed From Dust to Rust about 10 turns ago and had most my main armies equipped on adamantian and paladian level 1, dust health rings. It was not use. This prediction was more accurate than usual, although she had a bigger advantage in the end.



This is not fun anymore. I´m going to win like 3 games and come back with something more solid.



I´m not saying it´s bad mechanics or that it should be changed or anything, but From Dust to Rust is incredibly annoying on Endless.

It´s the same thing over and over.



Necros don´t have the means to rush on turn 20, that means I´ll have to fight a reasonable neighbor by turn 40, conquer them by turn 60, and then From Dust to Rust activates, and I can no longer build efficient armies. I build t3 iron and dust instead, in order to just upgrade when FDTR goes off. Then: either these armies are crushed by endless waves of attacking level 7-9 enemies, or by the time I complete FDTR, the people I really have to kill already have Serum of Iteru.



My current game is going well enough, I conquered a broken lords, have plenty of resources, reasonable amount of armies left after the war. I simple cannot make the jump in the military in order to catch up with everyone.



This is my second city. I have all 5 techs of glassteel/titanium equipment, and they´re not fully on level 3 stuff. Look what happens when I build one army. This is an army that would handle my current opposition. I already have +20% defense from tech. I´m about to go level 4 military ministry and hope this one army can conquer the entire red there here. I seriously don´t think it´s going to work.



If that´s the case, that´s it, I have no idea how to play necrophages and shouldn´t be trying to guide anyone =p





ps: yeah, I give up, I´ve had the most awesome starts, the luckiest games, I´ve gotten proliferators running around by turn 32, I´ve gotten all strategic techs before turn 40, all extractors before turn 10. I can´t find a solution for the middle of the game. Either I lack the science to get everything on time, or the gold to upgrade anyone, or the production to retrain anything I lose. Battleborns are just garrison. If at least they were born at the level of the unit that generated them, it would be easier to do something.



Also, I´ve tried looking around youtube for someone doing it. Can´t seem to find it, can anyone send me a link? Thanks



if anyone wants me tro try a different faction, just say it

Jojo_Fr wrote:
- Why some people seem to love Demanding Gods ? It's an advanced technology, there are others excellent technology for hapiness (as the Market) at this era, and it's only give +30 in happiness, for one population point, for a limited time.



- The sewer system, level 1 tech, cost nearly nothing, and give +20 happiness.



- In my opinion the Demanding God bonus is not enough high and should be at least +40 happiness. Or maybe just +30, but reduce the expansion disapproval of District of 75 % (it would be cool if Necrophages could build enormous city, with tentecularous district forms, without respect for the sacro-saint "triangle").

Demanding Gods is powerfull, but it needs a global strategy consistent with its constraints, otherwise it is better to go the classical path (Sewer system and so on). It's difficult to estimate, but I think that under 8 pop happiness building are more efficient, whereas above 10+ pop it is the reverse. I think one big advantage to consider when following a 'Demanding Gods' strategy is that you can totally ignore happiness tech unlocking, which emphasis quite well a mid-range military strategy.



That being said, a slight buff to +40 happiness would be welcome, it would make this tech more flexible and easy to exploit, for sure.

Hi.



I had in my heart to finish this once, so I´m giving it a try. I hope these AARs (as I´ve just discovered they´re called ^^ ) are of any use.



I´m on turn 2 yet, but I already have something interesting I´d like to put some emphasis on - both in order to report it in case it´s unknown and unintended, and to spread the information in case this is either mechanics or unavoiadable.



Settings



First, about the faction. As necro, I´m in general looking for a start with the less amount of food from tiles possible. This will usually guide my first scouting forager when I´m able to see what the regions next to me look like - whenever I´m near deserts and ice regions, that´s what I would ideally preffer to settle.



Moving with them can be a good choice for several reasons, like being closer to a potential military target, making better use of Slavery, Cull the Herd and reinforcements against minors, and the fact that a target region can never be much worst than your starting one regarding these things (since you necessarily start in a region with one village). Placing your capital in a region with too many food-based tiles means you´re wasting yields, while I´m pretty sure regions with a reduced average of food tiles tend to have food anomalies to compensate the average yields in potential empire spawn points.



When it comes to fighting, in case you move to a region with many villages, it´s a win-win regardless of the difficulty of the units you´re up against. When they´re easy, they´re fast-food and when they´re tough, you can often use reinforcements for at least part of them and quickly get access to cheap strong minor faction units.



When ideal placement is not possible, rivers and water in general then become very attractive for the amount of extra yields they can generate at a relatively low cost in the short term. By Tier 2 youre adding a couple of dust and food to every one of them. Forests are also basically the same safe bet as they are with anyone else, since their things was never about the food. Forest + water is the second best thing to a start with anomalies.





Ideal placement is really sweet though, right? So, when you´re looking for a place to settle with your Settler unit using tht function that shows you the FIDSI, I´m sure everyone already noticed you´re shown the value of a couple of tiles that are still hidden.



Well, the game also allows you to move from the last tile you can see to the first hidden one next to it while still calculating the FIDSI. That´s an insane amount of extra information.



Turn 1 - I get this meh start so I move the forager towards the desert. I find good terrain and ... then I find out it´s actually amazing terrain. That would come to be a Mineral Rich.



I´m going back there now, just wanted to point this out.



ps: what´s with the blue ruins?

Nope, not this time again, sorry. I think I have to go expanding much earlier to prevent people from getting this size. With max Military Ministry I could probably take them on before the Serum.



I think I have to find a way to reach era 4 earlier, with more productive power.



I realise now that I should probably have boomed my capital the way I did with Osdarcha.



Well, there´s always another game.





edit: Well, looking again, I might have missed opportunities at few elite forces there. That´s what I´m trying next time, then, I´m giving up on my theory about building cannon fodder, I´ll let that job exclusively for proliferators. As a consequence, I´m going to try and push my science almost to a Science Victory level at the start, in order to reach era 2 with room and momentum to get proliferators+meritocratic promotion+cannon fodder and try war with my economy almost in danger, Civ style. Bad placed winter, bad matchup, bad region start, there are so many things that can spoil this. Let´s see.

Very nice posts and deep discussion! I've also caught the bug of fighting with Necrophages on Endless and have struggled as well. It's great to join the forums and follow your efforts! Thanks and keep it up!

Thanks both of you guys.



So here it goes. I decided to use swarms this time, since the AI is a little better now. Makes things easy peasy.



Turn 2 - Very important to scout efficiently in search of strategics and -luxuries- because of the Ka-Riss quest. I would be lucky and get the Dyes I already have as requirement. - Tech Tree



Turn 4 - I also find two glassteel deposits to the east, so that´s where I´m settling.



Turn 5 - Now I need to regroup to go daemon-hunting



Turn 7 - bzzzz



Turn 8 - The earlier the better for strats and military factions.



Turn 9 - Tech Tree - I bought out the Empire Mint and used a Food Boost in the capital, so this here is me growing while training a settler



Turn 10 - On my way to settler. - Capital - Empire Plan



Turn 11 - Second city FIDSI



Turn 12 - Hunting orcs now



Turn 14 - Sewer Systems, or should I say Popular Housing Program, amIrite?



Turn 16 - Scores - Tech Tree



Turn 18 - Hunting Caecatores.



Turn 19 - Winter



Turn 20 - Empire Plan



Turn 21 - Using discount to get productive



Turn 22 - Winter gone



Turn 24 - I never even bothered starting Industrial Megapole, but I was really close to the initiative deed. I would eventually get the Free Counter one, and that´s it.



Turn 25 - Tech Tree



Turn 26 - Going for those Industry buildings instead.



Turn 28 - Blue had been coming in and out of my screen, my bug senses are tingling - better put myself in a position to be able to declare war before he does in order to make full use of Will of the Hive.



Turn 29 - Getting Ka-Riss. - Ka-Riss governing - Second City



Turn 30 - Running back home. Empire Plan



Turn 31 - Industry!



Turn 34 - Ok, I can´t take this, this is clearly an invasion and a violation of my sovereignty, this means WAR! ;]



Turn 35 - mwahahaha im so smart justifying my wars. (on a serious note: legitmacy of wars could be a thing in future games, affecting diplomacy with other factions civ-style : )



Turn 36 - Siege



Turn 38 - Waiting for empire plan



Turn 39 - Thrifty trait for swarm



Turn 40 - Cool. Cool, cool, cool. - Empire Plan



Turn 42 - Heal marching - Tech Tree



Turn 43 - Setting me up to build Dust Transmutter.



Turn 45 - After that money starts flowing in, I can finish the game.



Turn 47 - Sieging till empire plan



Turn 48 - Tech Tree



Turn 50 - Army Harvester (glassteel 2 axe) - Empire Plan



Turn 52 - Marching



Turn 53 - Army Necrofighter (glassteel 2 claws)



Turn 54 - Winter and looking for capitals.



Turn 56 - I lost count of the amount of decrease population actions the AI took against me.



Turn 57 - Swarming



Turn 58 - War* - Daemons



*I´d like to call attention here to the health of my first proliferator and my last Necrodrone, between turn 57 and 58. I am Necro, I probably had one level on Ka-Riss of the factional trait for health regen and I did use the Watchtower, but even still - that´s way too much healing, and it can still get much larger. Sure, everyone can get most of the same bonuses - but my point here is not that Necro are particularly strong because of that, just that this mechanic enables warfare in a very extreme way and it is a huge part of the reason why peaceful victories are hardly worth it or even possible in high level play.



Turn 60 - Empire Plan - Military Overview



Turn 61 -



Turn 63 - Tech Tree - Necrofighter - Necrodrone - Regarding the difference between Dust 1 and Glassteel 2 weapons: the increase in damage from Dust weapons do not make them, in my opinion, essentially better. It just makes them different.



It doesn´t matter if you have 18 units with the maximum amount of damage you could possibly get, if when you need them to fight only 10 make it into the battlefield because your reinforcement flags were overwhelmed. Having units equipped with the most damage doesn´t necessarily mean you have the strongest army. However little tactics might be involved in the battle system, it still has rules well-structured enough to provide Endless Legend with a good level of realism when it comes to the efficiency of complex armies.



Turn 65 - Siege till turn 60.



Turn 66 - That siege damage.



Turn 67 - Army Daemons



Turn 69 - Winter



Turn 70 - Going to capture Idyna for the strategic access. - Empire Plan



Turn 71 - 10k health B)



Turn 72 - Tech Tree



Turn 73 - Headed to plant a spy



Turn 74 - Military Overview



Turn 75 - Good position



Turn 76 - Gios



Turn 77 - Siege



Turn 78 -



Turn 80 - Someone killed the Cult for me. - Empire Plan



Turn 81 - Last War



Turn 83 -



Turn 84 -



Turn 86 - Last Winter



Turn 88 - ta da



GG

Impressive! Really well done!



It would be interesting to see this done again. Is Fast better or worse for Necrophages compared to Normal speed?



I currently am playing an Endless Necro game on the vanilla game (only the free mods on Steam, no guardians) with Normal speed and since I have just started the game, the awakening quest popped up and I have found the hero in the first 5 turns or so. That boosted my start considerably, the luxury reward was good too. More importantly I lured the hero to my capital and it provided lots of militia corpses for several turns before joining my ranks... not sure if it will be a win yet, but it's looking good.



I should probably try to beat the game without this seasonal boon. :P



Thank you for sharing!

Thanks danrelle, and welcome to the forums!

danrelle wrote:
It would be interesting to see this done again. Is Fast better or worse for Necrophages compared to Normal speed?

If you have the patience for manual battles, I would say Normal speed is slightly easier for the fact that there´s more "smaller" battles. The more you manual against the AI, the larger your advantage will be over it since it can´t resolve battles manually for shit. In case you don´t like to manual, then I´d say that the proportion between the AI´s advantages and how much you can offset it every turn makes Normal speed slightly harder. I used to manual everything when I first got the game, but now I don´t manual a single battle so I personally preffer fast speed.



I could play another Necro game no problem, but I could also make a different thread for a different faction. Whichever people preffer.



ps: Getting a free Eslek Tarosh with necro must be really sweet.

BPrado wrote:




ps: Getting a free Eslek Tarosh with necro must be really sweet.

Gives me a chance to bully the Endless AI for a change. ^_^



I manual battles... I think auto would be a much bigger challenge. If I can win regularly, I will try to win with auto-battles.



I guess playing multiplayer you lose the habit to manual, but I haven't tried multiplayer yet.



For me, I'm always interested to see a Necro game, since no diplomacy makes Endless gameplay more Endless. But you might be tired of them, so perhaps you'd have more fun sharing a game from a different race. I think playing something different, but not using/abusing diplomacy would be cool!

danrelle wrote:
Gives me a chance to bully the Endless AI for a change. ^_^



I manual battles... I think auto would be a much bigger challenge. If I can win regularly, I will try to win with auto-battles.



I guess playing multiplayer you lose the habit to manual, but I haven't tried multiplayer yet.



For me, I'm always interested to see a Necro game, since no diplomacy makes Endless gameplay more Endless. But you might be tired of them, so perhaps you'd have more fun sharing a game from a different race. I think playing something different, but not using/abusing diplomacy would be cool!

People manual a lot on multiplayer too (I just enjoy being annoying about it), you don´t have to worry, and you should totally try it if you take on Endless AI. It´s really a lot more fun.





Regarding Diplomacy "abuse" - to be fair I do it, in a certain level, 100% of games against Endless AI. The simple fact all those factions I steamroll will make peace with me right after I get their capital could be considered an abuse (and it´s certainly diplomacy, even with necro).



I will not stop doing it, though, because it´s only an abuse if you assume the player is supposed to keep fighting an uphill battle in the name of honor or something like that - and I don´t think that´s true. Even on multiplayer, I consider it totally acceptable for a player to simply recognize defeat. It makes things easier for the conqueror, yes - but so what? If you have no more chances of winning, why should you put effort in simply balancing the game for someone else to win and not the guy who beat you? I´m all for balance of power between relevant leviathans ^^



It also makes little sense to not use diplomacy playing peacefully, since the game benefits war so much. I began making these threads trying to show unconventional wins, that´s why I started with Roving Clans and diplo Ardent Mages. I tried my best to get an economic victory with forgotten but simply couldn´t. Then I started just killing everyone like it´s so much easier to do.



I´ll play random next time and whatever I get I´ll play military again and post it.

You make some interesting points. I had assumed military victories are the hardest to get on Endless... I don't have enough experience to know what victory types are more challenging.



For me the challenge to balance military and economy and to be ready for a fight at every point in the game seems the hardest. I can imagine that racing for an unconventional victory condition can be tougher though.



I would love to see more military, or other types of close call victories! ^_^

"Your presence is welcome. May you grow prosperous and fat."



I laughed for minutes when I first got this greeting. This is freaking genius. If you understand the implications of their traits, these sentences describe perfectly how a Necrofage player should face the game: anything that can be killed is cattle.



Frankly, I feel a little akward using the word "Guide". I´m not particularly good as the Necrofages, and this might be a disaster. I´ve only beaten endless once with vanilla them. But they are fun as hell, even when you lose. Also, I got an awesome start that allowed me not to feel like a dirty cheater and still make the thread. I might play again with a modest start even if I win.



There are several reasons why a Necrofage player should preffer to expand through warfare than peacefully. Agriculturally Challenged makes settlers be particularly expensive; the complete lack of opportunity of pacifying villages and the high benefits from rebuilding them forces you into spending industry on that instead of units or other basic buildings; since you´re geared towards military domination, every city you found peacefully will be that much more of a burden when you have a huge empire in terms of building maintenance, luxuries and empire plans costs.



At the same time, past Era 1, it´s usual for me to find myself with a reasonable amount of still necessary techs for my military and a sheer lack of available really useful buildings. Science is important, but it´s not necessarily vital - after all, you are bugs. Spending a larger time on a certain technology tier than usual means that you will be dealing with cheaper and weaker armies than usual, which couples with their lore.



Although the relation between Food and Science is not as straightforward in EL as in, say, Civ, it´s still there and it´s very important. Out of the three main sources of Science - tiles, population and buildings - two are directly related to your food output and the latter is arguably dependent on population itself. So it´s not a surprise that a faction with penalties to the natural generation of food will tend to be left behind technologically. That means your army is basically composed by Cannon Fodder.



Having specific unit designs help the Necros a lot because of that. When your army is composed by a large number of weak units, it´s important to focus some of them on damage and the rest on threat-interception. When you keep an uniform mass of weak units there´s an incomparably larger amount of metas against you.



Necro units are, above anything, defensive; that´s what claws are for. I believe that´s the main difference from a Cult military gameplay, for example. While both are supposed to be very tall very fast and spit out entire armies of damage dealing units, the Cult benefits faster (because of the distribution of units stats) from an offensive approach with little infantry and lots of mobility and ranged units. Since the Necros lack the huge city defenses, losing entire stacks can result in instant defeat. So an infantry based approach, with few mobile high damage flying units than can go in and out, confusing the enemy, is the best in my opinion.



What they lack in weapons of choice, they make up in stats. Don´t be fooled by feeling that it´s "too average". There´s no such thing. Every stat distribution is supposed to define the function of each unit. Average-stats units usually have a moderate initiative that might go unnoticed before their lack of damage or health or defense. But moderate initiative can very easily become high initiative. And when initiave is just high enough, it´s able to single handedly render huge attacks and defenses and damages and healths completely useless.



I like to have 4 types of Foragers - ranged slayers with improved movement, ranged slayers with improved initiative, ranged slayers with improved damage and claw-wearing with improved initiative. That usually presents me with a range of initiative and movement that allows me to block cavalry, to reach Dekari rangers before dying pathetically on the way and to escape Warlock blitz, as examples.



I think I´ve said enough for now, and I ran out of time. I´ll post the sequence of turns as soon as I´m free again, but they´re already on steam. I´ll upload a save too.



[spoiler] I got the Industrial Megapole [/spoiler]

The game goes on, and although I felt I was doing ok, now I´m afraid the challenge of taking on the Roving Clans will be a bit too difficult. I´ll probably need all the help I can get from Empire Plans and Proliferators.



Turn 80 - Empire Plan. She closed her borders, so war it is.



Turn 81 - Totally letting her settle.



Turn 82 - go on



Turn 84 - Winter is gone



Turn 89 - War is gone. This treaty will help wonders with my military. The Palladian goes to FDTR.



Turn 93 - An early midgame Necrodrone. And here there´s an enemy Dervish. I´m taking suggestions on how to fight that.



Turn 96 - Finding the Vaulters. I´ll let her build up that city real nice.



Turn 100 - Empire Plan



Turn 102 - Going for roads for extra money, science, mobility and health regen.



Turn 108 - Winter again



Turn 110 - Settling for a Masargaka.



Turn 112 - This little fellow will be huge soon, watch it.



Turn 117 - B) . These here will hopefully be my meta against dervishes. I should later design a heavier anti-infantry one.



Turn 119 - Osdarcha is ready.



Turn 120 - Empire Plan. The next one I should probably go Max. Military and take on the west. The extra health will hopefully help fight their...:sigh: Serum of Iteru. Yeah, they got it. This will probably not end well.



Turn 121 - Completing FDTR. Now I´m hoping to lower the costs of palladian and adamantian to upgrade what I have. I need to save cash. Dust equip will be available next turn, but I have to consider carefully how to manage that since I don´t really make money. Health rings would be awesome though.



In any case, these are midgame designs of my infantry. Especially the weakest ones will very soon be upgraded to dust, and proliferators will be upgraded immediately.

• Forager
• Scavenger
• Harvester - palladian armor
• Gatherer - adamantian helmet
  
  

Any advices, suggestions, comments? please, I welcome them like a forager welcomes prey ^^

Turn 44 - Back to gathering food. I want to stock enough units for homeland defense, but on a high level of quality. After this wave of expensive units, which will be retrofit into something even better (lvl2 rings), I´ll the fill the garrisons with City Swarms, the another wave of expensive units. Getting this and that building in the meanwhile of course. And districts.



Turn 45 - Cold regions with no food tend to have plenty of science tiles. Never underestimate Geomics Labs.



Turn 48 - So much to bite



Turn 50 - Cool faction idea - winter bugs



Turn 55 - I know the Cult, but I slacked there and didn´t check the Military I guess. Anyway, I´m usually a little terrified of these people, so I pass the offer. Surely soon, but maybe not soon enough. Maybe. bzzzt



Turn 56 - =[nowthatitwascoolfightingthem.Anyway, excellent news.



Turn 58 - I had half said "screw it". Should totally have done it.



Turn 60 - Settling the third, after the Empire Plan. Here´s the queue.



Turn 61 - Capital, Second City and Military Overview.



Turn 63 - The rules in the jungle are pretty clear - it´s big, you don´t try to kill it. Not yet. bzzzzzzzzzzzz



Turn 64 - In between running from dervishes and yirmaks, I kinda could have completed three lust for loots there



Turn 66 - Hiring "The Dude" Unwin Weybridge



Turn 67 - Still running, although I supose if they really wanted to fight, they woud´ve gotten me already. I´m still running nonetheless.



Turn 70 - What´s that smell? Is that food? bzzz



Turn 73 - "Here´s hoping they will pacify those for me in time", damn typos



Turn 74 - The beauty of retrofitting. Thanks picoli! And this is my infantry with my General.



Turn 75 - lol . I think it´s a valid question whether to let them settle or not. It´s free population. Here´s the Men....I mean Military Overview. I´d say she´s running away from someone.