Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!pacbell!rtech!ingres!edg
From: edg@ingres.com (Ed Goldman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: PowerMonger tactics
Keywords: PowerMonger tactics
Message-ID: <1990Dec27.171548.1574@ingres.Ingres.COM>
Date: 27 Dec 90 17:15:47 GMT
References: <15813@reed.UUCP>
Reply-To: edg@squid.Ingres.COM (Ed Goldman)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501
Lines: 69

In article <15813@reed.UUCP> ameiba@reed.UUCP (Keith Steiger) writes:
>
>	Attack villages in Passive posture.  This decreases fatalities on a 
>group of people you'd rather recruit anyway.  Research clearly shows that this
>increases the number of recruits you get when you get men.

Yes.  It's definitely seems to be in your best interest to have most of the
villagers left alive after you've taken a village.

>
>	If feasible, go into the village (I use "get invention" to do this)
>and drop food in passive mode.  This will drop 25% of your food, but it will
>increase the loyalty of the residents of the village greatly, and you will get
>still more recruits.  And on worlds where sheep are plentiful, food is not much
>of a problem.

It's not clear to me yet what effect loyalty has.  Seems like if you recruit
in aggressive mode you still recruit most of the village.  Sometimes dropping
food has no loyalty effect at all.  I generally only drop food if there's none
in the village and I want them to invent something.

Question: On food-poor worlds what's the best way to get a village to make 
food?  Invent ploughs first?
>
>	Recruit in aggresive posture if you aren't intending to come back for
>supplies, or in normal posture if you are.
>
>	When attacked, fight in aggresive posture.  If you merely drive them
>off, they'll come back--and you'd much rather they didn't come back.

Both good strategies I've found.  I usually recruit in agressive.

>	Note the cute little graphic to the left of the status bars.  Note how
>it changes when you give that captain various orders.  Although it's fairly
>obvious, I don't believe it's mentioned in the manual.

I think it's mentioned.

>--
>  Keith Steiger--ameiba@reed.BITNET, ameiba@reed.UUCP, tektronix!reed!ameiba
>          "I am what you see.  Myself....  I cannot be otherwise."
>  Disclaimer: Reed College tries very hard to ignore its students' opinions. 


Other questions and comments:

1) Has enyone found good strategies for: use of other Captains?  Trading?
   Making alliances?  I've only tried alliances when I needed food -- it seemed
   to work OK for a while.

2) I'm a bit confused by deranking men.  Does each individual head back to his
   home village.  What about original troops?  Do they go back to the starting
   castle?  The only time I've found much use for this is when I'm crossing
   water and I know the army's not fully equipped with boats -- don't want
   a bunch of men just pacing the coast.

3) I find it annoying sometimes that a portion of the army will get "stuck"
   trying to figure thier way around water, while others make it through.
   Partilarly annoying when you're attacking with a large army, then discover
   that only about 3 of them arrived to attack and the rest are going "duh.
   which way did they go? which way did they go?" back at some beach.  Note:
   I'm talking about a condition where there's clearly a land route to the
   spot where you what the army to go to.

4) Another annoyance: why doesn't the captain's status box show what's equipped
   and not just the extra stock?  I'm usually more interested in the equipped
   stuff especially boats.

-edg-