http://users.bart.nl/~jamin Warlords III Whether playing Warlords III in single-player, e-mail or multi-player mode there are a few basic survival techniques you should be acquainted with. Heroes are easily the most important troop type and using them to their full is a skill patiently attained. Secondly, garrison. A citadel that is producing your strongest unit is worth defending. Under all circumstances make sure you have a cohesive defence strategy for your back-line cities. With the ability to vector pre-existing units, you can come under fire in a hurry if you're not prepared for a sneak attack. Finally, it's in the numbers. Stack composition is crucial. Stacking Pegasi with a Treant might seem like a killer strategy, but you won't receive the full complement of bonuses if you don't pay attention to each unit's special traits. SINGLE-PLAYER GAMES These general strategies apply to all human versus AI games regardless of campaign, scenario or random map. Basically, they are defensive because the crux of offensive strategy revolves around taking advantage of bonuses and hero Ôsuper' stacks. Games are normally lost to the computer because of a lack of a cohesive defensive strategy; strong defence prevents it from whittling away at you. Garrison Build relatively inexpensive units in the first eight turns of owning a city. That is usually sufficient to hold off a decent attack. Then turn your production to a more time-consuming unit such as Knight Lords. Knight Lords are good because they have three hit points and the field bonus. They can take their relative strength out in the open to hold off (or at least inflict major pain on) approaching killer stacks. The two-turn rule Try not to occupy cities that are within one turn's striking distance without being 90% sure that you can hold it for three turns (until you can vector more units there). It's something of a cat-and-mouse game. If you're going to capture a city that is one turn's striking distance from a computer opponent (and this is a desirable city with a temple or other site attached to it), have a defensive stack following right behind your offensive stack to immediately garrison the city. If the computer really wants this city back, first it'll deal with your garrison, then it'll have to try to take out your offensive stack and thus probably leave itself fairly exposed. Otherwise, if the city is not easily defensible, you don't have garrison troops readily available and your offensive stack has an opportunity that can't wait three turns... RAZE! Building a nice buffer after you've secured sufficient income and resources helps fend off the computer opponents. PLAYING SOLO AGAINST THE COMPUTER At the beginning of the game, there are two important things that you should do: grab as many neutral cities as fast as you can and avoid war with multiple computer opponents. It's important that you expand your production base and increase your revenues as fast as possible. The computer does a great job of expanding its initial holdings and, if you don't keep up, the computer will eventually overwhelm you. Concentrate on building cheap units such as Heavy Infantry or Archers. These units make good defensive units and do an adequate job against neutral cities, especially if they're led by your hero. Secondly, avoid war with multiple computer players if at all possible. In the early stages of the game, life will be hard if you're at war with multiple AIs. Therefore, it's best to expand in areas where it won't antagonise anyone. Resist the temptation to take undefended computer cities; it's not worth it unless you plan to declare war on that side. If it's impossible to do this, check the Diplomatic Report and find the computer opponent who dislikes you the most and is also closest. This side will be the one that is most likely to declare war on you first. Once you've identified your first victim, start expanding toward him in a methodical manner. Sooner or later, you will take a city that he also wants. At this point, the computer will declare war and attack you. This is the best thing that can happen, since you were planning to attack him anyway and you don't suffer a diplomatic penalty just because the computer declared war first. Concentrate on this opponent until you've wiped him out. When you've conquered all of his cities, check the Diplomatic Report and find the next likely target. The benefit of this approach is that you can expand across the map in an inevitable manner while maintaining your diplomatic rating. Instead of joining up to defeat you, the computer opponents will spend time beating up on each other. At some point, you'll have more cities and armies than any other side on the map. At that time, all remaining computer opponents will probably declare war on you. But it won't matter because they're weakened and you should have a powerful revenue base and numerous armies. While you're expanding across the map, be sure to have your hero explore ruins and embark on quests whenever he can. When you complete a quest, always choose allies as your reward. You will be rewarded with a powerful unit that generally costs you too much to build in one of your own cities. Keep these powerful units with your hero to create a Ôsuper' stack. Use this super stack to take particularly difficult cities or to wipe out enemy heroes. Always accept heroes when they're offered as you can't predict when the next one will be available. Don't choose quests that require you to raze an enemy city or site, as doing so will have negative diplomatic consequences. However, don't hesitate to raze enemy cities once you're at war with everybody. It won't matter in that case and it's often the most effective tactic against the computer. SINGLE-PLAYER CAMPAIGN As the campaign is a series of linked scenarios, you'll discover that you have the ability to bring your top three heroes from scenario to scenario. You will also find that at the end of each scenario you have the opportunity to bolster your side's points. With this in mind there are two really basic recommendations: Build up your heroes, especially magic users, early. Having three Level 10 heroes going into the latter stages of the campaign will make the pesky tactics of the AI a little less troublesome. To do this, take quests. Additionally, make sure at least one of the non-questing heroes is actively taking cities or searching ruins. After the first three scenarios you should have major butt- kickers, so protect them well. The heroes provided at the beginning of each scenario are usually gravy (We think that's American for weak. - Jim), but are useful for defence. Be wise in spending your bonus points. Would it be better to have a Knight Lord in two turns or a Pegasi in one? I'd take the Pegasi, but everybody is different. So the recommendation would be to pick a strategy and use your points to reinforce that strategy. However, given that your units are pretty limited to begin with, the Pegasi should be taken, regardless. On to the more tactical stuff. As mentioned above you have pretty limited forces. You'll find some troop types aren't worth much while others are highly valuable. A good offensive unit is the one-turn Pegasi. Good defensive units are a combination of Infantry, Knight Lords and Pegasi. After you've built sufficient garrison troops, that is. Try this basic strategy, although you'll have to improvise depending on the demands of the individual scenario. While building up your heroes, select focal cities. That is, select and occupy cities that can be defended more easily by one killer stack. This is much better than having to cover vast distances with multiple stacks. Often you'll find it much more fun to have a stack with open field bonuses (thus the affinity for Knight Lords) in a city that can reach a fair number of surrounding cities in one turn. This way, when the enemy tries to approach a city that doesn't have a strong defensive presence and falls just short, you have a stack in a nearby city that can whack him in one turn! When managing your focal cities, use the point city as your vector point. Usually, one of these cities will be closer than most to the actual front. Use this city to vector your offensive units. If you have the surrounding cities garrisoned and protected by a defensive stack, you'll find that vectoring all offensive production to this city is a very useful tactic. PLAYING IN A MULTI-PLAYER GAME One of the biggest changes in Warlords III is simultaneous movement for the multi-player games. This new movement system allows for some wonderful new strategies while presenting fresh challenges. Here are some general tips and hints. It is vitally important to keep an eye on what the other human players are doing. A handy tool for this is the Army Report in the Reports Menu button. This report will show the location of all armies in the game at any given time. Learn to check this report frequently during a turn. It allows you to see if anyone is sending armies toward your cities or your heroes. Try to get to as many ruins as possible. There's only a finite number on each map and you shouldn't allow your opponents to gain all the magical items and allies that these ruins hold. If you're playing a game with Hidden Map turned on, one of your first priorities should be to scout the entire map. Some human players like to raze cities instead of capturing them. The best tactic against these players is to fight fire with fire. Once you start razing their home cities, it'll force them to hold at least a few cities. They will also be in a worse position as newly captured cities usually have weaker defenses and no production. You could also just turn off razing cities. Flying units are extremely powerful in a multi-player game. Even a giant bat can cause a fair amount of damage if an opponent is foolish enough to leave his home cities undefended. The invisibility spell is incredibly powerful for obvious reasons. A deadly tactic is to have your hero cast an invisibility spell and send him with an entire stack of flying creatures toward your enemy's rear. MULTI-PLAYER STRATEGY The random factors of map placement and plain luck can always turn against you (it's possible to have an enemy get a castle right next to yours and then find three dragons on the first turn!). However, there are some things you can do to ensure a modicum of success. In single-player, defence is the key. Many an unsuspecting opponent can be taken out by a single bat running rampant through undefended cities. So, keep some Archers in the back-line cities as garrison troops. Granted, one stack of Archers won't hold off a super stack, but with the missile bonus, you will inflict some pain. Custom armies Creating custom armies for multi-player use is a sure-fire route to success. Regulars should consist of a giant bat, Dwarf crossbows, Pegasi, Knight Lords and Dragons. Get this group on a roll and then take No Mercenaries, with your allies being Pegasi, Air Elementals, Dragons and Dust Wyrms. Your heroes should be, if possible, General, Paladin, Priest or Wizard.