Field of Glory Empires

Games
343

I had fun starting as Burgundi, now they are the weakest faction in the whole game, but they are pretty secure up there in their tiny island. They also have a pretty good economy, which can be supplemented with a bit of the old raiding and pillaging.

They start with only one region, so IMO they are good for learning the ropes of the game from the bottom. The only issue is that nothing really happens for the first 25 turns or so (just growing pop & building an army). So if you’re comfortable with clicking ‘Next Turn’ for a while, they’re a pretty good start.

344

Got into the groove in my Rome game - once you have a couple of 100+ power armies and some provinces the game actually becomes a lot simpler as you get bigger. Setting provincial policies to focus on culture has rocketed me up the CDV table, and the occasional switch to money or infrastructure keeps the balance positive there.

345

Got tired of managing my 100+ region Roman Republic (I had conquered all of Spain, Illyria, Dalmatia, and everything surrounding the Western Mediterranean) and decided to start over to try out some more theories. In the above, I had decided to stay at Republic for a long time, but I found that getting out of the mid-tier once you’ve gotten a certain size is really difficult.

  • Provincial conquests only. The bonuses you get from provinces are so strong that I think it’s pretty much never warranted to do a “limited” war. Either take enough regions for the province, or don’t take anything. The infrastructure pooling allows you to smash out even expensive buildings at speed, and the food pooling means you don’t have famines.

  • Aggressive specialization. I lay a building plan for each province, and pretty much don’t build anything that doesn’t fit the long-term plan for the province. In particular, this means careful placement of sheep, cattle, quarries, and wood sources. Depending on size, I build 2+ infrastructure regions, 1-2 agriculture, and the rest become hyper-specialized to commerce, culture or both. All provinces get 2000 historical culture though.

  • Beeline for irrigation canals, for that sweet, sweet papyrus. I think I had my first papyrus source around turn 35 or so, and culture production shot through the roof. In general, I went early for Tier 3 buildings everywhere.

  • Continual culture production to keep Rome in the top-tier. In addition, I would take my time with conquest - no need to rush into conquering regions (and thus accumulating extra decadence) unless absolutely necessary. The starting few turns were dodgy (as always), but by Turn 20+ or so, Rome was continually in the top-tier culturally.

Turn 45, Rome became an Empire (Italy, Sicily, Cisalpinus)

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Turn 73, Glorious Empire (Italy, Sicily, Cisalpinus, Illuria, Sardes-Corsica) and I had started conquering Africa.

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Turn 88, Golden Age. Lasts 12 turns. I used that as an excuse to invade the Spartans/Macedonians and conquer Grecia (and get my hand on those three World Wonders).

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Compared to my last game, it was interesting to note just how much easier it is to keep an empire in the top-tier, than it is to move into the top-tier if you’ve first accumulated a lot of decadence. Calculating chances, I suspect I could probably have run Golden Ages every 20 or so turns.

Turn 103 - Gracia conquered, and almost ready to start a new Golden Age. I have 10 Consular Armies (my preferred configuration - 4 legions, 4 skirmishers, 4 cavalry and 4 alae/italian infantry/elephants) running around - at 100+ strength, each one can almost handle any enemy force on their own unless badly outnumbered. So, pretty much unstoppable at this point.

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Would probably have won the game already at this point, except that Persia has gone rampant over in the east, and is bringing in ~50 legacy points per turn - enough that it’ll probably take me a while to triple their score. I’m comfortable triple the third-placed empire, so rather annoying - they’re far enough away that I’d have to fight through 5-6 empires to get to them, so not much I can do other than ramp up that legacy production.

Pretty much confirmed my theories, though - at least for playing Rome.

346

This is a concern as I imagined Carthage or Greek game should be all about selective conquest of cities with important trade goods. But once I got few provinces as Romans I could clearly see their value. You also get provincial units that might not be that important for Romans but even they might need some second-tier infantry once those legions start cost 300 gold.

347

I like the Provincial units. Provincial cavalry and skirmishers are better than the default stuff you can build. 4 legions can handle almost anything, but you need some extra units to bulk out the army and soak up losses, at least in my experience.

Probably the biggest problem I’ve had, is to wrap my head around the “take your time” element that the culture/decadence mechanic enforces. It’s easy enough to stomp all over enemies and independents, but it’s often really not a good idea - better to take a bite, digest it culturally, before going for the next conquest, etc. That’s… hard to unlearn…

348

Exactly my experience.

I found Dacia easier, largely because there was no need to hurry, no one was racing me for my objectives, and the only raiding was a little from the north, and I was able to buy it off, so I had the luxury of expanding no more quickly than fit easily with staying in the top bracket.

Aethiopia has been quite a different experience. Nubia was hostile from the get-go, a declaration of war early, and a repeat as soon as the peace treaty ended, and again as soon as that peace treaty ended… while Egypt also joined in. There may have been a better way, but I eventually just ate Nubia and all its crappy territories, so as to end the two front war problem.

Interestingly, my generals had almost no defensive points the first hundred turns of the game, almost all offense, and that figured in my problems big time. If I sat in defense, I was vulnerable. Even if I wait til the enemy sieges me and then and I hit them from a region back, that counts as defense. So I was pushed into a lot more offense and region-taking than I would have preferred against Egypt too, especially since their armies can be dangerous if not dealt with in the most advantageous way.

So here I am, 100+ turns in, WAY too much territory, and really struggling to be in that top bracket, and the effort to do so soaks up a lot of my pops and a lot of my buildings.

349

If you’re looking for an easy start, one of the British tribes might be a good pick. Pretty good cross-section of trade goods, and very limited number of AI factions means that you generally can pick your fights,

350

Looks like version 1.0.3 has just been set loose on the world. It looks like you can now abandon a region (yay!). Plus they added buildings for fighting unrest, a couple alternate army strength ratings, and a whole raft of tweaks and balance changes.

Announcement: http://www.slitherine.com/news/2902/Field.of.Glory.Empires.has.been.updated.to.version.1.0.3

Full changelog: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=534&t=93281

351

Hmm … my initial thought on the abandonment change is that the government age penalty is way too restrictive. Given that penalty, I think it’s still easier to simply stand on defense (i.e., don’t conquer the region in the first place), or if you do - eat the decadence.

The loitering allies thing is nice to see fixed. Annoying to see an ally being eaten up, while half their army is loitering in your territory. Generally many good improvements, look like.

I played another 100+ turns, this time as Britons. Recommended - they’re a nice power to start as. Their units are not overpowered like the Legions, but Brtitonic Provincial infantry is still excellent, and it’s still way easy to build an army that can steamroller the usual AI defensive forces. Celtic buildings are beyond excellent, though - way better than the Romans, IMO. Not only do they get Celtic Crafters (0-slot building that can give 12 infrastructure), farmers market (food+money), and cattle pens (infrastructure+food) - easily the best Tier 1 buildings I’ve seen in the game so far because they also synergize well, they also get shrines (usually providing culture + something else) and have access to all the basic buildings. They’re a slower starter than the Romans, since their area is much less populated, but I’m pretty sure that from an equal start they’d outproduce the Romans badly on pretty much every dimension.

It doesn’t feel particularly different from playing as the Romans, though, but that is perhaps too much to ask given the game mechanics. I think I’m done with the game now until they put out some patches that improve diplomacy and the region management, though. It’s a really good game if you like this type of thing, but I don’t think I have the stamina to finish a game until they add some more QoL improvements there.

352

Thanks for the tip, I think I will try the Britons next.

Really enjoying my Aethiopian game. It’s fun playing in Africa with many of the trade goods you can only dream of further north. But it has been a challenge.

Egypt has suffered a civil war, and I allied with the Usurper, which has been fun. We’ll see where that leads, but it appears we have severely damaged Egypt, and that I am almost up with Rome and Carthage and Macedonia as world powers.

Pacing-wise, it is a game of the unexpected. Just as you think you might have reached that overly comfortable “I’m secure, decisions don’t really matter so much” all hell breaks lose for a while. Then you resolve the problem and go an hour or two of routine turns, only to have chaos return all of a sudden.

353

Yeah, really enjoyed playing as Nubia, which I assume plays out very very similarly to Aethiopia, since the first thing you do as either one is wipe out the other.

354

I love the game but I don’t get the “every nation has different gameplay” spiel. I haven’t tried them all granted, but so far they have all been “fight like hell, keep your decadence low and then keep fighting”. Good thing I like fighting I guess.

355

No - that’s overselling the game somewhat. Different cultures certainly have different buildings and core units, but there’s not much actual gameplay difference. My Briton tribal confederation felt very much like my Roman Republic/Empire.

356

I think there are some country traits that will make you need to play the game differently. For a small Hellenic state, the manpower penalty makes a big impact. Massalia gets great financial buildings, but also high decadence. Using mercenaries to offset the lack of manpower while also trying to balance money vs decadence felt very different to me. You are also mostly surrounded by tribes and it’s quite the struggle to survive.

357

Hmm. I should try a Greek state next - but not Massalia; I’m tired of fighting Celts. Not sure it will make much difference past the first 40-50 turns, though. At least in my experience so far, once the economy is running, metal and manpower cease to be problems and I constantly have to use the sell manpower/metal decisions to keep the numbers of those two resources down. The tricky part is having the luck/tactic for getting over/surviving the hump of those first 15-20 turns where you lack an effective fighting force.

358

I don’t think I’ve ever had a metal shortage.

359

Got tempted into trying a Hellenic culture after the discussion above, and decided to try out Achaia, as they have a very interesting position. Athens and Aitolia to the North, Sparta to the South, and none of them like you - I consistently found myself at war with all three within the first five turns. Also, the Macedonian and Antigonid superpowers close by. It’s a difficult position - particularly because Sparta has phalanxes to begin with - a lot of them - and your hoplites are just no match. They can be beaten, but it took me three tries before I managed to subdue Sparta without losing my capital in the process. Fun though - probably the first really challenging war I’ve played in the game yet.

Pretty much plain sailing after the first 10-15 turns. Dominated Graecia, took over Crete/Rhodes, ate Epirus, and eventually Macedonia/Asia Minor. If the Celts have the best production buildings, the Greeks have the best Culture/Legacy buildings (and also some pretty awesome commerce buildings). And they have a huge advantage in being so close to Egypt = no pressing need to grow papyrus for themselves. IMO, papyrus is by far the most important trade good in the game, and not needing to build up Tier 3 farms to get it, is a massive advantage for early culture development. I think Achaia was out of Tier 1 for at most a handful of turns during the game, and took #1 in legacy from around turn 10 (helped by all the Greek wonders also), and never lost that lead. Constant golden ages from around turn 50. Never saw a manpower shortage, but I did have a metal shortage at some point from not building enough forges, etc.

At some point the Romans came down through Illyria, and declared war. That was a lot of fun - Greek phalanxes look strong, but Roman legions just wipe the floor with them, hard - especially in any rough terrain. Those Roman 250 value stacks were tough to deal with, but throwing enough troops into the meatgrinder eventually wore them down and I could start rolling them back. Eventually went into Italy, since I had an objective there, and rolled them back to Cisalpinus.

Finally finished a game of FoG:E

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Stats:
272 Units, 71 Regions, 244K culture, 1 turn in the entire game with peace (probably the first turn?), and a maximum of 7 wars at once.

I’m pretty sure that the Greeks are - by far - the easiest power to win this game with (and probably other, more powerful states than Achaia are even better suited to this). I could probably have won the game before Turn 100 if I had tried to, because I didn’t really try to ramp up culture/legacy production until around turn 50 or so. Suspect I could have shaved 10-15 turns off victory at least, with a more focused game.

360

Looks fun. I take it you didn’t have that big of an empire too. You still captured land by whole provinces, right?

361

Exclusively - I don’t take a region if unless I have a short-term plan to get the province. Did consider sacking Rome and returning it to the Romans, but I haven’t figured out how to abandon a region yet, so I ended up taking all of Italy.

71 regions/14 provinces is still pretty large, I think the biggest empire I’ve reached before pausing/abandoning was around 105. But you almost need that big an empire if you’re going to generate legacy point, since each region can generate 2 points on its own even before getting buildings.

362

It seems like people moved on from this.

It’s <$22 at GamersGate with the coupon THEDISCOUNT (supposedly according to isthereanydeal).