Small empire woes

from Elemental Forums

I don't know if its the increase in difficulty (I am comfortable at hard/hard and stuck at expert/expert, default sovereigns) or just a long run of bad luck with random maps. 

But can anyone explain why so many random map starts are terrible. I scout out with champion and sovereign often in different directions from turn 1. Very rarely I might get lucky and be able to set up 3-4 cities with little fuss but for every time that happens I end up with a sovereign that has spawned with no settle tiles and I spend my first 5 or 6 turns looking for somewhere to settle the capital.

So many starts with no 2nd city available or such a dangerous 2nd site (deadly monster next to it) that the city will be rubble and I will permanently lose the site if I dare settle.

As far as I can tell there are no real bonuses for tall empires. I'm curious how do people get around the bad map early-mid game small empire problem or is the answer to keep re-rolling the map till you get one that allows you to settle 3-4 cities?

6,999 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

One approach is to play a build that can handle really dangerous beasties very early.  My favorite for this is Krax blood + Dodging assassin + Blindness.

Another is to conquer the first AI you encounter.  Get them early enough, and it's not that hard.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

This is why I think we really need buffs to militia (esp vs champs) and buffs on high-level buildings (requiring city level 3-4, maybe some buildings such as schools should get a bonus per city level?)

 

 

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

You dont need 3-4 cities early. This game has no rush, as long as your sov and heroes are levelling you should be fine with 2 cities for quite a while. 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks for all the responses. 

Tuidjy; I developed my own sovereign based on your suggestions and it felt almost like cheating. Running around the map killing almost everything and fast levelling.  

Quoting joasoze, reply 3
You dont need 3-4 cities early. This game has no rush, as long as your sov and heroes are levelling you should be fine with 2 cities for quite a while. 
End of joasoze's quote

The problem I was having on expert if I had a couple of cities was that the AI's would attack me (due to weakness, proximity etc) with stacks that I could not defend against. On hard/hard I could survive the occasional AI dow with a couple of cities but on expert the dow's were almost a certainty and I couldn't survive. 

With a modified sovereign I think I might be able to give it a shot though even with a couple of cities.

It might be as I am on crownded maps (medium size with 5 AI's) forcing the AI to attack early but I was certainly not fine with 2 cities for anything other than a very short time.

No doubt this is a failing in my gameplay and not your advice, but the reason for my first post was due to my understanding that it was the expansion constraints losing me the game.

After further thought I am guessing that using the preset sovereigns and/or crowded map selection probably were just as guilty.