Lords of the Earth hasn't always been as newcomer-friendly as it is now. (Yes, that 100 page rulebook is an improvement.) Over more years than I care to count, I've watched a lot of people sign up with excitement, get discouraged and quit. Usually their disillusionment could have been prevented by understanding the basic rules and some of their consequences. I think the game is enhanced whenever we can find and keep new players, and the way to do that is to make sure they have fun. I've found my enjoyment of the game increased by following certain very basic guidelines (perhaps I should say I've found these guidelines to greatly decrease my frustration); I think newcomers would benefit from understanding them. These are only guidelines and sometimes I violate them, especially in a new campaign, but I always work hard to return to them. I hope they will be of some use to the newcomer:

1. Don't take what you can't hold.
2. Pay careful attention to where you place your borders.
3. Pay attention to - and save - the Newsfax.
4. Keep your internal income high.
5. A first rate military cannot be built by a third rate economy.
6. A first rate economy cannot be defended by a third rate military.

1. Don't take what you can't hold.

You have a king and (hopefully) an heir. When the king dies, or is otherwise scheduled to hand over the reigns of government to his successor, the GM (the guy in charge) will determine if the transition of power is uneventful. If your imperial size is greater than your infrastructure you run a greater risk of civil war. (In Lords terms this is called a "dynastic failure" or "DF.") You can generally run at a deficit of one without too great a risk, but the worse the deficit, the worse are your chances of a peaceful assumption of power by the heir. (Some GM's will be less strict about this in startup games, so be aware of, and take advantage of, any generosity in this area.) This is a game and you're supposed to enjoy it. I've known several people who spread their country over vast amounts of territory, only to see their accomplishments reversed (or worse) upon the death of their king. This cycle repeated itself over and over. They were very frustrated to be constantly crushing revolts, retaking the same territory and rebuilding the same nation. They weren't having fun, and they dropped out. Remember, your resources are finite, and that includes your ability to hold the territory you acquire.

Further, "don't take what you can't hold" also applies to income. As you outstrip your ability to govern your regions, your tax rate goes down. I've taken over several countries whose previous players spread across the map, taking regions of no economic and little strategic value. Because the Imperial Size quickly exceeds the Infrastructure rating under such players, these nations have low tax rates. (This condition is called "thin government.") If you are taking over a country in this sorry shape you can:

(a) try to raid your neighbors' territories for the cash;
(b) designate leaders to administrate;
(c) withdraw from some of the regions;
(d) build a road network;
(e) live with the low tax rate;
or (f) combinations of the above.

(Building a road network and investing in Infra are the two usual long-term solutions, but you will also need a short-term strategy.) The usual approach is to put leaders on administrate, but I don't like this because it ties up leaders, and some leaders just aren't good at it. In established campaigns I recommend withdrawing from selected regions, and concentrating on the economy. I once took over a country with "thin government" whose after tax revenues (86g.p.) didn't meet expenses (110 g.p.), and in ten turns had an income of 800 g.p. I got rid of regions that did nothing for the country and concentrated on what remained, paying attention to trade (which had been sadly neglected). The march of your armies to distant territories may be great for the ego, but if you're holding a region, then that region MUST accomplish something significant for you. Otherwise, get rid of it.

I don't mean to suggest that you shouldn't pursue and crush your enemies, wherever they might be. But afterwards, evaluate your position and withdraw from those regions which you don't need or which overextend your resources.

2. Pay careful attention to where you place your borders.

If you're a newcomer in a new game, I hope you chose an out-of-the-way location, because opening turns can be treacherous and brutal. To repeat Dogbert's advice, "TRUST NO ONE." I know, because I've been crushed more than once in this situation. I advise giving far more consideration to your impending military contests over prime real estate than to any other matter. Despite your neighbors' collective protests of innocent and peaceful intentions, I assure you these struggles will occur. A great opening strategy is to go straight for the jugular. By all means, negotiate with your neighbors over borders: you do, after all, need to know which ones to crush first. But frequently, if you properly read between the lines, the only accomplishment of such talks in the early turns is to determine that the nation with whom you are negotiating must die. If in the end you prevail, then follow the rest of the advice here. But remember "nice guys get crushed first" and "TRUST NO ONE."

First consideration should be given to finding what Sean Harding calls the "core" of your country. Find your country on the map and find your homeland. Look for nearby cultivated regions with a high gold point value. (If any of these regions are independent, acquire them.) Once acquired, these are the regions which will feed your people, and which must be protected above all others. Your defenses should be formed with the goal of preserving these regions, and your economic development should be centered around here as well. Experienced players will sometimes try a more decentralized strategy (Bob Mohney advocates cities in every region), but I consider that to be a a waste of resources, particularly early on. The second item in the list of importance is trade. Your trade range is listed on your stat sheet, generally it's three. That means that in order for sea trade to occur with another nation, there can be at most three sea zones between your port and their port. (Land trade can take place as long as you have an adjacent border with the target nation.) You will need to know the borders of your potential trade partners: in an established campaign, give them a call - in a new game, wait until the dust settles. Find mutually advantageous ways of placing ports so that trade can quickly be established - the closer, the better.

The third item is defensibility. Try to place your borders entirely behind good defensive terrain - mountains and rivers mostly. The borders of historical France are a good example - mountains to the south and west, and the Rhine to the north. Their problems defending themselves in the last century had only a little to do with the lack of defensible borders. If you lack defensible terrain, consider building field forts and fortresses on the frontier.

Remember rule #1 in all of this - don't take what you can't hold. I tend to keep a lot of regions on NT status until I can build the government to keep everything manageable. (Remember that NT regions do not use much government.) This keeps things manageable , but a bit vulnerable to hostile diplomacy.

Also remember that the other players are making the same calculations. Blocking someone from regions that he needs to establish lucrative trade routes paints a target on your side. If someone asks you for a couple of key regions like this, consider your answer carefully. Usually I give in, but crushing them can be a good response - I assure you that killing you is on their mind. On the other hand, if someone is trying to starve your economy like this - build up slowly, wait for the right moment and kill them. Period.

3. Pay attention to - and save - the Newsfax.

The Newsfax is what gives you the information necessary to guage your strengths relative to your neighbors'. That is what the MSI and ESI are about. More importantly, if you read carefully, you might see your neighbor use his army; then you can see just how big you neighbors' armies are. That's critical because these are the armies you may find yourself defending against: make sure you can defend against them. Third, you can figure out whether your neighbors are earning more money than you are. If they are, they can afford to put more into their military expenses - AQR's, Intel, etc - than you can. Be careful about attacking them. Further, you can tell which regions have what kind of status. This is important to determine where the bribes and diplomacy can do the most good once the shooting starts. Last, save the faxes. You never know which of your neighbors will suddenly turn on you; your good friend in a neighboring country could drop out and leave you facing a suddenly hostile neighbor.

4. Keep your internal income high.

This one, sadly, took me far too long to figure out. Your internal income is the sum of your regional, city, inter-city and public works incomes. Although the easiest way to increase your overall income as the game progresses is to concentrate on international trade, I've come to the conclusion that concentrating solely on trade is a fool's gambit. This may not be apparent at first glance. Taking a look at the international trade rules, the higher your trade value the more money you make - all you need to do to rake in the big bucks is to expand your cities as rapidly as possible.

In games where your trade partners have decent trade values, this is extremely lucrative (more on how to do this is in point #5). The problem with this (losing) strategy is that it places control of significant portions of your income into the hands of your neighbors. In some games, the only warning I've had of my neighbors' duplicity has been when they suddenly cut off all my trade, not by blockade - which I could have countered - but by embargo. They refused to trade with me! This was every bit as effective as a successful attack because without my trade income I couldn't even meet my support costs. They won the war before it began and in one case without firing a shot. Don't let this happen to you! After this tragedy hit me a couple of times (occasionally I am very dense) I finally resolved to meet all my support costs on only my internal income. That way, I could not be held hostage to my neighbors' whims.

I accomplish this by building Public Works in safe areas - heavily defended regions like my capital, homeland and the surrounding regions. Make very sure that you can survive without that trade income; if you can afford to actually fight a war with just your internal income, even better. There's been some discussion about what is better to use to build public works - NFP or gold. In most situations there is no substitute for NFP - you MUST have NFP for city expansion and military units and having NFP to spend on transports (for trade) and roads is very helpful. Usually it's poor planning to use NFP for public works. But in some games I've used NFP for public works extensively: sometimes your nation can come by NFP easier than gold. There's nothing wrong with using NFP for public works as long as you leave yourself enough NFP for your other needs. Plan ahead.

5. A first rate military cannot be built upon a third rate economy.

The discussion here is centered on the economy. If you want to be the proverbial 800 pound gorilla, you must first acquire the means to pay for it. In the early stages of a game, the most important aspect of your income is likely to be regional income - you can get that for the price of some diplomacy and patience. As time progresses, city income and inter-city trade start assuming more importance. But an advanced economy thrives on public works and international trade, with emphasis on the international trade part.

Bob Mohney did a great job of describing the trade aspects of the game he was in, but the rules have evolved a bit since then; besides, I disagree with him about when and where to build cities. As noted above, keep your internal income reasonably high. Only when that is achieved should you move to the next step and maximize your trade. International trade has three components that you can influence:

(A) duration of trade,
(B) MSP (merchant shipping points)
and (C) international trade value.

(A) Start trade with as many neighbors as you can, as quickly as you can. The longer a trade route has been in existence, the more money it brings in. Further, with just a few MSP assigned to begin with, sea trade routes will automatically generate additional MSP, even if you can't afford to purchase a lot of shipping yourself. I've started several routes with just a couple transports. It may seem like a lot of trouble for very little return at the time, but over the long haul, it does pay off.

(B) Watch the trade section of your stat sheet, and build transports for those trade routes that are under capacity, if possible. (Occasionally you will need to expand your ports first.) Add shipping to the routes with the longest durations and the shorter distances; you get more return for your trouble on these routes.

(C) The part of trade that you can most directly influence is your international trade value (ITV): you generally increase your ITV by building and expanding cities. Your Agro production limits the total amount of city points you can feed, so the question then becomes how to get the most trade points for your Agro. The answer is to build ports, and to build them in cultivated or island regions. Building cities in every region may look great, but it can be tremendous waste of resources.

Table 2-15 shows that a port city will consume only eighty percent of the Agro of a non-port city and rule 2.11.1 states that a port actually generates an additional Agro point as well. Furthermore, table 2-14 shows that cities in cultivated, island and jungle regions consume less than cities built elsewhere. For example, a size 4 "normal" city (not on a road, not a port) in a desert consumes 8 Agro and provides .27 towards your ITV (on a road such a city would provide .53 towards your ITV). Now, a size 10 port in a cultivated or island region consumes a net of 7 Agro and provides 4 towards your ITV. Clearly the port is a much better deal. I conquered a size 4 city in a desert on a road in Lords One, where Agro and port space are perennial problems of mine. If I were spending that Agro on a size 10 port, my base trade income would increase by 245.5 gold points, not including any benefit that would be gained by having more port capacity to conduct trade out of (and there would be a lot of benefit). The desert city is too strategic to consider giving up, but it is extremely annoying nonetheless... When you are building your cities plan ahead: (1) build ports and (2) build in cultivated regions. The difference in trade income can be critical.

If your country doesn't have much coastline or already has a lot of non-port cities, consider connecting these cities to the capital by road. This will usually double the cities' contributions to your ITV, and that will tend to offset the maintenance cost of the road.

The main exceptions to this advice are cities in steppe and wilderness regions: a city placed in one these types of regions will gradually turn the region cultivated. If your goals include cultivating regions, then placing cities in selected wilderness and steppe regions is not a bad investment. But the cultivation process goes slowly, and you need to remember that the bigger the city, the more rapidly conversion takes place. I usually make it a three or four g.p. city.

While all this city expansion is going on, pay attention to your Agro consumption. Look at what you earn on a normal harvest and try to keep your consumption at about two-thirds that level. Store some of the excess in the good years (don't just spend it!). Remember that regional public works (particularly in cultivated regions) increase your Agro production. Before you engage in another round of city expansion, you may need to build some regional public works to feed all these new people. Further, building more public works helps out on Rule #4 - keeping your internal income high. The bigger your cities get, the more they count toward your Imperial Size. Remember Rule # 1. You can literally build yourself into tax rate trouble and dynastic failures.

The key question that I haven't addressed thus far is timing: when is it more profitabe to concentrate on ITV (and international trade) versus public works? Increasing your ITV by one means increasing a port in a cultivated region two and a half times, for a total cost of 25 NFP and 37.5 gold. This is roughly the equivalent of nine PWB; so, the city expansion has to bring in a minimum of nine gold to match the return you would earn by investing in PWB instead. For two and a half city levels, you would get two and a half gold from city income and two and a half gold from inter-city trade income, for a total of five. That means your international trade income must increase by four in order to break even. So, take your current international trade income and divide it by your ITV. If the result is less than four, you get a better return increasing your public works than expanding your cities. If it's greater than four, then you get a better return increasing your trade value. (Remember that these figures are for ports: the result needs to be a bit higher if you're increasing other types of cities.)

The last point on trade is that someone must lead the way by building a high ITV for themselves. When the other players see that trade will be profitable they will jump on board. If your income is approaching two hundred and the above calculation advises you to wait, my response would be to build up the ITV anyway (unless your geography severely limits the number of potential trade partners you can have). Someone will take the hint and follow your lead.

6. A first rate economy cannot be defended by a third rate military.

After getting whipped a few times because I couldn't afford to purchase enough military units, I decided that economics was where the real action was. After getting whipped a few more times because all my resources were being spent on the economy and I didn't have a strong enough standing army, it was apparent that a more balanced approach was needed. If there are flaws in this article, it's probably in this area. Before I get my economy sufficiently strong, my armies tend to lack both in size and in quality. I seem to be improving in this area, but as a reader, you deserve to know where my advice might be lacking...

I've already stressed the importance of reading the newsfax to guage the size of your opponents' forces. Remember that the numbers in the newsfax are subject to manipulation by enemy intelligence services (Luigi does have some excellent points). In addition to a mobile army you will want to build fixed units - field forts, fortresses and wall points. Having about thirty field forts in your homeland, with your army on defend and all your leaders present gives you an excellent chance of withstanding an attack there. I once attacked someone who was doing just that and got my army mauled, despite my 4:1 superiority and the two very good leaders that led the operation. Raising walls on your key trade cities and putting field forts on your borders aren't bad ideas either, particularly if you choose to have your army on "react" rather than defending your homeland.

It's not only quantity that makes a good army, but quality. Take a look at the mercenary pool for your area. You should consider the AQR's listed there to be the absolute minimum goals for your own nation. After you reach them, continue to invest at least small amounts of money into the AQR's each turn. The more militant players are putting in more money than you are and it is dangerous to fall too far behind. Before you decide that you wish to make a bid to "superpower" status (or even "regional power" status) you must have AQR's comparable to your opponents, or be prepared to make up in quantity what you lack in quality.

One of the most annoying things about armies is that they have to be paid and fed - they consume one Agro for every 25 g.p. in support costs. Further, in times of war, support costs double - thereby doubling the Agro support as well. If you're building up to crush that neighbor, can you pay and feed your army afterward, as well as replace any losses? If not, consider delaying and building the economy a bit more. The middle of a war is no time to end up short on building capacity or troop support. I try to keep my overall support costs below 25 percent of my total income. This seems to leave me enough leeway in times of trouble to meet my increased suport costs and build up troops.

After reading Tom Harlan's article on warfare in Lords and I must disagree with one point that he makes. You can only build as many units as you generate in NFP; therefore, make the NFP you spend on your military count. I never build inexperienced troops as I consider them a waste of NFP. Spend the extra gold or two and make your troops at least "regular." If the other guy wants to be cheap, let him take the negative modifiers for the first few rounds of combat. The first rounds could be telling. One last note: in real life, no country ever succeeded as a long term
military power without having a strong navy. Don't neglect yours, especially if you take my advice about building lots of ports.

Conclusion

There are several other points that I would include, but other people have covered them very well, particularly about military strategy and the use of intelligence assets. Read the articles addressed to newcomers first. If you're contemplating a war, take Tom Harlan's advice to heart. Where advice conflicts, choose the style that best suits you. As with all games, the goal is to have fun, and the rules exist to help, not hinder, that goal.

I would like to thank Rob Pierce and Bill Rakowski for their reviews of this article and for their helpful suggestions.