|
||
The absolute first thing you should do is look at your map, find your position's regions and mark them in some way. Next, pick up the newsfax and see who your neighbors are. If your position is listed under "Middle East", for example, read over the blurbs given for the other positions in the Middle East, especially noting any diplomacy results which are listed for them. Mark these as well. You should now have a fair idea of who is a big and/or near neighbor and who is smaller and/or farther away. Now go to the MSI list and mark off these people; contact them ASAP by whatever means you decide to use. This is most important as, in most cases, a player who doesn't communicate is quickly dead. Obviously, this should not be a "bare-your soul" message, but rather a friendly (or at least neutral) "Hi, how are ya?" type. Most players in Lords are nice enough to respond to you in some manner, even if the response is only "Go away". These answers, the nicer ones, will serve as a basis for diplomacy. You should ask each of your neighbors what the local political landscape is and what agreements, if any, are in force. Perhaps there is a regional alliance you could join. Carefully note the answers and pay particular attention to conflicts between two or more of your neighbors; try not to get in the middle of a war on your first one or two turns, as this will likely be un-helpful to your chances of survival. Now to your stat sheet. If you have a position in a new game of Lords, you will have some gold (usually 200) to spend on things like extra regions, cities and city levels, cultivation, public works and so on. It is entirely up to you how to spend this windfall. Some people build troops and QRs to maximize MSI rank; others buy extra regions to expand their political base. Still other players opt for more city levels and PWB to maximize their incomes. There is no single, right answer; they all have advantages and disadvantages. Your map, oddly enough, may provide some guidance. If you are relatively isolated and see no immediate military threats, try an expansion option. If you and your neighbors can come to some accommodation, you may want to think about cultivation and PWBs, to maximize you income. If you and your neighbors can't agree, then military is the way to go. To efficiently use all the data on your stats sheet, you need to use some method which logically directs you from step to step. One such method is described below. First, find your agro surplus, if any, by subtracting your consumption from your production. [By the way, if your normal harvest minus your consumption is near zero, or negative, you need regional PWB or more cultivated regions at once.] A good rule of thumb is to have your normal production be at least 150% of your consumption; this will allow you to survive a bad harvest. Agro reserves will also help, but if you manage your production correctly, you won't need them and the gold can be spent on better things. Any excess agro should be converted to other uses as per Table Table 2-17. Agro Surplus Conversion Options, on page 16. Secondly, examine your current economic status. Take your base income, multiply it by your tax rate, add any saved assets from last turn and any agro conversion from step 1 plus any gold from other players or banks. Then, subtract your total support costs and any gold loaned to other players. This should result in your available Gold and NFP totals for the turn. Thirdly, decide what troops, cities, city levels, public works, trade ships, megalithic constructs, and so on, you wish to build this turn. As each item is noted, subtract out its cost and make doubly sure to tell the GM WHERE each item is to be built. Stop when you have built all you want (fat chance!) or you run out of gold and or NFP (much more likely). Feel free to juggle your decisions to your maximal benefit, just don't go into the red in either category. Fourth, now decide, in a manner similar to the builds, what investments you wish to make in things like BL, Infra, QRs, Intel Ops and Bonuses and so forth. (Almost anything on your stat sheet with the notation I:##.## can be invested in.) This may require more juggling with the builds totals, but, hey, nobody said this was trivial. Be aware that your Infra should be equal (or nearly so) to your Imperial Size stat or you will risk revolts in your empire. Also, OCs can be helpful for assisting diplomacy, counter-intelligence work and other such goodies and ACs can do counter assassination work. When you finish with #3 and #4, you will have arrived at your "saved for next turn" totals. Fifth, now turn to your leader actions. Starting with your King (or Queen), give them orders for their various tasks. Remember, each leader has a code letter (K, H, L, A etc) followed by three numbers representing their military skills, diplomatic prowess and "guile" or "chutzpta", respectively. Keep these in mind for each individual. Someone who is a good general (first stat), should be used or reserved for battle (but NEVER start a fight just because you have a B-combat leader. Suppose you start the war and Napoleon dies on the first turn, his replacement turns out to be Francois the Feeble, a 3! Now what, tough guy?) In a similar manner, the good diplomats (second stat) should do your diplomacy (duh!), but assign them so that the best ones do the important missions and the lesser skilled either support their betters or are given relatively less important tasks. Here is another area where many Lords players disagree. Some say it is better to have few diplomats visit several regions a turn and rely on the odds of occasionally great results in a sea of so-so results. Others maintain that a diplomat should visit one region and stay put (with maximum modifiers) until that region is friendly, then move on to the next region. Both sides have their points and the choice is up to you and how you wish to play. NOTE: The above is very different from dealing with another player via e-mail, telephone or whatever. Always try to be cool, calm and collected when dealing with your fellow players; LOTE is only a game, don't push it! When you first take a position (new or used), your highest priority should be to get any non-cultivated regions to cultivated status as rapidly as possible. Consensus among most players is that the best way to do this is to build a city (whever possible a port city) in each region to be cultivated and wait for the 100-year countdown to complete (50 years, if the region is steppe). You will probably not be in a position, economically, to drop a city every turn, so you must pace yourself. Try putting down a city every second or third turn and in the intervals, build regional PWBs in the citied regions to a max of 5x the regional gold value. This will help your income grow as each PWB is more gold from the next turn on, and, as your regional PWBs fill up, you will get increased NFP as well. Also, regional PWBs will increase your normal harvest, which via Table 2-17, will get you more gold and NFPs! Keep an eye on the newsfax. If your neighbors are climbing above you on the MSI rankings, build fewer PWBs and more troops. (A solid economic foundation is a very good thing, but let's not be stupid, eh?!) In an ideal world, your economic expansion should easily keep up with your development such that as you finish filling up your non-cultivated regions with PWBs and your military is keeping up with the Jonses (paid for by the extra income from those PWBs and their agro conversions), your citied regions will start becoming cultivated and now can be filled to the tune of 15 times the gold value in regional PWBs. Once you start getting regions cultivated, start to raise your city levels by +1 every other turn or so; this will raise your inter-city trade value and your international trade value. (Remember, the program will subtract the gold value of your smallest city in calculating your I-CTV, so always try to leave a city at level-1, for minimal loss.) At this point, many of the best ideas for further development are found in Bob Mohney's article. We suggest you peruse this excellent article, modify its advice according to your taste in gaming and take it from there. Make your position as individual as you wish and remember: there is no single, best way to play Lords, there is only your way! Good Luck! |