Game Phases

[Matija]

1. Recruitment: A race for lords, to recruit them as many as possible, as fast as possible. Enemy is disregarded, if he attacks you, then so much worse for him, he just wasted a day and you might get the nearest lord before him.

2. Skirmishes: Lords are now scattered all over the map, heading back to their bases, and this is the time to ambush a lone lord with a 5-times superior force, and he'll be a shade in a day or two.

3. Major Battles: Lords are now travelling in groups, and when two groups meet, a battle occurs. This is perhaps the crucial phase to decide the winner, so one has to take great care to be victorious. Each enemy lord you annihilate won't be able to make it to the Final Confrontation. If you have inferior forces, run like hell; if you get tired, move to a lake or a citedel and refresh. Lure the enemy to fight you in your Citadel or Keep.

4. The Final Confrontation: Whole armies clash here, or what is left of them. If you did 1-3 well, there is no question of the outcome This will rarely be a decisive phase, one side will probably be shown as superior at the very start of battle.

[sparrowhawk]

I would add that during the last 2 phases, you will probably be stocking up on fresh troops from "safe" garrisons, ie garrisons that are not strategically important (eg Gloom) and those that are safely behind a curtain wall of defences. This might be just enough to tilt the balance at the last.

Also, with the new improved chance of getting Blood of Courage at liths, the outcome may be in doubt if a player with inferior numbers strikes early enough at enough cowardly enemies, depriving his opponent of the chance of building up critical mass, or manages to get enough Bloods himself to turn his smaller force into an elite fighting machine.

[Matija]

As things stand at the moment, an important factor are scouts that you send behind enemy lines, to empty soldier rich enemy citadels.

Can BoC only be found at liths, or are there other sites that give it, like henge, or ruins?

[sparrowhawk]

You can get BOC at the other types of monuments (caverns, henges, ruins), but there is a lower probability of success.