Well, now what? You have gotten your nation's stat sheet, a newsfax and,
maybe, some weird looking maps. As a newly signed on member of a LOTE campaign,
you are, most probably, confused and a bit over-whelmed. Welcome to the
club, rookie! To make some sense of any or all of this material, it is necessary
that you develop a "system" for handling all this data. It doesn't
have to be overly complicated, intricate or elegant; just useful to you
and tight enough to not allow anything to slip through the cracks.
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! |