~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BEGINNER STRATEGY: COOKBOOK ARMIES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Purchasing armies is the one thing that takes everyone a long time to finish, and that includes me. The reason being that you have to think about what the best units are, what the best advantages to take are, and what you need for the given map and opponent. Some players seem to have a knack for this, and others are completely lost and enter the battlefield without any chance of victory. This article is geared towards the second group but might even give the first group a few ideas. So how can even the worst purchasers even the odds? By following a formula that forces you to choose wisely. While I cannot tell you exactly what to buy, I can tell you HOW to buy units to ensure that you get the correct mix for winning a typical battle. There will still be some work to do(and it is not fullproof), but the basics will already have been taken care of, and after all, most players just need to be pointed in the right direction before buying correctly becomes second nature! Want to test out my theories? OK... fire up that pbm setup, and follow the formula below: 1) First calculate the Gold Per Unit(GPU) allowance. Take the buying gold and divide by number of units allowed. For ex, if there is 3000 gold and 30 units, GPU would be 3000/30 = 100. Now you can always alter the GPU by just deciding to buy fewer units(say 25), but I would recommend you always start with a full slate unless you know what you are doing. 2) Start buying heavy units ONLY and note the cost as compared to the GPU. a) If cost = GPU, continue b) If cost is twice the GRP, immediately buy a junk unit which costs less than 20% of the GPU c) If cost is half the GPU, make a note of it. When you buy two units which cost half the GPU, remove one of your junk units d) For every two units than cost 1.5 times the GPU, you must add another junk unit e) For every combination of items whose cost adds up to the GPU, buy another junk unit f) If the cost of a unit is 3x the GPU, buy 2 junk units, etc... Example- GPU is 100 a) You buy centaur knights(98) -> continue b) You buy a full exp sandman(about 200, depending on warlord) -> buy a 13 gold wolf rider c) You buy a shadow warrior(72). Then you buy a cobraman (29) -> remove a 13 gold wolf rider d) You buy two elephantmen with full exp (about 161) -> buy a 4 gold goblin(does not have to be the same thing as long as it is cheap, though wolfs are the best for the evil side) e) You buy a skull(50) and two amulets(50) -> buy another 13 gold wolf rider f) You buy a full exp shadow dragon(about 420) -> buy 3 wolf riders 3) Once you have filled out your full army, it's time to start thinking of support units(light inf, skirms, archers, light cav, bomberdiers, seige, spellcasters). For each support unit you want to buy, you must first take away one(or more) heavy units that add up to the GPU. If you take away a unit that is twice the GPU, you must also remove a junk unit. It works in reverse of the above. Do this one at a time. After you buy your support unit, apply the rules once again- if the unit is twice GPU, add another junk unit, or vice versa. Continue, one at a time, until you are finished buying support units. 4) You now have your basic army, and you have spent most or all of your gold. It evens out because you specifically compensated for overspending or underspending on your units. Now you must make the adjustments that are the tough part of the game, such as deciding who gets what items, and customizing for the an opponent. But you should have a good start towards a solid army in place. --- What I like about this method, esp for those who are not good buyers, is: 1) It forces you use your gold to fill out your army; too many players just purchase what they can and leave the other army slots unused. 2) It forces you to buy the proper number of junk units for the amount of heavy units you have. You must use the correct number of junk units if you hope to win. 3) It forces you to buy heavy units first, so you can see what the maximum possible number you can buy is. Then when you start weighing the options and deciding how much money to spend on support, you know how many heavies you gave up. It might make you think twice about buying that super expensive support unit when you have to give up 3 heavies to do it! 4) It makes you focus on how much money you are spending on heavy, support, and junk units. Minmizing spending on support units while still getting the ones you need is the key to purchasing. You always need the heavy units, and you are forced to buy the junk units, so the main area of difference between armies is often in the support units and money spent on them. --- HEAVY UNIT PERCENTAGES, BCU, MUG That being said, there is also a strong relationship between the GPU, the MUG, and the percentage of heavy units your army should contain in a standard battle. At MUG 0, the most you are going to spend on a HI unit is about 40 gold. For Cav, it is about 50. Sky hunters are generally twice as expensive for any MUG, but since we often use only the MUG 0 or MUG 5 ones they won't really be mentioned much in this analysis. So if GPU is equal to the typical amount for a heavy unit(whether it be HI or Cav), you should be able to buy all heavy units. But since sky hunters are more expensive, and there are items and the skull to consider, as well as some support units, I would recommend if GPU = BEST (HEAVY) UNIT COST (BUC), you should have 75-80% heavy units. By best heavy unit cost, I mean the most powerful heavy unit that costs the least. For ex, at mug 3 we have lionmen at 142 and ogre centaurs at 221. Now the ogre cens are more powerful, but the best value is the lionmen, so the BUC=142. If you want to buy cav, you can, but then you will wind up with less heavies than the recommended amount. Now of course we know that it is rare for GPU to equal BUC. So what if GPU is half of BUC? Then roughly you can afford at most half your army to be heavies. But if you add in sky hunters and support, let's say you should aim for 40-45% heavy units. Here are my general recommendations: GRP/BUC %HEAVY UNITS IN ARMY(Recommended) 100% 75-80 75% 60-70 50% 40-45 33% 20-25 25% 15-20 10% 5 As for BUC values, in my very rough estimation, I come up with the following(I usually use Dragga or Marcus + beastmaster to make the MUG2/3 beasts cost less): MUG BUC 0 40 1 70 2 100 3 150 4 240 (sandmen are expensive) 5 250 Now, a few things to keep in mind. This is for cookbook type of games, not ones where conditions are specialized or customized. For example, if sky hunters are not allowed, you would increase the number of heavies recommendation since you don't have to spend on them. If exp is limited, the BCU changes completely. Also, if you want to try a specific strategy which calls for a special army distribution, of course this would not apply. The point is, use this as a general recommendation, but don't regard it as the final word. Advanced players might not need to follow this formula, because they know what to buy for an opponent and they have built armies many many times, and know what works. But I will say that while I don't stick with the army I get from this method, I do use it as a starting point quite often. If you wind up using these suggestions, let me know if it has helped you! NEXT ISSUE: Advanced strategy- My Three Key Strategies for beating the top players. I STILL want to hear from you! Nobody has suggested anything new for me to write about in terms of strategy. I would appreciate some input. Suggestions, thoughts, and feedback on my strategy articles is always welcome! Regards, BloodLord the Lich FG Laddermaster