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Advanced Tips/Tricks – ReCoNiCiouS

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    • #4744
      JohnMegacycle
      Keymaster

      I’ve added these notes here, but all this information was crafted by the very knowledgeable gamer ReCoNiCiouS. Thanks go to them for all this great info! -JMegs

      SSI have added a ‘Battle speed’ integer for all ships, but it’s nowhere to be seen. The speed shown though determines the number of sea-parts the selected vessel’s travel range per turn and the reason why all merchant ships have zero. From my experience (I play this game around 15 years, the last 2 in NOI), In terms of Battle speed, I can say Clipper has a 0.1% chance of getting captured from >=10 ironclads alone, >=7 raiders – these numbers scale largely as the chances go up – and can never be caught by SotL. Always keep in mind that the group of ships as a whole blockading a Capital’s port use the lowest battle speed in terms of chasing merchant ships. So to utilize their max battle speed you need to split them in categorized groups but be careful, they also fight the opponent’s navy in these groups too.

      Hints :

      1) AI’s needs and plans :
      First here I will say that all games(runs) have more differences than they have similarities; you may play the same map tens of times and have a different outcome every time (and that’s what makes us like this game so much). What you should always know is that the AI plans its MN relations (colonies) on their needs, double-considering the prices with what’s missing, they even do that with cotton & wool.
      Last, the year range of their planning increases drastically as difficulty increases.

      2) What is the actual difficulty :
      Every difficulty step, other than less resources and AI ahead-planning, not only affects the influence you have on other Nations (Minor/Major) with every transaction, but it has the opposite effect on the opponents’ influence as well, mathematically meaning that somewhere in the dev formula should be the price factor.
      Conclusions:
      A) INFLUENCE AMOUNT DEPENDS ON PRICE TRANSACTION (DOLLAR BY DOLLAR)
      B) EVERY DIFFICULTY STEP HAS ITS OWN SUBSIDIES RANGE TO GAIN THE FAVOR OF A MN:
      MAX IS WITH COMPETITION MIN IS WITHOUT
      (GO ONE STEP BEYOND MAX IN URGENT NEED W/ COMPETITION)
      INTRODUCTORY : 0 – 5%
      EASY : 0 – 10%
      NORMAL : 5 – 10%
      HARD : 10 – 25%
      NIGH-ON IMPOSSIBLE : 25 – 50%

      3) Untrained workers are the most expensive :
      I won’t do the math analysis here, but i think you get the idea.

      4) Why are there turns that Minor Nations do not sell their raw materials :
      You may have noticed some turns of a few first tens that Minor Nations don’t do the above.There are a couple reasons for that.
      A) It can, but very rarely, happen when your industries are not high enough to actually produce something with them.
      B) And mostly, because (yes, it’s real and it’s tested) TILE DISTANCE! (???). If you check it your own, you will find out that a MN Capital with f.e. wool/cotton in adjacent tile(s) will almost (if not) always sell it! There must be a technology or a time threshold when that stops. It may also be written in the non-bold threads in the news, but i have no idea about that.

      5) How to count MN Raw materials :
      Check their major exports on the diplomacy screen on the first turn. Then check them on the map. Your measures are what you see; Timber, Cotton and Wool. The game sorts the resources as they are sorted on the Market screen, namely :
      A) Cotton B) Wool C) Timber D) Coal E) Iron
      Example : You see that Pram has a lot of Hills and/or Mountains and 3 Forest tiles. These tiles are translated to 3 Timber. If f.e. Coal is LEFT of Timber in the Major Exports, then Pram has at least 4 Coal tiles in its Nation.

      6) Minor Nation Sell Canned food :
      Counted the same way it’s produced. Also check Tile distance of all components.

      7) Industry statements clarification :
      On the diplomacy screen, Poor to Awesome is determined by the total Value of everything in your warehouse (always countering the opponents).
      On the info screen, the bar goes up and down depending on how much is your industry upgraded and what is your workforce producing.

      8) Military Factors Info; What counters what (symbolized as >, colour = counter strength) :
      Light Infantry > Heavy Artillery (Brown as Sharps vs both cannon and mortars), Light Artillery (Red as Sharps), Heavy Cavalry (between Orange and Red)

      Light Cavalry > Heavy Artillery (as cannons, but BROWN as mortars, meaning Hussars are better vs mortars than Skirms meaning the best), Light and Regular Infantry

      Regular Infantry > Light Infantry, Light Artillery, Heavy Artillery

      Heavy Cavalry > Regular Infantry and Light Cavalry, Light Artillery

      Heavy Infantry > Heavy Artillery (in terms of dmg only), All Light, Heavy Cavalry

      Light Artillery > Heavy Artillery, Light Infantry

      Heavy Artillery > All except Light Infantry and Cavalry

      FirePower is written and obvious, but Defense Sort as below (from highest to lowest) :

      Light Infantry > Regular Infantry(But best behind walls and entrenching) > Light Cavalry > Light Artillery > Heavy Infantry > Heavy Cavalry > Heavy Artillery

      Here i want to say, there are two ‘famous’ ways to beat NOI :

      A) War enthusiast (or Warmonger) :

      Only able when you have Minor Nations bordered. Army needed to be recruited :

      1) For Hamlets : Skirmisher, Hussar, grenadier and a Light Artillery should be enough to win and also kill the artillery. Position the Hussar in the 3rd closest green tile to the top to snipe the artillery, or the grenadier as closest to the center of the battlefield as possible.

      2) For Capitals : 1 more skirm and Hussar, a couple Light Artilleries and a unit of your choice (Grenadier i recommend the most Arms-wise, a 2nd Heavy artillery is the best defender of attacking units against Infantry, or Heavy Cavalry for later use)

      B) Trader of the 77 seas! / Empire and friends / How to break your economy :

      I can go on LOL. Anyway, Title says it hilariously but it’s a real struggle.
      Using the Subsidies range to gain their favor will make you colonize at least as fast as they do, but cash is going to be way limited, a few mistakes can crush your warehouse.

      In my last 2 runs and beyond I tried and try to make a combination of both.

      Tips :

      1) Observation and patience :
      Mostly in NOI, double-check what your TRUE needs are and be patient in the transaction phase, back up for several seconds to check what you are buying before you go bankrupt. I never go minus unless i desperately need something RIGHT NOW!

      2) Plan when to increase your labor :
      Speaking of Untrained workers. Try having enough or more to buy the goods on the transaction phase before increasing labor. Interest has its effect in NOI.

      3) Navy comes first most of the times :
      I have literally survived against a Major with the starting Army and 3 SotL, made my 1st colony and crushed him. Obviously ignore that if you share borders with Majors.
      How does the SotL + Raider battles play – SotL is living up it’s name, the front line in the naval battle. It tanks the Raiders’ damage by getting in their range while Raiders are the damage dealers.
      Mostly my SotL-Raiders Navy is formed by several SotL with ~2 times the amount in Raiders and a bit more.

      4) Cloth is the money maker :
      When Foresters appear, Furni-chair 🙂 starts to drop its price tag. That’s fortunate, because you need Lumber for TONS of things. Fabric is needed for 2 things; Vessels and Cloth. In addition, Cotton and wool are the cheapest raw materials, which means you can buy land with the developer for less cash.

      5) You can always have colonies :
      I don’t mean always in a run, there is a time limit where you decide if you are going to colonize a MN or not. If a NOI AI is in white colour relations with an AI and you are at most the same, 99,9% of the times are GG unless you got there dozens of turns before.
      BUT you can have at least 1-2 colonies in every run if you check the diplomacy screen frequently. Sometimes it’s wise to get the leftovers.
      Mini tip here, you CAN try and get an embassy to the MN you compete for first before they do.

      6) How to split your army :
      Well, the most ideal split doesn’t exist, but there’s a good trick you can do. Considering walking is free, you can cover two provinces with one combined army by walking back and forth every turn. This way you may also hunt down slow invading regiments this way. Remember to leave your wounded behind to recover.

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