LIFE Realm

[Seravy]

...and here I was thinking I'm as aggressive as it gets without taking extreme risks (unless playing realms that benefit from peace like Sorcery). I would love to see videos as well.

[Nelphine]

Aggressive for me, is things like my lizardmen who I literally left cities completely empty to firm stacks of swordsmen. Actually if you've ever played warlords (the original), I find CoM is kind of similar.

AI would always put 4 troops in all there cities, so a random attack of light infantry would never take the city.

I would leave cities wide open, make larger stacks using the troops the AI would allocate to defense, and charge. My offensive units would attack in 'sweeping' patterns, to destroy not only entmy cities, but to ensure no random units slipped past. Then, the AI not only splits up because its trying to get the basic defenses in all cities, but it would split up further trying to take my empty cities. Which allows my focused stacks to conquer more, and more importantly to attack much much faster than the AI.

Now, in CoM it isn't too bad that the AI behaves this way, because it makes about 37 times as many troops as the human player given the same resources, which means it can do major defenses (since it really doesn't know what to defend) AND also build offensive stacks. But the human can still take risks which the AI can't; the higher end risks are what marks a style as aggressive I think.

[Seravy]

AI would always put 4 troops in all there cities, so a random attack of light infantry would never take the city.

I would leave cities wide open, make larger stacks using the troops the AI would allocate to defense, and charge.

How come you don't lose them to random sprites...oh lizardmen. Yeah it helps if you can protect your territory from attacks coming from the sea. Other races can't do that (except by using ships that cannot attack a city so it's not any better than having the units in the city itself). Isn't unrest a problem with no units in the city?

My offensive units would attack in 'sweeping' patterns, to destroy not only entmy cities, but to ensure no random units slipped past.

Exactly, this is what land races can't do very well - enemy flying units and ships can arrive from any direction any time and land units can't "sweep" there.
What's worse, attacking small enemy stacks is expensive - the AI can cast spells to make me lose units - it's much cheaper to let them through and get killed by the ranged units in my cities before they get a turn.

If anything, this makes me think lizardmen are even more overpowered than I thought. Honestly, I don't see this strategy working with any other race - they won't have stacks of units surrounding continents to strike down invaders before they reach cities (yes the AI can attack from sea into a city directly using intercontinental stacks, not from ships though but a lone sprite or Gryphon works) and if they are on land they will often be too late unless there are tons of such stacks and they are fast - the only race where I was able to have acceptable mobility with acceptable military power for this to work was Nomads and their 5 move horsebowmen (which coincidentally happens to be reported as being overpowered).
To begin with, without inquisitor and the extreme growth of lizardmen, I don't see myself having enough large stacks to surround my entire territory fast enough to be relevant for Impossible - and the other part of the problem is my units (longbowmen,magicians) don't do well unless I'm the defender, so chasing a stack is not a working strategy for them.
Did you try this strategy with some race other than lizardmen (and nomad horsebowmen) without inquisitor?

[Nelphine]

I do it with beastmen too, and I've done it with halflings; as well as orcs and gnolls. I generally don't leave them empty, except for lizardman outposts, just because I get so many. But I basically leave the bare minimum for unrest the rest of the game, and just slowly upgrade whht is in the Garrison as I have extra.

The main thing is to expand enough that you can afford to lose a city or 4 for 5-30 turns.

[Seravy]

I do it with beastmen too, and I've done it with halflings; as well as orcs and gnolls. I generally don't leave them empty, except for lizardman outposts, just because I get so many. But I basically leave the bare minimum for unrest the rest of the game, and just slowly upgrade whht is in the Garrison as I have extra.

The main thing is to expand enough that you can afford to lose a city or 4 for 5-30 turns.

I really want to see how you play, any chance for recording on video?

[Nelphine]

Sigh, some day. Honestly I do this game 90% while on the bus, on my phone. I think and plan and discuss with you guys. Then I go and do a burst on the weekend, but in 15-45 minute chunks around my 2 year old daughters schedule.

I've never been as successful as catwalk, and my risks fail relatively often if I try different strategies. On impossible, I really have to do life, with some variations in retorts, or I just get slaughtered. Even on extreme I can't replicate a lot of things people do, like sprites. I've only ever used sprites effectively once. I'm especially bad with chaos and nature (I think this is: I can't make summoned units work - I try to play too similarly to city units).

Anywho, point is, I can't do videos effectively.

[GermanJoey]

How can I record a video of a game? I've been waiting for my pitboss game to start, at which time I won't have time to play any CoM for quite awhile, but the setup just keeps dragging on so I can probably squeeze a game in.

[Catwalk]

I could probably do a few, I'm starting a new job on March 6th and am mostly looking after my puppy until then.

I'm fairly one-sided in my preferences, as I'm a sucker for life and heroes. I'll try to polish my nomad strategy (yes, gave up on barbarians already) and then upload a new run.

[Seravy]

How can I record a video of a game? I've been waiting for my pitboss game to start, at which time I won't have time to play any CoM for quite awhile, but the setup just keeps dragging on so I can probably squeeze a game in.

Just download some random recording software, I use hypercam 2.

[zitro1987]

I think some of the indestructible talks of some heroes (with life strategies) could be moderated by making endurance a cheap 30/0 spell that only grants the +1 movement. It would still be an excellent spell, but more helpful in the early game (it is a common after all) thanks to cheap movement boosts. It can also help stacks move faster by giving endurance to the slow priests, halberdiers, etc in your army.
*+1 to defend on a realm that provides so many durability spells (and 2 combat spells that already provide +1 to defend) may be overkill.