From: emery@Dr_No.mitre.org (David Emery)
Subject: More Warlords Hints
Organization: The Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA.
Distribution: comp
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 15:05:19 GMT

The best strategy for winning Warlords seems to match MacArthur's
Island Hopping strategy in the Pacific in WWII.  The idea is that you
take selected cities, build them up, and then use them to reduce the
cities you bypass.  Since the surrender conditions are dependent on
both the total number of cities you have, and also the number of
cities of your nearest opponent, it's probably best to try to keep
everyone down, rather than eliminating one opponent at a time.  (i.e.
if the Orcs are your closest challenger in number of cities, attack
them and reduce their city count, rather than finishing off the
Sirians or Dwarves...)

Therefore, mobility is very important.  If you've ever been hit by a
"Griffin raid", you'll appreciate this.  Good cavalry, griffins and
pegasi, wolve riders, and even light infantry (in sufficient
quantity/quality) can be very useful for this.  

When playing the Elves, after I get the cities in the general area of
Elvallie, I try to get to one of the cities along western Sulador, and
then roll up the Giants from the south.  Once you get a handle on the
Giants, secure the northern border, and then aim for the Orcs.  I
haven't tried an 'eastern strategy' against the Orcs yet, but it seems
to me that an alternative to reducing the Giants is to grab the two
cities at the southwest part of Huinedor, and roll the orcs from the
south.  The cities of Fire and Ice are also good ones to take early,
just becase they're so hard to capture once someone is established in
them.  Don't forget that you can't guard anything, and you'll probably
lose a couple of cities to counterattacks, so reserves are important.  

When playing the Selines, I move south to take Upbourne, and then
Carmel.  After that, I move back north to take Jessarton, Waybourne
and Marton.  When my hero gets allies, I send them to take Ak-Farzon
in the Dark Forest, and from there I can take the rest of the Dark
Forest cities.  (My best game was playing the Selines against all
other Warlords.  I got surrender in 47 turns, but I was playing
enhanced...) 

Another important thing is to grab as many artifacts/goodies as you
can.  The heros get several things from the ruins/etc: allies, money
and artifacts.  Of the three, I think the artifacts are the least
important.  When playing opponents in Warlord mode, they'll rush out
and collect as many goodies as they can.  Therefore, it's important
for your heros to beat them to the temples.  For instance, the hero
for the Elves should rush to the temples, etc, in southern Sulador,
and try to beat the Frost Giants hero there.  There's always time
after that to go back to the Ruins of Haviel just north of Elvallie.
The Selentines should go south for Old Woods Tower, Harvest Stone and
even Mrin's Crypt first, and then go back to the ruins, etc in the
north.

Not all cities are created equal.  Look at the documentation.  Certain
cities are good at producing certain armies (e.g. Carmel for light
infantry).  Other cities produce really wimpy armies, and it's often
best to shut such cities down altogether.  

Watch your cash flow.  If you're the first to hit a Sage, you'll get a
big cash bonus.  This is a Very Good Thing, as it prevents poverty
later on.  Unless you have a good balance, try to keep a positive cash
flow (more money coming in than is spent on army maintenance).  Try to
prevent "You do not have enough money for the next turn's build"
situations.  Furthermore, if you can hit several sages, you'll have a
much better chance of keeping the other players poor.  Finally, more
money in your bank account increases your chance of getting more
heros.  Also, a good bank account permits you to build up cities that
are in imminent danger.  But, don't waste your money if you're not
likely to win the siege.  Instead, pull out, regroup, and take the
city back.  

As far as tactics, I tend to use the pegasi as 'augmentation' to
stacks of cavalry and/or heavy infantry, to gain the flying bonus.  I
like to keep griffins grouped together as a strike force, for
'city hopping'.  

It's very important to build and maintain a mobile reserve.  A stack
of 7 cavalry and 1 pegasus, centrally located, makes a good reserve.
If you have plenty of heros, put a hero with this stack, too.  In
several places, you'll need to "block" the bridges to prevent
invasions from the Orcs of Kor to Eastern Sulador by Hereuth, for
instance.  I handle this by having three cities producing heavy
infantry, and one city producing pegasi, feeding the nearest city to
the bridge.  I try to keep two stacks of 7 heavy infantry/1 pegasus,
parked on the bridge.  This has been sufficient to keep the Orcs from
crossing.

Don't forget to adequately garrison your cities.  I try to keep a
garrison of at least 3 good light infantry in every city.

One of the best spots on the map is the city of Carmel.  This city
produces one of the best units in the game, light infantry with a
strength of 5.  And, it's right next to the Temple of Iris.  So, you
can run the light infantry (and anything else that you transfer to
Carmel) to the Temple, get it blessed, and then bring it back to the
coast around Carmel and load it on ships.  

			happy campaigning,

			dave
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