View Full Version : lib Strategy on Ports
Pragmatic
10-15-2002, 02:52
Okay, what's everyone's strategy on ports?
They seem to have several plusses and minuses.
Plus: A little bit of extra revenue. Can upgrade to shipwright. Entry/exit point for your strategic agents.
Minus: Entry/exit point for ENEMY strategic units. Cost and time to build.
Once, when playing the English, I didn't build port/docks until I had two assassins, two spies, and four priests in every province. THEN I built them, because having your provinces' religion change by 10 - 15% in a turn is ridiculous.
Given the way that enemy assassins and religious agents tend to flood every orifice I have, I am starting to rethink my strategy of building a port/docks in every coastal province. When an enemy agent invades, I hesitate to send an assassin after them, because (given the way you can't sort, and the fact that sorting is NOT going to be in the patch) by the time I figure out where my assassin went, my assassin has kicked the bucket. So I think I'll be building port/docks only in provinces with tradable goods (and thus build the various Merchants) and places where I intend to build boats.
Anyone else use a different strategy? Something between the two extremes? (No ports until bunkered down, versus ports at the earliest opportunity in every province possible.)
Ports in provinces with tradable goods, some strategic chokepoints like the North African provinces, and, of course, islands, work for me.
Goodridge
10-15-2002, 03:39
I always build ports to faciliate the movement of troops. I think that the minor irritation caused by enemy agents is not enough to cancel out the need to move troops quickly. This is especially important if you have a far-flug empire, such as West Europe + Crusade conquests. I also don't hestitate to slay enemy agents. Once I killed an Alim in Britain, and the next turn the Elmos sued for peace, then canceled their alliances with my enemies and went to war on my side! I don't know the assasination had anything to do with it, but the Elmos had been doing very well in the war and had rejected all previous peace offers...so...
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Kyle Goodridge
Quote Originally posted by Pragmatic:
Minus: Entry/exit point for ENEMY strategic units.[/QUOTE]
It's also your Entry/Exit point.
You can train agents from some where else and move them in once you have a port, instead of wasting lots of money/time to tech up until you can train agents there. Also, this way, you can train agents ahead of time so you can have some defense before you can build Guard Tower, Church...
Without a port, you troops can't get out when you need.
Moreover, if there is trade goods and existing ship line, you can begin trading by building a trading post. The cost for supporting ship can drop (not a whole lot of money anyway) since it's calculated from the nearest port.
I build a port in every coastal province eventually (starting at the ones with trade goods). Put a couple of spies in the province and watch them level up if enemy agents try to pass. Each dead agent is a loss to your (present or future) enemies, so you want to attract them.
I build a port early on in most of my provinces. Later, the port gets built immediately. Distance to the king is a major source of happiness and you need a port to give a boost as well as to facilitate transferring agents and transferring troops somewhere else. I just build lots of agents and start assassinating if they flood me. Usually I start building my own and start sending them out.
I've build ports in every province with tradeable goods, any province with a valour bonus for shipbuilding and every isolated province (island or landlocked). So far I have found thats quite enough to provide for troop movement.
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Didz
Fortis balore et armis
MajorFreak
10-16-2002, 08:14
it's fun to mob bishops with assassins in landlocked/no port provinces...after a while though it just becomes dead boring.
There's enough port+merchant sites for that lucrative trade income to satisfy the port requirement and still have the occasional bishop raping scene.besides, what are you really training the assassins for? The only good they are is to assassinate the pope and apparently that's not to hard with low level ones.
*shrug*
don't get me wrong i still like assassins everywhere, plus bishops and spies to boost faith/loyalty respectively. (actually, i like to level assassins just to play bodyguard to my heirs)[/list]Besides, more ports equals more points of access for feeding your assassins. (only reason i don't suggest ports on every shore is simply for aesthetic reasons)
[This message has been edited by MajorFreak (edited 10-16-2002).]
Gringoleader
10-16-2002, 12:47
I find assassins are handy for weeding out crap unit leaders in my own army. Also if a provincial ruler starts taking liberties I tend to have them whacked. Think in my last campaign I had one of my princesses terminated because her picture looked a little more minging than usual.
Actually hate to sound heartless, but mass producing priests and emissaries as fodder for your own assassins could be a good way to train up a pope-swatter in safety.
Sword_Monkey
10-16-2002, 18:33
I build a port in EVERY coastal province, the happiness/loyalty boost and the facilitated troop movement on my side offsets any minor negative of enemy assassins and religious agents. Plus, I never build military units anywhere but coastal provinces precisely because I want the ability to order up and place fresh troops the very next turn. Way too much micromanagement to try and only build "needed" ports for me.
A border fort, assassin, spy, bishop, and if need be, an inquistor, in every port does wonders for slowing down the enemy agents. Just just build "disposeable" assassins for the religous agents if they bother you. I haven't found that they can do very much if *you've* seen to promoting your own religion.
Papewaio
10-16-2002, 18:45
Quote Originally posted by Gringoleader:
Think in my last campaign I had one of my princesses terminated because her picture looked a little more minging than usual.
Actually hate to sound heartless[/QUOTE]
May have to work on it if you wish not to sound heartless http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif
LOL at terminating the princess though based on her portrait... luckly there aren't artists around who could have been held responsible instead.
It would be interesting if we could hire specialists who come with V&Vs... hire artists, farmers, moneychangers which then are attached to the Governors/King as the virtues/vices.
It was often the advisors that really did cause the downfall of kings or the great works to be done... so it would be nice to be able to knock off individuals responsible for some of the vices... while having to lose some of the virtues in the process...'Honest my King isn't committing incest with the princesses, but my (+2 Acumen) moneychanger has been reporting that he has been valuing some of the family jewels'
White Gecko
10-17-2002, 05:16
Another factor to take into the calculation is that YOUR ports give the opponents trade income if they have lots of boats.
Is the ability to move your troops from any coastprovince worth to give the AI a lot of extra cash?
Sword_Monkey
10-17-2002, 11:19
Quote Originally posted by White Gecko:
Another factor to take into the calculation is that YOUR ports give the opponents trade income if they have lots of boats.
Is the ability to move your troops from any coastprovince worth to give the AI a lot of extra cash?[/QUOTE]
Um, the AI currently builds the tiniest trade routes imaginable. Supposedly it's being addressed in the patch. I'd be happy to let the AI have some more money, then maybe they'd do something more than abandon every province as I retaliate after they decided to launch some half-assed "strike" against me.
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