The Darkmoor Dragon files

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

Here is the problem:

1.Got to keep this forum under 2000 posts
2.This forum is red hot, i'm starting to prune topics dated from only 2 and a half weeks ago.
3.Darkmoor Dragon as written a lot of posts with solid info about MTW. I don't want to delete useful info.


Here is the solution:

1. Before pruning a topic, i will copy any post from Darkmoor with info and paste it in this topic.
2. I will not prune this topic, so everyone will have access to the info.
3. I will keep this topic closed, so no one can't post in it. Only info about the game here.

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

CAPTURING THE ENEMY DURING A BATTLE:

During a battle you can capture members of the opposition... you can either kill them "then and there" (thereby enhancing your own dread rating [i think it may also affect enemy morale - not sure on that]) or keep them until the battle's end when you can ransom them.
Yeah you tend to capture far more when they are either running or routing - Knights tend to like capturing other knights also (although that may have been my imagination

As you capture troops their is a counter that appears on screen denoting how many you have - at any point you can click on this which executes all those you have at that point. You automatically take prisoners in battle though (no switch to not do so).

High Dread does a few things: It can cow a population into submission, lower the morale of enemy troops or even make them run away, cow your own troops into behaving themselves.

There are then also the "Vices & Virtues" which can gow ith or against Dread - including things like Scars, Cowardice, Compassion, Murderer, "Always kills prisoners" - that sort of thing.
Enemeis with nowhere to run to (no escape province, no castle, defending a castle etc) DO fight harder - indeed this will display on the battle tooltip as something like "Ready to fight to the death as nowhere to retreat to" (or similar)



[This message has been edited by Sir Kuma of The Org (edited 07-09-2002).]

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

Mostly ABOUT STRATEGY (Strategic map):


There are a LOT of provinces and a LOT of land to cover.
The BIG impression i got from playing was that Trade (high income) is absolutely imperative for many if not all factions - the English lands, for instance, aren't that good in terms of farmland at all and natural resources are pretty scant. Thats fairly historically accurate also, as is the "foundation" of the English power based on the Wool trade and shipping in the later years.

There are two or three other key factors also:

Once you've "pacified" a land you really dont need to keep much of an army in it at all - a few peasants or militia will do the trick IF you have a nice big castle in there and a content population (a bit harder if you are cowing the population with your Dread factor).

Big Castles seem to be able to hold out for years and years with just a few men in them - thus giving you enought ime to race an army back there to raise a seige etc... obviously the other buildgins may suffer in the meantime but...

Getting around quickly is again down to sea power and protection from sea invasions is down to sea power. You cant invade a land via the sea until you've cleared a clear naval route to it - soe ven in provinces with ports you are "safe" so long as you keep a ship or two in the corresponding sea (until its sunk anyway)

Similar blockading can also neutralise your trading although you have to be at war to blockade trade - whilst any ship will always blockade troop movement even if neutral (and allied i think).

So for conquest you almost need this "rolling front" of strong armies behind which exist a "hollow shell" of "secure" provinces protected by big castles manned by very few men and a fleet or two to keep the enemy at bay.

What this means is that the actual "fighting armies" don't need to be huge in size or numbers.. or at least I see this as one tactic - the big problem with this is getting bogged down beseiging the oppositions big castles - if you want to advance rapidly you need to assault them and break them down or get stuck in a protracted years long waiting game.

Overall i think that pretty much reflects the period - but it makes for a HUGE SP game (btw, one thing you cant do is leave a province empty - even a content population will EVENTUALLY generate rebels if there are no garrisoned "soldiers" in its castle at all - not too mention the actions of other factions agents, priests etc stirring up trouble)


Bottom line though:

If you don't earn the money you are in trouble. Of course pilllaging other provinces, ransoming prisoners and such like also generate money - so a "mongol horde" type of tactic could work also.. just dont get bogged down though or you'd be in debt so fast you wouldn't know what hit you. (i'd imagine anyway, i didn't get a chance to really explore trade too much and im not sure how taxation at ports works, if its on imports and exports or what - the game is too big to get a handle on everything in one day)

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

Disengaging:


Yeah it seemed much easier - if you "walk" the unit out from mellee you can actual see those units involved in mellee walking backwards fighting. Some of the more impetous units just dont listen though - and other low-class ones like peasants tend to get into trouble if you try to disengage them... all units tend to take more casualties if going backwards (though that could have been imagination).

What (appeared to be) the major factor in disengagment was whether or not the unit you were disengaging was the prime focus of the attacking unit - if they were just supporting another unit who was the prime target then they were easy to disengage - if not, if they were the direct focus of the attacking unit they were more difficult to disengage - i think unit experience and quality/type also comes into it as described above. (Easier to disengaage mounted units fighting footmen)

Note: units now "run away" from the closest directly targetted attacking unit and only run for their map edge when routed - even then they will still try to avoid other units rather than routing through them.




[This message has been edited by Sir Kuma of The Org (edited 07-10-2002).]

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

Sea battles and trade:


No onscreen battles As DrNo says - all the abattles are auto resolved but your "admirals" do get command increases for winning battles and you can "build" better admirals by building certain buildings (Admiralty).
Ships and fleets are pretty important as the control of sea lanes influence both trade and army movements.

You trade via ports and sea lanes which can be blockaded by any enemy ships in any of the sea "provinces" - any opposing faction ship in a sea lane (enemey, neutral or allied) will block troop transportation though.

You can effectively cripple an opposing faction by blocking their trade routes as trade income is so important - an is a "winning" condition in the Glorious Achievement mode of gameplay for many factions.

So - no controllable battles but a big factor in campaign game play.