Empire/army size

[Minor Annoyance]

How big should my empire and army be compared to a standard civ game? IN my current game even a modest army forced my science slider down below 40% and that was with city states. Is the game designed that way? I think I read that there's supposed to be "wilderness" much longer that usual but the AI didn't seem to be holding back on building cities.
I did go up to two levels from noble so maybe that's what made things so expensive and maybe that's why the AI could handle more cities than I could.

 

[Moxxa]

If you play on Immortal with a warmongering civ, your science slider will go below 40%, probably for many many turns. It's just part of the game, just like having a plan to bring the slider back up is. If this is being caused solely by the size of your army, make sure you're getting some use out of it. If you don't plan on warmongering (even though you pretty much have to on the higher levels), only build enough units to defend your cities. Pretty much like in civ...

 

[Mailbox]

Markets. They're great for keeping a large army or empire afloat.

 

[phoulishwan]

Markets. They're great for keeping a large army or empire afloat.

Especially combined with Runes Temples and Gambling Houses. +8 gold per city with just these 3 buildings, that's more than enough to cover that single cities maintenance costs and probably supply 4 more units to your overall army to boot.

Maybe your civics cost is the bigger problem for you? iirc City States does nothing to help to cost of your civics, only distance from palace and number of cities, perhaps you're running all High Upkeep civics without having a strong economy to support them?

 

[onedreamer]

How big should my empire and army be compared to a standard civ game?

Much smaller. Not because of economical reasons but for the simple fact that having a professional army in FFH2 is much easier than in standard Civ4 since the promotions are way more powerful.

 

[Zechnophobe]

Agreed. Army should remain small, but expand like normal. Early techs to help keep your economy moving:

Education (HUGE!)
Festivals (Pretty decent)
Code of Laws (Decent).

 

[Ecofarm]

I like my army to be 10-15 units.

1 civ hero
1-2 religious heros
3 defense (usually rangers)
3 assassins
5 mages

With summons, and werewolves (if FoL is final religion), and lightning, and domination, and command, and stuff like that, the army has a tendency to grow itself during war.

I don't like more than 5-6 cities and I like open space (I prefer OCC). Advanced start 500-2000pts and no_settlers option creates a nice atmosphere of dangerous uncivilized land where giant monkeys and the like spawn and each AI has 4-6 cities (plus what they capture from barbs/each other), but AI cannot not cover every tile with culture or spread their defense too thin. Advanced 310 pts and the AIs build only 1 city, but that's basically the same as a non-advanced start with no_settlers.

 

[A_Hamster]

I like my army to be 10-15 units.

1 civ hero
1-2 religious heros
3 defense (usually rangers)
3 assassins
5 mages

With summons, and werewolves (if FoL is final religion), and lightning, and domination, and command, and stuff like that, the army has a tendency to grow itself during war.

I don't like more than 5-6 cities and I like open space (I prefer OCC). Advanced start 500-2000pts and no_settlers option creates a nice atmosphere of dangerous uncivilized land where giant monkeys and the like spawn and each AI has 4-6 cities (plus what they capture from barbs/each other), but AI cannot not cover every tile with culture or spread their defense too thin. Advanced 310 pts and the AIs build only 1 city, but that's basically the same as a non-advanced start with no_settlers.

So what you consider a typical defensive army size and composition for turn 100? For turn 200? And how does that change for warmongering?

I'm new to FfH II and I'm not sure what are the benchmarks are. In a regular game of civ I'd know that if I have x number of cities and units at turn 200 I'm either ahead of the curve, about the same, or Monty bait. Here I'm unclear if I should beat up the neighbors or make nice. (At the moment, I'm on Noble.)

 

[Sarisin]

I think the raging barb option has a big effect on this. You simply need a larger army to defend your cities and improvements if the barbs are pouring in.

This is especially true if the ai has targeted your civ as the one to get the initial onslaught of barbs. Yes, you can gain some XP for your army this way, but your maintenance costs and expansion would be affected by early barb activity.

Aggressive AI also can impact the size of the army you build. Depending on your neighbors, you could have early wars to defend.

One thing that has always amazed me by this game/mod is the way the ai expands so much and builds large armies while still managing to keep up with research. I guess that depends on difficulty level, but it always seems like I need to go to war to slow down the expansion-happy civs to stay ahead.

 

[Ecofarm]

So what you consider a typical defensive army size and composition for turn 100? For turn 200? And how does that change for warmongering?

I'm new to FfH II and I'm not sure what are the benchmarks are. In a regular game of civ I'd know that if I have x number of cities and units at turn 200 I'm either ahead of the curve, about the same, or Monty bait. Here I'm unclear if I should beat up the neighbors or make nice. (At the moment, I'm on Noble.)

First, note: quick speed.

I like my attack army (outlined above) done between turn 110 and 150. If you start classic era (turn ~60 IIRC), it should be done about the same.

I'm not much of an expander. I do most of that by conquest. Generally, I like 3 cities to get my army together (built by turn ~85?) and then capture others when the army is ready. Building my attack army serves as my defense for the three cities until it launches. On immortal or deity, you generally only get 1-2 cities max besides your cap (which is great for me as I hate micromanagement and more cities is more micro), and you have to found them within cultural borders (because the AI expands so fast).

I like to leave at least 1 mage with a damage spell, 1 assassin, and 1 ranger in each city when I head to war. I like the mage to have mind mana for inspiration while idle and charm for an emergency as well as a damage spell. I try to keep some cash on hand so that if I get attacked while my army is away, I can build a scout in each city real quick and upgrade to assassin or ranger. After you conquer one city for a couple hundred gold, that supplies emergency cash for a surprise attack. I sometimes leave a druid that is terraforming, an archmage, or Baron (farming werewolves that get sent to the front) in or near my homelands as well. If I'm using domination (also mind mana), I'll sometimes send longbows/crossbows home to defend instead of using them as fodder. The sad thing about domination: units that move 1 are of no use to my 2 move army; if I can't get the unit a mobility promotion right away, it's fodder or on the way home.

 

[A_Hamster]

First, note: quick speed.

I like my attack army (outlined above) done between turn 110 and 150. If you start classic era (turn ~60 IIRC), it should be done about the same.
<Snip>

Thank you. Yes, that helps. Your garrisons are thinner than mine, and your army is smaller. Clearly I've turtled for too long and I can attack earlier, even on Noble at normal speed. (Might do better too, since I'm playing Svartalfar this game and they really aren't builder-oriented.)