Hi

I would like to know how you guys develop provinces. I try to build windmill/sawmill/mines(payoff in ~15 turns) and their upgrades. If a province is unhappy I build pubs if I have theater. In key provinces I build stabels so I can go across map in a hurry. Forts in chokepoints or if I need to reinforce badly, same goes for library and store house.

When I play in sandbox mode - colossal shard, 1 opponent

first ring
arena, stables

all other provinces
arena, stables, ancient schematics.

First ring have free slot for "treasury of the Ancients" event. It can happen only in province which have free building slot(And I don't like to run from one corner to another).
When you conquered colossal shard it will happen almost every turn.

I don't like pub because of associated event with gossips. And buildings with upgrades very annoying, anyway.

Do you think economic developement delays militery/magic to much to be worthwhile? For me it takes alot of turns before I can build arena/stables in my provinces, do you spend these turns building granarys only?

Usually I get egg for T2 critter very early and build monstrologist guild before fort.
If this critter is a spider - you can take on lone dragon with tons of magic weapon spells. Dragon will sit in web and do nothing. Same going for "Hydra" site, and even Dragon cult become manageable.

Because monstrologist guild is a prerequisite for arena(with highest cost), I tend to finish it too.
Arena is a great source of early income (bet on commander) and great source of exp. Give high level veterans to fresh hero and until 10th level novice league will be a cakewalk.
Sometimes it can go bad - you can meet commander with T3-4 critter, mage CAN have summon phoenix on 5 level or summon golem even earlier.

Hey aren't Dragons immune to all spells like Web? Or is the Spider Web somehow different from the ones your Hero can Cast?

I can see your point for most other high level units being doable with it though.

Also Web, how long does it usually last? It's annoying that mine only seem to be able to hold for really 1 turn for some reason when I try it on Giant. Web'd, MArrow, then he was free before I could Web again.

Spider web is an ability. Nobody immune to this.
Yeah, it will last 1 turn(duration based on attack of the target), but just drop it each turn.

Duration of Web spell also based on attack of the target (higher attack - more chances to rip net) + concentration

http://savepic.org/1753547.htm
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http://savepic.org/1705418.htm
Custom site:
http://savepic.org/1758669.htm

In addition to economic/ancient buildings and the "stable roads" described above, I start placing Deputy's Houses in provinces containing high-corruption races once I'm getting close to the point that corruption will begin to kick in. I may also place one in a high-income province as a safeguard (and due to the returns they can generate) if I have building turns to spare, or if corruption is eating into my income too much.

Of course, I'd rather just avoid acquiring goblin/etc provinces, but sometimes geography forces the issue, and sometimes a critical resource is only available in one of those (and not having it would be even more costly than the corruption increase).

I usually go for an Arena, Stable and Mill/Mine/Sawmill in all provinces, with an occasional province having a Fort, Stable, and Storehouse instead. I also place Forts along my borders with other lords. I've been wondering if Deputy's Houses and their upgrades are worth it. When I tried them, the income bonus wasn't any better than a Mill, even at the highest level (at which point I've spent 10x as much as I would on said mill). The slower unrest rate is pointless if you have an Arena, and they aren't very cost-effective for lowering corruption, especially if you don't have any marble.

Whoa, I didn't realize that's how it worked. I thought corruption penalized your income, and thus was only a problem for provinces that already generated lots of gold. That certainly makes Deputy's Houses more appealing.

By the way, Gremlion, you've posted a lot of useful info on this board. Thanks for that.