So i've tried the first shard maybe 10 times or so. But i still have problems.

It seems you cannot improve happiness in any way other than random events. I'm sure you unlock things for this later, but so far i can only build a pub. That only increases happiness if i have a theatre or whatever, which i can't build (yet).

If i conquer the starting areas, they all become unhappy and revolt. If i bribe them, i start out so slow the computer steamrolls me.

What the hell am i supposed to do?

Edit: I also took the diplomacy skill on scout hero, which supposedly reduces cost of bribing guards. But buying districts still cost as much? What is that skill good for then?

Unlock the magic school which grants you the ritual Extravaganza that will help.

I'm not sure what lands you've been getting or if you're being "good" or "evil"but having a play style that matches the morality of the people near you (i.e. orcs like bad, elves like good, etc) will help as it effects the populations you control.

Bribing guards is better than conquering but as you note there's a limit to how much of that you can do, I'd say bribe 1-2 areas at the very start of the game and focus the rest on building up your starting area.

Focus on your gold income, sometimes this feels like it's too slow but I've gotten pretty deep into the campaign and it's been working for me.

Keep exploring with your hero, constantly. This will mean that early game you're retreating a lot but it earns your hero a little experience and can open up some beneficial random evens (possibly even some extra gold).

Also remember that that Pub alone doesn't actually help population mood, make sure you've got all the supporting buildings needed (theater in this case) before expecting to see an improvement.

Hope that helps :)

Okay, so you are supposed to live with the fact that many provinces are unhappy?

Also, i tried building show booth, which specifically say "improves population mood" but it changed nothing?

IIRC, it improves population mood "in the demesne", which seems to mean your capital province only, not your whole realm.

A province's mood will slowly settle over time if there aren't any remaining aggravating factors, although depending on just how mad they are it may require putting down a few revolts in the meantime.

In the first few shards theres not much you can build, your karma probably has the biggest influence, if you are doing evil stuff (probably summon imps or raise corpses), good people will be unhappy.
After shard 4 or so you get many buildings and even guards that improve the mood.

Usually I target free settlement first, and I don't bribe the guards (too expensive), I kill them, doing so they become only discontent, they don't revolt. Also, careful when you bribe, if you bribe brigands/thieves that will stay in the province, that will be much worse for the population, if you kill them they'll be happier.

Also, I don't like to waste money in the first turns, even if I must be evil, at the beginning having some more money can save your life. Then, you'll have all the time to improve your karma, especially near the end when you have enough money for all your needs.

I'm using mostly barbarians/healers, my last barbarian was lev 10 with 16 attack and 5 or 6 defense.

personnally i've been starting with scout and beelining for swordmen, then when command improves, i add in a healer. Swordmen are insanely resistant and have a nice counterattack too.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you conquer a province held by the AI which is unhappy they will be content with your rule. Of course this means you already have a border with the AI but it can still be useful :)

Hmm yeah I noticed that too... But sometimes they don't like me either XD
I guess if it's a race other than humans and you already have an alliance with another race (Lizardmen in my case, usually) they might not like you as much... But I've only seem them Quiet or Content when I take over a necromancer-owned province from the AI. Some more experimenting is in order I think.



Hurr hurr, I don't know if I screwed up early game and didn't notice it, or if I botched something in the late game, but my first encounter with a rival Master (On my third restart in the campaign since stuff keeps going downhill for me at my second or third shard) everything went well at first, but then when he finally turned on me he was running amok with Faeries, Dryiads, and Tier 2 healers. I only had tier 1 units, and while I managed to miraculously wipe most of his heroes by cramming a ton of Stone Gargoyles into any available slot, he somehow kept pulling free units out of thin air and restocking immediately - even when a fort wasn't present on that tile.

Finally I just made a mad rush for his capitol while he addled about in my territory, and killed off three of his heroes, and ONE TURN before I could assault his capitol, his 4th hero - a commander, walks up with an entire ARMY of tier 2 units and kills me. Not just four or five units, but an entire maxed out stock of them.

Honestly, this is Beginner I'm playing on. Either I'm reaaally doing something wrong and just don't know it, or there's a lot I still need to learn. Luck seems to have a lot to do with it too....

Ah yeah I should point out that while I found a lot of neat schematics and some guard contracts, I never found any good equipment for my Scout or Warrior. None that I could afford at the time, and that cash was quickly blown on trying to push back that rival Master when he bumped off the other one and turned on me.
I found a lightning tower, a PHOENIX of all things, and loads of other cool stuff, but no equipment.

*sighs* And I was doing so well too. Heh, the previous game I actually got my ranger to the point where I could fend off everything but a dragon with only two gargoyles and the bow my scout had. (I only tackled the dragon out of curiosity. I didn't have any intention of actually killing it XD )

Well first of all this game is Hard - with capital H. Beginner level is more like Normal to Hard in most games, Skilled is Hard, and above that is for masochists or people trying to improve previous scores :)

Second of all conquering most provinces shouldn't make them revolt. It all depends on your Karma vs their alignment (as others have said), but eg. capturing a free settlement next to your capital should only make them disgruntled, which will dissipate over time to Quiet unless you do something to aggravate them futher (certainly possible through random events and actions...), but it's just one step below what they'll be if bribed, so it shouldn't make much of a difference.

The early shards do seem to involve a good deal of luck, since you lack a lot of the options you'll have later on, once you unlock guards and improvements by the bucketload. But remember a revolt isn't the end of the world. If you have guards they'll beat it down (if it's a decent guard at least - most revolts can be stopped by mere recruits), and eventually mood will improve, and if you don't have guards retake the province after the revolt.

Also really the best advice on Tiny and Small shards that cause you trouble - beeline for his castle as quickly as possible, taking out his heroes along the way. If you get a siege going when he has no active heroes you've won - use another hero to ferry in reinforcements if the battle to get to the castle took out too many of your troops.

EDIT: And if all goes wrong don't be afraid to use the special power you have and Step back in time - either a turn and miss the glory, or occasionally back to the Astral Plane if you mess up an early Shard too bad... The reduced energy income isn't something to take lightly, but getting those first shards and thus improvements are more important, and you should be able to do a lot better your second time through when you have an idea of what you'll face :)

For the most part I've always been fairly good in terms of Karma. Typically Just, Merciful, or Clever. So that's gonna prevent me from being all nice with rogues and stuff (Why would you want to anyway? They reduce income :P _

The games where I just went on a merry rampage taking over provinces rather than bribing them I ended up doing better in overall. Most recent restart? First shard I conquered with my warrior in under 20 turns. I just burned a path and found the castle, took it over real fast. Second shard? Not as fast, but still won without losing a hero or the AI making it to my castle. Third shard? Rival master ruined my day again. I got a start surrounded by forests and the only plains province was guarded by those infernal Inquisitors. By the time I had anything built or got any units under my belt, the other master was knocking on my door and I ended up losing.

Haha going back in time... Heh, I remember a truly messed up start that I bumbled so badly, in the course of the shard I went back in time nine times XD

*edit* In my last failed bout with that master (The good one I guess) I had the Guards guard (lol) but no Tier 2 units. I got lucky in the fact he tributed me stuff while the local lord was still around, and unlucky in that I never found any good equipment before I ended up having to fight him.

*edit 2* Okay so while not on the subject of troubles in the game, is the campaign (in general) a total free-for-all fest, and the Diplomacy screen just a temporary shield, or is there some point in trying to make friends/enemies with certain masters?
I was looking at the text dialogue for the dragon Master (Assuming that he does show up in the campaign) and he seems at best Neutral-ish, so I'm hoping to try and be friends with him in the futrue ^_^;
One of his responses seemed to imply that a battle for a shard could end diplomatically or even somewhat of a Team victory (One he said blahblah we concquered our enemies together good job... The other he said more or less "Alright I'll forfeit this shard to you")



On another note, in the var folder of the game's directory I found this in "CampDiff.var"

[ //íà÷àëüíûé ÈÈ, ôèíàëüíûé ÈÈ, øàã äëÿ ïîâûøåíèÿ, ëèìèò õîäîâ
Novice: 0, 2, 12, 90
Skilled: 0, 3, 10, 80
Advanced: 1, 3, 10, 75
Expert: 1, 4, 9, 70
Master: 1, 4, 8, 65
Grandmaster: 1, 4, 7, 60
Overlord: 1, 4, 6, 55 ]

The gibberish doesn't come out as anything no matter what sort of text editor I open it in, but does anyone have any idea what the other numbers mean? Multipliers for something I guess. I notice the first two numbers get larger as the difficulty goes up, while the last two get smaller.

I'm gussing it somehow corrolates with this:

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://eador.com/en/page14.html&usg=ALkJrhg2R4SXsSc8SvgcywWB2ht12O8EnA

We need a manual still... wil taht be done soon ?

1. If they revolt and you have a troop guarding it, then the rebels are killed and you maintain the province. No harm done. On early levels a troop of militia (3 g a turn) is more then sufficient for this purpose.
2. Humans unhappiness at being conquered is termporary and short enough that they will become quietly before actually rebelling even once. always conquer human lands for the XP for your heroes unless they have wood or iron which you are currently missing and you can't conquer them yet (in which bribe them and use it to build tougher units to grind with elsewhere).
3. Your goal isn't to conquer every single tile its to conquer enemy castles. If a tile is really hard to hold and gives you little benefit then let them seek independence. Keep in mind that some non humans suck as subjects
4. Best way to win is to power level your hero. Hero levels > anything else. A higher level hero has more troops, more magic, and more personal power. A level 10 ranger is a better mage then a level 1 mage and a better commander then a level 1 commander. And being higher level allows you to beat enemy heroes, reconquer provinces, explore tough areas, etc.