Posted May 12, 2011
Played this about 10 years ago, wasn't that good. Am more mature now, and I'm getting a better grip on strategy, to some extent. Also, some nice features are easy to not notice if you're not looking for them, and they cut down on micromanagement issues to a large extent. I'd love to hear more that I either forgot to mention or that haven't been aware of. These are mostly interface, but I'm also throwing in general strategy.
* - and = decrease and increase the game speed, respectively. ("=" can be thought of as "+", though you don't need to hold Shift). The pace of TAK is often slow, even at max speed.
* Select one unit with left-click. Select units in an area by dragging a box. Hold shift while doing either of these to add additional troops to those already selected. You can also un-select individuals from the selected group with shift-click. After selecting one or more units, Ctrl+(any number) tags the units as that group number. You can now select them all by pressing that number. I think Ctrl+A selects all allied units, but it's somewhat rare to need to do that. There might be some other shortcut keys I'm forgetting.
* Actions can be queued up for a unit by holding Shift. For example, move from A to B via C to avoid dangerous area D. Or set your scouts to move to point W and then patrol from W, to X, to Y, to Z, and then back to W. (The partol always loops back to the end of the last move). Units on patrol *will* engage enemies, if they are attackable (a swordsman can't attack a drake, for example). Nothing's as effective as micromanagement, but patrolling is often good enough for some purposes.
* Floating Towers, if I'm not mistaken, can't attack at extreme close range, and are thus vulnerable to air strikes when isolated. Either a few close together, or one protected by a few skiffs and/or harpoon ships is better.
* Buildings queue up in the order you click. Shift-click to build 5 at a time. Ctrl-click to spam a unit indefinitely. You can queue up 5 builders, 5 catapults, and then perpetual production of archers, for example. You can also queue up movement patterns of produced units with Shift-click. Right-click or shift/ctrl right-click to undo queued units; you can figure out the specifics by experiment
* Use flying scouts intelligently. Cannons and catapults, for example, can shoot much farther than they can see. Parrots or bats or whathaveyou on a patrol along the battle front help.
* Towers are hard to take on, but there are two approaches I know of: long range (catapults, cannons, etc) + scouts is one way. A large number of fliers (iron beaks, drakes) is another. The AI is too dumb to use either effectively, but sometimes they'll peck away at you with one or two inadequately-defended catapults. They usually don't send enough mobile ground or air forces to seriously threaten spammed towers, but I imagine spamming archers is more efficient for taking on insane numbers of drakes, for example.
* Harpies are fun, but they seem to only affect mobile ground forces. Either wipe out their towers first, or use them defensively.
* Watch out for friendly fire. Liches can kill your armies just as fast as the enemies' if used inappropriately. I haven't figured out the finer points here, but there is a fair amount of splashy friendly fire in the game from cannons and spells and the like. I imagine that choosing a good time to send out 3-6 Liches into a large enemy army would work, if you think they can live long enough to get there. I don't remember if ghost ships can do transport, though.
* - and = decrease and increase the game speed, respectively. ("=" can be thought of as "+", though you don't need to hold Shift). The pace of TAK is often slow, even at max speed.
* Select one unit with left-click. Select units in an area by dragging a box. Hold shift while doing either of these to add additional troops to those already selected. You can also un-select individuals from the selected group with shift-click. After selecting one or more units, Ctrl+(any number) tags the units as that group number. You can now select them all by pressing that number. I think Ctrl+A selects all allied units, but it's somewhat rare to need to do that. There might be some other shortcut keys I'm forgetting.
* Actions can be queued up for a unit by holding Shift. For example, move from A to B via C to avoid dangerous area D. Or set your scouts to move to point W and then patrol from W, to X, to Y, to Z, and then back to W. (The partol always loops back to the end of the last move). Units on patrol *will* engage enemies, if they are attackable (a swordsman can't attack a drake, for example). Nothing's as effective as micromanagement, but patrolling is often good enough for some purposes.
* Floating Towers, if I'm not mistaken, can't attack at extreme close range, and are thus vulnerable to air strikes when isolated. Either a few close together, or one protected by a few skiffs and/or harpoon ships is better.
* Buildings queue up in the order you click. Shift-click to build 5 at a time. Ctrl-click to spam a unit indefinitely. You can queue up 5 builders, 5 catapults, and then perpetual production of archers, for example. You can also queue up movement patterns of produced units with Shift-click. Right-click or shift/ctrl right-click to undo queued units; you can figure out the specifics by experiment
* Use flying scouts intelligently. Cannons and catapults, for example, can shoot much farther than they can see. Parrots or bats or whathaveyou on a patrol along the battle front help.
* Towers are hard to take on, but there are two approaches I know of: long range (catapults, cannons, etc) + scouts is one way. A large number of fliers (iron beaks, drakes) is another. The AI is too dumb to use either effectively, but sometimes they'll peck away at you with one or two inadequately-defended catapults. They usually don't send enough mobile ground or air forces to seriously threaten spammed towers, but I imagine spamming archers is more efficient for taking on insane numbers of drakes, for example.
* Harpies are fun, but they seem to only affect mobile ground forces. Either wipe out their towers first, or use them defensively.
* Watch out for friendly fire. Liches can kill your armies just as fast as the enemies' if used inappropriately. I haven't figured out the finer points here, but there is a fair amount of splashy friendly fire in the game from cannons and spells and the like. I imagine that choosing a good time to send out 3-6 Liches into a large enemy army would work, if you think they can live long enough to get there. I don't remember if ghost ships can do transport, though.
