How to win with no resources around?

from Elemental Forums

Hi, first time poster here.
I recently started a game were I have no Iron or Crystal resource, at all. The Sovering is the Endless Lizardman(forgot his name) from Stormwinds mod. I also have no available place with multiple essence to settle. I have about 5 cities, all towns, only capital and maybe two of them with a single essence (and very poor production on non-capital ones).

So, without metal or crystal to power wizards/bows/strikes, and very little in the ways of shards or magical champions, how do I go about winning this game?

 

I mean, i could do the master quest, but i kinda wanted a conquest or at least diplomatic victory(with me as the powerful ruler of at least half the world and a few easily squashable allies if I wanted to mop up). Any tips?

I guess i could go up to scions and just buy L.hammers and level them up, but without any Wonderlust faction close by to buy maps and scions being so expensive tech and influence wise, that might take a while.

I'm playing on a large map with expert AI and World bytheway. Thaks in advance!!

11,618 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

focus on your sovereign and champions. even without resources you can equip them properly. kill monsters that drop crystal to train anything else than militia (you wont face high armor nor swords to invest in spearmen and bash is always nice) and archers. core of your army should be hireable monsters so take influence whenever possible in quests.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top


Tech up for Maces (or spears early on) and use leather armour + shield.  Then go take resources from everybody else.

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks for the replies guys...

 

Quoting ManiiNames, reply 2
focus on your sovereign and champions. even without resources you can equip them properly. kill monsters that drop crystal to train anything else than militia (you wont face high armor nor swords to invest in spearmen and bash is always nice) and archers. core of your army should be hireable monsters so take influence whenever possible in quests.
End of ManiiNames's quote

Quoting Sentinemodo, reply 1
ven without resources you can equip them properly. kill monsters that drop crystal to train anything else than militia (you wont face high armor nor swords to invest in spearmen and bash is always nice) and archers. core of your army should be hireable monsters so take influe
End of Sentinemodo's quote

Problem is [or solution] that I don't see anybody having any resourses, at least in the factions that have a border with me... And my two champions outside my soverin are already Path of Governor guys... Well, maybe if they don't have any actual Iron or Crystal since I don't see in their territory or on the trade screen, they might not have any great troops after all...

 

Question, does the "Defeat Delin, Pyre of Man" wildland quest is worth it? anybody knows its rewards? I have those wildlands fairly close to me and might be able to do them with my poorly equiped armies.

Also, I have a dragons cave within my territory and a demonshirl lair [stormwind specific, i beleive] within reach if a declare war to the angels and take one of their outposts, but no influence from quests or pretigious sites, and thats about it. Is it worth to build the missionary hall if I am not getting any other influence outside of that to recruit a few fallen dragon late in game? I'm on seson 95 already...

 

 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

AI ususally queue all its resoruces it has, nearby their capital you should be able to find some deposits of iron/crystal - they get it for free once settled.


build missionary hall. search for quests.

Dragon cave is your winner, but, you'll need ton of influence if I remember correctly.

Demonshrill will help you a lot and are far closer in tech tree to get. try to find ogre lairs, with king of the wastes technology you'll get level 9th ogres out of the bat and they are killers in such environment

You can flip the angels outpost by building city nearby and snaking toward the outpost and building zoc enhancing buildings. That will allow you to take over the outpost without decalring war.

All in all you'll be better off probably by signing non aggressions pacts and searching for quests with your sovereing. Two governor champions mean more experience for your sovereing which is good as well, once you hit treshold of 20th level you should be safe to win anyway.

 

be aware, that AI will field those maces pretty soon which will give you large stacks of high attack and close to zero defence to fight off. They can be quite easily dispatched by archers but AI will field them also. and they will have lots of HP. blizzard/tornado is your friend.

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I've played a game on a no-resources map and thought it was great fun!  Just focus on what is available to you (light weapons and armor) instead of obsessing over the heavy weapons, mounts, and enchanted items that you can't build.  I get the impression that, although you may suspect it, you haven't quite realized yet that nobody has mines, etc., so this isn't placing you at the huge disadvantage you're assuming.  Those things simply don't exist on that map.

You can get yourself a little bit of Metal/Crystal income by using those governors to push some of your cities up to level (IIRC) 4, where you can spec Fortresses to produce 2 Metal/turn and Conclaves to produce 2 Crystal/turn.

If you're feeling short on Essence, taking out the wildlands is always a good choice, since they'll usually provide space for a pair of 2-3 Essence cities (or maybe 1-2 on a reduced-resource map like you're playing) when they rejuvenate themselves.  Plus, of course, the hero who leads the cleanup effort tends to get a ton of XP as well.

There's no reason not to build a Missionary Hall.  The Influence gain could be handy (grabbing that dragon lair and building on it would be very useful in any game, but especially in one where your opponents won't have heavy units to take the dragon down with) and it doesn't lock out any other buildings/resources.  I'd build it sooner rather than later, just to be absolutely sure I have enough Influence to build on the dragon lair the instant that Dance with Dragons research is completed.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I would also suggest you go for Civilization. Get Towns and you can build buildings that produce influence in them. Use those to upgrade the Demon Shrill lair and work your way towards using the Dragon Lair at the end of the tech tree. Civilization willl also bring you a lot of money, so use that to buy items for your heroes.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks a lot guys. Indeed, as nDervish has said and it was what i was meaning when I talk "[or solution]" in my previous post, with the exception of Altar who has the amazing amount of 7 crystal [seven, i mean, WTF?], none of my adversaries actually has any crystal or Iron, so they will probably have crappy units and monsters as well. I went with civilization and Im building the Fell Dragon Camp. Don't have nearly enough influence for the Demon Shrill lair right now. Is it worth it to Get both the Demon and Dragon lair, or should I just save for more Dragons? cause that's the impression I got right now.

One thing thou, doesn't archer with better bows require Iron? or should I just build groups of 7 with the inferior bows to go with my champ and dragons?


Anyway, will get a chance to play right now, probably gonna take some wildlands with one or two dragons and do a couple quests with Omiss before taking on the world, as the only one at war with me has yet to send a single unit my way, and its probably on the other side of the map.

Thanks again for great advice guys, very much appreciated.:grin:

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top


 

Question, does the "Defeat Delin, Pyre of Man" wildland quest is worth it? anybody knows its rewards? I have those wildlands fairly close to me and might be able to do them with my poorly equiped armies.

Also, I have a dragons cave within my territory and a demonshirl lair [stormwind specific, i beleive] within reach if a declare war to the angels and take one of their outposts, but no influence from quests or pretigious sites, and thats about it. Is it worth to build the missionary hall if I am not getting any other influence outside of that to recruit a few fallen dragon late in game? I'm on seson 95 already...

End of quote

Wildlands always have a good place to build a city once you clear them, and getting a good city is spot is very worth it, if you are strapped for resources.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Just finished the game, took the dragon and the demonshrill camp and beat on the angles that declared war on me and romanov[custon faction that i played before with wonderlust and henchman]. Could have easily beat on the rest, had double the power of the second place, but they loved and were paying tribute, so I just allied them up to finish the game instead of crushing everyone. quite nice that the three empires survived [Resonlyn with 4 cities, and Zentharim with 5, as well as a cowered Altar with a single city.]

thanks a lot guys, nice to see you can have a great win with no resourses, just level a couple towns for influence, hire a couple monsters and focus on spellcasting :D