ALEA JACTA EST

[Gusington]

^Roger. I will use both the tutorials and the manual.

[Nefaro]

We should probably list some basic beginner suggestions here, since there are some AGE novices trying to learn the system. 

When I fire it up next, I'll post some methinks.  Stuff like:

1) Drag & drop the armies and individual units in the unit window like pieces on a board.  The army tabs can also be dragged & dropped which comes in handy such as when you need to order a move over a screen away (select unit, pan to target location, click-drag the army's tab at the top of the unit window onto the map).

2) Supply is life.  Don't get ahead of yours without a good cycle of supply wagons making round trips back to your nearest supply depot.

3) You can drag your army 'piece' onto an enemy army on the map to give a pursue&engage order.  Your army will then attempt to follow the targeted unit until running into them or losing sight of them in the fog of war.   This can also be used to order new units to join your own armies - they will then follow it until joining up.

4) Cohesion is your effectiveness.  Watch those blue bars on your army units!  The lower it gets, the less powerful your army will be if it gets into a scrap.  Be sure to leave some time for such tired units to rest before the possibility of battle.  The army tooltip will list the daily cohesion gain if the unit were to be left in it's current location - good for helping calculate about how long it will take.

More later.

[jomni]

Good tips Nefaro.  Makes me want to fire WIA again.  Not too interested in Ancient Rome but this game will still be in my watch list.

[Gusington]

Thanks Nefaro. I feel like I am attending virtual ancient OCS.

[mikeck]

I would add: always include cavalry in a stack where possible. Cavalry increases hour detection rating making it harder for enemy units to move through the zone you occupy. Comes in real handy in the spartacus scenario where the enemy armies are small and have good evasion ratings.

Also, don't move across.mountains and immediately attack the same turn....mountains destroy cohesion. better to stop short with a defensive stance and regain your cohesion.

[Nefaro]

Another important but likely overlooked factor; learn the effects of 'Military Control'.  IIRC, defeated and routing enemies cannot retreat into neighboring provinces in which they don't have at least 5% MC in, so this kind of stuff will help when attempting to surround and eliminate 'em.   

Also realize that if you have less than 5% Military Control in a location, your armies must be in an attack stance when entering.  If you leave them on defensive, they will automatically change to offensive, so you'll be forced to fight anyone there (as long as you've detected them) for a foothold in this area.  So having 100% MC in an area, where your army is located, makes an effective blocking situation.  Smaller forces take longer to gain MC in an area than larger ones, naturally, so you won't be establishing blocking routes as quickly with one small unit as you would with a big army.  Although in AJE, since each turn is 1 month, the MC tends to change faster than other games in the series so it won't be as pronounced turn-wise.

Mike's cavalry suggestion is always a good one.  There's nothing more frustrating than a small enemy unit making it through what you thought was your impregnable line because you didn't have enough 'Detection Rating' to find them.  Cav, of course, have the best Patrol rating so the more you have, the better chance to find the sneaky bastids.  Use this and Military Control if you need to prevent enemy forces from advancing through an area.

[tgb]

Does anyone know what time this is supposed to unlock?  I wanted to get a couple of hours in before the wife wakes up, but GGate still shows it as a "preorder"

[Grim.Reaper]

Not sure about the gamersgate version but pretty sure the actual Ageod site version is now available and has been since 12GMT.

[Grim.Reaper]

Just checked gamersgate and looks like available now.


http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-AJE/alea-jacta-est

[tgb]

Thanks.  Downloading now.

[tgb]

[Never mind - the link these numbnuts attached to my account is for the Spanish language version. Customer "support" will respond within 72 hours]

[Jarhead0331]

^typically, you select your language when you install.  Are you sure?

[Staggerwing]

^When I installed my preorder I could choose between French and English. Perhaps Spanish is now an option as well?

[tgb]

Yes, Spanish was the only choice. However, I downloaded it again and got the right copy this time.

[Staggerwing]

^Let the Legions meet! Hail the SPQR!