8 replies to this topic

[Parzival]

After the Sunday event, which we mostly won due to Saddoveanu's strenght (and Bobos pikemen of course ), I and Skull played a 10pt round against hard bots (Denmark, Sweden). During peacetime, I build up to about the edge of the 18th century, but only mustered a small force of pikemen for defence. I had expected the enemy to attack right at the first opportunity, but what came then was devastating. The Danes already owned more than 100 soldiers, which easily destroyed my army and looted my town. Even though I managed to recover with mercenaries and Skull's help (he of course performed quite much better against the first attacks), my economy could not obtain its former level again by far and got weaker with each, now intensifying campaign. I collapsed after what was about the fourth attack, and Denmark simultaneously managed to overrun Skull as well.
I now kindly ask for Saddoveanu or whoever can offer tactics against hyper-agressive AI. Of course we both had rather late-game oriented factions, but that will surely not be the point. I know that a faster build is obviously a general way to improve, so I'd like some tips about that. I was really astonished what the AI could militarily accomplish in the peacetime. I could of course have spammed 17th century pikemen, but you really have to decide between enlarging the workforce or the army, because both consume food! Especially in the beginning, recruiting peasants seems imperative. I do not think I would have been able to recruit a lot more units when I do not make peasants, I guess my food production would have become insufficient shortly.
The first raid was decisive, so I want to know how I can have enough troops to fend off rushing AI after 10pt and still get my industry running into the 18th century (if both is even possible).

[Saddoveanu]

There is no such thing as spam in Cossacks Once you build the barracks, que infinite pikemen. That is, you should be producing pikemen continuously.

 

Build the market ASAP, and sell all your coal for food. This will free up peasants for gathering other resources, and building. The build order I use is something like this:

1. all peasants - build town hall (set rally point on wood; as soon as it's done, que inifinite peasants)
2. about 4 peasants - build mill
3. storehouses - 1 for stone and 1 for wood
4. market (sell coal !)
5. blacksmith
6. barracks (que infinite pikemen as soon as it's done - and make sure it's always producing)
7. two gold mines, or 1 gold and 1 iron if your pikemen require iron
8. second, third gold mine, if possible
9. academy

After this there are multiple options - you could try and focus on resources for the second town hall, the wood cutting upgrade, or resources for the diplomatic centre - which I usually do. When the diplomatic centre is done, send peasants that built it (14-18) to gather food. The mill upgrade should be finished when they deliver their wheat bundles, otherwise they will deliver them to the town hall.

 

After sending peasants to gather food, que 15 archers and infinite light infantry in the diplomatic centre. When I have a 36 pike formation, 15 archers and ~30-40 light inf mercs, I attack. Sometimes with ~10 cossacks, also attack from a different direction. If they attack you first, this should be enough to defend against early attacks.

 

The gist of it is to use the market to get the food you need, but always keep producing pikemen and peasants.

 

Recovery

 

Actually, given that upgrades are some of the most expensive and important thing in this game, sometimes it is possible to recover, even if half of your city was burnt to the ground, because upgrades you researched are not lost.

[Parzival]

Thanks, that was about the kind of help I hoped for .
I see that the market is the key to acquire enough food for both advancing forces and industry, but once I have finished the early build, 2nd to 4th mill is still mandatory, right? I can hardly see a way to produce enough coal and trade it to food for the recruitment of hundreds of units, and all other resources are directly or indirectly connected to that.

[Saddoveanu]

Glad it was useful

• with the "Carry out Fields' Meliodration (Field crops' capacity +200%)"  academy upgrade, you can put ~40 peasants per mill, so I don't build a second one until quite late, and third almost never - instead, in 18th, make Improve Grain Crops Storage (Harvesting +120%) upgrade at the mill and you should be fine. You'll need tens of thousands of food for upgrades - get that by selling stone or wood, if you don't have enough
• don't think of only coal for selling - sell whatever you have in excess - probably wood or stone. In fact you will probably buy a lot coal, because it's needed for upgrades and shooting units. Especially mortars - when we played today, those 40 mortars consumed 100k+ of iron and coal, I used the market a few times because I ran out.

You can see upgrades here:

http://cossacks.heav...ies/index.shtml

[King BoBo]

Use terrain advantage and put all your forces on 1 spot where you can stop/slow down the enemy and make 2nd barracks as fast as possible and put pikemen on infinite on both but on 1 sometimes recruit an officer for formations.

Make small number of ranged units and put em to shoot the enemy from a safe place.

Send some cossacks in front to have some force to slow down the enemy or to come behind and kill their ranged units

[Saddoveanu]

Infinite queues have the lowest priority - so, if you have pikemen on infinite but queue anything else - for exmaple, 5 drummers, then the barracks will recruit the 5 drummers first, then continue with the pikemen. So there's no need to remove infinite queue from pikemen. Also, if you infinite queue both pikemen and musketeers, then the barrack will alternate between them, producing 1 pikeman, 1 musket, 1 pikeman, 1 musket, and so on.

 

Ranged units are generally not effective, except in groups of at least 30-40. Personally, I don't see the point in having just a few musketeers.

 

Terrain advantage is a real thing though; if your troops fight uphill, the enemy will gain defense bonuses. So, "camping" hills can be effective. Also, ranged units will have an increased range if on hills/high terrain.

[cev-trell]

. 

[BlackDeath]

You do actually need to disable the bot, delete your account on this website, dismantle your computer and go away.

Stay calm

 

pd: Emilehoubs account is banned