posted 19 October 2004 05:13 PM EDT (US)
How do you recover?
I've had this problem for a long time. Slowly, I got better at it, and now I have actually had games where I have recovered from losing a forward base. I had even recovered from being down 4 to 2 tc’s after a fatal mistake of having my army trapped on the offensive versus critical decision of the enemy to use restoration and flanking.
So what makes it so much harder to recover as Norse?
Your buildings are destroyed quicker, your train times aren't going to be as fast as the prepared enemies', and your military has to build it for you.
To start off...build Ulfsarks.
I know what some people think, and is also what I used to think, that
"ulfsarks suck!"
...if you don't have the upgrades...
...but if you don't build them, you are going to be dead anyways! They are so important in trying to recover, train them from your TC if you have too. But I should explain "Why is it so important to rely on the ulfsark?"
Attempting to build TA is suicide, the factors of train time, overall combat effectiveness, wood cost, and slow speed are all killer. Huskarls cost a fortune of wood, leaving you without that fortune to spend on buildings. Ulfsarks are relatively cheap, quick training and are pretty mainline. Lack of a better choice for the situation.
Second Major thing, that is too retreat all military quite a distance away from your pummeled forward. It is a common mistake to think that you can just fall behind a bit from your forward and think you can be prepared in time, at least it was for me. Whenever I failed to build my next group of military buildings far enough back, the enemy always crushed my hope of a recovery right then and there. This is somewhat unlike other civs, because you can't both fight them off and build up buildings at the same time.
You must hide your recovery. Distance and stealth is your greatest advantage here. Retreating to your next closest TC is often the smartest and safest option.
It's always in this unchanging order: Barracks supply the next key thing, more infantry, and that means more buildings sooner. My hope is to be popped out with as many buildings before I have my to meet my opponent again. I maximize as much as I can: I have temples building Hersir, I get each unit building his own building to maximize the build speed of my units, and I make my nearby TC's produce Ulf’s. Third thing is your actually plan for recovery. You accomplished the basics nessecity of generating the army and reconstructing your buildings. Now it is to learn to not panic and waste the offensive god powers. Lastly, have whatever non-infantry units that you have to I have one major advantage on the recovery. That is, the ability to refill your pop with what units are best for countering his. Often times you are locked in a certain combination of units that aren't quite the most effective. This is the time to get those 5 pop myth or siege out and really use them. Sometimes it isn't just a recovery, it's just an attempt to get the offensive going again! Many of the things that allowed Norse to have that early classical strike are helpful here...that is, the ability to maximize the speed that norse are prepared for attacking. (I hope that you find this information helpful to your play as norse, and so you will not have to learn the hard way like I had.) [This message has been edited by Etendorf (edited 10-19-2004 @ 07:23 PM).]
Houses->
If I get stuck with more units than my pop limit and few, if any infantry, I transform some villagers to Ulf’s immediately! This can seem obvious now, but in a game it is sometimes the easiest part to get stuck on.
(This is the most stressful situation for Norse IMO, and it's very easy to be too angry to play now than it is at any other time.)
It's the most distressing to watch a fellow Norse player use WW on me and think it's going to let him recover with no army.
When I play, instead, I have a plan. It is to only use your offensive gp’s when
Frost is the most commonly misused gp in this situation, in my experience. It is better to wait for them to advance on the new location before using frost to finish preparing yourself with hillforts and the like. You won't have enough time to be able to use it right away and try to build enough units out of the buildings to recover the amount of military unit that you need.
Use WW, FW, undermine, and the rest of the offensive gp’s to recover the lost ground when only when it is the most optimal time for it.
-raid!
This seems like a given to some, but just to make my point, you must be keep your pop slots has effective (or efficient) as possible to make a comeback. That goes for any other civ in the same situation.
Nick: Eten.
Gods: All of them!
Vanilla.
That done, I made positive that my wood & gold vils were working and added a couple to their numbers with the last of my food.