AOW III Advanced Strategy, Episode 1-2: First Contact

[@RJR1953]

Late bloomer here, but I must say you were/are a great tactician. Your videos can still teach, even now.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

That is good to hear, thanks! TBH, looking back at this series (which at this point is like four years old now), I can actually see that I make a LOT of mistakes, lol. Fortunately, feedback from viewers has helped me get better and better over time, though even today it still seems there's a lot left for me to learn :)

[@LloydsGamble]

Hi, I realise this was a while ago now but wanted to quickly point out a few things: 1. You were worried the Monkey would throw another volley of 'Throw Filth' - but it's a once per battle ability. I'm sure you know now, but just a heads up. 2. You mentioned it not being worth preparing your Dwarf as an army leader now since he is with your Leader. I personally do train all my heroes with support skills first and personal skills second, but I can see the argument against. 3.You were worried about a lack of healing options earlier in the vid. One solution could have been picking up Field Medic on the Dwarf and removing your Leader from the stack at the end of the turn so he becomes the temporary army leader and your wounded units benefit from the healing between turns. Keep up the good work, very enjoyable series.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Yeah, you are right about the monkey. I have since figured that out, but at the time I didn't know. Good idea about the field medic thing too btw - seems like an obvious idea, but I never really thought of it! Personally I like to buff heroes' personal stats when they are with my king since it helps them kill more things and level faster, which leads to even more skill points. It doesn't always work out that way though, since if I get too greedy they can get killed in the process , lol.

[@LloydsGamble]

Yeah I'm enjoying your tanky Dwarf at the front there. I usually buff hp and defenses a wee bit and then focus on the army bonuses as I say, but I like the idea of more specialised roles like you do. Will give it a shot!

[@BlackArrowGaming]

So much of this game depends on your own personal playstyle...that's what makes it so awesome :)

[@LloydsGamble]

Indeed. It's a great game, shame it doesn't get more attention. The major strategy youtubers all seem to play Paradox games instead. AoW 3 is a real gem, glad you are flying the flag for it

[@LloydsGamble]

Kris Magi Any mods you would recommend? I have just been playing on vanilla thus far.

[@Justathought81]

Really enjoying this

[@33shin33]

Hello Black Arrow Gaming I am trying to learn this game now please help! 1 How should I preciselly protect my city from invasors during the early turns and when should I get worried about it? (judging that I play on normal difficulty) I'm asking this because I having trouble scouting early on 2 If I am starting with a settler playing on normal difficulty in a very small map, how many turns am I allowed to reasonably scout for a good location on the map to settle in the first city? 3 Let's say I want to expand very early on and have like 3 cities as fast as humanly possible, how many turns am I looking forward to settle down the third city? 4 As you can see I am very concerned about the growing rate of my cities and empire, should I get the perk "Expander" every time? How important it is ? 5 Since I am such a noob I keep losing my heroes when I go for auto combat, I tend to give them more perk hit points when they level up, is this a good thing in the beginning or I should go for damage or special abilities instead? 6 Is it too bad to lose a hero early on ? sorry for bunch of questions anyone who is willing to give a 2 cent I would appreciate thank you!

[@BlackArrowGaming]

He there 33shin33, please see the replies from Kasper Eklund and myself to this same comment posted on Advanced Strategy episode 5-60 :)

[@Realitydenizen]

Great videos, are you going to make more?

[@BlackArrowGaming]

+Fuzzmustard Yes, there will be more. Sorry - my whole world got put on hold for a week. My little sister had a bad head injury and my whole family flew to Washington DC to be with her. We thought she was going to need surgery, but she didn't. I'm back now, and my sister seems to be doing well :)

[@Realitydenizen]

oh geez I am sorry to hear that but I'm glad she is OK, it sounds like she lucked out (insofar as it can be said someone who got a head injury was lucky.) Head injuries scare the living daylights out of me.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Yeah no kidding. Hopefully there's no long-term issues that show up later. I'm very thankful that she is doing as well as she is. I've gotta go take care of my parent's dogs for a few days this week, so I'm going to do my best to get another AOW episode up before I leave tomorrow morning.

[@chickenhed]

+Black Arrow Gaming Just read this now. I'm very sorry to hear about your sister. I hope she is continuing to recover well.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

+chickenhed Thanks - so far, so good :)

[@anarko85]

hi, thanks so much for the guide on this great game. As an older player, what kind of character and race do you advise for new players? Regards, and thank you very much!.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

No problem, I'm glad you are enjoying the videos and the game! For new players who are learning the basics, I think a lot of people would recommend a warlord because of it's "brute force" playstyle. Theocrats might also be good, as they play somewhat similar to warlords but also throw spirit magic and a lot of nice buffs into the mix. The other classes fill more "niche" roles and usually require a bit more planning ahead, but the druid (my personal favorite) can be a good choice for those who favor an archer playstyle. The one class I would probably avoid as a new player is the necromancer - that one is probably the most complex and unique class in the game. It's a ton of fun, but probably not so good for starting out. For races, the humans are your standard all-rounder (as they are in many games). Elves are fairly simple as well, with excellent archers and decently tough melee with some lightning magic thrown in for good measure. Orcs are pretty straightforward as well. On the other end of the spectrum, goblins are perhaps one of the harder races to master. With lower starting health (and cheaper units to make up for it), they are very fragile and require a "swarm" play style to use effectively. Their reliance on poison magic can be difficult to work around when fighting the undead, which can be a big problem for a race that often starts underground. This means that they usually need to pick a class or specializations that give them access to other forms of elemental damage or other means of weakening the undead (like the "rot" spell from the water magic specialization). If you can pull that off though, they can be very good! Hope this helps :)

[@evancarlson5805]

Aww i was wrong about an enemy elf haha

[@OmegaSlaughter]

Here am I again, with two questions which I have for now: 1. Can I click away the production queue quickly which is shown on the right, above the minimap? It is exhausting to click through the cities only to have "Merchandise" active. 2. Does "Defense" get better if you start it earlier? So for example the highest defense is when your unit is still on a green hex and the weakest one is the orange hex?

[@BlackArrowGaming]

(1) Right-clicking on these icons will immediately dismiss them whenever possible. However, some of them cannot be dismissed in this manner until you do something about them. I think city production is like that if the city doesn't know what to produce next. However, if you want a city to continue to produce merchandise indefinitely, tell it to produce merchandise once and then click the little infinity symbol (a sideways "8") to the left of the production queue. The city will then continue to produce merchandise without bothering you until you tell it to do something else. (2) Nope, defense has nothing to do with how many action points your unit has left (which is represented by both the color of the hex that you are standing on and the colored action point bars located toward the top of the screen when you have a unit selected. However, if you actually attack another unit, your unit (in most cases) will lower it's guard. This does lower it's defense, and leaves it vulnerable to flanking attacks (which deal much more damage). If you want to maximize a units defense, you should simply tell it to defend rather than attack. This will also prevent the enemy from flanking your unit on that turn - as long as the enemy doesn't have an ability like Guard Breaker!

[@OmegaSlaughter]

That was very precise. Thank you very much!

[@BlackArrowGaming]

No problem - happy to help!

[@devinohara1009]

There was only a single archer in that city you found. Would it have been worth it to try and take it from your enemy?

[@BlackArrowGaming]

+Devin O'Hara It would have been a really close fight. I'd say it could have gone either way, but I generally give the benefit of the doubt to an archer over most other tier 1's if the archer is defending. Since the enemy would have quickly retaken the city anyway, I thought it would be better to explore some more instead of risking it. As it turns out, my warg died anyway, so I suppose I should have tried! One of my weaknesses in this game is that I'm often not aggressive enough. I'm trying to work on that, but to be honest, the thought of attacking the city never even crossed my mind. Glad you pointed that out!

[@MysticalExplorer]

Frustrating to watch the Archon infantry battle and not using many opportunities to attack them that were available from range. Certainly a different strategy to prolong the outcome.

[@neocorricon]

Around 11:00 you mention vault of knowledge will allow better archers. How so?

[@BlackArrowGaming]

If there is a (cleared) vault of knowledge within the borders of one of your cities, that city becomes able to build a "focus chamber." The focus chamber gives +2 physical damage, +1 shock damage, and mind control immunity to all archer units produced in that city. There are lots of other structures that allow for other kinds of mysitcal city upgrades, which benefit a variety of different types of units in interesting ways. A full list can be found at: age-of-wonders-3.wikia.com/wiki/Mystical_City_Upgrades

[@neocorricon]

Very nice, thank you!

[@BlackArrowGaming]

No problem!