General Strategy

[Danjb]

Hey guys, I dunno how active this forum really is or anything but I'm pretty into KaM at the moment and wondered if anyone just wanted to generally chat about it?

How many people have actually completed the game, without cheating?

I'm currently on Level 16 (just started), and I'm pretty pleased about that
No level has taken more than about 3 hours so far.. Is that good?

- Danjb

[Merchator]

The first time I cheated me trough the campagin
HAven't ever played Mission for Mission for Mission, but I have completed every level without cheating. I played them as a Single Mission.

And my tactic is different each time! Just in the MP-games im using always the same (just some differences). It all depends on my starting positions, starting goods and starting troops

[Lewin]

Me and my brothers played through the whole thing up until mission 20, (this was about 8 years ago) and then we lost the save in a crash or something. I did not know there were any cheats at the time and so I've never played beyond about 10 again. I will give 20 a go sometime. I spend much more time programming than playing.
I never rushed through it and spent ages make a really cool town so most missions took over 4 hours. (a part from battles)
I've never played much multiplayer (once a battle on himachi, I got creamed)
My funniest KaM story was when I was about 6. I played the town tutorial lots of times. (dunno why, but it was lots of fun) One time I decided I wouldn't build the tannery and I would just keep making my town larger. After about 25 hours of game time (over many months) I had built on every piece of empty land on the map. I had about 20 storehouses and a wine field that was about 50X50 square big. (about as large as the screen) They were the good old days....
About 8 years (or 8 moths ago) later after not playing kam for ages, I asked for TPR for my 15th birthday. I played with this for a bit although I was a bit disapointed. Then for some strange reason when I was waiting around at a public library I thought of typing kam in to wikipedia and I found the English fansite and TKE. From there I found the forum and decoding stuff and as I was looking for a programming project I decided to make an editor. I've learned a lot since then....
Lewin.

[Merchator]

I'm playing Multiplayergames very often (but I'm not that good at all).
I personally love it to build up cities, swap hints with your opponents and talk. Fighting missions I don't like (my Win/loss Ratio is 1, I guess ).

When I build a citie in Multiplayer, I build it a little bit like this:
(Works fine + it's fast, you get about 3-7 Troups after 1:30 h)

1 School
1 Inn
2-3 Quarries
4 Woodcutter's
2 Sawmills
2 Weaponworkshops
5 Farms with about 80 fields
1 Mill
1 Bakery
2 Coalmines
1 Goldmine
1 Metallurgist's
3 Pigfarms
1 Butcher
1 Tannery
2 Armorworkshops
2 Vineyards
...IRON PRODUCTION IF POSSIBLE....

Serfs: 30-40
Builders: 8-10

This is a good, but very common tactic. We almost only play with those tactic. Of course there are some diferences, and sometime there are new tactics

[Danjb]

3 quarries!? Wow...

Also 2 coal mines for 1 metallurgist is quite a lot - but I guess it's good to build up a bit of a supply. I usually set my coal distribution to a mere 2 for the metallurgist, and I've never had gold issues.

I guess my tactics vary as well but it's also just little handy things like space management of your town that come into it.

I've played several multiplayer games too (LAN - is there any other way?) and on the last one I went straight for the weapons workshop and barracks and realised it works incredibly well. I was making only hand axes and had about 40 after only about an hour of play. Had troops stupidly quickly and went in to find my opponent completely defenceless

Trouble is, we play with a little rule where we don't allow attacks until a certain amount of time has passed (usually just over an hour or so).

As for woodcutters, I find often they go through dry spells where they're just waiting for trees to grow, and it's really easy to run out of wood. I noticed you often start with 2 forests near your town, so I tend to build one or two woodcutter's in each forest.

What about watchtowers?

Often on the campaign I've adopted a tactic where I make loads and loads of watchtowers and use them as a bit of a weapon, luring enemy troops back into them. Feels a bit like cheating, but hey, they have too many troops

As for iron production, does anyone else find it incredibly slow somehow? No matter how many coal mines you have!

Just my two cents ^.^

- Danjb

[Danjb]

EDIT: Finished TSK, no cheating, no level more than about 3 hours

I'm on Level 3 TPR - how do you win? Is it bugged? Or do I really have to destroy every last building...?

[Litude]

If you have SR2 all you need to do is kill all enemy soldiers (military buildings don't need to be destroyed). Incase you haven't patched your game, mass destruction is what you will have to live with.

[Danjb]

I skipped level 3 by cheating, but only after killing all troops, and most of the other buildings. And what counts as a military building anyway? Is it some new victory condition added by TPR?

I have SR2 up and running now, so it's all good. I heard something about the enemy never attacking in TPR though - is that fixed?

Coz that would kinda wreck the game.

[Thunderwolf]

And what counts as a military building anyway? Is it some new victory condition added by TPR?

No, it's not a special victory-condition, it just means that if you run across a town which doesn't have troop-production, you shouldn't attack them, even if you can. those players are added as lost_goal (if you kill them, you will lose).

[Danjb]

Ahhh, I see.. Cunning. So storehouse, school and barracks still applies - good good

Level 6 now - nearly half way!