Fri Aug 20, 2010
Did you know that there is an easy way for you to make sure that your CRITICAL
T2 soldier transfer orders worked when you are writing your turn?
Example:
Let's say Brad knows what force you are using for your army because Bruce told
him... Evil Bruce!
So it's time for you to change forces, and while you've turned "LPE tracking
on", you were merging soldiers from several different forces and are worried
that tracking didn't catch them all... It's happened to you before. Something
went wrong with a transfer and the LPE never gave you an indication with a
yellow highlighted order...
Solution:
You can use the Re-Equip Soldier order T16 to see if your transfers were
successful with 20 seconds of work. Normally (when merging armies) I do all of
my transfers in an excel spreadsheet to make sure my quantities and levels are
correct. So I know what my ENDING AMOUNTS should be....
The LPE tracks almost all T2 orders correctly. The two errors I have seen it
make are when you are transfering INTO or OUT of the SAME slot on the SAME
order. In these two cases there is a logic error in the LPE with the SECOND
HALF of the transfer order. The error is that LPE doesn't track the quantity
being transferred in the second half of the order...
What you are going to do is use the T16 order to temporarily (and quite quickly)
re-equip each slot in the army with a single order. You will be using the LPE's
tracking to see "how many weapons are used" to determine how many soldiers the
LPE believes are ACTUALLY IN the slot.
This method assumes you avoid the two logic errors in T2 orders that I mention
above...
Here's how to do the check...
- Make all of your soldier transfers
- Turn Tracking on
- After the last transfer, enter a T16 Re-Equip slot order (you will eventually
- delete this order after you've checked all the slots>
- Pick slot 1
- GO NEXT
- Choose a weapon.
- on the lower right section of the window you will see "HAVE" with a number,
- this is the amount of the weapons you have in the army for whatever weapon you
- selected, it makes no difference which weapon you select. You will then see a
- "NEED" with a number, this is the QUANTITY of soldiers the LPE believes are in
- the slot after all your transfers are complete
- compare the quantity in the "weapons NEEDED" with what you think is supposed
- to be in the slot
- If it's correct, Click PREV
- Select Slot 2
- *rinse and repeat*
- Delete the order so you don't accidentally re-equip a slot before your big
- battle.
If the quantity is incorrect, you've got a cascading error somewhere and you
need to debug where by rechecking your orders one by one.
In about 20 seconds you can use this method to check what the LPE believes is
there vs. what you think is there using a single order, then when you have that
warm fuzzy that everything is correct, you can delete the T16 order.
I've used this method numerous times to fix mistakes that were caused by a
stupid cascade, or other type of mistake made previously in the turn which the
LPE DID NOT warn me about....
Brad believes I have this mystical power of LUCK. It isn't LUCK, it's just
attention to detail and knowing how to work "around the limitations" of the LPW
and use "the features we have" within the LPE to write your turn.
Is the LPE archaic? sure
Would it be nice to get a better system? absolutely
Will we ever see one? we can hope
In the meantime, can you use this tactic to write a better turn and make fewer
mistakes? sure can!
Hope it helps!
Fred
Wed Aug 13, 2010
Did you know that if you teach your population segments production secrets like
Troll Hammers, Mithril Swords, Dwarven Axes, etc. that the Craftsmen in the
population segment produce more crowns each per production cycle?
Early in a game (when you are crown starved) and late in a game (when you are
tradegood rich and/or have a lot of craftsmen) this can be a big deal.
It only costs 1 character action.
Is that extra scry force or extra S1/S2 practice order really worth more then an
S15 (Teach Secret) order?
From the Legends Rules:
3.5.12 Production Secrets
The secrets of creating certain items, such as Dwarven Plate or Elven Bows, may
be known by Characters, and are then taught to Population Segments so that they
can actually construct the items. Only Characters may teach these secrets, and
then only to a Population Segment, not to another Character.
From the Aayko Legends Economics 101 article on the HQ website:
Craftsmen:
Tradegoods Produced = Craftsmen assigned * (1+SEI/200)
Crowns Produced = Craftsmen assigned * (1+SEI/200) * (5 + CB +SB)
- with CB = a Crown Bonus for the presence of Guilds and Markets in the
location, and for Production Secrets that the pop segm knows. How high the CB
resulting from guilds actually is, remains unknown. Markets are said to add
about +0.3 crowns. While Production Secrets are said to increase the crown
production with +2 crowns per Secret. Note that these Crown Bonuses only
applies to crafsmen, not to other tradesmen producing crowns.
- with SB = the so called Synergistic Bonus; meaning that the crown output per
craftsman is higher the more craftsmen there are present in the pop segm; it is
due to benefits of co-operation.
In Legends I, this SB was a strong reality, and said to begin after 50
craftsmen present. However, in Legends II (SOP and later modules), having large
quantities of crasftmen will no longer increase the production significantly,
and the bonus is in principle set to zero; however, due to some random factors
and rounding effects, the SB is at best +1 crown (so a cap at 6 crowns basic
craftsmen production). The CB is added later, and in Legends II the sum of
positive effects from CB and SB together will be capped at +3, so that craftsmen
can never make more than 8 crowns per person.
A competitive job you can assign craftsmen to in a normal turn is Resource
Conversion (T12). Note that each module will have Rare resources that can be
converted with that order too (find out with Rune-research).
Fred
Wed Aug 6, 2010
Always, Always, Always Issue "Backup Character orders" on your decent
characters.
How many times have you had a move plot fail, a teleport fail, etc. and as a
result failed on a character action? Were you aware that when certain actions
fail that your character's action isn't "used up"?
If you are running a large (max cost turn) you are doing yourself a dis-service
if you aren't entering backup influence or backup S1/S2 orders on your decent
characters. Just enter them in on the phase 2 character action phase.
From Aayko's article on the Legends Article Website:
A. The following orders do NOT take an action:
1. Trying to Escape (C10) when you are not a prisoner
2. Failure to do Public Works (S28)
3. Trying to Influence (D2) a character that you already own
4. Trying to Cast a spell (S8/9) you don't have
5. Trying to Learn a spell (S13) from someone who doesn't have it
6. Trying to Gift a Mark (S30) you do not have
7. Trying to Influence (D2) someone who is not in the same province
8. Failure to Train troops (T1) [because the town, that held the population
or was supposed to receive the troops, was taken away by another player,
or because the trainer didn't have the spell to train the entered status,
or because the trainer was not in the same prov as the force in which he was
to train, or....etc. etc.]
Fred
Thurs July 29, 2010
We had some discussion earlier in the week regarding drakes.
Here is a piece of wisdom that some players may not realize...
Herd Id's are populated in order, by row across the game map when the GM runs the
database population program. This is an artifact of poor programming by the early
legends programmers. In a perfect world, Herd ID's would have random numbers for
identifiers...
For example, If you spot a Herd ID #338 in P 1/18 and then spot another herd ID
in P 10/18 with Herd ID # 342, then you can deduce there are 3 other herds
(assuming they haven't been farmed by another player) in the intervening 8
provinces in row 18.
You can use this bit of information to send scouts out to detect missing herds.
This information can be valuable early in the game when you are scouring a section
of Barren Hills for mammoths to slaughter for Ivory (for crowns early in the game)
or when you are trying to discover drake herds in a section of mountain provinces
or moors provinces (so you can reach critical mass to begin blessing them).
Enjoy,
Fred
