Free Settlers And Basic Defence Tips
(written by Auratus)

Ah! Free settlers! Well, you can never have too many! They always are needed sooner than you plan, lol. Once your basic entire economy is done, keep a steady flow of large residences under construction. I like doing them in blocks of 4 (that's 200 new carriers when they're done).

Defense.... Yes, tower archers are deadly as L3s on your land. Don't waste ground troops if possible. Let the towers do their job... except if axe men are around.... all bets are off then. The HOLD POSITION command is great for ground archers just behind your towers just out of range of the enemy swordsmen whom are more interested in tower door ways. A good tower defence with archer ground support can decimate and attacking army 3 times in number at 100 percent strength.

Defense Tactics... As a Roman, use healers behind your archers and use the HOLD Position command so they don't go fight and get their weak butts killed.Keep some squad leaders around. They do help soldier strength go up! The rule book states this. It seems true. However, I don't use the group keys. I alt click the soldier type I'm interested in. Say a archer, then alt click to select all archers. Then move them. When rushing a tower defence, send archers ahead of swords. That way your swordsmen don't die on the approach to the enemy towers. Swordsmen walk faster than archers, so you have to keep an eye on them. Squad grouping prevents that, however. If you don't use that, they are still easy to control with the Alt Key (+ left click) and Hold Position command.

Carrier ratios... Skip it. Soldiers might die while you're fussing with it. Keep lots of setters standing around. If there aren't many standing around, then you're running out, and it's too late when you see you're nearly out of them. Keep large residences under construction to keep lots of settlers standing around waiting to be hired or assigned a task. The game software will automatically use carriers when it needs them as long as they are available as can be determined by seeing if any aren't busy and are just standing by the houses they were born at. Ever notice how a zillion carriers all a sudden get automatic orders to go get stuff when you take a lot of connected enemy land? It's funny watching 200 setters standing by their homes suddenly start walking in unison toward newly captured enemy land.

Soldier Strength... Soldier strength is on the left side the display by the little sword above the shield which is above the mana available symbol. Block select a group of soldiers to make the display appear.

Recruiting... Depends. Auto can be dangerous in the beginning on some maps. When a barracks is done, I generally don't yet have enough spare settlers to let it recruit. Instead, I put up three store houses near it: 1 for gold, 1 for swords and armor, and one for bows. Initially I do just one store house for all three. Later, I add the others, space permitting. Then, when I'm ready to recruit, I just recruit certain soldiers if gold is low... say towers need L3 bows. Say I have 4 medium towers. I then recruit just 12 L3 bows for towers and the rest are set to L2. But if gold is plenty, then L3. After the game's opening is over (the first hour), I generally set the barracks to recruit Swords at L2, E; Swords at L3, E; Bows at L2, E; Squads at E; Healers (or axe men, never pipes) at L1 or L2, as needed.

Barracks Settings... Set weapon smith to 30% Swords, 67% bows, and 3% armor. I adjust swords up if there are free bows or I need lots of swords for a tower defence attack. I adjust bows up if there are lots of free swords. After a bit, I set swords to 10%, bows to 87%, and armor to 3%.

Wounded... Roman healers are the best thing going for the Romans. The latest patch or so reduce their effectiveness! Darn! But they are still worth it! Just don't let the fools fight (use hold position command on them while behind bowmen).