[Mabuse]

Hi, its me "the Guest"
finally i decided to register


btw, after playing a bit PG1 again i must say that PG1 is old and slow.
if you know what to do its easy.

FG is newer and its combat system is deeper as you think.
this becomes important when playing other players

i recommend read this expert forum
http://p208.ezboard.com/Archived-FG-Messag...tasygeneralfrm3
(this archive contains tons of useful information)

http://p208.ezboard.com/Fantasy-General-Me...tasygeneralfrm1
(actual board)



but there are so many more things you may not realize when just play campaign against ai. special abilities like "heroic" or magic items as "amulett of resistance" get much more important. "cloak of invisibility" for archers ....



here is a FG league (and of course other PG leagues and stuff):
http://fantasygeneral.generalsguild.com/



A little Strategy Guide (along with the Information form the Expert Forum) it should offer some help getting started:

A Beginner's Guide to Fantasy General PBM.
Version 2.1

----------

By Sebastien Dupre - a.k.a. Ventura
Nick Vayn - a.k.a. BloodLord the Lich/Dark Mage


Feel free to distribute.

----------

If you've never played FGpbm, you'll notice that the strategy is VERY
different from campaign or scenario games.

************************************************** ****************
-->This isn't meant to be a complete strategy guide, only a small
guide for beginners to avoid common mistakes. But remember,
there is no substitute for experience!
************************************************** ****************

Comments preceded by "**" are things on which we have different views,
but isn't that what makes this game fun?

Each section contains short basic tips and detailed explanations for some
of the tips. These explanations are meant to benefit those players who
have played a few pbm games but have not mastered strategy yet.

----------
***PURCHASING STRATEGY...UNITS***:

You will often win or lose a match based solely on how good your purchasing
skills are. In fact a bad strategist can beat a good strategist just by
outpurchasing him/her. Therefore you should give plenty of though to what
units you want to put in your army. Here are some basic pointers.

-Heroes are usually not worth buying. They're WAY too expensive and they only
have 10 life. But if you are playing with max lv 3 or lower units AND you
have lots of money for the number of units you need to buy(roughly 1000/10
units or more) then a hero might be useful. The best ones to use are Valira,
Morg, Malkin, Witch of Icethorn, and Deathlord Rapax. Valira and the Witch
of Icethorn are inexpensive and offer support for your air units(Witch of
Icethorn can attack air units from below with her missile attack), Deathlord
Rapax and Malkin are expensive but have a strong magical attack and will
destroy enemy units that are lv 3 or below fairly easily. Morg has no
magical attack but his regular attack is among the strongest in the game
without exp and his defense is excellent. A good guage for heros is whether
the hero has a significantly better attack/defense than any other unit(s)
you can buy for that amount of money. If the answer is yes then the hero
is worthwhile, otherwise you are wasting your money. For example,
two monks are far better than Morg BUT Morg is a more worthwhile investment
than three legionarrii or two legionarrii with experience.

-You will usually need a good mix of unit types to win. Forget about light
infantry, spellcasters(except for druids), and bombardiers; these units
are only good in special circumstances and should be used as novelty
units. Concentrate on buying as many good heavy units(heavy infantry,
cavalry, and sky hunters) as possible, use a few light cav and skirmishers
for scouting purposes, a few archers for protecting your front-line units,
and a few seige engines for helping against enemy air units and archer
fortifications.

-You should rarely use units with 10 life because they are easy for your
opponent to kill with one or two attacks. The only ones that are worthwhile,
if their unit grade is the maximum and they have decent experience, are lv 3
and lv 5 mech units with amulets and earth elementals.

-It is crucial to win the air war. DO spend lots of money on your Sky Hunters.
Other ways to attack the enemy air force include ground units with magic bows
(esp. cavalry units), siege engines, archers, units with a storm staff or
whirlwind staff, and fire wizards. Make sure you can attack the enemy air
power both from the air and the ground and that your have enough anti-air
power to survive the loss of your sky hunters.

-Remember the units you loved to hate so much in campaign? Now you
can use them. Hmm, could I be talking about flying monkeys, wearbears
and shadow warriors? When playing at their level, they usually are a
best-buy. Here is the list of heavy units which are excellent choices
for their levels...

lv. 5: shadow knights, shadow dragons, shadow warriors, monks of meo*,
pheonix hawks**
*only if you are Krell or Marcus w/ Archmage
**only if you are Krell/Aelcar
lv. 4: sandmen, flame dragons, ghost riders
lv. 3: lionmen, ogre centaurs
lv. 2: werebears, shadow wings, harpies*
*if you cannot buy shadow wings, which are a better choice
lv. 1: barbarians
lv. 0: unicorns, flying monkeys/wing riders

The following heavy units are inferior to all other units of their type
at their level and should be avoided:

lv. 5: nightmare
lv. 4: samurai, power lancers
lv. 3: trolls, cataphractoi, black dragons
lv. 2: giant, chariots*, hydra*, mastadon*, silver dragons, eagles
*in other words, lv. 2 cav are not worth buying; get lv. 0 or lv. 1
cav with exp instead
lv. 1: ogres, swordsmen, heavy cav, green dragons, pegasus, gargoyles
lv. 0: warbands, orcs, wyverns, flying snakes

Get the impression that the neutral mortal sky hunters up to lv 4
are garbage? Well, that's right!

-6 spearmen (used carefully) should easily tear trough 10 samurais.
sometimes it is better to get a few less units, but better ones.

-Terrain should play an important role in your purchasing strategy.
If you buy tons of cav for a battle in the forest, you are wasting
your money as not only will the cav be less mobile than other units,
but they will not get their +8 charge bonus.

In open terrain, buy more cavalry and less skirmishers and light inf.
In forest and rough terrain, buy less cav, more skirmishers and light
inf, and avoid too many support units such as sieges, spellcasters and
archers as they will slow your army down in the rough/forest.

-Set up games with limited resources; this will teach you what
unit/items/exp combinations are the most valuable.

-TAKE YOUR TIME to choose your general, advantages, and army. Choosing a
general and advantages is just as important as choosing units because
those choices affect what units you can buy and what gold discounts you get.

Max unit grade should play an important role in your choice of general and
advantages. The reason for this is that at lower grades(0-3), the good units
tend to be better than the evil units while at higher grades(4-5) the
evil units tend to be better than the good units. The exception is sky
hunters... the evil ones are always better than the ones the good side can
get. Therefore try to pick a good character at low grades and an evil
character at high grades, and note that if you are playing a good character
you must figure out how to compensate for your lack of air power. Using
Krell's magic units is one way to compensate; amulets is another way
(see "THE MAGIC OF THE AMULET OF RESISTANCE" below).

When choosing advantages, choose ones that complement each other. For ex,
choosing both archmage and beastmaster is somewhat counterproductive since
they both give you extra units that you can purchase, and it is unlikely
that using both beasts and magic units will help you more than choosing
another advantage. A good rule is to pick at least one advantage which
gives you extra units to purchase and at least one advantage which helps
your units in battle(healer, charisma, dwarven, forest) or helps economize
your gold (warlord, general).

-Compromise between more units/items/exp. You cannot win without a good
balance of all three.

----------
***PURCHASING STRATEGY...ITEMS***:

-Always purchase a skull of krang (limit is usually one)... Duh!
Best units to give it to: light cav, heavy cav, skirmishers.

Why?
Because the cav have good movement while skirmishers can turn
invisible so you can hide your skull unit from the enemy. And both
skirmishers and light cav can convert wounds to morale loss, making them
harder to kill than most units.

-Remember the items you wish you had ten of them in campaign?
Now you can have ten of them (depending on the item limits)!
Items are usually a good way to screw up your adversary.
BUT, do the math! Is it better to get an axe or experience which
upgrades both attack and defense? (it depends on the price of xp
and if you suspect your opponent will use amulets of resistance...)

-Some items are vital and always worth the investment, including the skull,
healing staffs, storm staffs, and amulets of resistance.

-Another vital decision is which units to give various items to.

Items that act as spells or cast spells such as the skull, staffs and
wands should be given to light mobile units such as light cav or
skirmishers who have weak attacks and will be able to use the item
each turn.
Magic attacks are much stronger than regular attacks and simply giving
a unit a magic weapon can greatly increase its attack. Therefore, magic
weapons should be given to units who do not already have a magical
attack; heavy units should get preference over light units since they
can do more damage. However, magic bows should be given to cav or other
strong ground units(see "NICE UNIT/ITEM COMBINATIONS" below).
Boots of Rapid Movement should be given to slow units such as monks,
spellcasters, or archers.

----------

***HOW YOUR OPPONENT'S STRATEGY WILL DIFFER FROM THE AI'S***

Luckily, humans are far smarter than the AI in fantasy general, making for
a more interesting challenge. Here is what you can expect...

-Your opponent is (usually) as smart as you! In other words you cannot
depend on him/her to do all the stupid random moves the AI does. Usually
the opponent has a purpose to each move. That lonely archer sitting there
without protection just might be a trap!

-The AI usually picks on many of your guys. Your opponent will most likely
gangbang a few units until they die, or prevent them from resting (and so
should you!).

Take care of your wounded units. Versus the AI, units with only 10
life left could still used. Versus a human opponent, they will most
likely die.

----------

***BATTLE STRATEGY***

If both players purchase armies that are similar in strength, then the battle
will be won or lost on the battlefield. Clever players have even been known
to get away with some poor unit selections through excellent battlefield
strategy, but the purchasing and strategy should be coordinated. You should
purchase an army with a particular strategy on how to use depending on what
the opponent has purchased.

-Plan your troops deployment carefully. This could give you a one turn
advantage on your enemy. Deploy slow units in the front lines and fast ones
in the back... it'll save you from waiting for slow units.

-DO NOT RUSH TO ATTACK. Place your army carefully and try to get
the first wave of attack. Always attack and defend in masse.

Position your units so that either you can attack the enemy with many units
at once, or you can counterattack with plenty of units when the opponent
attacks.

-Scout ahead! You cannot plan your strategy if you cannot see the enemy
army. Therefore buy some light cav with the eagle eyes spell and use it.
Skirmishers and any worthless units you have also make good scouts.

Try to eliminate the enemy scouts so that he/she cannot see your formation.
You cannot underestimate how important it is to see the full layout of the
enemy army; if you do not see it, you might be ambushed by reinforcements
you did not see lurking behind enemy lines.

-Beware of your opponent making your units surrender and try to make his/her
units surrender! Note that only melee units can make the enemy surrender
and air units and shadow warriors(hint, hint...) never surrender.

Leave a break in the back of your lines(so that the opponent cannot send
units to stand in those hexes and block your escape) every two or three
units to prevent surrenders if you use formations where your troops are
all next to each other. Remember that you can send worthless troops to stand
in hexes that your enemy can escape to and block off their escape, thereby
forcing a surrender when you attack.

-Take all precautions necessary to prevent wounded enemy units from resting,
but don't follow them into unknown territory with a better unit unless you
know you can kill them because the enemy might be waiting in ambush. Either
scout the territory you are following into or use a unit that is expendable.

Sacrifice whatever you need to in order to keep the enemy skull unit from
resting and kill it. Killing the enemy skull bearer is always the most
important step in achieving victory.

-READ THE USER MANUAL AGAIN. Remember which unit gets which bonus
and when it gets it.

Playing with level 1 units? Peasants get a +3 bonus in forest and rough
terrain! This can make a HUGE difference for wimpy units.

Also make sure you understand the difference between "closed" and
"opened" troop formation. this greatly influences movement and bonuses.

Getting to know every bonus will let you know which units should attack
which enemy units and which terrain to use. For ex, cav attacking in open
terrain get a very useful +8 bonus and +4 defense(a little known fact
in terms of defense) BUT not against pikemen, legionarii or spearmen.
So do not charge into these units with your cavalry.

--------

***ADVANCED BATTLE STRATEGY***:

Here are some simple strategy tips that can prove invaluable in battle
but are not often used by most players.

-When you spent most of your gold on big strong units with items,
fill the rest of the army slots with slingers/goblins or wolf
riders/light cav maxed out in terms of exp.

Such units cost only 12-13 gold (for slingers/goblins) or 40-50 gold
(for wolf riders/light cav). They will be strong enough to really bother
your opponent, and won't cost you too much. PLUS they can can be used as
shields(see below) and can help to make enemy units surrender. Lots of
uses for such bargain units make them a good addition to any army when
money is tight.

-Shield your good units with your lesser units and scouts. Just placing a
wall of light cav in front of your main lines will prevent damage to
your good heavy units because your opponent will have to use 2-3 attacks
to kill each light cav screen before he/she can attack your valuable units.
Light cav/skirmishers are cheap, and you can easily purchase more as
reinforcements when they are killed, so you can use this strategy many
times in one battle.

-Learn the rules of where a unit retreats in a given situation(it is easy
to predict) and plan your attacks so that the enemy cannot retreat to where
you cannot finish them off with other units the same turn.

In general, PLAN OUT your attack BEFOREHAND so that you do not leave enemy
units with little life where they can rest or escape. Remember to account
for the worst case scenario when playing your attack. What if the expected
2 attacks are not as good as the expected losses? Do you have another unit
there just in case?

Try to attack with your farthest units first. that way, you'll still be
able to reach units who retreated or units that could not be reached
before you cleaned up some enemies.

-Two archers side by side make for a strong tandem. It is tougher for
sky hunters to attack them and any units next to both archers
are virtually invulnerable to sky hunter attack provided the archers
are decent grade and exp.

Just watch for surrenders; it is easy to make units protected by double-
archer fortifications to surrender. Leave a break in the lines when using
this formation.

-Why get a healer when you can get a light cav with a staff of
healing? Such a combo is faster, tougher and cheaper.

----------

***NICE UNIT/ITEM COMBINATIONS***

You can maximize the usefulness of items by giving them to the appropriate
units. Giving a magical axe to a skirmisher will be much less effective than
giving that item to a heavy inf unit. Experiment to find the right
combinations;
the most useful ones are listed here to give you a start.

-Any melee unit(especially cavalry) with a magic bow/crossbow will inflict
major damage to flyers but occasionally other pbm players will have
rules against this sort of thing.

-Any sky hunter with an amulet of resistance.
(see "THE MAGIC OF THE AMULET OF RESISTANCE" below)

-Cav or light cav with staff of healing. With their movement range, they
can reach more wounded units in time than other ground unit types(see above).

-Light cav or skirmisher w/ storm staff as extra anti-air defense. Again,
mobility is the key and these unit types are hard to kill so they are more
likely to be able to stay alive longer when under attack. A light cav with
storm staff can harass a flyer nine hexes away at the start of your turn
(6 movement + 3 hex range of staff), and makes for an invaluable unit in
the air war.

-Light cav with eagle eye(the spell, not the item) carrying cloaks of
invinsibility always make valuable spotters.

-Spellcasters with cloaks of invinsiblity. You can pick at the enemy units
without your opponent ever knowing.

Druids have a really powerful attack, and they can cast it on any unit in
any forest or swamp hex from anywhere on the map, so hide them in the
corners as they do not need to be close to the enemy...

**NICK: Spellcasters other than druids(who can stay far from the enemy)
are useless anyway, so why bother spending money on a cloak for them?
**SEB: Earthmasters can sometimes do wonders...

----------
***THE MAGIC OF THE AMULET OF RESISTANCE***

For 23 gold, this can be your most valuable item. It will offer great
protection against any magical attack or spell for the unit wearing it.

-Any unit with a magical attack(whether it has a magic weapon or regular
magical attack) will see its attack go down to a fraction of it's normal
power when attacking a unit wearing an amulet! Your unit gets 1.5 times
the armor against the magic attack which will usually reduce damage to
nil or close to it unless your units has a low armor rating.

-Remember that MOST bad guys have a magical attack!

Here's an example of an amulet-induced disaster:
one player [ Seb ] got the bad guys and the other one got beasts with amulet
of resistance; the MOST damage player1 could do to player2 on any attack
was 1 wound !!!

-Magical units have superior attacks power to regular and beast/mech
units but always keep a few strong units with non-magical attacks in your
army just in case the enemy has plenty of amulets. This will prevent
instant losses such as the one described above.

----------

***ADDITIONAL PBM RULES***

After a few games playing with the regular victory conditions set by the AI,
you will be looking for a more interesting alternative. Well, here are some
rules designed to spice up your pbm games and give you new challenges or
even the odds by providing handicaps for the stronger player. Don't be
afraid to come up with your own twisted rules.

Here are some examples of alternate rules:

-"Kill the Leaders" (by Ed Henry - a.k.a. #Crow#)
Rule(s): Each side gets 3 "leaders" who cannot turn invisible (using heroes
is a good idea).
Victory Condition(s): The winner is the one who kills the other guy's
leaders first no matter what's left of his army.

-"The 3/5/1?3" Rules" (by Sebastien Dupre - a.k.a. Ventura)
Rule(s):
max. unit grade = 2
grade 0 units get a max of 3 shields.
grade 1 units get a max of 5 shields.
grade 2 units get a max of 1 shields.
grade 2 units WITHOUT A SPELL get a max of 3 shields.

You set limited ressources AND the obligation to fill all army slots.
This will ensure that:
1) Cheap grunts stay cheap grunts (as opposed to overpowered
slingers for 13 gold)
2) Strong units are expensive
3) Units with a spell are a bit less powerful than units without a
spell
Victory Condition(s): Same as usual

-"Pot Luck Rules" (by Nick Vayn - a.k.a. BloodLord the Lich/Dark Mage)
Rule(s): Real simple... Both players pick any warlord and let the computer
choose their army.
This eliminates players winning solely on purchasing and forces you to
beat your opponent with strategy and a little luck.
Victory Condition(s): Same as usual

-Here are some standard rules over which my opponents and I have agreed:
(Use them as you see fit, and come up with your own)

*Maximum 1 skull of krang (standard for everyone)

*Melee units cannot carry magic bows

*Limiting the number of amulets of resistance is a good idea because they
completely eliminate the effectiveness of magic units

*Play with a maximum of 20% sky hunters. These units are way too powerful
so you might want to limit their power with rules such as the following:
1) Sky hunters cannot carry any items
2) You cannot win a game if you have only flyers left in your army

*When playing with custom generals, mechmastery+engineer
together will only count as 1 advantage. Dwarven is
forbidden. There is no reason not to get it, so everyone
usually winds up with, and it takes all the fun out of the mountains.

**NICK: I agree that Dwarven should be prohibited if you are playing in
mountainous terrain, but for regular terrain I prefer Healer
over Dwarven, so I see no reason to ban it.

----------

***ETIQUETTE***

Although there is no way to police most of these things, it is a courtesy to
your opponent to follow most of these guidelines(ask your opponent about
the conventions that he or she adheres to like to use beforehand since both
players should be following the same rules of etiquette). Players who
disregard basic etiquette will have a hard time finding and keeping
opponents.

-Restarting if your turn does not go well is cheating...

-Hiding invinsible units is a cheesy and boring way to get a tie. Don't do it!
Similarly, it is in poor taste to run with your invisible units and make
your opponent chase them when that is all you have left and it is obvious
you have lost. In other words do not use invisible units as a way to worm
a tie out of a loss.

-when you set the game up, tell your opponent on what map your playing,
it's size, it's type. But DON'T tell your adversary what general you're
playing (at least not before turn1).

-If you only have flyers left and you can't kill the remnants of your
opponent's army, SURRENDER!

**NICK: No, I think it is a tie if you have just air units and your opponent
has just ground units; continuing such a game is pointless because
it is obvious that neither side can win unless one player still
has money remaining or the ground army is weak enough for the
flyers to kill.
**SEB: I think flyers are too powerful and we need to power them down
with rules.
**NICK: True, but if winning the air war is meaningless, why spend money on
sky hunters? Making them incapable of even earning you a tie in
effect eliminates them as useful units and greatly simplifies
purchasing decisions(in a negative way). I think it is better to
limit the number of sky hunters and the items they can carry
instead.

The important things with special rules is to agree on them BEFORE
the game...

----------

***********************************

We hope this guide has provided some useful tips whether you are a beginner
or intermediate player. Suggestions, comments, or questions are welcome.

Sebastien [used to] run the Fantasy General Cooperative.
Visit the Discussion Board for in-depth strategy discussions!
[err... it is now archived]

Nick runs the Fantasy General Ladder for the General's Guild Wargaming Club.
Compete in the only Fantasy General Tournament on the Net!
URL:"http://www.chesco.com/~nvayn/fgladder.html"
E-Mail: "nvayn@chesco.com"

Note: We will continue to add to and modify this strategy guide. The
Version Number attached to the guide(see very top of guide)
will let you know if modifications have been made since you last
viewed it. Each modification will result in a minor or major change
in version number.
***********************************

[/b]

btw, there is also an extra SCN add on (official, i will add this, as it is easy to install)
it adds another CAMPAIGN to play (completely new campaign)







so , here the official addon campaign.

its just a ZIP, and it support the cracked Version (and the good thing: its legal)
its an exe and you simply put it into your FG Folder and run it.

lool - muck - its too big.
will dig out a link