cross-posted from: https://swg-empire.de/post/8487295
Someone recommended Feudal Tactics for Android the other day and I've been hooked ever since.
This map here has prevented me from falling asleep yesterday. In my first attempt I ended up holding the north with a crusader stationed at the choke point against brown who held the south. But their army starved and in my naïveté I pounced on him to prevent my own starvation only to leave an opening for them to enter my territory and ultimately win the game.
I kept thinking about how I could have been more methodical and reached an equilibrium that let me gather more resources.
I ended up replaying that map (losing several times) to reach the same state. But this time their army didn't starve. Mine didn't either but we had a crusader against a crusader and no way to get around it.
I ended up gathering a ton of resources and taking a note out of their book. I opened up a small path form them to accomodate their whole army and closed it afterwards and used the opened up way to now more methodically conquer their lands.
Felt good.
If you want to try it yourself:
Seed: 1787947922763 Starting Position: 1 Enemy Difficulty: Hard Map Size: Medium Map Density: Compact
That stalemate sounds more interesting than it first appears: the winning move was opening the position on purpose, not simply building a stronger army. Does the game show enough about income and upkeep to plan that deliberately, or do you mostly learn the starvation thresholds by losing? On a phone, that clarity seems like the difference between a clever puzzle and trial and error.
Theoretically you could calculate if someone will starve with a given army and territory. Every plate gives you 1 income. Every peasant costs 2 upkeep per round. Spearmen cost 6, knights 18 and crusaders 54.
You get the values for your own territory. Eg you know how much you have saved and how much you earn or lose every round. Every territory has its own values. You have to connect territories to combine their savings and income.