Kal Rex's guide of advice for new Alamaze players.

[Kalrex]

1) At the beginning of your game you will have a pre-set gold and supply/food balance. You also have a base economy from your controlled population centers. So, in order to calculate your ACTUAL treasury (wealth that could be spent turn 1), add your starting supply of gold and your production (from towns and villages) and then subtract your armies pay. THEN, do the same with your food/supply balance. This can be sold via ORDER 200 and then you will have that much gold available in addition to the existing balance prior to any expenses.

1a) There are additional ways to generate revenue. These include selling your fleets and casting spells. This is assuming you're not a Dragon position or you have the wizards able to cast the "Create Gold" spell.

1b) Plan your first few turns out. Make sure you have the money to do what you're planning. Don't waste $$ early on, because you have the free order maybe, when you will need that $$ to use your political assets the next turn.
-Example- Turn 1 you move your Prince to a City. Turn 2 you incite a rebellion. Turn 3 you usurp the city. = 18,000
This is assuming everything goes well. This often isn't the case...
If it all goes as planned you will receive revenue from that city turn 4.

---

2) Expand your kingdom. The best way to go about doing this is to hire a priestess (if you don't begin the game with one) and divine Towns/Villages. Neutral population centers are appealing targets.
Focus on your base Region (where you have the most beginning population centers) or the Region you want to expand. Make sure your Regional Reaction and Influence line up correctly with your odds of political success. Also use your military to gain these population centers but it's best to parlay unless you have a superior might (Dragons/Giants...) or the targets are soft - Villages.
Some battles will make your military better actually but an early defeat is a setback.

2a) Cities are already controlled and these are hard targets imo. Some of them are predisposed to go towards certain kingdoms but it's better to grab those towns villages then spend the resources on "maybe" gaining a city. The downside of the cities are that everyone knows where they are at. Suppose you begin the game as the Darkelves- you move your Prince to Gurisek (6,000) on turn 1 and your agents inform you that the Dwarves also moved a noble to the city. Now what? The other issue with a city is that most armies cannot outright attack a city. Some can, Red Dragon/Giant, but then at what cost? If a city is contested you're likely not going to get it painlessly... there are 12 cities and 15 kingdoms.

2b) There are 10 Regions and 15 kingdoms. Every position out the gate is vulnerable. Some more-so than others. Some positions are very likely to gain hold of a Region. Some very unlikely. If you're in the latter category plan accordingly.

3c) If you're in a position where you cannot expand as much as other kingdoms you likely have the resources to improve your existing population centers. Take advantage of this but remember that the more $$ a town generates the more likely it is to be targeted. Think strategically how to defend yourself...

[Kalrex]

Notes on the above before I go further.

-Some people will advise to forego the Priestess purchase and divination. it's very expensive to do this and there's a possibility of her dying after one use. If gold is a serious issue I'd very well try alternate methods of finding pop centers.

You can use agents to search for pop centers, level 4 works best, as well as search with your groups. The downside is you could find nothing/very little on turn 1. Another downside is you might discover pop centers in a Region you're unfriendly. The Priestess is surefire.

-Conversely to my Gurisek example above. Suppose you're the Dwarves only to find the Darkelves has moved his noble into "your" city. It works both ways...

---

3) Maximise the use of your assets.

If you have wizards and you're a wizard position you want to get the most out of them. Power 4 spells are greater than 3-2-1...
Out the gate, if you're able, you want to either give yourself some permanent gain; such as hidden ore spell. You can also recruit Monsters or Skeletons maybe. A brigade of these troops isn't really significant but if turn 5 rolls around and you have several brigades of these troop types it will pose headaches for your opposition. "Create Gold" can give you a shot in the arm early if you need the economic advantage but it's a one shot deal. Later in the game you're much better off having cast a Hidden Ore spell. You can also improve defenses among other things but early on you want as much $$ as possible assuming you're able to defend your position.

If you're a military power you have to preserve your troop base. Giants/Red Dragons are irreplaceable. If you lose a few brigades of these troops you might not be relevant anymore.

Political power can be developed.

Seapower can be developed.

Improve your strength though, whatever you do.

Underworld is the outlier here as he needs to obviously develop his agents meanwhile he can make it prohibitively expensive for others to do likewise. This facet of the game has many variables. It's a good idea to bump up your better agents to level 4 asap. Afterwords it depends on those "variables". It's good to have high level agents if at all possible.

---

I'll continue working on this up till the release of the game-

[Kalrex]

4) Keep Moving

Wargames are usually games of momentum. Games in general actually are. You want to have the most things going your way. The more orders you successfully issue, with positive outcomes, the better. That also implies that your opposition isn't having things go his/her way.

Reasons to keep those troops in the field:

Early movement is almost essential in order to gain additional pop centers. The only reason to remain stationary is if you wanted to bolster your pop center with Hidden Ore spell or something for multiple turns. I'd make that group a patrol then and get the troops marching...

Unless you're setting up a trap it's a good idea to always be on the move. Groups should always move unless you're training wizards or blocking political units from moving into specific locations- You could also be "protecting" a position but it's always better to let your opponent be the one on the defensive. Better to fight your opponent over his territory than fight over yours...

Moving also helps you to avoid agents and other nasty stuff. Once a group is found it's harder to evade stuff targeted at the group but moving in general is an evasive strategy.

You might randomly land on an unusual encounter. This happens every so often.

If you need to recruit/train troops you can move from pop center to pop center. Same goes for wizards. You need control of those pop centers.

It keeps you unpredictable. As soon as you're predictable you're in trouble...

[Kalrex]

Naval matters

Don't just arbitrarily scrap your navies. A lot of players might do this to raise some immediate gold or because they think that Seapower is not a priority. Especially early game.

-If you have starting groups/pop center/s in the water your navy matters.

-If you plan on acquiring Avalon or Northern Mists your navy probably matters.

-There are unusual sightings in the water hexes.

You can "hide" in the water from Dragons and also superior/threat kingdoms.

At the games outset you might have a group starting in the Sea. If this occurs then you need to be very careful not to move that group unless you can handle an opponents "Sea Patrol" order. If your fleets aren't tier 1 consider boosting them in order to get your troops to the land.
Make sure you understand the orders chart. You can buy fleets/upgrade your fleet PRIOR to doing a Sea Patrol. This means that on turn 0 it's possible someone could boost their navy considerably and Sea Patrol that same turn. If you're concurrently moving your group on the same Sea you will potentially have your navy destroyed and lose your group/leaders/wizards. It's a total loss if that navy is completely destroyed. Some positions might have critical assets at Sea on turn 0...

There are almost as many Sea hexes in the Sea of Mystery alone as Marsh hexes on the map. That's a lot of potential pop centers/encounter possibilities. - Avalon and Northern Mists are generally dictated by Naval power Or Dragons-

---

Don't try to fly under the radar.

The map of the land is considerably large. That being said though, and I said it before, there are only 10 Regions versus 15 kingdoms. That means you can't hide out for long (boosting up your wizards or something) hoping you'll be ignored... You wont be ignored, especially in a no-drop game. By around turns 6-7 Most kingdoms will be encroaching on one another. That's if you're lucky.

Even if you perceive yourself as a weaker position be decisive. Stand your ground. All the positions early on have a LOT of vulnerabilities.
If the Giants or Red Dragons are bearing down on you you've got problems but you can survive it.

It gets hairy when you have an alliance against you. Be diplomatic. Don't give anything away though unless you have some upside in doing so. If the Red Dragons want Viperhead or something then they're going to take it. If the Elves want Viperhead that's a completely different matter... Try to make allies with positions you have 0 interest in expanding into- Don't make allies with positions that are going to hold your growth back or handicap you. Ideally though, if you're facing 3 other "enemy" kingdoms you'd have 2 allies to compensate-

[Kalrex]

Standing Orders

Early in the game they're not a big deal. Economically you can't do a lot of exotic standing orders without possible drawbacks.

Good early S.O. examples are something like Recon a city in your Region or something. Sea Patrol might be another good S.O. keeping in mind that if you plan to Sea Patrol you cannot also move troops through that same Sea as fleets will be occupied with the patrol- note; I'm unsure with the modern code if you're able to patrol/move if you have a massive fleet.

Another good S.O. example would be to make use of an order like the Trolls special Regeneration order.

Mid-late game you might have a booming economy and then something like "Expand Kings Influence" or something you want to be issuing several turns in a row would be a good S.O.

I've used standing orders in most of my games and it's a nice feature but not as good as it's cracked up to be in the rules. Just too many variables, in game, to reliably do a lot with it other than Recon types of missions.

[Kalrex]

Where kingdoms start the game:

Elf - Oakendell/Northern Mist
Witchlord - Northern Mist
Dwarf - Talking Mountains
Giant - Amberland
Ancient one - Amberland/Torvale
Darkelf - Eastern Steppes
Ranger - Synisvania/Southern Sands
Sorcerer - Synisvania
Black Dragon - Southern Sands
Demon Prince - Arcania
Gnome - Runnimede
Underworld- Runnimede
Troll - Torvale
Red Dragon - Talking mountains/Northern Mists/Runnimede
Warlock - Torvale/Synisvania

Note that all kingdoms have pop centers in multiple Regions but the 1st Region tends to be a logical place to find them... ie: It's highly unlikely you will find the Dwarf armies anywhere other than Talking Mountains early game- Some positions have decisions to make though about where to expand... Some positions basically will not relocate where others might easily do so.

---

There's a TON of useful information in the "Old Alamaze Stuff" section.