First thing I do.

[Kalrex]

If you're a new player take a look at the map. Read the rules and get a general understanding of the game.

Alamaze is a fantasy wargame. You can role play your position if you like, or not. Make sure you have fun with it whatever you do. It's a deep rewarding game. If you don't do well in your initial game/s just chalk it up as a learning experience.

Once you've read the rules and taken a look at the orders look at your set-up and turn 0. Make sure you have your map open so you can see where you're located. Also, where you'd like to explore

Ideally you want to expand your position. In order to do so you need to locate additional pop centers. There are various ways to do this. Please read my guide in the General Discussion thread for many pointers-

It's a good idea to have a good Regional Reaction where you want to expand. This helps your diplomats and military parlay pop centers to your side. Good Influence helps too.

Early on it's important to try and get some additional pop centers for revenue and to keep them away from potential enemies. In most of my games my entire first few turns are devoted to doing this.

[Ry Vor]

Thanks Kal Rex for getting us started. New players should also know that the player community of Alamaze is very helpful and you can get answers pretty quickly here on the forum. If you have technical issues you can send those questions to support@alamaze.co, but they can't help you plan your strategy or give advice.

As right now all correspondence is via email, I recommend you create a folder for each game's correspondence and maybe a sub-folder to keep all turn results separate. You'll want to keep track of all promises given and made.

Generally, you'll want to issue all the commands you are allowed. You can't issue many that have high costs, but many don't. You'll likely find most turns you'll want to make some transfer orders which have no cost. Don't leave an order on the table (unused) when you could have a level 1 agent do a recon, for example.

[wfrankenhoff]

A standard opening move is to hire a High Priestess (or use the one you already have) to divine towns in the region you are interested in trying to control. In the early going, you probably want to focus on the region(s) were you have a Tolerant (or better) regional reaction and use your King to enamour region to Friendly, making it easier for your emissaries and armies to take control of the population centers.

[Kalrex]

As per above; Make sure that you have a lot of troops and diplomats located close to the area/s you're looking to expand.

So say your capital is in Region 3. Ideally you're probably going to focus on this Region as you have your best army and best diplomats already located there. This means you want to discover where other existing population centers in the Region are, towns/villages. You also want to figure out how to get the city or cities in your home Region. If you share the Region with additional kingdoms (highly probable) you need to decide if you will try diplomacy or wage war..

[Cipher]

Alamaze is primarily an economic game.

Whether you choose to act primarily through your military, political emissaries, wizards, agents or any combination of these, there are two main constraints: gold/food and orders.

The difficulty is expanding your economic base by finding and taking cities, towns and villages while maintaining diplomatic ties with other kingdoms so that they are not taking these things from you. You then gain the resources to expand and improve your kingdom's assets.

You have to find the pop centers:divine with high priestess orders, search with agents, search with groups, search with wizard spells.

Then get in position to take the pcs:improve regional reaction levels, move military, move emissaries

Take pcs: diplomacy, parley, rebel, control

the more/faster this gets done the better.

Negotiating deals to make the more efficient/less risky is a hallmark of success.

[Kalrex]

"Negotiating deals to make the more efficient/less risky is a hallmark of success."

This is debatable but the rest of the above post is accurate.

[Lord Diamond]

"Negotiating deals to make the more efficient/less risky is a hallmark of success."

This is debatable but the rest of the above post is accurate.

He said it as "a" hallmark of success, not that it was the only such hallmark.

[pedinski]

By no means am I the best player in the game, but I have learned a trick or two that have served me well. Most are just an expansion on a common theme:
1. Your first standing order should be to increase you capital. What I mean is that standing order 1 should be a 600 order increasing your Gold/Food or defense. If you do this turn 1 for both (-8k gold/-6k food) by turn 8/6 you will recoup the initial cost and everything else will be profit. I also used this as my "recruiting" town. This means that I "recruit" at cost.
2. Use all of your orders. If I find that I have an order kicking around and a group doing nothing, then "rest" them. You could always use the moral boost.
3. An envoy is a cheap recon unit. 350 an envoy to a space, if there is a PC then he will relocate there and you will know there is one. Even if there is a group there, you will still know that there is a PC, cheap and easy.
4. "Churning" your Navy is a good way to get free gold every turn if your strapped. 1st turn, scrap your Navy in a sea. (More is better) and "repurchase" 1 navy with an increased level. (16 is the goal) After this you will need 2 standing orders. 1: scrap the fleet (8x1000x1=8k) 2: re-buy the fleet at the same level, 6k. So every turn you get $2k. A free "village" income. Again, this is only if you have the orders.
5. Need an impregnable fortress? Have a town in the water. (use #1 to boost it) Keep a spare 1 brigade group there to block emissaries and then patrol the waters for enemies. Most people scrap there sea power early for gold. Keep the Navy in whatever sea you have your town and you have cheap defense.
6. Hidden ore is better than create gold. A level 4 that casts hidden ore is like casting create gold (2.5k) every turn as long as you keep the PC. You are also free to continue to use the Level 4 the following turns while the PC is still churning out gold. Remember, this is an economic game.
7. Magic kingdoms, after combat, when attrition is starting to climb, sacrifice your summoned creatures to bring down attrition and not recruits. Recruits are worth more when trained to vets and summoned creatures (Monsters and Skeletons) will always only be slightly better than recruits.
8. Don't stack your groups. If you have an empty group, put a brigade in it and park it at another PC. Blocking enemy emissaries should be a top priority. It also causes dis-information. (I have spent the last 22 years in military intelligence.) 2-4 groups at different towns gives merit to those towns, even if it may not deserve it: i.e. enemies that are blocked by a group might think that that is the capital, when it may not be.

Anyway, these are only a few. If anyone is interested in other tips, let me know and I will post a few more. Just don't want to bore anyone. (I may be too late) Hope these are able help some of you, just not against me.

Pete

[Lord Diamond]

Pete, I'm always interested in learning tips and tricks. If you have more, please share them.

[Ry Vor]

By no means am I the best player in the game, but I have learned a trick or two that have served me well. Most are just an expansion on a common theme:
1. Your first standing order should be to increase you capital. What I mean is that standing order 1 should be a 600 order increasing your Gold/Food or defense. If you do this turn 1 for both (-8k gold/-6k food) by turn 8/6 you will recoup the initial cost and everything else will be profit. I also used this as my "recruiting" town. This means that I "recruit" at cost.
2. Use all of your orders. If I find that I have an order kicking around and a group doing nothing, then "rest" them. You could always use the moral boost.
3. An envoy is a cheap recon unit. 350 an envoy to a space, if there is a PC then he will relocate there and you will know there is one. Even if there is a group there, you will still know that there is a PC, cheap and easy.
4. "Churning" your Navy is a good way to get free gold every turn if your strapped. 1st turn, scrap your Navy in a sea. (More is better) and "repurchase" 1 navy with an increased level. (16 is the goal) After this you will need 2 standing orders. 1: scrap the fleet (8x1000x1=8k) 2: re-buy the fleet at the same level, 6k. So every turn you get $2k. A free "village" income. Again, this is only if you have the orders.
5. Need an impregnable fortress? Have a town in the water. (use #1 to boost it) Keep a spare 1 brigade group there to block emissaries and then patrol the waters for enemies. Most people scrap there sea power early for gold. Keep the Navy in whatever sea you have your town and you have cheap defense.
6. Hidden ore is better than create gold. A level 4 that casts hidden ore is like casting create gold (2.5k) every turn as long as you keep the PC. You are also free to continue to use the Level 4 the following turns while the PC is still churning out gold. Remember, this is an economic game.
7. Magic kingdoms, after combat, when attrition is starting to climb, sacrifice your summoned creatures to bring down attrition and not recruits. Recruits are worth more when trained to vets and summoned creatures (Monsters and Skeletons) will always only be slightly better than recruits.
8. Don't stack your groups. If you have an empty group, put a brigade in it and park it at another PC. Blocking enemy emissaries should be a top priority. It also causes dis-information. (I have spent the last 22 years in military intelligence.) 2-4 groups at different towns gives merit to those towns, even if it may not deserve it: i.e. enemies that are blocked by a group might think that that is the capital, when it may not be.

Anyway, these are only a few. If anyone is interested in other tips, let me know and I will post a few more. Just don't want to bore anyone. (I may be too late) Hope these are able help some of you, just not against me.

Pete

Impressive stuff. We can all take something away from that. I would love other players to post on, for example, how do you get organized to submit your commands? Do you have a routine? How many windows do you have open? Do you print anything or write any notes?