Hello and a question or two

[Chaz73]

Hi all, just downloaded TATW and have to say I really enjoy it. Hats off to the devs.

I have a cavalry question for you. Last night I was on the losing side of a battle with Dale. I was playing Ruhn and I had my General's Body guard galloping away from the main fight to create some space for a charge. I was being pursued by Dale Yeoman.

I took a second to check the main body of my force and by the time I got back to the cavalry, the yeoman had caught up and were hacking my Bodyguard to bits! What factors could've led to this? I can't tell you what my units stamina, but I suspect that might of been a factor, as well as the fact that my cavalry were in flight and never had a chance to form up properly. Is that enough for a unit of light cavalry to take down a full unit of heavy cavalry VERY quickly?

Also, I passed the point where a notice pops up to say that you're able to produce professional armies, but still didn't have the population to actually do it. Most of my settlements were at about a 2%-3% population growth rate. I had my taxes set at high and had a good economy going with low corruption. I was rotating Generals about every 5 turns to keep them from getting too complacent or corrupt. Anything else that can be done to raise population faster? Dale was starting to send in heavier units while I was still messing about with basic militia types.

Thanks in advance for any help

[Hound of Culann]

1. I'm not sure what was the cause, but i think it might've been that the yeomen caught your bodyguards before they reached the point you had ordered them (as yeomen are much lighter they logically should move faster, not sure if it's so). This way the yeomen could've hacked your bodyguards on the way as they don't start fighting until they reach their destination.

2. This won't probably help you anymore, but i usually keep low taxes in cities until they reach the stone walls upgrade. After that i put on the highest tax rate possible without the city order going below 100%. That won't give you much money in the start, but the cities grow large sooner and later on provide much money. Also the cities with stone walls usually can train quite heavy units, such as the Gondor spearmen. I also build the farms on the crop rotation level wherever possible.

[Lordinquisitor]

If you keep the taxes below "high" however, be sure to move your generals out of the town whenever a building is completed, else they get bad traits..