Some Cathay questions

[Alwyn]

Do you play as Cathay? How are you getting on?

Playing as the Northern Provinces, I'm enjoying using trade caravans, defending the Great Bastion and trying different combinations of units.

I haven't found a way to confederate the other playable Cathay faction (the Western Provinces). In theory this is possible using diplomacy, but I haven't found a way to do this - has anyone else? (I avoided a military alliance with them, as I've heard that this makes confederation harder - even so, they still don't want a confederation).

Having taken the Storm Dragon into the Dark Sorceror's Realm, my Astromancer reached 44th level (I don't think this was meant to happen, I believe that heroes are supposed to be capped to 40th level). He has maxed out all possible skills, and the game wants me to spend a skill point for reaching 44th level. Has anyone else seen this problem and, if so, did you find a solution? (I always start a new campaign when CA release an update, so this wasn't caused by continuing to play a campaign with a new version of the game).

[douglas]

Doing a Miao Ying campaign currently, to pass the time. I'm about to hit turn 100. I've ignored the Rifts, closing them when they appear, and pursuing the consolidation of the the Cathy area.

After a while I went ahead and did a trade, then non-aggression and finally an Alliance. The task to basically go to war with him basically dropped off.

Frankly, I've ignored a lot of the requests/missions that have come down. I just wanted to play a basic "let's see what happens if I do this" campaign. I'm allied or trading with most of the Ogres to the South, have three caravans trading and a ton of money coming in. Most of the region capitals are lever four or five. I've confederated with three other factions and have six armies in various of size, with the primary ones of a full stack each of upgraded units.

Moving South to take out a couple of the Ogre, and other factions I'm at war with. Once that's done I should be able to field an army of the top grade units. Then, I'll give the next rid of the Rift openings a shot. (Yes, most of the Rift goals have already been taken by other factions, but I'm a ""LOUSY, very LOUSY"" battle player when confronted with the magical part of a battle, so I'm hedging my bets! )

Lovely campaign for someone who is not really a Warhammer aficionado. Really like it!

[Alwyn]

I like the idea of a 'see what happens if I do this' campaign, ignoring the missions and just doing what want. You've made impressive progress, I didn't manage to confederate three other factions. I think the Iron Dragon confederated or conquered some of them before I could confederate them - any tips for getting confederations earlier?

Expansion south seems logical for Cathay, since the regions to the west, beyond the Grand Bastion, are 'uninhabitable'. Of course, we can occupy them, but the 'unhinhabitable' penalties to control, replenishment and income, added to the penatlies from high corruption, seem to make staying on the Bastion a better option. I'm enjoying the benefits of the reduced upkeep buiilding for the Bastion's gate settlements and being able to fight defensive battles against several armies.

How are you getting on with moving south to take out some of the Ogre Kingdoms? I've found expanding south to be quite challenging, because the Goldtooth ogres have a lot of settlements (and they just destroyed my main army in the south), and because of the distance between my outposts in the south and my main recruiting cities in the north.

The Great Bastion gate settlements are cool (I like the art style and enjoy defending them). Even so I wonder if there could be more to them somehow on the battle map - a higher wall, or maybe a second wall? I'm not expecting a series of walls like Minas Tirith, I'm simply thinking that, as the gates are where attacks are known to occur, wouldn't Cathay have a better second defensive line than improved barricades in the streets?