The Road to success; A marshall's guide

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FC_Groningen
Posts: 205
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:09 pm

The Road to success; A marshall's guide

Post by FC_Groningen »

The Road to success; A marshall's guide








Table of contents:



- Intro

- Success through longevity
- Longevity through stability
- Stability through organisation
- Stability through numbers
- Stability through authority
- Stability through diplomacy
- Longevity through reputation
- Reputation through promotion
- Reputation through symbolics




Intro

During the past years I have been playing this fun, addictive, but relatively expensive game, I have fought, worked with and talked to a distinctive number of players. Depending on my experience, efforts and people I cooperated with, I fullfilled many roles from bottom to top. To my personal regrets, I haven't fullfilled most of these roles for a very long time. Reasons for that would be the constant required money input which is basically required not only to "win", but also to compete, while I'm just a poor student without any significant form of income. Another reason would be the required time you have to put into this game to grow as fast as possible (especially at the start) and later, the required time you will have to spend in order to dedicate yourself to a leading function.

Yet, fullfilling a leading function in this game can both be tremendously fun, rewarding and educating. The reason I write this, is to put together a guide on fullfilling the (according to me of course,) most difficult and complex role; The house marshall role.

I write this guide based on my own brief experience as house marshall of house 13 on the Polish world "Wioska 1" and on things I have learned/picked up from different marshalls I've cooperated, talked or fought with.

Note that I merely wish to put together a guide as objective and useful as possible. If people have remarks and feedback, it would be greatly appreciated in order to create a bigger and better guide. Finally, I would like to thank earlier mentioned marshalls, or actually anyone that contributed to my game experience today. You all rock!

Note: To remain as objective as possible, I wish to refrain from writing down examples, or names of players/houses.



Success through longevity


The very first thing a good marshall should remember in my opinion, is the fact that this game is designed to reward the persistant and their long term planning. Of course, I assume said world to be vibrant and warlike for a longer period of time, instead of one, perhaps two massive world wars, which results into an everlasting dominance of a single house or entity. I applaud the ones that dare to fight on, or plan to fight on later after a defeat. So far, people have proven it's possible to recover from a crushing defeat, only to win later. "He that runs away, will live to fight another day".

Too many marshalls/houses started off great, but fell soon afterwards; Sometimes after gaining stars for multiple glory rounds. Reasons for their downfall vary, but are usually related to an excessive build of enemies, internal strife, players quitting or moving to a new world, or areas being thinly populated by their members or friendly locals. Depending on the cause, there is a varied degree a marshall can influence these factors, but in general stability is a, if not the most important, factor here. Marshalls would do well to remember it!

A good thing to remember here is not to start off too agressive. Your numbers won't be high enough to secure too many lands and you will only make yourself a prime target for all other powers, while you also often * off neutral powers, by for example flagraiding or blocking too many opportunities for high offices. The more you will be spread out, the harder it will be to muster a good defence. If you start off large and do not manage to deal with these attacks, more houses will prepare to pick on your bones. The larger you start, the more houses will look for an opportunity to test you right away. "The glory race is a marathon, not a sprint."



Longevity through stability


In order to continue, it would be best to define stability in this game, or guide actually. With stability, I mean the degree of stability in your own house/alliance, the stability in power inside your home territories, the degree of authority you excercise over your fellow generals and stability on the map/relations regarding other houses and marshalls at the same time. Each coming chapter will be dedicated to each of these factors. The higher the overall stability, the lower the odds are you will see your house crumble before your eyes.



Stability through organisation


Depending on each house/marshall, the degree of delegation of power and responsibilities varies. In potential, a marshall has the task to manage his own faction, his own properties, recruitment, preparation for war, war, diplomacy, training members, other general house matters and on top of that will most of the time wake up to a full inbox. I personally was a controlfreak as I wanted to be involved in all matters and handled some topics like public relations and diplomacy (mostly) by myself.

There are obvious advantages and disadvantages to such an approach. Advantages were that I didn't need the mandate of the generals for such matters and decisions could be made easier, despite the option to still ask for the general's input. In this case, most generals were content to trust my judgment which might have been a rare case. Another obvious advantage was the fact of having a complete overview all the time, which didn't require the knowledge or input of seconds. Next, there is a certain guarantee you will handle a subject to your satisfaction, or can only blame yourself if something does go wrong. The more you leave to others, the higher the odds are you will have to "clean up" after someone, or correct the decision being made. Overruling your seconds in command should happen as less as possible for obvious reasons. Entrust vital tasks only to people you know will handle them to your satisfaction. Another advantage could be lessened requirement of releasing sensitive information to others.

A clear disadvantage would be the massive workload you'll have to cope with each day. A good reason for me to step down as marshall on Wioska 1 was the unrelenting workload that had to be handled each time. I personally burned out pretty quickly. A major disadvantage might be your generals feeling left out of the loop, or not being taken seriously. Most generals (including us marshalls of course) became general to lead and not just to blindly follow orders or pass messages to their faction. Just the feeling of not being taken seriously can be enough to breed discontent, which can be deadly to your stability. Once you are known to be a "dictator", it might already be too late. Another disadvantage would be the fact that everyone else will soon come to you. You will receive mails of concern or complaints from members, neutrals and members of other houses, which will drag you into "lesser matters", increasing your work load even more. If you plan on doing everything, then don't be surprised if everyone turns to you to solve it, no matter how trivial. Finally, the moment you are gone, there will be plenty of room for mistakes if the house has no one else to fall back on.

Therefore, I recommend this; Take these points to heart and then go with a mix you feel comfortable with and slightly adapt to the situation if required. Make a clear chain of command, so not everyone will contact you and only you. Have the generals or officers inform their factions and let them gather feedback and concerns. The most vital information will be forwarded to you. Regarding your own faction, I would recommend you pick a reliable officer to have him act as faction general. That way, he/she will be handling all general faction matters, so you can spend your time elsewhere.

Be open to your house whenever you can; People like to be kept up to date. Use your proclamations well; Take your time and use these to spread as much general information as you can. Even if you do hold all the strings of a certain task yourself, give your generals a chance to exchange thoughts with you and have multiple forms of media available. A "house leadership thread" is a must, like a lot of other house threads. Don't make too many or people lose the overview. Refresh them from time to time to replace people if needed. A voice program like teamspeak will be very useful to discuss most of the daily business, as long as you keep the channel secured with a password.

Reorganise your house and factions at times. For efficiency reasons, it could pay off to have specialised players (like monkers)/factions located close to each other. Do not be afraid to move people around the map or around factions.



Stability through numbers


A common reason for a house to go down eventually comes down to a lack of numbers in the house/alliance. Unless you're in a dead or close to death world, you will need more than the standard 12 x 40 members to both hold enough properties to be certain of a glory round victory and to have enough members inside these territories to have them "locked down". I've seen plenty of examples in which houses managed to gain victory in war, but remained empty handed afterwards, because they lacked the numbers of players to occupy their newly taken territory after which their enemies or third parties reclaimed these lands. In this case, you knew how to gain a victory, but not how to use it. Another obvious advantage will be the increased faithpoint reserve, or basically any advantage that comes with superior numbers.

One might argue on the required percentage to define an area locked down, which of course, depends on the property as well. For a county, I'd stricly recommend a sheriff to hold at least 3 secured parishes himself, unless the county is too small for that. On top of that, I'd say at least 75% of the parishes should be owned by your house/alliance with a maximum of 50% of the active players being neutrals or players of another house you do not have relevant treaties with. Up for discussion of course.

A very good and common way to bolster your numbers, is to grab hold of another house and stash new factions there that cannot fit in your own house. It's possible to make deals with other marshalls to gain access to more storage space (alliance), or try to send factions into an empty house, or nearly empty house to take over (hostile takeover). In both cases, you need to be careful on the marshall position as this marshall will have the opportunity to break free of his bonds to your house, will follow his own agenda, or will show other forms of rebellious attitude. Make sure you can trust said marshall and make sure he is accompanied by enough generals that will keep him in power.

Another way is to recruit from the vast neutral player base. In order to do that, you need a respectable/decent relationship with the neutrals, but more on reputation later. The reason you need to pick up locals inside your areas, is the fact that a vast group wants to be part of a house for protection and benefits. If you won't pick them up, another house probably will, which will threaten the security of your territory. A lot of wars started over local conflicts in which multiple houses had a decent/strong presence in the area. Obviously you can pick up neutral factions as well, or try to merge with another house, although you will probably need a lot of careful talks for that. It's possible to pick up former members or former factions of other houses as well, but this usually leads to a lot of bad blood and is generally frowned upon and won't improve your reputation. Be wary of people/factions trying to escape from trouble. Never give them sanctuary. One might question their loyalty to the new cause on top of that.

A clear disadvantage will be the need to integrate the new players/factions into your house/alliance. They will have to be taught the rules, chain of command and more often than not, they will require training or time to fullfill a useful role in your house. Do not underestimate the need of integration, or the workload it brings to the table. Another disadvantage will be the required change of organisation as exponential expansion requires. For example, you will have to update all of your house/alliance threads.

Next, you need to think on how you will divide the roles between all the houses part of your alliance. In general, it's possible to make one house the main house for the glory race and have the other ones become vassal houses. Issues here might be the decreased morale for players inside the vassal house and the fact that your rivals will immediately see which of your areas are being held by "the elite" and "the weak". Another option is to create equal sister houses in which both share property and glory. This will keep more people happy, but is less efficient towards the outside world. Usually, at least one house will have to be dropped to stay in the race sooner or later and the later it will be, the higher the odds are one house will not agree to their new role. On top of that, it might complicate the chain of command and it might become unclear on who's really in charge. My personal preference is a main/vassal house setup in which factions and players can earn themselves a spot in the main house as a reward of their accomplishments.
FC_Groningen
Posts: 205
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:09 pm

Re: The Road to success; A marshall's guide

Post by FC_Groningen »

Stability through authority



Throughout the ages it has become clear that it's near impossible to be successful abroard if there is turmoil at home. Internal strife killed some of the major powers throughout the history of the game, which is often a shame. Apart from not ending up at the losing end of a war, the best way to prevent this from happening, is to build up authority in your own house and keep it up. If you have little to no authority, your generals will question you, follow their own course, will not discipline their members, will break rules and eventually may leave your house or try to usurp you. Needless to say, authority is a large factor of your reputation.

Obviously, you will need to prove yourself to be a capable player first (unless you're strictly chosen as an organiser/manager). The best leaders throughout history led by example. Kings and marshalls hiding behind their walls while doing nothing, will not earn any respect and people will soon tire of following them.

Next of course you need to obviously show competent leadership skills. Indecisive, cowardly, fickle, lazy, ignorant marshalls never last long. You will be expected to handle the tasks you have (maybe given yourself) to satisfaction. Know that mistakes you make, will be measured and kept record off.

Next, you need some people management. Most generals want to contribute and want to be taken seriously. Eventually, you need to entrust them some tasks and provide the opportunity to discuss things with you. I recommend to have a private thread with all of your generals, next to the house leadership thread to enable private talks which will be appreciated. Seriously consider their feedback and keep everyone up to date as nothing is more annoying than to hear about vital information being kept from you. Use your house proclamations to keep members up to date and instruct your generals to provide regular updates to their faction to keep everyone informed. Be careful in correcting your members in public and don't be afraid to praise if it's earned. Being known as a friendly, open and honest leader will be more than half of the work here.

Next are some tips:

- Keep the general opinion in mind. Making too many impopular decisions will tarnish your reputation/authority. Explain and defend the ones you make.
- Even the mightiest are prone to mistakes. Admit them.
- A referendum might help you taxate the popular opinion. Use a forum or the faction threads for that at times.
- Take your time for difficult decisions and go public after you reached consensus. Going back on your word will make you look fickle and unreliable.
- Do not promise things you cannot realise.
- Do not make yourself look like a kid. Act mature and if you adress others, use decent English without too much slang, exaggerations or insults, or preferably none at all.
- If you are not on an English language based world, get yourself a translator and have all your public texts translated and sent along. People will appreciate it! Use google translate if you have to.
- Your reputation inside your house will reflect on your reputation outside of the house and vise versa.
- Try to stay up to date of all things happening in your house and outside of it. Knowledge is power and will make you look like an even stronger character.
- Do not wish to hold too many high offices next to the marshallship! A lot of people will aim for these and it will only make you look powerhungry if you hog too many. You'll have trouble securing all these offices too. Each of them will bring an excessive workload too. High offices are great ways of rewarding individuals or great negotiation material.
- If you make rules, both maintain them well and see to it that all members are aware of them. Keep them realistic and make them clear to prevent a lot of grey areas.
- Reward accomplishments with officership/generalship or high offices. If you have a vassal house, motivate people to work themselves into the main house and replace the ones that do not belong there.
- Never have someone question your decision/opinion in public to the outside world.



Stability through diplomacy


Diplomacy in this game is an art practiced by many, but only mastered by a few. Diplomacy might be the difference between becoming the world's paria and being at war with 10 houses at the same time, or having a relatively safe environment in which you can afford to go to war without too much worry.

The main factors influencing your diplomatic status are your general reputation, the overall position compared to the others and personal relations with the other powers. Your general reputation is a summary of your personal reputation (reliable or not for example), the history of your house and the status your house has reached throughout the game. The overall situation reflects how your house is currently faring and whether you are in a strong position or not. Influencing that as well, are your relationships with the other houses. It's good to have a decent overview of which houses dislike you, can cooperate with you, or which houses have a reason and cause to attack you and it's good to know about all wars and treaties that are going on.

The reputation you want for your house will probably vary. Some might prefer a more agressive status, or are more willing to use methods others might find unethical. Know however, that such decisions will be remembered. Of course, no one wants to be judged "soft" or "vulnerable" and will try to set examples by force or symbolics sooner or later. My advice here would be to be conservative in your agression, because we already established it to be deadly to become known as an agressive expansionist too early. Ways to do so could be to not be the one declaring war. Like in most cases in history, the agressor is usually blamed for the conflict. If you do declare war, make sure you have a casus belli; a justification for the war. Declaring war before attempting diplomatic solutions will make you look agressive and warlike too. Another major factor is how much you ask/demand for during negotiations. On one side you will have to prevent discontent in your own house and gaining the name of a weak negotiator by asking too little and on the other side, demanding too much will make you look unreasonable and powerhungry and will probably gain you an eternal enemy, Harsh conditions, even if justified or rightfully won, will motivate the other side to ever keep trying to take revenge on you. In most cases it's preferable to make a peace both sides can work with, which will allow future talks or cooperation even, assuming the other side won't hold personal grudges. "After the war is over, make alliances".

Another thing to always keep in mind is your current diplomatic situation and those of others. No matter the past, or your current size, you will be weakened if you are already at war, on perhaps multiple fronts against multiple enemies. Always remember well the temptation to declare war on an already engaged house. Therefore, if the world is (still) at peace, it would be wise, not to be the first power to get into a lasting conflict with another as it will provide the others a beneficial situation.

Your stance amongst the locals and neutrals can help or hurt you as well. Especially in the event of a foreign invasion, the locals can be a nightmare, or a relief. In order to build up a good stance, you will need guidelines and rules satisfactory to both your own house and these outsiders. For example, flagraiding will * off a lot of people, but is necessary, especially at the start. Set areas off limits for flagraiding and direct your members to a different location on the map. Maybe it would be wise not to allow a parish to hold more than 10 flags? The stewards that end up with 50 or so are often hated throughout the game. As a rule, it's wise not to hold many more flags than you can spend.

Of course, it never hurts to have some allies at your back as no one's really eager to declare war on multiple powers at once. Full grown alliances need a lot of mutual trust for it to work and even then you can be dragged into one war after the other by an agressive or unfortunate ally. Note that there are several different deals you can make first like a "defensive alliance" or a "non agression pact", or just deals on how to divide territory. Make sure you set clear definitions, aimed at future situations as well.

Depending on your preference, try to get a friendly or business-like connection with the other marshalls, which will make it easier to discuss matters in the future. The sooner you start talking to other houses, the more easily you can usually start building up bonds and exchange/gain information. Non agression pacts are usually * low risk deals you can strike with other houses at the start, assuming they will be trustworthy enough. If you agree to a non agression pact, it might be wise to set a termination time period in case either side wants to break it.

Some different tips:

-Automatically distrust houses that try to "stretch" the deals you made, or ask for more after a deal has been made. In general, they are testing you to see your character and how far you'll go to keep the agreement(s) up.
-Never start negotiations when you are at your weakest (for example, 2 of your counties just flipped), as both momentum, the (over?) confidence of your opponent and the unrest locally and in your house will weaken your negotiation position.
- Be careful in accepting temporary deals in negotiations like a ceasefire until talks have finished. In such a case, you might weaken your position by stopping your own momentum, or giving the enemy time to prepare again.
- Be wary of stalling tactics. Lots of houses will try to stall your attacks by claiming they need to talk things through with the house or will give a somewhat similar excuse. Find a balance in not giving them that time and being reasonable. Above all, you want to prevent a house to find allies to their cause, before the talks are over.
- Never make a dispute between you and another marshall personal as you might need him again later. If he/she isn't in the mood to be reasonable, respectfully ignore him until he comes to his senses. If not, let the battlefield do the talking.
- If you do reach a deal, inform the rest of the house as soon as possible and see to it your house members won't violate the deal for the sake of your reputation.
- If you talk with someone else but the marshall, make sure both of you know the boundaries of his jurisdiction.
- Remember that friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.
- If you negotiate for a larger alliance, take heed to fullfill your allies' wishes as well.
- Not all marshalls/houses are here for the glory race or map domination. It's usually best to befriend these guys as in general they tend to be more reliable and have less cause to attack you.
Last edited by FC_Groningen on Thu Nov 07, 2013 11:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.
FC_Groningen
Posts: 205
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:09 pm

Re: The Road to success; A marshall's guide

Post by FC_Groningen »

Longevity through reputation


As we established in the previous chapter, it is vital to maintain a certain reputation among the other powers. So far, I've said this on reputation so far:
- You do not wish to be seen as soft, or incapable as other powers will certainly consider you an easy target and will be eager to test you.
- You do not wish to be seen as too powerful or agressive, as that will invoke the other powers to move against you soon.

It is recommended that you have a reputation of moderation. Why?
- You will be less predictable once confronted with a situation. It will give you space to adapt and respond without being bound to a certain reputation you have to hold up.
- A house of moderation is usually considered less of a thread compared to the first "powerhouses" that usually appear at the start of a world, which allows you to build up in peace.

Above all, you do not wish to be known to be:
- Arrogant. Arrogance always invites disaster and will only attract more enemies.
- Unreliable. It's a game indeed and all means could be used to win a war, but backstabbing and betraying will leave a mark on you, you won't ever lose. It's a very good reason for any adversaries to mobilise more powers against you.

In short, a bad reputation gives many houses a reason, or excuse to attack you or to gang up on you. Note that it's very hard to get rid of a bad reputation, but it only takes a moment to lose a good one.



Reputation through promotion


Depending on what reputation you wish to pursue, you would be wise to use public relations or promotion to gain such a reputation. For example, if you wish to come off as powerful, a good way to do so is by spreading reports of your successes against your enemy. If you wish to come off as benevolent or fair, use proclamations, in game threads, or any media possible to your advantage. For example, you are invading a contested area of a house you know have been oppressive regarding the locals. A good way to gain local support there would be to, for example, promise lower county taxes, free parish elections, or no razing of neutrals. Not having to fight these locals should be a clear strategical advantage and a suitable reputation could help you here.

It helps if you do not all promotion by yourself of course, or it will seem like you'll just tout your own horn. Have members capable of approaching others promote your house and it's intentions, or even better, have neutrals or perhaps even different houses help you, if you can to improve your reputation. Only by using means of promotion, your victories will gain symbolic worth.


- Reputation through symbolics

Not all wars and conflicts, or actually very littlem are decided by just violence/razing an enemy out. In most cases, the morale of an enemy house can be broken way before the entire house is reset, which results in desertion, attempts to diplomacy or surrender. In such a case, momentum is overwhelming and momentum is mostly built on symbolic victories or defeats. For example, two counties flipping color is a visible change which is seen by everyone and an indication the conflict is moving to a certain side's advantage. Another way to shock an enemy would be by raiding capitals, razing certain key player's villages like a marshall, sheriff or key fighter. Landing in enemy territory "behind the lines" usually works very well too, as these territories usually aren't that well defended and you'll gain access to weaker player's villages which need protection.

The main lesson to be learned here is to avoid what is strong and attack what is weak and attack if there is something to gain.






Contributions and feedback from other players


















*
Last edited by FC_Groningen on Mon Dec 23, 2013 7:52 pm, edited 3 times in total.
FC_Groningen
Posts: 205
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:09 pm

Re: The Road to success; A marshall's guide

Post by FC_Groningen »

It indeed is, but all I have to do is copy it from my noteblock as I made this while I was sitting around boring colleges. Should be editted in soon.
User avatar
WRP_Beater
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Re: The Road to success; A marshall's guide

Post by WRP_Beater »

Wow, this is nice.

If you need more posts of yours following your first 3, I could check if I can rearrange the order of the posts somehow.
Regards,
WRP_Beater
FC_Groningen
Posts: 205
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:09 pm

Re: The Road to success; A marshall's guide

Post by FC_Groningen »

I think I'm done for 70%. I hope to finish the guide soon. Thanks for the words of encouragement so far. Feedback would be great.
FC_Groningen
Posts: 205
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:09 pm

Re: The Road to success; A marshall's guide

Post by FC_Groningen »

Sorry for the delay, but the first draft is finished for now. I hope people could provide some feedback or additions.



On top of this, I plan on starting on "The Art of War - Stronghold Kingdoms Style".
delta2k17
Posts: 180
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Re: The Road to success; A marshall's guide

Post by delta2k17 »

You are right in some ways but also wrong in others.

Experience is everything in this game, not cards. For the sake of argument lets say there is guy 2 months into the game who spends 1000$ bucks on this game and myself who spends 0%, we are both prince and all researched, but when it comes down to it Id destroy him so hard it wouldnt even be funny. Cards are nothing without experience to know how to use them, and again even with experience carders can be GREAT but easily beaten by skilled experienced veterans who are active. You are right in the sense that you cannot do much if you are not active, activity is everything in this game.

Also the reason of the downfall of many houses are because they want to win glory, H4 on W1 hasnt even though about trying to win glory until age 3, we are respected throughout the game and we said age 3 is our age to win and so far so good. The only way to keep a house going is connections, connections without alliances, connections with alliances to help you fight. Its all about people not fighting you, the least you fight , the least chance there is to loose. But hey thats not very fun is it haha.

About a the HM taking all responsibilities is frankly dumb, 99% of HMs who do EVERYTHING will fail. In the past what ive seen work is a HM has a officer in his faction take care of the faction as the Hms job is the house not his faction , and then that officer will divide his other officers into catagorys, village placement, diplomacy etc... etc... But really a strong house is measured by its FGs, 1 HM cannot do it alone, you need multiple people who are qualified to be a HM to make a strong leadership house.

Your tips for a HM are correct and obvious, one thing new leaders need to learn is. Dont let your faction make descisions for you. You are the HM or FG for a reason therefore YOU know whats best for the faction or house, you let others give their opinion on the matter and you look at the situation from all angles and people are smart and can give great ideas but when it comes down to it the LEADER needs to make the final descision to what he thinks, not what the majority thinks.

I really didnt read all of it because Im under attack but I though to make acouple posts on it
FC_Groningen
Posts: 205
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:09 pm

Re: The Road to success; A marshall's guide

Post by FC_Groningen »

delta2k17 wrote:You are right in some ways but also wrong in others.

Experience is everything in this game, not cards. For the sake of argument lets say there is guy 2 months into the game who spends 1000$ bucks on this game and myself who spends 0%, we are both prince and all researched, but when it comes down to it Id destroy him so hard it wouldnt even be funny. Cards are nothing without experience to know how to use them, and again even with experience carders can be GREAT but easily beaten by skilled experienced veterans who are active. You are right in the sense that you cannot do much if you are not active, activity is everything in this game.

Also the reason of the downfall of many houses are because they want to win glory, H4 on W1 hasnt even though about trying to win glory until age 3, we are respected throughout the game and we said age 3 is our age to win and so far so good. The only way to keep a house going is connections, connections without alliances, connections with alliances to help you fight. Its all about people not fighting you, the least you fight , the least chance there is to loose. But hey thats not very fun is it haha.

About a the HM taking all responsibilities is frankly dumb, 99% of HMs who do EVERYTHING will fail. In the past what ive seen work is a HM has a officer in his faction take care of the faction as the Hms job is the house not his faction , and then that officer will divide his other officers into catagorys, village placement, diplomacy etc... etc... But really a strong house is measured by its FGs, 1 HM cannot do it alone, you need multiple people who are qualified to be a HM to make a strong leadership house.

Your tips for a HM are correct and obvious, one thing new leaders need to learn is. Dont let your faction make descisions for you. You are the HM or FG for a reason therefore YOU know whats best for the faction or house, you let others give their opinion on the matter and you look at the situation from all angles and people are smart and can give great ideas but when it comes down to it the LEADER needs to make the final descision to what he thinks, not what the majority thinks.

I really didnt read all of it because Im under attack but I though to make acouple posts on it
You would be welcome. I'll see if I can respond to your main points to see if we can come to a consensus.

- I'd say you need both experience and cards. As you said, experience to see how and where you need them and cards for the obvious edge in battle or for your economy. It's common knowledge that it is much harder to raze an active carder than a similar skilled non carder as this guide assumes both sides are about equally skilled/experienced and equal in size. There's no need to make a guide for trampling down "noobs" or "small fry".

- I think I covered that. I think many houses would go for glory if they saw an opportunity, but a lot can't or "peak" too soon, earning them too many enemies. I've been active on world 1 too. For instance, I think house 17 failed there in world 1 because they made too many enemies and failed to keep their allies their allies. Their/our arrogance was their downfall as after age 2, simply too many wanted them gone and eventually, they have to fight an uphill battle against superior numbers and resources (FP's mostly). I might be wrong, but I got the impression that world 1 wasn't that active anymore at the start of age 3. The war against the remnants against house 17 was rather short wasn't it? As far as I know, after not many powers contested house 4 there. No disrespect meant; I've always said that the people that remained on world 1 are in general very good players although it seems it became a farming world now and I doubt a next age has much use there. I've covered the importance of diplomatics and reputation quite a lot in this guide.

- I agree on the HM's tasks. I've basically written what you said there. Maybe obvious but many houses still lack a clear chain of command or have an overlap of responsibilities.


Hope you will read everything and can reply to me again.

edit: Much appreciated Davidspy.
delta2k17
Posts: 180
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 7:27 pm

Re: The Road to success; A marshall's guide

Post by delta2k17 »

Ye your points are right, was just adding to it :)

H17 failed because they made enemies, backstabbed me in ES and then when it came to the fight, their top players werent there or performing. One of the best players in the game Blecking didnt join till it was too late and now he's just wrecking it. Kingshark wasnt fighting, madpro wasnt fighting like madpro has in the past, zokik,cuner,loodi none of them were really fighting

It may have ended in a different way if H17 had their fighters fighting
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