15.0 Tactics and strategy

Here are some tips regarding how to become a successful Dunk player. Or at least some tips to avoid being an idiot.

About wars

Wars are very expensive in Dunk. It may seem cheap to buy 10 armies as an orc. But then you see that they cost 3 gold each to support and most of them are in provinces which they can not plunder. Therefore it is important to only make war when you have something to gain.

Here are some examples of when war is a very bad idea:

Attacking dwarves in their mountains. This is especially a bad idea if you are an orc. When you conquer a province, the dwarves will revolt. Then you surely end up with a mountain with no dwarves which gives no income. It is also very slow to march into a mountain province and the dwarves fight well in mountains.
Attacking elves in forests with sky_castles. They are almost invincible.
Attacking Ducks at sea. Ducks fight very well at sea.
Attacking orcs without much backup.
Attacking a mage kingdom that is in peace and only has a short common border with your kingdom. This may be no problem with protection.

And some examples of when war is a good idea.

When the elven kingdom next to you kingdom claims some non-forest provinces.
When some dwarves think that it is a nice idea to camp on the plains.
When the ducks try to walk on land.
When you think that the forest/mountain/sea does not belong to anyone other than elves/dwarves/ducks.
When a kingdom grows too big you have to attack. It might not seem as a good idea, but with some allies this will be no problem.
When a kingdom is almost history, it might be a good idea to take what is left before someone else does it.

But make sure to end the war quickly. Otherwise you will end up far behind other kingdoms. The evil orc-kingdom may have occupied five of your land-provinces, but if you just defend yourself, they will not continue into the forest or mountain.

About diplomacy

It is not only important to get many friends, but also to handle you enemies in a good way. If you strike them in an "honourable" way, it will be easier to make peace with them and to explain your aggression to your allies.

Try these explanations in your ears:

The evil orcs have nothing to do on my sea!
A have to attack them to help my ally who is in trouble.
It is a weak kingdom so I will eliminate them just because I can.
I need to expand and this was the only possible choice.

Especially the last explanations says "Afterwards, when I have grown stronger, I will attack you.". This will make even very loyal allies sending some technologies to the attacked kingdom...

Sending technologies to a kingdom that surely will die is often a good idea. This will keep the war's winners busy a little longer. Sometimes even gold may be a good idea. Why not send 20 gold to the poor orc-kingdom and thus creating things that will cost over 60 gold for your enemy-in-the-future to eliminate?

Technologies

Always try get get as many technologies as you can. Even if you have no use of some of them, you can trade them with other kingdoms. Just be aware that the value of technologies vary and the cost to develop a technology is in no way correlated with its value.

Read the description of the technology and set your own price!

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