                             Introduction : Hints

NAME
   Hints - Hints to help you play Empire better

Level: Expert

Military and the Demobilization of Same

   It's  generally  a good idea to put demobilized military on active reserve.
   You should also consider whether you need an enlistment center to  generate
   more  military.   You  can't  enlist  more  military than you have military
   reserves.  The "nation" command will tell you how many military  you  have.
   Be  careful, as many players have lost their countries through carelessness
   with their military at the start of the game.

   Actually, the enlist command cannot activate more military than you have on
   reserve.  Even then they have to be in sectors with an efficiency of 60% or
   greater.  Enlistment sectors can produce as many military as they are capa-
   ble  of, but will never produce more than one-half of the civilian populace
   there.  So you need to keep moving them out,  or  demobilizing  them,  etc.
   Also, the more military you have in an enlistment center, the more military
   get trained per update.

   Any civilian may be enlisted (no restriction on the efficiency of the  sec-
   tor).   No  more  may  be enlisted than the number of reserves.  Enlistment
   costs mobility whereas while demobilization costs cash.  Military can  only
   be  demobilized  in sectors with a 60% efficiency or greater.  No more than
   one-half the number of civilians  in  a  sector  may  be  enlisted  in  one
   "enlist"  command,  but if it is issued many times, virtually all civilians
   in a sector may be enlisted.

   One thousand reserves is enough for now, although I  figure  I  always  put
   them on reserve when I demobilize, at least up to 10,000.

   So  you don't need to push for more reserves now, but might as well put all
   demobilized military on reserve.

   You make back the cost of demobilizing military in just two or three days I
   think, so I generally demobilize the military I don't have any use for, and
   put them on reserve.

   Depends on how you want to use them, I guess.  I figure with 200 jet trans-
   ports  at  127  mobility, I can land 20,000 military in an enemy country in
   one night, so I'd say 20,000 is a safe  upper  limit  for  reserves.   I've
   never needed more than that.

Distribution Hints

   When  distributing  stuff  to a warehouse, set the thresholds in the sector
   that is sending to or receiving from the warehouse to the amount  that  you
   want  left  in  that sector.  Don't set thresholds for the warehouse itself
   (unless its also distributing to another warehouse)

   The minimum threshold for distribution is one.  A threshold of 0  means  no
   distribution of that commodity will take place.

Something to Remember about Technology

   An  education  level  of five is required to build technology.  After "easy
   tech", the tech you build is put through a logorithm with "tech  log  base"
   (see version).

War Zones

   It  makes  it much easier if the player doesn't have to do anything to keep
   his country running, but can instead do the things that  are  of  interest.
   There's  also the problem of what to do in an invasion.  I guess if invaded
   I just accept the damage, and don't try to fix it until the war ends.

   In a war zone I generally follow one  of  two  basic  plans.   If  I'm  the
   invader,  I  either leave the sectors as they are and let the country being
   invaded fall apart, or if I can do something  to  make  it  worse  for  the
   enemy,  I  sometimes  do  that.  I sometimes designate conquered sectors to
   agribusinesses if they need food, banks to reduce shelling damage,  enlist-
   ment  centers  for military, forts for firing and attacking, harbors to get
   ships in, warehouses to collect, move, and  distribute  supplies,  airbases
   for planes and bridge heads for easy movement.

   When being invaded, I also generally postpone any long term development and
   just concentrate on the basic sectors types for combat (a,b,c,e,f,h,w,#,*)

   I've found it's a mistake to worry about long term  development  in  a  war
   zone,  until  the  battle  is  over.   I  will let a war zone be completely
   wrecked in order to achieve victory.  So you need to keep  your  home  area
   away from any war zones.

   So  far the method of treating war zones and peaceful zones differently and
   keeping them separated has worked pretty well.  The mistake I made  in  the
   past  was  to try to develop a war zone before the fight was over.  Now I'm
   willing to completely wreck the area to win, and in fact  you  pretty  much
   have  to.  The guerrillas take several days to get rid of even when the war
   is over.

   I mostly turn the sectors in the front lines into  forts,  enlistment  cen-
   ters,  banks,  and  bridgeheads.  Then maybe some warehouses, airports, and
   harbors within range of the front lines.  And maybe some radar stations.

Work Percentages are Important!

   I've found it good policy to produce a large surplus of  food  and  aim  to
   have  at  least 100 food in each sector, when I have enough. Actually I now
   put 990 food in each sector, except for aggies (100) and warehouses (9990).

   Before moving civilians, check the work in the sector the civilians are in.
   If it's less than 100%, DON'T move any of them out.  The  reason:  work  in
   the  destination sector will drop to the same level as the starting sector.

   It's a good idea to check after every update, to see if  any  sectors  have
   work  less  than  100%.  "cen #0 ?work<100" is what I use.  If work is less
   than 100%, workers won't work at full efficiency, and if it gets very  low,
   the  civilians may revolt and you'll lose the sector.  Build lots of happi-
   ness, and keep extra mil in sectors with work less than 100%.   That  seems
   to help.

Definitions and a Good Thing to Remember

   "World  tech"  and  "world  research" refers to the technology and research
   made by other countries which will automatically leak to the less developed
   countries.

   If  you let education get higher than happiness, then find work going to 0%
   in your sectors, don't say you weren't warned....

On Nuclear Devices

   Just a note on nukes: in this version, there  is  a  nice  balance  between
   nukes  and  economics.   A player can do a lot of damage with nukes, but it
   costs a LOT.  So it's rare that a country is completely  annihilated  by  a
   nuclear attack, as used to be the case in PSL Empire.

SEE ALSO
   Overview, Introduction

