                      Introduction : Advice for Novices

NAME
   Novice - Advice for Novices

Level: Basic

                                  A Preface
                                by Ken Stevens

       While most of this document applies to the game of Empire in its
current  form,  it is important to keep in mind that the sections which follow
this preface were written long before missions or land units  were  introduced
into  the  game.  The main impact that missions and land units have had on the
game is that they greatly strengthened the defense.  Here are "ten easy steps"
for setting up a strong defense in the new server:

   (1) Build 100% forts and put 10 guns and at least 100 shells in them.
   (2) Put at least 5 mil in all of your coastal sectors.
   (3) Build infantry units, put them in the forts, "fortify" them,
       and put them on "reserve" mission (info mission).
   (4) Build battleships and artillery and put them on "interdiction"
       mission.  Put the artillery in forts and fortify them.
   (5) Put infantry units in your banks and capitals and fortify them.

   ---later in the game---

   (6) Put lots of land mines in your ground (info lmine).
   (7) Build fighter planes.
   (8) Always guard your ships with destroyers (or other kinds of ASW ships).
   (9) Build some ASW planes and put them on interdiction mission.
   (10) Build lots of SAMs and ABMs.

A Treatise of Advice on War and Peace for Budding Empire Players by Dave Pare

This  article  contains  advice  for  beginning players.  It deals mainly with
staying alive and not economic development, because staying alive  is  tougher
for beginners than is playing with the various Sector-types.

The  most important thing I can say is that beginners should remember that Em-
pire is not realistic.  There are dozens of "tricks" to learn; until you  mas-
ter  them, you will lose because of small oversights Beware of patterning your
Empire actions after real-world strategies; they may not work as expected.

When you start, grab as much land as  possible.   Locate  and  identify  other
players,  and  get an idea of the size of your land mass.  Send them all tele-
grams.  Everybody likes to get telegrams; the telegram facility gives you  the
chance to make friends, influence people, and have fun role-playing your coun-
try.  If you get to know somebody, you may not be attacked  because  you  come
across  as  a  nice  guy.   Of  course,  if you sound like a bozo, you may get
stepped on.

Establish a definite border with your neighbors by inhabiting sectors with one
civilian.  This establishes your claim to the land behind these outposts, even
though you don't actually occupy it yet.  It also prevents your neighbor  from
discovering  where YOUR capital is.  In Empire, it's very important to protect
the location of your capital; likewise, it's quite nice to know  the  location
of the neighboring capitals "just in case"!

If any of your neighbors attacks your outposts, that gives you a valuable clue
to their intentions, while not costing you much in the way of resources.   Al-
so,  an  attack  on  a remote outpost may give you enough time to prepare your
country for the possible invasion to follow.  You may not want  to  claim  too
much  land  though,  or the outposts will get overrun by people who are fed up
with your obvious land-grabbing.

Basically, try and be fair about land distribution, but make sure  you  get  a
good deal for yourself.

Empire players go to war for many reasons.  One is lack of resources; you have
land, and they want it.  Another is safety; your troops or ships are perceived
as  menacing, so they are destroyed by your adversary.  Another is because the
attacking player really enjoys attacking people!   Still  another  is  boredom
and/or  curiosity  --  "Just  how do nukes work anyway?  Hey, I know, I'll try
them out on Freedonia!"

In Empire, wars are generally won by people who attack first.  Because mobili-
ty can be saved up your attacks can proceed while the hapless enemy is asleep.
Many Empire attacks have happened over the weekend, or at 2:00 in the morning.
It  is  quite difficult to defend your country when you're not logged in.  The
auto-defense features of the game are minimal at best.

The whole philosophy of "First Strike" holds true from early land warfare,  to
naval warfare, to the philosophy of Mutual Assured Destruction.  If you strike
first and your attack is well-planned, any retributive strike of  the  enemy's
will  be  ragged  at best.  If it's a land war, all of the fighting will be on
the enemy's territory, not on yours.  Your industries will be  fine,  and  the
battleground will be the enemy's.

Having mentioned the advantages of pre-emptive strikes, I must caution against
spur-of-the-moment attacks.  I've noticed that many wars tend to occur because
some  country  sinks  your  battleship; you get mad and decide to attack.  I'm
just as guilty of this as anyone.  Spending a few days marshaling your  forces
can  mean the difference between a long, drawn-out slugfest, and an overwhelm-
ing 2:00 blitzkrieg that blows away half the enemy's army and navy within  the
first  few hours.  While it's nice to have instant gratification (seeing enemy
troops die right after you read the telegram  describing  the  destruction  of
your  poor,  defenseless battleship feels SO good), a hasty counterattack will
alert your enemy who will mobilize forces and retaliate  accordingly.   Things
will  escalate,  and you'll be in a full-scale shooting war before you can say
"Gulf of Tonkin Resolution!" And you will have lost the advantage.

Going first only counts if you have marshaled your forces.  A scattered,  ill-
planned attack will net you nothing but a little instant gratification, at the
cost of a long drawn-out war in which your neighbors who aren't  fighting  are
the  only  winners.   Once  two  countries are at war, it's much harder to win
"overnight".  Vietnam is a good example of what you shouldn't do.  Gradual es-
calation  just gives the enemy time to prepare.  A sudden, overwhelming attack
is far better and will achieve your goals much more cheaply.

Knowing where the enemy is located is absolutely critical to the planning of a
successful attack.

War  takes  up a lot of resources; your personal time is the most precious re-
source of all.  In a war, your time, energy, and creativity  will  be  devoted
towards  destroying  your adversary.  This leaves little time for economic de-
velopment.  In war, the home front stagnates, or goes to seed.  Only the  bare
necessities  are  produced for the civilians at home, technological innovation
and new land development ceases, and your country will generally  fall  behind
in the global race for technology.

Therefore,  if  you  decide  to go to war, you'd better win quickly or else it
will take a lot of time, and your country will go downhill  fast.   If  you're
just  punishing  someone for doing something "nasty", offer "nice" peace terms
after you've meted out appropriate punishment.  If you  aren't  attacking  be-
cause  you're bored, other players are likely to agree to peace because losing
a war is unpleasant.  I've turned enemies into allies often enough;  they  are
happy  to survive, and if your attack was relatively justified, they are happy
to have you as a friend.

You'll notice I didn't give any advice to responding to an  attack.   I  think
being attacked is generally a losing proposition because in Empire the attack-
er generally has the advantage unless fighting with greatly lower tech  equip-
ment.

As  soon  as  ships  start appearing on the power chart, make sure each sector
bordering water has at least five to  ten  military.   When  more  ships  come
around,  beef  up  the  coastline defenses even more.  Put tons of military in
your capital.

To summarize, if you go to war, strike the first blow -- preferably at 0200.

Remember the cost in your own personal time investment.  Once the ball  starts
rolling, you won't be able to call it all off and go for a vacation.  Your en-
emy will want to kill you, so you'd better be prepared to spend plenty of time
in solid play.

                           Humble Additions to the
                              Treatise of Advice
                                by Tom Tedrick

In addition, keep mobility in mind.  In many of my low-tech wars, superior mo-
bility was decisive.

Combining these ideas gives you my basic opening strategy: take as  many  sec-
tors as is possible, as quickly as possible (I will take 300 sectors the first
day if I can), and designate them highways, leaving one civilian in each  sec-
tor.  (You may need to leave one food in sectors with zero fertility.)

When  my  country first reaches 100% efficiency, roughly two-thirds of my sec-
tors will be 100% efficient highways.  This allows me to shift my  forces  all
the  way  from  one  border to another in a single move.  I once had great fun
smashing three countries that attacked me simultaneously from three  sides  by
shifting  all my forces from border to border to border, achieving local supe-
riority in each case, and annihilating the enemy forces  in  turn  at  updates
(this  is related to the theory of the advantages of interior lines worked out
by the Germans).

If the enemy runs out of mobility you can sometimes catch  the  main  invasion
force helplessly immobilized on the front lines and annihilate it.

                              Hints to the Wise
                               by Shelley Louie

Since  this is an advice note, I'll refrain from being too specific about tac-
tics.  You'll just have to learn them yourself.

Building the Perfect Beast: (Country Construction)

   The first thing you want is land.  Lots of land.  A whole hell of a lot  of
   land.  You should try to expand your country from the very beginning.  From
   there, you'll meet your neighbors who are doubtlessly doing the same  thing
   you're  doing.  Expanding wildly.  Now comes the first of a series of deci-
   sions you have to make.  Do you want to become a raging  power-mad  warmon-
   ger?   If  you  do,  be  sure  to have built your army beyond the basic 100
   troops.  The earlier in the game you find someone,  the  easier  it  is  to
   crush them into oblivion.  If you feel peaceful, see the diplomatic section
   of the text.

   Another difficult decision is designating your sectors.  A  good  beginning
   mix  is  two  mines  per light construction and heavy construction factory,
   about 20% agribusinesses (later dropping to 10%, 5%, or even none at all!),
   and  a  few  schools,  research,  parks, etc.  to fill up some of the other
   space.  The most important thing to have is a good transportation system in
   the  form of your highways.  Anywhere from 20-40% of your country should be
   highways.  You'll find them infinitely useful in moving food to a  starving
   sector,  taking people to a new settlement, or transporting troops to a lo-
   cal revolution, highways are vital!

   Another important consideration is "do you want really want to  win?"  This
   implies the idea of competing in terms of building technology and research,
   and being able to get supplies to continue to produce both of  these  vital
   products  plus happiness, a high (greater than 10) education, maintaining a
   military force, etc.  Winning means succeeding on all fronts.   I  play  to
   win,  but find that I can't devote the time or effort to winning, so I usu-
   ally end up playing for the pure enjoyment of the game.  Ask Tom  [Tedrick]
   how many hours he puts into playing, and you can figure that is what you're
   going to have to do to win.  A final warning, if you play  seriously,  your
   grades  will  drop.   No  if's, and's, or but's about this.  You can't just
   throw three to five hours a day away and not have your schoolwork suffer.

Happiness is a Warm Gun: (The Art of Diplomacy)

   No one trusts anybody in this game unless you know them personally  outside
   of  the  limited scope of Empire.  Of course, this limits you a lot, so you
   break the rules and make alliances with people who you have no relation to.
   And they in turn backstab you and devastate the country you so meticulously
   built for the last few weeks.  Oh well, that's what you deserve...

   Just kidding.  Most of the people you will play with are rather trustworthy
   souls.   At least they are until it becomes burdensome to them.  A good re-
   lationship (as all those sex manuals will tell you) is based on  trust  and
   respect  for  the  other person.  What does this mean to you?  Build enough
   military to be a pain to invade.  Military power insures respect.  Trust is
   up to the two people involved.

Night Moves: (The Art of Empire)

   Empire is a skill.  Never forget that.  You will learn as you play that you
   may have to stay up for that 3:00 AM update to completely surprise your un-
   knowing  victim  or  even  just to maximize your country's potential.  Also
   never forget that someone may be up at that time waiting to pounce all over
   you too.  Pleasant dreams.

Running on Empty: (Losing and still having fun)

   Okay,  you've tried to keep up with Tom [Tedrick], Chris [Guthrie], and all
   those other experienced people, but it just isn't going  to   happen.   You
   are  not  going  to win the big win (i.e., become world dictator).  What do
   you do?  Give up and watch your country go to pot?   Give  all  your  stuff
   away to another country and resign?

   No!  You can have fun even after you can't win.  Make small wars with other
   small countries.  Try to get a hold of nukes to  devastate  them.   Form  a
   cartel  with  other small nations and try to run over a big country.  As in
   real life, the possibilities are endless!  Look at the Middle East, they're
   having fun, right?

   This  is just a game, and from this point on, you don't have to worry about
   watching over your nation too closely.  Play for the enjoyment of playing.

   Which, of course, is the intention of Empire in the first place.

                      On the Distribution of All Things
                              by David Bleckmann

The reader here is assumed to have read the information pages  on  distribute,
threshold, and level.

To  use distribute, it is a good idea to have a warehouse.  You don't have to,
but this is how the command usually works.  If for some odd reason  you  don't
use  a  warehouse, you will have to use some other sector as your "destination
sector", as mentioned in "info level".  For novices, just build  a  warehouse.
I  will refer to warehouse instead of distribution sector for the rest of this
text.

You should place your warehouse in a spot that can be reached by all your sec-
tors  via a low mobility path.  That is, for each sector you own, there should
be a path along which you could move  goods  at  very  little  mobility  cost.
Since  100%  efficient  highways don't cost any mobility to move across, roads
that come close to each of your sectors and lead to your warehouse are a  good
idea.

Now  for  each  of  your sectors you must set up a distribution path.  Use the
distribute command.  This is a path from each of your sectors  to  your  ware-
house, along a low mobility path as described above.  For example, if you have
a nation that looks like this:

             j j m + c
            m + g * +
             h + w + k
              m + + g

And you wanted to set up a path from your capital, you would give the command
   [##:##] Command : dist 0,0 bbg

Note: the path can only be so long, and as your country gets larger  you  will
need more than one warehouse.

Once  you  have done this for all of your sectors, you are ready to start dis-
tributing.

Now you will probably want to have food on all your sectors, and if one sector
has  a  lot  of people on it, you may want to have a bit more on it.  You will
not want to have to monitor the food levels for all of your sectors.  This  is
the process that is automated by distribute.

Using  food  as an example, you can go through all of your sectors and issue a
threshold command, such as:
   [##:##] Command : thresh f 0,0 40

This will set the threshold for food at your capital at 40.  You can  do  this
for all of your sectors using a command like
   [##:##] Command : thresh f #

And give a threshold for each of your sectors as prompted.

Now at each update, Empire will move food to and from your warehouse in an at-
tempt to satisfy all your threshold requirements.  If for  example  a  certain
sector  has  more  than  its allotted threshold of a certain product (e.g., an
agribusiness producing food), food will be moved off it to the warehouse.   If
a  sector  has less than its threshold, and the warehouse has any of that com-
modity, the product will be moved from the warehouse to the needy sector in an
attempt  to  satisfy  its threshold.  If a certain sector has a threshold of 0
for a certain product, no distribution takes place.

Therefore if you wished to move as much iron as possible from an iron mine ev-
ery  update,  you  would set its threshold for iron to one.  If somewhere else
you had a lcm factory that can use 45 iron a turn (found out through the  prod
command)  you  would  set  its  threshold  for iron to 45 (or greater) and its
threshold for lcm's to one.  Then, on each update, Empire would move all  iron
off  your iron mine (except for one unit), try to put 45 iron on your lcm fac-
tory and take all lcm's (except for one) off your lcm plant  (possibly  to  be
used somewhere else).

Note:  the  order  in which this happens is predictable, but not always desir-
able.  Thus, if you have no iron on your warehouse to start with and your  lcm
factory  gets  updated  first, it won't get any iron even though there will be
some in the warehouse in a few seconds.  It is always a good idea to keep sur-
plus goods in your warehouse.

The  end  result  is  that  you  can set up your country to move your products
around without you logging in.  It also doesn't cost as many  mobility  points
to move things as distribute, and it costs no BTUs!

                         Some Further Clarifications
                       on Distribution versus Delivery
                            by David Muir Sharnoff

   Secondly,  I  am  still  a little confused about distribution and delivery.
   When I designate a distribution route, does that mean that things  will  be
   delivered  from  the  point of distribution to the warehouse?  Or do I also
   have add the delivery route on top of the distribution route  in  order  to
   get  things  moving?  And how do I get the visual route of the distribution
   route?  I can get delivery routes by doing the route command.  Thanks.

The two methods of moving commodities (distribute/threshold/level  and  deliv-
er/cutoff/route) are completely independent.

Delivery  is most useful for short, one-sector, movement of commodities.  Dis-
tribute can be used in conjunction with highways and distribution  sectors  to
provide  low-cost,  long-range movement of commodities.  There is no analog to
the route command in the distribute paradigm.

Here are some examples of commands:

   [##:##] Command : distribute -2,0 jjjh
This command sets up a distribution path from the distribution sector in  -2,0
to sector 4,0.

   [##:##] Command : thresh food 4,0 400
This  command sets the threshold on sector 4,0.  Sector -2,0 (the distribution
sector for 4,0) will attempt to keep 400 units of food in 4,0 by importing  or
exporting as necessary.

   [##:##] Command : thresh oil 4,0 100
This  command is the same as above, but will instead attempt to keep 100 units
of oil.

   [##:##] Command : level -2,0
This command will report the distribution routes  and  thresholds  for  sector
-2,0.

   [##:##] Command : deliver food -2,0 (384) y
This command will deliver all food from -2,0 in excess of 384 units to -3,-1.

   [##:##] Command : deliver lcm -2,0 b
This command will deliver all lcm's from -2,0 to -3,1.

   [##:##] Command : deliver lcm -2,0 +30
This  command  will  deliver  lcm's in excess of 24 (deliver uses multiples of
eight).

   [##:##] Command : cutoff -2,0
This command will report what commodities are being delivered  from  -2,0  and
what their cutoffs are.

   [##:##] Command : route food -20:20,-10:10
This  command  will  graphically report the food delivery paths in the sectors
from -20:20 to -10:10.

                        Some More Hints for the Novice
                                 by Jeff Trim

Tech levels are very important in this game.  You cannot produce uranium, guns
or shells until you achieve a tech level of 40.

Choose  your  friends  carefully.  I was talking to Lewis from Cornell College
and his comment was the best I'd heard in a while: "Never  ally  with  someone
that doesn't have a definite interest in seeing you survive."

Nuclear  attacks can cause a lot of damage, but no one has ever been taken out
of the game by a nuclear attack.  The damage from a purely nuclear  attack  is
recoverable.   It  takes  conventional forces combined with nukes to really do
damage.  (Of course I won't fool you either; it doesn't hurt  to  have  a  few
nukes either.)

Beware  of  running low on BTUs.  I will recount one story of a player on this
site that was running low on BTUs.  His enemies launched a nuclear attack  and
hit  his  capital!  Unfortunately, he didn't have enough BTUs to redesignate a
new capital.  The moral of the story is that you should plan an alternate cap-
ital  at some point in the game.  These are generally not needed at the begin-
ning of the game, because you need to effectively deploy your sectors  in  the
early  going.  But later, it wouldn't hurt to have one or more alternate capi-
tals.

Empire is a game of perception.   If  your  adversaries  think  you're  tough,
they're  probably going to pass you and head for easier prey.  But the reverse
is also true; if you look weak they might try a few tactics on you -- and  de-
pending upon your response, they'll either back down or fight it out.  Bargain
from a position of strength.  You could be the weakest country on  the  planet
but still look so tough that no one would bother you.  It's all perception.

Weak  countries have an added advantage: gun running!  If a country is heading
out with his fleet to attack another country and you happen to  be  along  the
way,  you  could  cut a deal with him and you could make a deal and allow that
country to attack a coastal sector and turn it  into  a  harbor.   You've  now
placed  an  obligation  on  that country, who will be very careful to keep you
happy so you won't grant similar privileges to that country's enemy.  Weak na-
tions  can  be  quite  powerful  if you handle the diplomacy right.  The tough
players like blowing away their tough adversaries and as  long  as  you  stand
idly by and watch those two countries blow each other to little pieces, you'll
be left intact and growing richer off their little war.

SEE ALSO
   Overview, Hints, Expert, Introduction

