                             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 re-
   serves.  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 "en-
   list" 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 in-
   vader, I either leave the sectors as they are and let the country being in-
   vaded 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 agribusi-
   nesses if they need food, banks to reduce shelling damage, enlistment  cen-
   ters 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

