Ingur Drommens guide to Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars
V.1.10
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This guide is written for single player games. Some of these advices may not be
applicable in multiplayer. This is still just a partly guide covering the
humans only. The guide will be extended, covering the fryhtans and in depth
info on artifacts, human and fryhtan units and structures.
If you are unable to find the help you need in this guide, don't hesitate to
mail any questions to: iutaaker@hotmail.com
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1.0 Playing as humans.
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1.1 The races
1.1.1 Norman
1.1.2 Viking
1.1.3 Celt
1.1.4 Roman
1.1.5 Greek
1.1.6 Carthaginian
1.1.7 Chinese
1.1.8 Japanese
1.1.9 Mongol
1.1.10 Egyptian
1.1.11 Persian
1.1.12 Indian
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1.2 Building a base
1.2.1 Starting up
1.2.2 Capturing towns
1.2.3 Building defenses
1.2.4 Early diplomacy
The Normans are a generally good all-round race. Their strength lies in their
excellent infantry soldiers. The infantry starts with a decent crossbow attack
for ranged combat and a sword for close combat. After some training they also
starts to use the shield witch offers increased protection against missile
attacks from the front.
The Norman special unit is a horse-mounted warrior. They do not have a ranged
attack like the infantry. But they are somewhat better at close combat, and
they move faster across the map.
They have the infantry as a good all-round solider and the horsemen as a quick
and heavy attack force, good for the hit and run tactic(see 1.1.3).
The Norman seat of power gives the bonus of decreased loyalty loss when
collecting taxes in your towns. It decreases 7 instead of 10 loyalty. This will
give you a increased income since you collect the taxes more often. It can
become quite the bonus if you have many towns.
The greater being of the Normans are the archangel. He has the ability to
simply attack the enemy. He fights all right but not anything special. One of
the worse greater beings in the game in my opinion.
1.1.2 Viking
The Vikings are very plain and simple. The basic solider is a simple solider
wielding an axe, close combat only. The special unit is an axe thrower. They
are decent ranged fighters, and when used together with the basic unit you get
a balanced army with both range and close combat strength.
The Vikings are an OK race but nothing special.
The seat of power increases the speed of training for your Viking soldiers.
That is an advantage, especially early in the game when all your soldiers are
green recruits.
The greater being is just a fighter. Not a very good greater being considering
the other powers the other greater beings have.
1.1.3 Celt
The Celtic basic units are a close combat only solider. While the special unit
is a mage with a range attack. Much like the Vikings, both units are good at
their field but you need them both to really make your army complete.
The seat of power makes the druids train at a faster rate. This is obviously an
advantage for those who have lots of druids.
This greater being is also just a fighter. Not very good but can show himself
useful from time to time.
1.1.4 Roman
The roman features a close combat basic unit and a close combat horse-mounted
rider. That makes them in complete lack of ranged units. It is a price to pay,
but when you have a large army or the roman cavalry you quickly forget about
that. Plus, it's usually not very hard to acquire some ranged units from
another race.
When playing the Romans, I recommend researching and building the estable and
training horseman ASAP. Because they are the only units you need apart from a
possible foreign ranged unit.
The seat of power gives the roman soldiers 10 more combat skill when trained.
The greater being has the ability to increase the leadership of roman generals
up to a maximum of 100. You can see it as a good skill as leadership is a
extremely important factor, but you can also see it as a poor skill as
leadership increases relatively fast anyway.
1.1.5 Greek
The Greek basic infantry is the simple decent type with close combat skills
only. The special unit is a horse-mounted warrior who also just has close
combat skills, making the Greek much like the Romans. Make a lot of horses
here too.
The seat of power makes level 2 walls around every city, witch is important to
have but not very expensive to build on your own.
The greater being can make a single unit invulnerable for 30 days. Could be
enough to tip the scales in your favor in a tight battle.
1.1.6 Carthaginian
The Carthaginian basic infantry is a good solider with both range and close
combat skills. The special unit, the elephant rider is not much to brag about.
To is slightly better at close combat yes, but the lack of range makes them less
needed. Works good in combination with the infantry but nothing special on their
own.
The seat of power makes the towns produce more food, witch is great if you are
in lack of food. But more often than not food is not a big problem.
The greater being is one of the best in the game. It has the power to create
earthquakes to an area. The earthquake damages buildings, kills civilians in
towns and hurt people. The ability to reduce the population in enemy town are
great, the ability to reduce the strength of enemy buildings before an attack is
also great. Sometimes, if you create several earthquakes in a row you might
demolish entire buildings.
1.1.7 Chinese
The Chinese basic solider has both range and close combat skills, making it very
good all-round. The special unit is the shao lin monk. He has no weapons, just
his hands and feet. He makes a good close combat fighter but lacks the ranged
attack.
The seat of power you get more money from the market sales. A decent bonus witch
boosts economy, especially in the start before the mines get empty.
The greater being can do noting more than to send fireballs at the enemy. Could
prove useful but more often than not it wont.
1.1.8 Japanese
The Japanese infantry has close combat skills only. While the special unit, the
ninja, has both range and close combat. You would think the bets thing was to
build just ninjas then? But no. The ninjas are not what they give themselves out
to be. I recommend building the base of the army on the basic infantry and maybe
having some ninjas to go.
The seat of power makes the paths of those who have been ordered to attack you
visible. Quite handy since you get noticed the second the enemy begins to move.
The greater being has the ability to kill any spy within the targeted building.
A handy feature to keep those nosy spies away.
1.1.9 Mongol
The Mongol basic unit is a sword wielding infantry with no ranged attack. The
special unit is a horseback archer. The horseback archer is one of the better
units in the game. They move fast and kill fast. No wonder Ghengis Khan
conquered half the world with these soldiers.
The Mongol seat of power makes the resistance of independent towns sink. A good
feature in the early game when capturing towns are a high priority and funds are
low.
The greater being can make enemy troops join your side, target him on a general
or ordo and if he joins you some of his soldiers will most likely join you to.
1.1.10 Egyptian
The Egyptian basic solider has got both range and close combat skills. A good
fighter. The special unit is the chariot with an archer. A fast way to conquer
and a good way to win. Both the infantry and the chariot is worth building. The
infantry for defense and short distance attacks, while the chariot is good for
attacking across the map.
The Egyptian seat of power makes Egyptian towns grow faster, witch is a great
bonus since population is the core of any kingdom. Population means money,
soldiers, workers and food, witch is all it takes to make a thriving kingdom.
The Egyptian greater being is in my opinion the best greater being in the game.
Isis is able to increase population in a town with a simple spell. That opens up
lots of possibilities. Not only do you get an almost infinite amount of people
but you can easily get town of the other nationalities. You simply need to get
one individual from that nationality and make him build a town, then send Isis
to do her magic on the town. Suddenly you have a complete town of that
nationality. Marvelous!
1.1.11 Persian
The Persian are called the masters of range, witch is exactly what they are.
Although the basic unit also have a sword for close combat, their strength is in
the range. The special unit is also a ranged unit, that makes the Persian in
complete lack of a good hand-to-hand fighter. It is recommended to get some
hand-to-hand power from another nationality.
The seat of power makes it impossible for any allies to break the alliance with
you. This is a powerful bonus because when you manage to ally yourself with them
they can't touch you until you feel it is right. Use this power to keep the
enemy from attacking you.
The greater being reveals the entire map at once. Useful in games with
unexplored maps, such as in campaign mode.
1.1.12 Indian
The Indian troops have got both close combat and range skills, making them nasty
fighters. The special unit is a elephant rider much like the Carthaginian
elephant rider, the only difference is that the Indian one has range in addition
to the close combat skill. In close combat it is actually the elephant itself
that fights with its tusks.
The seat of power makes the research go faster, great because you get the
technology faster than the enemy. I later game it wont help as the enemy most
likely has researched everything as well.
The greater being has the ability to attack enemy buildings. Ha can only attack
buildings, but he is skilled in doing so. He can be useful in certain situations
when you need to demolish a certain building. Like when you and your enemy fight
over a town to be captured, you can send Hanuman to demolish the enemies
fort/camp.
The first thing you must do when starting a game is to hit space to pause the
game. this gives you time to plan your progress without getting left behind.
When playing in the single game mode, you usually start with some soldiers
outside the fort. If you have any generals among them, send them to capture any
town of their nationality.(see capturing towns 1.2.2) If you don't have any
generals, send the king around to capture as many as possible towns of his own
nationality. While the king is out make one of the soldiers a general, he will
have a very low leadership but don't worry. He will learn fast enough. Train the
fort full of soldiers and arm all towers.
Make a few civilians build a mine, factory and market it you are close to a
mine. Build the seat of power and a tower of science. I recommend researching
military methodology to begin with but anything to fit your style of play will
do. If you plan on using spies in the game I recommend building a espionage
college early and train it full of spies. Later in the game you will have a few
highly trained spies. When the king or any generals return from their town
capturing, build a fort for each one of them liked to the towns they have
captured.(you should move all towns close to you main base for defense reasons)
Train each fort full of soldiers arm all towers. Try to keep every fort full, a
spy can't enter a full fort. And arm all towers because it costs very little
compared to the devastating damage they do. Every kingdom will most likely want
to trade with you. Propose a trade treaty to everyone if they haven't asked you
yet. Send camels to every kingdom. Even if you don't have a mine you profit from
trading because the camels buy wares at foreign markets and sell them for a
profit at your market.
1.2.2 Capturing a town
When you plan to capture a town, build a camp linked to the town. Build camps
not forts since the camps are cheaper. Use a general of the same nationality as
the town. The higher leadership the general have, the more the resistance will
drop. You get the town when the resistance is less than 30. If you can afford
it, giving tributes to the town until if surrenders is the fastest way. Often
the general are capable of lowering the resistance to just above 30, that's when
you need to pay them off.
Often in the beginning you can profit from paying off more towns just to get the
capturing to go faster, or if the enemy and you are trying to capture the same
town.
When there is a town so close to your base that is links to your working
buildings (tower of science, war factory etc) or a market. Do what you must to
lower the resistance to below 50, then the town will shop at your market and
work in your buildings and eventually whey will surrender to your side.
1.2.3 Building defenses
The first thing you must do is to build a fort for every general and train them
full of soldiers and arm all the towers. Always have the forts on the "at ease"
setting, because when the fort is attacked you don't want the soldiers to sortie
without the general. You get noticed when the fort is attacked, and then you
must decide whether to sortie right away or to wait for reinforcements.
When making a regiment (general with soldiers) keep them of pure race, the
soldiers don't like when the general is from a different nationality and their
loyalty will drop. Try not to mix both cavalry and infantry in the same
regiment, which will make them divide when walking a distance. To have half the
regiment with hand-to-hand soldiers and the other half with ranged soldiers
works fine.
When building the base with future wars in mind, you should try to build the
forts where you can predict that the attacks will come from. If you are lucky
enough to be placed I a corner you can only be attacked from two sides, that
opens for an excellent defense strategy. You can build a wall of forts around
your base with all towers armed, and then you have one solid defense wall.
One important thing when it comes to creating a solid defense is that you must
keep your base on one place. The computer usually builds stuff all over the
land, which is hard to defend. When you have everything gathered on one place,
reinforcements are seconds away no matter where you are attacked.
1.2.4 Early diplomacy
The diplomatic relations is somewhat complex. You should always have a trade
treaty to everyone in the start. But someone will most likely ask if you want to
ally them or have a friendly treaty to them. Friendly treaties are nice in the
start, makes you know that they don't plan on attacking you. But if you get
allied with someone you must be ready to fight any of the ally's enemies. If the
ally is in war with someone, he will most likely demand you to declare war on
his enemy. If you don't he will often terminate the treaty. I have found out
that staying out of war is very difficult in most games. That's is why it is
important to be able to crush your enemy at all times. That is what the next
chapter will be about.
What separates a good army from a poor army? Strength? Numbers? The good army is
based upon leadership and loyalty. To make your soldiers loyal the general must
be of the same nationality and he must be satisfied. That means that every
general's fort must be linked to a town(preferably of the same nationality), and
every solider inside his fort must always be the same nationality as the
general. That will keep the general and his soldiers loyal to you and less
likely to defect in combat.
Leadership is very important. Leadership makes the troops train faster, reach a
higher combat level, keep the loyalty level higher and gives the soldiers the
leadership combat bonus. The leadership combat bonus gives the troops an
increased combat skill. Example: if the general has a leadership of 100, the
troops get 100% more combat skill. That means that a soldier with 100 combat
skill accompanied by a 100 leadership general will get 200 combat skill.
The bonus only work within a fixed radius so keep the troops close to the
general.
Heroes are great generals that can train troops fast and train them good. Try to
make every hero a general. If you don't have any towns of that nationality as
the hero, just make him capture one if there are any available. Heroes don't
usually have any troubles capturing towns.
As mentioned before, never have a regiment of both fast and slow units. Like
cavalry and infantry. The faster units will run from the slower units and you
will end up with lots of dead people.
A good balance between hand-to-hand units and ranged units are often a major
advantage. The best thing is to have soldiers that can handle both hand-to-hand
and range.
War machines are effective when accompanied by soldiers. They have no loyalty,
they don't require any civilians to be created and they can do massive damage.
The down part is that they cost money to maintain, so you need capital if you
want to have lots of war machines. They are also very slow moving, they will
usually separate from the soldiers when walking a distance so you need to take
the time to wait for them before attacking.
1.3.2 Defense
The first few golden rules when it comes to defense is this:
-Arm all towers in all forts.
-Keep all forts at the "at ease" mode
-Go for the general(this one is optional, yet VERY effective)
When the enemy attacks he is stupid enough to send them directly to the target,
which makes his troops arrive often in a single line with the general somewhere
in the back. This gives you the chance to take out some of them before the
general gets close enough to give his soldiers the leadership bonus. But it also
has the tendency to drag your soldiers away from the helpful towers. I usually
wait until the general is close to the fort, then sortie and attack the general.
When the general dies more often than not some of his soldiers will join your
side. That is what makes that tactic so effective.
TO FIND THE GENERAL YOU NEED TO HIT "PAUSE" AND CLICK ON EVERY SOLDIER UNTIL YOU
FIND HIM.
Some look at the general tactic as cheating, although it is not really cheating.
You must decide for yourself if you want to use this edgy but extremely
effective tactic.
Read "1.2.3 - building defenses" for info on building your base more defensive.
1.3.3 Offence
Rule number one: always attack in small groups.
Huge armies will move in a clumsy zigzag way and separate themselves from the
rest of the platoon. Generally act uncontrollable. It is better to attack in
small manageable groups of 1-4 regiments. Take out a target, like a town with
fort, and retreat back home. Repeat. Long attacks make the soldiers loyalty
drop. I have experienced that my entire army defected right before the final
attack. Better safe than sorry.
Rule number two: defense is the best attack.
A great tactic to weaken your foes military strength is to provoke him to attack
you. That gives you the advantage of fighting I a defensive position. You have
every soldier within a close radius, you have the defense towers, the way home
after the battle is short.
Some enemy targets are more attractive than others. Here are some of the most
attractive structures:
Towns: taking out towns are extremely effective for reducing enemy's power, but
you will suffer a reputation penalty.
Forts: taking out a fort linked to a town will make the enemy unable to collect
taxes and the town loyalty will drop. They are usually quickly rebuilt dough.
Seat of power: the seat of power gives the enemy bonuses you might not want him
to have. The seat of power will be rebuilt but it costs 2000gold being the most
expensive building in the game.
Markets: they make a lot of money, take them out to hurt the enemy's income.
The "take out the general" tactic works just as well on the offence as the
defense. (see 1.3.2 defense)
Bribing one of the most basic but one of the most powerful abilities of the spy.
Bribing cost money, the more loyal the subject is the more it will cost. Bribing
the generals is the most important bribe the spy does. When you got the general
you got a number of his soldiers too. You get the option to capture the fort he
is in. Be warned that capturing rely pisses off the owner, it always results in
war. I prefer to keep the generals until he attacks, just when he reaches my
base I reveal his identity and watch half the regiment join him.
1.4.2 Information theft
The information theft is if you want specific details of the enemy. The good
thing about information theft is that you always get the information even if the
spy is caught and killed. Not the skill I use the most.
1.4.3 Technology theft
Steal technology from your enemy, sounds great. It is great too. The problem is
that when I got spies capable of stealing technology with 100% chance of
success, I got the technology I need. Another thing is that you never know what
tech you will get.
1.4.4 Assassination
A great skill. A good way to keep the enemy's generals at a low level is to keep
assassinating them. When you keep killing the general, any town linked to that
fort will be without leader, hence taxes can't be collected and the town's
loyalty will drop. If you assassinate the king, the scroll of power will drop
outside the fort. Bribe a soldier of the right nationality and send him to pick
it up. An easy way to gain a scroll of power.
1.4.5 Create incident
The proper way to make trouble for without getting involved yourself. You need a
spy with a tremendous spy skill to pull it off. Makes sense since you can
literally destroy entire kingdoms with this skill. Make everyone declare war
against the strongest kingdom to reduce the foreign power.
1.4.6 Capture a kingdom!
How can you capture an entire kingdom with just spies? The goal is to make your
spy crowned as the king of the kingdom. That will make the entire kingdom yours.
So how can you make your spy the king? The first thing you must do is to get a
high level spy in all the enemy's forts. Assassinate and bribe the generals so
you own the general with the most leadership and combat skill. Then find the
king and assassinate him. Your spy could be crowned as king and you will get the
princess and the entire kingdom.
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This was the human part of a continually growing guide. More to come covering
more details and the fryhtan side.
Any questions, suggestions, complaints or complements are sent to:
iutaaker@hotmail.com
Writing this guide I used nothing but my own knowledge from my own gaming
experience.
Copyrighted by: Ingar Utaaker
This guide is currently only available on www.gamefaqs.com and DLH.NET. If you
found this guide somewhere else please give me a mail. If you want this guide
on your own site, give me a mail and you will most likely get permission. If
you want to use info from this guide in your own guide, give me a mail and you
will most likely get permission.
