Early game Broken Lords strategy

[Jiks]

Not really played that much with the Broken Lords and was wondering about early game strategy, specifically where to put the city population, dust or industry.

From mid-game onwards they are very simple, plonk everyone into dust production except in science focus cities. However, at the start I don't know what to do with them.

My instincts say dust from the start but the maths seems to suggest industry until era 2 when the empire plan will allow the buyout reduction cost plus increased dust per pop and the Prisoners, Slaves and Volunteers tech is done.

I'm playing impossible/hard world settings at the moment which seems about the limit of my ability so I can't afford to mess the start up.

Any advice appreciated :)

[Lady Crimson (RIP)]

Industry is vital for any race in the beggining, however, dust also wants to be a centerstone for you as well. (especially later on, where you always want to dump everything into the dust techs).
Your beggining area is pretty vital since if you start off in a bad region you could end up rather doomed on resources (losing out entirely on food).

Ironically, ending up in a science/industry area in the artic may actually be pretty good for a starting area (since there is a lack of food in most of those areas).
Generally, oceans, lakes, and rivers, are your best friends (moreso rivers if you play other races though). As getting the initial water techs give a nice boost for dust.

Broken Lords excel with not having to supply food, so their main advantages are having high populations (that don't need to be supplied) and having large cities (as in boroughs) that don't reduce food, since there is no food to reduce (and also since their hero is great at increasing tile worth on dust areas).

The main focus of population is just enough for the borough limit (for Broken Lords, since they must purchase each one specifically), beyond that they are probably a bad economical choice, as your main advantage is not having to supply resources to maintain a population (you want to use your resources to build new things, or armies, since building a large population would have about the same effect as in playing another race, just worse off).

Taking enemy cities is important (as you can generally use their cities better without having a food cost, though no use for their food gains.. so aim to take enemy cities on food lacking terrains when possible), your focus on dust should allow you to specialize and aim for absolutely everything that gives you dust.

Due to the excessive amount of dust you likely will aim for mid/ late game, Heroes, Mercenaries, and the Market in general is your best friend.. you should be more than able to buy whatever you need from there, and if you look at % costs mercs may eventually be better than your normal units simply due to their cheapness point for point (as dust tends to get higher increasements for population or percentage).

Also of note, you will need more empire plans than most of the other empires (as the one that reduces dust buyout you will desperately need, at least at normal speed games... it's practically useless in the fast speed currently). One should keep this in mind before looking for more cities to conquer, if one has cities too fast, you will fall, like any faction (except maybe the vaulters (reduced expansion dissaproval) or the Wild Walkers (extra influence from new buildings), for completely different reasons.

[noodle]

Yeah in basic terms start off Industry-focused and start to graduate towards Dust when you start seeing the sort of strong Dust production the Lords are known for. You probably could go fully dust from the start, it's gone pear shaped the few times I've tried that though as you just don't have the techs/hero skills/cities to really pump out the dust you need for the buyouts.

I try not to buy out anything at all in the early-mid game unless I'm under attack or a region will be settled unless I get my settler out there first.

I tend to favor flat Lords rather than tall Lords empires (more cities and less boroughs) because they take less of a hit from expansion disapproval by the time you're actually actively attacking other empires and just buying everything out with your mad dust production.

[Markgrave]

I find that starting right makes a very big difference for the Lords. I will always reroll my map a few times to make sure i have a high dust home province with a river. Between the river bonuses and the hero river dust bonus it makes a big diff to start printing money early to start buying population quick. Since you dont have food to worry about it makes for some interesting city location as you can throw away common sence and make a thriving metropolis in middle of the desert with a river nearby:) Also once you research dust bishop you can begin to agressively wage war as it is much easier to support a self healing army than have to spend constantly to heal them after battle. It pays to be aggressive as Lords in Age 2-3 as it is when they are strongest in terms of unit balance.

[Lady Crimson (RIP)]

Personally I've been curious to try a custom version of the broken lords based around the market (like having double health mercs and so on from the roving clan list), might be a neat focus. (I do like the Broken Lord units the most, simply because of the healers.. however.. I am usually hard pushed to play simply because I love the food resource and techs so much.).

[Jiks]

Cheers guys, some good advice there. The point about city size vs city pop numbers is a good one. Putting too much emphasis on food is a traditional way I tend to misplay the more normal factions too and I can see buying too much pop would have the same effect here.

Influence comments in particular, good advice as from era 2 onwards BL really need two strands at level 2 at least rather than just one. I'm not sure spamming boroughs will produce enough for that, tricky.

Having played with the maths more, the first 20 turns (no +3 dust per pop empire plan) industry is definately better, after that I think it depends. Obviously want to swap to full dust ASAP but the tricky bit is calling when to do it.

One thing I've already noticed is staying out of trouble till Dust Bishops is a really good idea. Normally due to minor factions breeding like rabbits on hard world settings I'd run around madly splatting them all from turn 1. With BL this really isn't smart as I'm spending FAR too much dust healing people.