Talk:The Breath of the Dragon/@comment-91.55.234.40-20191123194030

Some tricks I came up with for all the people playing this on hard, after you´ve taken Giurgiu:

(1.) Move your wood/food economy entirely to the area where the ambush in the beginning took place. If youre prudent with your walling you can keep your entire eco line unharmded by the enemy, theyre programmed to attack your main city and its hinterland, as long as they cant access the top part they wont do anything to besiege it.

(2.) Ship your starting villagers across the river ASAP. Walk them carefully to the gold mines in the very south and have them build a tower close to the enemy miners, then start walling the entirety of that area off. Mine away as best as you can, Turks will eventually attack with a big host but they will focus on the walls for some reason and leave your miners unharmed as long as they cant "see" them, so mine in the very south.

(3.) Use demo ships on the shallows between Giurgiu and the turkish town. Try to keep a few in reserve at all times to be able to repel the turkish bombard cannons, otherwise they will shoot you to pieces in no time.

(4.) MOST IMPORTANT ONE: The turkish navy is practically unbeatable if you try to play it the intended way with docks at Giurgiu. They have way better tech than you and their docks are guarded by fucking bombard towers and cannons, you will suffer heavy casualties even if you attack with cannon galleons. Build docks upriver to the right of Giurgiu, there is a spot where you can actually do this, otherwise its prohibited. Then build a castle a bit downriver. The turkish navy is programmed to attack your docks wherever you build them, theyll ignore Giurgiu and go there, right into range of the castle. Keep a few villagers ready to repair the castle from the fire of the cannon galleons, they will stay out of range but youll be able to mop them up with a few fire ships easily.

Generally, if youre not a pro player whos got very good micro, like me, this will be a war of attrition, you will need to fortify Giurgiu with further castles and walls to slaughter the neverending waves of turkish elite units, afterwards lay waste to the traitorous slavic towns and the turkish docks, possibly also to the wonder theyre going to build near the harbour, this will take some time as your navy will get decimated a few times. The land assault on the second turkish objective will also be incredibly bloody, even with good massed infantry and elite boyars, very dense turkish fortifications and heavy camel spam.