I wanted to know a bit about ErotohoK, how do you exactly build a nation? From what I've seen you guys did a shit ton of diplomacy though I've never touched it myself, mainly just trading cities with other nations (which is fairly tiresome), eventually just getting to a stalemate
Like any good nation, you of course need a healthy economy, strong Diplomatic Relations, and an effective Military, in that order of priority. With a strong economy, you can effectively buy the other two. With strong diplomatic relations, you're less likely to lose soldiers and cities (which are your source of income) to attacks. A strong military will allow you to defend and annex cities, but soldiers are quick to deplete and expensive to replenish, so you want to minimize fighting as much as possible.
The overall most effective strategy is to grow your economy and gradually buy everyone's loyalty. Preferably, you want to have as little bordering cities as possible so that you don't spread your soldiers too thin defending them. Eventually, the stronger nations will wipe out the weaker ones, so don't spread your wallet too thin trying to bribe every single country either. Prioritize strong, aggressive neighbors.
If you're keen on the warmongering route, you still need to grow your economy and form ceasefires and alliances, but you have to carefully consider your targets to avoid stalemates. Prioritize weaker nations, not smallest nations. Weaker nations have weaker or lower amounts of officers. You can basically attack cities one at a time to bait their officers into confronting your invading force, only for your secondary invading forces to take out the cities that aren't guarded. Alternatively, you can attack nations that are already under attack from another nation. This guarantees that their resources are spread thin without having to deplete your own to do it.
The enemy AI isn't smart enough to disengage fights, but you can and should use it to your advantage. Dissolve invading teams that are on the brink of defeat (which sacrifices half the amount of remaining soldiers tied to them) and swap them out for fresh officers to keep those enemy units occupied. This will keep your officers from being captured.
In the event that your officers are captured, it's worth noting that you can trade them back for soldiers or economic power. I generally just bite the bullet and trade for soldiers. Oppositely, you want to avoid releasing captured soldiers that are powerful. If a nation only has 2 good units, and you've captured one, it's to your benefit that they stay off the battlefield.
