The Tavern

How should I manage my followers ?

Here's what I have been thinking to

1) Rush to Mines and gather a lot of followers.
Pro : A lot of them early, easy Lair etc
Con : They might not get XP fast, "hard" gameplay (where are all my fellows...)

2) Gather a little army (5-6) and make them XP
Pro : followers available at will in Orc
Con : hard to maintain them alive in "late" game as I get noobs !

How do you often do ? Thx for all advice

I just play as I normally would (so Lair, Orc, etc.).

Well okay, I might dip Orc if I found it early, but usually you get enough orcs just by exploring Dungeon.

They will die regardless of how you "hoard" them. They are cannon fodder one and all. Practically worthless late game anyway except as meat-shields. So what Sar said. Don't worry about it. Collect them when they arrive and don't bother trying to get them early unless you happen across mines early on. It is fun playing with a huge army but they don't last. Nor do they last if you strand them. They "die" off screen instead eventually so that when you a b you get less and less troops until they are all gone. V5 is the latest Ive managed to keep any orcs and you can imagine how quickly they died there. OK no that's not entirely true. I did manage to keep a few alive into Zot once but they did not like it there.

Also lair should be easy, regardless. Your followers just short cut it a little and change your tactics a bit.

I sadly imagined that they were weak...

I should still mention that 5 orc warriors in Lair just make everything popcorn, even hydras or mambas

Probably trying to get a reliable optimal army is just a dream...

Going by this post, it appears that the best way to play Beogh is to:

1. Play with a small squad (4-5)
2. Try to get your orcs equipped with spears (not heavier polearms) with multiplicative brands
3. Try to get your orcs equipped with heavy armour and shield

The reasoning for spears apparently is because they're fast with innate reaching, and that low base damage isn't as important with a warlord's HD.

No idea if any of this is true, but the guys who use this strategy have done very well with Beogh.

Also, Beogh is changing rapidly in trunk, so this advice is (possibly) outdated already.

Knights are quite good and Warlords are fantastic, especially with ranged weapons and reaching. A squad of 4-6 warlords unloading crossbows on a monster does *insane* damage per turn (or, at least it did before the ranged revamp; I haven't tried since). As in, when I stupidly hatched myself into the Zot:5 vault, they were pincushioning guardians and ancient liches and orbs of fire.

Getting them good armour and weapons is very important -- and should now be less tedious with trunk Beogh changes.

Their biggest weakness is enemies with clouds; they'll get slaughtered by poison and miasma in Zot and you can't really keep them safe because you'll see like a thousand monsters who use those clouds. They used to drown real easy in Swamp, too, though I think that might not be so much a thing now.

Yeah, the weak orcs will get slaughtered all game, but treat your high-tier orcs well and they will take care of you.

Ranged combat rewrite did not affect monsters IIRC.

My current Beoghite has seen his minions slaughtered on a near-genocidal level. I'd love to be able to give the orcs their full set of gear, but gift only works once per orc. Right now, they are so fragile that I'm considering them as a slight buff that happens from time to time (yay 6 newbie orcs in Zot:3! Thanks, Beogh! ) His gifts come much too slowly to make them survivable without a horrible amount of micromanagement. My 2c cents.

One strategy that Beoghites might find useful is a corollary to generally good Crawl strategy: You don't have to take every fight you see. Which is to say that your followers don't have to fight anything either. Leave your tough guys on other levels and train up (or get gifted) some newbies, and call in your army only when you need them.

Oh and by "tough guys" I mean warlords and maybe knights if you have a lot because high priests and sorcerers will still probably die no matter how much you baby them.

equip your warlords with crossbows and theyll shit misery on everything forever (until they get obliterated by orbs of fire)

Beogh has changed in trunk since the last time I played him. What's the command to bequeath an item to an orc to use?

That's an ability you get after reaching *** or ****, I can't remember.