Medieval 2: Total War (Cont.)

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Hmm, i found something new today. Was playing as HRE, and the pope now hates me, but ive never given him a reason to excommunicate me, also i get rid of heritics as soon as they pop up, so he also has no reason for inquisitors to wander around my land. So when he called a crusade againt Jerusalem he demanded that my faction leader leads my crusading army. The punishment for it not happening would be huge reputation decrease (not that it can get worse...) possibility of excommunication and also "An inquisition may happen in your lands" ive never had the last threat, so what do you think it entails?

 

Inquisition threat is when you are in bad standing but not excommunicated and when you have a relatively high amount of heresy in yours lands.

 

An Inquisition happening in your lands means that an Inquisitor will be sent to wander around your territories, trying your faction members. Which is bad, if you have a large number of family with low piety.

 

I do pick my spots, but those blockades and agents stirring up trouble cause problems for my economy over an extended period of time. That's why I try to take some settlements. The problem is that they don't like peace over a long period of time...

 

I must say this game as Milan has certainly been interesting. I am up to 23 settlements now of which 22 are cities. The 23rd is probably going to be converted into a city in the next couple of rounds. There is really no reason to have any castles as Milan.

I have only taken three settlements from another faction by force. All my other acquisitions have either been from rebels or from buying them. The French royal family mysteriously died off (not my assassins doing for once although I did take out a couple of generals), I assassinated the HRE into non-existence and I used spies/assassins to get Venice to rebel. That has given me plenty of rebel settlements to target.

I have got some real steals from buying settlements. I think I have bought six settlements so far. I had one absolute steal that I got for 1000 florins, an alliance, my map and trade rights. The settlement was completely undeveloped but it was still producing income of 690 a turn.

Another time I bought a settlement for a pretty hefty amount of tribute. I was thinking that I had paid way too much but then the guy immediately turned around and attacked me. The tribute was cancelled and I ended up getting a free city.

 

Actually you can tell your cavalry to walk directly through a row of wooden stakes and take no casaulties. What you cannot do is be stupid enough to charge your cavalry through a row of wooden stakes. Wooden stakes aren't smart enough to know the difference between your forces and your opponents, and usually about 3/4 of the cavalry unit is lost. So don't charge cavalry into wooden stakes. (However, it works logically in that you only take casaulties if you charge through the stakes from the wrong side. If you have cavalry positioned behind the stakes you can charge them through the stakes with no casaulties - just don't try to bring them back the same way you brought them in.)

You see, that's already too many troops. You're actually NOT picking your spots. You're attacking everyone that messes with you. In the early going you simply do not have the money to put out those kind of numbers, especially since you are implying that you want three full stack armies (one in Cordoba, one to attack the Moors and yet another to deal with Venice) and a couple of partials to boot. For about the first 50 turns or so of the game, it is difficult enough to afford ONE full stack army - never mind three.

In the early going, if I need two armies on campaigns, both armies are going to have about 8-10 units in them. However, what I usually do is limit myself to one army, and play defense with the other nations. A settlement defended with a few FREE militia units, and a couple of archer units is incredibly effective. Maybe you need some more practice in defending settlements, but I have successfully defended settlements (with the caveats that I have stone walls and at least a couple of missile units to put on them) against forces that were far superior to my own.

I have never tried buying settlements in the early going, although obviously, if you can swing a deal for a settlement for 1000 florins, you have to do it - especially considering you made all of your money back plus some in just two turns. Although you say that Milan doesn't need castles, I still contend that until you get a few cities up to level 4, you do need a castle or two - usually Bern will do. I don't know about you, but I like being able to produce mailed knights and peasant archers early on. Cities cannot produce pavise crossbowmen until they are level 3, and cannot produce cavalry until they are level 4. The best units occur at level 5 cities, but they gain the functionality to produce acceptable troops before then.

 

AFI: This is actually larter on in the game when I have three castles and about 20 some odd cities to support them. The game is faltering because if the Papacy. They didn't like the fact that I was at war with Venice, so they excommunicated me, now there's a crusade headed for one of my cities and my relations with all remaining Catholic factions is abyssmal. A power outage brought the game to a sudden halt, but I think I will be restarting again.

This time I will be building more navies and agents. When someone decided to cause trouble, then blockade their ports and try to cause a revolt in a border city. Perhaps that will keep the Pope off my back. I'll put the military focus on the Moors and the agents focussing on Catholic factions...

I haven't been able to fight battles myself because my computer bogs down on me. I think I may need to look into whether upgrading my video card would be possible...

 

In my game EVERY single cardinal is Sicilian and in my pocket. The pope do as I tell him (or deal with my enforcers, Luigi and Enzo) and anyone who messes with me get excommunicated. It is very easy to control hte papacy, just build many priests and have them convert stuff. I am pre plague in my game and the papacy is mine to the bone. I have been told to back off a whole of two times while everyone attacking and fighting me is suffering from the unrest caused by an excom.

 

Then I can only attribute the faltering economy due to being excommunicated. When that happens you lose a ton of public order in your cities, requiring you to run taxes at a much lower rate to avoid rioting. Lower taxes naturally mean less money.

If you are using the autocalc feature to resolve battles, then I agree that the game will be MUCH harder in that (with the exception that joa found in beseiging settlements containing only a general or family member) you run battles better than the AI. I'm surprised you're bothering to play this game with autocalcing every battle - it's the battles that make this game.

 

I only Autocalc seiges. I will play out defending them, cos the computer sucks at defending, but when it comes to attacking, my computer just cant handle it, so i autocalc and i havnt lost one yet. Normal open field battles i fight because i can fight alot better than the computer can.

 

I am going autocalc settlement assaults as well, tired of losing half my armies to inferior armies. So either autocalc or just wait the bastards out.

 

I always autocalc attacking sieges, it's not worth to play it out. It doesn't help that I never use siege equipment either, as they slow down my armies.

Just finished as Poland, was ment to be a short game. Had the required 15 settlements very quickly, then I saw what more I had to do. Russia and Hungary are to be whacked. I had already finished Denmark but were at war with Milan(who held all of France's old settlements) and Venice. I got three full stacks against them, two mercenary armies and one cavalry army(mostly Polish Knights, Polish Nobles, and Hussars) to whack Russia out. As I had the required settlements already and I didn't want to wait for my priests to arrive to convert the settlements, I just went it, sacked, retrained if possible, and then moved on. I used the mercenary armies for any siege and the cavalry army for field battles.

However, after Russia fell, Hungary failed to get the hint and created an alliance with Venice and Milan. The three gave quite a battle, and I even lost a settlement(Zagreb), but the fact that the AI is ****ing stupid won me the game with about fifteen turns left.

Tomorrow; it's continuation time!

 

Today's attempt, I'm not filling up my stacks before I move. I've got the Iberian Penninsula, Bordeaux and Toulouse, as well as three settlements in the Middle East. I'm not going to try to retake Antioch because I think the Mongols are headed that way...

My next force will likely move on Timbuktu and Arguin to get them sweet resources, while Kingy will move on Algeirs when I have a garrison in Marakesh. I have enough cardinals to elect the pope I want (between the priests I need in Iberia and the holy land, I managed 5 cardinals...), and have seen France excommunicated while I waited out a papal peace order...

I have yet to move on the Islands or Dublin/Caernvorn...

My Economy is struggling, but not in the red. It won't be pretty, but I think I can do this...

 

That alone will save you tons of cash. A lot of time you don't NEED a 20 unit army. Sure, it's nice to have, and for some major assaults you do need it, but if you can get the job done with a 15 unit army, you'll save yourself a thousands florins per turn in upkeep costs (more if you reduce your cavalry).

 

I certainly agree with that. In my current game I have never formed a full 20 unit army. Instead I have been scouting with my spies and then pulling together what I deem to be enough troops to get the job done.

 

It is working. I have 30 of 45 settlements at turn 100, only one declared enemy (Egypt), Portugul, France and the Moors reduced to a foot note in history...

I have identified three targets I can take from my declared enemy, one Rebel settlement, and I'm trying to figuer out where to "stab" for extra settlements. I didn't retake Antioch after it rebelled because the Mongols may be headed that direction, but they seem to be taking their sweet time. Maybe once the new army in Acre is ready to go, I may grab Antioch. Meanwhile, I have armies in Tunis, Algeria and Tripoli that will be moved to finish Egypt...

I guess that makes 35 identified as to grab, now to pick off a weaker nation (Milan seems to have their problems, and Sicilly has been in and out of the Papal Dog house), Perhaps a Stab force could land on England for a settlement or two...

Venice would be next if that works...

 

Well, you probably don't want to half-ass the invasion of England, as it will be come a permanent warfront if you do that. If you invade England, I'd say it's an all or nothing proposition. However, given that you are only at turn 100, you have TONS of time. Now may be a good time for some internal management to consolidate your existing settlements before expanding again. Letting the Mongols make the first move may be a good idea too. Keep in mind that they aren't going to be happy only taking Antioch...

 

I had a very bizarre settlement purchase last night that really has me questioning the game's AI. I offered an amount of money plus my maps for a settlement and the AI turned around and counter-offered to sell me the settlement for less cash and no maps. How on Earth could my maps have a -ve value?

The fact that I have been buying up settlements like hotcakes probably should have been my first clue that the AI stinks. I just go around buying the settlements that are furthest away from the nations capital and I end up paying a pittance.

One purchase is on the verge of going pretty badly though. I bought York from the English for what would have been a reasonable amount except that the English almost immediately turned around and attacked it.

It is under siege right now and it is woefully undefended. The only trainable units when I took over were artillary and agents. If they had waited one more turn I could have trained some spear militia. Oh well, in the one turn that I had before they attacked I trained up a spy and assassin team and thanks to my thieves and assassins guild HQs and a little luck with the assassin's starting stats they were immediately ready to cause some havoc.

The only question is whether or not they will be able to take out the two members of the English royal family before the English army takes York. Somehow I doubt it. If I saw a settlement defended only by ballistas I would be attacking it in a heart beat.

If I do pull it off I would have to say that it would be the ultimate in not following Aldeth's rather good advice of blitzing the entire British Isles.

 

Well, I didn't consolidate, only moved Garisons in to free up my attack forces and sent them forth. I didn't attack England, but I did hit Milan and Sicilly. Denmark acted up and contributed to what was an exhausting, difficult win. I controled France, the Netherlands, Norway (Rebel settlement), Most of Italy (Venice had Milan, but I took Venice and Bologne from Sicilly), Most of Africa (didn't move on Dongala), the southern part of the Middle east (I did hold Antioch, Acre, Damascus south).

I never saw the Mongols or their forces. I think they may have went north or played bloody knuckles with the Turks the whole time (the Turks didn't want to play after the Mongols showed up).

Portugul, France, Milan, the Moors and Egypt all were crushed under my boot heel, and Scotland and the HRE fell to other powers. I did not get Excommunicated (and I don't think I was even threatened with it), and only lost one family member to an inquisitioner.

Up next is Venice, and I'll post my initial impressions to that one tomorrow night...

 

Well I only played one more turn last night but the siege of York still goes on and my assassin managed to take out the English prince. The assassination percentage was at 29% for the King but my assassin got +3 subterfuge from taking down the prince (the usual +1 skill and a poisoner) so hopefully that will have gone up. Anyway, the computer still has its turn before I can act again so it could still be too late for York even if I am able to take out the English king next turn.

One thing that I am seriously wondering is how to level up my princesses' charm ratings. I always seem to start with no charm and doing diplomatic missions does not seem to raise it any. When I have a general marry one of my princesses they will invariably get a negative trait for having a horrible shrew of a wife.