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Krakra
04-17-2004, 07:30
As a newcomer to this forum and this game, it came as a surprise, particularly to me that I should even want to write about my game experience. Yes, sure, I have enjoyed the game tremendously over the past two weeks, but A WRITEUP?? It is a different thing altogether better suited to speakers fluent in the English tongue and expert with the sword. Alas, for you my reader, I have decided to do the write-up and unleash upon you my non-native English musings. Hopefully it will be as much enjoyment for you to read as it was for me to write it.

Unfortunately my screen shots did not post from the word file. Will have to see what is up with that ...

Rules:

This game is a bit too easy to play in vanilla settings, even in GA. I have started about half a dozen games for different factions under expert and got tired of growing too quick, even under GA mode. So I thought of different rules:

1. Play on Expert/GA settings.
2. Play with MedMod 1.85, with the Muslim factions’ modification – i.e. the one that gives the Muslim factions larger size units.
3. No alliances with far-away lands; once in an alliance, it cannot be broken by me.
4. Only 1 rebel country can be bribed/conquered at a time – so that I won’t be tempted into the usual get-big-fast-then-develop-economy mode. It also felt more historic, as regions took a long time to assimilate into the ‘host’ country.
5. No aggression against the AI. I will only attack after being attacked and will only take 1 province per war.
6. No saving and replaying turns – if I get screwed by the AI, well I will just join the many other would-be kings who failed.

Choice of country to play:

I chose Byzantium on Early. Why? Cause I was born in Bulgaria, which happened to be part of Byzantium at the period the game starts. Cause it is a tough country to play in the mod (particularly with the Muslim unit-size enhancement).

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Emperor Alexius I stood on the terrace of the reliquary looking at the distant sun fall. Below him Constantinople was buzzing. He could see men busying home after a full day of hard labor. He saw others laughing merrily in the brightly lit rooms of the brothels, that have mushroomed throughout the city right in the face of church and religion. People lived their lives as if nothing was happening; as if life went on with the same rhythm that it always has, as if today and tomorrow carried the same promise of easy life and prosperity so well-known to Romans of the past. “And yet,” the emperor thought, “life today is so different.”

Gone were the glory days of Rome. In fact, gone was even Rome, passing into obscurity like an aging gladiator – once a towering strength and a whirlwind of lethal blows, now a rag-covered old man scared even of the scare-crows. What once was a humble beginning, after being born on 7 holy hills, being nurtured into puberty by a female wolf and being brought into unheard of greatness by the discipline and creativity of its people, now laid, quite un-humbly, in excessive vulgar, self-pity and demoralizing decay.

“It is hard to find good people,” said Alexius loudly, vividly remembering the incredulous involvedness this spring in finding governors for the remaining Byzantine provinces. “It seems people have lost their wits and acumen, and underwent a spine-removal operation that left them with no dread.” “And I won’t even begin to mention piety and command ability,” he thought. He had finally appointed a few governors and statesmen, but those appointments were rather sub-par. Many still remained unfilled.

“Stop thinking about the past and concentrate on the issue at hand” The nagging internal voice returned. “You have to go in front of the war council tomorrow. All generals will be there. They will expect your decision. You have to decide.”

The emperor shifted uneasily. The sun was almost gone behind the horizon and its warmth was slowly being replaced by the bristling chill of the autumn night. “We are northern people,” Alexius thought, “we don’t like 100-degrees heat; we will get scorched alive in our armor, like chickens in a peasant oven.” “Why do those fools keep pushing for a frontal war with the Turks?” “They keep talking about glory, about riding proudly on their horses to meet the enemy, about leading their men into the conquest of the holy land” “Rubbish, I think. There is no glory in being baked like bread and being slaughtered like a pig by hordes upon hordes of hatred-driven Muslims. Plus, there is little hope of success Sure we can take Nicea, but pulling a large attack army will seriously undermine our security on all other flanks.”

He lit a candle and uncurled the map:



Byzantium lay stretched along the parchment, like a horseshoe stamped out by the Turkish foot. “How do you defend a 1,000 leagues of borders?” he thought. “If there is to be any talk of conquest, the conquest has to come in the west. It is much too risky expanding east right now.” His glance stopped at Serbia. The kingdom was ruled by a small local warlord, with hardly more than 200 men of an army and a hill province that was so easily defendable. A line of infantry in the middle of a steep hill and a few archers behind it will be enough to ruin the day for an enemy even trice their numbers. And if Serbia was to fall to Byzantium, that will eliminate the need for a large garrison in Greece. PROVIDED, of course, that no enemies came from the sea. Hmmm, the sea dominance has to be resolved …

“Wait a second,” cried the emperor, his eyes lighting with excitement. “If the sea is vital to Greece, it is even doubly more vital for all our provinces in the Mediterranean.” It all seemed clear to him now, as if the thought, like a giant tsunami, has cleared all the clouds of self-doubt and pity, its energy driving a new energy in the emperor. “If we take the seas, we can not only enable a vast trade, but also secure our entire southern and northern borders. I must immediately start ship-building.”

“My lord, we can only build ships in Constantinople.”, a voice came from behind, “Where are we going to train our fighting units if the only armory is in Constantinople?” The emperor slowly turned to where the words came from. His eyes looked into the weathered face of his trusted adviser, Georgius. Only now did he realize he must have been talking aloud.

“Oh, the hell with armored units, we need ships fast. We will start building an army in Bulgaria, armor or not.” “We are going to invade Serbia and take control of the seas” The emperor was shouting with excitement.

“With what army?”, said Georgius skeptically.

“General Maniakes will lead with his infantry aided by the Greece and Bulgarian archer garrisons.”

“Just one infantry unit? And who is going to garrison those countries? My lord, this is a terrible decision. The generals will ….”

“I am the emperor,” irritably interrupted Alexius, “they will obey.” “Let’s not argue,” he said now softly, “I need you to secure an alliance with Kievans and Hungarians. Marry my daughter to one of them if necessary, but make sure we get their friendship. God knows we will need friends when that Turkish scum attacks us from the east.”

The emperor gathered the map, blew the candle and hurriedly left the room. Left in the darkness of the room, Georgius stayed motionless, his face cut in stone, bearing no expression or betraying no emotions from the emperor’s decision. Suddenly, the stone began cracking, a thin slit of space appeared horizontally across it; abruptly it was swallowed by a deep crater. Georgius was smiling. He was smiling with that open, merry smile that only comes in those rare moments of complete and utter happiness. “This emperor will make us great,” he murmured, “he will make us great.” He thought fondly of the young emperor



as he walked back to his office to make the arrangements for the military campaign. He then made arrangements for the construction of a Boyer in Bulgaria, Armourer in Greece and the recruitment of Horse Archers and a unit of Spears in those provinces. He then wrote to generals informing them of their reassignment to garrison duties in those countries, before turning his attention to taxation (Very High almost everywhere, but a couple provinces) and construction projects all over the empire (Keep in Cyprus – to build ship-building later on for the Baggalas; +20% farmlands in Rhodes and Crete; a Merchant’s Guild in Constantinople).


“We are invading Serbia,” said the emperor, much to the astonishment of the gathered generals. “And I am going to use my Expert Defense knowledge to defend the only province susceptible to the Turks – Trebizond. God be with us.”

Conquest of Serbia:

The report sent from General Maniakes was brief:

A unit of infantry and two units of archers clashed with a unit of infantry and a unit of spearmen. After a couple of archer volleys, the enemy infantry charged our archers. To meet the charge our own infantry was advanced. The enemy surprised us by stopping the charge short and turning sharply right. We charged their flank. In the meantime the enemy charged our second archer unit with their spearmen. The archer unit was ordered to run away, until they turned to face the enemy after taking the higher ground. The second unit of archers rushed to attack from behind. Our infantry prevailed and killed the general, greatly demoralizing the enemy, which starting running. We gave chase. After the battle, we began a construction of the fort and temporarily eliminated taxes to win over the local population. Two additional units were brought in to secure the area.

“Marvelous,” thought Georgius, “simply marvelous.” He then penciled in on his work parchment to send General Maniakes a Valor Medal.

Epilogue to Chapter 1:

Emperor Alexius sipped the Bulgarian honey drink, or “medovina,” as it is commonly known there. In front of him beautiful female figures graciously danced over a carpet of flaming coals. One of them was smiling at him. The open, friendly smile of a young woman; the smile of youth, of yarning, of wanting. “Ahh, it is great to be the king,” thought the emperor, hand reaching for the medovina again.

He could finally relax a bit. Peace treaties were signed with both the Hungarians and the Kievans. Even the French king sent an alliance proposal, but the emperor refused – “where did those heathens, the French, live” the emperor thought, although the thought left him as quickly as it has appeared. Who cares? What was important at that very moment was that the empire was at peace, Serbia was conquered a ships were rolling off the line and being sent to secure the Mediterranean. Though the Treasury was almost empty, there were enough gold coins to continue construction of various other projects. The Turks, in the meantime, have invade Syria and do not seem too interested to attack. The only unfortunate event was the conquest of Wallachia by the Hungarians. Oh, well, they are allies.

Prince Alexius, the emperor’s first-born child and heir, finally came out of age into the strong warrior everybody expected him to be, although his father wasn’t quite sure whether his Pride was a good trait to share with his Killer Instinct:



The emperor relaxed and happily and loudly farted. It was a great compliment for the chef, whose rosted pig had fueled the gas. That night the emperor slept like a baby…

Axeknight
04-17-2004, 09:42
Welcome to the Org, Krakra http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

I like it so far. Are you going to write up the whole campaign? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

As you're a junior patron, you can't post in the mead hall yet, but perhaps a mod can move this there.

NormanPain
04-17-2004, 11:24
That was well written and I liked your word choice http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

Tricky Lady
04-17-2004, 11:26
This is a very well-written story. I liked it a lot.

Waiting for more chapters to come. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif

Krakra
04-17-2004, 14:26
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif Thanks for the good words guys This is a great forum and much of what I know about this game was learnt right here over the course of 2 days. I was going to see what was the reception of this first part before continuing any further. Your encouragement was encouraging -- my fiance's reaction was somewhat different. She rolled her eyes as if trying to say: you are too old for this

I am continuing writing this morning, but before I transfer it to the forum I need to figure out two issues:

1. How to insert the screenshots.

2. How to keep some decent formatting to at least somewhat match the Word file.

I will also try saving my battles, although I feel expert players will die laughing at my inept tactical dancing.

Axeknight
04-17-2004, 17:30
It can be annoying when you see your story on the board and it looks totally different to on word, but it doesn't matter hugely, as long as it's readable.

And don't listen to your fiancee if she's not being encouraging. Who needs marriage anyway? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-stunned.gif

VikingHorde
04-17-2004, 17:52
Welcome to the Org nice story Krakra http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

mercian billman
04-17-2004, 18:52
Great story Krakra and welcome to the org http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

I'm looking forward to the next chapter http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Monk
04-17-2004, 20:29
To post screens you will first need to upload them to a webspace (we can host your pictures here at the .org) If you wish to upload your screenshots here to the .org then please visit the Mead hall and read over the rules for uploading files. Or you can put them on your webspace, either way, to actualy get them to show up in a post you have to copy+paste the url of the pic into the place you want

example:

Code Sample [IMG]http://www.toalwar.org/nothing.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]

place the url between the IMG, and your image should apear.

Hope that helps, http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

Krakra
04-17-2004, 22:14
I feel quite dumb -- I wasn't able to find the Mead guild a few of you suggested. Neither did I have much success with my own webspace, although I did sign up for yahoo hosting. A friend of mine, a programmer, promised to help me later today. Until then, I can't post any screenshots or the replay of the battle (the story of which will be told in the next chapter). Formatting also continues to be awful.

Here is Chapter 2. Hopefully it will be somewhat enjoyable. I am off to watch the Thunder over Louisville air show. Until later ...

Chapter 2: The Cross Bearers:

The emperor walked briskly up the hill. His bodyguards could barely keep up with him, wondering how a man in his 40s can still walk, let alone tire them up the steep grade. “My emperor,” grinned one of the bodyguards, “you are like a stallion this morning. Is Gergana your source of energy?” The rest chuckled, merrily picturing the exhilarating body of Gergana, the olive-skinned Bulgarian beauty, who was now a mistress to Alexius.

The emperor turned and joined in the chuckle. He liked the young Kataphraktoi – son of Georgius – who, like the rest of his bodyguards was hand-picked for his bravery and dedication to his master. “Yes, my dear friends,” the emperor wanted to shout, “I feel completely reborn. Gergana has fueled my passion for something I thought I had lost 20 years ago.” He said out loud, “I feel like Pygmalion on that day when he first kissed his statue.”

“Who is Pygmalion, my lord?” asked one of the bodyguards, “Oh, is he the new actor in the Greek theatre that has taken Constantinople by storm? My mother wrote me that she saw him in a farce this last weekend, called ‘You are fired,’ or something vulgar like this.”

Alexius smiled. The smile of good-natured intellectual superiority one feels towards a toddler’s blunder. “No, my friend, Pygmalion is not an actor. He was a sculptor that lived a long, long time ago in these lands, when the Greeks were the only civilization known to mankind. Back then pagan gods ruled the land. One day the goddess Venice, outraged by the lack of respect from Propoetides, turned those women into prostituting in public. When Pygmalion saw the wicked lives of these wretched women he was revolted by the faults of the female nature and vowed to remain a bachelor for the rest of his life. Being a master sculptor, he carved a female body from stone instead. It was an ivory statue, so petite and fragile, so marvelous and lively, that it created a mysterious aura of being alive. It was the most beautiful form a female body ever was in. Pygmalion fell madly in love with her and …”

“… and he actually went mad and wedded the poor stone. Let’s hope he didn’t fornicate or otherwise abuse that cold and beautiful stone.” It was Georgius, of course, who stood atop of the hill and disapprovingly looked at the emperor. “My lord, the bishop will be rather unhappy that you are telling this horrible story to our youth. Very demoralizing it is.”

“Georgius, what a surprise to see you during my morning walk. I hope you didn’t roll out of bed just to give us a speech on morality, although you are certainly the expert.” Alexius and his guards chuckled. They knew that Georgius was quite an accomplished orator and had Aristotle-like passion for debate. He studied at the infamous Constantinople academy; the same academy that counted among its alumni such people of greatness like Cyril and Methodius, the creators of the Glagolitic alphabet (although there were still many that contained they created the Cyrillic alphabet instead). The alphabet, written in Bulgaria in the mid 9th century, swept north through the steppes and west through central Europe becoming the basis for the written world of many peoples, like the Bulgarians, Moldovans, Croatians, Serbians, and Kievans, among many others.

“No, my lord, I have urgent news for you. An emissary of the French has come to request passage for their First Crusade into the Holy land.”

“Crusade? What a noble name for a bunch of gold diggers bored to tears in their own lands. We will not let them pass, as they will ravage and rampage our villages and towns that they pass through.”

“Err, my lord, may I have a word with you,” said Georgius nodding to the emperor to follow him. His face was serious, even worried, which was quite unusual for this man who regularly parted his opponents from their money while playing cards. The emperor followed him.

Once there was a safe distance between them and the bodyguards, Georgius stopped and started whispering rapidly in the emperor’s ear.

“My lord, the crusader army is over 800-man strong. Half of the army is made of royal knights. Their armor is thick and impenetrable and covers their whole body, and that of their horses. When they gallop the thunder shatters the earth, causing walls to tumble and men to run in fear. It is a fearful sight, one that no man, regardless of his valor and bravery, can withstand. We cannot refuse. Our own garrison is mere 400-men strong, men that have grown used to peace and easy life.”

The emperor listened silently and intently. He has heard some distant rumors of such royal knights in far away lands, but hasn’t given it much thought that one days those same knights will be knocking down on his own door. The thought seemed incredible. Yet, he didn’t doubt Georgius. He was always well informed.

It was the year of the Lord 1104. Some dozen years ago Byzantium was fighting for its existence. Enemies had surrounded it, good generals and leaders were hard to come by and the empire and economy were in decay. “So much has changed, since then,” the emperor thought. “Kiev and Hungary are my allies. Two of my daughters were married into the Tzar’s family. Kingdoms from around the world try to outmaneuver themselves to gain my alliance, although I rarely agree to it but to trusted friends. Byzantium had thrice reached highest levels of technological excellence, if you listen to the man of science, although frankly I never understood what they meant by this. True, most lands once ruled by proud, independent people were now parts of large empires. Georgia and Moldovia were conquered by the Kievans; Poland and Hungary were expanding in the steppes. The Egyptians took Lesser Armenia – a slap on the face of the Turks, who delivered their own backhand to the Egyptians by conquering Syria. The strangest of all was the disappearance in 1094 of Denmark, a once mighty nation of savage Vikings and powerful magic.

The emperor turned his gaze to the rolling green hills below. The landscape was so serene, almost seemed surreal. It was like that Pygmalion statue that was alive, or not alive, that was so human, yet was made entirely from stone, that was … “Stop dreaming,” the nagging internal voice was back, “you have a decision to make You are an emperor, heavens, stop acting like the man in love with the female body or history Are you going to let the crusaders through or not?”

“Do I have a choice?” the emperor asked the voice smiling.

Epilogue to Chapter 2:

The First Crusade was followed the next year by a second one, this time from Britain. Another powerful army rolled through the Byzantine landscape made of strange, bearded savages on enormous horses that looked more like black dragons created and bread for one purpose in mind: to kill. Though neither villagers nor town folk liked these new giants, they were happy to see them as their journey took them south, towards the evil lands of the Turks. These armies over-run and ravaged the Turks, and soon Antioch became French and Tripoli became British. If offers from the Truks for an alliance were conspicuously missing in the years past, they became frequent now that these men appeared.

The first two crusades were quickly followed by another three, from likes of HRE, Poland and the Italians, but those were of less stature and faltered after meeting with the prepared Turkish hordes. A dozen years later, the regrouped Muslims poured back into the Christian world. Grenada fell. Then Tripoli fell. Large Turk forces began amassing on Byzantium’s own borders.

Alarmed first by the appearance of the crusaders, Alexius had begun his own version of the Marcian army reforms, upgrading the spear units first with superior armor then, just last year, with spear-bearing elite, professional units known as feudal sergeants. Archers were also undergoing an upgrade, with regular archer and Trebizond archer units being replaced with Bulgarian brigands. The training of these units was more rigorous, and many began showing the leadership qualities so necessary for successful governors and military commanders.

It was at this very moment, that the attack came. An attack that was so utterly unexpected, so well-timed and so forceful that it changed the history of the land. Probably forever. The story of the attack shall be told in Chapter 3.

Axeknight
04-17-2004, 23:21
Good http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

When will Chapter 3 be finished?

Monk
04-18-2004, 00:18
Quote[/b] (Krakra @ April 17 2004,17:14)]I wasn't able to find the Mead guild a few of you suggested.
On the main index when you first sign into the .org, you should see a link just under the barracks that says Story/PBM Click that link and you will be redirected to a choice between two forums: the Throne room and the Mead hall.

The Throne Room is where players gather to partake in Play-By-Email campaigns. One player starts a game and plays until his king dies, in that time he can do what he wants but he must role play to his kings v&v stats, after his ruler dies he zips the file and passes it on to the next player. Afterward he/she has the option to make a writeup of their reign, such AARs are always encouraged.

The Mead Hall is a place where patrons can post their stories of TW or any other game they wish. Whether it's Game related of just the creation of the author's mind all types of tales are welcome, though the majority still post about TW. Aside from stories, the Mead hall is also home to the Total war screenshot thread, where patrons show off their victories and defeats by posting shots of their MP and SP games. It's also a place where literature can be discussed, and even recommended.

I am the Assistant Moderator of the Mead hall, meaning i keep spam to a minimum and make sure everything remains civil. If you wish i could request to a Mod (Gregoshi perhaps) that this story should be moved there, if you wish that is. I would move it there myself but alas my powers do not extend here into the Entrance hall.

As a new patron you cannot make your own threads in the Mead hall, but you can still reply to them, so you would be able to continue your story if it was moved.

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/ht_bow.gif

DemonArchangel
04-18-2004, 00:46
B*TCHING STORY
You sir, kick mucho butt.

Krakra
04-18-2004, 06:56
It was a good air show and the fireworks were fantastic...

Thanks all for the support.

Monk, it will be great moving this to a more appropriate discussion forum. I finally went to the Mead room and was very impressed by some of the reading there. Just outstaning. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-dizzy2.gif

Incidentally, if you give me a couple of pointers on the upload process, I will upload the pics tomorrow. I also have two battle replays, although the experts here will laugh at them. I did win hugely both times, but the quality of my army was quite better than the enemy. Then there is the AI factor ... Anyway, I have them if anybody wants to look at them. I will gladly take pointers on how to improve as well.

I will finish chapter 3 probably tomorrow.

Krakra
04-18-2004, 20:12
This is what I have written yesterday:

The Battle of the Gold Mine:

Prologue:

Lazlo slowly gained his perception. Still only half awake, he could hear the pleasant melody of the harp. He recognized immediately the piece – it was an ecclesiastical polyphony melody by Guido of Arezzo. Ah, Guido, Lazlo thought, you have given so much to music. Your greatness shall forever live in your melodies and the brilliant system of staff-notation which brought such order and clearness into the teaching of music. The lonely tunes of the harp were aided by the kaval. Its soft, high-pitch tunes told a story of harmony, of love, of balance. Then in came the deep voice of the crumhorn. Its tunes seemed to Lazlo to be like a drill sergeant in a new regiment; it ordered the kaval and the harp, counterbalanced their highs with its bass, and above all it seemed to personally tell Lazlo, “Get up, your highness, get up.” Lazlo obliged, waving to the musicians that he is up and they can leave.

His cook had already placed the breakfast tray on his desk. He wolfed the thin slices of meat and the vegetables, drained the large glass of milk and used the small wooden spoon to finish the porridge of wheat and barley. Once finished, he turned to the small container his secretary had brought in. He recognized the tiny seal on it – it came from the Pope, brought by his speedy pigeon post service.

Lazlo hesitated opening the container. He suspected it will be a damnation for his attack on Sicily. He wondered whether the Pope had enough courage to excommunicate him or whether the Pope really gave a damn for the Sicilians with whom he had waged war for so many years before.

He reached and broke the seal, retrieving a tiny parchment. “My dear child,” it read, “I am disappointed you would attack Sicily without my consent. However, I am willing to give you my pardon if you show me you are a true son of god. The Orthodoxy is spreading its influence. It must be stopped.”

Lazlo reread the parchment, looking for any secret meaning. He couldn’t believe his luck….


I stopped writing for reasons you will read below. The battle itself was rather fun for me. I had the hill, I kept my line in order, and I raided the flanks of the enemy with my two kataphraktoi units. If anybody is curious, I can send you the replay. For the battle, I had already prepared an outline on what to write, and it seemed a funny story could come out of it. My plan was to write it from the perspective of the Hungarian general, who got a bad case of diarrhea that morning and had to frequently visit the bushes from where he observed much of the battle. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Why stop the writing? I played quite a few years this morning. Frankly, this particular game no longer presents any challange. There wasn't much to do and the AI presented little resistance. It didn't attack me, but even if it did, the outcome would have certainly been in my favor due to the highest armor upgrade, excellent generals and much better quality troops. Just a single unit, Paranoi cavalry, is enough to route 5 units of peasants. I need to find a way to make the AI more formidable. Currently I am considering playing for the Hungarians, with the restrictions I had for this game but with the modification:

1. Allow no Crusades to pass -- this will give me some fun battles with Crusader armies.

I will document the progress and if the game turns out to be fun, I will create a story of it.

Can anybody suggest ways to make the game a bit more challanging? I don't have VI, just the original MTW.

There were a few new things I did discover in my Byzantine campaign. First, my first emperor lived to be 70 -- by far beating any other ruler I have had in a game. Second, one of the Crusades, that I allowed to enter, skinned each province it went through between 9,000ft - $10,000ft. By the time it left my borders, it had taken close to 40,000ft. I wished there was a way to attack the crusade once it was allwed to enter. Alas.

Monk
04-18-2004, 22:24
No Entrance hall mods are logged onto the .org at this moment, but i'll be sure to contact them once they are. As for uploading:

Make sure that the file is in either a .gif or .jpeg format and resize the image so it is no larger than 800x600. If you need a program to do these things then go here Infranview (http://www.irfanview.com/) Infranview is a nice free and easy to use image editor.

After you have changed it's format and size, then go here; Story uploader (http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Uploaders/pimgupload.php), this is the file space for story screenshots. once uploaded here the Assistant moderator in charge of managing the screens (me) will transfer them to the filespace for you to use. Use your own username in it's title so you can find it easier, ie Krakra01.

after you have uploaded the screen look for it here:File space (http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/story/), the reason i told you to put your name in the file is so you can find it easy as there is a whole lot of screens in there.

Krakra
04-18-2004, 23:05
Thanks Monk http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif You weren't kidding when you said that there were a lot of files there ... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-dizzy2.gif

As to my Hungarian campaign, I found the hard way that stopping the crusaders as a Catholic faction can be very costly. First, I had nothing to counter their infantry (but my royal knights). My pikes, even with upgraded armor, had no chance. Second, those Longbowmen are pretty nasty. Third, even as a defender, I got put in the valley while the AI started on a large hill in the middle. At the end, not only did I get my behind handed to me in the battle, but the Pope excommunicated me and all fellow Catholics suddenly turned unfriendly. Time to change the rules again -- i.e. I will be letting crusades through, for now.

Gregoshi
04-19-2004, 03:34
Moving to the Mead Hall as requested.

octavian
04-19-2004, 04:57
good story, i like it http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

The Wizard
04-19-2004, 11:36
It is ok as far as I'm concerned, but a little bit of advice that I had to learn the hard way myself: maybe it would be better if you refrained from so many and such complex metaphors. While at first pretty and good, they tend to slow the story down, and there is nothing worse than a good story dragged down by its own words.

Otherwise a good story. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-yes.gif



~Wiz

Krakra
04-20-2004, 00:24
Thanks guys

While I have your attention, and it seems from the number of posts you guys have made that you are grizzly veterans of the game, how do I make it a bit more challanging? I played as Hungarians and got bored. I mean, how many pikeman armies can you kill with my upgraded knights? I tried attacking with 1/3 the enemy numbers and still can't get a challange

Then I played Denmark, which used to get eliminated in less than 10 years in my other campaigns. It seemed even easier than playing for Byzantium. And I am not even attacking anybody, trying to leave more land for the other guys. All I see are large but poor quality armies. Fodder for my troops.

Who do I play for to get back the wow factor?

I have original MTW and am currently playing with MedMod 1.85.

Sulla
04-20-2004, 14:36
The A.I. ,unfortunatly, will allways present poorer tactics and army (but sometimes massive). Its the reason I hardly play sp anymore. If you want some nice challenges in battle, try the MP function( VI expansion prefered). You dont need much bandwith, just a decent computer.

Regards Sulla

ps, nice story.

Krakra
04-22-2004, 14:20
Thanks Sulla. I am actually not worried about bandwidth as I have a cable modem. I need to get VI, though.

In terms of MP, where do I find people willing to play?

The Wizard
04-22-2004, 20:05
Just pick a game, if you can join -- the community's very nice.

Krakra
04-23-2004, 02:21
Quite annoyingly, gamespy won't log me in. I enter my email, I come up with an Online name, I enter my password and then my CD key. All in vein -- it comes back saying Incorrect Account. What do I do?

The Wizard
04-23-2004, 22:28
It's Gamespy having a tantrum. This same problem got me excluded from multiplay for a long time and lost me my interest in multiplay.

scooter_the_shooter
05-23-2004, 22:10
good story send more http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif