To get a context picture, I should say that the Russian horde had already control over the Steppes, form Lithuania and Kiev to Khazar (spelling???). In any case, I play in hard (yes, I am a sissy) and I am a very cautious player, setting technical/infrastructural development over military might.
In my last session, I continued deploying my naval trade network at the maximum pace I could afford, cutting down in infrastructure expense and above all, troops production. In any case, after a few peaceful years, secured by my network of alliances, my fleet extended from Novgorod to the Black See, giving me a huge trade revenue … or at least compared to the meagre income I had at the beginning of the campaign (at this point Novgorod gave around 2.2k per turn).
The AI is building nice size armies when it can afford it. My Byzantine neighbours had 2-3 stacks per province around my borders, but the French are still the main military might of the known world. My Polish border on the other hand, is basically demilitarised, a long stretch of no-mans land. Soon enough as I feared (and somehow hoped for, as I tend not to start wars to easily overwhelm the AI) the Byzantines make their move. My only complain is that it was a very bold one: they try to sink my mighty fleet with their pathetic two vessel fleet. The result, two naval victories and no Byzantine fleet no more. And now comes my shameful sneaky move: taking advantage of my naval superiority I land a huge army at Byzantium itself where the Byzantine king is taking a little rest from the front lines. As every single time in MTW, the AI surrenders the province not to get the king stacked in a sieged castle. Byzantium (and its wooping 4.5k a turn) is mine.
As for AI behaviour, next turn the AI reacts pretty well sending large multiple-stacks armies to all our border provinces, Byzantium, Kiev and Khazar. Unfortunately (for the AI of course) I crush every single one of these attacks taking so many prisoners my war ships are about to sink.
And there we are now, after playing 3 major battles until 3:00 am, I decided it was time to quit. All-and-all, a very enjoyable late-night Redux show. Well, the morning was not that good with the kid waking up at 6:00 am and demanding constant attention, but well, I suppose that is the price you have to pay for waging war.
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