Questions of a n00b

[aX1s]

Hey everyone this is my introduction into the total war series and i like to know wat you guys think of my campaign so far??

Well picked France Early Normal and In the first 20 years i had all of france + England and Arrogon and by 1170 i had taken most of germany wich is when i had both Arrogonese and English Factions reapear at THE SAME TIME!!!!

After pulling back both my armies to stop the rebelion i noticed that all of spain was taken by the Alomhads...

And with spies telling me that their armies were weak i decided to invade almohad spain..But their armies of 1800 completely destroyed my armies of 2500 (although i did use auto resolve) so i thought i leave that for later when i had time to fight each battle personally.

With that i moved my sights onto italy which had been overun by the sicilians and this is where i found a serious bug in the ai (or i think its a bug mabye its morale)..

My sieging(1360) army was defending against a 2560 strong sicilian army and their crazy general ran into a hail of arrow and was slaughtered..but then all they kept doing was walk up to my army stand there, get hit by arrows the route and kep on doing that....it took me 1/2 and hour but i won with only 120 losses (Is this a bug or wat??)

Another thing i cant get my trade routes to work.....i have 3 ships in flanders + Port + Merchant but nothing seem to be happening..does the country im trading wit have to have a trading post as weLl? (country im trying to trade with is denamrk and they dont have a trading post. And can u trade with your own provinces??

[Inferno]

Quote My sieging(1360) army was defending against a 2560 strong sicilian army and their crazy general ran into a hail of arrow and was slaughtered..but then all they kept doing was walk up to my army stand there, get hit by arrows the route and kep on doing that....it took me 1/2 and hour but i won with only 120 losses (Is this a bug or wat??)[/QUOTE]

Generals being suicidal is something that is to be addressed in the patch. As far as the army standing in front of you and taking arrows, I have seen this, and yes it is the AI being a little less intelligent than it should be. Not sure if this is being patched or not.

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It's getting warm in here...that must be one hell of an INFERNO!

[Wart]

Trading
You need trader + port + an unbroken chain of ships leading to an allied/neutral port. If there are enemy ships in any of the sea areas on the way they will blockade (stop) the trade.
No, you can't trade with your own ports.
Any help? http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Rosacrux]

Everybody (I guess) has seen one time or another the AI (which in this case should be perceived as AS=Artificial Stupidity) parade with it's armies in front of the HP archers - the later having a great time killing 200+ in every such battle.

[aX1s]

Thks wart didnt know there had to be a chain of ships LOL.

Just Conquered Italy about to finish off poland and hungary and just started my first crusade...but im having trouble gettin the crusade past the byzantines...do i have to be allied wit them for a crusade to pass or is the only way if they refuse to attack them? (and by the way im trying to save thier ass by crusading against the turks)

Just confirming, to successfully trade there has to be a row or chain of ships from my port to the other port??

Also is it worth the cost to start trading? right now my yearly income is 2000-2300 florins.

Last thing is i was looking over all my generals attributes and i found i have a GAY GENERAL it says "He prefers young boys" wtf has this happened to any of you??? it doesnt actually do anything though..but im not happy with my generals prefering the same sex so i think ill try marrying a princess to him hehehe

[ravenking]

The Byzantines are orthodox, so you can't pick up any troops from them when you go through. It is their choice each turn to decide if they want you to pass through or not, and they can decide how they want. Trading is definitly worth it, but you need to check a few things first. What kind of trading goods does the province you are trading from have (seen by right clicking on the province)? and How far is the port you are going to be trading with from your own? The farther a ship is away from your ports the more its upkeep cost is. If the upkeep from your ships costs more than you are getting by trading then is not worth it.

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"You there, knight!" "Yes, sir?" "We just lost that battle. Why did you order your men to charge that unit of enemy sergeants?" "Uh, I was impetuous, sir" "'IMPETUOUS!? Impetuous!? Men! Kill him, I want his head!"

[Wart]

NP http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif
Yep, you need an unbroken line of ships between the two ports.

It can cost a bit, in terms of the initial investment, but if you've got a few good trading provinces and ships linking them to some of the sea area that have multiple ports you can really rake it in.

Of course it depends on how much warfare/sacking of provinces is happening, but in general some sea areas that are worth getting your ships to are the black sea, and a few of the areas on the northern & eastern coasts of the med, the baltic's not bad either.
Support costs for the ships are also worth thinking about, if you're not Med based then try to take a province or two down there and build a port to reduce the support costs; Naples and Sicily aren't bad as they have good trade income themselves, are fairly central, and probably belong to the Sicilians, so by taking them you are only pissing off a small potential trading partner.

And yes trading is well worth it! In one of my games, about 150yrs in I own all of Europe west of the flanders > toulouse line, the UK, and sicily/naples. I have a ship in every coastal area, and am grossing 20k+/yr (netting ~10k) http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

The 'Table of Contents' thread which tends to lurk around the first page or two of the board has some links to threads on trade, (as well as a load of other stuff,) but if you have any other questions not covered there, feel free to ask! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
Also the following page gives details on which provinces are good for trade: http://oooo.freewebspace.com/trade.htm

[Magraev]

It sounds like you are playing agressively and soon reaching that point of no return, where the AI decides you have to die no matter what you do.

After that trade is difficult at best. All enemy ships disrupt trade and if everyone is your enemy that means a lot of disruption. Besides the more of the map you own the less ppl to trade with.