Ironman House Rules

[Ethelred Unread]

Not seen a new thread on this for a while and I've just started a new campaign so I thought I'd post my new house rules here - any additions for a clear S&M fan please let me know!

First of all I'm using SS6.1 with a garrison mod (that uses the merc pool and built buildings to add between 3-18 units to the AI's garrison) Real Recruitment (that limits elite units) on VH/VH, and a new BAI & CAI (xeryx's of TW centre)

1. Unless the General has 3 stars or more I use the General Cam
2. No Battle Radar
3. Unless the general has 3+ piety no churches or priests can be built
4. Only governors/generals can recruit or build in cities
5. If dread is 3+ I must always execute prisoners and exterminate cities
6. If chiv is 3+ i must always release prisoners and occupy cities
7. No spies or assassins unless the governor has 3+ dread
8. No save/reload, autoresolve or console

Anything else that will make my game more roleplay centric? Or harder? :whip:

[coldpolar]

will that not simply limit ur gameplay to endlessly circuiting generals between cities and attempting to gain traits? seems a bit too dominated by the starting traits i could see myself getting annoyed quite quickly. as for roleplaying i like to try and play according to the starting traits of my generals as cruel etc. this gets difficult in the later game tho.

[Ramses II CP]

Personally I find that the number one AI exploit in most of my games is the jihad or crusade. I'd knock those out of any Ironman rules too.

:egypt:

[FactionHeir]

Or just make it that you may not attack any settlement along the way to your crusade/jihad target and may not "accidentally" send your men in a different direction to go take something else ~:)

[coldpolar]

you could try playing the ultra-pious ruler and giving a tenth of ur income to the pope each year- was known as a tithe at the time tho i've never heard of a king showing generosity in such a way.

or, an idea i've been toying with for a while, is to treat ur lands like individual estates and only income from those lands can be spent there. i think this would work better if u were to set up a crusader state and then treated it like an separate kingdom controlling a number of territories. would certainly be challenging, esp of the old maths :book:, as well as add a roleplaying element.

[TevashSzat]

Some suggestions:

-No cheap diplomat bribing to get good relations (you improve relations by actually working on it, not bribing)
-Maximum of 1 priest per province unless it is close to your capital (so you don't get super duper god squads full of cardinals because you were busy converting the levant)
-Care about reputation(you must keep your global reputation above a certain level, unless you're king has dread; that means either less or no backstabbing and things of that nature)

Another one that may be hard to implement: Whenever, big armies ie 12+ unit stacks move through a province, you have to set the taxes in that province to the highest. Thats to simulate the general destruction that a huge army makes even within its own country. I suppose this could be waived for provinces in your "heartland", ie those really close to capital/very highly developed

[Ethelred Unread]

All good suggestions, esp about the crusades, rep and raising taxes in a province when a big army is there.

I don't have THAT much time to work out with a calculator how to spend taxes etc, it's hard enough keeping track of agents and I think i'd just go :dizzy2: (p.s. did you know you can order your agents into type by opening the scroll and clicking on the right hand column - they always stay in that order too, much easier to remember who's moved etc)

It's shame the AI doesn't call jihads or crusades more often, though "accidentally" attacking cities on the way is something I'll avoid.

Also I don;t tend to jiggle governors about to get good traits, I just use some as governors and then have them looking after about 3 cities and move them about. Plus in SS you can transfer auxilaries so it makes it a bit easier.

[Mount Suribachi]

Not seen a new thread on this for a while and I've just started a

1. Unless the General has 3 stars or more I use the General Cam
2. No Battle Radar
3. Unless the general has 3+ piety no churches or priests can be built
4. Only governors/generals can recruit or build in cities
5. If dread is 3+ I must always execute prisoners and exterminate cities
6. If chiv is 3+ i must always release prisoners and occupy cities
7. No spies or assassins unless the governor has 3+ dread
8. No save/reload, autoresolve or console



Actually, I autoresolve all battles where I don't have a general. You lose a lot more battles that way...

I never attack an ally.

Never attack a neutral faction unless I have good reason - crusade target, mission etc

Always go to war in aid of an ally (the handful of TW battles I've had fighting on the same battlefield as an ally are a rewarding experience - probly cos of their rarity).


you could try playing the ultra-pious ruler and giving a tenth of ur income to the pope each year- was known as a tithe at the time tho i've never heard of a king showing generosity in such a way

I like that ~:)

[TheLastPrivate]

My rules as a catholic faction:
1. Cannot attack catholic unless excommed.
2. Cannot attack catholic unless it's a crusade.
3. Only request crusade on the outremer.
4. Only attack catholic if you are attacked first.
5. You must defend the Jihad target if the target is Christian/Orthodox.
6. Once a General joins a crusade, he may not abadon it for 1 turn to gain extra movment points w/o desertion.
7. You may not adopt/man'o'hour into your family. Your daughters MUST marry your generals to keep the bloodline clean.

My rules aren't as RP-able or strict as others, but I try to keep it the way I think it would have been during medieval times for the most part without making it too difficult.

[coldpolar]

i always try to avoid adoptions but it never seems to work out. damn my lack of conviction! and i like the idea of defending jihad targets i've never really viewed them as particularly relevant to me before.

[TheLastPrivate]

Just gives extra action around constantinople, really.

[Yoyoma1910]

My rules as a catholic faction:
1. Cannot attack catholic unless excommed.
2. Cannot attack catholic unless it's a crusade.
3. Only request crusade on the outremer.
4. Only attack catholic if you are attacked first.
5. You must defend the Jihad target if the target is Christian/Orthodox.
6. Once a General joins a crusade, he may not abadon it for 1 turn to gain extra movment points w/o desertion.
7. You may not adopt/man'o'hour into your family. Your daughters MUST marry your generals to keep the bloodline clean.

My rules aren't as RP-able or strict as others, but I try to keep it the way I think it would have been during medieval times for the most part without making it too difficult.



While I agree with the spirit of much of your rules of engagement, and do not mean to knock them at all, um... no offense intended, but really none of those rules seem to be accurate to the Middle ages.

1. Oh the many many counter examples. For instance, the Hundred years war.
2. Again, as 1.
3. What about the Albigensian Crusade of 1207, all the way to the south of France, commissioned by Innocent III, among others.
4. The conflicts had to start somewhere.
5. Sometimes it worked like that, sometimes it didn't
6. Baldwin of Boulogne did just that, and conquered Edessa before the rest of Outremer was touched.
7. William the Conqueror was once known better as William the Bastard, and claimed that Edward the Confessor had once promised him the throne of England on a visit... a loose claim, but enough to get support from others, and earn a nice tapestry... which is actually embroidered, and not a tapestry. :inquisitive: It's kind of similar to the Man'o'hour.

anyway, :2cents: about how stringent you need to be to actually be accurate.

[FactionHeir]

Well, of course it would be nice to follow it historically, but the AI doesn't react as the people did in history and suffers from sloth and inability to deal with certain situations, so this thread is really about trying to make the game somewhat challenging at least ~:)

[gardibolt]

Your daughters MUST marry your generals to keep the bloodline clean.


I must be missing some aspect of the game entirely. How do you get them to do this?

[TheLastPrivate]

Yoyoma1910// Well yah, like what Factionheir said they will never ACT like it was in medieval. But if you do play by my rules the map DOES turn out little bitl ike what it did, and that was what I was aiming for. (until the mongol invasion, of course)

gardibolt// select your princess and right-click on your general. If he isn't married you'll have 100% chance of marriage.

[gardibolt]

Thanks for the tip! I've just been totally ignoring my princesses since they seemed useless.

[Yesugey]

I like many of the rules you guys posted, eventhough i cant follow some of them. Because without goto battle with anyone not attacking you, game could be really boring. Also i usually ignoring the Pope. Its because AI have no realistic judgement.

Here is my iron rules:

* VH/VH difficulty.
* 10 years of headstart to the computer.
* No sieging, always assault no matter what.
* No Extermination, always conquer the full population.
* No mercenaries.
* No getting advantage from bugs and unrealistic strategies.
* No unrealistic technology selections.
* No unbalanced - elite armies.
* Only 1 priest could be exist in every province.


But i like "No adoption", "No man of the hour" ideas though. I will follow them myself.