Normal difficulty level = Expert??

[Eddie the Longshanks]

ok...i just wanted to post this and see if anyone has ever had this happen to them on a NORMAL difficulty setting (as i usually do, i playing small factions mod, starting in year 16 AD):
i was playing as france, and around 25 AD, i invade aquatine, anjou and normandy, english lose, then i go for wessex, english lose, and mercia, english lose, and finally nothumbia, english are being besieged by my army...anyway, the aragonese suddenly attack me and i really dont think to much of it, destroyed the army they invaded with and then retaliated against aragon by attacking the province (aragon)..while both england and aragon are being destroyed by my armies wo are besiegeing their castles, the germans invade too..that was a little bit of a problem, but thanks to some decisive battles and a lot of rebellions throught the HRE, i was able to defeat them at around 45 AD (of course by now england and aragon are gone, re-appeared, and defeated again) while im finishing off germany, the italian king dies without an heir, so i take advantage of all his former provinces, but then 2 turns later, and this is all in ONE TURN, the spaniards invade navarre, the almohads invade provence, genoa, tousle, and aragon, the hungarians, invade austria, the poles invade bohemia, and franconia, and the danes invade saxony, the freaking POPE even invades tuscany and the sicilians invade venice to top it all off, scotland and ireland and wales all rebell!!!!! ALL IN THE SAME TURN!!! does this really seem like a game on NORMAL difficulty??!?!?!?

[This message has been edited by Eddie the Longshanks (edited 11-04-2002).]

[TheViking]

Tuff luck hehehe.

Never had that many attack on me in Expert difficulty

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There I see my father.
There I see my mother, my sisters and brothers.
There I see my line of ancestors back to the beginning.
They call on me and ask me to take my place with them in the halls of Valhalla where the brave may live forever.

[Postino]

wow! but thats what you get for rapid expansion.

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Postino
Derlivers Daily

[YunDog]

I guess thats what happens when you aint got no friends - all your enemies gang up on you

that sounds like cool fun - did you survive

[andymate]

yeh i have had that too. even if you are allied with the computer it frickin does. really pisses me off, coz they all pick on you.

[favedave]

This is why should only make 1 enemy at a time. With all the alliances, eventually someone will attack you cuz you attack their ally.

Also, the AI usually only attacks if it has a decent chance of winning, so that means your provinces didn't have very large garrisons.

Wait till you can put substantial forces in all your border provinces before launching major offensives.

I play on the hardest level, and I've never had that many ai attacks unless I was expanding recklessly.

One really good thing about this game (that separates it from "Risk") is that you have to be a little careful to maintain your borders or the ai will sense weakness and pounce on you.

Merely adjust the speed with which you expand.

[Eddie the Longshanks]

well, the problem is that i was allied with half of the people that attacked, i had at least 200 spearmen in every fort....to answer Yundog, i kind of survived, i was able to defeat the almohads, the spainairds, the poles, the danes and the pope (personally, i have to clue how the silicians attacked me, none of their provinces connected with mine and they had no ships in any given sea zone), but the hungarians were a bitch, even though they only had 3 provinces, i 3/4 of my troops were in corodoba and castile (2 massive battles; 4000 troops in corodoba defeated the almohad force of 3900...and 2400 of my troops defeated 3000 spainairds in castile)... anyway, after all was defeated i had a civil war and lost 1/2 of my provinces to rebels....figures http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/rolleyes.gif

[Juan Madsen]

You must be a very good tactician, being able to handle almost succesfully all that onslaught.

After being invaded foreign provinces requires a larger garrison than usual to prevent inmediate revolt. Also it seems clear that somehow the AI was sensing the weaknesses in your just settled frontiers.
The speed of your expansion was certainly impresive but most probably you were unable to develop in depth your sovereignity in the new conquered territories.

I never had a situation like yours although I normally expand much more slowly, I must say. On one occasion though I saw the AI handling the French in a similar way as you did. It was expanding very quickly and making war to everybody with whom it has frontiers. I was the Spanish. Its empire was becoming impresive and threatening to any other faction. Its frontiers were very long and its forces were spreaded on a large territory. As spanish I prepared a carefull and solid attack on the south of France, just to adjust frontiers and looking for a compromising battle. In about 10 turns the french lost two thirds of their territory and three quarters of their forces. As I make pressure on their south it seems as if everybody was waiting for an opportunity for vengeance. I had a wonderfull time looking at the whole process and how the AI was handling everything.

It seems that rapid expansion creates instability and that this could be very difficult to handle. Therefore an expansion cannot be only military but also political and religious. If this is the case then this game is even much better than I already think it is.

Would appreciate more comments on this possibility.

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men matter most

[Eddie the Longshanks]

i dont know about the rapid expansion causing rebellions, but i do know that a catholic faction taking over an orthodox or muslim province creates a much larger likelihood of rebellion than if that catholic faction takes over another catholic state...also i found out (the hard way) that rebel provinces such as portugal and scotland have a HUGE chance of rebellion than rebel provinces like navarre or wales..i guess that is due to their rebellious history...
but as for my rapid expansion, i just like to conquer my enimies as fast as possible...i seldom attack anyone (i usually wait for someone to make the mistake of attacking me http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif) and when one person declares war on me, everyone declares war on me!!!...and im certainly not a master tactician, the main reason i was able to fend everyone off is because most of the nations that invaded me had 3 or less provinces in their empire...i think the almohads were the largest with 7 provinces