A Terribly Harmful Name
01-14-2009, 06:56
Hello,
Recently I have been deeply immersed into SS 6.1 for M2TW, which makes for a very interesting campaign and has a nice couple of submods that add precious realism to the game, one of them being Real Recruitment and the other being Byg's Grim Reality, which is the reason I post this.
BTW, Byg's mod can be found here in TWC: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=106060
BGR III, the latest stable release of the submod, is quite an interesting pick because it adds a whole deal of events and traits around the "Faction Zeal" of yours, which gradually decreases as an Empire grows in size. While the particular explanation by the modder for it is quite shady and not very clear ("vice", "corruption" & "sloth"), the effects are no less involving, challenging and realistic because they tend to make big empires as they should be - that is, difficult to govern. You can find a detailed explanation of the system on the mod thread, but basically the more you expand, the less loyal, able and pious your generals become. Rulers of potentially big empires must have a very strong authority to retain the cohesion and integrity of what would be far easier to do with a one province backwater, and recruitment is greatly limited by the standing of the particular general with the rest of the faction and his "War Council" membership, which basically means he is a trusted and important general with power over the most important military affairs in the kingdom. While your Faction Zeal is High, this might not be a big thing, but as the Empire grows so does the potential for rebellion and unruly vassals, as well as the king\emperor\high chief's own power hungry motives cause recruitment to be centralized and placed upon the hands of fewer, capable and trusted generals. The loyalty of your main body of generals and family members also tends to go down, and so does the propensity for revolt and civil war inversely.
The main inspiration for this came when I was playing the HRE, which is a big faction at the start of the SS 6.1 timeframe; I was having a particular tough deal with my vassals and thought: "why not in EB?". Basically, this modification would do great work not only to stop the player from having an easy time at steamrolling the whole world once a certain power base is conquered, but also to simulate the often delicate intrigue and balance of power in large kingdoms such as the Seleucid Empire and a potential Achaemenid wannabe, as well as the late Imperium Romanum. Players will be forced to rely on their trusted generals far more to conduct their campaigns, and keep an almost constant watch on their distant vassals to check for their loyalties and potential risks.
Overall, I think that an adapted approach to EB in the guidelines of this mod would be a great innovation and add much fun and historically accurate challenge to our campaigns.
Edit - By "vassal", I mean FM's\Generals entrusted to ruling a province.
Recently I have been deeply immersed into SS 6.1 for M2TW, which makes for a very interesting campaign and has a nice couple of submods that add precious realism to the game, one of them being Real Recruitment and the other being Byg's Grim Reality, which is the reason I post this.
BTW, Byg's mod can be found here in TWC: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=106060
BGR III, the latest stable release of the submod, is quite an interesting pick because it adds a whole deal of events and traits around the "Faction Zeal" of yours, which gradually decreases as an Empire grows in size. While the particular explanation by the modder for it is quite shady and not very clear ("vice", "corruption" & "sloth"), the effects are no less involving, challenging and realistic because they tend to make big empires as they should be - that is, difficult to govern. You can find a detailed explanation of the system on the mod thread, but basically the more you expand, the less loyal, able and pious your generals become. Rulers of potentially big empires must have a very strong authority to retain the cohesion and integrity of what would be far easier to do with a one province backwater, and recruitment is greatly limited by the standing of the particular general with the rest of the faction and his "War Council" membership, which basically means he is a trusted and important general with power over the most important military affairs in the kingdom. While your Faction Zeal is High, this might not be a big thing, but as the Empire grows so does the potential for rebellion and unruly vassals, as well as the king\emperor\high chief's own power hungry motives cause recruitment to be centralized and placed upon the hands of fewer, capable and trusted generals. The loyalty of your main body of generals and family members also tends to go down, and so does the propensity for revolt and civil war inversely.
The main inspiration for this came when I was playing the HRE, which is a big faction at the start of the SS 6.1 timeframe; I was having a particular tough deal with my vassals and thought: "why not in EB?". Basically, this modification would do great work not only to stop the player from having an easy time at steamrolling the whole world once a certain power base is conquered, but also to simulate the often delicate intrigue and balance of power in large kingdoms such as the Seleucid Empire and a potential Achaemenid wannabe, as well as the late Imperium Romanum. Players will be forced to rely on their trusted generals far more to conduct their campaigns, and keep an almost constant watch on their distant vassals to check for their loyalties and potential risks.
Overall, I think that an adapted approach to EB in the guidelines of this mod would be a great innovation and add much fun and historically accurate challenge to our campaigns.
Edit - By "vassal", I mean FM's\Generals entrusted to ruling a province.