novgorod general woes

[portent88]

I altered my early.txt to add novgorod as a playable faction becuase i heard it was more of a challenge. Andv let me tell you, it is. I have tried 3 campaigns and all of them ended in disaster(I don't ever save/reload as sometimes the empires fall is more fun than its rise i.e. lots of almost unwinnable battles and the victories, although few, are often sweeter).

One thing i noticed is that i produce an amazing ammount of low loyalty genrals. Around ever 3rd general produced has no loyalty whatsoever and often when i have him assasinated, the guy who takes over has no loyalty either. IS there any way to increase the odds of producing loyal generals?

As a side noter i highly reccomend playing the Novies. It is really hard. I had no problem winning with Poland on expert and I am not even close to figuring out how to win with the novies. They have no special units except boyars who suck the life out of your treasury. On one game a early flood of heirs(who come out as boyars) bankrupted me and eventually sunk my empire.

[Basileus]

yep its alot tougher to play them but you should try to expand as fast as you can to get a nice income going otherwise you´ll be stuck, to help loyalty have an emmisary in the province your training troops he gives a boost in loyalty and as long as your regent has high influense most of your generals get high loyalty aswell as vurtues that give positive loyalty

[Exile]

I'm playing the Nov. faction for the first time. I had a similar low loyalty problem with the Poles. I think the answer is to boost your King's influence by conquering provs.

In the meantime, make sure each army's general is as loyal as possible, this may require a bit of juggling. You can use temporary measures like emissaries, princesses and titles until your King's influence is higher.

[Phalanx]

I suggested the Novo in this thread and provide some input on my strategies: http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=15;t=4955

1. Vikings seem to have higher loyalty than filler troops. If you wade through my advice, you'll see that they are at the core of your governors.

2. Always put troops in a province in the governors stack. That way his loyalty is the only one considered.

3. Heirs ... they usually have relatively high loyalty, so put them in charge of armies, regardless of V&V. Use the good ones to attack, the rest on garrison duty.

4. Build a navy quickly. Once you have contact with another faction your influence will go up. Take Sweden and the Danes will be suitably impressed. Sometimes impressed enough to attack you http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[SmokWawelski]

I cannot add anything new but the fact that my Poland campaign is haunted by the same low loyalty problems....

I will try the trick with emmisaries http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wacko.gif

[Asmodeus]

Try to use your King in as many battles as you can, it seems that loyalty is earned rather than granted. Marry off daughters or grant governership to good generals who's loyalty is worth trying to improve. Assassinate, Execute, Burn or 'send gloriously to their deaths' any generals who are more of a risk to your kingdom than a benefit.

Loyalty does slowly increase with time, especially if your King does some glorious deeds. After a king dies though, be thee wary. That loyalty does not always transfer to the heir and you may find some of the Generals becoming rebelious. Always have a spy in each province to warn you of likely Traitors - also the spy can then frame them for Treason and have them beheaded - this sends a clear warning to the other generals.