Cheetah
08-28-2002, 17:47
Kraellin
Shukan
Posts: 2161
From:
Registered: Nov 2000
posted 08-22-2002 05:03 AM
as i stated in that post a while back about what faction you were going to play first, i did indeed pick spain. i found it interesting that the various factions one can choose have modifiers to the difficulty rating you pick. if you pick easy and pick spain, you actually play at a higher difficulty rating because it's spain. byzantine seems the easiest, from i saw, english are moderate and dont really remember the rest of them.
as spain, i made a fatal error to start my campaign and had to restort it about 8 or 10 moves later. this time i drove out the almohad in about 2 years and was even into morocco sieging the castle there. all that was left untaken of spain were the rebel provinces. my fatal error in the first game was trying to take the rebel province of portugal too early. beware of this, not all rebel provinces react the same way when first taken. portugal has a FIERCE loyalty to portugal, where valencia drops like a fly and stays that way. upon taking portugal i had a MASSIVE uprising the following turn that was about 800 men strong in the rebel army. sheesh! wasnt counting on that at all.
i'm currently playing a very simplistic campaign game. it's on easy and i'm playing almost entirely militaristically. build, invade, siege, raise loyalty, build. i took the southern province of spain and on the next tun i was offered something to do with mercenaries. not quite sure what's going on there yet, but i didnt seem to get them. i'll have to start reading the manual, it would seem http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif
all in all, the front end shld be fairly familiar to all shogun lovers. sure, there's new stuff, but the play is very familiar.
and in the first game, like i said, i'm playing it militaristically, i had a couple daughter princesses but was pretty much ignoring doing anything with them, when all of a sudden i get this message that one of them has become a 'spinster' and 'is now retiring to less arduous tasks'...lol. that had to be target's doing http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif
cham, and magy, i'm playing everything so far in auto-resolve for the sake of speed in finding out other things, so i've only got that one logfile so far. shld i remember, or read this again tomorrow, i'll send it off to you.
and to the guys at CA, this must seem something like a hollywood premier night. all the 'stars' come out of hiding to see the new show and then talk and write reviews and so on. so far, i'd say it's a hit http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
K.
------------------
The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
IP: Logged
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DarknScaly
Samurai Hero
Posts: 121
From:
Registered: Jul 2002
posted 08-22-2002 11:51 AM
hehe
Yeah Portugal is a serious hotbed of rebellion for its own ends... often end up ahving to throw in extra spies and extra troops just to keep the darn place quiet and peaceful.
There's some others like that also... ;-)
IP: Logged
__________________________________________________________________
Nelson
Tai-Sa
Posts: 906
From:USA
Registered: Apr 1999
posted 08-22-2002 03:15 PM
Wouldn't you know, 12 kingdoms to pick and I took Spain too. I'm playing on normal difficulty.
The first thing I noticed was that King Alphonso VI is a hell of a guy . Influential, smart, pious, commanding, and even a bit dreadful with a knack for defending in the field. Then I had to sort out the dukes and duchies and appoint a chancellor. This took a while because I had to examine each general. I gave Castile to the wrong man and had to officially take it back. So let this be a warning to all, bestowing titles (and princesses) is immediate, not when you hit the end turn button. You need to be very careful. The one usable daughter I have I packed off to Aragon to marry the king and hopefully secure my north east flank while I begin the Reconquista down south.
With 8000 in the treasury I then had to decide what to build. This is when the tech tree comes in handy. I hope it's correct. Since on region can build Knights of Santiago with +1 valor I began the construction path that will let me raise them. I won’t see them any time soon. Until then, I will raise (very useful) jinetes there. In Castile I built watch towers to see what the Almohads and the Valencians were up to.
After several turns I have taken Valencia from the rebel El Cid (maybe I should have bribed him) and captured Cordoba from the Moslems. The later was a pitched battle over two river crossings having 900 men on each side with the command edge going to Alphonso. Many fights in Owari prepared me for this and I suffered just 64 casualties and captured almost 500 prisoners worth 1400 florins. During this fight the jinites units were invaluable. Their javelin volleys tore the Almohad urban militia to pieces and their pursuit lead to all the captives. If the Almohads had had more cav this would have been tougher but as it was my cav could maneuver at will. When the javelins were gone they could charge home to good effect. In this battle the jinetes routed the enemy all by themselves as the infantry watched.
Something had to go wrong and sure enough after leaving my coward of a son (-9 morale!)in Valencia the rebellious locals revolted which will mean a bit of punitive work next turn by a better man than he.
I have spent no money thus far on ports or trade but intend to once Iberia proper is altogether Spanish. I’d like to arrange a Crusade against the Almohads before long.
The game has been a blast so far. The strategy map demands a lot of thought. I’m glad for that.
------------------
COGITOERGOVINCO
IP: Logged
__________________________________________________________________
Kraellin
Shukan
Posts: 2161
From:
Registered: Nov 2000
posted 08-22-2002 06:06 PM
nelson,
the key for me in spain was send EVERYTHING you have towards the almohads on the FIRST turn and just keep on going south. drive them completely out of spain and even take morocco or further. do NOT let them start building and then attack them later on. their reserves down south are too weak and too far away to put up any decent resistance and they'll just start not even fighting, but retreating back to the next province. just keep em moving back while building up spain. you can then handle the rebel provinces much easier. keep one good army in the south to keep the almohads from attacking and you can then start concentrating on other directions. so far, that's been my best strategy for spain.
when and if you go after portugal, do so with a huge force, spies and emissaries so that you can camp out there and build up the loyalty quickly. it's one nasty province.
spain is apparently one of the hardest provinces to start in, but it's a key faction when it comes to trade routes, particularly by sea.
------------------
The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
IP: Logged
__________________________________________________________________
DarknScaly
Samurai Hero
Posts: 121
From:
Registered: Jul 2002
posted 08-22-2002 06:17 PM
Spanish farm lands are bloomin' marvelous also (you can go over 1000 florins per province and more with a good governor) - and the 3 provinces with iron deposits is a BIG advantage later on with weapons upgrades.
Kraellin's tactics v the Almohads is the only way I have found to survive as the Spanish - the ALmos ALWAYS eventually come after Spain and if you let them build up then they will toast you.
Once established though you ahve trade routes north and south(east), superb farmlands and good trade items, iron deposits and even silver and gold mines, especially once you roll over the ALmohads.
Always keep an eye on the Aroganese though - they are notorious for stabbing you in the back and they'll invade any juicy province you leave vaguely undefended (at least they do on expert)..they also seem to breed heirs and princesses like rabbits, its almost frightening...surpised their kings ever find time to fight.
IP: Logged
__________________________________________________________________
Nelson
Tai-Sa
Posts: 906
From:USA
Registered: Apr 1999
posted 08-22-2002 07:53 PM
Thanks for the tips guys.
My intent when I crossed the border into Cordoba was to hit hard and not stop. I attacked southward as soon as I had parity in numbers. The win was big and now the Almohads look weak in Granada so I'll push 'til they can stop me or until they are gone (assuming some other power doesn't drop by for a war in Spain!). I'd like to get a Crusade going against them but I need the right infrastructure first. A bishop or two might also be a good idea to convert the Moslems. I may try bribing Portugal just to see how bribing works. If successful I won't need to divert forces from the south to deal with them. I need a low risk solution to my heir problem (don't want a bad heir day!) so I may try letting the prince assault the castle in Cordoba before it falls in order to help correct his cowardly rep. His attributes are so good save for the pants pissing fear thing that I want to rehabilitate him if I can. I am also gambling that Aragon will stay friendly long enough for me to snuff the Almohs. If they don't I'll see what siege defense and relief is like! The grand plan has the Almohads going down followed by the acquisition of a trade empire. After that I need to see how things look. I can foresee any number of ways the wheels can come off my cart as I reach for Spanish glorious achievements.
You can spend a hell of a lot of time deciding what to do on the map. The options each turn can be staggering even with a small kingdom. You absolutely need a long range plan.
------------------
COGITOERGOVINCO
IP: Logged
__________________________________________________________________
Kraellin
Shukan
Posts: 2161
From:
Registered: Nov 2000
posted 08-22-2002 09:00 PM
ok, the almohads are now extinct and i own all of north africa, save egypt. portugal fell without any counter-rebellion. arogon is staying civil with me and i've finished my first goal...the land grab.
i'm going to have to crack open the manual now and see about this trade stuff and diplomacy, now that i'm a faction to be reckoned with. i'm getting emissaries flooding my lands looking for alliances and marraiges and i'm warmly and cordially accepting all of them....so far http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif no spinsters this time. lol.
i finally figured out how to get the mercenaries i kept clicking on. you have to also click on the 'hand' at the bottom to seal the deal and then they show up.
i also captured the little rebel province to the north and have my northern border well protected. i've begun building ports and have been increasing my income production upgrades right along. i'm currently, by report, the wealthiest faction in the world, but lagging behind in tech tree and military. seems the germans are fairly militaristic and they hold that honor. the byzantines hold the highest tech level honor.
but, by now having a nice potential land base to work from, i can begin to upgrade and improve tech and military. but the next goal is to establish the seas and trade routes and domination there and for that i'm going to have to do a little reading.
gil, one thing about the multiplayer foyer. i'm an old fart and that text in there is a bit smallish and a bit garbled with one or two characters for these old eyes. raising it about 2 font points would be nice. or maybe include an option where the player could pick his font style and size? that would be the best. we also dont really need all that side dressing. could the chat area be expanded in width? i'd much rather have a full screen chat area than all the side dressing stuff. i know it looks nice and all, but function over aesthetics, always.
well, now that the north american premier night is over and the reviews are pouring in, what's it looking like from your end at CA guys? gonna be able to pay the bills? http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
K.
------------------
The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
__________________________________________________________________
Shukan
Posts: 2161
From:
Registered: Nov 2000
posted 08-22-2002 05:03 AM
as i stated in that post a while back about what faction you were going to play first, i did indeed pick spain. i found it interesting that the various factions one can choose have modifiers to the difficulty rating you pick. if you pick easy and pick spain, you actually play at a higher difficulty rating because it's spain. byzantine seems the easiest, from i saw, english are moderate and dont really remember the rest of them.
as spain, i made a fatal error to start my campaign and had to restort it about 8 or 10 moves later. this time i drove out the almohad in about 2 years and was even into morocco sieging the castle there. all that was left untaken of spain were the rebel provinces. my fatal error in the first game was trying to take the rebel province of portugal too early. beware of this, not all rebel provinces react the same way when first taken. portugal has a FIERCE loyalty to portugal, where valencia drops like a fly and stays that way. upon taking portugal i had a MASSIVE uprising the following turn that was about 800 men strong in the rebel army. sheesh! wasnt counting on that at all.
i'm currently playing a very simplistic campaign game. it's on easy and i'm playing almost entirely militaristically. build, invade, siege, raise loyalty, build. i took the southern province of spain and on the next tun i was offered something to do with mercenaries. not quite sure what's going on there yet, but i didnt seem to get them. i'll have to start reading the manual, it would seem http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif
all in all, the front end shld be fairly familiar to all shogun lovers. sure, there's new stuff, but the play is very familiar.
and in the first game, like i said, i'm playing it militaristically, i had a couple daughter princesses but was pretty much ignoring doing anything with them, when all of a sudden i get this message that one of them has become a 'spinster' and 'is now retiring to less arduous tasks'...lol. that had to be target's doing http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif
cham, and magy, i'm playing everything so far in auto-resolve for the sake of speed in finding out other things, so i've only got that one logfile so far. shld i remember, or read this again tomorrow, i'll send it off to you.
and to the guys at CA, this must seem something like a hollywood premier night. all the 'stars' come out of hiding to see the new show and then talk and write reviews and so on. so far, i'd say it's a hit http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
K.
------------------
The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
IP: Logged
__________________________________________________________________
DarknScaly
Samurai Hero
Posts: 121
From:
Registered: Jul 2002
posted 08-22-2002 11:51 AM
hehe
Yeah Portugal is a serious hotbed of rebellion for its own ends... often end up ahving to throw in extra spies and extra troops just to keep the darn place quiet and peaceful.
There's some others like that also... ;-)
IP: Logged
__________________________________________________________________
Nelson
Tai-Sa
Posts: 906
From:USA
Registered: Apr 1999
posted 08-22-2002 03:15 PM
Wouldn't you know, 12 kingdoms to pick and I took Spain too. I'm playing on normal difficulty.
The first thing I noticed was that King Alphonso VI is a hell of a guy . Influential, smart, pious, commanding, and even a bit dreadful with a knack for defending in the field. Then I had to sort out the dukes and duchies and appoint a chancellor. This took a while because I had to examine each general. I gave Castile to the wrong man and had to officially take it back. So let this be a warning to all, bestowing titles (and princesses) is immediate, not when you hit the end turn button. You need to be very careful. The one usable daughter I have I packed off to Aragon to marry the king and hopefully secure my north east flank while I begin the Reconquista down south.
With 8000 in the treasury I then had to decide what to build. This is when the tech tree comes in handy. I hope it's correct. Since on region can build Knights of Santiago with +1 valor I began the construction path that will let me raise them. I won’t see them any time soon. Until then, I will raise (very useful) jinetes there. In Castile I built watch towers to see what the Almohads and the Valencians were up to.
After several turns I have taken Valencia from the rebel El Cid (maybe I should have bribed him) and captured Cordoba from the Moslems. The later was a pitched battle over two river crossings having 900 men on each side with the command edge going to Alphonso. Many fights in Owari prepared me for this and I suffered just 64 casualties and captured almost 500 prisoners worth 1400 florins. During this fight the jinites units were invaluable. Their javelin volleys tore the Almohad urban militia to pieces and their pursuit lead to all the captives. If the Almohads had had more cav this would have been tougher but as it was my cav could maneuver at will. When the javelins were gone they could charge home to good effect. In this battle the jinetes routed the enemy all by themselves as the infantry watched.
Something had to go wrong and sure enough after leaving my coward of a son (-9 morale!)in Valencia the rebellious locals revolted which will mean a bit of punitive work next turn by a better man than he.
I have spent no money thus far on ports or trade but intend to once Iberia proper is altogether Spanish. I’d like to arrange a Crusade against the Almohads before long.
The game has been a blast so far. The strategy map demands a lot of thought. I’m glad for that.
------------------
COGITOERGOVINCO
IP: Logged
__________________________________________________________________
Kraellin
Shukan
Posts: 2161
From:
Registered: Nov 2000
posted 08-22-2002 06:06 PM
nelson,
the key for me in spain was send EVERYTHING you have towards the almohads on the FIRST turn and just keep on going south. drive them completely out of spain and even take morocco or further. do NOT let them start building and then attack them later on. their reserves down south are too weak and too far away to put up any decent resistance and they'll just start not even fighting, but retreating back to the next province. just keep em moving back while building up spain. you can then handle the rebel provinces much easier. keep one good army in the south to keep the almohads from attacking and you can then start concentrating on other directions. so far, that's been my best strategy for spain.
when and if you go after portugal, do so with a huge force, spies and emissaries so that you can camp out there and build up the loyalty quickly. it's one nasty province.
spain is apparently one of the hardest provinces to start in, but it's a key faction when it comes to trade routes, particularly by sea.
------------------
The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
IP: Logged
__________________________________________________________________
DarknScaly
Samurai Hero
Posts: 121
From:
Registered: Jul 2002
posted 08-22-2002 06:17 PM
Spanish farm lands are bloomin' marvelous also (you can go over 1000 florins per province and more with a good governor) - and the 3 provinces with iron deposits is a BIG advantage later on with weapons upgrades.
Kraellin's tactics v the Almohads is the only way I have found to survive as the Spanish - the ALmos ALWAYS eventually come after Spain and if you let them build up then they will toast you.
Once established though you ahve trade routes north and south(east), superb farmlands and good trade items, iron deposits and even silver and gold mines, especially once you roll over the ALmohads.
Always keep an eye on the Aroganese though - they are notorious for stabbing you in the back and they'll invade any juicy province you leave vaguely undefended (at least they do on expert)..they also seem to breed heirs and princesses like rabbits, its almost frightening...surpised their kings ever find time to fight.
IP: Logged
__________________________________________________________________
Nelson
Tai-Sa
Posts: 906
From:USA
Registered: Apr 1999
posted 08-22-2002 07:53 PM
Thanks for the tips guys.
My intent when I crossed the border into Cordoba was to hit hard and not stop. I attacked southward as soon as I had parity in numbers. The win was big and now the Almohads look weak in Granada so I'll push 'til they can stop me or until they are gone (assuming some other power doesn't drop by for a war in Spain!). I'd like to get a Crusade going against them but I need the right infrastructure first. A bishop or two might also be a good idea to convert the Moslems. I may try bribing Portugal just to see how bribing works. If successful I won't need to divert forces from the south to deal with them. I need a low risk solution to my heir problem (don't want a bad heir day!) so I may try letting the prince assault the castle in Cordoba before it falls in order to help correct his cowardly rep. His attributes are so good save for the pants pissing fear thing that I want to rehabilitate him if I can. I am also gambling that Aragon will stay friendly long enough for me to snuff the Almohs. If they don't I'll see what siege defense and relief is like! The grand plan has the Almohads going down followed by the acquisition of a trade empire. After that I need to see how things look. I can foresee any number of ways the wheels can come off my cart as I reach for Spanish glorious achievements.
You can spend a hell of a lot of time deciding what to do on the map. The options each turn can be staggering even with a small kingdom. You absolutely need a long range plan.
------------------
COGITOERGOVINCO
IP: Logged
__________________________________________________________________
Kraellin
Shukan
Posts: 2161
From:
Registered: Nov 2000
posted 08-22-2002 09:00 PM
ok, the almohads are now extinct and i own all of north africa, save egypt. portugal fell without any counter-rebellion. arogon is staying civil with me and i've finished my first goal...the land grab.
i'm going to have to crack open the manual now and see about this trade stuff and diplomacy, now that i'm a faction to be reckoned with. i'm getting emissaries flooding my lands looking for alliances and marraiges and i'm warmly and cordially accepting all of them....so far http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif no spinsters this time. lol.
i finally figured out how to get the mercenaries i kept clicking on. you have to also click on the 'hand' at the bottom to seal the deal and then they show up.
i also captured the little rebel province to the north and have my northern border well protected. i've begun building ports and have been increasing my income production upgrades right along. i'm currently, by report, the wealthiest faction in the world, but lagging behind in tech tree and military. seems the germans are fairly militaristic and they hold that honor. the byzantines hold the highest tech level honor.
but, by now having a nice potential land base to work from, i can begin to upgrade and improve tech and military. but the next goal is to establish the seas and trade routes and domination there and for that i'm going to have to do a little reading.
gil, one thing about the multiplayer foyer. i'm an old fart and that text in there is a bit smallish and a bit garbled with one or two characters for these old eyes. raising it about 2 font points would be nice. or maybe include an option where the player could pick his font style and size? that would be the best. we also dont really need all that side dressing. could the chat area be expanded in width? i'd much rather have a full screen chat area than all the side dressing stuff. i know it looks nice and all, but function over aesthetics, always.
well, now that the north american premier night is over and the reviews are pouring in, what's it looking like from your end at CA guys? gonna be able to pay the bills? http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
K.
------------------
The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
__________________________________________________________________