What unusual ways have you played the game?

[DocMoriartty]

Right now I am running an early Aragonese game and it is quite interesting. The year is 1187 so it is still very early.

My strategy was to play nice for lack of a better term and not be the conquer the world aggressive type. Instead I decided to be mothodical and punish those that attacked me. By 1150 the spanish and Ahlomands were no longer in Iberia. They had beaten each other down quite hard and just as the Ahlomands were crushing the Spanish I stepped in and finished both of them off. It helped that the Egyptians attacked the Ahlomands from behind and rolled them completely out of Africa.

After that I stayed on the defensive improving Iberia. My only outside forays were a single crusade to Greece that also captured Serbia at the request of the Pope and the invasion and capture of Tunisia as punishment for an Egyptian transgression I forget. (I think he sank one of my ships).

Since then I have focused on my own provinces. Aragon, Castile, Grenada, and Leon all possess fortresses. Cardoba and Valencia shall both have them by 1200. In addition I have +3 armor and weapons wherever they can be built and by 1200 everywhere should have +4 armor and weapons. My army may not be as large as the endless hordes of frenchmen to my north but the French are lucky if half their troops have any armor at all. They shall dread the day our troops clash. I am also the richest Empire and in 1186 became the most technically advanced.

The world has arranged itself interestingly. The English only hold Ireland as the French have pushed them out of Europe and England itself. France controls all of the Western Europe and is at war with the HRE who are the masters of Central Europe. The Danes control Scandinavia and are not pushing south into the HRE. Poland hold 4 or 5 territories around its starting point, they along with the Russians have been at war with the Turks for the last 100 years.

The Russians are the most amazing. They dominate Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and most of the Middle East except where French Crusader colonies exist.

The Egyptians and Turks are both on the ropes and will probably be gone by 1200. Since the Ahlomands are already gone it will be interesting seeing no Muslim factions at all left so early in the game unless there is a resurgance.

What shall I do now? The Spanish just resurged in Morocco so that means only the Italians and Ahlomands are completely gone. I think I shall send agents to buy all the rebel armies that overthrew French rule in Scotland and Wales. It is good to have a treasury over 300,000 florins.

So how is your unusual game going? Focusing on building as many fortresses as possible as quickly as possible has given me a core empire that is quite advanced.

[Sam Adams]

I sometimes play the same way, especially with the spanish.

By 1250 you can have fortresses, master metalsmiths and armorers, and apporpiate unit buildings in those 4 iron provinces in spain.

That leaves you about 200 years to play with fully ugpraded SAPs.

Its almost too easy though. My favorite army is 8 SAPs, 4 lancers, and 4 pavise arbalasters. There is nothing that can beat that.

[DocMoriartty]

It is oh so fun though when you can send your 900 troop army into a province and know that it really doesnt matter how many troops are there waiting.

[Lehesu]

How about a fun game of Pope's Lackey? Whomever the Pope tells you to attack (ie. calls for crusades, excommunications, etc.) you immediatly attack without reservation. Just as any zealous Catholic faction warmongering king would

[DocMoriartty]

Now that would be good. What faction would you play this as?

[Teutonic Knight]

Quote[/b] (DocMoriartty @ July 16 2003,15:49)]Now that would be good. What faction would you play this as?
prolly France....

[Knight Keimo]

I´ve once tried to play as agressive style.. Very unusual. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

That Pope thing sounds good, got to trie it

[Crash]

I got bored with the conquest/domination theme too because I was always dominating the whole map even before the Golden Horde arrived, so now I'm playing a different style too. I'm playing the Danes and trying to be nice to all the other kings. So far I've fought only rebels, relieved allies who were under siege by rebels at least three times so far, try to marry off all of my princesses before they are too old and tried to marry every princess I find.

It's now the year 1232, and the Danes have the largest armies, have the most income, the Danish King has the highest influence, and have never been to war against another faction. The empire consists of only 10 provinces. I kinda think that this is the way the game was meant to be played against AI factions, because the AI never seems to be pursuing world conquest or is just not smart enough to achieve it.

With the human faction being less aggressive militarily, the game gets to develop in a more normal manner by letting the AI factions interact with each other rather than always reacting against an all powerful human faction. A competent human player always seems to have too much of an advantage in the strategic game over the games AI.

Perhaps the strategic game needs more penalties for making war just to keep the human faction from running over the AI factions too easily. There shoud be bigger morale, political, and economic consequences for losing a war or attacking an ally. Alliances should be harder to make and harder to keep and harder to break, and have more tangible benefits and restrictions. Then the strategic game might be more of challenge and start to resemble real historical dynamics.

edit: typos

[Rocket_Boy]

weirdest game that I ever played was as the English. I pulled my troops out of all territories in France and assigned the titles to crap governors to get them to rebel. I then took over wales, scotland and Ireland, built up my economy and waited. I also used the .matteosartori. cheat to see what everyone else is up to. So far 275 years later and I've not had to battle another faction. I'm allied to almost everyone, the pope occasionally donates me florins and every time one of my heirs comes of age he gets marriage requests within a couple of turns. I'm the best developed nation and have 200 loyalty in all provinces. Medieval total peace

[Crash]

Rocket, that's very interesting because I was thinking about playing the same kind of game too. The Egyptians finally attacked me in 1242. I think because of a ship I had off the coast of Egypt, plus we shared a common border after he conquered Moldavia (with Volvohnia).

Have you built a lot of trade routes to other factions? I have noticed that the Doge always seems to attack your ships if any of them are stationed off his coast, even though it will start a suicidal naval war for him.

[ShogunRokkaku]

I'm thinking of doing a raid and pillage with the danes, i.e, is it possible to hold every single coastal province and, if you can do that, can you do it without holding a land-locked province ever(not once&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif(there are suprisingly few, but still many key ones) Can I also do it without invading from another province once, i.e only naval invasions.
It may be impossible, but I'll try.

[Rocket_Boy]

Left it pretty quiet on the trade front with ships only stretching from Scandanavia to west Spain. Having a large sea presence does seem to trigger suicidal attacks by factions who really ought to know better. Also my farms are fully upgraded which keeps me in plenty of florins so trade isn't such a necessity.
The English are a good faction to play the isolationist game with as apart from the flanders to wessex crossing, they can only be invaded by sea once you pull out mainland Europe.

[Aragorn]

The wierdest game i played would have to be going the french and trying not to get attacked it was so hard. I never attacked them had huge amounts of men in all my regions even had an alliance with most factions. Yet the english or germans would always attack me and break the alliance. Hey you should try it tell me if you can finish the game without getting attacked.

[Crash]

I've been playing on Hard lately, and I've noticed that the suicidal attack tendencies of the AI increases, which makes the game even more unrealistic. When I played the Italians, the Pople kept attacking me even when I was trying to be nice to him, and was mounting crusades. That doesn't make any sense at all, so I think I'll go back to playing normal in the campaign game. I would even play Easy for the campaign game if that meant that the AI strategic game is more rational. I can always go to custom battles for a challenge.

I've also noticed that when playing on Hard, AI factions start falling apart due to civil wars and rebellions towards the end of the game, which makes it all the more easier for the human player.

[rasoforos]

most unusual way? well...simple...play while being totally drunk...dont play after a pint or two...play only just after everytime you start seeing double. I played some battles this way and it was fun.

[Teutonic Knight]

Quote[/b] (rasoforos @ Aug. 11 2003,11:20)]most unusual way? well...simple...play while being totally drunk...dont play after a pint or two...play only just after everytime you start seeing double. I played some battles this way and it was fun.
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Rocket_Boy]

Quote[/b] ]most unusual way? well...simple...play while being totally drunk...dont play after a pint or two...play only just after everytime you start seeing double. I played some battles this way and it was fun.

It actually dosent seem to be as much of a handicap playing MTW pissed compared to most games. My playing style becomes somewhat 'bolder' for sure but apart from that was pretty ok....Then woke up the next day and found that I'd married all my princesses to thier brothers.
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/dizzy.gif

[DrHaphazard]

Quote[/b] ]....Then woke up the next day and found that I'd married all my princesses to thier brothers.

I wonder what Freud would have to say about that one http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

As i recall someone who was tired of kicking ass all the time swore to play by the following rules aka Iron Man:

1) The only unit you can build is peasants.
2) You can hire mercenaries.
3) Only can have boats in 1/3 of the ocean.

aww crap i cant remember the rest of the rules. Can anyone remember what they were or link us to the topic that was talking about that? Well i searched and couldnt find it. In any case you can add the pope rule...

4) Must always crusade when requested to do so by the Pope, and attempt to achieve Crusading objective (if playin GA)

In any case here's another thread alogn these same lines...
what do you do to prolong a game (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=15;t=8839;hl=peasant+or+peasants)

[DemonArchangel]

My one and only rule. Mod, Thy, Game.

[jas]

Quote[/b] (DrHaphazard @ Aug. 14 2003,19:09)]In any case you can add the pope rule...

4) Must always crusade when requested to do so by the Pope, and attempt to achieve Crusading objective (if playin GA)
My personal Iron Man of God rules include:

1. Do everything the Pope says, including send crusades.
2. Attempt to get 100% zeal in all provinces.
3. Appoint governors/generals by piety over ability.
4. Never attack a Christian nation.
5. Never ally with a non-Christian nation.

Not so hard as the English but pretty difficult as the Spanish or Hungarians, seeing as you're a highway for everyone else's crusades.