Influence

[terryblack825]

Have any of you been able to keep your influence without fighting because I cant. It seems that if I havent taken any new provinces when my king dies and his hier takes the throne his influence is usally worse than the former king.

[Monk]

Quote[/b] (terryblack825 @ Aug. 07 2003,22:16)]Have any of you been able to keep your influence without fighting because I cant. It seems that if I havent taken any new provinces when my king dies and his hier takes the throne his influence is usally worse than the former king.
I think Influence is how other factions act toward you, therefore low Influence may cause one of your ambitious neighbors to invade, and high influence may cause them to be a bit fearful and garrison large armies on the borders and ask for an alliance over and over again.

Influence is gained or lost by military action (well that's the way its been in my games) so it is best to maintain a strong army and expand into rebel provinces when you can, wining wars and successful crusades will also win your King new Influence.

It should be noted that in a Civil war, if you manage to get your king's influence high enough all those who rebelled will rejoin your empire.

anyway hope that helped you

[The_Emperor]

Crusades and Jihads can be very useful at gaining influence (and at losing it if they fail).

If your playing a Muslim faction you can launch a Jihad against anyone, even co-religious factions. So if you have a troublespot like Portugal under your thumb simply hike up the taxes and remove the garrissons... When rebellion happens and they capture the province, declare Jihad and re-take the province (if they are over 50% Muslim chances are they will hand it back to you peacefully, but you will still get the Piety and Influence bonuses)

Rinse and repeat as often as is needed.

Crusading factions can only go against non-catholic provinces and that makes it a lot harder, still it can be fun to start a crusade and drop it directly in via the navy... chances are they will capture it, then you can slash and burn all the buildings and withdraw. (Make sure you have siege engines in your Crusade, you must take the castle)

Thats how I like to do it.

[terryblack825]

Thanks for your responses guys but they only confirmed my fears that you have to fight to keep your influence up from one king to the next.

[RollingWave]

Though I would try not to give up provinces like portugal espically later on due to their lucrative trade.... but scotland is a good choice http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif