The Polish

[magnatz]

After playing a lot with the Italian and the Byzantines I have have just started a game as the Polish, and it is great fun... for one thing they have a good variety of units, also the kings have generally pretty good stats and they seem to get along with most of the factions - for example marrying princesses is not that complicated, most of the times I just go there and ask.
The generals' stats are decent too, but they seem to collect exotic vices that I never noticed before...

The geographic position leaves a lot of opportunities for noncommittal wars (which is a welcome change after the risk-all diplomacy of the Italians). Also it is possible to have ports both in the Baltic and the Black Sea, so commerce is good.

Good places for expansion are Pomerania, Moldavia, Kiev, and Volinia, then Crimea, Lithuania and Prussia. Better let someone else have fun with the Russian provinces, so they can sort it out with the Mongol later http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif Also it is easy to grab one or two rebel islands in the Mediterranean and turn them in naval bases.

As for building, I am concentrating most on agriculture, commerce and fortifications and I have fallen a little back in the cultural stuff, but now I should catch up if nothing bad happens. I managed to build some Avar Knights in Moldavia, then they disappeared for some reason http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif , and I am training a lot of Polish Nobles in Poland, hopefully next time that the HRE goes into anarchy I'll be ready to invade.

The main thing to watch for are the Mongols, which will hit you with everything they have immedially after they emerge. Luckily this time the Khan got his dumb self killed while besieging a rebel barn in Ryazan with a army of 2000 (haha, idiot http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif) and the Horde disintegrated, however my containment tactic was working pretty well (*) so I would have ground them down anyway.

The game in general is turning out a bit weird, with the Mongols destroyed after three turns and the Sicilians on a total rampage in Africa and the Balkans... well at least it should be interesting http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Anybody else played the Polish yet ?



*) I am not posting spoilers, but it involves a waterway and a dozen of heavy siege machined http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif )

[Jacque Schtrapp]

The polish are indeed quite a bit of fun. Their starting position is threatened nearly on all sides. You could find yourself in a war with the Hungarians, HRE, Byzants, and Russia/Novgorod within ten to twenty turns of the beginning of the game. The Horde is the biggest threat to the Poles and I always spend a great deal of time preparing for them. I found it amusing that the Khan managed to get himself killed assaulting a "barn." http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif You should try the Poles using the MedMod which has loads of new units including some unique ones for the Poles. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[MizuKokami]

you weren't around when i said it was fun http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[Brutal DLX]

Yeah, they are fun, and not too tough as they aren't pressured from the East and can expand there. I also got into a war with Hungary and ended up with a Polish-Hungarian empire which proved to be able to defend its borders against anyone. Usually you can keep peace and pick your enemies. The Horde is probably always going to attack Kiev though.

[King John II]

I played them in my most recently completed campaign, high/expert. I got lucky with the horde going south - they did that in my current game too HRE/high/expert/GA. I wonder if they always do if the human player leaves some buffer states in the steppes?

If the horde did come west I suspect it would be tough to survive.

[magnatz]

It depends on whether the Khan remembered to take his intelligence pills... I have been able to stop the Horde when they kept headbutting on the Kiev river crossing turn after turn. However one time they acted smart for a change, assembled four huge invasion forces and overwhelmed four key provinces of mine at the same time (ouch).

On a side note, my game is going on pretty well, even if the giant leftover ex-mongol armies are tough to crack and still keep mounting invasions from Khazar and Bulgarian Volga. Maybe I should try to bribe them as soon I have money enough... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Also the king had two twin heirs. I wonder how they will sort out the succession http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

[magnatz]

Quote[/b] (Jacque Schtrapp @ Nov. 10 2003,14:48)]You should try the Poles using the MedMod which has loads of new units including some unique ones for the Poles. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
I know I should, but I need to switch the language of my game to English first (for a number of reasons, one of which is that the Italian localization sucks big time). Maybe if CA made the files in the Loc/Eng folder available for download ... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[NewJeffCT]

I had a lot of fun as the Polish as well. I took my first prince and used him to lead the conquest of Pomerania and that one other territory next to it (Prussia?) and started moving north. I used one of those to get a port, keep & shipwright and started cranking out ships very quickly, which allowed me to reach Sweden & Norway and conquer the vikings with those bribed horse archers. A few units of horse archers can run circles around vikings...from there, Livonia & Lithuania came next, and then I moved Southeast and soon I had ships all over the map and a huge surplus.

From there, I conquered the Novgorads and waited for the inevitable HRE civil war to move West...

[Eastside Character]

You shouldn't wait for a civil war in Germany. Instead, try to take Franconia in the first 5 years, and at the same time make sure HRE won't have ho allies. This way it's a lot more fun. Once I managed to finish the HRE in 20 years only, but got excommed - so what. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[Leet Eriksson]

Poles are pretty fun,keep them retainers pumped,and put some crossbows and arbs in the fray and you'll conquer the map in no time.

[o_loompah_the_delayer]

Quote[/b] (magnatz @ Nov. 10 2003,14:24)]the kings have generally pretty good stats
Poland is fun, but I have yet to have a Prince who is sober

[Eastside Character]

Quote[/b] ]Poland is fun, but I have yet to have a Prince who is sober
They get very often vice (virtue http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/shock.gif ) drinker or sth like that, but this is due to the fact of bad understanding of polish realia in the medieval times (but even nowadays I think http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wacko.gif ) that poles drink more, and also need more to get drunk. As a conclusion those drunk princes wouldn't be labeled drinkers in Poland http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif and I think in Russia or Novgorod too http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif . . .

[juststeve]

The Poles are my favorite faction to play as. As noted here in the thread, the geographic location leaves a lot of excomunication-free expansion to the North, South, and East. And they have my favorite light cav unit, the Retainers. I think CA didn't make them available in Early because they are just too good http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

The heirs will be often be drunk pervs unless you keep the King very busy campaigning - although marrying into Byz, Spanish and Aragonese bloodlines will help a lot.

I read somehwere that one player liked to ignore alliances with the HRE, and preferred to ally with the French - and crush the HRE in between, like a bizarro world version of WW2. I gave that a try, and it works great. I can usually grab 4 provinces off the HRE before I catch a warning/excomm from the Pope, and the French usually wind up getting excom'd for warring with the English, or the Iberian Catholics - so after they get excomm'd I can attack them worry free.

[WesW]

Quote[/b] (magnatz @ Nov. 11 2003,06:12)]
Quote[/b] (Jacque Schtrapp @ Nov. 10 2003,14:48)]You should try the Poles using the MedMod which has loads of new units including some unique ones for the Poles. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
I know I should, but I need to switch the language of my game to English first (for a number of reasons, one of which is that the Italian localization sucks big time). Maybe if CA made the files in the Loc/Eng folder available for download ... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Well, the latest version of the Medmod contains the entire English localization folder, in the Graphics portion. The Texts portion contains the English files that are altered by the mod.

[Kurando]

Quote[/b] ]...Poland is fun, but I have yet to have a Prince who is sober

Czesc ...In that case just call me a prince among men http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Vigi]

Poland is indeed fun and they are actually my favorite faction.(mostly because, being a quarter Polish myself, I felt like seeing what I could do with my kinsmen :>) They only get one exclusive unit, the retainers, but retainers are actually quite a solid unit. They aren't chivalric knights but they are considerably cheaper and they can run down most any common infantry. The real reason Poland is potentially very powerful is because if you expand to the east(as you pretty much must) then you have access to a load of very good calvary. Avar Nobles can kick some serious ass http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif. Then you've got steppe heavy calv, a versatile and strong force. Step calv, great for protecting flanks and running down routers and then theres nice little quirks like slav warriors and woodsmen(who make up a large part of my early armies)that are excellent low cost infantry. Couple that with the fact that you still have access to all the other catholic troops, for the most part(feudal men at arms, seargents, etc) and you have a seriously powerful potential army and empire on your hands And though they should be available in high not early imo, mounted xbowmen are a powerful force that can really kick a lot of ass when used right.

A lot of people look at Poland and think, well they suck. They have only 2 provinces to start with which aren't super rich and they only have a handful of decent units to draw from. Those people seem to forget all the calvary and other troops Poland can have access to, if they expand to the east. There are others of course who might stop and say then, that any civilization can have those troops if they conquer those provinces. That would be true, but Poland has one of the easiest claims to these areas, aside from the Byzantines, Turks, Russians and maybe the Hungarians. The Russians never tend to expand much, for whatever reason, and when they do they tend to get rebellions in the provinces they take. They are a fairly weak foe and easily defeatable. The Turks and Byzantines are generally busy fighting each other and the Hungarians aren't very expansionalistic, so these provinces tend to be pretty much yours =).

So anyways I recommend those of you who have overlooked Poland to take another look, because they can be a very fun faction to play =). And as a final note, it's always a blast to fight the horde and Poland generally has to.

[barocca]

Quote[/b] (magnatz @ Nov. 11 2003,07:12)]
Quote[/b] (Jacque Schtrapp @ Nov. 10 2003,14:48)]You should try the Poles using the MedMod which has loads of new units including some unique ones for the Poles. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
I know I should, but I need to switch the language of my game to English first (for a number of reasons, one of which is that the Italian localization sucks big time). Maybe if CA made the files in the Loc/Eng folder available for download ... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Mtw_Uploads/MTWupload

Loc_Eng_Viking.zip and Loc_Eng_Medieval_NO-VI.zip

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif