dealing with micro management

[Major^3]

hello
i find that later in the game when u have more then, say, 5-7 provinces, it is really hard to manage everything (unless you are really patient)
so i was wondering how everyone here manages their armies and agents and if there are any specific tips or styles.

usually i just build units of a set kind (try to have 1/3 spear 1/3 sword 1/6 archer 1/6 cav) for armies and then i use half stacks for garrison. i hardly ever use agent and usually only have a few floating around at the time.
do you assign specific provinces for the creation of certain troops? or...

just curious http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Bevan of Hertfordshire]

I do it in a very fuedal sense. Each province has a governer and i usually build him an army of 2 of the best infantry and 2 of the best archers and 1 cavalry unit.
I have my royal army that i build up all the time but managing provinces you have to be patient or turn on auto thingy. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/dizzy.gif

[Hetman_Koronny]

*bows*

I usually pay as much attention to micromanagement as possible. Here's my 2 cents on the agents:

Spies
An ubber unit in M:TW 1.0. You could stir up a rebellion in any province (no matter how many troops it had) simply by sending 8 or more spies to it. Kind of fun sometimes but basically it's cheating (IMO).
Spies are really useful both 'defensively' and 'offensively'. They rise loyalty in a province they are in thus preventing any rebellions and reappearing fractions. They catch enemy agents what is always appreciated. You can send your spies abroad where they can do a really good job by e.g. providing you with info on planned attacks. It is always very rewarding if your spy discloses a general's vice thus causing a public scandal http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif That doesn’t happen too often but is always nice. To reveal a vice of a general (not yours) drop a spy on him. On the contrary, however, spies are easily caught unless 4+ stars.

Assassins
A very useful unit especially on your own territory, for they also seem to be able of catching passing enemy agents (you needn’t do anything but just sit your assassin in your province). Assassins are very useful when you have enemy inquisitors raging through your territories and burning your best generals. There is no other way (to my best knowledge) to stop inquisitors rather than with assassins.
Assassins rule when it comes to eliminating the pope. After some time you will inevitably face a situation when every country hates you and wages a war against you. Doesn’t really matter that you are 100 times stronger than your little pathetic neighbors, they will attack you anyways. But it is you who will get excommunicated http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/angry.gif. Excomms are always a pain in a** so you may want to send a few assassins on a diplomatic trip to Rome… http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif Popes are usually 0 or 1 starts what makes them an easy kill…
If you have 5+ stars assassins you may consider sending them to kill enemy generals. It is very difficult to accomplish but very, very rewarding. Assassins, just like spies, get caught and executed easily.

(Grand) Inquisitors
I use them very often mainly to burn enemy generals. Inquisitors seem much more successful in eliminating them than assassins. What is more, if they fail you can try again next year as nothing really happens (your assassin never gets a second chance). Generally, inquisitors are more successful when ‘working’ in a high zeal province and when the enemy general is of low piety. Lastly, inquisitors rise zeal in your provinces but you need to be careful with that. After residing in one province for too many years (don’t know how many) they burn people and the zeal drops by 40% or so. I don’t know if shifting inquisitors from one province to another and exchanging them with new ones can prevent that. Perhaps someone could comment?

Princesses
I don’t use them other than in early game. Later no one wants them anymore (since everyone hates you) and it is rather frustrating when a dumb, inbred and fat prince/king says ‘No’ to your cute girl… I sometimes marry off my princesses to my best generals, as a reward http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/flirt.gif

Cardinals
Don’t know much on them. I think they can rise loyalty without the side effect Inquisitors cause (burning a few hundreds people). Someone also mentioned that Cardinals do better in ‘negotiation’ alliances than the emissaries. I don’t really know. Usually when I get so far in game to be able to train cardinals no one wants to ally with me no matter what I do.

Priests, Bishops, Alims
They spread faith but are not really successful at it. Besides, you don’t get anything for spreading faith. In theory, you could send a few priests to a Muslim province you intend to attack. They should increase the influence of catholic faith there theoretically lowering chances for rebellion there once you conquer the province. But is it worth the hassle?

Imans (sp?)
A must have agents when playing Muslim fraction. They are very effective in rising zeal in provinces (which, for Muslims, is usually very low). You will appreciate the fact once you launch your first Jihad. I also think Imans rise loyalty.

Emissaries
Useful for bribing armies and striping your thief generals from titles. In early game they help in signing alliances.

*bows*

[King John II]

Yes, I develop provinces to train one specific type of unit only.

So, imagine an English/early campaign in which you have expanded up to 20 or 30 provinces. If you got rolling early you may still be employing Scottish clansmen, Irish gallowglasses and Norwegian vikings as the core of your armies. Periodically you fill all the build queue in each of those provinces with those unit types and it requires no great feat of memory to go around to the three castles and to take out from each the unit trained that year.

Now the bigger your empire grows the more helpful good communications are. Which means planning from the start to establish a sizeable navy. You must intend, by the end, to have a ship in virtually every sea area. You must also build ports in all your coastal provinces.

As long as you have got a decent ship chain in place and ports built, when you pick up each unit of clansemen/vikings/gallowglass there will be plenty of provinces to which you can move them. Maybe you can lift them straight to your front line provinces but even when the current frontier is well inland you will be able to drop them only one or two provinces away from where the action is and the effort of remembering to move them on each turn until they can be integrated into your frontier stacks should not be too great.

It helps to have a set routine for the first few minutes of a turn. I find that it pays to give highest priority to naval matters. So I routinely look first at the provinces devoted to shipbuilding and, if a ship has just been produced, I do whatever is required by way of relocating all my ships. Meanwhile I use the v key to see if there are any areas where enemy ships have turned up and I make such attacks with my ships as I can.

Next I start to re-position new troops and move units which are in transit to the front. Then I make such invasions as I may be ready to make and then I cycle through all my provinces looking at my build instructions for improvements. By the time you have 20 or 30 provinces you will be building one improvement in each province each year save in any where you have decided that no further development is going to take place. I find it helpful in those provinces to build an addition to the castle. When I see such an addition that reminds me I have decided not to build anything more in that province. (Although I may well delay doing that because castle extensions are all quickly built and it is handy to be in a position to do a burst of quickly finished building as soon as a new heir takes the throne).

Next I click on the special unit icon and click in turn on each unit in the list which does not have instructions and give that unit an assignment. Those who already have work helpully appear at the head of the list and in red.

Lastly I cycle through all my provinces looking at the loyalty figue and adjusting tax rate and/or shuffling garrison units to ensure that they are all above 120% and that tax rate is maximised. This gets to be a bit of a chore but is essential. It tends to be most time consuming and finicky after an event like your king dying or an excom.

You are right that the whole process takes patience.

When all is done you click on the end of year button, tackle such battles as are to be fought and then see the outcome of your efforts. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

The most boring phase is the period when the computer is making its moves and lots of special units are shown moving around. I take a break at that point and make a cup of tea, pour a glass of wine, whatever. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[DojoRat]

Since I turn off the tidy up units toggle, I end up with a lot unit fragments. I'll combine like valors then and there but won't dilute high valors if I can help it. I usually pick a large, central province with a port and use it as a regrouping area. The size is important only for the ease of fitting the stacks in and manipulating them.

With Crusades,sieges attrition and battles I find it easier to send all fragments to one place rather than remember what units to send where. I'll make the best combos I can and ship them off and let the remainder sit until more frags come in. If a hit a slow spell ( I play mostly GA) I'll send units to be refitted at the best province for their type.

A note on emissaries: Don't forget to get your heirs some sugar http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/flirt.gif It really pays to have princes married early, not only for assure succession but they'll produce more heirs/ royal knights themselves. Seek out the weaker factions, they tend to want it more. It can take time but it's worth it.

[Dhepee]

I use the auto-tax feature only because I hate spending all that time setting tax rates for each province, other than that I do it all myself. I don't use tidy up units because when the units recombine a high valor unit that is only missing say 5% of its full force will combine with another lower valor unit, and I end up losing valor. A high valor unit with 5% losses is still a heavy hitter.
I have specific provinces do build specific units, based on unit bonuses and where it is on my campaign map. I like to my lower tech provinces build themselves up and produce some gold before I start using them for heavy unit production. I usually have 2 or 3 provinces producing garrison units.