Hello! and..Princesses in MTW?

[Esme]

Hello I only encountered this site today. I've played Shogun and MTW offline quite a lot, and am fairly good on the military side of things. Typically for me, it's taken me longer to get to grips with the economic side of things, but I'm getting along OK with that now, too. But one thing puzzles me - is there any point in doing anything with the various Princesses that appear in MTW? I've been pretty much ignoring them until now, and only dealing with marriage offers fromother sovereigns, but I'm wondering if it's possible to gain much from adroit marriage arrangements for those Princesses that I cant gain by conquest...

Esme

[o_loompah_the_delayer]

Use tem to spy out enemy territory early, but mainly to marry high value generals of uncertain loyalty such as royal uncles. Marriage with a princess adds +1 loyalty, esp useful when your king has just ascended to the throne and has few V&Vs and little influence.

Oh and since Gregoshi hasnt shown up yet, welcome to the org http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[Mysterium]

Indeed, welcome, Esme,

Princesses are good emissaries early in the game, and I remember reading somewhere that they've got a better chance of securing an alliance than a normal emissary would.

[Somebody Else]

I find princesses are useful to make sure the royal line doesn't die out (think Egyptian) - though, needless to say, I'm only happy to do this when I play as the French. Don't ask why.

By the way, welcome to the Guild, (and are you a Weatherwax?)

[Tepes]

Princesses are good for scouting the map (they are better at this than emissaries)and for marrying them with your generals, increasing their loyalty.
But I have a question: playing with a Muslim faction, how do you manage to get a princess marry your heir? I tried with all Muslim factions and I was never succesful at this.

[Jeff]

Yes I second the Hello http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif Welcome to the Org.

I use Pricesses to marry into other factions, I just inherited a bunch of provinces for the first time ever and I've been playing this game for over a year. Also I like to have my pricesses marry my better generals. It strengthens their loyalty and helps lessen the possibility of a revolt.

[Knight_Yellow]

i use them to marry good generals cause im a sucker for a 9 star command general whos got 2000 elite troops under his command.

cant have him rebeling


and the ugly ones get sent abroad to marry the heathens.

[Esme]

Hello, and thanks for the warm welcome

In no particuar order...

- yes, I was inded nicknamed after Ms Weatherwax. Must've been my sunny nature showing through at the time, eh? :-)

- thanks for the repsonses on Princesses. Hmnn, looks as if I've been struggling unecessarily in some regards, then. I did try doing things with Princesses early on, but seeing no apparent gain from the effort gave up and just concentrated on the military and economic side of things. I've yet to win a campaign game, though I've come pretty close, and the main problem I've indentified in my playing is difficulty in keeping certain provinces loyal in the long term, especially when they are well away from the fighting, and so there arent oodles of troops there.

I've only seen a civil war once, thus far, and it didnt cause much bother.

(chuckle...) I can see I've been playing this game about as unsubtly as a charge of Cataphracts, thus far, from what you folk are saying... - you can actually inherit provinces via marriages in the game? Hmnn.. didnt think it modelled that...

Hmmmnn... (puts down Sun Tzu, picks up Machiavelli...)

Esme

[PseRamesses]

Quote[/b] (Esme @ Feb. 18 2004,05:44)](chuckle...) I can see I've been playing this game about as unsubtly as a charge of Cataphracts, thus far, from what you folk are saying... - you can actually inherit provinces via marriages in the game? Hmnn.. didnt think it modelled that...

Hmmmnn... (puts down Sun Tzu, picks up Machiavelli...)
Welcome Esme,
About inheritance, I once inherited a fully developed 9 provinces and 6-7 stacks of soldiers when my Danish kin died without an heir. So be more agile in using your princesses because they are there for a reason. Good luck

[frogbeastegg]

Quote[/b] (Esme @ Feb. 18 2004,11:44)]- yes, I was inded nicknamed after Ms Weatherwax. Must've been my sunny nature showing through at the time, eh? :-)
Excellent taste One of my favorite characters ever to grace a page

I always use my princesses as spies touring Europe and paving the way for my armies. If one of my princesses appears in your border province you can bet money an army will be headed there as soon as she reports favorably. Somehow I just don't have the heart to force them to marry the bunch of medieval freaks they co-exist with.

It is rare to inherit land but it does happen so it is worth trying, but as I said it just seems so unfair to force a princess who has had acid thrown in her face (presumably where those red burn marks come from) to marry a beetle browed loon who paints his servants blue Hasn't she suffered enough? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Esme]

Right-oh, I'll be trying that next game I start -probably this evening.

As for consideration to Princesses, Sirrah, th'art a gentleman. Shame we can't get the Princesses to indulge in baking Dwarf bread and battle buns, eh? Assasination by sharpened petit pain, and no trace of the evidence... :-}

Esme

[Ironside]

Citera[/b] ]I always use my princesses as spies touring Europe and paving the way for my armies. If one of my princesses appears in your border province you can bet money an army will be headed there as soon as she reports favorably

I assume that you do it a little less obviously than the computer. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif Never understood why they are sending all princesses, emissaries and priests into the same province, it's not that they are gaining any more info.

[Somebody Else]

Quote[/b] (frogbeastegg @ Feb. 18 2004,17:28)]...it just seems so unfair to force a princess who has had acid thrown in her face (presumably where those red burn marks come from) to marry a beetle browed loon who paints his servants blue Hasn't she suffered enough? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif
I find that it works the other way for me - my stalwart generals have worked hard for me, why would they want such a bride - unless as an object of terror to be used on opposing armies, or to keep the troops in line.

Although, they - left to their own devices - do tend to end up going after other people's wives, or small boys...

[Ludens]

Quote[/b] (Esme @ Feb. 18 2004,17:24)]As for consideration to Princesses, Sirrah, th'art a gentleman.
Sirrah? Gentleman?
Poor Froggy. Her new avatar isn't working http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif .


Welcome to the Org, Esme. I hope you will enjoy your stay here, and share your wisdom with other players.
Actually, I have read several of the newer Pratchett's, but I didn't think mistress Weatherwax that interesting. Perhaps she is better in Pratchett's earlier work? So far, I prefer Otto Shriek.



Quote[/b] (Somebody Else @ Feb. 18 2004,00:49)]Use tem (princesses) to spy out enemy territory early, but mainly to marry high value generals of uncertain loyalty such as royal uncles.
This is of course the correct way, both in terms of history as in the game, to deal with loyalty problems, but marrying off princesses to generals with royal blood leads to the 'incest' vice, which gives -5 piety. So use with care http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif .

[Esme]

LOL Wups, mea culpa - apologies, M'lady Frogbeastegg, I didn't look closely at your avatar. Also,I'm used to being in a small minority in the online WW2 flight simming community. Indeed, I've been surprised at how many assume I'm male despite having a distinctly female nickname.

As it happens, Granny Weatherwax is one of my favourite characters for a number of reasons, not least Terry successfully demonstrating that just because someone is good it doesn't necessarily imply that they are nice - or perfect, come to that. If you havent read the earlier Discworldnovels, you're missing out, IMO. Whilst each book can be read by itself, it IS interesting to see some of the characters develop from book to book, Magrat, for example. But I also like Sam Vines. What a copper, eh? Few more like him, and the world'd be a better place... :-)

But i didn't pick my nicname myself. Another Discworld fan, knowing that I'm tall and (I was at the time) thin, commented to me privately after seeing a debate on Fidonet in which some chap was sorely trying my temper asked if he could call me Esme. Knowing him to be nearly 7ft tall and built like a brick outhouse, I said, yes, if I could call him Detritus. The nickname stuck, and when I eventually joined the Internet, naturally used it here. All of which is miles away from TW games.

Cohen the Barbarian - another of my favourite Discworld characters. What a warrior Now, if you could just pass me the ibuprofen gel for my aching joints, I've Tripoli to wrest from the Saracens and sack...
.. and, uh, well... I WAS going to do useful things with Princesses, honestly, but I've done so well thus far in my new game... I kind of, well, got a bit carried away, like... um... well, they DID do a bit of spying, but I sort of killed their potential suitors. A bit.

Wups

Hmnn... shame we cant organise the princesses into a heavy cavalry unit, like the Kampucheans did... :-}

Esme

[frogbeastegg]

Quote[/b] (Esme @ Feb. 19 2004,23:16)]LOL Wups, mea culpa - apologies, M'lady Frogbeastegg, I didn't look closely at your avatar. Also,I'm used to being in a small minority in the online WW2 flight simming community. Indeed, I've been surprised at how many assume I'm male despite having a distinctly female nickname.
No problem, common confusion http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif I always assume everyone is male unless they have a female name or avatar.

I always say it's a shame you can't use princesses like the geisha from shogun: total war. Send them on a polite visit to the enemy generals and kings and rejoice as your princess smacks them on the head with something heavy or skewers them with a hairpin, killing them more efficiently than an assassin.

And Granny Weatherwax is the single best character on the disc for reasons that would provoke a 10,000 word essay http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[Somebody Else]

Quote[/b] (frogbeastegg @ Feb. 20 2004,12:02)]Granny Weatherwax is the single best character on the disc
I would say that Havelock Vetinari is a serious contender for that role - not only is he the Patrician, he's also an Assassin par excellence, and can really really wind another great character up... the one they call Mister Vimes.

Death's also a good one. WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT HIM?

In general, the wizards annoy me. The witches are good...

And what about Gaspode?...

Actually, I should stop - I could carry on for ages about this.

*****

Princesses in MTW. Useful spies - except that they tend to retire. Anyway, who needs to spy? If you know roughly where the enemy is, that's that.

I have a very direct approach to foreign policy. Hit them now, and hit them hard.

[frogbeastegg]

Vetinari and Death are joint second best. Vimes, Ridcully and Nanny Ogg get joint third best. What about Gaspode? Exactly, what about him http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

To end this off topic Discworld proto-discussion that keeps cutting off just as it gets interesting I started a Discworld topic (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=24;t=15511;r=1;&#top) in the Mead Hall where you can go on for as long as you want. Everyone including junior patrons can reply to that topic.