Byzantine Campaign help

[Gith]

So here I am totally rocking as the Byzantines. I have found a new love of Byzantine Infantry. Amazingly reliable unit, have yet to let me down. Anyways, more to the point, around 1178 all is going well and I'm dominating. Then, 1183, I attack France over in Spanish territory. The next year, like 1/2-3/4 of all my provinces are in the red and fendin to raise up and get their revolt on. Here is a picture of part of my territory to drive the point home.

http://webpages.charter.net/bryan314/ONOS.JPG

These aren't all of the provinces that are ready to revolt, but a large chunk. Nothing to demoralizing happened (king dying, etc), so I can't quite figure it out. Any advice?

[The_Emperor]

There are a number of things it could be...

The most likely, is King being too far away.. Your Kings location directly effects province loyalty and happiness.

When you attacked , was it with the king leading the invasion army and the port was destroyed during the taking of the province?

Is an enemy ship blockading your ships cutting off your king from the rest of his empire?

Your King should always be kept in a centralised province, with access to a port and your naval fleets, and to be within as few moves towards a province as possible.

Any enemy ships need to be sunk to prevent them blockading you.

That whole central germany/steppes area I dislike because most of it is highly landlocked and requires major garissons and management to keep from rebelling.

[Gith]

Aye, King led the attack. Problem number one. He might also be blockaded in...


I just wanted to see my King lead his wonderful royal cavalry army and slay some French...*mutters*

[RollingWave]

Ouch... gg stepps......

To make matters MUCH worse for you..... if you lose all the stepps to rebels now ur going to be in HUGE trouble once the mongols come around as they'll probably all join them..... letting you instantly face a huge empire on ur back.....

[The_Emperor]

Quote[/b] ]I just wanted to see my King lead his wonderful royal cavalry army and slay some French...*mutters*

I know the feeling.

If you ever want to send the Monarch into battle, do the following.

Attack across land This way he always has an escape route back to the rest of his kingdom. Make sure the province he starts from is a coastal one with a port, so you can easily move him back there if it goes badly.

From the Screenshot you posted I think a better idea would have been to finish off the Egyptians and then Crush the Spanish in Cyranacia... Then do the North Africa run all the way into Spain to whack the French

As far as Naval invasions go... Let someone else do them.

[Oleander Ardens]

You don´t have a host of spys somewhere out there, I suppose, or? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

I think all you can do is to crank as much Slav Warriors and Peasants as you can, building Watchtowers, and to get your King back into friendly lands.

And as the Emporer said, finish the Eggies off, before you race into central Europe.. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Cheers

OA

[Servius]

Yeah, you probably already know this, but just in case, you can keep people happy by...

building both towers in the province
building the first Town Watch building
building any/all religious buildings
keeping your governor in-province and with 3-4+ Dread
having a Spy in the province
lowering the tax rate
garrisoning at least 100 men in the province

each of those things makes a significant dent in a provinces happiness, and having nothing to do with the king, allow you more flexibility in where/how you use him.

But everything Emperor said about the King and happiness is true. Be sure to keep him in a coastal province as often as possible and make sure your shipping lanes never get cut.

[katank]

the isolated emperor is crazy hard to overcome. you need about a dozen spies to counter the effect.

do the North Africa run.

you need some Iron anyhow. your royal cav army would sure look better with weapon upgrades http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-toff.gif

[Gith]

Aye, well, I'm just playing around. I loaded back about to 1178 and didn't do the crazy monarch kill the french attack. I really think if I went for it I could roll across the rest of europe and dominate it, but I'm kind of toying with the enemies.

If I retrain my Kats at a province with a weaponsmith, won't it take out their armour bonus?

[The_Emperor]

Quote[/b] (Gith @ July 06 2004,21:09)]If I retrain my Kats at a province with a weaponsmith, won't it take out their armour bonus?
No if they have an existing bonus before being retrained they will retain it.

[Zortanius]

It could also be that the garrisons you have are not very loyal and you have not had these provinces for very long to begin with.

My suggestion try to save as much of the Steppe Provinces and Hungary and Poland, as far as Europe goes. You can take back the rest later.

Keep a scary yet good general somewhere nearby like Ryazan or something. And keep some UM in your garrison armies - it might help if your garrisons are only made up of peasants.

Cheers http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif

[katank]

slav warriors are the way to go man.

thousands of them under a good general and autocalc= most cost effective victories ever

in VI, if you retrain, it retains the max for both weapons and armor between what it had before and the current facilities.

in order to get gold gold high valor troops earlier, I often had to train the unit (province that went straight for master level), retrain in armor province, and retrain in weapons province.

[fenir]

I can see your problem from the Strat map Screenie you took.

PUT IN YOUR PROVINCE THE FOLLOWING


4 spies
1 Ass
1 Emissary.
1 Bishop

[afrit]

@katank, Emperor et al.
Can his King invade a neighboring province with a port by land and storm the castle, thus (hopefully) preserving the port and this way get his King back in contact (assuming no blockade)?


Afrit

[Ulair]

Quote[/b] (afrit @ July 11 2004,21:46)]@katank, Emperor et al.
Can his King invade a neighboring province with a port by land and storm the castle, thus (hopefully) preserving the port and this way get his King back in contact (assuming no blockade)?

Risky. Ports seem to be one of the first things that go no matter how you invade. I don't know if there's a correlation between what gets destroyed and how you win (if enemy retreats without battle does less get destroyed?) but it always seems to be the ports and border forts that cop it (i.e. the loyalty-maintaining ones http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif ).

Still, if you're screwed anyway it's worth a shot going on a coastal tour with the Kats, just for jollies if nothing else http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif .

[katank]

ports usually bites it no matter what.

i've seen citadel and fortress ports get destroyed.

good luck but I wouldn't recommend it.

[Ludens]

Look at this: The Longest Year (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=24;t=15604).

You are not the only one, Gith http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif .

[Daveybaby]

Looks like your game just got a whole lot more fun Let us know how you got on.

[Gith]

Have fun with that Ludens...*shudder*


I'm at 1246 or something like that. Killed the Horde off. Doing great, just keeping the peace now, taking the ocean, and fighting off the occasional french raid.

[katank]

did you fight the rebellions out or not?

[Gith]

No, I did the lame thing to do and loaded back at the previous save. I should've tried fighting all of them, as the campaign is slowing down and I can probably win any time I want.


Next on the agenda is trying Byzantines on Expert.

[katank]

you should have played it out. it's one of the rare moments when total victory might be in doubt if your entire empire goes foobar.

[Gith]

Aye, I know. Thinking about it now, I regret not playing it out. It would've changed so much....the Horde probably would've gotten a decent foothold and I wouldn't have been near as prepared for them.

Anyways, hindsight is 20/20. I'll just start the expert campaign and see what fate does.

[katank]

that's true. but would have been an interesting experience.