Rebel ships

[Third spearman from the left]

Last night while playing the XL mod in high as the Scots something strange happed. I've built up a few ships and the AI as also built ships on a large scale (I've never seen so many ships in the water!). Anyhow out of the blue a rebel ship appears just off the coast of Scotland, it stayed for two turns and then sailed off into the sunset. It was a rebel ship as it's shield icon was correct, so has anybody else seen this happen?

[Sir Toma of Spain]

Well i've noticed the hundreds of ships belonging to other factions but i've never seen a rebel ship.

[matteus the inbred]

nor me...although I've occasionally wondered, if a faction is destroyed while it has a fleet, whether these turn rebel or not. Independent traders perhaps?

I think MTW2 should incorporate 'pirates' anyway.

[Sir Toma of Spain]

nor me...although I've occasionally wondered, if a faction is destroyed while it has a fleet, whether these turn rebel or not. Independent traders perhaps?

In the origional M:TW (im not sure for XL) whenever a faction was destroyed their entire navy also dissapeared.

[matteus the inbred]

yeah, it would seem so...must be an XL thing then.

[Ulair]

I've seen Rebel ships only once and that was in unmodded VI so I don't think it's an XL thing.

Mind you, XL doesn't half generate ships! And having more factions starting with ships makes it much more of a challange. I love XL.

Cheers,
Ulair

[Ludens]

I've seen Rebel ships only once and that was in unmodded VI so I don't think it's an XL thing.
AFAIK these things are hardcoded, so it is unlikely XL added it. Rebel factions never build navies, but several player reported a single sighting of a rebel ship in vanilla M:TW, so it is probably just a quirk.

[Ironside]

In the MTW campaign, there's some rebel ships (1 or 2 I think) when you start at high. I've got not idea if it's rebel ship from the start or if the XL mod actually make the rebels building fleets.

[Odin]

In the XL mod in my current Byz game constantanople is controlled by rebels and the bhosporous has 1 rebel ship in it.

[Vladimir]

I have seen a rebel ship before when playing XL. I believe it was from a faction that built a shipyard before it went rebel.

[Geezer57]

I have seen a rebel ship before when playing XL. I believe it was from a faction that built a shipyard before it went rebel.
I've seen that in both XL and regular VI games on occasion - it seems to depend, as you've pointed out, on the shipyard being there when the province went Rebel. I've never noticed Rebels building a shipyard, then a navy, on their own. But they'll build a ship once in a while, when the infrastructure is already there.

[caravel]

Rebels rarely have the shipwright intact in their provinces, so wouldn't be able to build ships as they never tech up to that level. The way to test this would be to edit the startpos file and place shipwrights in all rebel coastal provinces and see if rebel ships do appear. Several people have reported seeing these ships though I have never seen one myself. Rebels seem to train assassins and spies ("...he was belived to be working for the rebels."), though they may just aquire these (but if that were the case wouldn't they just disappear along with their emissaries, priests, and ships etc?), so, as ships are really just a 'sea zones only stackable agent' type, ships should be buildable. The rebel faction usualy lacks funds because it gluts itself on troops in provinces such as khazar and lithuania where training facilities exist for slightly more expensive units, and as such rarely trains troops after the first 50 or so years anyway, it simply aquires it's armies from rebellions and civil wars, fails to meet the support costs and then becomes economically crippled very quickly.

[Ash]

I've seen rebel ships in unmodded VI. They're rare though, very rare. Usually the rebels bankrupt themselves before they can do anything good.

[IrishMike]

I've seen many rebel ships, of course over the course of hundreds of games. Since they are at war with everyone, they don't last much longer than a turn or two though.

[Csargo]

I just started a Sicilian campaign and I invaded Greece and I got attacked by a rebel ship and i beat them thats the first time I've ever seen one though

[Weebeast]

Constantinople starts with one galley in high.

Too bad everytime I bribe the city I don't get the galley. A galley makes a difference in the beginning of a campaign.

[Csargo]

Here lately I have seen alot of rebel ships but before i never noticed them I dont know why

[Cowhead418]

There is a code to be the Rebels. I've tried to do a campaign as the Rebels but it didn't work out because you can't make any income. I assume it is the same for the AI-controlled rebels. When you don't have any positive cashflow it is hard to do much.

[Horatius]

What if you build up your economy rather then military as the rebels?

When playing RTW my priorities are generally public order, economy, and military in that order, while struggling to hold myself up in the early game.

It works very well late game.

[Torin XII]

Í got into a game as the rebels by mistake in the late era, then I had a ship in the Baltic sea. I have seen that ship before when i have started as a regular faction.

[hlawrenc]

There is a code to be the Rebels. I've tried to do a campaign as the Rebels but it didn't work out because you can't make any income. I assume it is the same for the AI-controlled rebels. When you don't have any positive cashflow it is hard to do much.

I'm not sure about that on the cash flow. I decided to try rebels using the cheat code .conan. in the BKB mod on early to test out a theory (proved incorrect) that if rebels rebelled they could add armies for no cost. Should have realized that would not work when you play rebels you automatically get a 100% loyalty regardless of tax and even if you have no units in the province, but it got me playing a campaign as rebels.

It allowed me to build farmland, mines, and merchants and provided income. Not much...you start out owning the steppes which has low income. But when I click on the coins button it shows income for each province and shows who I am trading with.

I modded it to give me ship production for trade (took longboats away from Novograds after I eliminated their faction) and am actually trading with factions that aren't at war with me. It also allowed me to raise emissaries (no one will ally with me of course, but good for keeping tabs on other provinces, bishops (rebels are catholic), assassins and spys, even allowed an inquisitor. Used all of those to keep neighbors in upheaval and prod them to rebel. Actually able to increase my rebel empire by holding the starting positions beating back agressors coveting my territory, then waiting for other provinces to rebel (or helping them along) at which time you become the proud owner of the rebels in that province. some of the fights you get that way are not worth fighting (2 vanilla archers and 1 spear against a stack of Knights, men at arms, etc.,) but some have had a respectable rebel force and would actually run the other faction out to add that province.

I've been playing MTW for over a year and the mods for over 6 months but decided to try something different while we waited on the Pike & Musket mod to come out.

Not sure that playing rebels is something I would want to do on an ongoing basis but if your thing is desperate defensive battles then playing rebels will give you a plateful!!

I am in the middle of this campaign around 1160 and am having a great time with it. No worries about civil wars, heirs, princesses, etc. and you don't get very attached to your govenors. It does seem that your govenors get a lot more bad vices than in normal play with a faction. On the other hand rebels spawn a lot of high quality commanders coming out with 4 and 5 stars before fighting any battles. Has proven to be a pleasant diversion so far. Lots of fighting and you get a reasonable army in early. As I have gone along I have made a few minor mods to add some units (even though you start off with horse archers you can't raise any!) to have a well rounded force but have tried not to take advantaqe of modding units, just trying to stay on par with neighboring forces.

Not sure what to expect I am playing it easy and it is tough, don't think I would last on a higher setting but it has been a lot of fun and if defensive battles is your thing it is a great place to try out some new tactics.