Some neewbie questions please

[LoboSoulman]

Hi I have played medievil for quite a while and some things have puzzled me I would appreciate it if anyone can answer any of the following.

1. Does the computer cheat finacially? They seem to build a huge ammount of ships and soldiers do they cheat to afford it? Also what happens when you go in the red for any length of time is the only penalty u cannot build?

2. When you get invaded and retreat to your stronghold what decides if an army of loyalists rise up or not? I got into a very messy campaign with the french involving them invading about 8 of my provencies. I retreated in all , all had 200% loyalty and in about 4 of them I got loyalists and teh other none. Why?

3. Do the Turkish or Arganose ever ever ever dominate? or the danes? When I play its always the spanish/french/english/byz/egyptians that seem to get the upper hand.

4. If you loose a battle does it end up affecting your popularity in other provinces or with your generals?

Thanks!!!

[ajaxfetish]

Hi Lobo, and welcome to the .org.

1. The AI cheats, but not financially, AFAIK (though the Golden Horde are a financial curiosity I haven't quite figured out yet). What they do do is keep about as many troops and ships as they can afford, which is unfortunate as they never accumulate much capital to support real development and make for a major challenge. If you go into the red you will not be able to build any new buildings or train any new troops until you get out of debt. You will still be able to borrow money to ransom captives, I believe, though I've always avoided debt so I haven't got any personal experience.

2. An army of loyalists depends more on the loyalty to the enemy than the former loyalty to you. If they have enough troops/low enough taxes/etc. in one of your newly lost provinces, they won't get any rebellions, whereas if the loyalty to the new master is low, you may get loyalists. It's still largely up to chance regardless, though.

3. Even the most obscure nation can occasionally become a major player. It's not that uncommon for the Turks, but I've only seen the Aragonese get powerful once or twice. A little more often for the Danes, but they also usually just hole up in Denmark and stockpile Royal Knights and debt. However, there are certain factions (Elmos pre-VI, Spanish post-VI, Egyptians, Novgorod in XL, etc) that almost always seem to get enormous.

4. Losing a battle (depending on other circumstances as well) can get bad vices for the general, which could affect loyalty. I'm not certain about losing an attacking battle, but losing provinces lowers your ruler's influence, which will affect both the loyalty of generals and the loyalty of the populace.

Ajax

[Cowhead418]

Though in MTW and MTW-VI the Danes rarely ever get powerful, in the XL mod their aggressiveness has been increased by a lot and they have been able to become quite powerful in each of my campaigns. Since there is more factions, the superpowers are less predictable. Hell, in my current Portuguese campaign, the HRE is a superpower, which almost never happens because they are always overrun from multiple sides and hurt by civil wars and rebellions.

[Knight Templar]

2. An army of loyalists depends more on the loyalty to the enemy than the former loyalty to you. If they have enough troops/low enough taxes/etc. in one of your newly lost provinces, they won't get any rebellions, whereas if the loyalty to the new master is low, you may get loyalists. It's still largely up to chance regardless, though.

Plus, you can send spies in your enemy's province to decrese population loyalty (but watch out Border forts)


3. Do the Turkish or Arganose ever ever ever dominate? or the danes? When I play its always the spanish/french/english/byz/egyptians that seem to get the upper hand.

I had experiences where Turkish dominated many times, but I have never seen Aragonese growing into major power.

[LoboSoulman]

Thanks guys, Im glad to see the AI dosent cheat finacially.

One last question if I can, normally my leaders I keep tucked up safe away from danger but recently I have been using him to put down small rebeliions and his influence sky rocketed for just routing a few peasants for 5 turns in a row.
I keep one or two provencies just for this reason, dont build anything have no troops there and have sky high taxes.
They rebel and I send the king and princes in to beat them raising valour etc.
Will having a warrior king make it more likley for having sons with a high command level?

Cheers

[Martok]

Will having a warrior king make it more likley for having sons with a high command level?


Yes, it does, although of course it still doesn't guarantee your sons will have a lot of command stars--it simply improves the odds of that happening.

[LoboSoulman]

Ah that explains that when my kings sat in there throne rooms all day the sons they sired were of poor command.

I have great hopes for the seeds of this warrior king!!!! :laugh4:

[Asmodai]

Yes, it does, although of course it still doesn't guarantee your sons will have a lot of command stars--it simply improves the odds of that happening.

Yep, i have proof for that, when couple of my heirs started their careers as 0 star generals.

[ajaxfetish]

If they came out with 0 stars and their father had very high command, it may be the result of a bug. Nine is the max for all the stats, but sometimes it'll give you an heir with ten because your king was so good. The game rolls it over back to zero. :no: It usually happens to command, or at least that's where I notice it, and it's very frustrating, especially when the other stats are all still very high, but usually the command will recover in just a couple generations.

Ajax

edit: spelling!

[Asmodai]

Yep, i figured out that already. Very irritating. And furthermore, there is nothing, that you can do, cos best generals are usualy involved in important battles and it is easy for them to level up from 8-9 stars to 10. If it is king, heirs risking 0 stars in their profile in future. My advise is to not using kings as generals at all, but rather train some ordinary (not royal blood) general. Few province titles grants some star upgrades, also some general titles(marshall, konstable, admiral) also boosts star level, so, even 4 star general with some titles have chance to become 8-10 star jedi. They wont die from old age, and titles secure their loyalty.

Many kings and heirs have about 3-4 stars, even when not involving in battles at all. Succesions sometimes leaves some heirs without rights to throne, so they make perfect base for good generals. Combining titles makes specialised personalties. High dread for dealing with rebelions, high star upgrades to main army generals, high piety to crusade leading and so.

[LoboSoulman]

I know that your command rises when u win battles but does it take into account how u won them? or is it on how many u killed or the quality of teh opponent?

For instance would u level up quicker winning a battle killing 1000 and loosing 50 men than killing 1000 and loosing 900 men?

[ajaxfetish]

I think a lot with winning battles depends on your odds beforehand. If you enter the battle badly outnumbered and win, you're more likely to gain command. If the enemy has decent troops, a high-star commander, and outnumbers you, you're even more likely to gain command.

If your ubergeneral and select army of elite units puts down a lot of small peasant rebellions, you could win battles all day long and not see any change for your general.

A couple more things to keep in mind. First, Depending on battle conditions (who outnumbers who by how much, etc.) you've got a good chance of picking up virtues to enhance your command, such as expert defender, skilled risky attacks, etc. Second, as with agents gaining valor, the number of battles to gain command rises geometrically. Your first star just takes one victory, the next takes two more, the next four more, etc.

Ajax

[LoboSoulman]

Ah nice one so although its risky charging your king head first at the point of a wedge into a load of armoured spearmen he might get "famously brave" etc etc .

Cool . Thanks again everyone nice to see a forum community without the oh so common flames and trolling. :laugh4: