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The Teacher
01-21-2007, 17:05
Whilst playing with Russia I was alarmed that shortly afterwards the invasion the Mongols swept “Borg” style throughout the Middle East.

But to set the scene, my Russian empire had swept through much of modern Russia with the exception of the Caucuses. I had invaded and terminated the Scots and English and had a small holding in France. I had also been waging war with the Danes. With this in mind the Mongols invaded – was I worried? No I considered that my Northern and Island Empire had plenty of time to rally additional forces and high tech weapons against the hoards. So I duly sent a spy down South to see how my egotistical rivals and kindred spirits were doing, me calm cool collected, then I heard and saw the below….

They had terminated the Turks, Egyptians and reduced the Byzantines to a single island backwater. They had taken Constantinople and this looked like the stepping stone to my stomping ground of my Empire.

Panic !

What did I do then?

Well they were too far away for my Vodka sodden forces to reach out and poke in the eye so I gave birth to my old school KGB to wage war by proxy. This resulted in a massive Assassin and Spy “Silk Road” down to the former Byzantine territories.

The conventional forces of the Empire were given a well deserved rest as the unconventional forces swept down with their fake passports and false moustaches still wet from the joke shop.

I had tasked the forces with raising hell in Constantinople hoping that this would cause the general populace to riot and eject the Mongols. This took lots of time as many Assassins gathered there for their annual summer civil demolition expo got to work with their task – the delay I was informed was due to the wrong type of matches for the fuses but I think they had just a little too much fun in the Tavern on their difficult casing mission. Eventually after much fireworks and singed eyebrows they succeeded and the city rose up and ejected the invaders.

This came as relief as an uber stack was en route to the Hungarians border. The stack did an U-turn and started back to the Rebellious city to smite verily oh yea ! After this initial success there was a critical mass of Assassins and Spies lurking around gift shops and duty free shops waiting for the next job. I moved the KGB school outing down into Turkey to cause some more mischief.

Then the Mongols did something very smart, whilst they were busy recapturing the city, they had started to place their own spies in their own cities. These pesky fellows were all over the shop with buckets of water waiting for my comedy style length fuses to fizz past them as they did a lap of honour onto the “exploding eggs of doom”.

This was not good news to the leadership of the Russian empire.

Receipts for expenses were being sent back to the Empire by the cartload. Normal for such an outing but the thing that worried the leadership was a general lack of souvenirs – e.g here is a stone from the Racing Track that er fell down the stairs…

Something had to be done.

At this stage it was suggested by the leadership that it was time to recall the conventional forces from the wilds of Wales were they were learning the art of survival from the forefather of Ray Mears to more active duty in preparation of their impending skewering on the Mongol war machine.

A enterprising your Prince decided in the meantime that now was a good time to get on a boat and head off down to the Med via some smashing beaches in Spain ..

Meanwhile back in central Turkey, in fits of despair of not being able to creatively destroy a building of general amusement to the local populace decided to go down to the Holy Land and look at the sights. Whilst down there they noticed something very interesting throughout that region (which is the whole reason for this post) they were only population by single family members. Who did indeed look scary with their masks on, presumably to protect from the sun, were a little thin on the ground to provide protection to civic amenities.

The result sudden strikes on poorly defended cities which led to civil revolts and the Mongol expeditionary forces dropping their bows and arrows and pick up their batons. Hungary saved and my soft underbelly of the Empire saved.

Has anyone else noticed this ?

Snipafist
01-21-2007, 18:45
I have also noticed that going after the Mongols with assassins seems more profitable than directly confronting them. My only complaint is that it tends to turn your faction leader into a malevolent and despicable cur (had a couple Sultans who went from mildly chivalrous to maxed-out dreadful 80s supervillains while assassinating Mongol characters and sabotaging their stuff.

joe4iz
01-21-2007, 22:12
I had never tried the assassin approach and will give it try.

The way I handled the Mongols was to wait until they had established a base of operations. They always seem to wait until the capture of Antioch to actually settle down.

The AI will push his armies out of the cities to expand his empire, generally leaving his main coastal cities protected by a single general unit.

I sail a huge navy filled with seige equipment and units around the eastern half of the Mediterranean , and exterminate all of the cities. After that I sell every building I can in the settlement and give it to someone (generally an ally) or someone who is an ally of theirs.

The army then reboards the ships and does the same thing at the next seaport city. I then give that city to some other poor sucker. After a while, everyone is fighting the Mongols as the Mongols attempt to reconquer their old provinces.

By the time that your searaider stack has been decimated, Timor the Lame shows up at the Mogul's rear area.

I used the funds generated to improve my infrastructure at my home bases.

I also sent several spies, priests, and assassins along with the stack and dropped them out at the first city I took.

After that, the Moguls were really no threat, they were broke and their forces were bogged down fighting wars on every front.

In one campaign, I exterminated Antioch 6 times. It was not much more than a fishing village when I was done.

supadodo
01-22-2007, 05:16
Nah I prefer to use brute force when taking these suckas down. I pile lots of trebs in my castle and cities and watch as each of their brave leaders get roasted. Then my super dread sultan pops out and routs the lot. Well all this was going swell until my Sultan died. Gah, so change of plan. ASSASSIN WAR!!!
Send a few assassins to their small stronghold of Smolensk and wiped out any MAn of the Hour that spawned there. A large assault was fought there but I lost marginally . So with that bloody new Khan romping around with his yappy chihuahua of a guard dog and watchful traits, I decided time to end this. Wakaka, gunpowder discovered...go to Baghdad...ooh looky Elephants!! hmm hmm pack em all into Noah's Ark and ship em North..look for bridge, ahh theres one...sit around...lalala..finnaly battle. Battle start, elephant charge, lots of horsey boyz go down, general gets stomped. One more battle, same thing...bam faction destroyed!!. Don't let the history books fool you kids. Mongols never conquered Asia Minor, they lost because their Khan made da biggest mistake of his life!

Orda Khan
01-22-2007, 12:54
Where I have no doubt that spies and assassins are a part of history, I think they have become too great a part in TW. I currently see ridiculous amounts of them scurrying around the map. They are far too cheap in both cost and use and should be a minor part of the game and not as it seems, the major one

.........Orda

Von Nanega
01-22-2007, 13:30
Where I have no doubt that spies and assassins are a part of history, I think they have become too great a part in TW. I currently see ridiculous amounts of them scurrying around the map. They are far too cheap in both cost and use and should be a minor part of the game and not as it seems, the major one

.........Orda
Generally I agree with your enlightened posts. BUT, having fought spy and assassin wars with Milan, I think if the AI does it, it is good for gameplay. Sure I could build a fort with 10 merchants on the gold in Timbuktu, but the AI can't, so I don't. I think assassins and spies were common back then. But then, as now nobody writes a glorious history of wacking a king while he is loving his mistress. Much better copy to talk about the thunder and dust of hundreds of charging knights.

dopp
01-22-2007, 14:18
Where I have no doubt that spies and assassins are a part of history, I think they have become too great a part in TW. I currently see ridiculous amounts of them scurrying around the map. They are far too cheap in both cost and use and should be a minor part of the game and not as it seems, the major one

Now, it would be more even if the Mongols engaged in the espionage war as well, like they did historically. Genghis and his successors used a highly effective system of traitors and agents to pave the way for their conquests. Imagine 30+ Mongol assassins and spies appearing maybe 10 turns before the main armies show up to cause mayhem and destruction all over the place.

Orda Khan
01-23-2007, 12:05
Oh I agree they have a place in the game, I'd just prefer it to be a lesser one. Sometimes a look at the campaign map suggests Mediaeval Total Intrigue

.......Orda