Mongols are my bee-yatches

[Moah]

After more than 40 turns I finally got the mongols down to one army with general and two half armies with captains. After having to pursue them up and down as Turks (they never attacked any of my cities or choke points, possibly because I confironted them with several stacks as soon as they appeared) they finally ran away and took a city from Poland.

I attacked again (I hadn't realised they could spam generals at the end - I killed 4 new ones (NOT 8* though) in two turns) and reduced them to 200 men cowering in the citadel (with 3 generals, having spammed another 2 mediocre ones). I was going to siege and destroy utterly next turn.

:smash:

However I had forgotten I had sent a diplomat there ages ago and he arrived after I hit end turn and initiated talks: I demanded they become vassals, for a laugh and..

They accepted! No cash, no city bribes just accept or die. That's the first time the game has ever let me have vassals despite numerous attempts! (playing H/Vh after winning on VH/VH but fed up with total diplomacy meltdown when you get powerful).

I'm now really looking forward to conquering the rest of Russia then giving it all to my vassals so the Mongols can rule the steppes - as my bee-yatches!

Just though I'd share.

:laugh4:

P.s. Are vassals more reliable than allies? My rep is totally untrustworthy so I don't expect it to last....:no:

[Ciaran]

Well, you got lucky. Had you actually taken their last city, they´d become a horde, like in BI, and you would have had to start fighting them all over again.

As far as vassalage goes, I think it´s the most reliable thing you can have, and unlike RTW you can actually go to war with one of your vassal´s allies without automatically ending the vassalage (at least that was the case for me in the one instant this issue arose, so it´s hardly any solid evidence).