Slow HRE campaign

[SwordsMaster]

Yes, yes, I know. HRE blitz in 15 turns, 20 turns, no turns! What's the point though?

I am a believer in the old school, and since I've paid my 50 quid for the game, I'm going to milk it for all it's worth including handgunners, doppelsoldners and reiters. I'd get to build panzers if I could.

Anyhow, to make all of this possible, I have installed LTC 2.3 (or whatever the latest installment is), superb mod by the way, and I have also established some house rules:


Every general gets a command or a city. I.e. no stacks with more than 1 general unless they're being retrained.
If a general is in a province with a bishop and a crusade is declared, he MUST crusade.
A maximum of 3 rejections for a given adoption/marriage.
No training of military units past the free upkeep garrison + 1 unless at war.
No captain-led armies.
Units cannot be retrained until they have golden chevrons.
Golden chevron units cannot be disbanded.
The most experienced unit on the field acts as "Guards" to the general, and therefore cannot be used in "line" action, but only in critical situations, or together with the general.
Every army must have a spy and a chaplain.
Merchants are paired with spies and assasins to keep "competition" away.
No declaring war.
This is pretty much it. Some of these are fairly common, others are personal taste.

Currently the situation is as follows:

At war: Denmark, England, France, Milan, Byzantine Empire, Venice, Poland Russia.

Allied: Sicily, Papal States.

With most others I have trade rights established.

The year is 12something and chivalric knights have just become available in the fortress in Hamburg. My Extremely Lewd Emperor is marching a depleted army towards Oslo and Stockholm, while my equally Lewd (what's up with that anyway?) Crown Prince has been ambushed with his battle hardened army (about 2/3 stack) at the shore of the Baltic by 2 stacks of danish troops, and my only promising general (5* disrespectful to prisoners) is crossing the Empire to emerge South, where 4 stacks of Milanese (who were allies and backstabbed me) heavy infantry and artillery have destroyed the fortifications and stormed Bologna and Venice, that I had taken from Venice almost 60 years ago. There is a venetian half stack beelining towards Zagreb, but the fortifications and the quality of the garrison make it impossible to take.

Basically I am posting this to see if anyone has ever played a slow HRE campaign in which the enemies you are surrounded by have time to develop.

I had never seen an ambush by 2 stacks, or 4 full stacks of milanese troops concentrating on one city, then another. This might be quite the campaign.

[TeutonicKnight]

I'm not playing LTC, but slow and steady is how I play all my HRE games.

I've only recently gone back to 2ypt, so I hardly ever have gotten to gunpowder. My current campaign I'm hoping to see it, but I've just gotten to the Mongol warning.

On my other games, I've encountered large stacks of fairly advanced enemy troops. The AI seems to suffer in that they don't dedicate cities/castles to specific troop units. The system seems to build equally across all the provinces. And the heavy reliance on artillery is rather annoying.

Milan is a faction with a chronic use of huge numbers of stacks of crossbows and spears. I'm not sure how they can afford so freaking many militia. I had to break their back by seizing Genoa and Milan before they stopped laying into me every single turn. Even Venice was bad about it, but once I wasted a few of their stacks, they've backed off.

I'd say the primary threat to the HRE is the Italian states. France, England, Poland, and the Danes are all easily dealt with, and tend to honor their obligations. Though I'd be careful with the Danes. :)

[Fußball]

Slow and steady is the way to go. In my current campaign, HRE of course, I am to turn 150 or 160 something. First I have ever seen the Timurids because I have never been able to play a campaign so long. Also gives the AI more time to build up. Sadly they only purchase artillery of various types and usually early period units. :juggle2:

Tschüß!
Erich

[Flavius Merobaudes]

I also prefer the slow and tender way.:clown: Feels so much better...
But I can't go as slow as I want, as it seems the other factions are in a hurry. I wanted to kill them softly, but they insist on a quickie and get aggressive towards me if I don't smack'em now and then.:whip:

Italian city factions seem to be the most wicked and forced me to give them what they deserve. Next was that sweet struggle with the Hungarian. That liaison was interdicted by the catholic church in form of the pope.:saint:
But after some turns passed they came back longing for more.~:flirt:

The French and Polish chicks behave proper for the moment, but it's only a matter of time until they fall in love with my territories and want them so badly.:ahh:

Can anybody tell me how I can avoid being stuck in so many conflicts? I don't want to expand, but I'm forced to.:dizzy2::help:

[Didz]

Can anybody tell me how I can avoid being stuck in so many conflicts? I don't want to expand, but I'm forced to.:dizzy2::help:
What difficulty level are you playing at?

The AI controlled factions seem to get more stupidly aggressive on higher campaign difficulties.

[Flavius Merobaudes]

Playing on M/H. Normally, the AI should be close to sane on that difficulty level. I knew it would go mad on very hard.

What did the developers think? A kamikaze AI is rather annoying than it's a challenge. On the other hand, AI development is still in the cradle and we will see some serious moves forward in the coming years, methinks.

[icek]

if you start to expand youll eventually get unworthy trust stat for nation and your allies will see you as menace to the world and will attack you. Danes, my 90 turns allies have attacked me :no: . When youll have it you can forget about any alliances coz youll not get any. Advice: dont destroy completly nations, theres big penalty for doing this. im playing as england on m/m. my 90 turn ally Danes attack me after killing scots, france, mediolan and my othey traitorous ally sicyly.

[Flavius Merobaudes]

I killed off Denmark, Milan and Venice. I was at war against Poland and Sicily, and still am against Hungary. I made alliances with everyone except Poland, because it was my initial plan to go to war with them. I took Thorn from them.

Milan betrayed me and as HRE you have to wipe them out or they will be a constant thorn in your side.
Venice betrayed me as well. They were excommunicated and I finished them of via crusade.
Then Hungary - who had taken Krakow frow the Polish before me - betrayed me and I conquered Krakow, Budapest and Bran before the pope ordered to cease hostilities.
In addition to that Sicily broke the alliance by blockading my Iraklion port, which I had taken from Venice shortly before. The war suddenly ended when they allied with the Turks who are my allies as well.

Despite having wiped out three faction, my standing is Very Trustworthy due to the many alliances. I am catholic, I am the strongest faction and I have a good reputation. So why do the Hungarians for example go after me instead of the Byzantines? One could have the impression that there is a trigger that orders all factions to attack the strongest.

[icek]

or others attack the player

[hoetje]

I killed off Denmark, Milan and Venice. I was at war against Poland and Sicily, and still am against Hungary. I made alliances with everyone except Poland, because it was my initial plan to go to war with them. I took Thorn from them.

Milan betrayed me and as HRE you have to wipe them out or they will be a constant thorn in your side.
Venice betrayed me as well. They were excommunicated and I finished them of via crusade.
Then Hungary - who had taken Krakow frow the Polish before me - betrayed me and I conquered Krakow, Budapest and Bran before the pope ordered to cease hostilities.
In addition to that Sicily broke the alliance by blockading my Iraklion port, which I had taken from Venice shortly before. The war suddenly ended when they allied with the Turks who are my allies as well.

Despite having wiped out three faction, my standing is Very Trustworthy due to the many alliances. I am catholic, I am the strongest faction and I have a good reputation. So why do the Hungarians for example go after me instead of the Byzantines? One could have the impression that there is a trigger that orders all factions to attack the strongest.


Why would you be listening to the pope,when you can just kil him? ^^

I've managed to get the assasin's guild HQ, having insane assasins on the right targets;). My best assasin got a 87% chance to kill the pope off , which I always do when he wants to excomm me :shame:

No wonder my faction leader is called 'the tyrant' with 10 dread :skull: :laugh4:

[icek]

i have 6 active assasins that can kill pope with 90% chance of success. but kiling pope is to cheap. i try to fight sicily, papacy's ally on pope rules. he sometimes give me ceasefire mission one after another because of victory in defence of my city's siege :clown:

[hoetje]

it is cheap, but O so effective :)

You never have to worry about the pope again,just keep killing him and eventually the college of cardinals will dry out... hehehehehheh :pirate2:

[TinCow]

I've been holding out for LTC 3.0 (and for that reason the release delay is driving me up the wall) but I will be doing something very similar with that mod, plus a garrisons mod, though I'll likely play as either the Turks or Byzantines. It's a shame that we have to use mods and house rules to get a difficult campaign, but at least it works.

[icek]

well, pope is mine, and 8 college cardinals are also mine, so basically i hunt for other cardinals so when pope dies they will get less papacy favor as my enemies and for not being new pope voters. but venice as ally always is high with pope :thrasher: