A magnificent coward

[Couscous]

Ok, so I wanted to rid myself of an unsuitable heir with the 'Cowardice' (-9 morale) and 'Avarice' vices. There was no way I wanted him anywhere near the throne.

His unit was down to 6 men, so I picked a province with 97 assorted Almohad militia in there. Seemed like a good number to kill him off but with a low chance that he'd run away at the sight of them.

What happened? They didn't even stand to fight! They would not face this pathetic cowardly prince! I almost fell off my seat laughing.

They had retreated to the castle, so I sent the prince in to assualt the place. After breaking down the castle gate, the prince & his 5 retainers killed off 76 militia sergeants before finally getting wasted themselves.

I began to think this guy would actually defeat them all. There were 21 Almo's left standing at the end. Not bad for a coward. He didn't even show any signs of wavering when his retainers had all been slain. In death, he redeemed himself in my eyes http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

[hoof]

http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif Great story.

The only coward I've seen is the Byzantine king that didn't like the fact I stole Constantinople from him during a crusade. He ran so many times that he got the coward (-9 morale). It was funny watching him form up huge armies below me on the hill, only to watch them run away when I looked at them funny. Finally I took mercy and surrounded the king, losing about 30 of my men in the process, I captured him. Needless to say, the Byzantines didn't want to pay the ransom money http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Magraev]

Actually many of the later Byz kings in my latest game started as coward, with magnificent stats in everything else.

It wasn't much of a problem since by then they just sat on their behind in constantinople while the early super-generals conquered europe. Maybe it's built in for some rulers ?

[Kraxis]

I have found that Vices do run in the family, so if you get a lot of princes built up to have a lot of Dread, you next line will have Dread Vices to start out with. The same with Coward it seems.
If I get a good Coward king I let him stay at home. Why kill off a guy that is great a money, Influence (loyalty of generals more than making alliances) and Piety.... I only kill off old kings and bad heirs.

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BTW, Danish Crusades are true to history.

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