Returning player - lots of questions

Hi,

I played this game a little when it came out, but then gave it a long break. I've recently picked it up again, and have started a French campaign, playing on M/M so I could get back into the game after the long break. I'd appreciate some advice, since I've been away for so long.

So here are my questions:

1) I currently have a crusader force besieging Antioch, which I'll take in a couple of turns. What should I do after I take it?

I presume since it's so far away, I should exterminate the population. Is it worth trying to create a permanent middle eastern enclave, or would I be better off selling up and heading back to France?

2) In my French campaign, I've conquered a good deal of what was once the Holy Roman Empire, although it still has one or two territories left, including Vienna. Prague is held by rebels.

If I attack these territories, I'm worried it will stretch me too far. Currently my empire feels reasonable compact, but this will bring me a long way into central / eastern europe, and I'm worried it may make me vulnerable to attack by too many other countries (Poland and Hungary are both strong in this game).

Should I not worry about that, and just go ahead and attack, or should I bide my time, move my forces to attack someone else, and hope to secure peace with the remnants of the HRE?

3) I've read about some of the mods on this forum, such as Stainless Steel and Vanilla mod. They sound interesting, but I can't help but wonder if I'd miss out on some of the original game if I started playing with mods too early.

Should I mod for my next game or not?

How easy is it to remove mods that have been installed?

Is it possible to install mods alongside the original game and switch back and forth?

Is it possible to have multiple mods installed at the same time?

How compatible are mods with the Kingdoms expansion pack? E.g. if I installed a mod and then installed kingdoms afterwards, would kingdoms overwrite the mod?

Firstly, welcome back ~:)

1) Depends on waht settlements you have around there already, but Aleppo seems to be the most obvious choice geographically and strategically (castle for retraining, river delta, resources, etc) and after that probably Acre or Adana. I would not conquer city type settlements until you can stabilize Antioch well with spies and priests. That said, I would advocate staying there, and at least sack it to not cause an instant rebellion. Extermination isn't great if you plan on keeping the settlement. You can occupy if your general has at least 6 or so chivalry as he should be able to keep the town just over 70% with small church and town hall.


2) You can either wait and see what happens, but note that those rivals may just take HRE for themselves or ally with it, or you can go and fortify them after you take them and use them as a staging point for further military campaigns. You can also use them to produce the more vice-type characters in the game and harass your rivals. Alternatively, surround HRE provinces with your own (just need to border them all) and make them your vassal the following turn for extra florins.

3) I can only talk for VanillaMod (as I made it :grin:) and in terms of its changes, I ried to make it very close to the original game so that you may not even tell the difference outside of a vastly improved AI and hardly any bugs remaining in the game + loads of VnV, balance and anim fixes. I am biased in that of course, but it will definitely make the game more challenging and I dare say more fun as a result. Its also a lot smaller than most of the other mods out there and I have a complete installation walkthrough for it.

VanillaMod in particular is easy to remove by just deleting its modfolder. It doesn't create any additional registry entries or permanent marks on your system. You can also have multiple mods installed as long as every mod has its own mod folder and does not change your base installation.

Mods are generally compatible with kingdoms if the above criteria are met as well, though mods will only impact certain aspects of the game (usually grand campaign only - not kingdoms extra campaigns)

1. It really depends on your long term plans for the Middle East, and who you're at war with. For example, if you're currently fighting the Egyptians, I'd recommend taking Acre next to give you a firm front against any Egyptian armies coming from the Nile Delta. If you're fighting the Turks, Adana will probably be the best way to go. If the Mongol horde is threatening to attack, then Aleppo is probably the best choice. It goes without saying that you must first pacify Antioch using the old sack+priest spam.

2. In my opinion, Vienna a very tempting target. It makes plenty of money (especially for an inland city). It may stretch your forces a bit, but if the Germans are already reeling from your previous offensives, it won't get much easier to grab a highly profitable province. Secondly, Vienna is pretty easy to defend thanks to Danube river. Any offensive from the North or East must cross the river, giving you an easily defended border, and the province is quite large to the South, giving you an early warning system. Finally being France, I'm assuming that you've already taken Innsbruck and Nuremberg, so the West shouldn't be a problem.

Prague is a bit of a different story, since it lacks the silver mines of Vienna. Economically, it isn't very strong, and it is harder to defend than Vienna. That being said, as a Rebel, one of the other factions will eventually take control of it. Strategically, it is probably best to just leave it as a buffer zone between you and Poland, but if I were playing, I'd probably take it since I'm almost hyper aggressive against Rebels.

Oh well. I spent most of last night out with friends, so only a few more turns have passed, but as is typical with this game, plenty has happened.

Antioch is still being sieged (guess I had more time left on that than I thought). When I take it I'll follow the advice above, and try to secure it and take a few settlements around it, such as Aleppo.

I sent an army towards Vienna, only to find the computer had 2 full stacks there. I'll worry about taking the place later. So then I turned towards Prague only for the Poles to grab it before I arrived. On the Iberian front I successfully took a couple of cities from Portugal.

Lots has happened diplomatically as well. I've now secured peace with Milan, an alliance with Poland, but have new wars against Spain, Denmark and England. My central european army is now marching north to fight the danes, alongside the ragtag army of dated rubbish I've cobbled together to hold things until it arrives. Hamburg will make an excellent addition to my empire.