Printable View
so, I'm new around here, but I wanted to see what people thought about this
Chivalry or Dread which do you like to have in your generals,
I usually try to have chivalrous generals, but if one becomes particularly dreadful I just let the become more dreadful, inspiring fear in the enemies hearts.
so what strategies do you use in this subject
I like to have both. The chivalry ones i usually settle in castles or cities to bring up morale (and also have them attack other settlements), but for the dread generals i have them roam around the country side with a lot of troops causing havoc for the enemy. I have them sack settlements just for the hell of it and set up ambushes. That way people will be glad to be ruled by someone with chivalry but also have the enemy fear your generals that ones causing the trouble with dread.
Chivalry whenever possible, I do have a thing for executing prisoners because I don't like fighting an enemy more than I have to :P But I don't really think that's a good idea really since money is always a good thing and chivalry is kick ass as it boosts not only order, but population growth as well. Population is what gives you money, and not to mention quite necessary to upgrade your settlemants so you get access to the good stuff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RomeLegionary
I agree with the above statement. Chivalry is nice, but dread is fun.
It really depends on your faction and situation. Chivalry is way to go for governors and generals who are leading infantry (read: troops that don’t depend on a devastating charge to win battles), while dread will serve a heavy cavalry force far better than chivalry.
Basically, I develop whichever ‘side’ the general begins with the most points in, going with chivalry if they start off neutral.
Dread is fun, and it's the way that most people start out. However, you can never have good diplomacy or alliances if you are Untrustworthy or Despicable. Executing prisoners doesn't just make the general more dreaded - it makes your faction untrustworthy.
Chivalry is a different game style, but carries big rewards. You need to pay attention to Reputation and Relations with other factions.
It's a complicated part of the game, and there's a lot to say on it, but a few of the basics are:
First - Reputation. What is yours?
Things that lower reputation:
- Exterminating cities (0.05)
- Sacking cities (0.02)
- Starting a war (0.02)
- Attacking an ally (.2)
- Being at war with another faction, incremental for each faction you are at war with
- Executing prisoners
- Executing a family member of another faction
Things that raise reputation:
- Releasing prisoners
- Occupying cities
- Helping an ally in battle (when requested, your army/fleet needs to be near enough to be asked)
- having alliances (5 is a key number for some reason)
- having good relations with other factions
Things that improve relations with allies and neighbours (the Pope!!!):
- gifting money (small amounts, even 50 florins, will do)
- gifting attacks on enemies, other factions etc (this is easy at the start, when there are lots of rebels to attack)
- sharing map information
- gifting territories
- having good relations with other factions
You'll need to build a stack of diplomats, and aim to have one with each of your allies, and others roaming around the neutrals.
You also need to get used to getting other factions to attack you first. It matters who throws the first blow. Often other factions will goad you into doing this by running their units onto your territories. Do the same back to them. Stand a unit on their port (a blockade that doesn't start a war), and soon enough they'll come and take a swipe at him. Diplomatic point to you!
Some benefits of good reputation and relations:
- less attacks from other factions
- allies will choose to stay with trustworthy you, not untrustworthy former ally who attacked you
- neutrals will vote for you in papal elections
- less attacks overall
- military access from allies
- increased chance of other factions accepting vassal status
- easier to buy territories from other factions
These are global effects. Executing prisoners doesn't just make your general more dreaded. It makes your faction more untrustworthy.
If you persist on the dread path every faction that can reach you will attack you (until you relent :d).
Alliances are extremely tricky, but do work if you follow the above, AND you work out what your ally wants and let him have it.
Most important are the territories your ally wants. Nearly all rebel territories are wanted by a faction, and some by several factions (Constantinople is obvious, but Prague less obvious). Some are ok for your faction (if you're playing Russia then Moscow is yours but Riga is not).
No alliance with France or the HRE (or Milan) will last if you hold Dijon. Simple as that. All three want it. One day one of these factions, allied or not, Perfect relations or not, will attack you. If you are, say, England coming south then all 3 may attack you at the same time.
So, if you want Dijon be prepared for the consequences, and plan your strategy and alliances to deal with it.
You can usually tell - if another faction is putting agents on to a territory then they want it, or at least, they don't want anyone else to have it.
Being really chivalrous takes some practice, and you need to get used to occupying, expanding more slowly, fighting the same army twice cause you released your prisoners etc. It's another game style, and runs counter to the greed, rage, and pride of most players who use the dread based warlord conqueror style. (To the other factions you look like the Mongols or the Timurids.)
Of course, being a dreaded warlord conqueror who is attacked by everyone and beats them all can be fun :d
Well, I hope that's not tl;dr :d
Sorry if its bad form to revive a 3 month old thread, but this one caught my attention. In my first game, out of the starting gate, I was trying to build a "chivalrous" general, but since he was my only decent cavalry early on, I had to throw him into the fight alot. So he kept getting +1 Chiv for releasing prisoners and +1 Dread for fighting in the battle. In the end, he stayed zero balance anything for a while, which I think is the worst of all. So I gave up on Chivarly, and just racked up Dread, which turned out to be a lot easier. He's a right dreadful bastard at this point. When I get a chance to turtle a little and build up decent cavalry arm, I'll have to try for a chiv general again. Seems to me its better if he doesn't get his boots too dirty to avoid the Battle Dread. I've got my faction heir travelling the realm building churchs and recruiting priests to boost his piety. As a nice side effect, that seems to pump up his chivalry as well, albeit slowly.
Thanks sharpshooter! I need to try have a better reputation next campaign I play. Right now my faction is very untrustworthy and many of my generals and even my king has lots of dread! He is called "The Tyrant" and I noticed getting more dread sometimes when I assassinate my enemies generals. :)
But I wanted to have an alliance with the Polish (I'm French) before and it was impossible because they didn't trust me. But right now I don't care so much because all the cardinals are french and soon (very soon!) only the Polish, Papal States and Russia are left in the old world to conquer!
If I recall the criteria for getting chivalry or dread for battle is pretty arbitrary, and once you get a point either direction you can only go further that direction for that particular trait.
Very frustrating if you pick up the "wrong" one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tanker
Well I think chivalry is better for mantaining cities because of the public order benefits but Dread is better in battle, so it really depends what you want the general to do.
Yep. I'm also finding that Dread-producting acts also hurt my faction's reputation, so I try not to overdo it. One or two super-high Dread generals commanding the main armies and fighting the really big field battles seems enough - at least for how I play. I try to use the the Chiv generals to go take territory that I want to keep; they are better to "Occupy" anyway to keep the population up. And even if I don't want to keep the settlement, you can "occupy" it to boost Chiv and then sack the crap out it by selling off all the buildings, jacking the taxes up to very high, and leaving.
Also important are your troops. As Milan, I find that Chivalry and it's morale boosting is much more important than being dreaded: I need my Broken lances to stick around and fight, not run.
right now i'm playing as scots in hd/hd mode and fighting generals with dread is better than chivalry. and governers with chiv are better than dread :)
I prefer chivilarly. But if I have general with high dread, I try to make him even more dreadful. I often have very chivilarious generals and king that has only two or three chiv, cos I make assasins and then he get those assasin traits.
This is not only preference, but generally a good tactic to use as this gives not only an air of actuality in the Medieval world, but the availability to maintain your empire through "bonus funding:leer:." Definitely a tactic of survival and prosperity :2thumbsup:.Quote:
Originally Posted by RomeLegionary
Try dreadful generals in charge of all-cav armies. Charge and watch the enemy flee...
Chivalrous generals can be useful if you want to hold a line against an enemy's massed charge (eg. The Mongols).
By the way, welcome to the org Athena! :welcome:
Dread all the way =)
You forgot, than selling/giving it away to a sworn enemy of your enemy. (preferably someone of another religion) Than the town will rebel and you take it back :DQuote:
Originally Posted by tanker
i think dread is better than chivalry because i don't like defending.and attacking needs dread.if enemy troops are attacking to me ,they can use charge bonus and i will lost many soldiers. "the best defense is a good offense"
Depends on the quality of your armies. Milita and non-professional soldiers need chivalry to boost morale so they don't route from the smell of a Mongol horse. Fanatical or high-end units that have above 15 morale can benefit more from a 10 dread general to quickly take full advantage of hammer&anvil.