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Are schools and libraries worth building? They don't show much benefit in description, am I missing something?
Your building priorities should be:
1. Ports (everywhere, as high as you can get them)
2. Main unit buildings in Castles or higher / Trade buildings in Cities
3. Growth buildings everywhere
Once those are used up, go for schools/libraries. They provide some good traits for your generals, so there's that. You don't have that much to build in vanilla, so you will get to them eventually. Just remember to take care of money and troop recruitment first.
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On replenishment, do I have to send the unit I need replenishing back to the city/castle they were recruited from? It would appear to my untrained eye as if sometimes when I send them to the nearest castle/city that has the building that should afford the building of that unit, which to my way of thinking of it, would suggest the ability to replenish, the unit remains grey'd out on the training tab.
You can only retrain troops in a settlement which can recruit them.
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3. Just got an announcement about the Mongol hordes coming which I've heard so much about. W/in about one turn I had the Moors coming up from the south who heretofore I had ignored (apparently I should not have). My question is, is this in response to the Mongol horde announcement? And am I likely to get other visitors out of the East headed my way as well?
Those two are completely unrelated. The Moors are a regular faction which has probably become a bit of a runaway to get that many stacks (or you're playing a mod). The Mongols pop up far to the east as a Horde faction. You'll know them when you see them.
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While dealing with the Mongol horde invasion, which is what I assume these endless stacks of Moors is comprised of, not certain mind you, just assumed since the announcement of Mongols invading and the Moors showing up with 10 stacks coincided perfectly, I assumed they were connected, anyway, to my new question: I just got invaded up in the north where I'd taken a couple of Norway or Denmark cities/castles I've just had the announcement of the invasion of Teutonic Knights, is this unique to the stainless steel mod or does this show up in the vanilla game at very same time as the Mongol hordes?
I ask because these guys are showing up at a very inopportune time, I just hauled the armies up there down to deal with the Moors, so there's nothing there to stop these guys, not that it would matter, I'm talking chevrons out they yingyang on these guys, two stacks led by Generals with like 8 or 10 stars or something and a minimum of 4 chevrons on every unit. The wrecked on of my remaining armies w/o suffering a scratch.
OK for Stainless Steel now it makes sense. The Moors will be getting more and more free stacks as closer you are to overpowering them and wiping them out. THey can spam a lot of stuff at you, so beware. The TO shows up around the 1200s or so, they are a Horde faction (meaning they can't be wiped out due to not having citie) and start chomping at Lithuania and other non Christians in the Baltic region. They get a fullstack and a halfstack initially, then every time they lose their armies they get a fullstack or a halfstack. Don't be surprised it Lithuania goes bye-bye soon. The Mongols in the SS mod come also as a horde faction, with MANY free units and lots of free gold. They will crush the Kwarezmian Shah and the Cumans first. I think in SS they get around 20-30 free stacks with 10 star generals. Their HAs and cav will have you reeling. The best way to handle them is just wait for them to starve out, because as they start conquering cities their massive armies start paying upkeep, and even the 1 million or so free gold the AI gets isn't enough. Withut a way for them to replenish losses, the ERE/Egypt will whittle them down enough for you.
Just don't let them get half the map. Thad't be something indeed.
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Thx for the response! So, need schools and libraries either in the city I want to work on establishing an assassins guild or the one where it has already started to push it along
The assassin's guild pops up like other guilds - you have a hidden point pool and when you get enough points you get asked if you want that guild in that city. The things the assassin's guild likes: training of assassins. Successful assassinations. Brothel line of buildings. They don't like it when you turn down a guild offer. Also, don't get more than one spy guild and constantly check when you conquer new cities. For some reason, the AI gets spy guilds everywhere which blocks you from getting other guild offers unless you tear them down.
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well i tried to recruit unhorsed knights on vanilla and stainless steel and they both can be retrained on a castle and city. i might assume that mercs can be retrained on the same region you hired them. but again i retrained merc spearmen on a castle(gaza) and jerusalem(city). also with the replenishment thing there are a lot of factors which also might not apply. just like what nelson said where you did recruit them; size of the barracks, population, the unit cooldown(if its not a merc)
Mercs can only be retrained if the merc pool in that region allows it. Thus, if you have merc. crossbowmen you have to wait until you can recruit more to retrain your current ones instead (thus using up some of the pool). Same with Crusade mercs who can only be retrained in a crusading stack and in a region which has a full pool.
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2. Gunpowder has been discovered. Ok, so how do I get it? I'm consistently the most advanced, which I assume puts me in a good position to get this first. Problem: how exactly do you go about it? What buildings need to be built to get this?
You can build a building in cities (not castles) which are big enough. It costs 800 gold and it gives you canons which tear city walls to shreds. Later on you will get other stuff. Some factions get better gunpowder than others (for example: Venice, Turks)
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Just thinking out loud here, if the Byzantine empire is running amok, do I have no choice but to directly engage them militarily? Of can you form an alliance with then work to get the province count you need for victory? Or if they form an alliance do they just ignore it soon thereafter and attack you anyway?
Sure you can. Declare war and splatter them. Only Crusading stacks can't attack Orthodox factions. Regular armies work just fine. If they're dealing with the mongols in your game however, I'd leave them alone for now.
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If the Mongols are announced as showing up (as they have in both of my current campaigns), should I anticipate them forming alliances with the likes of the Byzantines and the Moors?
I've yet to directly run into this Mongol horde, so I'm just trying to get a gauge of just how big an issue this is likely to become. As the Moors are in the south of my position and I'd like to know if they are going to stay peaceful or instead turn this into a more united front against the Catholics, and of course I'm a tad worried about the Byzantine Empire because they are the largest threat militarily and size wise to myself.
I highly doubt you'd see smart alliance play from the AI. If it's Stainless Steel we're talking abut, the Byzantines will roll stuff over yes. But the Mongols will keep them in check for a long time. The Moors won't work with the Mongols, they will just try to capture Iberia and go north into France.
My advice is for you to crush the Moors and build up, while keeping tabs on the greek/mongol conflict with spies.
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About Byzans.... Befriend the pope and call an Crusade against them
You can't call crusades against Orthodox factions and Crusading armies cannot attack them. It's hardcoded into the game. If we're talking about Stainless Steel, taking out Constantinople is your best bet to cripple them, since it's the only city which can recruit the awesome Scholarii. If it's vanilla, well... Just wage regular war and push them out of Europe.
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Well, I can safely say I'm a firm believer in the fine art of assassins. I make regular use of their services just as I made regular use of all my agents in Shogun 2. So, consider that box checked, haha!
Now tell me, are the Mongols and the Golden Horde two different entities then? I was under perhaps mistaken impression the Golden Horde was the manifestation of the announced Mongol invasion.
They are called the Mongols in Vanilla and the Golden Horde in Stainelss Steel. The Assassin trick won't work in Stainless Steel, because a script will gift free family members to the AI to prevent it from going extinct like that. And since they are a horde faction in Early, the only real way to kill them is to completely wipe them off the map.
