MedMod IV Coming Along Great (a testimonial)...

I've been playing with the most recent files for the Beta, and I've got to say-- great work guys! I know all of you have been hard at work running tests and experiments, but I thought maybe you'd like to hear some feedback from someone who's playing just for fun.

I've been playing the Outremer States on Expert for a couple of days and I have to say it has been a very fun challenge. Standing up to the Turks is quite tough-- my first campaign I got pretty well walked over.

On my next try I stayed agressive, pushed through to Trebizond, trapped a large army and forced it to fight and die in Anatolia-- but two turns later they Jihaded me and it was VERY touch and go for ten or twenty turns. I abandoned Trebizond and was basically shuffling between being besieged in either Rum or Lesser Armenia until finally I caught a small enough army to fight it out and gain advantage.

Then I went on the offensive and took Antioch, while inciting them to besiege and bloodily assault my castles in other provinces. Really though, with the vast numbers they had I don't know why they didn't just crush me, why, when they retreated 500-600 troops to a castle, they just left them there to starve and die, again and again (no sallies hardly at all). As they retreated and died, I gained the positive cashflow I needed to build troop strength and keep going.

I took Syria and then starting pushing back up North, eventually trapping them in a spectacular last stand at Trebizond.

..

I have to say that my hands-down favorite unit so far are the Turcopoles-- they are so useful and versatile. With a 60-man units, low tech requirements and very reasonable price, I haven't felt a need to build any Pavise Crossbowmen, except as sacrifice Alamo troops. I'll typically have 4 units of Turcopoles with my army, turn 3 of them into Navarrese Bowmen and leave one mounted-- mounted or dismounted they are fast, provide mobile skirmishing, excellent missle power, and work great as late flankers or a last-ditch plug in the line.

I think the Turcopoles help make up for a lot of the real disadvantages the Outremers have-- their starting provinces are low-tech and florin-poor, for instance. Also their Heavy Cavalry has not been nearly so dominant as I expected it to be-- I've seen my Hospitallers get pretty well chewed up 1-on-1 vs. Siphais, Armenian Heavy Cav, even Ghulam Cavalry!!, on separate occasions. Granted these were in various situations with various factors, but still, they definitely don't seem to be owning.

Should Outrememer Hospitallers really be so unimpressive against Turkish cavalry as that? The Siphais especially seem to be so good I would even call them superior (even being caught flat-footed (late charge, turning charge vs. hard-charging Hospitallers) and out-valoured). Is this intentional design? I know very little of the history behind it, myself.

..

Anyway, now I'm looking forward to teching up and getting some of those sweet Outremer Infantry and Foot-Knights, and building some ships and expanding trade. Last turn I blind-sided the Venetians, who were whupping on the Byzantines and Egyptians, and secured my hold on Asia Minor and the Holy Land. Those Italian Heavy Infantry's are a doozy to KO, let me tell you ~:eek: ! I'm only lucky they come chasing me instead of just camping in the woods.

Some miscellaneous world-news notes for those of you who might be interested-- the Venetians have had like 5 Doges captured and executed now, in about 10 years, kind of amusing. The Golden Horde was evidently HUGE, spanning all the way to the coast and wiping out two or three factions, but recently appear to have had the smack put on them, most notably (as far as I can see) by the Sicilians, who, oddly, have been doing some expansion into Asia. The Lithuanians, Rus, and Cumans have all also recently reemerged.

The French and the Spanish are gone, the Almohads and Genoese seem to be strong-- almost all of this is conjecture based on announcements and the travels of my princesses, because I've been much to busy fighting the Turks and converting Asia Minor to Catholicism to send out any kind of Bishop Network to keep an eye on things.

So there you have it. If anyone found anything interesting or useful in this post, then great.

DA