A bunch of questions

1)how can i get my archers to stake? the option isnt available after i start firing arrows.
2)How can i make my preists into cardinals faster?
3)can your own archers' arrows hurt your own soldiers? (both fire and plain?
4)what is the # in the () at the end of a round?
5)any tips on diplomacy? how can i get the different factions to give me regions? no one EVER asks for a ceasefire with me, even when i defeat them over and over and over. i always have to ask...
6)are mercenaries helpful at all? or are they just bad units?
7)if i dont have enough generals to go around, should i use them for the conquest of cities or should i keep them in the cities i currently own?
8)Are merchants useful at ALL?
9)how does it determine who you capture and who you kill0?
10)Does waiting before a battle do anything?

thanks A LOT!

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Originally Posted by Test112345

1)how can i get my archers to stake? the option isnt available after i start firing arrows.
2)How can i make my preists into cardinals faster?
3)can your own archers' arrows hurt your own soldiers? (both fire and plain?
4)what is the # in the () at the end of a round?
5)any tips on diplomacy? how can i get the different factions to give me regions? no one EVER asks for a ceasefire with me, even when i defeat them over and over and over. i always have to ask...
6)are mercenaries helpful at all? or are they just bad units?
7)if i dont have enough generals to go around, should i use them for the conquest of cities or should i keep them in the cities i currently own?
8)Are merchants useful at ALL?
9)how does it determine who you capture and who you kill0?
10)Does waiting before a battle do anything?

thanks A LOT!

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1. i dunno
2. when you control the papacy, you will have more cardinals... if one of your cardinals becomes pope hewill make your priests cardinals ( more likely )... You can also bribe the papacy so you are always in good standing with them, that will increase your chances. Also, you can kill off popes until you control everything... but not recommended.
3. yes they can kill your own units
4. ? turns? i dunno what your talking about.
5. ive had people ask for ceasefires and offer me regions before... usually when their faction is about to be destroyed
6. mercenaries are helpful but expensive, but are useful if you need a couple extra units to win a battle.
7. people will argue that generals make more effective in battles rather than as governors.
8. yes merchants are very useful, there is a thread about how to make florins you should click on. Just send your merchants to Timbuktu, on the gold mines... and have them travel and take over other merchants business... you can make much $$
9. the units you kill are the ones that die by the end of the battle and the ones you capture are still alive at the end of the battle... or something like that.
10. waiting before a battle could change the weather or time of day... physically waiting and not clicking the wait button will cause your general to give a speech.

1) English archers can only plant stakes during the deployment before the battle, not once the battle begins.

2) You can't, directly. All you can do is get their piety up and hope for or create vacancies in the College of Cardinals. Get a Theologians guild if possible, and build a Cathedral in the city where it's located. Train your priests there. That'll give you a bonus to initial piety. Put them in regions that aren't mostly catholic and/or that have heresy present. Let them convert those over to catholic, which will raise their piety. Use them to hunt down heretics and witches.

3) Oh, yes, they most certainly can. A unit won't cause friendly fire to itself, but it will cause friendly fire to others who happen to be hit by the arrows.

4) Assuming you're referring to casualty figures, 42(23) means the unit took 42 casualties during the battle, 23 of which were due to friendly fire.

5) You can't get other factions to GIVE you regions, you always have to make the request yourself and offer something worthwhile in return, whether that is money, another region, or a much needed peace agreement.

6) Mercenaries are quite helpful, but not all units are good. Use mercenaries to either bulk up an army when you need more troops right now, or to fill gaps in your order of battle. For example, England lacks a decently armored spear unit. Hire mercenary spearmen for that purpose.

7) Use generals to lead armies whenever possible. A general with the right traits will make a city run better, but over time generals sitting around in cities tend to pick up a lot of bad traits.

8) I had one merchant making 840 florins a turn sitting on a gold resource in Timbuktu. Others have had higher. Taking out another merchant can get you several thousand florins instantly. Yes, I'd say they are useful.

9) Captures only happen to routed units. Anyone you'd kill while chasing them down is taken prisoner instead.

10) It can change the weather. Bows and gunpowder weapons don't do well in the rain. Trying to control a massive battle in fog or blizzard is much harder than in the clear.

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Originally Posted by Test112345

1)how can i get my archers to stake? the option isnt available after i start firing arrows.
2)How can i make my preists into cardinals faster?
3)can your own archers' arrows hurt your own soldiers? (both fire and plain?
4)what is the # in the () at the end of a round?
5)any tips on diplomacy? how can i get the different factions to give me regions? no one EVER asks for a ceasefire with me, even when i defeat them over and over and over. i always have to ask...
6)are mercenaries helpful at all? or are they just bad units?
7)if i dont have enough generals to go around, should i use them for the conquest of cities or should i keep them in the cities i currently own?
8)Are merchants useful at ALL?
9)how does it determine who you capture and who you kill0?
10)Does waiting before a battle do anything?

thanks A LOT!

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1) I thought only longbowmen could stake - havent had any yet so cant say more
2) send them to regions with low Christianity in big groups and burn heretics everywhere
3) friendly fire used to be bad in RTW vanilla - they toned it way down - but i imagine the answer is yes
4) dunno what your referring to here - guess- numbers?
5) I have been asked for ceasefires with several factions - there are several threads re diplomacy - I think we are still discovering it neuances - basically if you are aggresive with your own religion or just winning the game - your relations will go bad - so you have to continually give gifts of money/lands to improve relations with those you want to
6) yes very helpful when you need an army real quick - good disposable troops for crusades and if you win- get rid of em cause they get pricey - some people play with minimal home grown armys and just use mercs when they are at war or taking lands
7) I would use them for conquoring - settlements can look after themselves - depends how you play - if you click off the buttons so you can recruit without a govenor - but winning battles will make your gens much improved and your army can be bribed easily without them
8) yes if they get enough exp and can survive being bought out - send them far away and make lots of money
9) no idea generally surrounded or fleeing troops are captured - kill em all anyways lest you need the florins GAH!
10) please explain

EDIT: GAH you beat me Quillan

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Originally Posted by Quillan

1) 4) Assuming you're referring to casualty figures, 42(23) means the unit took 42 casualties during the battle, 23 of which were due to friendly fire.

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The number in parentheses, 23 in your analogy, is number of men that the army has captured. 42 killed (23 captured).

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Originally Posted by Quillan

2) Put them in regions that aren't mostly catholic and/or that have heresy present. Let them convert those over to catholic, which will raise their piety. Use them to hunt down heretics and witches.

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I've done this a bunch of times and all it does is make my priests turn into heretics, who I have to kill with my cardinal. Once he dies of old age, I'm in deep papal trouble. I've never been offered a Theologian's Guild so that doesn't help.

For conversion, do you have to be in the city, or just anywhere in the territory?

I've heard some people saying you need to send groups of preists to help stop that. allthough i don't know if it actually works myself.

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Originally Posted by Lord Condormanius

The number in parentheses, 23 in your analogy, is number of men that the army has captured. 42 killed (23 captured).

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No, those are separate columns. There is one column for enemy killed, and another column for prisoners taken. Under casualties suffered, where it lists how many of each of your units died in the battle, it has two numbers with the second in parentheses. The second number seems to be casualties you caused to yourself. I've had battles I won entirely by missile fire, lost nobody to the enemy, and that's how it displayed.

Then why is the number always the same as the number of prisoners caught? I got this info from both experience and the Strategy Guide. Friendly fire is not represented on the casualty screen.

Yeah i agree with condormanius because sometimes the number is really huge.

1)Where exactly on the screen are the gold mines?

2)Do roads and docks (not warehouseses that say improved traide +1) actually improve trade?

1. I don't know, but I hear there are some in Timbuktu.
2. Yes and yes.

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Originally Posted by Test112345

Yeah i agree with condormanius because sometimes the number is really huge.

1)Where exactly on the screen are the gold mines?

2)Do roads and docks (not warehouseses that say improved traide +1) actually improve trade?

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There are three gold sources down near Timbuktu. Two of them are in Timbuktu province, to the southeast of town, and one is southwest of tow but actually in Arguin province. Along with the gold are four ivory sources. The sources all run in a line along the bottom of the map from the where the river disappears off to map west to the coast.

There are also some gold sources in the mountains south of Krakow and one, I think, near Zagreb.

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Originally Posted by Lord Condormanius

Then why is the number always the same as the number of prisoners caught? I got this info from both experience and the Strategy Guide. Friendly fire is not represented on the casualty screen.

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We might be talking about different screens here, then. I'll take a shot of one of my battle results later tonight and post it here. I'm referring to the details screen, the one you have to click to bring up at the end of the battle. The initial one just gives me the names of the army commanders, men each started with, men lost, men left and men killed. In that one, the number in parentheses may well be prisoners taken. I'm talking about the more detailed one, that lists each unit in your army(ies) only, experience gained, men in each, casualties taken in battle, casualties it caused, casualties healed after the battle, men it actually killed, prisoners taken, and men left after post-battle healing was taken into account.

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Originally Posted by Quillan

...and men left after post-battle healing was taken into account.

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If I'm not mistaken, the post-battle healing is already represented on the battle results screen, unlike RTW. I'll have to double check on this.

Yes, we were referring to different screens. Here's the results of one of my battles tonight.

https://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3663/resultssr1.jpg
In the first part, the basic info, post-battle recovery is figured in already when it tells you Men Remaining, and the numbers in the following column are enemy you killed and took prisoner. In the details screen, however, the post-battle recovery figures are listed separately, and under the column Casualties Sustained, the number in parentheses is men killed by friendly fire. I had one of my pavise crossbow militia firing into combat, because a peasant unit was killing off my Italian Spear Militia unit. :furious3:

Where are the gold mines?

I see what you are talking about. I hadn't noticed that. I thought the original question referred to the first screen. :o