Share your house rules people :)

So anyway, I just finished my English campaign... And while smoking a fattie and listening to "Rule Brittania" with a phat smile on my lips, I noticed how many, if not most, members of this forum use various house rules to make the game more interesting.

Here are some of my ideas, those tested and yet to be tested.

I dont claim originality to any of the ideas, I might have picked things up in various threads (if you want cred for something, just write it mate).


1. Dogs of war!

Rules:
* You are not allowed to train troops.
* You must set taxrate to "very high" in every province.
* You must leave a city/castle at once when you have taken it (with all troops and generals).


Basicly, this means sacking will be your only way of getting money, and mercenaries will be the only thing you can recruit. Should result in some very intense fighting, and the whole world hating you:sweatdrop:

Victory condition: Kill off all other factions.

PS: Untested... This will be my next experiment
PPS: I came up with the idea while my brain was as logical as a tree full of monkeys on LSD... :logic:


2. The divine shield!

Rules:
Always try to make sure you'r border provinces are given to the pope...


I tried this with Denmark, making sure I gave the pope all the land between me and my neighbours...

The pope (contrary to other AI factions) wont attack you if you are catholic, unless you screw up badly.

This leads to a much more controllable game, with far less moronic AI attacks. I noticed how diplomacy and such suddenly became much more realistic.

Also, The pope will grow quite big, and might start challenging you to get to crusade targets first etc (specially since he'll always be closer to them than you).

Worth a try if you havent!


3. The penn is sharper than the sword!

Rules: You are not allowed to train ANY troops (you might however bribe others troops).


Untested, but I guess it's doable with some effort. Victory MUST thus be achieved by economic supremacy, and of course uggly tricks such as marrying into other families and then assassinating the rest of the royal family so you get all the lands.





Add ideas people :feedback:

I posted this before but try some of these.

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This one is easier than it should be but become the papacy yourself. Work very hard to get nothing but cardinals, assasinate all the other cardinals you come across and don't expand too much. Also, try to keep a very good reputation and have no generals with any dread levels.

Another option is be the antichrist. Make alliances only to break them, if an ally helps in a fight or you help an ally, sit back and do nothing as they lose to the AI, then withdraw if its not your land or conquest. Hell, even cheat and make yourself filthy rich but raise taxes all the way up for spite. Execute all prisoners and always be at war. When asked for a ceasefire, ask for the most rediculous demands like the AI does to you and as a whole, be pure evil. Also, if you do cheat for money, buy badly needed providences that the enemy needs, burn them to the ground and then ceasefire agree to give them back to them.

Play as a nomadic horde - build a huge army and just go from on providence to another. Never keep the land but when you conquer one you exterminate the population and slash and burn everything. Do that until your the only one left. Use the slash and burn money to upgrade your population. Basically be the mongels but be more sinister.

Here are a couple of mine:

1) All field armies must be commanded by a person of noble birth.

2) Only rebels may be attacked without approval from the Council or God.

Chivalry!

Never violate a treaty or cease-fire. You must be blameless in all wars.

Always release prisoners. Butcher's work is not fit for a man of honor.

Always take cities intact. Never engage in base thievery or slaughter.

Join every crusade, even those you did not ask for. To answer the call of the Christ-on-Earth is your highest responsibility.

Always build churches first. Each settlement should have the largest house of God it can afford.

These rules are simple, they effect the gameplay, and they put you in the proper mindset.

For England only:

Replace NE Bodyguard with Dismounted NE Bodyguard (From Agincourt, not Henry V).

No units that are not England only. This includes those that can be found in rebel armies (from descr_rebel_factions). That means no:

Armoured Swordsmen.
English Knights (Mounted).
Hobilars.

Protect Scotland and France, even if the ungrateful bastards and bâtards turn on you.

right now I'm playing as the Moors with these simple rules:

- no declaring war on anyone
- no taking any settlements that are not rebel-held

so I'm using a dual strategy of assasination and land-purchase to secure my 45 provinces...it's a tough campaign!

check my "Moor of the Shadows" thread for more info and updates...

There are plenty of good house rules listed, I have a few that I havent seen posted before.

1. Succession:I allow 2-5 turns for succession, when a king dies I try and remain inactive militarily for a few turns. Succession wasnt always a smooth transition (unlike how it is portrayed in MTW2).

2. Measured peace deals: you can often get a castle off the AI for military access and some cash. I dont take territory from the AI in peace deals unless I have crushed them. Also, the AI often wont take a good deal when at war, even if you know its in the AI's best intrest. So if cash is available or something else, I sweeten the diplomatic deal as much as possbile to encourage the AI to take it.

I play by other rules, but these two are the two I employ that I havent seen others post.