"Here, have some pretty trinkets" - Buying cities from the AI

hi all,

does anyone else find buying territories from the AI like bartering with the natives for colourful beads and shiny trinkets?

in my Moors campaign i've been trying to take over the world without declaring war or taking any non-rebel settlements

so I've been relying on a combination of stone-cold killers bumping off whole royal families in one turn, and bartering with the AI for their provinces

the second option has so far yielded the far greater number of new settlements, but appears to be too easy

1) the AI will accept laughably small amounts of florins for a settlement (providing they have more than three remaining in total after the transaction)

2) once you have agreed a price and done the deal, the auto-garrison script will give you a bumper crop of new, high quality troops in the settlement..for free!

for example, I bought Staufen castle from the HRE for 10k florins, itself a bargain...but I also got 8 units of merc crossbowmen which are worth around 6500 florins...so essentially I got the castle for the knockdown price of 3500 fl!

it's way too easy and attractive to just buy up the whole map this way.

does anyone have a suggestion as to how to either make the AI look for higher prices for settlements or (my preference) mod the files so that only the AI gets a free garrison when buying a settlement? or both?

i'm happy for them to get it, they need all the help they can get and are too stupid to position a garrison stack nearby in preparation for the purchase...

What do you use those mercenary troops for if you don't declare war on factions other than rebels? My contrarian opinion is that playing under those rules, mercenaries are too expensive to maintain and should be dropped. This is coming from Mister Mercenary horde himself.

You can defeat any rebel settlement quite easily with a single full stack of spearmen laying seige.

The cheaper method might be using spies and assassins to reduce the public order, causing a rebellion, and claiming the city yourself. Plus pillaging florins.

But, go with what works, I say. If it is working for you, it can't be that bad.

I use the mercs to garrison the newly-purchased castle / city until I can get some cheapo militia there to do the job - then I either disband them if I have no immediate use for them, or they join my armies which are going after the nearest rebel settlement (usually created by massassasination)

to be honest I'm making money hand over fist in this campaign, so upkeep is the least of my worries.

I thought this campaign would be hard to complete in the time limit, and at first I struggled because I was trying to do it all through religious conversion and spying to raise unrest and make cities revolt.

i realised that was only going to work for a limited number of settlements because the unrest from spies maxes out after five, and the cumulative penalties are only enough for settlements far from the AI faction's capital - plus capitals themselves can't revolt

but now I've got the assasination squad up and running, and the coffers are overflowing I think I can pretty much poison and buy my way to victory

btw I have 25 territories after 78 turns - so i have about 140 turns left to get the remaining 20

I'll update the main thread (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=87178) when I make some more progress

My question is "When do you get mercs for gaining a region?" Three options:
1. Get mercs when you buy settlement at peace, but not when you are at war and negotiate ceasefire for it.
2. Get mercs when you negotiate for it (either buying at peace, or in deal for ceasefire) and it is your religion, none when it is not.
3. It is region-specific, some give mercs, some don't.

Details to justify:
I have limited experience in bargaining settlements from the AI as i haven't grown tired of fighting yet, and haven't tried a campaign of that style. However, my opening move as Venice and Milan is to buy Bologna for ~3500 and get 5 free xbow mercs which I use to take Florence. Anyway, as HRE once, the Moors blockaded Ajacio, landed three units, were defeated, and then desperately wanted peace after about 4 turns of "war." So much so, that they gave me Algiers in the deal (at my request). Alas, no free mercs.

Historical note:
I won't elaborate since this should be an entirely different thread on words used in the game that weren't used for centuries after. including: "ceasefire", "ambush", "Vaterland", any others PLEASE POST!:yes:

that's a good point - I remember I bought Dijon from the French and didn't get a free garrison, which caused me to lose the city to rebellion a turn or two later as I didn't have a stack close enough to jump in

is this related to the available mercenary pool in the region at the time of the transaction?

can anyone shed any light?

Never got free units when I bought a City. So what am I doing wrong? Does this require a Mod? SadCat

hmm - I am using Carl's ProblemFixerPure, but it's more re-balancing and bug-fixing than new features... but maybe that's the cause

has anyone in vanilla 1.2 experienced this?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SadCat

Never got free units when I bought a City. So what am I doing wrong? Does this require a Mod? SadCat

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I'm playing vanilla 1.2 at the moment and bought Aleppo from the Turks for a mere 6000 fl. and gained EIGHT units of Hungarian Nobles as a free garrison...
So It just be be a random event or it might depend on your rep staus vs that of the AI controlled faction... Can't say for sure except that it seems to work from me...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tristan de Castelreng

..bought Aleppo from the Turks for a mere 6000 fl. and gained EIGHT units of Hungarian Nobles as a free garrison...

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lol, did you actually MAKE money on that trade?

hmm... i am playing vanilla 1.02 and have noticed the garrison/no garrison when buying cities... But i do not remember the circumstances enough to find any pattern

Quote:

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Originally Posted by phonicsmonkey

lol, did you actually MAKE money on that trade?

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Not really but at that time I had money to spare and I later exchanged Aleppo for Tbilisi

Both times I received a city as a cease fire inducement I was not of that city religion. I did not receive units. Both were castles not cities come to think of it that may make a deference? Yet every time I give one to the pope he gets new units no matter what religion it was. So what auto-garrison script are you using? If it is making it to easy remove it but please tell me its name. I may have to try it. One of the times was in L.T.C. not 1.02 if that makes a difference. I do not have the data to even try to say what are the requirements needed to get free units. Looks like some have and others like me never have. Think I need to buy a city or two. SadCat

In vanilla 1.02 you almost always get units from buying or swapping. If the town/castle can train some of your units from it's buildings, you'll probably get some of those. Otherwise if there are mercenaries in the area, you might get some of those (Good way to get elephants in the ME). Only if neither of those is true should you get no units.

In my AAR I've been swapping my away across Europe, and I've gotten troops every time. Even at Durazzo, where there were no buildings at all, I got merc Knights.

I tried this last night and only got very demanding after offering 12000 for an HRE city... I didn't want to offer more as I can take it easy enough but how do you get them so cheaply? I haven't had that luck!

Some cities they just won't give up, they are not going to sell their important trade cities, only Fortress, etc

I'm not sure about the coding of this but anecdotally I can say I've found it easier to buy cities from factions with whom I have good relations and/ or an alliance, and also easier if my global reputation is good (although this seems to have less of an impact)

also remember the AI will not sell if it is down to three territories or less, will never sell its capital, and is unlikely to sell its highest-earning trade city

I think it must be tied somehow to the merc pool - there were no mercs available in the countryside around dijon, and when I bought it I got no free garrison...