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Posting a battle report is completely optional. I enjoy doing them myself. Still, killing rebels is necessary but often boring task. Nice kill ratio by the way, it's not like you're fighting peasants, they had some good units.
I assume Friedrich is knighted?
Yep, he shall be knighted.
Thinking on doing a co-op story with xdeathfire about it. What do you think xdeathfire?
The battle was pretty hard, as Jobst nearly got killed!
Anyway, how long untill the Crusaders reach Jerusalam? ANd if we suck anymore generals out of the Reich then it will be empty of leaders!
Its actually scary how few troops the egyptians and turks have left. Egyptians do have another full stack but its hidden somewhere in the northern mountains...
Also checked on finances and turks and egyptians seem to be near 0. Happened in my SP campaign too, where I gave em 40k a turn and next turn they'd be broke again (because the AI doesn't seem restricted by unit pool, its pool is always full...bug or intended)
OK, I will be picking up the save in the next 5 minutes, and will fight the battle immediately after that.
:balloon2:
We've smashed two full Egyptian stacks and one full Turkish stack. That's bound to have some impact on them. There are still some large Egyptian armies around, but they are on their borders, where you would expect them to be. If you want a chance at the Egyptians summoning some reinforcements, you shouldn't be pushing to get into Acre by attacking the reinforcements that are adjacent to the settlement. Spend a few turns besieging the place, or better yet just take Jerusalem and then deal with Acre afterwards.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Actually Gaza is a citadel so they have better chances of getting reinforcements there than in Acre where we already stand at the gates.
The main problem the turks and egyptians have right now is lack of funds anyway. Leaving them the castles won't make them train more as their current upkeep (especially after losing Jerusalem) will be too high with their full stack to the north to hire more.
No, they won't train units there, but it will give them time to move armies from other places to help defend the places. Regardless, I don't see how you can complain about their weakness and then push to take more settlements from them as fast as possible.
I would like to think so, and a human player would do that too, but experience and script files say otherwise.
If you have more than twice the frontline balance of military power (and we have ~4x or 5x) the AI will stay inside its cities and defend those instead of moving armies about to defend a city where you currently are, as they are aware the place is lost.
Right now, the only actual army they can move is north of Adana and that one will at best attack Adana or else just camp near Antioch. They have nothing south of Gaza that they can realistically send towards our position within 4 turns even. Plus even if they could, as I said above, they won't - they'll stay in the regions they currently are in due to "deep_defense"
As you may be aware, I am not complaining about their weakness at all but merely posting observations in terms of comparing to my SP campaigns. The OOC thread is to banter anyway. We have Mongols to worry about soon enough anyway.
Yeah, I'm eager to see the Mongols as well, especially with a 1.2 campaign and battle AI. Hopefully we won't be so powerful in the region by then that they won't be a challenge. I would love to a see a crisis caused by the loss of settlements and generals to the Mongol hordes.
What year is it that they finally show up on the map? 1240? 1260?
1224 the latest, 1208 the earliest I think. That's the warn. 4-8 years later the first wave.
Wow, that means they could come in the next Chancellorship and definitely by the one following. I'm excited!
Dutch_guy is still fighting that battle?
Just finished, am currently uploading.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Here's the save:
http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/kotr1190-1-fin.rar
:balloon2:
I'm playing 1.2 and 10 Full 9 star Mongol stacks turned up and took Adana off me.
I have a full stack fairly advanced Scottish stack in it. It was a castle second from the top. They attacked with three stacks and took it off me after losing about 1400 men.
I lost the lot plus a really good general in the process. I had Antioch, Adana and the city to the north and west of Adana. I “turtled down” and waited them out. They nailed Adana then set off for Constantinople. I can't imagine we can fight them off. In fact I hope we can't.
I think you all know that by now I'm far more interested in succeeding in the face of adversity rather than it all being too easy.
I think we will have troubles withe Mongols too mainly because we lack high star generals. I mean the highest star general we got right now has like what? 4 or 5 stars?
Plus we are kind of behind on technology (the joys of PBMing :p )
We do get to hope though that the mongols behave like they do in my SP campaigns: sit around their spawning point doing absolutely nothing till Timurids invade. Of course we could jsut declare war on them for fun (by sending up an assassin) but yeah.
What is needed to kill mongols: highly experienced mt.sgt. or mailed knights + several long range missile units. Or just several full stacks of mailed knights + a few feudals. But our house rules prohibit that :D
Maybe eventually those rules might get changed as the event advisor says: "New tactics are needed for new foes"
I'd say though that we ought to only consider loosening those rules once we lost a battle or two against them to signify we noticing their tactics and the need to adapt and not before even engaging them. Maybe an emergency session even
Leopold is an 8 or 9 star general.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
They did hang around in my SP game on 1.2 for a while, but once they decided they wanted Constaninople they really went for it.
I'd say our parliamentary system will be quite a problem for creating Mongol killing armies, and I really don't know how we can afford serveral full stacks of heavy cavalry. Tactical change is certainly plausible but will it happen fast enough?
The only way to consider loosening the rules is to Role Play, and certainly I would expect the first few engagements to be ugly before an emergency session is called.
Let the sign ups for the first person to assault a multi stack of mongols begin then haha
LOL!!Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Yes that will surely be a "Folorn Hope"!!
Actually, I'll happily do it. I'd like to write a dramatic death scene. Avatar shortages are essentially over already and we'll probably have too few players for our generals by the time the Mongols arrive, so there's no real penalty to dying, unless you're REALLY attached to the guy.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
But there is still the question of avatars available in the ME. Austrian are not represented, but relatively near. Franconian's will leave once von Mahren left. Bavarians are left to Max, Otto and once you 2 dies out, that's the end of the line too. Can Max and Otto still adopt? Only Swabians seems to be well represented in the family line, with Henry, Hans and soon Ulrich. They seems best able to absorb avatar casualties and still have a line in the ME.
So the hordes are pretty close! Excellent!
Thye might also wipe out our enemies (Russia (not war though) Turkey etc) Even Better!
If they land near Baghdad or anywhere else in the ME, they'll likely hit the Turks or us. If they land in Sarkel, they'll either go for Russians or down to Turkey.
After we patch to 1.2, same religion factions get relations boost, so its likely they might just skip those guys and head straight for us.
What are the Baghdad/Sarkel odds? In a dozen campaigns, I have never seen them appear anywhere other than Baghdad.
They can appear: Baghdad, Sarkel, Yerevan. So 1/3 each.
Usually appear near Yerevan for me.
Btw, who's supposed to have the save atm? Noticed nothing happening today after Dutch_guy's battle?
It turns out that we've got one more battle this year, as we have to crush that large Polish army NE of Breslau.
I swear this is the last one.
Just a quick note confirming I have the save, and will be fighting the pending battle ASAP.
:balloon2:
Speaking of Battles. I finally updated the last two battle report that were missing. I know that the text has been up for a few days now, but I finally have all the pictures in place. Enjoy! :beam:
This has been up the past to hours, but due to the fora being offline I didn't get the chance to provide a link. Here it is:
http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/kotr1190-3-fin.rar
:balloon2:
Here goes me hoping our spy manages to open the gates of Acre or there is still an egyptian army outside of it when OK ends turn :D
Well, I ran into an unfortunate problem in the siege of Breslau last evening - a spy problem. You see the pre battle screen told me the spy had opened the gates, as a result of which I immediately ordered my siege carrying forces to drop their equipment, and moved them as close to the walls as I could. Sadly, it seemed my spy had supplied false information, as the gates were still shut...Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
:balloon2:
That never happened to me. Sounds definitely like a bug though, unless there is an issue with a foreign spy being inside the settlement causing it to display the open gates icon (i.e. say a Hungarian/Danish spy in the Polish settlement). Pretty annoying too I bet!
Version 1.22c is up.
A lot of fixes inside except for the threshold fixes which I will bring out once the chancellor has patched to M2TW 1.02.
http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/KOTRfix122c.rar
Please make sure you update.
1.23 is actually ready and 1.22c is just 1.23 minus the lower thresholds due to antitraits.
FactionHeir, when I click on your link to the save, I get redirected to atomicgamer. Also the save is not listed in the PBM files. While there might be a problem with the uploader, could you give another shot at uploading?
It works for me. Atomic Gamer is where you get redirected sometimes when the forum goes down, so I'm guessing there was a temporary website problem when you tried to get the file. Try again.Quote:
Originally Posted by OverKnight
Yup, you were right. Got the save. I will now update my fixes and then on to Jerusalem.
Library Bios have been added for Elberhard and Helmut von Hamburg. AFAIK they have no yet been assigned to players.
My battle report is finished.
OverKnight, where's Ulrich at the moment? I hope he doesn't get sunk by an Egyptian fleet.
Ulrich and the fleet are off the Greek coast south of Corinth. You'll be in the Holy Land in 3-4 turns. Before the Crusade ends, I'll make sure to move his fleet first.
As for getting sunk, due to the house rule of 2 units a ship, the fleet is 5 Holks. I doubt Ulrich is in danger.
On the unassigned avatars (one Franconian and one Swabian), my understanding is that there are only Austrian players who do not currently have avatars. If any such players wants to "borrow" one of the new avatars until an Austrian spawns, that would be fine.
Now would also be a good time for any lurkers who want to join the game to sign up - they should be able to get an avatar and jump right in.
Otherwise, we will just leave the two new generals unassigned, so that players whose avatars die will have a "resurrection hulk" to respawn into. (For sci-fi fans, yes, that revelation means GH is the last of the final five cylons - which might explain a lot, when you think about it. :laugh4: )
Ummm. . .we're already Vampires it seems, Heinrich's reign was 90 years, do we need to add psychotic robots to the mix?
Of course I have been tempted to have Otto say, "Sometimes you gotta roll a hard six" in a battle report.
To GH's credit, Conrad is hardly a clone of Heinrich, quite the opposite. When Otto kicks it, I'm not sure I'll be able to establish a different character as easily.
Edit: I am periodically checking direct2drive's site looking for their patch release, no joy yet. Very frustrating.
LOL,Quote:
Originally Posted by OverKnight
Roll a hard six...that's classic.
I'm sure you can use the avatar character traits to get a starting point for the next person you inhabit OK
Econ,
I'll still stand pat on the avatar issue. "Arnold of Austria: Governor of California" is around the corner, so I'll hang out until he's spawned.
A people's governor? I can just see you running for Chancellor.
Edict 8.1: The Chancellor must crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentation of their women.
I am still here and I have been patiently waiting. "Borrowing" one now would not feel right at this point. However, if Meckil heads towards being a spinster I may have to rethink my options.Quote:
Originally Posted by econ21
Technically I think that would have to be an ammendment, since it would risk excommunication. :laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by TinCow
Still I would have loved to fulfill that edict.
Nice battles guys, really kicking egyptian ass. At this point is Antioch being left for later? or till after the crusades are over to avoid desertion? Any news on the french front?
Yep, Antioch is being ignored for now. Keep in mind that all Crusade related legislation is about to expire, because the Crusade will be done. That means that the Council of Crusaders comes to an end and the Diet resumes decision making control over what goes on out there.
And massive expansion in Europe is possible again too. Unless we call a new edict at the next session.
OK gets to call the shots till then though ~:)
The French haven't said boo since Ignoramus gutted them and we snuck into Marseille. It's not for lack of troops, but I think we have enough forces on their border that they're being cautious.
Edit: Remember, we now have to consider our papal standing. Many of the catholic nations are high in his favor. If we blitz, our rating will nosedive.
I suspect that the next Diet Session will see a lot of debate over expansion vs internal development.
How old is the current pope btw. I guess we might get an Imperial pope next, which means all factions at war with us get a nosedive in terms of papal standing.
The Chancellor's report has been updated:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...&postcount=124
I have sent the save out to Ituralde, once I get it back I can conclude the year and move to the next. I should resume playing this evening (Eastern).
Maybe it's just me, but we've fought a lot of battles recently.
Edit: Pope Pisanus is young for a Pope, 56.
I will have to ask Ichigo if he is still playing.If he is i think he should get the Franconian avatar.:yes:Quote:
Originally Posted by econ21
When you have characters as dynamic as Heinrich and Conrad, it's quite easy to switch between the two since they're polar opposites. When I try to think of an action that Conrad would do, I simply ask myself what Heinrich would do in the situation and then do precisely the opposite of that. I imagine that it would be much harder to transition to a character with only a moderate amount of differences, since gradually you'd have that character evolve in the direction of the previous one.Quote:
Originally Posted by OverKnight
Keep in mind if we expand further in Europe it'll all be over.
It's 1190 or something for godsake. There's centries to go, there will be no point playing if we are double the size of every other nation and have a win loss ration with avatar fought battles that remains above 99.9%.
So are you saying... that we should start losing!?
Hm...I like your style!:grin3: :laugh4: .
Well, we could always do this:Quote:
Originally Posted by AussieGiant
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=85054
As Tincow said, it's likely the expansion vs internal development tension will come to fore when the limiting legislation surrounding the crusade expires. As Chancellor after OK, I will try to restrain the urge to conquer for the OOC reason AussieGiant gives but I will try to make it interesting for those who feel frustrated by this.
It would be useful to know if players feel they personally are not fighting enough battles (I assume all players love fighting battles, so this is the default sentiment), but also to hear from anyone who is sick of squashing rebels or fighting defensive border engagements. If you let me know, we should be able to work out ways of rotating postings and thinking up diversions to keep everyone happy while not making the game a cakewalk.
One idea I am toying with as Chancellor is to give the AI their 100k/Diet as usual. That should allow them to upgrade buildings, hire stuff etc. But then also to give them 10k/turn afterwards, to help pay the upkeep for whatever they have splurged on.
We are now in the mid-game period where multiple battles per turn may be the norm. The WotS slowed down a lot during this period because of it. But we've kept up a good pace so far.Quote:
Originally Posted by Overknight
Is this working the 100k? Does the AI make could use of the donation from what you can see in troops. Would the 10k/turn also be properly utilized by them? It's not like it's our money we are losing but I just wondered if this was helping to make the AI more challenging overall.Quote:
Originally Posted by econ21
I think only the factions we are actively at war with (i.e. we are invading their lands or planning to) ought to get the extra 10k/turn as they won't utilize it otherwise.
As we can see, Turks and Egypt used up their 100k very quickly (or nearly anyway), while other factions we are at war with but don't invade still have over 30k left at the end of 1 chancellorship
I will be voting for a non-expansionist policy for the next Chancellorship for one reason: The Chancellorship after this one (and several beyond that) will have to deal with the Mongols. If we restrain ourselves a little now, we will have some very challenging battles before us in the near future.
My apologies for my absence, Verizon DSL went down in my area for about a day. Let me catch up, and then I will finish off the year and get started on the next.
I'm conflicted, OOC I want a non expansionist policy, because I think it will make for a richer overall gaming expierence. BUT then Gerhard (Most gerneals in the riech actually) will be looking at a lot of boring years ahead save for an invading army or 3, I say this cause at 0 piety he really has no IC reason to go on crusade, and I'll feel a little left out. Also I think Conrad Sailer should get the riens of the BHA sooner or later....This non-religeous yes man persona of his can get boring at times.
I've been thinking of an edict where we make one last large peace offering to Milan (5K florins + trade rights or something like that) and if they refuse invade.
I personally really liked the limited expansion edict (but I did propose it :D :D ). But writing a new one would be hard as we really only are fighting the French and Poles, AFIAK Hugary and Venice have calmed down a lot and denmark, sicily and england aren't at war with us...yet. meh, the next diet session is still a ways away *puts thinking cap on*
I think for now a non expansionist rule would be quite OK, although I would still say we should fight our 'natural' foes: France and Poland. We should make peace with other factions where possible and start thinking of building up massive armies in the ME to prepare for the Mongols. Or instead of armies think of building the blacksmith buildings so we get better armour for trained troops. Actually the latter would make more sense IC as we don't know of Mongols just yet.
I tot the mongols activities were announced in game... Just that IC, you cannot know how strong they are, ie. look down on them as a bunch of barbarians from the steppe.
Mongols get announced when its 4-8 years before their actual spawn/invasion. Up until then people knew very little if anything about them or if they did thought it was nothing to worry about.
my bad, I tot I remember seeing something about the mongols appearing soon in one of the reports.
desertion as we are besieging the target city........interesting.
The desertion was from the Cusade forces left in Adana. I guess the OOC thing to do would have been to have Maximillian and his army leave the crusade. But IC, Max is still very much part of the Crusade, and I wasn't going to do that.
Holy crap that's a lot of desertion. I'm right in thinking that garrison units aren't supposed to desert, right?
I'm not too familiar with the desertion mechanic. The forces were garrisoned in Adana. I'm a bit peeved that the regular mercs we hired deserted, you'd think they'd want to get paid.
I have recruited a DisKnight, a Serg Spearman, and Fuedal Knight for next turn. I might have Max step outside Adana and see what's available for mercs.
I don't think hiring mercs is necessary. Jerusalem will be taken this turn, so no more desertion will happen. Adana is more than capable of supplying its own garrison.
Long term yes, short term. . .maybe. The manpower pool has to recharge a bit, I emptied it out again recruiting those men, unless you're a fan of peasants (ok for garrison, but I wouldn't put them in the field.)Quote:
Originally Posted by TinCow
Also there's a full stack Egyptian force off to the NE, not to mention random Turk forces. . .Things could get interesting.
As I warned before, the garrisoned crusade troops would desert.
This is because some code CA planned was not implemented which would prevent garrisoned troops from deserting.
Well, we'll live. Will make our mission tougher too which is good.
off topic:Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Sounds like the story of m2tw, do they plan on implementing it do you know?
on topic:
the teutons and spearmen really hurt, pilgrims are just like peasents, and it's the fanatics are like peasents with a good attack, correct?
That's about the size of it. Religious fanatics are good shock troops, high attack, but they won't last long in a fight.
As for desertion, meh, we've had a good Crusade, so I'm not going to complain (too much).
Still no joy on a direct2drive patch. . .I'm thinking that if one does not appear by the end of my term, the rest of the PBM should upgrade for the start of econ's term and I'll make do.
If thing's get too bad, I'll just go out and get a hard copy of the game. A waste of 50 bucks, but it'll solve the problem.
We certainly can't prepare for the Mongol's.
IC we have no way of knowing what is really going to hit us until after the fact.
OOC I think limiting expansion in Europe and dealing with the Middle East invasions is going to provide the best game play. I appreciate Stuperman's point though. If your back in Europe it could be a bit dull.
I guess we are just going to have to find a middle ground through IC developments such as what Econ described for rotations.
I hope there is going to be substantial death rates when facing the Mongols. Some real "backs against the walls" stuff would be great.
We should do a whip round...and rustle up the cash to help :2thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by OverKnight
I see nothing wrong with limited expansion in Europe, as was legislated previously. Despite limiting conquests during the Crusade, we still took Venice, Budapest, Ragusa, Breslau, and Marsaille, as well as re-taking Metz. Not exactly shabby on European expansion.