I have to say that both TinCow and Ivarrwolfsong's stories are worth noting. Good reads, and hopefully we'll see more of them popping up soon.
I myself am in the process of one.
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I have to say that both TinCow and Ivarrwolfsong's stories are worth noting. Good reads, and hopefully we'll see more of them popping up soon.
I myself am in the process of one.
Thanks for the compliments...
now get back to building churchs! <<cracks the Holy Bull Whip of St. Indianus Johans>>
Good work, TinCow - it would be good to see attitudes to the Papacy as another fault line in the Diet (along with regional loyalties). I think I learned some history from your story too. :book:
I was just thinking, why should we be friends with the Pope? Apart from the Inquisitors, it would be fun to get excommuniated as well as historical.
Oh, and was there a mod that removed Inquisitors? I was thinking that may that might have been a good idea.
I have been planning to be Anti-Papal from the start... hence my solo vote against 1.1. It makes sense to me, because the Investiture Controversy was only 5 years before our game was meant to begin. It's also the reason that CA gives the HRE very low starting relations with the Pope. I figured the start of the game is the only time when we can realistically connect to history, since from here on out it diverges. Plus, Rome is one of our victory requirements, so at least an Anti-Papal stance has some basis in gameplay as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by econ21
It should be easy to role-play that regardless of any traits acquired anyway. If Anti-Papal avatars get religious traits, just play like they are holy, but don't acknowledge the Pope as the rightful head of the Church. If they get non-religious traits, well... it's even easier to defy Rome!
For reference, this is the map I used to figure out what territories were 'lost' in the previous few years:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...1/HRE_11Jh.PNG
I have a few suggestions:
That the Counties be named after the territory rather than the settlement. I.e. The Count of Hamburg would be instead the Count of Saxony, the COunt of Metz, Burgundy etc.
Also, are we going to make Saxony a separate House? They were the most important Duchy to the Emperors, so I think it would be a shame not to include them.
I want to Splinter off in some direction (holy land?) as teutonic house! Fun!
:laugh4: It may be easier to keep 4 houses though.
With Peter being in the House of Bavaria and Max's hate for Pope Greg, I see some friction ahead =).
Friction? There's no friction. You obviously you haven't been to the House of Bavaria weekend retreat yet. We eat smores, sing cumbayah and make decorative ashtrays for the other Houses. Max is just one of those misunderstood gruff, but with a heart of gold, tough guys.Quote:
Originally Posted by IvarrWolfsong
Otto, on the other hand, is just "Eager". All exclamation points and puppy dog idealism. I hope he gets "Horribly Scarred" or something so I can darken him up a bit. At least he threw a small chapel your way in the build queue Ivarr.
Edit: The book I ordered on the HRE should arrive today or tomorrow:
http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Holy...e=UTF8&s=books
It was the best pick out of a limited field considering I don't speak or read German. I'm looking forward to having more background for my posts.
I want to keep just the four houses both for transparency (so we can read them off the family tree) and for simplicity (four factions seems enough when there are only about three players in each).Quote:
Originally Posted by Ignoramus
But if Counts want to change their titles, that's fine. Ditto Dukes with their Houses. Lucjan did raise the issue of a House of Saxony a while back.
Having one faction become like the Teutonic Order, facing off with the pagans in the east would be fun. Ditto, another becoming a Kingdom of Heaven in the Holy Land. These are all characterful role-playing possibilities for the Houses to consider - they should communicate with the Emperor and Chancellor to see if they will play along. (I would if I were in one of those offices.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Pevergreen
Just a heads up, Carl posted this fix in the Citadel - it might be worth checking out.
:balloon2:
As I understand it, players can change weapon stats and animations without it affecting the savegames. So if people with a battle to fight want to use such a fix when fighting their battle, I don't think that would cause any problem for other players.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dutch_guy
Exactly, sounds like something we'd want to have. Or well, at least those who're fighting the battles.Quote:
Originally Posted by econ21
:balloon2:
I tend to lean against this, it could allow the overpowering of weapons and instigate victories where we, in every right, should lose. I'm looking forward to a difficult game this time, not a repeat of the victory after victory after victory we had in the Rome pbem.
I agree 100 %, but would you like facing Varangians who weren't able to hit a three foot pole in the ground if their life depended on it ? Same for Janissaries, Billmen, and an assortment of other units. Some which we may even have to use ourselves. I don't want to make the game easier guys, I just want to play it the way the programmers intended it to be played - with somewhat effective 2H units.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucjan
:balloon2:
I will be using those fixs, but the shield benefits everyone. The pike wont help us for a while, neither will the two hander animation fix. So no problem.
Just a heads-up:
Braden has the savegame, as he is about to assault Prague (he does have the option of continuing to starve the defenders as the odds are more even than the previous battles).
It is 1098, which means the midterm is coming up very soon. The savegame can be viewed at kotr1098-1.
A report will be coming up tomorrow.
awsome!
Just got the PM Lucjan thanks, will think about it but I'm likely to wait a bit to even the odds a bit more in my favour (also seeing as my experiences thus far with the current settings have been "less than favorable").
But I'll consider the options when I've looked at teh save file tomorrow night.
No worries. Hopefully what you lack in troop advantage you make up for in equipment advantage, as strategic use of them has served us well recently. :yes:
There's no dishonour in starving out enemy settlements - I routinely do it in my solo play. A sally defence is so much easier than a siege assault. And when fighting rebels, it is not like there is much of a rush.
If we go for Antwerp, with the scarey Flemish pikemen, I'd be inclined to starve them out. It's hard to use archers in a siege assault and pikemen really don't like archers.
Going after Antwerp now would actually put us in conflict with the Danes. Check the western border colors of Hamburg. The sneaky buggers used a fleet to land in the low countries and took Antwerp soon after.
Hmm..we should take the Danes out, but it would be awsome to leave all the factions ingame. I try to do it.
Indeed it would, bit problematic though of course.Quote:
Originally Posted by pevergreen
:balloon2:
For a change, I'm at home today so will look at this battle now.
Starving vs Assault - I'm usually ok with assault but I always allow myself a 2:1 advantage normally (i.e. in Rome). I've not had that benefit with Medieval 2 so far and havent now.
I've tried speading deployment but the AI has just reposted his defenses to compensate.
Lets have a look at this save then huh?
(BTW - still hoping we haven't modded this from version 1.1 as nothing appeared to be set in stone about add-ons etc)
Actually, we are using one small mod that fixes some vices and virtues in the game. You can download it from the first post in this thread, and the instructions are in the readme.
Interesting - thanks for the heads up. :2thumbsup: And I gather the Milanese have taken Dijon? Looks like the borders are being drawn.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucjan
I know we are all "lower house" generals and should check out the savegames ourselves, but it is good to have information on this kind of thing for those of us busy with other stuff.
Poland has also taken Magdeburg but Breslau is still open. Dietrich prodded the kaiser to let him take Magdeburg before the Poles or Danes could get there, but he didn't bite.
However, in terms of neighboring rebels. We've got Stettin, Breslau and Bern left. Everything else is in some faction or another's hands.
My personal inclination is an alliance with the Poles, and leave our other neighbors to their own devices while we work to strengthen our current borders just about everywhere. I'd advocate taking Bern, but nothing else. This is where overexpanding could bite us bad. I'd also suggest concentrating an army in both Hamburg and Staufen. Antagonizing the Venicians and the Danes into declaring war shouldn't be difficult, and the territory we could wrest from them in the form of Arhus and Venice would solidify the Reich's northern frontier and connect our Italian holdings to our core, while at the same time taking the two most prominent trading cities on either side of the continent. Venice giving us sway over the Adriatic and an opening into the Mediterranean, and Arhus giving us absolute control of the Sund, and essentially the Baltic and Scandinavia in the process.
ok, installed the VnV mod but one question?
the two .txt files need to be in what folder in the .data directory? I have then just currently sitting in the .data folder without being in a subfolder.
now, I opted for maintaining the siege as I went back on a past save file and as Prague has Sergeant Spearmen plus "whatever" and I only have a one unit advantage in numbers I really think assaulting now...in Winter and without waiting for a potential response for re-enforcements would be silly.
BTW - have not tested the game yet since installing the VnV mod.
I put the files in the main data folder. The bat file is in the M2 main directory. I have been running the game fine with no problems. Of course medifix is subtle for a Mod so it's tough to tell if it's working or just vanilla. From some of the traits and retainers I've seen though, I think it's working. Governors aren't morphing into syphilitic morons and such.
The upcoming Diet should be interesting, from reviewing WotS it seemed that one of the main dividing points was expansion versus consolidation. Throw in the four Houses and there should be some fun oratorical broadsides coming up.
May sound like a rather dumb question, but I must have missed where I can download the current savegame from. Could someone bring me up to date please. Seems everybody's checking the savegame, except me. :help:Quote:
Originally Posted by econ21
http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/
The saved games are named kotr and year and sometimes with a 1 or 2 indicating prebattle or postbattle.
Edit: Click on "last modified" twice and that should bring up the most recent save.
A disturbing vision of the future from my test game:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I didn't put a lot of effort into paying off anyone except the Pope so this may not be inevitable.
I'm defending successfully on all fronts, except Italy, where I've taken the initiative and seized Venice and Genoa while besieging Milan.
Edit: Spoilers tags wouldn't appear on my preview of the post but appeared in the post itself. Weird.
Sweet! Time for Fighting!
I guess we will be handing out some declarations of war soon.
They all declared on me. Venice first, then they all began to pile on. The Danes even betrayed our Marriage alliance. Of course this is just my test game run off the initial KotR 1080 save, results in the actual KotR might vary. Though once we reach a certain size we'll most likely be unpopular.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ignoramus
For Sure!
Lets get cracking some skulls!
For the sake of maintaining a decent sort of blindness in regards to roleplaying our game out realistically in regards to players not being able to make prophetic predictions and what not, I have to advise against playing ahead with kotr saves. No problems with playing a seperate HRE campaign on your own, but please don't play ahead with kotr saves.
We went over this with the WotS game and all agreed that it's better not to do so for the sake of maintaining a proper role playing perspective, keeping the game surprising, and, in all reality, maintaining a decent level of fairness between our dealings and the computer's ai. Let's face it, there's over a dozen of us, and 1 central computer ai trying to outsmart us. Let's keep this challenging by not peering into the future so to speak.
Okay, it's the midterms.
http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/kotr1100.zip
I will post a midterm report and begin the session of the Diet shortly. Thank you for your patience.
The game I posted off of was a separate HRE campaign played 34 turns forward from the initial KotR 1080 save. The original save was used to ensure I got the unit size and difficulty settings right and to check compatability with the medifix mod. I've been playing the separate campaign to practice battles and to become familiar with HRE units. I have not been playing forward from the recent saves. I apologize if I unintentionally gave that impression.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucjan
This is a valid point, I now realize even posting off of a another HRE game could spoil people or ruin the surprise of the game. I erred when I posted specific information. In the future, I might post about a glitch or oddity, like adoption, but I won't post again about specifics like diplomacy, game history, or scripted events from my HRE game. :oops:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucjan
So to sum up, I made an error in protocol but I am not in the Oracle business.
It's alright dlain, I don't think any harm has come of it.
On another note, I have a suggestion for TinCow and the Imperial Library.
I suggest that we record the achievements of each Chancellor and Kaiser. We could have the Chancellor/Kaiser's avatar, the list of towns and castles conquered during his reign, a map of the provinces conquered during his reign, and a list of the battles won and lost during his reign.
I agree with Ignoramus
I'll do an update of the Library tonight with the new avatar and info. I'll create a section as suggested for cataloging the events of each Emperor's reign.
I have another question which perhaps belongs in the Diet, but given the nature of the previous land allocation discussions, I think it's best to bring it up here first. Do Houses have the right to trade settlements that have already been allocated to them by the Emperor? If we really have sovereign control over our lands, shouldn't we be free to dispose of them as we wish?
I believe that was one of the argument I made for houses being allocated settlements rather than being able to vote for them. They have to earn them first, but can later trade them freely via a passed edict.
Also, to Dlain, seems that I may have come out a little snappy on that one. Sorry, didn't mean any harm.
Yes, I think Houses (read: Dukes) should be able to dispose of settlements as they see fit. Counts who are the sons of a Duke should have a veto over trading their own settlement though. (It's only the bonded Counts who can be turfed out by the Duke - he has to put up with his own rotten kids.)Quote:
Originally Posted by TinCow
I'm inclined to keep settlement allocation out of edicts though - this is the Middle Ages, we don't want too much democracy.
:laugh4:Quote:
this is the Middle Ages, we don't want too much democracy
Interesting idea, I like it. Opens up some nice, private wheelings and dealings.
The Library has been updated (it's easy when there's only a few avatars!). Unfortunately, it seems that CA changed the way the character view screen works. In RTW, the entire area would be devoted to retinue and V&V if the character was in a ship or in a fort. In M2TW, the divider line is there no matter where the person is. This makes it much more of a pain in the ass for me to take screenshots of the V&V, etc. I will certainly continue doing it, but since I will have to start cutting and pasting from multiple photos for each avatar with more than 5 traits, they may not look as neat as they did in RTW. Apologies for that. If anyone can figure out how to view a full screen of traits, I would very much like to know.
Also, for anyone who can't see the World Map well and/or hasn't loaded up the saved game: Ajaccio (Corsica) has been captured by Milan and Cagliari (Sardinia) is under siege by Sicily and likely to be taken. Even if Sicily fails, a Milanese army is next to Cagliari as well and will likely capture it. So... for whoever said that Milan does not have a castle settlement, that is not true.
No castle on the mainland... :beam:
Only looked at the savegame with fog of war on. :juggle2:
I don't think we should turn fog of war off, even for viewing purposes. We have an enormous advantage over the AI, so why do we need to cheat?
TinCow is the librarian, so in order to get some of his pretty pictures FOW has to be off. I like having that picture of the known world and seeing how the other factions are doing.
However, I do hope that actual game play is occurring with fog of war on, and that we're basing in game decisions off of this.
Was this issue ever dealt with in WotS? Any house rules?
I think we came to the view that:Quote:
Originally Posted by dlain
(a) the Consul/Chancellor should strictly play blind;
(b) with other players what they do in private is their business - some did play on from saves for fun - but they should not publicise anything that could prejudice the game and they should not try to influence other players with things learnt from parallel games.
I have absolutely no issues with turning off FOW to see who owns what. Surely it would be public knowledge after at least 2 years that Milan had conquered Corsica. Every last peasant would know by then, if they'd bothered to ask. Conquests of territories are not things that go unnoticed by other nations. So, unless there's some major belief to the contrary, I will continue to post the world map with FOW off in the Library.
I don't agree with turning off FOW during a Chancellor's gameplay, because it can reveal armies and other things that it shouldn't. However, that's different than knowing that Scotland has taken Inverness.
I have to agree with TinCow on this one.
The chancellor should, at no point in time for any reason, turn their fog of war off. Players should only base comments, information and opinions on saves that keep fog of war on.
However, I see no problem in TinCow turning fog of war off to update our map with the correct political situation for the time.
Playing with fog of war on, but periodically (in Diet sessions) revealing ownership of territories in the library seems a good compromise.
It can be a good surprise while playing as Chancellor to find out the hard way that an AI faction was suddenly where you did not expect it to be. E.g. it might have been fun to race for Antwerp but then discover the Danes had beaten us there.
But eventually word should get around and it would be silly to have an edict to take Antwerp premised on the wrong information about its owner.
Well, it was pretty easy to tell Antwerp fell to the Danes, our border colors with it changed from being on a rebel province to a Danish one. ~;)
But I agree with both of you on this one.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...o=file&id=1092
If I may suggest for Dukes and such, the Heraldry Mod
The Heraldry Mod is actually quite good. At the end of a turn, if a General controls a province, they get the Coat of Arms of that province (I don't know if there are bonuses). I believe the coat of arms can be traded off. Try it out.
TinCow, I'm expecting Max to nail his 95 theses onto the door of the church in Nuremberg at any moment. :laugh4:
Max is a firebrand, but he's in a tenuous position. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the Dukedom of Bavaria.
Yeah, I didn't really want to come right out with that so early, but I had already established that trait in my first story. Given that, it didn't make much sense Mandorf to just sit there and not respond when the Cardinal so blatantly praised the Pope. It kind of forced me to come out with it. I fully expect to be ostricized from the Diet. It would be fun if some other people would aggitate against the Pope, but somehow I doubt that's going to happen. Since it'll just be me on my lonesome, I'm rather doomed. It would be hillarious if I got burned by an Inquisitor, but it's equally possible that everyone BUT me will get burned. Silly AI...
I wouldn't worry TinCow, if a few of us do get barbecued, Max will be seen as the only man who saw it coming. Churchill to everyone else's Chamberlain.
What will be really funny is if I get burned =P.
To anyone that wants to get in the Papal Slugfest, I suggest you do some research on Pope Gregory VII, Pope Nicolas II, Henry II, Robert Guiscard and the Investiture Crisis. It is really a great story with some very interesting characters. Why it was never made into a Hollywood Epic is a mystery to me.
Personally I can see Max's and Peter's side of Gregory... they are both right in a way.
Wow, every single edict passed, not only that, but 2.10 passed unanimously. Have we ever had that happen before? If we have, I wasn't around for it.
As far as burning at the stake... it would be ironic if Dietrich got the flames, he's got an interesting background, I've been working on it and rewriting it a few times up until now. Finally happy with it, I'll be posting a new short story on him shortly, be sure to check the story thread in an hour or so. ~;)
I definitely expect several of us to get burned up at some point. Since all avatars are assigned, there's really no way to avoid it. So, if you've got some aspect of your character that you want to develop by story or in the Diet, don't delay on it!
I think everybody should check out the latest story about Dietrich in the story thread. https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...00#post1404700 And please, constructive criticism will be highly welcomed!
I think its a start of highly intresting story.The chess pieces are starting to take their place´s on the board.:2thumbsup:
I think I figured it out. . .Dietrich's true father is. . .
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Improbable, but it would tie several story lines together.
Good read, atmospheric and a cliff hanger to boot.
Nope, but an interesting theory. ~;)
All will be revealed in time. ~:)
There is little doubt in my mind that Dietrich's father is Polish, a merchant perhaps, given the last story. Of course, I have no idea what evil schemes are being planned this time.
Very perceptive Flydude, and you're right, but like you said, what kind of schemes are going on now?
But be careful! Just because Dietrich is scheming doesn't mean he's evil. He's no Servius, and so far he's proven to be nothing but a boon to the empire.
Due to a number of things- Lack of time (Starting year 11), inability to write decent stories among other things, i am pulling out of this PBM.
Sorry, but why make it worse for everyone else playing when i could forfeit my position and give it to someone who will be more active.
Nope, Pevergreen you're not allowed to leave. We're hereby chaining to the pbem.
Err..well, no. But in all seriousness there's no reason for you to leave. We haven't had any problems with you at all and you've been an active contributor, which is all we really expect from anyone. I'm pretty sure everybody would prefer that you stay on.
Indeed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucjan
Plus, being able to write top of the line stories isn't required anyway - and thank god for that ~:rolleyes: ~;) - we have other participants doing that already ! :beam:
By the way, Happy Birthday FLYdude.
:balloon2:
all edicts passed?...
So are we going to to saw Bern down the middle?
2.5 takes precedence over 2.2 because it received more votes. And we would have to take Bern first before sawing it down the middle, not exactly a given.
Actually, both 2.2 and 2.5 can be satisfied together. 2.2 seems to only require that Sigismund take part in the attack, while 2.5 requires that a Bavarian lead the attack. Sigismund only has 1 command star, while both Bavarian avatars have 2 command stars. So... put a Bavarian in the stack with Sigismund and the Bavarian will be in charge of the battle, with Sigismund participating.
Easy! LOL.
Well, that's only if you want to get technical. ~;p
I don't know if it's that wise to have two generals of different Houses fighting together in the same battle.
"Ah, here's my deadly enemy, Hans von Hans, why don't I see if he can break this wall of pikes?"
Not that I doubt anyone's intentions, at this stage at least, but avatars are precious, and we don't want them getting thrown away, even for political motives.
Well, I think TinCow was simply saying that they could be satisfied together, but don't have to be. The rules do state that 2.5 over rules 2.2. It's just that if the respective players did want both avatars to participate, it wouldn't be completely bizarre.
Oh I understand its not silly, just that it would only be fair if the second general was asked before battle was joined.
Oh darn-it! Another son of Austria lost??
In seriousness though, I have to be honest and say that I am not enjoying this as much as I did the WotS.
This, I feel, is mainly due M2:TW the game and certainly not the participants (as they’re mainly the same people!).
I am utterly un-hooked by M2:TW. I’ve found it an uninvolving game, plays too fast on the campaign scale, is unbalanced and buggy in battles and I’ve not found anything that makes me want to “not put it down” like Rome or Medieval.
Is this just me? :shame:
This is the main reason I’ve not been as fuller participant than normal, I just can get into the game and I’m not emphasising with any of the avatars. This could be in big part due to the abstraction of time used in the game (which would also account for my feeling that the campaign is rushed).
Anyway, enough moaning about M2! I’m not leaving the PBeM, that’s certain, I shall continue playing to my best and RPing to my best with you all. Perhaps not as much time will be spent on the game portion of it though.
Remember, this is not a comment against ANY of you people involved in this. You are all great, this is mainly a feeling that CA have dropped the ball with M2 and an acknowledgement of my own sentiments towards the software itself. :thumbsdown:
Perhaps, with a new PC (in the planning stage now), I can up the settings so that the “pretty” outweighs the “content” sufficiently? You never know.