Sicilian PBM-- Who Wants to be the King of Sicily?

Hi everyone,
I would like to start a Sicilian PBM campaign as I have had the most fun with them.

It's going to be early/expert/GA with VI 2.01 patch.

Some rules:

1. Role play your kings

2. No unjustified aggression. The targeting of threathening factions is OK and so is your GA goal targets but no rampant conquests as it makes it no so fun.

3. Listen to the Pope as much as possible and restrict yourself to defensive action against him.

4. Autocalc every battle except for 1 battle each turn that your king or a designated general participates in (ie. his best general)

I know this may be a bit controversial but it will make it more realistic as you can't simply outwit the AI in every battle and the king or his best general cannot be at every battle.
ALso, the campaign wouldn't get bogged down later.
exceptions may hold such as defending against the Horde if they attack multiple provinces with extreme odds.

Anyone interested?

If people are interested, I will start the first reign shortly and post a save game when I'm done.

BTW, I'll entertain suggestions such as modified AI treasuries

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (katank @ Feb. 28 2004,14:25)]4. Autocalc every battle except for 1 battle each turn that your king or a designated general participates in (ie. his best general)

I know this may be a bit controversial but it will make it more realistic as you can't simply outwit the AI in every battle and the king or his best general cannot be at every battle.
ALso, the campaign wouldn't get bogged down later.
exceptions may hold such as defending against the Horde if they attack multiple provinces with extreme odds.

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Do you really expect people to follow this rule? I mean anyone can say ok, but if I joined this PBM I would certainly not obey this rule.

Besides it's not very difficult for a good player to prepare armies which will defeat any AI armies, you can auteresolve or not, the results are pretty much the same. The AI doesnt get any benefit from it. It only decreases playability. And one more, not everyone plays battles himself anyway, I know that some players just autoresolve most of the time... well no me.

Regards,
EC

ok then, maybe we can scratch that rule. I just thought it might be interesting to play with it. The one played out battle a turn shouldn't be too limiting

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (katank @ Feb. 28 2004,15:17)]ok then, maybe we can scratch that rule. I just thought it might be interesting to play with it. The one played out battle a turn shouldn't be too limiting

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No Don't scratch that rule - it's a good idea. Someone else suggested it as one way of coping with the length of MTW campaigns and increasing the challenge.

I suspect it would come into play most during the early period of the game, when a human's superior tactical ability can be a big force multiplier.

Personally I would harden it to being king only, for role-playing reasons (if you're not on the battlefield you don't get to see it...).

Once the player gets a very large kingdom, he'd win on autoresolve too. Even then, I'm struggling through a Byzantine end-game PBM right now and such a rule would be welcome in making things less time consuming.

More generally, it's good to try out different things and see what works. Running one campaign by this rule would be a fun experiment. If people don't like the rule, they don't need to sign up.

I personally like the rule too. I was thinking perhaps his best general also as the sicilian royal family is sometimes a bit weak to be good for battles.

The thing is that playing a PBM by this rule isn't going to be any good if no one signs up.

Simon Appleton, would you be interested? Where did everyone else go for the PBMs? Should I start and post my reign to get it started? Ideas?

I say scratch the rule. If I were able to participate, I'd opt out with that rule in effect.

Generally speaking, the person starting a campaign plays the first reign but that is by no means an ironclad rule.

Yes, I'd be interested in joining this campaign, Katank. But I need to finish off my reign in the Byzantine thread first.

It's probably best to wait for a few people to sign up before starting the game. If another two people signed up, then that might be enough to begin with.

If people post that they would join without the controversial rule, that would be useful information - you could scratch the rule if not enough people sign up but enough indicate that they would play without it.

But I'd give it another week to see if you can lure any other players with the rule.

I guess since no one's joining, we can officially scratch out the autocalcing rule.
you are by no means required to autocalc battles. fight out as many of them as you like.

Katank,

Put me down if it ever gets going.

I like the autocalc rule...but if it proves unpopular then it doesn't matter to me...either way.

Should be fun, never played as Sicily.

I don't mind the Autocalc rule, I mean it certainly makes finishing up the game easier later on when the empire gets big... However it could make the campaign VERY hard as a result if we get invaded and are forced to autocalc.

Put my name down on the list and we'll see how it goes.

yeah, the autocalc rule was meant for finishing end games faster since many times it's a forgone conclusion.

so the (updated) list is currently:

me (katank) (current king of sicily) King Adam I (1087-?)
the_emperor
simon appleton
son of spam
aleksandr nevsky

the take on the auto calc rule should thus be play with it if you like and it's recommended but it's not mandatory. (technically we have no way of knowing anyhow, but still).

I'll start the game now and post my writeup soon.

Katank, please count me in.

sure, simon appleton, glad to have you on board.

If the Welsh PBEM game I signed up for doesn't arrive at the same time as this one, you can count me in. If it does, I'll just try to have two copies of MTW running http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...ons/tongue.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg.../gc-juggle.gif

post updated for the order of rulers

sorry about the somewhat silly question but how do you post images? I would like to post a mugshot of our beloved king Adam I.

In the mead hall there is a sticky about how to upload and post images.

How To Upload Screenshots Sticky Thread

How do I ropleplay if I get a king with no virtues/vices? Should I just go and try to get some? Sry if the question sounds stupid but I;m new to the whole PBEM thing.

Hey Katank,

Do you think you could move me to the bottom of the list? I've got some things coming up in the next few weeks.

son of spam, nice point you make.

I think all kings and princes get at least some V&Vs.

BTW, I think we should add a new rule. If your crown prince doesn't have any V&Vs (highly unlikely), get some

this is to prevent games from being boring and training up heirs is an interesting task.

so if you aren't spending much time on the economy or conquering, beef up your crown prince as much as you can so we should be steeped in jedi.

the sicilian royal line is mediocre in my opinion and thus needs some breeding.

aleksandr nevsky, you have been moved to the end of the list now.

the king is dead, long live the king

he died in 1113, having carved out a small empire for the sicilians. the coffers are full and growing fast.

writeup will be done once I get a little more time. Currently juggling some competitions, several papers, the Welsh game, and this writeup.

the savegame was uploaded to the PBM upload space called Sicilians_1113.zip and the_emperor is being notified.

The year is 1087. The kingdom of Sicily welcomes a new king, King Adam I.

Fanfare abound through out the streets and cheering to be heard everywhere as the king is very popular with the people. Even when he was a prince, he has proven his mettle on the battle field as was reputed to be an skilled attacker.

He was also quite intelligent and is an capable administrator. He is destined to take the kingdom to greatness as many have hoped. He was also a reasonably religious man, willing to conquer new territories for the church.

Due to overseeing construction upon new defensive structures in the territory of Malta, the Prince unfortunately could not get back at Sicily in time for his father's death.

Thus, one of the two barques that came with our Norman ancestors was sent to the malta channel to retrieve him.

The princess and an emissary traveled to Venice to hold consul with our catholic brothers the Italians.

The next year, 1088 saw King adam back on his beloved island of Sicily. He arrived with a unit of spearmen and together with the spearmen on sicily and an urban militia unit recently levied, there was adequate force to protect the island from the possible aggression of the infidel Byzantines from the north.

In addition, watch towers have now been constructed in both Sicily and Malta and now the populace is far happier due to extra security. Those working the guard duty in Sicily report an unit of swordsmen in Naples equipped in the fashion of the legions of Rome that the Byz considered themselves the successors of. Also, there was a curious group of little men practicing with throwing little pots that explode and causes a frightful noise.

Seeing the weakness in the Byz forces, King Adam decided that the next year, we shall strike and drive those infidels from Italy and restore our glorious empire of the two Sicilies so that our brethren on the other side of the channel can also
live under the Sicilian flag.

Now, there is unfortunate news from Italy as our princess and emissary were both turned down by the Italians What insolence they also dared to send a galley into the straits of Sicily.

Convinced that the Italians are up to no good, King Adam decided to war with them after he finished warring with the Byz.

He ordered the princess to seek a marriage and alliance with the Hungarian king and the emissary to seek one with the HRE emperor to isolate Italy and thus enable us to crush them between our forces and those of our allies.

He also ordered the barque that returned from malta to join with another already in the channel to destroy the italian galley.

He simultaneously invaded Naples with all his forces and commissioned one more unit of militia in anticipation of need to pacify the Naples populace after conquest and ordered several dromons to be built afterwards in anticipation of severe naval war with the Italians.

In 1089, the Kingdom of Naples was taken with 52 losses to us and 72 killed and rest captured for the Byz forces.
The King's Royal Knights gallantly charged those funny men throwing pots and managed to avoid their strange but deadly attacks and mowed them down.

The successor of the legions though, proved to be true to their legacy and caused all the casualties of the battle. The two units of spearmen pinned them down though taking heavy losses while our militia flanked them. Despite this, they still put up a very good fight and didn't break until the king's victorious knights returned and delievered two withering charges into their rear.

With nowhere to run, we gained some 500 florins for the return of the Byz prisoners.

At sea, we were similarly successful. The Italian galley never stood a chance.

The King ordered the fleet to the Ionian where a year later were we failed to intercept a galley which cause King Adam endless vexation.

Construction was also done on an inn in Sicily to provide a place of respite for soldier and possibly attract some mercernaries for the fight against the Italians.

Year 1090 rolled by and while the Naples population was pacified, wedding bells tolled thorughout the empire as our beloved princess married the Hungarian crown prince.

The next year saw the making of another alliance, this time with the HRE.

Now the Italian navy dare not come out of the Adriatic

Thus, a barque left and sailed for the other side of the penisula where we hope to attack Tuscany after destroying that troublesome galley and then move up, sandwiching the Italians between us and out allies.

A newly comissioned dromon also set sail.

Some further building occurred and everything was rather uneventful until 1093 when still in Naples visiting his new subjects, our crown prince Adam won his first pair of spurs and joined his father. He was a great warrior and capble of mighty feats in personal combat and serves as his father's pride.

In 1094, our lord admiral albergati was ordered into the adriatic to destroy the remnants of the Italian fleet.

In 1095, we had many naval victories. Our dromon and barque each sank an Italian galley in the Straits of Sicily and the Tyrennian seas respectively.

Most spectacular though, was the triump by Lord Albergati's lone barque over two Italian galleys in the Adriatic which came as a surprise since one of them was newly comissioned. However, Lord Albergati performed brilliantly and earned his second star.

Now, time was ripe for the invasion of Italy Our forces landed in Tuscany with a company of mercenaries under King Adam in 1096.

In 1097, King Adam moved onto Venice where the Italians abandoned the province without a fight and did not even dare to take refuge in the castle but fled to Milan.
Prince Adam moved with newly built Sicilian spearmen to keep up the siege in Tuscany.

In a series of battles, we took first Genoa and then Milan, killing the Italian Doge during the castle assault at Milan and two of their princes along with him were captured. However, they refused to ransom them much to our vexation as they already ransomed back a prince who was captured in the fighting at Genoa.

Thus, we took all Italian territories except for the islands by 1102.

After this, King Adam decided that the mercenaries were no longer necessary and hence disbanded all of them and kept the peace using our native spearmen forces.

Our coffers were nearly empty though as we only had some 1300 florins.

1106, another warship comissioned. archers introduced into our armies.

1110, we are finally out of financial straits as our bank increased to 8k after one ship moving into the Ligurian sea and the HRE creating a port in Provence where we could export our goods to.

In 1111, the French King sent an emissary and we accepted despite this meaning an end to our relations to Germany as their large border forces in Burgundy, Provence, and Austria may mean designs on our rich lands of Genoa, Milan, and the crown jewel Venice which we treasure only next to our beloved homeland of Sicily.

The last few years of the king's life was spent in relative peace as he set aside his spurs and instead chose to mingle with the populace in newly acquired Italian territories and manage finances of the empire. He emphasized farming and trade and created a stable economic base from which his successors could work and comissioned numerous building projects, making him a magnificent builder and great steward. Ships were being built in Venice and Sicily and we even opened a trade route to North Africa

Alas, King Adam is unable to see his goal of a crusade to reclaiming Palestine for Christianity but only witnessed the completion of a church in Sicily.

His crown Prince who is named after him now takes the throne and may he have a long and prosperous reign His brothers are all good commanders and pledged to serve him till death.

The new King of Sicily Adam II is now making his annual state of the empire speech and it roughly states that we have 16k coffers and roughly 4k of net income per year.

In addition, we are the dominant naval power of the Mediterranean and are planning to expand into the southern steppes. In fact, an emissary is already on his way to propose unification plans.

Unfortunately, my sisters are not yet married and this would have to be attended to.

Now for local news: Christian bandits in Sardinia drove out the Italians. We may want to take bribe the army which costs only 3k and take the island which can serve as a naval base. Also, a church is completed in Sicily and we are well on our way to the deceased king's goal of crusades

Iternational news: french and HRE at war. The successors of Rome, the Byz, are at war with both the sons of the Pharaoahs the Mamluks and The hellish horses of the Turks.

We may want to take advantage of these conflicts to our advantage.

Ok game downloaded.

I will make a start as soon as I can. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...icons/wave.gif

nice, I'll try to get my screenies up soon.

so the list is currently

me (katank) King Adam I The Unifier (1087-1113)
the_emperor (The current king of Sicily) (1113-?)
simon appleton
son of spam
aleksandr nevsky

I dunno about my name though. Maybe my successor can name my king. How do you find the current state of Sicily, Emperor? We are lacking professional troops and our best is currently FS. The economy is in decent shape though.

Crusades to Palestine is big part of GA. I think GA should take priority and we should try to crusade to all 4 crusader provinces if we can. We should also probably grab Syria for nice assasins and it doens't lengthen borders and make the area easier to hold. Tunisia is a homeland but they always have a rebellion or two so I guess bribing is probably best to avoid war but take province.

yepee http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...-2thumbsup.gif
screenshots came online.

here's the mugshot of my king:
http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/story/sicily1.jpg

here's the state of the empire after my king's death (26 short but eventful years) and his heir's mug:

http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/story/sicily2.jpg

it's a nice healthy 16k treasury. yay

where to expand to next though? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg.../gc-juggle.gif

bribing steppes probably good as otherwise before crusades, we hve nothing to do except expand trade. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...s/handball.gif

think if we crusade we should send one through pope's lands though to suck up his troops so he doesn't have ideas about our lands.

I think we also desperately need an assasin to kill annoying papal agents and others scouting us.

neways, the kingdom's in competent hands http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...s/gc-smile.gif

Ok there's a problem with the savegame...

I tried to load it, but halfway through it crashed to desktop. I tried other savegames and they worked fine.

Arrgh http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...c-computer.gif

have you tried loading it again? Does it not work at all? I loaded that game fine several times though.
hmmm

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (katank @ Mar. 13 2004,23:16)]have you tried loading it again? Does it not work at all? I loaded that game fine several times though.
hmmm

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Yes i have tried loading it many times... I even tried to download the file again but that did not work.

Sounds like I may have to skip this one out.

I have the same problem as the Emperor - Katank, is it possible to make another savegame? (eg working from an earlier save).

sorry everyone, I just checked with a friend and it seems he can't get it working either.

hmm, I'll try and get an earlier savegame.

Hey sorry about this.

I'm going to be away from my MTW for about two weeks.

If my turn comes up go ahead and skip me.
If you want you can remove me from the list.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

I'm really sorry but my installation of MTW appears to be really messed up.

I asked several friends and it seems none is able to load it without CTDs.

So as of the moment, I guess I can't participate in any PBMs.

Is this campaign officially M.I.A? If so, can I pick it up?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Drucius @ April 24 2004,02:43)]Is this campaign officially M.I.A? If so, can I pick it up?

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It is oficially dead.

We have no previous savegames as the person that started this campaign is also the person who's savegame didn't work for the rest of us.

We could always start up a new one in a different thread to seperate it from this one.

We need a consensus on something. I started a game as the Sicilians and uploaded it as Siciliansfirst. The question is what to do now. Does this thread get closed with a new one started for the Sicilians or do we continue using this thread as a base?

For neatness, I would start another thread for a new campaign. The less irrelevant stuff people have to wade through, the better.

That's how I would vote as well. OK. Thread is dead.