Attacked by everyone, please give thoughts

[Willbreaker]

Hello,

I am oftentimes reading this forum, almost never posting.
But now I have quite a large problem in my gaming and there is no other place to go than here. I have many hours of gameplay experience so I know my way around in this game, but this problem I really cannot beat.

It's about diplomacy, which often works very well - but when I conquer the world it does not! The problem - specificially - is that alot of nations starts attacking me when I am conquering. My reputation will also go down to absolute zero which means even more attacking and diplomacy being harder.

To counter this problem which has happened exactly the same way the four last games (which I've never finished just for that). At the start I hold my country, expanding via killing the moors - just for example - taking a small part of Iberia. I never finished the war - I took Iberia and thought I'd save Africa for later. Now I was taking a pause, waiting for the natural enemy of Spain to attack me (Yes, they declared war on me) and I finished them off. I have no idea what my rep was at now, but I did nothing else than conquer them. Now France attacks, I attack them taking a large portion of their lands. I sack their settlements and execute prisoners always. Then England attacks, Milan, Holy Roman Empire. And there I am. I quit. (Playing on Easy/Very hard)

I will try the next game to simply release and occupy all settlements. I've read it should improve my diplomacy reputation and I will not start wars I guess that would help (confirm, anyone?) and see how it goes.

For the moment, I would really love to hear to your oppinions on what to do because I'm absolutely certain alot of people has this problem.

Thanks
/Breaker

[Vladimir]

It's about diplomacy, which often works very well - but when I conquer the world it does not! The problem - specificially - is that alot of nations starts attacking me when I am conquering. My reputation will also go down to absolute zero which means even more attacking and diplomacy being harder.

Yes, yes that tends to happen.

[Ramses II CP]

Your solution is simple:

Kill them all.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

You are playing Total War so expect WAR not peace. Peace is for weaklings and cowards. Build up your economy, sharpen your swords and prepare for war.

If you occupy, release prisoners and never attack first (and play the campaign on easy) you will have a hell of a reputation. No one will attack you and you will die of old age or boredom.

When every one is attacking you defeat every one or go down in a blaze of glory.

[Jedi Bruno]

You are playing with Spain, right?
Well, people usually attack you in Total War games so get used to it.
If everyone is attacking you there are some interesting tactics to use.

First: Be the pope's best friend.
Get a diplomat at Rome right away and start giving him money, maps, help against rebels or whatever enemies they have. If you manage to make an alliance with him, its even better as it will often result in excommunication for your enemies.

Second: Concentrate your forces at good defensive positions.
If you are playing at Iberian Peninsule, there are two main entrances: Gibraltar at the south and the Pyrenees at the northeast.
You can use a game exploit and block the land passage with your navy. Place forts at montain passages or build watchtowers and keep a strong army nearby. Use brigde points as natural forts, you can defend them with a couple of spearmen and some archers against a full stack(remember to use schiltrom formation).

Third: Improve your economy.
As some wise man once said(don't remember who): "Wars are won by money", make this one your motto if you are planning to sustain a long and difficult war against your enemies. Full stack armies cost money, so, get trade agreements with everyone you are not at war and improve your ports and markets at your safest cities.

Fourth: Make your enemies regret they are your enemies.
Get a full stack with a good general with high dread and decide that his holliday trip will be across the Europe. Don't attack your enemies biggest armies, aim for their greatest cities and sack, sell all improvements and go for the next target, this will not only make you rich but will also break AI's economy making hard for them to keep good armies at the field.

Fifth: Expand your territories.
Once your enemies' main forces are out of combat, just move those defensive stack foward to your new frontiers.

Sixth: Be faster than your enemy.
Just use askthepizzaguy's motto: "Blitzing is the key"

Seventh: Forget your reputation.
Unless your are aiming for a chivalric game, where you are friends with everyone ignore this, but if not, make them hate you as long as they fear you.

8th: Kill their leaders.
No army can keep fighting without their leaders, kill them with assassins or use a kamikaze stack of light cavalry and aim them at their general. That will usually kill him and make the rest of their forces to rout.

9th: Force them to retreat.
AI will often retreat if their capitol is under siege, just send a small battalion and make a fake attack to force them to go back, when their armies come after you, just hide in the woods and wait to ambush them, you can just flee for you live if want.


I think that is nice for a start.
Oh, I also recommend you set difficulty to VH/VH as AI will be much more interesting but not necessarily more difficult.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Your solution is simple:

Kill them all.

Best. Advice. Ever.

Bwahahahahahaha!!!

[Askthepizzaguy]

Fourth: Make your enemies regret they are your enemies.
Get a full stack with a good general with high dread and decide that his holliday trip will be across the Europe. Don't attack your enemies biggest armies, aim for their greatest cities and sack, sell all improvements and go for the next target, this will not only make you rich but will also break AI's economy making hard for them to keep good armies at the field.

Fifth: Expand your territories.
Once your enemies' main forces are out of combat, just move those defensive stack foward to your new frontiers.

Sixth: Be faster than your enemy.
Just use askthepizzaguy's motto: "Blitzing is the key"

Seventh: Forget your reputation.
Unless your are aiming for a chivalric game, where you are friends with everyone ignore this, but if not, make them hate you as long as they fear you.

8th: Kill their leaders.
No army can keep fighting without their leaders, kill them with assassins or use a kamikaze stack of light cavalry and aim them at their general. That will usually kill him and make the rest of their forces to rout.

9th: Force them to retreat.
AI will often retreat if their capitol is under siege, just send a small battalion and make a fake attack to force them to go back, when their armies come after you, just hide in the woods and wait to ambush them, you can just flee for you live if want.


I think that is nice for a start.
Oh, I also recommend you set difficulty to VH/VH as AI will be much more interesting but not necessarily more difficult.

Love the name dropping. I am honored that my name is considered synonymous with devastating blitz.

[Willbreaker]

You are playing with Spain, right?
Well, people usually attack you in Total War games so get used to it.
If everyone is attacking you there are some interesting tactics to use.

First: Be the pope's best friend.
Get a diplomat at Rome right away and start giving him money, maps, help against rebels or whatever enemies they have. If you manage to make an alliance with him, its even better as it will often result in excommunication for your enemies.

Second: Concentrate your forces at good defensive positions.
If you are playing at Iberian Peninsule, there are two main entrances: Gibraltar at the south and the Pyrenees at the northeast.
You can use a game exploit and block the land passage with your navy. Place forts at montain passages or build watchtowers and keep a strong army nearby. Use brigde points as natural forts, you can defend them with a couple of spearmen and some archers against a full stack(remember to use schiltrom formation).

Third: Improve your economy.
As some wise man once said(don't remember who): "Wars are won by money", make this one your motto if you are planning to sustain a long and difficult war against your enemies. Full stack armies cost money, so, get trade agreements with everyone you are not at war and improve your ports and markets at your safest cities.

Fourth: Make your enemies regret they are your enemies.
Get a full stack with a good general with high dread and decide that his holliday trip will be across the Europe. Don't attack your enemies biggest armies, aim for their greatest cities and sack, sell all improvements and go for the next target, this will not only make you rich but will also break AI's economy making hard for them to keep good armies at the field.

Fifth: Expand your territories.
Once your enemies' main forces are out of combat, just move those defensive stack foward to your new frontiers.

Sixth: Be faster than your enemy.
Just use askthepizzaguy's motto: "Blitzing is the key"

Seventh: Forget your reputation.
Unless your are aiming for a chivalric game, where you are friends with everyone ignore this, but if not, make them hate you as long as they fear you.

8th: Kill their leaders.
No army can keep fighting without their leaders, kill them with assassins or use a kamikaze stack of light cavalry and aim them at their general. That will usually kill him and make the rest of their forces to rout.

9th: Force them to retreat.
AI will often retreat if their capitol is under siege, just send a small battalion and make a fake attack to force them to go back, when their armies come after you, just hide in the woods and wait to ambush them, you can just flee for you live if want.


I think that is nice for a start.
Oh, I also recommend you set difficulty to VH/VH as AI will be much more interesting but not necessarily more difficult.

Thanks man, these were some great points that I will no doubt try out (even VH/VH), they make perfect sense. I realize now that you can't really be at peace for long in this game, you need wars all the time.

I tried the game again, but it ended as the others - attacked by multiple factions. Now I will just try this strategy.

/Breaker

[Nebuchadnezzar]

You will get the greatest challenge when playing a high chivalry/high global reputation game. This way you can expand slowly. Its also the only way to get a few vassals.

Just keep your rep up.

1. Always occupy settlements unless its Jerusalem or other larger cities far from your capital then sack them. This sufficiently lowers population without the huge rep drop that exterminate gives.
2. Always release prisoners. This really bumps up rep in no time at all.
3. When fighting Timurids or Mongols don't release the prisoners but ransom them. They almost always decline for some reason unless its their Faction Leader. This being a real bonus as they always seem to have the florins to pay for him.
4. Don't make alliances with just anybody. Most allies end up betraying you and this gives a serious rep penalty. Select one or two (Papal states for sure) and strengthen them with marriage alliances. These are generally very stable.
5. Don't bribe settlements.
6. Don't recapture settlements you gave away or sold ever!
7. Don't break any treaties if you can help it.

You will end up being at war with only a single faction or maybe two usually as a result of a crusade called by the pope so you can concentrate on trade. You won't need a large standing army and florins will just pour in from very early on. Easy but harder than blitz.

[Willbreaker]

You will get the greatest challenge when playing a high chivalry/high global reputation game. This way you can expand slowly. Its also the only way to get a few vassals.

Just keep your rep up.

1. Always occupy settlements unless its Jerusalem or other larger cities far from your capital then sack them. This sufficiently lowers population without the huge rep drop that exterminate gives.
2. Always release prisoners. This really bumps up rep in no time at all.
3. When fighting Timurids or Mongols don't release the prisoners but ransom them. They almost always decline for some reason unless its their Faction Leader. This being a real bonus as they always seem to have the florins to pay for him.
4. Don't make alliances with just anybody. Most allies end up betraying you and this gives a serious rep penalty. Select one or two (Papal states for sure) and strengthen them with marriage alliances. These are generally very stable.
5. Don't bribe settlements.
6. Don't recapture settlements you gave away or sold ever!
7. Don't break any treaties if you can help it.

You will end up being at war with only a single faction or maybe two usually as a result of a crusade called by the pope so you can concentrate on trade. You won't need a large standing army and florins will just pour in from very early on. Easy but harder than blitz.

Didn't think a post here would give so many great answers, but this is certainly one.

Does killing muslims as a catholic and vice versa help bump up rep or is it always negative?

/Breaker

Edit: I realize all I really want is the luxury of choosing my own wars. Do you have any tips?

[Dead Guy]

In my oh so humble opinion, allying with the papal states can completely ruin your campaign. Not in a make it harder to win way that is. But it makes it possible to permanently ex-communicate catholic factions you are at war with, should they for example attack your fleet next to a papal fleet.
Allying with the pope may be ok, although it drastically decreases the difficulty of the game, but if you use it to get the pope at war with your enemies it takes away all the fun of the catholic factions I think.
I guess it comes down to playing style as usual, I like to handicap myself and turtle it out and therefore I don't even have priests on the college of cardinals, even though I could with ease control it throughout the campaign.

On the subject of everyone attacking you, everyone will eventually attack you as you draw close to winning the game. Concentrating your forces at positions like the mountain passes in the north of spain is great advice, the Iberian Peninsula is one of the easiest geographical regions to hold, except for the british isles. You can really build up there, you don't have to attack into france just because they go to war with you, sometimes the AI attacks once and then never does anything else for decades!

[Eikon the Magistrate]

1) You can always give the lands you take to the pope..this will rapidly increase rep with them. also since its the pope no catholic factions will usually attack it or thru it to get to you. for example give pamplona and valencia to the papal states and ..you have a UN protected iberia. Also easy to declare war like this, since you can just attack the papal states when ur ready and wait for the world to come attack you.

2) Build rep with the pope and use him to get what you want ...aka crusades, use this option to wear down opponents and build your armies stronger. Crusades arent always for just "holy lands" you can often send them to euro cities as well. This is a decent way to wear down mongols/tims as well once they have taken over cities as other catholic factions (even enemies of u) will join it.

3) Always try to ransom (if you want more rep) no penalty to you for the AI being cheap and refusing.

4) try not to make alliances with your immediate competitors. these will be broken eventually and most likely permamently. If your the polish for example, alliance with HRE or the danes may not be to your benefit for rep. But alliance with the russians would most likely last. Same thing applies for making Muslim allies. Since crusades are oft called..perhaps trade rights and map info is better diplomacy

[Vladimir]

It's important to note that the reputation hit for having to choose an alliance to break is fairly minor and temporary. Get as many of them as you can and deal with it later. While everyone is at peace you'll be gaining reputation points and it makes your global standing much higher. Negotiations are a breeze when you're allied with 90% of the factions. They won't start going to war until the start of the mid-game and by then your superior negotiating leverage will considerably ease the opening game.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Breaking alliances is by no means minor. You infact take a major drop in rep for every alliance broken each time. I believe it might even be the largest drop possible in the game if compared to anything else.

Trigger 0078c_DT_Break_Alliance_Neutral
FactionStanding global -0.1

and if you end up at war which is most likely its x5 worse

Trigger 0078b_DT_Break_Alliance_War
FactionStanding global -0.5

and x10 worse than exterminating a settlement.

Trigger 0102_extermination_decrease_global
FactionStanding global -0.05

Fighting muslems as catholic gives no effect to global rep but your relations with the faction you are at war with will drop each turn. You need yo keep them better than abysmal to get vassals though, preferably so-so level