Bribery:how to make it difficult for the damn ai?

[oz_wwjd]

Just a question: I recently decided to start a new campaign on hard,with XL version 3.0 and the egyptians sent a diplomat over to my 3 islands and managed to bribe 2 of them.After a few loyalty uprisings thet sent over reinforcements via ship,which i didnt have any yet as Cont was producing Byz Inf to fend off the serbs and Hungary with.Any tips on how to make it harder for them to bribe said provinces? My governors at the time had about 6 to 7 shields of loyalty. I could quickly tech by Cont and place assassins/spies in the lislands but then what do I do about my need for troops? my budget doesn't stretch to mass merc armies yet..

[Kaidonni]

Were your governors in said provinces, commanding the stacks present? It's not enough to have a governor with high loyalty - they need to be in the province concerned, in charge of the army there. Then, there's the problem of having multiple stacks in the same province - if one is led by a less loyal general, they can be bribed, and you will have to fight them, and still risk losing the province.

[caravel]

Were your governors in said provinces, commanding the stacks present? It's not enough to have a governor with high loyalty - they need to be in the province concerned, in charge of the army there. Then, there's the problem of having multiple stacks in the same province - if one is led by a less loyal general, they can be bribed, and you will have to fight them, and still risk losing the province.

Governors do not need to be in the provinces they govern nor do they need to be leading the army stack there. You can get some vices from having the governor gallivanting around leading armies, but you can get far worse ones from having him sitting in the province for the rest of his life.

If you want to reduce the chances of bribery in a province, get a half decent general in there with decent loyalty and at least 3 or 4 command stars and ensure that he's commanding a decent stack of units (and yes this can be the governor but doesn't have to be), this will increase the bribe cost and that is the best deterrent to the AI. Your 0 star average loyalty single stack generals are ripe for the taking as they cost very little to bribe. As the Byzantine It is important to establish fleets as soon as possible in order to connect to the islands and protect your vulnerable coastlines.

[Raz]

... but you can get far worse ones from having him sitting in the province for the rest of his life.

Really? I usually get some pretty good vices when leaving my governors on garrison duty, while my king and heirs gallivant around. Sure you occasionally get an odd-number of toes from a lazy governor, but a foolish heroic charge into the enemy will ensure a better and less inbred governor. Why sometimes when I'm not at war with anyone and out pops the always drunk trait, a quick visit to Syria to meet some "old friends" in a dark alley will fix him.

[Kaidonni]

Governors do not need to be in the provinces they govern nor do they need to be leading the army stack there.

I only mentioned governors because Oz mentioned he had high loyalty governors, and I wondered if he was assuming that, just because you have a high loyalty governor, a province is more resistant to bribery. Bribery only concerns the armies, though, not exactly the province itself. It depends on how many armies are in the province as to how it will play out - if they only bribe one of those armies, you can fight it out and try to win the province back, or they might just turn tail and leg it. But of there is only one army there, you will lose the province if the army is successfully bribed.

[Heidrek]

Best way to avoid getting key provinces bribed: Have a Heir in the stack. Heirs can't be bribed, so if you have one in a stack, that stack can't be bribed.

Otherwise, keep your troops in large stacks rather than spread out into many little ones and have a high loyalty unit commanding each stack. Whether the commander is also the governor or not is a side issue, it's the commanders loyalty that determines the cost to bribe. Having a big stack with a high Loyalty commander will make the cost to bribe extremely high.

As a final measure, look at the troops you have there. The higher the value of the tropps the higher the cost to bribe them i think. An army of Urban Militia will be pretty cheap to bribe, but an army of Feudal Knights, Chiv. Serg's and other high quality troops will take a great deal of money to bribe.

One last strategy if you can't prevent the bribing - split your stacks up. Each emissary can only briobe one stack at a time, If you have a 10 unit stack, it can bribe all 10 in one go. If you split that stack into 10 individual units, each emmisary can only bribe one of them each, and once they turn coat, your other units who are still loyal will all band together to defend the province against them. No matter how good they bribed unit is, the other 9 will still slaughter it and you keep your province while the AI is throwing away money on expensive bribes that get it nowhere.

If you have to have one large stack - put it inside the castle. Bribing the castle instantly gives you control of the province, whereas bribing an outside stack takes an extra turn and results in a battle then a siege if sucessful. Much more important to make the castle units hard to bribe than the "field" ones.

When taking Rebel provinces I usually fight them to a siege, then bribe the besieged garrison. This way I get the ransom from capturing prisoners (which helps pay the bribe) in the field battle, but take the castle without losing men or damaging the infrastructure (like ports and merchant buildings) and get a few units out of it as well.

[oz_wwjd]

I would have got a good general out if possible,but seeing I didn't have any boats yet,and the egyptians had one near Crete that option was out,said general had about 7 loyalty and was in command of the army there,or some of it at least,as I built enough urban Militia and archers,to give me a fighting chance if I was invaded, I didn't bargain on having to fight my own troops.Said general also had the virtue that raises the amount needed to bribe him by 50%,and I do need to hold on to them,as they usually are my main ship-producing centres,while I focus on having enough troops to beat back everyone else that wants a piece of me..

[Gray Beard]

Oz,

Don't worry about building an army in those provinces right off the bat.

Turn down the tax level to very low. Build Watch tower and the other basic building then a 20% agriculture improvement on Rhodes and Cypress and start with a Motte and Baily and then the 1000 florin fort and a shipyard on Crete. You have to be able to build ships and this is the fastest way.

These make the population and governor happier and so harder to bribe.

[oz_wwjd]

That's what i did do at first,but the AI would keep taking the provinces before I got that far via bribery,so I figured if I built an army on the side,at least I'd have a chance of keeping them long enough to tech them up to ship-building.

[Heidrek]

Ok, so you have a general with 7 loyalty who is a Man of Principle (+50% to bribe cost). He's commanding an army of UM and Archers?

What is the size and make up of the army he's commanding? What is his Command stat (I think this affects bribe cost of the general's unit)? Finally - are all of the units in the province in one single stack? Putting them all in one stack makes it more expensive for the enemy to bribe the stack as they have to "buy" all the units in the stack.

If you can't stop the enemy bribing his stack because the AI has money coming out his ears, split the stack up into individual units so only one can be bribed at a time per diplomat and MOVE ALL UNITS OUT OF YOUR GARRISON.

If the garrison unit gets bribed, you'll lose the province, so the easiest way to avoid this is to have no units in the castle.

Let me know how this works for you. Unless he brings in an army of diplomats so he can bribe multiple untis a turn, you should be able to keep the province safe from being bought off you.

Side issue: If money is tight, don't bother with any more archers, they are expensive to build and upkeep. Focus on more UM. These are cheap and nasty with 2 AP attack and 4 Charge so can pack a bit of offensive punch.

If the AI is styupid enough to try and bribe your units 1 at a time, your other forces will slaughter the turn coat easily.

[macsen rufus]

If you have them available at this stage of the game, it might be worth leaving an assassin on duty nearby, you might not avoid the first bribery attempt, but you should be able to get some revenge

[Brandy Blue]

Your concern is that the AI bribes troops on islands, right? Well, destroy the ports on the islands. Then his emmisaries cannot land. Tech up your islands to contribute to the economy, rather than produce soldiers, and you will not need island ports. You will need basic troop producing facilities if you want to make the garrisons stronger, but that's all. You also get a bit of money for dismantling those unnecessary ports. Later, when you figure the AI has had time to use up its excess cash, you can rebuild the ports if you want to use the islands to make troops, agents, or ships. It would be a nice touch to get rid of those AI agents some day, using assassins trained on your islands.

[oz_wwjd]

Yes,but I need said island ports to tech up for ship-building,while my other provinces concentrate on troop-building so the AI can't land troops on my islands,deleting the ports would just slow the process.

[Marquis de Said]

My advice would be to

- keep the ports, because you'll need them to build a shipbuilder and then ships to protect your islands from invasion

- build a few units and split them into stacks of single units, take them all outside the fort/keep

- make sure the provinces have a high level of happiness, so that if they are invaded, it will be more likely to generate loyalist rebellions for you

- if you have spies, place one on each island, so that if they are invaded the spy can stir up a loyalist rebellion

- build ships anywhere as fast as you can, make a line to your islands and move heirs there to command the armies, as they can't be bribed

- if you happen to lose one island or two, keep building up your navy, take over the seas around the islands and invade them back; losing one or two provinces is not a gamebreaker for the Byzantines in my opinion, as long as you can hold on to Constantinople, Greece and Nicaea (the richest provinces)

If the Eggies have ships around Cyprus or Rhodes, it means they can possibly reach your mainland, which is much more important to defend to keep your empire intact. I'd focus on defeating their navy and take it from there.

[caravel]

- build a few units and split them into stacks of single units, take them all outside the fort/keep

What is the logic behind this, I'm curious?

[Martok]

I'm guessing because then the AI can't bribe/steal all of your garrison's units at once?

[Heidrek]

Yes, each diplomat can only bribe one unit a turn so if you have 10 1 unit stacks, the other 9 will ganag up on the traitors once they turn coat.

Keeping all ot the stacks outside of the Fort ensures that the garrison can't be bribed, which would instantly lose you the province.

[The Unknown Guy]

increase their loyalty, and drive out disloyal generals, particularily the ones leading big armies (if it gets bribed they´ll win only one stack, and if they attack he will still take command).

I never had any trouble with bribes myself, except when playing the rather volatile HRE ???