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..