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

**Heidrek** · 04-08-2008, 00:42

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** · 04-08-2008, 10:47

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** · 04-08-2008, 15:36

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** · 04-09-2008, 03:30

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** · 04-09-2008, 12:00

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.