MTW-Redux Beta Released!

[daigaku]

Hi Axalon,
thanks for the warm welcome. Sitting at my English/early campaign and swearing and shouting at you for the incredibly time- and money-consuming building-madness on keep level ;-) taking damned 200 years to build all those petty stability-buildings, offices, and all the other lot belonging to a true daigaku game... You really meant do make it a challenge ;-))
For the Norse and their recruiting possibilities: Somewhere in northern Africa got bored with taking another and another and another ....region ad nauseam, building it up to find there´s nothing to be recruited of any value. Will take a look at some final notes I had made about (on some HDD momentarily out of use) and post, but iirc, there was not much to mention beyond what I wrote before disappearing for some time...
Back to the English: Trying to stick strictly to: Saxon Warriors/Heavy Spearmen, Forresters, Longbows, and the Scottish/Irish Special units. Especially to conquer the Norse, with all the regulars and even heavies of the english rooster no chance (I don´t walk in 4:1, never!!!) So thanks to the special units there is a chance at least to get them ;-)) thanks for those!
Will report about weird and beautiful thingies that turn up,
Greetings from Blackforest,
daigaku

Edith says:
...just found out Morale comes with the 3rd level of those churches a.s.o. (had hoped zeal stays low with as little christian buildings as possible) - will have to start anew completely ´cos of "wrong" priorities in building... grumble... gnagnagna...

[Axalon]

Will report about weird and beautiful thingies that turn up,

Alright man, you do that, I'll be right here trying to figure out something worthwhile/"fantastic" to say about it all...

Trying to stick strictly to: Saxon Warriors/Heavy Spearmen, Forresters, Longbows, and the Scottish/Irish Special units. Especially to conquer the Norse,

It should present a solid enough shot to take on that mighty Norse shieldwall. Use them archers, they are gold in this context...

- A

[daigaku]

Hi Axalon (and whoever else looking around here),
the beautiful: Noone stands a chance against my forces. A third up to the half of my army mixed bows, the rest fierce swordsmen from Scotland breaking rows, saxon warriors to take apart the rest and saxon heavy spears to hold any cavalry. Scottish nobles, flanked by Irish Horsemen crashing into flanks, those swift irish Spears tidying up after them - phantastic warfare! About 900 after restart, every relevant province fully built on Castle-level (all those Master-buildings giving a nice boost), after spending hooorendous treasures for building up, slowly the cash comes flowing ;-)
Aragonese, the very first "friends", turned on me, now extinguished. Norse hold Denmark and Sweden, anxious to keep peace, having not a single Longboat in the seas(keep them alive for bitterly needed trade)... Moors crashed into Aquitania 4:1, suffered heavily (some 2400 dead, my losses 167!).
I must admit, this English rooster is a very, very fine one. Had not expected anything could compare with the Norse, but here you go ;-))
A nice experience: Dismounted Royal Knights are about as nasty as those incredible Norse Bodyguard. A bit more vulnerable to arrows it seems, but they sober any enemy force which has to deal with them, standard outcome is 10:400 losses, sometimes up to 650. Comparable with the Norse, with 20 men up to 1200 kills.

Weird: Heirs are strangely chosen. A King, aged 55, married late with 35, dies - and not his 17year old son, but a 48year old brother inherits the throne. Hmmmmmm.......
A Marriage is proposed by another faction, but in the year of the bidding King dies, question about marriage is anwered positively, but new King stays unwed. Hmmmm......

After all this fussing around with other games, it´s great to be back to the One-And-Only. Again, thanks a lot,

greetings from wild southwest germany,

daigaku

[Axalon]

As ever Dai, it all depends on the circumstances... I bet that one could do similar victories with most factions and their particular unit-rosters. I don't think its the English or the Norse that is the reason for it - its all the other things like terrain, upgrades, troops, generals, tactics, sort of enemies etc. etc. Had it not been like that, then all people would just play the same factions all the time, and use the same units as well - they don't. Still, it sounds like you had a major victory in Aquitaine....

Weird: Heirs are strangely chosen. A King, aged 55, married late with 35, dies - and not his 17year old son, but a 48year old brother inherits the throne.

My guess, either an engine-glitch somehow or that the teen really was a younger brother to the king... Its possible...

A Marriage is proposed by another faction, but in the year of the bidding King dies, question about marriage is anwered positively, but new King stays unwed.

Hard to tell... Got wed before he dies? The marriage is off due to death? Perhaps another engine-glitch? Anyways, get another wife and its sorted. BTW, are you still playing using RXB1003 - waiting for the patch for RXB1004-VI or have you already upgraded?

- A

[daigaku]

@Axalon:
Heir: It was definitely a son, had watched his growing-up from moment of birth announcement. Don´t remember if I had similar experiences in Vanilla, but might be so. Maybe really an engine thing, annoying anyway....
Marriage: Had asked for last daughter of a faction heavily under pressure - hoping to inherit the remaining regions if new and unwed king goes the way of all mortals ;-) ...and, of course, the old king was married already - engine supporting bigamy in year of death?!? ;-)))
Version: Still playing 1003VI, for on my old machinery it´s running better and more stable than 1.1
about my getting-rid-of-unwanted-heirs-battles: Haven`t played many factions in redux, so I can only compare with what I experienced. But if a dismounted 2star princeling, standing in the woods, is attacked by some 20-40 5star enemy general unit and slaughters them till rooting - okay, I admit, I love to lure heavy cavalry into forests to get at them really nicely, but it seems those Royal Knights are really "a big bang for the bucks"...

Meanwhile, except the british islands, from Picardy to Toulouse and all Iberia, as well as Norway and Sweden and the mediterranian islands except Sicily, is mine and being built up, those spanish horse units giving a nice extra "pepper" to my army. Russians, formerly having owned half the world, are facing riots due to bribed-by-me illoyal Generals (yes, I do use heavy cash-flow this way sometimes, having spent about 400.000florins that way ;-)). With only 6 regions producing really decent troops, 3 of them reserved for bow production (a pain in the ass, those 2 and 3 year production cycles!!!), I simply don´t have the masses to conquer some 30 regions from them ...

That´s it for the moment,
wish you to have as much fun as me with the game,
greetings daigaku

btw: Was it really your intention to allow every single region to build every single office building, even cathedral?

[daigaku]

Hi,
year 1100. 1.3 million florins. Remaining factions: Pope (somewhat strong), a few german and french provinces, some russian, saracene and moorish as well. The biggest problem: me preferring all those local-special troops get difficulties retraining, them all being scattered over the map with often only one (completely built-up) province to retrain. I´m not using those feudal/royal stuff except Royal Knights from former heirs and those increadible Feudal Longbows.
The English rooster, for my taste, is somewhat BIG. So many different types of troops to discover and put to test in battles, so many different needs of buildings for optimal performance of some troops. Sure it´s worth the effort, but really time- , money-, and patience-consuming...
Once more, I didn´t stick to my "Vanilla-approach" of calmly taking only the direct surroundings and some provinces for special troops, but went (in need of high influence) conquering the map. Experience: Even a rebellious region like Scotland gets tired of rebellion after some time, so the regaining-rebellious-region-exploit doesn´t work forever. Otherwise, I might have been content with the british islands and maybe Flanders, Couronia and some mediterranian islands for ship production.
Question @Axalon: You know my approach for training men only if all morale/valour buildings are set up from our discussion of the Norse. Do you think it will spoil the game experience if I cut down the building time of some of those badly needed structures? It´s so many I need for my way of gameplay that sometimes I really lose patience ;-))
Question2: Any news about 1004-VI ?
Battle-tired greetings,
daigaku

[Axalon]

Thanks for posting Dai, as ever...

…it seems those Royal Knights are really "a big bang for the bucks"...

Royal knights are serious and powerful units – few can match them in close-combat. The same can easily be said about Norse bodyguards and Byzantine cataphracts… And as ever, they have all weaknesses, as all troops do…

…bow production (a pain in the ass, those 2 and 3 year production cycles!!!

Considering how good those units are (especially under player-management), I think its only fair (and good) that it does take time to get them. Same thing goes for the Cataphract regiment with its unrivaled 4 turns…

I simply don´t have the masses to conquer some 30 regions from them ...

I guess that is part of the problem/dilemma with armies centred on quality/elite-formations they are seldom available in vast numbers. Enough mass/quantity can eventually “drown” quality – strangely enough that is even more possible in Redux then in raw MTW (units having no negative attack-stats in Redux - if memory serves). Building mass is not really a problem, but the circumstances it creates might very well generate some… I guess the real question here is/was how badly do you want those provinces?

Was it really your intention to allow every single region to build every single office building, even cathedral?

Yup, if you want spend the cash on it then that’s your headache, it won’t hurt the game, but restricting such buildings would… The choice is there for those who want to spend the cash it takes on having several cathedrals or whatever – if you are not one of those then just ignore it. As for the AI, building more the one chancellery (or whatever) is generally a good thing, it functions as backup-infrastructure if another was conquered elsewhere etc. etc. Makes powerful and wealthy factions more durable to pressure (external and internal).

The English rooster, for my taste, is somewhat BIG.

Well, the Norse roster is fairly small for Redux-standards and should not function as a reference to evaluate other faction-rosters. One can generally say that most factions have a bigger variety of units available then the Norse. Optional factions have typically less complex unit-rosters, which obviously makes the more easy to handle in general. The Italy/Lombardy’s roster is probably bigger then Englands (Spain about the same) and the HRE have the largest roster of them all. All that stuff is easily checked in solo-battles, its fairly accurate too…

So many different types of troops to discover and put to test in battles, so many different needs of buildings for optimal performance of some troops. Sure it´s worth the effort, but really time- , money-, and patience-consuming...

Well, all that is part of the diversity of Redux… Its part of all things that defines Redux as Redux and not some MTW-clone… In providing that much choice, diversity and possibility, it also brings obvious dilemmas to the player – the “what should I focus on”-question or the “can I wait for such troops at this stage”-question, do I “have time and cash for it?” etc. etc. Personally, I find the complexity in possible circumstances interesting and entertaining as it really does influence the game I am playing, especially so at start up. It does matter what choices I make, as it creates/shapes/influences the circumstances I get as I play the game. Me like… Anyways, had it not been hard somehow to get the advanced and superior troops, then every player would spam such troops ASAP as they really are better then other lower tier troops, and they really do give an edge (as you have proven time and time again). Its all things like that which combined ends up making Redux superior to raw MTW, as the latter can’t keep up or honestly compete with all that, it never could. That circumstance sets Redux apart from raw MTW and makes the experience of the two very different. You know that as much as I do.

Experience: Even a rebellious region like Scotland gets tired of rebellion after some time, so the regaining-rebellious-region-exploit doesn´t work forever.

Can you blame them? You can only be vanquished and destroyed so many times… When that happens you should already have a healthy batch of experienced troops – and in the event that you don’t - A) then you are doing something very wrong, and B) seek out new hunting-grounds for rebel-slaughter…

Do you think it will spoil the game experience if I cut down the building time of some of those badly needed structures? It´s so many I need for my way of gameplay that sometimes I really lose patience ;-))

If you are asking for my opinion…. I think the building-times are very agreeable/sensible as is and so I would argue against a change/reduction of that (for reference, build-times are with little exception much shorter then raw MTW all over). “Development-time” is just as valid as “development-cash” as a factor, or so I believe… If you cut “time”, you should at least try to compensate that with increased “cash”-levels or you certainly will wreck the challenge in these regards, and ultimately damage the game-experience… That’s what I think… Another alternative is that you lower you maxed standards on troops – imagine that…

Any news about 1004-VI ?

See next post… (My advice, get it and install ASAP - because you will get an improved/better game-experience once you do).

- A