House rules for my own campaign

[Kaidonni]

Okay, so I'm modding XL+Tyberius 3.0 so that there are no provinicial bonuses, no armour upgrades from the Armourer line of buildings and renaming the Metalsmith to Blacksmith, making it a two-building-line (Blacksmith > Blacksmith's Workshop) complete with a financial bonus. I will probably tweak some other things too, such as income and building construction costs/times. Just personal preferences, really.

However, I want to play it with some house rules, including role playing. But what should those house rules be?

I've already decided that, as far as taxes are concerned, Normal should be the maximum allowed when not in a state of war. High when at war (what about in advance of starting a conflict?), and Very High when both at war and in a state of emergency at the same time (i.e. when I'm about to have my butt handed to me on a platter with all the trimmings and a bottle of Chablis). I've considered High as the possible maximum allowed, Very High when at war instead and/or in a state of emergency. As for occupied territory, the provinces should be assimilated - that is, for so many turns after conquest, Very Low taxes must be used. After so long, Low is then permitted, and then finally, Normal (and possibly High if I go for allowing that as a matter of course). Maybe during a war the amount of time I have to keep the lower tax rates is extended, perhaps in the range of dozens of turns. Same goes for taking territories that are of a different religion, although I could role-play generals there and have a few intolerant generals about (and actually allow rebellions, to again role-play - nothing like laughing when one of your own generals who has ignored your best advice is faced with execution at the hands of the people he has tormented ).

As for starting wars - I can only do so if I send an emissary to the province in which resides the leader of the faction I want to fight with. Kind of like an unofficial mission to declare war.

Amongst other considerations, I must role-play my lineage. I could pretend a province or two are historically rebellious (may have to set the tax rates High or Very High there to induce rebellions), and send my King's heirs to put down the rebellions. I might have to raze buildings to induce rebellion also (role-playing sabotage for example, or riots before the main uprising).

Then there's my army composition I am looking into. I figure that the tech-level of my provinces should dictate the strength of my armies. If I have a Keep and a Fort, then I shouldn't really be able to recruit lots of Feudal Sergeants. Maybe one or two allowed TOPS. On the other hand, I have to recruit Urban Militia and Militia Sergeants as a matter of course, maybe low-level cavarly also. Not many FMAA. Definitely very few Royal Cavalry, or non at all. Maybe throwing a dice or coin toss would aid me in this.

What I'm really trying to say is, I want to role-play and apply house rules to a campaign (nothing like non of a certain unit type, or no recruiting spies or assassins or inquisitors - in fact, an inquisitor or two might be useful...especially to charge with rooting out the vile unbelievers within the ranks of my own armies ). However, aside from formulating ones myself, I would appreciate input from the community, because this could be something really amazing and fun. I might even write it as an AAR at some point.

Of course, fighting battles will be more complicated in a way, because I have that mouse-over bug. I have a solution, though (not auto-calc :P). I have a modified GroupFormations.txt that allows me to change the rank depth of units without making unique formations. The only downside is that it has to be applied to more than a single unit, and they usually, at the very least, create a formation lining up aside one another (but nothing fancy). That is solved by pausing the game, selecting my units I want/need to, and issuing my order. Now, I can cancel the orders for the units I don't really want to follow that specific rank depth change and re-issue a movement order, while for the other unit I merely need to issue a movement order. They won't form at any pre-determined location any longer, I have full control over their position/heading. I also use the radar map to aid me in deployment, because that, for some reason, does work (although you can't change rank depth on it, hence the inventive use of the GroupFormations.txt, pause and backspace ).

So...discuss, if you please. Any input is greatly appreciated.

[Martok]

Offhand, the only suggestion I can think of to add is to avoid spamming Jihads if you're playing as a Muslim faction. Otherwise, it looks like a pretty good list there, Kaidonni.

[Kaidonni]

I've been trying to figure out taxes. I think an 'assimilation' approach is best. I will allow High taxes maximum outside of war, Very High inside of war and/or during a state of emergency. When I take an enemy province, I must keep taxes at Very Low for 12 turns, Low for 6 turns, and finally Normal for 3 turns. After that, I may use High taxes (if I am in a state of emergency or war and want to use Very High, maybe something like 21 turns, something strict). Of course, should the enemy recapture the province within 21 turns of me taking it, the assimilation 'resets.' I figured that, aside from that limitation, should the province be recaptured within 42 turns, a special system is worked out where certain limits on taxes are applied if the enemy hold their old province for 1-4 turns, 5-10 turns, 11-15 turns and 16-21 turns (or something like that, it keeps changing).

As for limits on troop type, it will be down to tech levels of provinces. So while I may have a Citadel and Castle, I think there should possibly need to be a prevailing majority of buildings from that tech level, or my troop choices need to be based on me having 'poorer wealth.' I will figure it out, but again, I think it is best should it be based on individual provinces, not my entire empire. This will also extend to the assimilation system, in which I will have to limit myself to only certain buildings and units for so long. Might be very fun fighting with Militia Sergeants and Mounted Sergeants, etc.

Still in the process of modding my game, though, altering all those Crusades. Then I want to rebalance building cost/construction time and requirements (the Horse Farm line of buildings needs to rely on the level of Castle methinks - and I hope I don't need to change the unit requirements at the same time, although I'd hazard that I may have to...any thoughts on that?).

[Brandy Blue]

Well, here's a couple of thoughts on religion and taxes.

1: After the first crusade is launched, assume that Muslims and Catholics are on bad terms. From then on, Muslim areas conquered by Catholics are never considered assimilated, ever. Alternately, very high taxes can be used on purpose to ignite rebellions.

2: At most, one religious unit can be used to convert a Muslim area to Catholicism, or vice versa.

3: A Muslim state which controls a non-Muslim majority state must crank up the taxes to very high. I don't know much about Medieval Muslim taxation practices, but I believe it was common practice to tax non-Muslims at a higher rate.

[The Lizard Pope]

I don't use inquisitors to burn enemy generals, it's too easy to destroy a neighbour with swarms of high level inquisitors

I don't send useless heirs on suicide missions, I can assassinate them though

If a province has a unit bonus then that's the only unit I can build there

[Kaidonni]

Well, for my access to units, I shall implement my own system akin to the unit recruitment pools of M2TW. Basically, for each level of building, there will be a limit on the number of 'queued' units it provides. A Swordsmith could provide 2xFMAA - each unit replenishing over a period of 5 turns, and after both units are 'available,' no more become available. I'd have to recruit one of them and then wait, from the year it appeared, 5 years for another to become available. I can have an entire army of FMAA if I want, but it'd take a lot of time. I figure I need some sort of calculation to work this all out, such as basing it on unit costs and level of building recruiting them, etc.

I've gotten some way to modding the files. Crusading is available for all Catholics in each era, and I'm reverting the building construction costs/times back to XL 3.0 (I don't like the faster and cheaper values). I might tweak some of the unit costs/recruitment times also, most likely the siege equipment.

[cambovenzi]

My House Rules:
1. Dont lose

[I of the Storm]

My House Rules:
1. Dont lose

I try to keep some moderate rules, such as:
- number of priests = number of churches/mosques built. Likewise one Cardinal only.
- Residency is mandatory for provincial governors with the exception of being part of the kings army for a defined campaign or participating in a crusade
- Navies restricted to seazones with own ports
- Elite units only in the Kings/Crown Princes army. Local garrisons contain mostly militia/low level feudals

[Ironsword]

How's about non-breaking of alliances.

Obvious, but always take siege weapons when besieging.

Controversial but; general dies, disband the unit...

Or building as your V&V's dictate. eg. High Piety more churches/mosques etc. High command, more diverse units.

...and the almost obligatory no mercenaries.

[caravel]

I usually try to keep out of these threads as one finds that one can never agree with another players self imposed rules. As for myself, my only rules are to play as fair as possible and avoid blatent exploits. As a rule I also avoid mercenaries, jihad spamming, abuse of crusades, Inquisitor use, breaking alliance, attacking unless attacked first, killing prisoners and razing. I say "as a rule" but to me these seem to be the "right way" to play the game.

[scowie]

In the past I have played with a "no trade" policy, i.e. I build no trading posts and destroy any in provinces I conquer, and also a no spies/assasins policy (and no taverns just for the happiness boost either). I have also restricted churches to my homelands only, and made sure my armour is no more than one level above my neighbouring factions.

But in my latest campaign I threw most my rules out of the window and used one very simple one that makes a campaign much more challenging:

Tick everything in the drop down box.

In other words, let the AI train and build everything (and assign titles). That puts me on a much more even footing with the AI factions. It stops you spamming the best troops or from taking full advantage of bonuses and upgrades.

I am currently playing an English Early campaign and despite being well into the High Period now I still have no CMAA despite the AI having built the required buildings for me. I have even had an army stuck in Ireland for over a hundred years now because the AI hasn't built me a port there and I dont want to spoil my "no manual building/training" policy!

I wouldn't want to go back to training/building myself now. I am looking forward to starting a more challenging campaign, like the HRE. That should be a blast!