Hmm, I must say that these deadly sins have a lot in common with the deadly sins of the old. Depending on the interpretation, deadly sins are really ...well, deadly, when they cause desperation. After all, everyone is slothful, lusts after things, has pride etc., but not everyone goes to hell, if one believes in such a thing.

So. There must be leeway in these babies as well ;)

My additions:

10. Using armour and weapon upgrades. Esp. armour upgrades destroy the unit balance.

11. Using better generals than the computer. I find the system of adding valour effects from command stars destroys the gameplay in many situations.



A "few" comments on the earlier ones:

1. Manual pillaging is in most cases a dubious strategy, as it hinders future development. With navies it's not that serious, as you can reinforce your armies from your core regions with few problems.

There is one interesting point, though. Vikings may be a special case, but they also seem like a nudge toward trying out a strategy that not everyone uses, razing instead of conquering. A bit like the Irish faction having to depend on javelinmen or die. For me it's hard to see manual razing as an exploit.

2. Systematic prisoner execution

Well, the word "systematic" is the key here. I can't see anything wrong (gameplay-wise, not morally ;) in executing slav warriors and Spanish javelinmen in the thousands, when I don't want to spend my time in a situation similar to using a pogo-stick in a swamp - fighting wave after wave after wave against crap the enemy sends me is boring, and if I didn't slaughter them, they'd be there next year as well.

Fighting those crap units again would make the game more challenging in a way similar to making cardboard boxes in a factory.

Gameplay-wise, the same goes with horse archers. It can sometimes take a long time to win a battle against horse archers, and just to make things quicker, I don't mind putting them to the sword.

At least the generals get morale penalty vices if the enemy are systematically executed.

3. Mercenaries are silly, the system is simply broken. And it's not too often when I'd want to use any of them, as those "special" ones can't even be retrained. Almughavars might add flavour, but they don't - there aren't enough to go around. Often I end up with a "parade" stack, which has no use as I don't want to spend units that can't be replenished.

4. Disbanding offers a load of different exploits, like peasant governor spamming.

Yet, as the game goes on, and the empire spreads, factoring every single factor becomes very similar to the aforementioned cardboard-box-factory style game - it feels too much like work. In most cases disbanding isn't required, as old forces can be reshuffled to be used as garrisons (it never hurts to have Feudal Sergeants waiting for a French re-emergence near Ile-de-France). I still won't feel bad if I notice I've spammed 8 javelinmen units in Swabia. Money is not a problem for the player in any case - those 8 javelinmen might be required in some landlocked region, but instead of starting a 3-turn shuffling process I might just disband them and train new ones in Swabia or something.

5. Dismounts are a good point in the case of knights. It's sad that we never get to fight Dismounted Chivalric Knights without modding on the campmap. Many troops dismount into useless units or too small units to be useful.

6. Jihads and Crusades can both be used to strategically drain competitors, esp. in connection with inquisitors. They can be an easy exploit, if you're willing to fiddle with zeal.

7. Inquisition is like using assassins, but instead of having to send a shitload to die (remember the cardboard boxes?) they don't die, and gain valour and thus become an exploit.

8. The pause button removes the technical fiddly part inherent in RTS. MTW isn't chess, but if I want to consentrate on using several tactics in one battle (javelinmen, horse archers, light flankers, ambushes in localized situations), I won't feel sorry for the AI. The computer doesn't have fingers, after all.

Simpler tactics don't need the pause button anyway.

9. Unrestricted camera is cheesy, that is very true.



The most "fair" would be to use autocalc in every situation, at least in theory