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[gollum]

I doesnt surprise me - i think that in STW too the AI would frequently stack good generals in one stack that was wasting their boosting of honour/valour big time. In addition they would often get killed in one battle including the heirs resulting in those easypeasy clan eliminations. The only thing that the MTW engine has to deal with this is the many general/heir/king hit points, that actually hurts the game as it skews the match ups irreperably.

These are the (unseen) areas that TW could focus to make the AI shine - but it wasnt to be - already since RTW this became established with the 2 hitpoints of BG units.

[gaijinalways]

Italy, early, expert, now about 1191. I have set up a good trading network, have some 174k in the bank, a large army, lead in GA points by a slim margin over the Alomonds 68 to 61 and have the following territories;

in the North:

Denmark (which I took from the pesky reemerging Danes after they tried to bribe their way into my Sweden), Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Novgorod (tried to bribe Livonia, but the eggies beat me to it)

starting central southern area:

Genoa, Tuscany, Milan, Venice, Tyrolia, Switzerland (hoping to get pikemen at some point from both of the last two), Naples (bribed this from rebels) Constaninople (took this during a crusade after the Sicilians delayed me and I waltzed in and left troops to hold it from the Eggies)

I wanted to take Provence and Toulouse when they rebelled, but the English moved in on both, actually outbribing me in Provence.

Middle East:
Antioch, Tripoli (took both in crusades, have a crusade nearing Edessa, and another on deck suited up for Egypt)

Some odd things;

Went to first some 40 years without attacking anyone, just building my trade network. Ther Sicilians attacked me first in the sea.

Three times when I've suited up crusades, the Sicilians attacked me, disrupting my route to the Middle east. They hold only Malta, which for some reason I can not land on right now.

The Alomonds have attacked me twice in the sea, both times seeking a cease fire shortly after.

The eggies have attacked my navy now and again, but generally I have the upper hand as they have almost no ships (one now) after I took some of their cash cows (Antioch and Tripoli).

Wondering where should I go next. I'd still like to get, for example Croatia, Serbia and Greece, which would connect Constaninople to my burgeoning empire in the South. Later grabbing Nicaea, Antolia, and Lesser Armenia would complete that chain. Up north, haven't bothered with the squabbling between the bleeding HRE, the French, and the English, though Flanders always looks fat and tempting. I'm hoping to bribe some more places later and slowly move in without disturbing the 'wa' (harmony) anywhere.

Whew, glad my CD drive was repaired, maybe my last chance before I get busy with teaching at uni again (and maybe return to writing the book I'm supposed to finish).

[gaijinalways]

Well, the years went by (and so did one post, lost that one), and I had a visit from the Horde. Yikes, I forgot about that! Some 13k plus barbarians on my Khazar (well, I had by that point taken most of the map, a little annoying incident with the English, and since the French were excommed at the time, and the pope? Well the new puppet pope didn't appear for some time, until after I had exiled the English to Ireland.

So, there I was suddenly rushing all manner of units back to cover my lapse. The Egyptians had returned earlier, but they weren't a major threat yet, just holed up in 4 provinces with a lot of peasants, 2 of them near Khazr. I managed to scrape and bleed some 5k troops into Khazar, and waited with bated breath. Seems the HRE couldn't wait to attack me (they got their butts kicked in Tyrolia), the French tried to break out of he stranglehold I left them in in Brandenburg by attacking Franconia again, and now the Horde.

Started off good, I had good kill rates, and the Horde were coming, but it seemed manageable. They'd attack, and I'd keep killing off mostly heavy cavs, and shooting their warriors and other troops. Later on it got dicey as my troops got tired, and at one point I had mostly xbowmen coming on at the same time (ouch) as replacements. At some points I actually used them as fighters, worked somewhat. Later on I was hiding in the woods quite bit as I was outnumbered and no longer had a number of arbs to pot them from a distance. I actually had a chain rout at one point in the woods! Fancy that, even as I was killing off chunks of heavy and medium cavs. Part of it was I surprised a few times, the cavs are quick, with the AI sometimes using even his horsearchers as attackers after doing quick feints back and forth!

Finally I got down to my last units, and I was concerned as there was still a good chunk of time on the clock. By that time the kill numbers were closer, perhaps 1.4 to 1 in my favor (the routers a few times didn't help, especially when my general routed half way though the battle, even though this was much after the Horde general had met an untilmely arb related death).

Finally we had a face off with his two horsearchers and a few units of my own, including 2 urban milita and a few other units that were fuller in number. I actually let one of my genovese sailor units come too close in for pot shots and they got routed before I could come to their aid. But those were the last 2 enemy units, as I shot the horsearchers to pieces and watched the clock run out with no more Mongol units to come.

I forgot to mention that this was all done with Italian infantrymen, arbs, xbows, some xbow cav, and some extras (they were livng in the province when the Horde 'visited'). I won't have silver armored halbs for a few years yet as I took both Tyrolia and Switzerland later.

The horde is dead, long live the Italian empire. With around 700k in the bank and more units coming online, even the Alomonds don't scare me much. Hell, they even sunk a few ships again. Might be time for total war again!

[gaijinalways]

I decided to push on after reaching 60%. Normally I stop at this point as there are no other big contenders, but I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I had plenty of spies already circulating, and I kept most of my provincesa at 200% loyalty, so only one recently conquered province rebelled, but I quickly put down the rebellion and built a tower. I had also put guard towers in all of my provinces a turn after reaching 60%. I was still building units and ships. Now I finally allowed just spies and a few units to be built, and watched my bank drop from 680k to 288k by game's end.

I had left islands of factions, who strangely all agreed to cease fires after I withdrew from their provinces. The only ones eliminated were the Eggies, who died too quickly in battle ( the Danes disappeared some years before). So I had these faction osaises and the few Mediterrain islands held by the BYZ and Malta by the Sicilians.

Did I mention earlier I couldn't go to Malta earlier? Finally got that sorted out as I was training assasins (I know, forgot earlier) and bribed the castle, even though a larger army stood outside. Once I took over the castle, suddenly I could land on Malta and quickly put the Sicilians boat sinking days behind me.

100%, didn't know it could be so easy in 1271. Never did see those pikemen.

[chrisRRR]

Hello everybody, thought I'd contribute to a thread instead of my continued lurking :D

I started a campaign as the Sicilians/GA/Early/Normal/VI(Vanilla). This has been one of my most enjoyable campaigns yet, I think because I've learnt a lot more about the game (through these forums). Big thanks to frogbeastegg for his unit guide, helped me a lot.

Anyway, I started out by building up a navy to get my trade going and some $$'s. I then trained up a small army to take Naples from the Byzantines, don't really know why... I just felt the need to expand. That went well, so I decided to attack them at their mainland and quickly took Greece, bribed the army in Serbia and took it straight to Constantinople (which was so poorly defended I practically trotted in with half an army).

I saved the game shortly after in the year 1123 (not wanting to take any chances). I then played on until 1139, but I didn't like where the campaign was going so I decided to leave it at that and come back to the 1123 scenario later... probably tomorrow xD

>.< I have an picture but it appears I'm not allowed to post it... oh well, I'll post it in the update I suppose!

I'd like some advice, the Egyptians are fairly huge, just massing an enormous amount of troops in their homelands (which are my crusade goals...), and at war with the Byz. Should I go after them/finish off the Byz or head west into Europe and smite my fellow Christians?

[I of the Storm]

While smiting is generally encouraged in this game, doing so against other catholics will sooner or later get you warnings from the pope that require either a 10 turn ceasefire against that specific faction or will result in your excommunication. You should rather try either ceasefire with the Byz or destroy them and try to capture your Crusading Goals while you're still in the early period. You won't get any points for capturing the Holy Land after 1205 IIRC. So save up Europe for later.

Edit: And welcome to the Org, chrisRRR

[chrisRRR]

Oh really? I think I saw about the crusades, I suppose I should go for those damned Egyptians then! And in that case, I'll probably take out the Byz in the process...

Can anyone give me any pointers for large scale battles? I'm okay at the small battles (controlling up to about 8 units), but if it gets to the stage where I have reinforcements I crumble to bits... Anything would be much appreciated!

And thanks for the welcome, this is such a lovely and knowledgable place :)

[Jxrc]

I'd like some advice, the Egyptians are fairly huge, just massing an enormous amount of troops in their homelands (which are my crusade goals...), and at war with the Byz. Should I go after them/finish off the Byz or head west into Europe and smite my fellow Christians?

Would suggest to go against the Biz since their are usually tougher than the Egyptians. Egyptians army is often huge but it is usually a rable. Likewise their generals are not as good as the Byz. The Egyptians do get at least a couple of very good ones general but the AI can be dumb enough to put them in a stack with a two stars king (same is true for the Byz but the emperor has very often at least five stars). Getting to Egyptians to go into civil war is also much easier.

If you go after the Byz, you need to make sure that you have a good chance of getting rid of their fleet (if they win the naval battel be prepared for all sorts of trouble). Once you have destroyed their fleet, take their three island (usually poorly defended). You can keep those without too much trouble if the link between them and your king is not cut by an enemy fleet. Those island usually have inns that can turn handy for hiring mounted crossbowmen. I am not a huge fan of those but they are a big bonus agaisnt the byz since it is not uncommon to see a byz province with an eight-star general as its sole garrison. IF you launch a regular attack the AI will pull out but if you only attack with one or two units of MC, the AI will accept the fight. Provided you do not make any blunder, you can easily kill the high value general with a little patience (shoot, run away, shoot, etc.). Even if you fail, you've only lost an expendable unit

Can anyone give me any pointers for large scale battles? I'm okay at the small battles (controlling up to about 8 units), but if it gets to the stage where I have reinforcements I crumble to bits... Anything would be much appreciated!

Besides what Lord of the Storm already told you, keep you infantry grouped as much as possible (no point chasing routers for long with those, they will only catch a few and get exhausted in the process, only do it if the AI has no reinforcement of substance), do not let you cavalary get exhausted chasing three archers, remember that the pause button is your friend.

Hope it helps,