Observations in MTW

[caravel]

Welcome tomrayner,

Hi,

I'm a first time poster but have been lurking for a long time.

I just wanted to share with you a few observations/thoughts I've made/had about MTW.

* Death years. There seems to be certain years when nearly every faction leader dies all at once. I've literally counted 9 leaders die in a single turn. It's not a problem to game play in any way and you could argue it replicates a particularly nasty bug sweeping the medieval world... like swine flu or something.

Yes this is very noticable sometimes, though it does not happen at set years. It's probably coincidence more than anything else.

* Dromon blockade. When I've had a fleet of high tech boats like cogs fighting a single, nippy little dromon I've often found it virtually impossible to engage. I've split my fleet into seven and tried engaging with each and still had no success. In fact, a single Dromon held up trade in the entire baltic sea (much to my chagrin) for over a decade. Was I just very unlucky or should I have teched myself down and thrown a few barques into the fighting?

Dromons are faster than other vessels. They tend to flee when attacked and due to their greater speed usually always escape. This is why you end up chasing them around - especially if you're using the heavier and slower ships a lot. Break your fleets into individual ships and attack with each ship individually for a better chance of catching them.

* Self Sufficiency vs Trade. Every one of my campaigns always becomes so naval focussed. I slowly capture, one by one, the main ports of Sweden, Flanders, Venice, Antioch, Tripoli, Egypt, Lithuania, Khazar... as in my current Egypt campaign (the only big money trade ports that elude me are Constantinople and Sicily) . As a result I end up with serious cash to burn... well over 600,000 at last count.

However, as much as trade is fun... and it is. It does have some serious annoyances... like when the computer stupidly starts sinking your boats (and consequently my entire global trade empire).

So what I was wondering is if anybody has ever gone about it the other way and relied on self sufficiency? That is, to take some of the agricultural big earners and max them up to 80% (perhaps focussing on the eastern rebel infested Russian provinces). That way, whoever you're at war with your income won't be affected.

I recognise you'll never get the big bucks that trade can offer but it might feel more stable.

I tried something similar playing as the HRE, but the second I took Sweden I just wanted to start creaming in on all the profits from saltfish, fur and whatever the other product is... butter?

The game is skewed towards trade income vs farm/mine income. Trade income is potentially massive where farm income will never be the basis for a large empire. Mine income is not much use either. This is bad both in gameplay terms and is historically incorrect also as the great maritime trading empires of the Portuguese, Spanish and British etc had not been established at that time. Most trade at the time was local land trade and this is not represented in the game in any form. In essence you are forced to trade if you want to have a chance against the AI. Also ships are vital to defend your coasts from invasion - so you simply have to build ships or be overwhelmed.

Regions also have very imbalanced farm income so building an empire based only on farming in the eastern steppes isn't really viable. If you play as Novgorod or the Russians you will have to start trading from the Baltic and/or Black Sea or fall behind. The inland provinces simply don't provide enough farm income.