New hints ???????????????

[caravel]

The French send me emissaries every two turns so I might be tempted to switch side and take Burgundy and Tyrol (I already have Provence) before the French do (the AI apparently loves to build a chapter house in Burgundy).

Could be worthwhile. Don't accept their offers yet, but check if you have heirs that need marrying and if the French have available princesses.

I nevertheless have to restrain myself otherwise the campaign might be basically over before the GH appears

Spoken like a true master.

[Jxrc]

Spoken like a true master.

You're way too kind :))

Could be worthwhile. Don't accept their offers yet, but check if you have heirs that need marrying and if the French have available princesses.

Never got the chance. Not that the French smashed the HRE as expected but the English did backstab the French and erased them from the map ... (the French did help out by sending crusades that never made it since the English took the chapter house each time ....)
Did pretty much nothing myself for about 60 years except taking Austria, Tyrol and Hungary from the Hungarian (routing armies of jobbagys is not really that hard ...), Ireland and Livonia. My influence suffered as a result and since the English were smashing the Spaniards quite easily (why the Spaniards almost never think of building a few barques to have only two provinces to guard is beyond me ...), I started to take the Elmo holdings (from Cordoba to Tunisia - having arbs make it so much easier to deal with AUM). The GH did show up but it was a mini-GH (between 8,000 and 9,000) so that they reach Lithuania and are slowly reduced to piece by the Byz and Polish (they had their and so full that the never made a single attempt to take livonia from me). Brits have done well in the meantime and have destroyed the Spaniards and taken Norway, Sweden, a big chunk of what was Germany and three-four provinces in the middle East (IIRC Palestine, Antioch and Tripoli not sure about non-coastal provinces).

They have large stack and generals with loads of stars (I no longer use inquisitors except when I play as the HRE) but due to the kind of tactic used in inter-AI wars (attack, counter, attack, re-counter, etc ...) all they best general have the "retreats very often v&v" so it should be a not too easy task to get the British empire to collapse after a few defeats . But that is my assignment for next week-end ... Yes, life is indeed hard ....

[caravel]

Did pretty much nothing myself for about 60 years except taking Austria, Tyrol and Hungary from the Hungarian (routing armies of jobbagys is not really that hard ...), Ireland and Livonia.

That's the problem with the Hungarians - they tend to train too many of the Slav Warriors, Javelinmen and Jobbagy units. The slavs are too weak and the javelins are overpowered for the player but underpowered for the AI as they do badly in autocalc battles and the AI cannot deploy them properly in human vs AI battles. The same goes for Spanish Jinetes - great for the player but the AI rarely puts them to good use. Slav warriors can be improved with some modding. The best option is to turn them into light spearmen. Javelin types are harder to balance, if not impossible. One option is to cut their ammo down to a minimum and up their charge and morale a few points, with the "uncontrolled" discipline type as another possibility. This turns them into "throw and charge" flanking types.

My influence suffered as a result and since the English were smashing the Spaniards quite easily (why the Spaniards almost never think of building a few barques to have only two provinces to guard is beyond me ...)

The AI cannot manage navies effectively. It moves fleets around the map with no real purpose in mind (totally random). The only real remedy for this is to remove fleets and shipping from the game altogether.

[Jxrc]

That's the problem with the Hungarians - they tend to train too many of the Slav Warriors, Javelinmen and Jobbagy units. The slavs are too weak and the javelins are overpowered for the player but underpowered for the AI as they do badly in autocalc battles and the AI cannot deploy them properly in human vs AI battles. The same goes for Spanish Jinetes - great for the player but the AI rarely puts them to good use. Slav warriors can be improved with some modding. The best option is to turn them into light spearmen. Javelin types are harder to balance, if not impossible. One option is to cut their ammo down to a minimum and up their charge and morale a few points, with the "uncontrolled" discipline type as another possibility. This turns them into "throw and charge" flanking types..

I long thought that slav warriors were spear unit but found out recently that they were sword units (https://forums.totalwar.org/wiki/ind..._Slav_Warriors) ... I have not checked but it seems weird if you look at the combat animation (I almost never use them, too prone to rout). It's true that they cannot fight against horses but they only beat archers and peasants AFIK so it's not really a surprise ...

The AI cannot manage navies effectively. It moves fleets around the map with no real purpose in mind (totally random). The only real remedy for this is to remove fleets and shipping from the game altogether.

Fair enough but if you do that:

- how do you invade islands ? Do you create a imaginary land route to just like they did between Wessex and Flanders ? How does the AI cope with that addition ? Does it still leave a single unit to guard the province or does it react accordingly ?

- what about trade income ? Does it imply that you give a trade bonus once a port is build without taking into account the number of trade routes ? If building the port has the same effect as covering the entire sea with ships, the bonus for naval trade needs to be adapted if faction with access to sea provinces are not to be overpowered.

Finally how do you do that ?

[caravel]

I long thought that slav warriors were spear unit but found out recently that they were sword units (https://forums.totalwar.org/wiki/ind..._Slav_Warriors) ... I have not checked but it seems weird if you look at the combat animation (I almost never use them, too prone to rout). It's true that they cannot fight against horses but they only beat archers and peasants AFIK so it's not really a surprise ...

Slav Warriors were probably intended to be spearmen, but definitely do not function as spearmen. Plans must have changed... It's easy enough to change their stats and reassign them as an eastern version of vanilla spears, though it's debatable if this is needed as the Round Shield Spearmen fit this role anyway.

Fair enough but if you do that:

- how do you invade islands ? Do you create a imaginary land route to just like they did between Wessex and Flanders ? How does the AI cope with that addition ? Does it still leave a single unit to guard the province or does it react accordingly ?

Yes, you can create landbridges to all the islands, namely:

Genoa/Corsica (or Tuscany)
Ireland/Scotland (and/or Wales)
Malta/Sicily
Rhodes/Nicaea
Crete/Greece
Cyprus/Antioch (or other neighbouring provinces)

This actually works best and does not cripple the AI. The AI sees no difference between a landbridged province and an adjacent province. i.e. to the AI there is no difference between the existing wessex/flanders connection and the wessex/mercia connection. The AI benefits from this arrangement. How many times have you seen the Sicilian or Byzantine factions reappearing in force... in Malta/Crete/Rhodes/Cyprus without a port? (I've also seen the French or English reappear in Ireland, totally cut off)

- what about trade income ? Does it imply that you give a trade bonus once a port is build without taking into account the number of trade routes ? If building the port has the same effect as covering the entire sea with ships, the bonus for naval trade needs to be adapted if faction with access to sea provinces are not to be overpowered.

Finally how do you do that ?

Trade ceases to function as it once did. There are numerous alternatives however. The first and most obvious is to improve farming income. Trade can also be replaced by giving ports a fixed income, then adding fixed incomes to the trader buildings and their upgrades. This gives a stable and unfluctuating income to the AI.

Another method is to exploit the "local trade" income that already exists but has little effect. This is a single income generated for a single trade goods type within a single province. This can be boosted by editing the values for the goods. This means that the traders will produce differing incomes depending on the goods found in the province, but the incomes will be static. In this way landlocked provinces with trade goods could also benefit from trade - whereas in the vanilla game building traders in such provinces is a waste of time and florins.

It can be achieved with a little time, effort and editing of text files. The next time I get MTW up and running I will be making these changes as a standard, so I can send you the files.

The gains IMHO are great, the losses are small in comparison. The loss of shipping doesn't bother me, nor does the loss of the huge bloated trade income that the player can exploit so easily, but the AI is hopeless inept at managing. Transportation isn't a factor either. As it is, it doesn't work: Too many Almohads in Scotland or Byzantine in Flanders scenarios for my liking. This is the problem with shipping - the AI views a link of shipping from Egypt to Sweden in exactly the same way it views travelling from Egypt to Sinai. The AI does not give any thought to the possibility that the route may be cut off next year... By removing shipping, AI factions get better territorial integrity and stability which is compromised by the shipping in the vanilla game.

[Jxrc]

This actually works best and does not cripple the AI. The AI sees no difference between a landbridged province and an adjacent province. i.e. to the AI there is no difference between the existing wessex/flanders connection and the wessex/mercia connection. The AI benefits from this arrangement. How many times have you seen the Sicilian or Byzantine factions reappearing in force... in Malta/Crete/Rhodes/Cyprus without a port? (I've also seen the French or English reappear in Ireland, totally cut off) :

Seems more than reasonable to me. Will avoid the silly invasion by sea with an army lead by the king ... I have seen quite a few time the Egyptian king attack Rhodes and get stuck there until his death ... Same thing for the French king in Ireland ... Good recipe for civil wars ... On top of that the AI is usually not smart enough to build a harbour and get out of there ...

Trade ceases to function as it once did. There are numerous alternatives however. The first and most obvious is to improve farming income. Trade can also be replaced by giving ports a fixed income, then adding fixed incomes to the trader buildings and their upgrades. This gives a stable and unfluctuating income to the AI.

Another method is to exploit the "local trade" income that already exists but has little effect. This is a single income generated for a single trade goods type within a single province. This can be boosted by editing the values for the goods. This means that the traders will produce differing incomes depending on the goods found in the province, but the incomes will be static. In this way landlocked provinces with trade goods could also benefit from trade - whereas in the vanilla game building traders in such provinces is a waste of time and florins.:

If that can be done, that would be great but a little balancing exercise would probably be need to keep the game "accurate" so that a difference remains between historicaly rich provinces and others. If that is doable, adding a port could trigger the application of a multiplier of the trade income. At first glance I would say 1.5 but it would need testing. Increasing the basic trade and agriculture might also be required if one wants to tech up but on the other hand it might be more accurate if not enough cash is available to buid anything at anytime (feels weird to have fortresses all over the place after a while)

It can be achieved with a little time, effort and editing of text files.

I will have to trust you on that one

The next time I get MTW up and running I will be making these changes as a standard, so I can send you the files..

Please do. You will then be my new hero

The gains IMHO are great, the losses are small in comparison. The loss of shipping doesn't bother me, nor does the loss of the huge bloated trade income that the player can exploit so easily, but the AI is hopeless inept at managing. Transportation isn't a factor either. As it is, it doesn't work: Too many Almohads in Scotland or Byzantine in Flanders scenarios for my liking. This is the problem with shipping - the AI views a link of shipping from Egypt to Sweden in exactly the same way it views travelling from Egypt to Sinai. The AI does not give any thought to the possibility that the route may be cut off next year... By removing shipping, AI factions get better territorial integrity and stability which is compromised by the shipping in the vanilla game.

Yep, Italians invading Sweden and stuffs like that are pretty weird and putting a stop to that would make the game for "historical". On top of that, if the AI sees its own possibilty to invade a province by see, it does seem pretty useless at protecting its own shores from invasion.

Crusades will be much tougher for the human player without navy but that is not a bad thing at all. Would'nt it be a good idea to compensate that a bit and allow the successfull crusader to produce its own crusader units in Palestine, Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli to make an attempt worthwile ? This would make the gamble tempting enough .... Doing the same for the German in Prussia and Pomerania could also be an option but perhaps it's too big of an advantage. Perhaps Livonia is a bit more reasonable.

If on your way you could modify or delete the useless bonus for some provinces (the one about the dismounted knights ...)

The additional benefit of your plan is that solves one of my major beef with the game, the last uncatchable (and in any event invincible) dromon (even if things got a bit better after the first patch IIRC).

Two suggestions if I may:

- might be a good thing to add a few connection from Sicily otherwise a Sicilian campaign will be quite hard ... Attacking the Pope after a few truns is tough ... Connection from Naples to Greece would help the Byz too much in Early. I would at first glance suggest a connection between Sicily and Sardigna. Another solution is to add a connection from Sicily to Tunisia (Sicilian GA Goal) but the risk would be that the Elmo reach Rome after a few turns (unlikely in the Early period during which they usually take a beating but possible in High). Spaniards can do the same, but having Naples as Spanish possession is not inaccurate ...

- some GA campaign will become more than difficult, for instance the French in Early and the Aragonese in Late (even though the connection Sicily/Sardinia would help). French in High will be tough since they cannot get any reinforcement except if new crusades are launched but that is basically the reason why the kingdom of Jerusalem did not survive.
- the connection from the three byz Islands should be made in such a way the they work in for the High Period. I would suggest to connect (i) Crete to Naples, Greece and Rhodes (ii) Rhodes to Nicea and the other two Islands and (iii) Cyprus to Rhodes and Tripoli.

Just food for thought. Perhaps these suggestion would trigger issues I have not contemplated so do not hesitate to dismiss them if you have better ideas.

Ok I will now let you work.

[caravel]

If that can be done, that would be great but a little balancing exercise would probably be need to keep the game "accurate" so that a difference remains between historicaly rich provinces and others. If that is doable, adding a port could trigger the application of a multiplier of the trade income. At first glance I would say 1.5 but it would need testing. Increasing the basic trade and agriculture might also be required if one wants to tech up but on the other hand it might be more accurate if not enough cash is available to buid anything at anytime (feels weird to have fortresses all over the place after a while)

Well the farming issue can be improved by adding an adittional 100% upgrade and by making the upgrades cheaper. The trade issue only needs the trade goods items values to be increased in proportion so the wealthy provinces remain so.

Crusades will be much tougher for the human player without navy but that is not a bad thing at all. Would'nt it be a good idea to compensate that a bit and allow the successfull crusader to produce its own crusader units in Palestine, Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli to make an attempt worthwile ? This would make the gamble tempting enough .... Doing the same for the German in Prussia and Pomerania could also be an option but perhaps it's too big of an advantage. Perhaps Livonia is a bit more reasonable.

This is one of the great benefits. Crusades are harder to pull off. In vanilla the player can create a link of fleets to the province, add lots of units to the crusade and then drop it into the target province in a single turn. The AI simply cannot do this.

If on your way you could modify or delete the useless bonus for some provinces (the one about the dismounted knights ...)

That's easy enough. In the past I've removed all bonuses from the map, because they cause the AI to go berserk trying to tech up to train a particular unit at the expense of everything else.

- might be a good thing to add a few connection from Sicily otherwise a Sicilian campaign will be quite hard ... Attacking the Pope after a few truns is tough ... Connection from Naples to Greece would help the Byz too much in Early. I would at first glance suggest a connection between Sicily and Sardigna. Another solution is to add a connection from Sicily to Tunisia (Sicilian GA Goal) but the risk would be that the Elmo reach Rome after a few turns (unlikely in the Early period during which they usually take a beating but possible in High). Spaniards can do the same, but having Naples as Spanish possession is not inaccurate ...

The best way to improve the Sicilian position is to a) give them Naples in the early Era, which they should have anyway and b) reduce the tech level of Sicily to prevent them expanding too soon. The Siciliy to Tunisia connection is risky. You could do a Siciliy -> Malta -> Tunisia connection but it holds the same risks. The Sicilians ten to explode all over North Africa and wipe out the Almohad in a few years.

- some GA campaign will become more than difficult, for instance the French in Early and the Aragonese in Late (even though the connection Sicily/Sardinia would help). French in High will be tough since they cannot get any reinforcement except if new crusades are launched but that is basically the reason why the kingdom of Jerusalem did not survive.
- the connection from the three byz Islands should be made in such a way the they work in for the High Period. I would suggest to connect (i) Crete to Naples, Greece and Rhodes (ii) Rhodes to Nicea and the other two Islands and (iii) Cyprus to Rhodes and Tripoli.

Firstly any changes will only affect Early anyway. To change High and Late you have to edit the files again - though that's possible. The Greece -> Naples connection is one I had forgotten. That one is quite important.

It's true also that these regions were isolated. They did not have this kind of reliable shipping connecting them, nor supplies and troops ready to ship in at a year's notice.

I've just realised that with the mod I play, I use a different map... Though I don't mind working on a version for the Vanilla map at some point. The map I use has an improved Iberia, Greece, Asia Minor, Near East and North Africa. It also has most of those suggested land bridges already in place. The province layout in those regions is different and Cyrenacia, Sinai, Finland, Switzerland, Rhodes and Malta have been removed altogether. Many new provinces have been added in the above regions however.

Now all I need to do is get a new graphics card and get the game running...