It never ceases to amaze...

[I of the Storm]

I've been playing this game for maybe 5 years now, and I just have discovered a tiny but very nice feature of this game. To me it's things like these that make it superior to most other TW games. I (Almos) wanted to bribe one of two egyptian stacks standing in Sinai, while I had two full stacks in Egypt myself, in order to move in the next turn, making the odds 3:1 and be a first rate backstabbing sob. The mission screen said something about 28k florins value for that stack. When he arrived though, the bakshish had risen to 64k florins. Since I couldn't afford that, I chose to "continue with the original offer".

I then received a parchment, telling me that the enemy general was so insulted, he killed my emissary. As a consequence, my emissary unit was gone.

In five years of MTW, I've never had that before. This is ... moving somehow.

[bondovic]

Yeah, that's awesome. It's been a while since I played now, but I'm starting to hear the echoes of battles past. The howling winds of the camp map. Slowly extending my empire to reveal the foreign powers' lands. Ahh, and the charge of the Armenians.

[gollum]

You'd be even more amazed if you were playing STW in that instance: its from that game that the feature was most likely kept. InN STW, one of your retainers would come in the throne room, telling what happened while presenting you the emmissary's head in a plate (that the enemy sent back).

[Mark]

Wow, that is so cool. Knowing things like that can happen, makes the game more interesting. And for me, who has only been playing for a couple of weeks, this is fantastic.

Thanks for bringing this up.

[Prince Cobra]

I've been playing this game for maybe 5 years now, and I just have discovered a tiny but very nice feature of this game. To me it's things like these that make it superior to most other TW games. I (Almos) wanted to bribe one of two egyptian stacks standing in Sinai, while I had two full stacks in Egypt myself, in order to move in the next turn, making the odds 3:1 and be a first rate backstabbing sob. The mission screen said something about 28k florins value for that stack. When he arrived though, the bakshish had risen to 64k florins. Since I couldn't afford that, I chose to "continue with the original offer".

I then received a parchment, telling me that the enemy general was so insulted, he killed my emissary. As a consequence, my emissary unit was gone.

In five years of MTW, I've never had that before. This is ... moving somehow.

Well, it happened to me in my third game as the Byzantines. It was in High era, I think. I did not give enough money to my emissary and he was slaughtered by the Trabezuntine general. A turn later, the general was slaughtered with his entire army.

[Trapped in Samsara]

Hi

Yeah, absolutely know what you mean about how this game can still surprise you.

IIRC, if you repeatedly request an alliance, in the face of consistent rebuff, the level verbal threat towards your agent inreases in menace. I can't recall if I've sent any emissary/priest to their doom by asking once too often, by I can 'empathise' with the trepidation of my virtual servant as they are sent once more unto the audience room.

Regards
Victor

[caravel]

IIRC, if you repeatedly request an alliance, in the face of consistent rebuff, the level verbal threat towards your agent inreases in menace. I can't recall if I've sent any emissary/priest to their doom by asking once too often, by I can 'empathise' with the trepidation of my virtual servant as they are sent once more unto the audience room.

The levely of courtesy in the response you get is in fact based on faction leader influence.

[gollum]

Thanks for the info Yohei, never knew that.

In STW also there are three level of "talk" emmissaries do: when their clan thinks is better, when it thinks its equal and when it thinks its lower than the player's clan. I always thought that these were based in an "overall" performance index, similar to the one present in Rome, that takes into account military strength, development, wealth etc as in STW (and MTW) there are messages that inform upon whiich clan excels in each category.



PS The level of talk is felt in the way proposals are worded, and its really appropriate and funny.