MTW TIPS and Observations

[demfl]

Feel free to add

1. Never accept alliances or ceasefires, simply decline and send your agent on the next turn to offer the same alliance or ceasefire to gain valor. This is how I quickly get one of my religious agents to 4star+.


2. When at war don't accept peace until you sunk every ship of the enemy or two turn later you will probably be at war again.

3. When playing as a Muslim Faction it is possible to maintain peace. With the Turk GA I only had one crusade attempt and its almost 1300 Usually by 1150 Crusades will happen all the time making my faction enemies with everyone.............. At the beginning or game (early) once your ships can reach the pope, declare war until his faction is gone. Tear down everything of course only leaving a port so you can withdraw you troops. (Repeat Often)

Also, Set agents(emissary )in Europe to watch for powerful faction. If A faction is getting to big, declare war and tear down every building after taking over each land one by one. One this is accomplished withdraw your ships and accept your auto cease fires from not sharing any borders. (This is the true meaning of total war)

TRAITS
1.At the end of each turn always watch for Generals that gain virtues. Take note and designate a providence to only hold units that have received random virtues. This way they're easier to find when looking for potential generals. Look out for morale boosting traits.

PRIDE- Stay away from this trait it usually turns to lazy.

SECRET PRIDE- One of the best traits in the game, its never exposed and mean +3 to valor. Makes the best Generals, I always turn Saracen Infantry with Secret pride into a 9 star general. This unit can take out Lancer, VG, JHI, anything you can throw at it and you can use the unit right in the middle of battles because of the unit size, attack and defense stats.

DOUBTFUL COURAGE- After years of many games I know for a fact its random. I have receive this traits with Generals fighting in the Wedge formation 1 on 1 against a rebel unit after the battle.

Spy and Valor Easiest way to valor up spies is by finding a land with a low loyal level. The Byzantine island are usually great. Spam about 20+ spy and send them all to the island or land with no border forts. Let them sit and after each rebellion, each spy will gain a star. After so many battles the rebel forces will eventually win. Once this happens send your new 20+ .. 3 or 4 star valor spies on the next island. Because of their levels a rebellion should be easy. Repeat Repeat Repeat..... remember don't try this if a Border Fort is present or you will lose your high valor spies.

CTRL S should be a habit after every turn. I do this automatically now because MTW has a way of randomly crashing.



I have many more tips but feel free to add.

[Durango]

I have many more tips but feel free to add.

Please do so. These are very useful strategies, good work

[Martok]

Welcome to the Org, demfl! Great to have you here.



Some good tips as well. I'm uncertain about a couple of them, however:

SECRET PRIDE- One of the best traits in the game, its never exposed

Are you sure about this one never being exposed? I've had numerous generals with this trait over the years, and it seems to me that it has been exposed from time to time. My memory may be in error, however.

CTRL S should be a habit after every turn. I do this automatically now because MTW has a way of randomly crashing.

While this is a good idea in theory, the problem with it is that the quick-save (ctrl + s) feature is often prone to corruption and can cause CTD's. I generally prefer to just do a normal save-game every 5-10 years (depending on what's going on) -- it may be not quite as convenient, but it's much less a pain in the rear than dealing with a corrupted save file.

[I of the Storm]

That, on the other hand, depends on MTW's stability on the user's system. My MTW, for example, tends to crash when I try to access the Game Menu in order to do a proper save. I therefore developed the habit to CTRL+S everytime before I try to make a save game.

[demfl]

Welcome to the Org, demfl! Great to have you here.



Some good tips as well. I'm uncertain about a couple of them, however:

Are you sure about this one never being exposed? I've had numerous generals with this trait over the years, and it seems to me that it has been exposed from time to time. My memory may be in error, however.

While this is a good idea in theory, the problem with it is that the quick-save (ctrl + s) feature is often prone to corruption and can cause CTD's. I generally prefer to just do a normal save-game every 5-10 years (depending on what's going on) -- it may be not quite as convenient, but it's much less a pain in the rear than dealing with a corrupted save file.

Secret Pride is never exposed since the AI doesn't send spies on your generals. In all my games since MTW first came out, I never had Secret Pride exposed. With Ctrl + S I have only experienced a corrupted file once. Its rare from my experience and seem less risky than waiting 10 turns to save, alot can happen in those turns. I even Ctrl + S before each battle because with MTW, CTD's are truly random.

[caravel]

Secret Pride is never exposed since the AI doesn't send spies on your generals. In all my games since MTW first came out, I never had Secret Pride exposed.

I've actually seen it exposed on numerous occasions... You're right that AI spies don't expose vices in MTW, but they do still get exposed randomly. Thus Secret Perv' get's exposed to Perv' and Secret Adultery is exposed to Adultery - it's just a matter of time. What version are you running?

With Ctrl + S I have only experienced a corrupted file once. Its rare from my experience and seem less risky than waiting 10 turns to save, alot can happen in those turns. I even Ctrl + S before each battle because with MTW, CTD's are truly random.

The quicksave (CTRL+S) does cause save game corruption - usually at the worse possible moment. I remember playing a large campaign once relying on the quicksave and it let me down badly. I think my previous real save was about 100 turns prior... so it was game over. The worst quicksave is the pre-battle save. I've seen a lot of random corruption from that in the past.

A good policy is to quicksave first and then head to the main menu and make a real save. If the game does CTD when you try to go to the menu then the quicksave will be the short term backup.

[demfl]

I build up my best general with secret pride and not one has ever been exposed. I have never seen secret pride exposed unless I dropped one of my spies on another factions general. I'm playing Viking Invasion 2.01 patch. My battle quick saves don't become corrupted so i believe its trial and error depending on the system I guess; but I do quick saves after every turn.

[gollum]

Welcome to the org and the main hall demfl, ejoy your stay. Some useful tips you have there.

Secret pride gets exposed routinely in my games - which difficulty level you are playing by the way? The quicksave also frequently gets corrupted. Its best to save every 30 turns or so formaly, while using the quicksave for the in between, although 2.01 is remarkably stable in the system i useto play MTW.