Hello everyone! I have some dumb questions...

[Iliketodropbombs]

First off, hello Earth and my fellow airbreathers!

I love M:TW, it's easily my most favorite game of all time, tied with IL-2 Sturmovik. I have found my discs again, and I reloaded the game, and am playing a Byzantine campaign. It's been years since I last played, so in essence it's like starting from scratch. I have some questions that will seem rather basic, but I forgot alot of the dynamics of the game, so bear with me.

1. Once my king has 2 or more princes on the map, does it serve me to risk him in combat? Or am I better served in posting him in some backwater province, and use my princes?

2. What strategy should I use in preparing for the oncoming Golden Hordes?

Thanks again fellas,

ERIK

[gollum]

1. You can use him, just remember if you have a very large empire the position of the king affects the loyalty of far off provinces. Its best to keep him, if possible, near the approximate geographical center of your lands. Also if you have him invade overseas, just remember to maintain the contact with your core lands by keeping shipping lanes open.

2. The one and only spears and arbalasters and light cavs combo. Spears protect the arbs, arbs shoot the horde to bits, light cav chases after horde routers. Keep some heavy infantry too, like Chivalric foot knights, varangians, janissaries, billmen for approaching MHC.

[caravel]

am playing a Byzantine campaign
[...]
2. What strategy should I use in preparing for the oncoming Golden Hordes?

The horde is primarily cavalry based, so gollum's advice is sound. Bear in mind however that the Byzantine do not have access to good spears - only the vanilla spearmen IIRC? If you choose to use the vanilla spears at all, then you will need byzzie infantry and varangians to back them up - otherwise they are not going to last very long. The spears are ok as holding units - other units need to do the actual killing - but you need to get as many morale upgrades as possible and consider them expendable. Also consider some armour upgrades (again for the spearmen) as the horde field no crossbows but a lot of shortbow armed units.

I also bring along foot archers, treb archers are always a safe bet (actually hybrid skirmishers, not pure archers), as though arbs are very good they're wasted on the mongol light cavalry and need to use every shot against the heavies. If you control your volleys carefully, you can achieve a rout early on - but chasing routers can be a huge mistake - so keep to the high ground and set units to "hold position".

Killing and/or routing the mongol warriors usually results in far more deadly reinforcements.

Fortify the mountainous regions of Asia minor, build at least castles and ring walls in provinces like Georgia and let them waste themselves against the castle defences to further thin their numbers. Chokepoints are vitally important to ensure the horde don't overrun all of your territory - if one of your vital provinces goes under siege, it's likely the sieging force will split next year and hit more of your provinces.

[Gilrandir]

1. Once my king has 2 or more princes on the map, does it serve me to risk him in combat? Or am I better served in posting him in some backwater province, and use my princes?

2. What strategy should I use in preparing for the oncoming Golden Hordes?

1. Follow Gollum's advice, but if I were you I wouldn't send my king on any island-conquering missions even if you have a chain of ships to the aim you target. The AI is prone to play nasty jokes by declaring a war of a ship-strong faction against you, so
your connections may be disrupted and you'll find whole of your empire ablaze with rebellions.
2. The Horde. Since I played the Byz many times (including from the High when you have 20 something years to get ready for the deluge) I can add something to what the others said. Battle-wise Caravel and Gollum gave exhaustive information. I would like to add some province-wise tips.
The Horde are dangerous for their numbers. If their first onslaught is directed elsewhere they will not attack you with all their might but with 3-4 stacks at the worse. In view of this:
- abandon Georgia if you still hold it. Appearing in Khazar the Horde is sure to attack Georgia if it is not rebel;
- if Georgia is rebel the Horde is likely to move westward to capture Kiev, Moldova, Volynia;
- you are not to move north of the Danube, stay in Bulgaria. This crucial province has river-borders with anything to the north. If Mongols attack you there they will have to fight the bridge battles which will render their quantitative dominance useless.

[drone]

I would avoid using your king for any island invasions, regardless of the state of your navy. Your invasion will most likely destroy the province's port, which will strand your king for at least 4 years, and effectively cut him off from the rest of your lands. For land attacks, I will use my king sometimes when my empire is small, but I find it better in the long run to get stars and virtues on my heirs. Groom them early and often.

[geeny]

Are you playing War2 Glory? War2 Glory is a browser-based RTS game set in the historical battlefield.

[Jack50]

greetings iliketodropbombs!

As others have said it is best to let the old man die somewhere in his native lands I usually choose the better at war of the 2 heirs and begin the reign of terr...um I mean benevolent enlightment of the area surrounding the country.