HRE in high

[daigaku]

Hi @Gilrandir,

They appear in Khazar and Volgo-Bulgaria with 10-12 full stacks and invariably attack the Russians both westward and northward. Then they (with a part of their full strenth since some of them garrison the conquered provinces) either move on to polish the Polish, forgive my pun; or go south to deal with whoever holds Georgia, Armenia, and Trebizond. Being aware of this pattern you can plan your actions correspondingly (in my game).

Wow - only that few? On expert level? I must make a mistake playing only on hard (no stupid jokes from AI, and no ridiculous +5morale for every AI-unit), those guys turn up with about 20-35 stacks, sometimes taking Georgia or, more often, Armenia as well as Khazar and Volga-Bulgaria. Naturally they go for the Russians, but in my games as well for the Byz/Turks depending on who has got the Black Sea Region (Trebizond, Rum, sometimes even Syria, Edessa, Lesser Armenia).
With 12 stacks, sure they will be exhausted taking all Novgorod from Moscow to Kiev to Georgia. Other story with more than 25 stacks - and for this situation my description was meant....

Euro-2012 thing?!? Never heard of that. Or do you mean this event where every day on TV there are exposed 22 cr€tlns chasing some rubber whilst two trying to catch it?!? Never understood the hype about that, sorry ;-))

Happily playing along greetings from

daigaku

[Gilrandir]

Euro-2012 thing?!? Never heard of that. Or do you mean this event where every day on TV there are exposed 22 cr€tlns chasing some rubber whilst two trying to catch it?!? Never understood the hype about that, sorry ;-))

Happily playing along greetings from

daigaku

You sound just like my wife. The same attitude she has to MTW, though. I'm afraid she wouldn't bear both, so I'll have to concentrate on football first, and then ... oh, yes ...
As for the Horde, I'm not sure its numbers depend on difficulty level. Btw, drone, do you happen to know how to calculate the horde initial numbers ratio? My game can't serve an example as it is a translated version, so some initial settings may have been changed.

[drone]

Btw, drone, do you happen to know how to calculate the horde initial numbers ratio?

Sorry, I don't know the mechanics of the Horde emergence. I don't believe difficulty level has any effect, there were some theories about the strength of the garrisons present in Khazar/Georgia/V-B in 1230.

You can mod the game to improve the staying power of the Horde, reducing the upkeep for the GH units helps. Not sure how much money they start with on arrival, I assume they start with the usual amount based on difficulty, this could be increased. Using the -ian switch at year 1231 would tell you this value. Another problem is the build requirements for their units, GH Warriors need Bowyer's Guild, GH HAs need Bowyer's Guild and Horse Breeder's Guild, and GH HC need Master Horse Breeder and Master Spearmaker. If the east isn't really built up when they arrive, it is tough for them to replenish their numbers after the initial push.

[daigaku]

Hi,

@Gilrandir: sorry to hear that - at least M:TW makes some sense, she should let you play it to become a better man, mastering life´s difficulties with trained strategies and rude tactics ;-))) I await your tales of honor and glory!!!

@drone: "...there were some theories about the strength of the garrisons present in Khazar/Georgia/V-B in 1230." I´m not sure if that works - tried it in my turkish adventures, they still came in, how their name tells, HORDES. Meanwhile I´ve thought about the possibility that they pop in with an amount of men in relation to all others present on the map - if there are loads of big armies, they come in loads. But haven´t verified yet, in my games there always seems to be a tendency to big armies, even if I try to keep mine as small as possible....

greetings daigaku

[drone]

"...there were some theories about the strength of the garrisons present in Khazar/Georgia/V-B in 1230." I´m not sure if that works - tried it in my turkish adventures, they still came in, how their name tells, HORDES. Meanwhile I´ve thought about the possibility that they pop in with an amount of men in relation to all others present on the map - if there are loads of big armies, they come in loads. But haven´t verified yet, in my games there always seems to be a tendency to big armies, even if I try to keep mine as small as possible....

Back in the day, a lot of players tried stacking loads of troops in those provinces and got big horde numbers, but it may very well have been as you say, a larger force anywhere ups the ante. For the extra challenge, some would tech up those provinces with armouries to get katamongols!

[daigaku]

Hi @drone,

...Katamongols against Kamelsteaks - what a sight!! ;-))

greetings daigaku

[drone]

All this talk has me thinking of playing the Horde, not in Late with an easy mod, but in High as soon as they reappear. Start either with some western faction and maintain, or as an eastern faction and prepare, then switch over to the Horde in 1231 and play from there. It would be interesting to learn the logistical game problems they run into as they expand.