The faction you could never handle

[Martok]

In order for Burgundy or Switzerland to appear, loyalty in those provinces needs to be under 120%. (And of course, it must be the right period; if memory serves, Burgundy can't show up until High, and Switzerland not until Late.)


For any dead faction to re-emerge, there are two conditions that must be met:

1.) Similar to above, there has to be a loyalty rating below 120% in a province once owned by that faction. (Those of you have played MTW long enough will know this can occasionally cause factions to reemerge in strange locations at times -- I could tell you tales of the French being reborn in Antioch, the Byzantines in Sicily, and the Almos showing up in England!)

2.) At the time of the faction's original destruction, there must be a male heir who had not yet come of age (so he'd have to be under 16 when his faction was destroyed), and could still be alive at the time of the faction's reemergence. So if 90+ years has passed without a faction reemerging, you can pretty much guarantee it's not going to, as I don't think I've ever heard of a faction leader living past his 70's (maybe early 80's?).

So my dilemma is: do I sit tight, behave passively, hold to my existing borders, and hope that neither the Almos nor the Eggies rack up so many conquest points that they overtake me? (And maybe they'll suffer the imperial overstretch syndrome and implode, which seems unlikely.) Or do I try to roll one of them - probably the Egyptians - back to a more easily defended frontier (from my point of view), and then focus all my energies on the other. I dunno the answer to that question. The Council of State is vacillating. I have, however, sent a couple of barque flotillas on a decade-long cruise to the Black Sea. Once there they'll join up with flotillas to be produced in Moldavia and I hope to be able to interdict Egyptian troop movements across the Black Sea. That should give me a fighting chance of out-producing them in the Balkan theatre if we do come to blows.

Just to muddy the advice waters a little further ( )...

One other thing I'd point out is that rather like the Byzantines, the Almos' have a strong unit roster in the Early period, but they gradually become outclassed by most of the other factions' as the game progresses. Given you're now in the campaign's Late period, it's highly likely that you can produce better-quality army units than the Almos at this point.

I don't know if that's enough of a factor for you to consider going after them instead of the Eggies, but I would've been remiss if I hadn't at least pointed it out.

One other thing: my kings have been crap. I mean real dregs of the gene pool rubbish. Not one of them up to snuff. We're talking wouldn't-be-allowed-out-unaccompanied retards.

Do you have any princes who are even halfway-decent? After all, even kings suffer accidents now and then -- or (failing that) they sometimes launch an overseas attack, but the rest of the army/fleet somehow gets separated from him and/or never leaves port...

I reckon I've played at least a couple of dozen MTW campaigns (various mods, as well as vanilla, always from Early). And I know that I've lost two. But in terms of 'still tough 250-odd years in' this one takes the biscuit.

MTW: such a great game!

Best regards
V

Sapere aude
Horace

Great to see you're enjoying it so much. There's no question the Polish are one of the more difficult factions to play; it's definitely one worth checking out for those that enjoy a long-term challenge (as you've discovered)!