GENERAL RULES THAT APPLY THROUGHOUT THE GAME:
A) You must accept all offers to ceasefire.
B) You must accept all alliances unless it will violate an existing one. However, see C.
C) You must show deference to your religion in all matters regarding alliance. Ex: You are Byz. Novgorod goes to war with Poland. You are allied to both. You must stay allied with fellow Orthys, rejecting catholic fool Poles. Ex: You are Spain allied to Eggy. Crusading French are at war with Eggy and ask to ally with you. You must do so and cancel your alliance with Eggy.
D) You may not voluntarily break alliances unless it has to do with acheiving a GA goal.
E) If you are Catholic you must be a good one. You must under all circumstances not get excommunicated. If you do, GAME OVER.
F) You must try to acheive all GA goals even if it will possibly be detrimental or leave you weak somewhere else. Have some integrity about this.
G) You may not inbreed (Strangely, I've found this is a rather painless solution to the fact that factions refuse to marry you in mid to late game....the inbred vices are random).
H) You must build up provinces equally, meaning militarily. IOW, no specializing provinces. You cannot build a certain level troop building until ALL (other than gun stuff not available at first) lower levels are built. Ex: No Bowyer's workshop until Spearmaker, Swordsmith, Horse Farmer, 1st level militia (I forget what it's called), and Siege engineer are built in that particular province. Armorers and Metalsmiths are different and do not apply.
I) You may not employ scorched earth against the AI, nor raid, slash, and burn.
J) Crusades may only be employed against GA goal provinces or against any faction the Pope calls for one against. You may only keep the target province and of course may not slash and burn a passed through one, nor stop to besiege the fortification. EXCEPTION: When crusading against an excommunicated leader, the idea is to kill or remove him. The target must be the one he is in. If not there when you take it, you must then pursue him with the "Crusaders" (now a regular army) until he is killed, captured or dies. You keep the LAST province, not the necessarily the target province. If you kill or remove him before you capture the target, you may still continue to and keep only the target province. Oh yeah, almost forgot....if catholic, you must always allow a crusade to pass, even an enemy's.
EARLY ERA RULES:
K) You may only attack provinces that are in your GA goals to own or take (Crusades). Period. If you lose one you had at first and it is not in your GA goals after you've lost it. You may NOT retake it...though you can try to relieve a seige still underway.
HIGH ERA RULES:
L) You may now attack rebels if they are adjacent with your empire...by water does NOT count. Ex: Egypt cannot take Norway unless they already own Sweden.
M) You may now "retaliate" against aggressors, capturing provinces he invades you from if you repell an attack. However, you cannot practice defensive aggression. If you take their province, you do not have the right to counterattack when he attempts to liberate his lost province until either (a) you hold it 50 years, (b) it's one of you GA goals to own either province, or (c) you return to a state of peace with that factions. If any of these apply, then you can now "counterattack" if that province is attacked.
N) You may still attempt to fulfill any GA without regard to these limitations.
O) You may no longer crusade UNLESS it is one called for by the Pope.
LATE ERA RULES:
P) Gloves are off. None apply accept the ones listed as applying throughout the game.
I think that's it. If I find I've left out something, I'll edit it. It's really interesting, but almost impossible for landlocked factions or factions with no trade goods in starting provinces. Try playing Poland, Turkey, or Aragon like this and your hair will turn gray.
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