Re: Any suggested house rules to make the game more challenging? (VI expansion)
Perhaps it's best to get this thread back on track for the OP and other who are so inclined? Also to perhaps promote healthy discussion of "sins"/iron man rules, so that some of the members who may have misunderstood or entirely missed the point of said rules in that old thread, perhaps due to it being derailed, or just because of how certain statements were versed, may come to a better understanding of said rules - while not necessarily changing their opinion as to wanting to employ them.
As I've said before, iron man rules were used since the early days of STW. A few important points:
1) It's not about dictating to or telling someone how to play the game or how the game should be played. By the same logic, one could say that any mod for MTW or any TW is an attempt by the author to force the prospective end user to play the game according the author's whims/tastes. This is of course a ludicrous idea and the same goes for any self imposed rules to make the game more difficult.
2) It's not and never was about sneering at other players because they choose to play the game without said rules.
3) It is not about those observing such rules, claiming to be better players than anyone else, or putting anyone down.
Without further ado, I will briefly cover the main set of rules from the old thread and one or two more and endeavour to explain why they would be regarded as "exploits" / an unfair advantage / diminishing the challenge within the sphere of iron man rules. I will try to steer away from rhetoric, "historical" precedence or any kind of moral or ideological basis. But as they are "rules", they will be presented as "do nots" and "should nots". Just as if you installed a mod, you would have the restrictions of the mod's creator imposed upon you. If that is not desirable, the solution is to not install the mod of course - and in the case of iron man rules, similar applies - except there is nothing to download nor install.
1. Manual Pillaging:
a) It would be a legitimate tactic if the AI could use it against the player - it cannot, so if you want to level the field with the AI, you must not do it a campaign. For both player controlled and AI controlled factions, "auto razing" will still occur regardless. The player can also build the castle upgrades, instead of just advancing to the next main castle level. This means that auto razing just knocks off the upgrade rather then, e.g. busting down our keep to a fort.
b) As a secondary factor, it obviously decreases the challenge by destroying the AI's income and training resources.
2. Systematic Prisoner Execution:
a) This one was broken by design from day one. The AI cannot use it, but in some cases for the player it could be argued that it can act as a "disbanding" tool for use by the player against the AI stacks in question.
b) In short you can use it to get rid of one of the AI's utterly hopeless armies, not to mention a hopeless general or faction leader. But in equal measure you could also practically wipe out a faction, by executing them on the field (especially the stack comprised of the faction leader and heirs), etc.
c) In every case, you will get the option - to take back your captured men or refuse the ransom. In STW this option wasn't present, so the issue never arose. This was because there was no "capturing" to start with.
d) It's a difficult one, but the only way to keep it "level" is to not use it. There is nothing wrong with it's use per se, the whole problem is that the AI can't use it. This way you're doing the AI no favours, nor gaining use of a function which it does not have access to - and thus an unfair advantage.
3. Mercenaries:
a) AI has no access to this, so this feature should not be used. It's an easy one and achievable without modding - as an exception during the first year, raze any inns and build no more.
b) The modding approach is to disable the inn in the build prod file and remove from era start positions.
4. Disbanding:
a) Another one which the AI cannot access, so the player should also abstain. As with pillaging/razing this was introduced as a novelty feature in STW/MI.
b) As it stands it is simply a feature to make units vanish, wiping out the support costs - and freeing up florins to allow the player to train better, more modern units, get out of financial difficulty or build infrastructure.
5. Dismounts:
a) Another nice novelty feature introduced in MTW, which sadly the AI cannot use, so the player should not dismount their units.
b) Modding dismounts out of the game altogether is possible via changes to the unit prod file.
c) If more explanation is needed - the player can see the initial composition of the AI army and then choose to dismount or not based on this. The AI can't dismount it's units at all, let alone make this kind of tactical decision. It give a big advantage to the player as they can match their army to the AI's or to the terrain and in the specific case of Chivalric Knights, to give one example, gain some very potent (anti cav) polearms units.
6. Jihad spamming:
a) Easily exploitable for producing big armies very quickly, to the point where the created army is the main goal and not the target province.
b) Massive influence bonuses for the ruler, as a result of the multiple successful jihads.
c) Despite the limitations on only being allowed to retake your own former provinces, far more exploitable and rewarding than crusades, due to the player being allowed to create any number of markers, launch them all simultaneously and have them all succeed.
7. The Inquisition:
a) The AI will not tend to produce large numbers of the Inquisitors and Grand Inquisitors and use them in a coordinated fashion selecting prime targets such as the best generals, heirs and even faction leaders, as would the player.
b) The AI will in fact rarely target any wothwhile or sensible targets - in fact it will often start inquisitions on it's own (decent) generals for no obvious reason. Any player can independently verify this with some time spent in ian mode, switching factions and observing AI agent movements/missions.
c) Without modding the game and keeping them in, as with the Geisha in STW, they should be limited to a single GI and two Inquisitors at a time.
d) Through modding they can be removed altogether or at the least the GI removed and the Inquisitor assigned to the papacy only and set as a "stealth" unit (functioning as with assassins/spies). This allows border forts / counterspies to control them quite effectively but keeps them in the game as a more random and largely unseen force.
8. The PAUSE button:
a) This one is not a simple do or a don't. If you pause the game to actually get up and take a break, then that is of course a legitimate use of the pause button. That should surely need no explanation, but was brought up in the other thread. But under iron man rules, the pause button should not be used to stop the game, direct/reform/adjust/deploy lots of units and then resume again, in a very stop-start fashion, throughout the course of the battle. While the AI may seem like it can make instant decisions vs the player, it is still weaker at putting together solid formations and deploying units sensibly, so this type of constant pausing should be avoided.
b) For new players it is more permissible and understandable - but iron man rules are generally targeted at more experienced players - should they wish to experiment with them.
9. Unrestricted camera:
a) This is a "cheat" and as such I feel that it doesn't need any further explanation.
10. Pre battle reinforcements shuffling screen.
a) Should not be used, as the AI cannot use. This was a feature added in the VI expansion and as with many features added by the CA since the release of STW/MI, they are "player only" features and not accessible to the AI opponents and as such leave those opponents at a disadvantage.
11. Auto-Saving between battles and pre-battle save.
a) Both of these should be turned off for obvious reasons. Part of iron man rules play is in accepting the outcome, whatever outcome and moving on from that point. Turning around bad situations, rather than being able to wind them back and retry, adds to the challenge significantly.
Comments/additions/corrections welcome.
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Originally Posted by caravel
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