Baiting the enemy into attacking you

[ZZuluZ]

The following happened to me in a recent game:

Thanks to a spy in Spanish territory I knew the Spaniards would attack soon. So I lured them into one of the provinces by only leaving a small unit in it and pulling everything out. I put 20 spies in that province.

When they attacked with 1000 or so men, I retreated into the castle. Next turn, as planned, my people revolt and I get 520 good troops for free. Next turn it happened again. (My castle was going to hold out for 10 turns). However, the third time, out of the blue instead of getting MY rebels Catalan rebels appeared. This was rather dissapointing because I expected to get 10 turns of free troops.

Is this the usual course of events? How exactly does it work? When the enemy conquers the province you're bound to use 3 or so buildings so I was wondering if this strategy was worth it, all things considered and how it should be exploited.

BTW, what does it mean when a building is damaged?

[Maedhros]

damaged buildings are reduced one step in production. Someone more knowledgeable can check me on this, but I believe they can go down more.

Baiting is a good tactic, but don't be greedy. Do it because you want to fulfill a tactical goal.

Drawing an enemy into a trap for example so you can smash a sizable number of foes.

Or draw a large garrison from an attractive province you are in a position to take right away.

The AI will quickly be forced to redistribute troops across his realm in an effort to regroup. Press your advantage and bonus troops to keep him off balance, or entrench in your new prize.

Don't bait with valuable provinces where you'll lose a lot of valuable and expensive development.

[Revenant69]

When you or the AI take a province and a certain number of buildings get damaged then it simply means that they have been reduced 1 or more levels.

For example, Wessex has a Master Spearmaker and thats it (for the purpose of the argument); you invade and take the province and get a message saying 1 building damaged, this mean that your MAster spearmakerwas downgraded to a Spearmakers Guild, etc

Some buildings are automatically destroyed when invaded, this has mostly to do with religion. So if you play a catholic faction and invade Egypt that has Mosque/Grand Moque + Ribat, then all these religious buildings will be destroyed as they represent buildings of different faith than yours. Same thing will happen when you invade Orthodox countries.

Hopefully this clarifies things for you somewhat.
Rev

[ZZuluZ]

Ok, thanks guys.

But is that a general pattern? The rebels are my troops twice and after that I get other rebels to appear? If so, I'm not sure the strategy is worthwhile. I saw it as a way to get a huge amount of free troops, but as it stands you only get 1000 or so.

The problem about doing it in a poor province is that the castle won't be upgraded and so you won't be able to hold the siege for long. But if yuo only get your units twice, then I guess it's okay. I was hoping for more tho.

[PseRamesses]

Quote[/b] (ZZuluZ @ Jan. 15 2004,20:50)]So I lured them into one of the provinces by only leaving a small unit in it and pulling everything out.

This tactic works EVERY time. Sometimes the AI is very predictable. Since I only develop my border provinces with fortifications and money-making upgrades I don´t suffer so much from this tactic.

[ZZuluZ]

Have you ever gotten your faction's rebels more than twice?

[Chaffers]

For a really cheap way to take Ireland just invade and leave hardly any troops there after building a church etc. The province rebels the next go, usually with 2-3000 quality troops (Italian Infantry, CFK etc) but don't try to take it back. For some reason they seem to decide they've had enough of their own rule and revert to yours, 3 stacks for free.

No idea why this happens...

[lancer63]

Gotta try that one out Chaffers. Sounds like fun.
I like to make Champange my training ground for green units. I conquer all provs. around it and make life really misserable for people down there. When they rebel I invade/conquer or invade/lose depending on what I want to do. That way I can weed out inbreds and gluttons in the ranks without having to bother the neighbors (very considerate of me btw ) and can promote my generals almost at leisure.
Of course you get tired of beaten old angry peasants and cowardly militias, so. Do some upgrading from time to time.