Hey, where's my castle?

[English assassin]

I knew that, if you don't storm a castle, when it falls it gets downgraded one level (castle to keep etc)but I only just noticed that if you invade a province and the enemy retreats out of the province without a fight, (ie right out, not to the castle), the same thing happens? I was left with just a fort, and an eight year wait to rebuild the keep that was there before.

Why? After a long seige I can just about see the castke will be a it bashed up, but how come it gets damaged when the enemy has just legged it?

Any ideas on how this can be avoided? The defending army was quite small, and the attacking army pretty big, but the enemy had an enormous stack in an adjacent province to the one I was attacking and if I had slimmed my army down they would have sent in masses of reinforcements.

BTW, is it just me or is the fact that the AI gets to move all its armies after you have made all your moves one of the worst bits of the strategy game?

[Axeknight]

The STW manual described it as 'The Cost of War'. When you take a province, or it is taken from you, everything downgrades by one level. So 40% farms will become 20%, 20% farms are destroyed (nothing to downgrade to). This happens to all buildings/farms/mines/whatever. Sorry

[Kommodus]

Quote[/b] (English assassin @ April 07 2004,09:07)]BTW, is it just me or is the fact that the AI gets to move all its armies after you have made all your moves one of the worst bits of the strategy game?

Actually, I'm pretty sure that the moves on the strategic map are simultaneous; that is, the AI takes into account the position of everyone's units at the beginning of the year when considering its moves. You might doubt this when the AI seems to make the perfect moves to counter yours, but then again, the AI sometimes makes moves that are precisely the wrong ones compared to what you just did. This is an indication that either it had no idea what you were going to do, or it's just plain stupid. In fact, I like to try to predict what the AI will do when I'm considering my moves, and then do exactly what the enemy doesn't want me to do.

[Gregoshi]

CA confessed in a post here that the AI does take a peek at your move before deciding its move.

[Ironside]

Atleast the AI don't act as it did in Shogun.

[Kommodus]

Quote[/b] (Gregoshi @ April 07 2004,10:20)]CA confessed in a post here that the AI does take a peek at your move before deciding its move.

Well, of all the dishonest, dastardly things to do... so that's how they can sometimes maintain parity on the battlefield when you outnumber them along the entire front Oh well, I guess that just makes the strategic AI rather incompetent; they get more information than you and still normally do the wrong thing. Oh well, the game's still fun.

[Tricky Lady]

I read somewhere in a post that, when you destroy a castle with your catapults in a castle assault, the fort will be intact when you gain control over that province.
Well, in my last byz campaign I destroyed a Turkish fort (lowest level) to the ground with my catapults, and when I took control over the province, yep, the fort was gone. Didn't mind much, as I indeed destroyed the fort (it would have been more strange if would have been rebuilt in one turn). Same thing happened in the next Turkish province w/ fort that I conquered...

[katank]

well, that's only to say that assaults will more likely keep it intact rather than starving them out which is guaranteed to lower the castle level.

BTW, the killing of castle by catapult has nothing to do with survival of structure.

[Tricky Lady]

Quote[/b] (katank @ April 07 2004,23:35)]well, that's only to say that assaults will more likely keep it intact rather than starving them out which is guaranteed to lower the castle level.

Ah, OK. I thought that assaulting a castle would guarantee that the structure wouldn't downgrade. Well, it is not, and that OK too. I don't consider it very important... as long as I can put my hands on a new province, I'm happy

[Don Corleone]

Does it make sense for it to NOT always downgrade?

Think about it... when you storm it, you probably damage it pretty bad. When you starve them out, they probably damage it as their last desparate act. And when they flee, they probably booby trap it, etc., to put you in a weaker position so they can come reclaim the province.