just read the questions at the end

[Richard I]

ok..EVERY time i play a game in the early period, the outcome of the game is FAR FAR to predictable--either i sit back and build my country up or i spread out and attack immediately...if i sit back and build my economic empire, france and egypt become the major countries striving for power (france will control 1/3 of the map while egypt will control 1/3-1/2 the map)..this ALWAYS happens NO EXCEPTIONS..EVER ALWAYS EGYPT, FRANCE, EVERY SINGLE TIME I PLAY--FOR THE PAST YEAR IVE HAD THE GAME..youd think that the game designers would make it more intersting, but anyway, back to the main story

i decide to try something different and play as HRE and late period...(expert of course, never anything less)--well, the first thing that happens (4 years into the game) is that the golden horde attack me (and win) in prussia..i gather up a modest army in pomerania to relieve the siege, but next turn the poles see it fit to attack pomerania and decimate my army (sending the reminants back to saxony)..i gear my economy for war by ordering every province to build some sort of unit (generally halbrediers or militia seargents or crossbowmen because i know for a fact the swiss are going to attack with armies of heirs--swiss armored pikemen)..i eventually relieve pomerania and go into prussia to relieve that siege as well..a year after prussia is relieved, the swiss attack swabia and tyrolia simountainiously with 3 heirs going into swabia and 2 heirs, the king and several swiss pike units in tyrolia...i defend as best i can, but since the swiss have armoured pikemen with command ratings of no less than 6, i (needless to say) am pulverized (i think i inflicted a combined total of 100 casualties while taking just under 2000)..so much for the idea that armies of crossbowmen and halbrediers can stand up to swiss armoured pikemen after about 10 years, i relieve the siege in swabia and march into switzerland. i then pump out 6 units of swiss halbrediers and attack tyrolia (which is now completley swiss)..thankfully, swiss halbrediers CAN defeat swiss armored pikes, and i win the battle and send the swiss out of the game (for now)..then the italians are getting bored so in ONE turn (are you ready for this?):

-italians and papacy attack tyolia with 3,000 men
-hungarians attack austria with 2,500 men
-french attack friesland and lorraine with about 1,500 men in each province
-poles attack prussia with 2,000 men
-danes (yes, even the peace-loving danes are part of the mass conspriacy) attack saxony with 400 men (moslty royal knight heirs)
-golden horde attack pomerania (don't even ask how that happened since pomerania is shielded by prussia and the golden horde only controls volyholna and lithuania) but they attack pomerania with 600 men

again, needless to say, my empire crumbled and next year the swiss reappeared with (now, this is real funny) 7,500 soldiers ALL swiss bred units and in addition to switzerland, they reappeared in provinces they never even controlled in the first place(bavaria and franconia)

well, about 20 years into the game my empire went from decent sized to 2 provinces--oh, and i almost forgot--after the swiss attack bavaria, franconia and switzerland, i had a civil war amongst my 2 provinces--great, aint it?

and the real kicker to this story (like the beginning of this post) i replayed the game 3 more times and EVERYTHING happened the exact same time, the exact same place, the exact same units, EVERYTHING..even though i was much, much more aggressive from the start of the game..anyway..sorry for the long post, guess im just a little worked up right now

anyone know if it's possible to win as HRE-late-expert?

anyone know if it's possible to defeat swiss armored pikemen with units available to you when the late period HRE game starts?

gracias for any replies--and sry again for long post

[tombom]

I've never played HRE on expert but it's supposed to be hard. HRE is always attacked by everyone after they go into war and this is to do with many things. Swiss armoured pikemen are some of the toughest troops in the game and there's no easy counter, although there was a thread about this. And if you're getting bored, get VI or a mod.

[Tricky Lady]

Quote[/b] (Richard I @ May 31 2004,07:19)]ok..EVERY time i play a game in the early period, the outcome of the game is FAR FAR to predictable--either i sit back and build my country up or i spread out and attack immediately...if i sit back and build my economic empire, france and egypt become the major countries striving for power (france will control 1/3 of the map while egypt will control 1/3-1/2 the map)..this ALWAYS happens NO EXCEPTIONS..EVER ALWAYS EGYPT, FRANCE, EVERY SINGLE TIME I PLAY--FOR THE PAST YEAR IVE HAD THE GAME..youd think that the game designers would make it more intersting, but anyway, back to the main story

You can try to redefine the faction's behaviour in the EARLY - HIGH - LATE txt file that you find in campmap/startpos.

Run a search for //Faction Behaviour

There you can change the SetBehaviour for all factions to:
CATHOLIC_TRADER
ORTHODOX_STAGNANT
MUSLIM_PEACEFUL

In this way the factions will be a bit more balanced.
It is not 100% fair though, as YOU will now be the hyper-aggressive player on the map.

The AI builds more ships though, so when you go to war with one of the ship-building factions, you can rely on losing 80% of your fleet (due to unbalanced naval battle system).
So the AI gets an advantage too.

[Degtyarev14.5]

Richard, it sounds as though you've just had balls' luck with this game. I know this sounds corny, but one day you'll be wishing that the computer could challenge you, even on expert. Yeah, mass conspiracies are frustrating, but heck it's all part of the experience.

Sorry if this doesn't help in any way, I just thought that, seeing as though you have a post count of one, I'd take this opportunity to welcome you to the .org

Enjoy the bloodshed, especially if and when you venture over to the tavern for a drink...

High on craploads of coffee,
A.

[scooter_the_shooter]

thats why i play on normal and hard now

[katank]

counter SAP=missiles.

use massed arbs 6+.

having some swiss halbs for screening your arbs is good.

pump out mtd. x-bows

they are the only good mounted, AP missile units and are fastest cav speed.

have at least 4 of these and run them all around the SAPs.

the point of those is to shoot some up, tire them out for eventual melee, and keep them from going after your arbs who are likely pouring volley after deadly volley into the SAPs at that point.

so run them around and when they are disorganized and tired, your fresh swiss halbs can take them easy.

CMAA can also kill them once they are weakened and attrited by missile fire.

[Richard I]

thanks for the replies--and i am playing the VI version (version 2.01)--the only reason i dont get some mods is that there are so many out there, i dont know which ones will work and which ones will screw the game up--i tried the Napoleonic mod awhile back and that was horrendous (the graphics were all changed so the building icons looked like random masses of cement)--plus if you tried a normal medieval campaign while NTW was installed, all the 2D battle units are suddenly 1D or half-D..looked really weird

about the editing factions in the startpos section--i tried that..i tried changing all the muslim and orthodox factions to defensive or peaceful (as i only really like battling christian nations because their armies are usually the best balanced..orthodox and muslim factions rely almost 100% on lightning cavalry/archer/horse archer tactics) but after changing all muslim/orthodox nations to peaceful, i changed all christian nations (except hungarians and poles) to expansionist. the only thing that happened was that when i played MTW, it automatically removed the early campaign as an option--and i dont think i did anything wrong in editing the file becasue the ONLY thing i chaged was the agressiveness of the factions--i dont see why that would cause the game to remove the early campaign

i realize that one nation (or in my case 2 nations) will eventually become the massive superpowers (how it is for all strategy games) but its just so annoying that its always the same 2..i mean (and this is by no means an exaggeration) every game i have ever had the patience to sit back and build up and economy without building a significant military, the french and egyptians alwyas end up becoming the 2 superpowers..for EVERY game ive EVER played--its always wound up that way

on the other hand if i am highly agressive militarily from the start, i just end up steamrolling across all Europe with little to no opposition until i get the people upset because of over-expansion--i just started a HRE early period campaign today and its wound up like every other early HRE campaign--i conquer france, then move north to england, then north into scandenavia, then simountainiously move east and south east into eastern europe and the balkans, then south into italy---by the high period (1205) i control everything north of sicily with the exception of spain

as for the SAP, i have found dismounted gothic knights work the best (1 unit of gothic foot knights will rip apart any SAP unit..only problem with that is that i cannot build gothic knights when the cmapaign starts--it would take at least 20-30 years before i could build the correct buildings to train them)

like arseclown said, i think i just have crappy luck :/
thanks for the welcome, but it isnt my first post, its like my 10th..i had another name, but i forgot what it was so i had to re-register--thanks anyway though

Tricky Lady-how do you edit the factions startpos correctly?

anyone else--what are some good mods? (preferably not total conversion mods like NTW)..i used to have the mod that let you build crusader units and dismounted knight units, but i forgot what the mod was called and when i went back to the org's mod section, i couldn't find it in the download section--anyone know what that mod was called?

thanks again for any replies, and sorry for the exposition-long post

[katank]

many mods allow you to do that. I think kekvitmod was a good one that allows for foot knights etc.

also, cool new units for english and turks.

*plugs shamelessly*

try medmod also for a challenge. it's a semi conversion mod in that it will screw up the text descriptions a bit but you should still be able to play the regular campaign without problems.

once you get over the fact that your turkish spearmen aren't really asturian foot (andalusian spears, you'll be fine).


as for the countering SAPs, I still think finesse with mtd. x-bows is the best way.

the bolts don't cost money and the horse breeder build req is a joke whereas the gothic foot are expensive and take forever to build.

learn to use horse archer types and you'll be amazed how it's possible to take out SAPs without losing a single guy.

I'm dead serious. I once faced 6 SAPs that were swiss and killed them all with mtd. x-bows and arbs with some CMAA and halb backing.

I didn't lose a single mtd. x-bow or arb and when my CMAA and halbs finally engaged, they routed the SAPs within seconds and didn't lose more than single digit.

never underestimate morale and fatigue effects.

[Richard I]

well, it probably is much easier, but i like the old german way better (fight a powerful foe with a more powerful ally)--ill obviously use the mtd. x-bow tactic next time i play HRE-late since it would take far to long to build gothic knights and my empire would be reduced to almost nothing by the time i did acquire the capacity to build gothic knights..so thanks for that idea