The gods have cursed the English

[munrock]

Isn't it cool how a 68 y.o. king can hold his own in a battle? And he can lead a small army against one twice the size, break the bigger army's morale by charging over and over and almost single-handedly win you battles and extend your empire? And you don't have to worry about him croaking 'cos that's your primary objective?

[Sinner]

OK, now the computer is just getting plain mean & evil! I'm starting a new High campaign, having got to the boring stage with the last one. I want to get my King back from Brittany to Wessex & decide to go via Normandy & Flanders, rather than the sea route.

Sending the FKs up from Aquitaine to guard Brittany, I launch my King, FMAA, Spearmen - I change all starting Peasants to the various base Spearmen in my campaigns - and Ballista at Normandy, plus my FKs & LBs from Wessex into Flanders. The latter is more of a diversion than a truly serious attempt to conquer, with my only aim to keep the LBs as intact as possible.

My battle in Normandy goes well, the French having chosen to reinforce Flanders, sending nothing to help the Mounted Sergeants and Archers. I lure the MS into charging my Spearmen, then send my FMAA after the Archers under cover from the Ballista, while my King flanks the MS & charges them. The Archers are starting to skirmish back from the FMAA, my King & Spearmen are slaughtering the French horsemen and they finally break. Keeping the Spearmen after the fleeing MS, I switch my King after the Archers, thinking that I'll capture more of them when they rout than I will with the MS.

My King & his bodyguard charges into the Archers - all 21 of them since I was lucky enough to suffer no losses against the MS - and they're quickly overwhelmed and also start to rout.

I'm feeling quite happy, seeing only a handful of French troops left, no losses among my King's unit, only 8 FMAA & 15 Spearmen dead, and I'm waiting for the last prisoner to be caught before I hit the kill button, since I'd prefer to further weaken the French than get more money.

Just as the last French Archer is captured, I hear the Ballista fire and I notice that I've lost a knight. Grumbling about the bad luck of losing a knight to friendly fire - and the only man the Ballista managed to kill as well! - but not that bothered since I know that he'll be replaced for free, I end the battle, finishing off the turn, only to be told that my King has been killed and I have no heir!

The damned ballista managed to hit one man! One! My King! The useless $*!£@{ morons!

Needless to say I started the campaign afresh, although this time I immediately disband the Ballista. In my mind I actually had them executed. Slowly. Painfully. With a small fruit and a piece of string. I'm also planning to build lots of Assassins and send them off on a Ballista killing spree.

[Papewaio]

Nasty method:

Keep only 5 Royals including the King. Whenever a 6th appears, send the worst command/accumen to his death. This keeps the best of the best around. Could mean you send your King to his death.

[munrock]

Pruning the family tree. Nice.

[CherryDanish]

Isn't it cool how a 68 y.o. king can hold his own in a battle? And he can lead a small army against one twice the size, break the bigger army's morale by charging over and over and almost single-handedly win you battles and extend your empire?

Funny you should say that. In my first campaign I had a 73 year old king pick up 3 valour points in a fight that almost turned on me (the kings charge into a enemy feudal sergant unit's flank likely saved the battle). By the end of the fight the unit had suffered about 80% losses and had no fatigue bars left (they were being outpaced by a routing unit of archers they were chasing). I could only imagine the red panting face of the 73 year old king. He died 3 years later of old age/illness, but not until he sired another son! Now THAT's stamina! In the back of my mind I thought he likely either died from the fight three years before, or the celebration where his last son was concieved. One or the other likely took the last of the fight out of him. Spunky old fart.

As for the English curse, I really have no idea what you guys are talking about. I'm playing the English now for the first time and their kings are amazing. My current king seems to be the carebear of the family with the lowest dread rating and he's got 6 dread points?!! His acumen is a 7 and even though I'm at war with 3 of the remaining 10 factions I'm still pulling in 60K anually before expenses. None of my kings have had the perverse V+V so far (which I find odd), but many get the Sybirite (?) and other "fat" type vices. One English king could apparently barely get on his horse. My current king though hasn't had much success with +happiness V+Vs, but I'm working on it.