Every faction turns to enemies

[terrance11]

This is a good forum for a good game. Maybe you can help with my problem. I'm playing as the English on hard level. Eventually every faction turns to waging war on me. What can you do to prevent this? This also happened on normal difficulty. I like playing GA mode but by the end I'm the only faction left. Thanks for helping.

[Zarax]

There's nothing you can really do...
Aside from having strong armies at the frontiers that will slow down the attacks, offence is the best defence.
As you grow bigger the AI will ally and mass against you despite alliances and so on...

[English assassin]

It seems to be mainly a function of the size of your empire. If you can stay small and resist piling up the conquest points on GA it helps. I find that launching no invasions a all gets a bit boring, plus after all you want to stop other factions getting their homeland points don't you, but rather than going on a general rampage if you target a few high value provinces (eg constantinople, Venice, etc) you can stay small, have battles, and take GA points off other factions. Taking constantinople by crusade and then trying to hold onto it against the odds is fun and shouldn't annoy any of your fellow catholics at least.

Plus I think influence helps so get the middle east crusade points as well.

I think eventually you wind up at war with more or less everyone whatever you do but that should slow things down a lot.

[Ash]

The AI develops the "Civilization" syndrome. In Civ1 and Civ2, all factions started hating you more and more as you grow more succesfull.

Eventually you end up at war with virtually everybody. Same happens with MTW.

Diplomacy is a big farce as it is in this game, and it only gets worst (and suicidal) as you grow bigger.
This is probably to compensate the poor, handicapped strategic decisions that the AI makes. So to offer the player some challange in the latter parts of his game.

Only thing you can do is prepare for war once you've conquered more then 1/3 of the map. Don't conquer too quick btw before reaching the 1/3 mark, or you risk attack from other factions almost immediately.

I say this because factions almost always cancel their alliance with you if you attack their own allies, and they will attack you eventually at a weak spot.

[mikkele]

Look at it this way: The ultimate goal for the AI is to make you loose the game. Don't expect each AI-controlled faction to act independently. If you get the feeling that you are being ganged up upon, then that is precisely what's happening.

[bretwalda]

Actually, I think the AI is supposed to be programmed that you don't win the game, but not that you lose the game. So the AI tries to keep you at bay but not neccesarily wants to crush you. (Recall telling this game AI programming trick by one of the Civ3 developers...)

[_Aetius_]

Im playing the English in expert early GA and even though the french, germans, and later almohads have declared war on me at some point they have all come off worse.

The french attacked my french territories after about 30 years, i lost Normandy and Anjou without a fight, gathered my forces in Aquitaine along with the main army in Wessex and hit the french from both side's and soon all of the french were gone and I had all of their territories except Lorraine which the germans took.

So Im pretty powerful then not at war with anybody and I invade the germans take abit of land and then got a ceasefire, the Spanish and Aragonese are dead and the Almos rule spain but didnt seem to want to fight me after many decades of peace the Germans invaded me but they were promptly annihilated and I took much land in compensation for this invasion.

More recently I had some lower class troops based in Aquitaine and Toulouse on the frontier with the almohads, mainly FMAA Frydmen basic Archers etc. I realised this wasnt strong enough to attack with or defend with so removed many of them from aquitaine to anjou were a much more advanced army of CMAA, billmen, longbowmen etc were stationed and about to replace the army in aquitaine. The very next turn whilst aquitaine was lacking men, the almohads declared war and invaded, 10 years later they have lostmost of spain to me.

So the moral of this story is mess with the English and you get owned. There are alot of potential enemies to England especially if you make advances on your current territory in france, however they will be doing the attacking and the english have some of the best defensive troops on the game, billmen and longbowmen so you have a big advantage if you get to the high period. The germans usually use low class troops, the spanish use far to many jinetes to be to effective, the almohads troops lose effectiveness by the high period and the french are usually long dead.

[terrance11]

Is there a faction that seems to avoid getting attacked more than others? My whole point in not wanting enemies is to build up a massive sea trading empire, having enemies makes this much harder. Just in terms of seeing how much florins I can get.

[Zarax]

Use the Danish and keep your lands at a minimum...

[mikkele]

Actually, I think the AI is supposed to be programmed that you don't win the game, but not that you lose the game.

Not sure that I understand this. For me, "not winning" equals "loosing".

[Procrustes]

Not sure that I understand this. For me, "not winning" equals "loosing".

"Not winning" can also mean a stalemate - I think that this is what Bretwalda was referring to. The AI is programmed to draw the game out - the more successful you are, the more tricks it is apt to pull out of it's sleeve.

[_Aetius_]

"Not winning" can also mean a stalemate - I think that this is what Bretwalda was referring to. The AI is programmed to draw the game out - the more successful you are, the more tricks it is apt to pull out of it's sleeve.

And if it didnt drag the game out then it'd be very boring, the AI's ability to carry the game on is what make's MTW an amazing game and provides infinite longevity.

[bretwalda]

"Not winning" can also mean a stalemate - I think that this is what Bretwalda was referring to. The AI is programmed to draw the game out - the more successful you are, the more tricks it is apt to pull out of it's sleeve.

Exactly. The AI's task is to prevent you from winning, but neither wants it really win, not wants to crush you...

[Ash]

Exactly. The AI's task is to prevent you from winning, but neither wants it really win, not wants to crush you...

To be fair though, if the AI declares total war to your faction, it usually is when you have nothing to fear from the remaining factions anyway.

For example, as the English, I have large border garrisons I kept from my Early campaigns. They're not exactly the best troops I can build in High. But they could still beat the pants off of most enemies, even when outnumbered, when defending.

[sir_schwick]

Playing as English as well. Sent a Crusade and won Egypt. Surrounded on all sides by Egyptians and gets attacked every 3-4 years by huge armies of Nubian Spearmen and Camels. Luckily I had 3 units of Knight Templars which became Chivalric Foot Knights, plus 3 FMAA and 3 Archers. Lord Gascoigne, the Crusdaer, started as a 2* general, now is 5* including the SKilled Attacker/Skilled Defenders virtues.

Then the Spanish declare war on me and invade Aragon from Castille. 8* King general across a bridge. His spearmen manage to kill 2 unit of mine on the bridge, and he got a higher hill for his archers. Then my 5 valour, +1 armour FMAA came in and killed the king, two units of spears, and completed the mass rout. The king lost his only heir in another battle and now the Spanish are no more.

[ichi]

Is there a faction that seems to avoid getting attacked more than others? My whole point in not wanting enemies is to build up a massive sea trading empire, having enemies makes this much harder. Just in terms of seeing how much florins I can get.

Try the Sicilians and move your faction off of the contintent and onto the Mediteranean islands, so you have no provinces touching other factions.

You'll still get naval wars, but these can be ended simply by eliminating all of the enemy ships, or, by withdrawing all of your ships until you are no longer in contact (anywhere on the map) with the enemy. The next turn you'll be neutral again.

ichi