Pics & History of your Empire

[NodachiSam]

Maybe he can .matteosartori. the map and give a screenshot ;)

[Cowhead418]

Very interesting campaign cowhead! It doesn't happen often but I've seen the Danes get pretty big too (I think they got even bigger after this picture.http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...eofdenmark.jpg

I feel bad for your civil war problem. It really is dam tough to keep high influence while staying the same size. I guess the game just isn't really built for that type of play. If I were in your shoes and at war with the Sicilians I could not resist the urge to take constantinople.

Well, I've tried for about the last 8 turns to take Constantinople but my efforts were fruitless. The Sicilians only stationed a garrison of about 15 men. Every time I attack, they retreat immediately into the castle (even if I attack with 20 men) and I'm forced to make a tough decision. Do I conduct a 10+ year siege or assault the fortress? Either way I face massive casualties. Right now I'm just letting the Sicilians have Constantinople, hoping that they will increase the garrison so as to shorten the inevitable siege when I do invade.

[Diehard_TH]

Well here's an update on my Polish campaign.

We last left our heroes building up for a further attack on the French however before the offensive could begin the bleedin' GH re-appeared, again, in the eastern steppes.

3 provinces in total with about 6000 men. All i had in the area was about 1000 peasants scattered across the 8 or so provinces around there.

After hastily diverting a stack of decent troops and my skilled attacker general from Flanders to the eastern front the chase began.

Poland 1337

Obviously just as i'm about to commence attacking the GH in Ryazan, after a 5 year chase around the steppes i eventually cornered the Khan here, the Byz decide, out of the ****ing blue, to attack my fleet in constantinople. Thus along with fighting the GH i now have nearly zero trade income and am back to losing 4000 florins a year!

Well my general kicked ass, killing the Khan whilst another general, resourced from France, launched an offensive against the treacherous Byz.

Poland 1350

After a couple of years consolidating and getting my gold reserves out of the red, which took 5 years, fending of a large assault by the Swiss and continued forays by the Byz navy i decided to kill off the Byz.

My uber general was the star again and after discovering the Byz king trapped on Cyprus two of my heirs launched an assault.
Poland 1359

The result was Byz collapsing into rebellion, good for my trade and finally the opportunity to actually build some stuff. As you can see i've reached the dizzy heights of 4000 florins but things should be ok as there is a trade centre being built in Constantinople, which has a 9 acumen governor.

Well all didn't go too well on the last turn, surprisingly! The Egyptians decided to attack my fleets and Georgia for some unknown reason. Still now the Byz are dead i'll just have to keep going round the Middle East.

Europe is at a wary peace although i'm keeping an eye on the Hungarians as they seem to be expanding quite well.

I've also just noticed that my heirs are both on an island with no navy next to it with the Eggys attacking my fleets. Hopefully my king won't die as my empire will spiral into rebellion if the new king gets trapped!

[Geezer57]

Well, I've tried for about the last 8 turns to take Constantinople but my efforts were fruitless. The Sicilians only stationed a garrison of about 15 men. Every time I attack, they retreat immediately into the castle (even if I attack with 20 men) and I'm forced to make a tough decision. Do I conduct a 10+ year siege or assault the fortress? Either way I face massive casualties. Right now I'm just letting the Sicilians have Constantinople, hoping that they will increase the garrison so as to shorten the inevitable siege when I do invade.

With an enemy garrison that small, you should be tossing a batch of high-valor Emissaries against them - one successful bribe, and the big "C" is yours intact! If their leader unit is too loyal, send some Assassins along with the Emissaries - when the top unit is gone, the next one down may be far less difficult to bribe.

[Vladimir]

With an enemy garrison that small, you should be tossing a batch of high-valor Emissaries against them - one successful bribe, and the big "C" is yours intact! If their leader unit is too loyal, send some Assassins along with the Emissaries - when the top unit is gone, the next one down may be far less difficult to bribe.

A small garrison is a boon for the player and not a vice as it allows you to do this.

[bretwalda]

I've also just noticed that my heirs are both on an island with no navy next to it with the Eggys attacking my fleets. Hopefully my king won't die as my empire will spiral into rebellion if the new king gets trapped!

I don't think that your heir (new king, long live the king!) will be trapped on the island, instead miraclously (sp?) teleported to your most advanced province. Now if that one is cut off from the rest of your empire - then you are f.... well, in trouble because your new kings influence will start out low anyway and THAT can lead to civil war.

[DukeofSerbia]

Maybe he can .matteosartori. the map and give a screenshot ;)

OK. I will try to provide that.

[DukeofSerbia]

Another screenshot from my friend who play XL early with England.

Golden orde appeared in three province. I usualy saw them in two or one province. They came in Lesser Khazar, Volga Bulgaria and Armenia.

[NodachiSam]

Duke of Serbia: Those are the good games :D



In my current campaign as Genoa in hard Xl I had a low influence king suffer a civil war and mass rebellions.

The Pope invades and the hungarians invade.


The following year, civil war.


The following year, more rebellions.


Naturally I said screw it and reloaded, this is later.


I know, its not a great war story or anything.
The French have been impecible allies this game.

[Martok]

Damn Nodachi, that's kind of a crazy-looking map there! The Scots have most of Britain, the Almos have eliminated the Spanish and dominate Iberia, and the Hungarians are pretty big. I rarely see the last one in particular--in my games, Hungary's one of those factions that usually holds their own but rarely expands much. And the French have been steadfast allies? That truly is an interesting geopolitical situation you're in!

[naut]

My current campaign, is Early XL, Bohemians, Hard

I've been talking it slowly, and I'm really enjoying the Bohemians ... especially their bowmen.



And if you are wondering why I did not attack Serbia, its because the Fatamids scare me! I need some buffer states!

Oh and my heir of course,

[MuseRulez]

WHAT! How the hell did you do that? That guy must have some pretty virtues

[NodachiSam]

The higher your kings influence the better your princes will be when they turn 15. Getting high or lower influence before or after they turn 15 doesn't affect them. Only the influence at the time. However, if your kings influence gets too high your princes can "roll over" and become really crappy. So if your kings influnce is at 7 or 8 you princes might have likewise attributes but at 9 or 10 there is a chance you'll get low values princes. It sort of encourages pacing yourself in a way. I think there is also a random element involved.

[Ludens]

The higher your kings influence the better your princes will be when they turn 15. Getting high or lower influence before or after they turn 15 doesn't affect them. Only the influence at the time. However, if your kings influence gets too high your princes can "roll over" and become really crappy. So if your kings influnce is at 7 or 8 you princes might have likewise attributes but at 9 or 10 there is a chance you'll get low values princes. It sort of encourages pacing yourself in a way. I think there is also a random element involved.

The roll-over effect you describe actually applies to command, not influence. With high influence the king's sons tend to have the same command level as their father plus or minus one or two stars. The problem is the game cannot calculate above 9, so any potential 10 or 11 star sons end up as 0 or 1 star losers. Otherwise you are right: high influence kings have better sons.

[caravel]

Pity I've no internet at home at the moment so I can't post screenshots without alot of hassle. My Turkish General in Georgia at present has some pretty impressive stats and a command boosted to 9* by quite a few good virtues, such as the expert defender and skilled last stand (I'm not usually too hot at turnig out these sort of generals!). His piety and dread are his most lacking attributes and they are at 5 and 3.

He accidentally got himself into the thick of the fight last night, so I had to forcibly extract him! By that time the rest of his unit was wiped out with just him remaining at valour 11 (phew). That was the second defense against the Horde's attempted invasion of Georgia. 4500 dead 700 prisoners, that they didn't want to pay for, and 2200 losses on my side, mostly Saracen Infantry and Ghazis. The Armenian Heavy Cavalry had a very good day as did the Turcoman foot. The next battle will be this evening, when the Horde make their next attempt. I had also isolated their secondary army in Armenia, defeated it and ransomed all of them (about 2500 of them) back for about 42,000 florins!! This is the biggest ransome I've ever seen in years of playing this game!

[naut]

Wow Chezi that is the HUGEST ransom I've ever heard!!!

So I've started playing as the Bulgarians, High XL, Hard

And I must say its the hardest game I've ever played, so much backstabbing! , First the Cumans then the Serbs, and if I'm not careful it will be the Byz next! Its a miracle I survived at all.

[NodachiSam]

Rythmic: Keep us posted man. Its interesting to see the Armenians and Danes expand like that. The Armenians look like they are too thinnly sprea out though. Maybe it is patriotic reasons, but they should've stayed out of Armenia :P

[Prince Cobra]

Wow Chezi that is the HUGEST ransom I've ever heard!!!

So I've started playing as the Bulgarians, High XL, Hard

And I must say its the hardest game I've ever played, so much backstabbing! , First the Cumans then the Serbs, and if I'm not careful it will be the Byz next! Its a miracle I survived at all.

Very happy somebody plays as Bulgarians !!!!
I wonder how we,the Bulgarians, survived for so long ( so many conquerors - byz,mongols ,turks, dangerous neighbours ),too. Good luck my master! Please keep me in touch how your (and mine ) country progresses.

[naut]

So I've played some more as the Bulgarians.

The Mongols Arrive:



Tragedy, the damn Cumans Invaded Bulgaria!!!



My forces are much too small to win!



My men fight hard:



But they are no match for the overwhelming Cumans:



My Allies lift the seige:



The Pope wants to marry my daughter???



Finally peace with the Serbs!!!



Bulgaria is safe, for now



Hope you enjoyed that!

[Martok]

Wow, your Bulgarians have really gone on a roller-coaster ride lately. It was awfully nice of the Hungarians come to your aid, though; I don't know if I've ever seen that before! Yes, I've had allies help me out in field battles, but I don't think they've ever helped me break out of a castle. Well done!

[NodachiSam]

Hang in there man! :D That looks like it would've been a tough battle to win, maybe if you had kept you archers a little further from the spears it would've let your horses charge in without being confined. When two units overlap they get a small defence bonus. Charging through another unit also muddles up the charage a bit. I wouldn't ally with all your neighbours though, you'll need to expand at some point.

[Prince Cobra]

I can't believe it!!! A byzantine army to help you without wanting to take some lands from you!? The Hungarian I can believe... although historically that was very very rare. Your diplomacy is excellent my master. Now I can sit safe in my mansion near the byz border and to have rest.
NodachiSam I think his strategy is good. Otherwise it would have been difficult to push the Cumans back. I expected the Golden horde to make more problems to the Cumans . And the situation in the Middle East is interesting too- the Horde had made the Egypt weaker which potentially is good for Byzantium and to some extend for you ( the powerful Egyptians are far way). Of course this can lead to more powerful south neighbour which is not very good.
So the situation is very interesting- currently there is only one enemy the Cumans but they are extremely powerful... Interesting... I see future problems of their khan from the north - there are quite powerful countries there... But until then nobody knows what will happen...
And I liked the marriage proposal from the pope. Maybe this bug has its explanation- using my rich imagination I think it could be an uniate(actually Kaloyan really had an uniate with the Pope) or a marriage with any descendant of the Pope's ally Hungary. Or maybe the Pope feels lonely
Waiting for the next pictures...

[Diehard_TH]

All went fairly well, my king was fine and the Cypriots were just about ok until i beat the Byz fleets and reinforced them. I then concentrated my assault on the Eggys resulting in the following position

Poland 1370

I lost cyprus to an Eggy rebellion but managed to cause serious damage to the Eggy holdings although not having much in the way of cash for troops i had fun keeping the loyalty of the holy land above 100%.

One slight incident was yet another re-emergance of the GH in Armenia as i was assaulting a castle. Just under 5000 troops appeared and after mustering all the tneighbouring troops i could the battle commenced.

Admittedly my 7* general helped but i finally got a 30 to 1 kill ratio! The pic below says it all

I didn't need any reinforcements and as you can see my 1 unit of archers didn't even run out of ammo.

My cav was awesome, my losses should have been less but a unit of Steppe cav got caught some GH Kharawsim(?) cav when i wasn't looking. I just kept charging in and retreating. The main problem i had was my cav got totally exhausted and i withdrew a couple of units as they were just knackered.

Great fight and the GH are now hopefully not to return.

A few years later the Eggy Sultan attacked a weakened Syria and with about 40:60 troops concentrated all my forces on him and his heir resulting in the end of the Eggys.

Poland 1378

The Eggys owned huge tracts of land and these are now rebels. My trade shot up and i was receiving nearky 30k a year! I didn't know what to do with all the cash so rather than sit back i transported a few nice generals over to Europe and decided to crush the French.

After a few nice attacks the French had a civil war, so more rebel provinces but i couldn't get their king and he ran away to Navarre. The pic below is just after i have bribed some rebels in Spain, to open up another front, and after attacking the Pope. He excommed me so had to die.

Poland 1383

The only slight hitch to all this is the Hungarians decided, out of the blue, to attack my navy. My assault force attacking the Pope is now trapped with no retreat and my trade income is next to nothing and i'm losing 1500 florins a year. (oh yeah the rebels seem to be enemy for some reason and i can't withdraw from them to reset their status!).

So i lauched attacks against 4 Hungarian provinces and tried assault castles in Wessex and Papal States. The results are below

Papal States - No Retreat

The Hungarians deceded to help the Pope which was a problem as i had no retreat and i'm outnumbered 7 to 1.

I battled hard but eventually my archers & catapult ran out of ammo and the cav were all totally exhausted. Still they did pretty well

Lord Jagged's last stand.

The rest was interesting, the Hungarians attacked Poland and Lorraine, unfortunately i had a 0* general in Lorraine and lots of peasants so that fell but the rest held out and i won the provinces i attacked. I bribed Toulouse as well so it all looks set-up for very bloody last 50 years or so!

Poland 1384

[NodachiSam]

Very nice campaign Diehard! Impressive defense of Armenia; think of the propoganda opportunities :P!

[DukeofSerbia]

Game: XL mod 2.0+2.1 for MTW VI 2.01 + my modifications

Starting era: Early XL (1087)

Difficulty: Medium

Victory type: Glorious achievement

Faction: Byzantines

Unit size: default


Beginning story:

This is the map of Europe, Near East and North Africa in 1087.




Strategy:
The main enemy is Seljuk Turks in the start who are located in Minor Asia and Near East. Possible enemies are Serbs, Papal state, Sicily and Hungary and later Cumans, Kievan Rus’, Fatimids (Egypt) and Armenians.
Possible allies are orthodox Armenians (Kingdom of Lesser Armenia), Serbs, Kievan Rus’ and Novgorod.

Tactics:
Backbone of imperial armies are Byzantine infantry and Trebizond archers led by Kataphraktoi general if is possible or some other cavalry. Horse archers are also used, but later replaced with Byzantine cavalry. I use mercenaries and most of them are Steppe heavy cavalry and Italian infantry (only until 1205).
As Emperor of Roman Empire has discount on various agents, I later trained large number of assassins and few spies. And I have reason for that.


Main story:

1087 – 1110

In the first turn Armenian emissary came and offer alliance. I agreed. I used islands for only one purpose: building ships. Later I used them for recruiting troops. On start everything what I had I moved in Nicae.

On second turn Armenians attacked Seljuk Turks in Rum and conquer province. But Seljuk Turks retreated to castle so Armenians had to besiege them. After some four years Armenians lost Rum and Seljuk Turks went in counterattack. Then I came in action. I invaded Anatolia from Nicae and Seljuk Turks retreated without fight into Rum. Around 1100 I conquered Rum. By this time Serbs betrayed me and attacked from Serbia into Greece but they lost. Serbs also built barque and they invaded Naples, which I lost. Battle was very close. Meantime my Hungarian allies invaded Serbia (before that they conquered Wallachia and Moldavia) and the whole Serbian army retreated to Naples where they besieged my troops in Fort. This was the end for Serbs. I have loyalists’ rebellion first time since I play Medieval. Three Byzantine infantry and one unit of Trebizond archers, spearmen and peasants were enough for destruction of Serbian army and their king was killed in battle.




Next time: how Pope get married, England and France became empires and destruction of Seljuk Turks by Armenians, Fatimids and my Romanoi plus annoying Sicilian fleet.

[NodachiSam]

This sounds like it'll be good DoS :) I like to play Romanoi too so it shall be very interesting to see how you go about this. I hope you finish this campaign for us. :D

[DukeofSerbia]

@NodachiSam

Thanks. I will continue.

[DukeofSerbia]

1110-1140

In Western Europe situation by this time is boring. Nobody is in war with anybody. Castile-Leon destroyed Portugal who was in war with Almoravids and Aragon who was in war with HRE (for both were excommunicated) and later England attacked Almoravids together with Castile-Leon. Holy Roman Empire conquered Venice and Croatia from rebels. HRE became the strongest faction.
I offered my princess to Pope John XXI and he accepted.





In Eastern Europe Kievan Rus’ attacked Cumans and destroyed them. In Near East I was still in war against Seljuk Turks together with Armenians and Fatimids (we all were allies). I captured Armenia, Armenians captured Edessa and Antioch and Fatimids captured Arabia. This was enough for Seljuk Turks’ sultan and he lost everything in civil war except Tripoli. Soon, Armenians captured and executed Seljuk Turks’ sultan and they conquered everything in Near East plus they invaded Tunisia and Malta (both were in control of rebels).

By this time England destroyed Almoravids and conquered 2/3 of Iberian Peninsula plus Morocco. Around 1120 France, Denmark, Bohemia, Hungary and Genoa started war against HRE as it was strongest and largest faction (I was the richest). Denmark relatively easy captured Northern provinces (plus they destroyed Sweden who was ally of HRE), France was held in Lorraine and Burgundy, Bohemia conquered one or two provinces, Genoa was wiped out and Hungary unsuccessful attacked HRE in Croatia and Austria. The only allies of HRE were England and me.

As Seljuk Turks were destroyed and eastern boundaries became peaceful I attacked my former ally Hungary from Bulgaria into Wallachia. They retreated without fought in fort and I assaulted them. The same story was in Moldavia. HRE finished Hungarians around 1140 and conquered Serbia, Hungary and Carpathia and became my new neighbor.

Two things annoyed me in this period: papal bishops and Sicilian fleet. Pope every turn sent at least two bishops in Naples. Crete is my base for training assassins. In one year there were 8 papal and Sicilian bishops in Naples. Assassins couldn’t kill them all. Conversion of Naples was very, very slow… Btw. Pope still sent bishops. Even now in 1233 Naples have still 16-20% of Roman Catholics as there is always at least one papal bishop and my bishop (not priest) is there and like he do nothing.
Just to mention that until 1140 there were no crusades.


Next time: war with Sicily, Fatimids and Kieavan Rus' plus England became huge; Armenia became great power and destruction of France.

[Prince Cobra]

Excellent, DukeofSerbia. You've fulfilled the dream of many Roman emperors to restore the power of Constantinople in Minor Asia. I understand your annoyance by the heretical bishops of the Pope... Don't worry you still have an Orthodox domination in your Western provinces and I'm sure you'll continue to having it. Because you're one of the best rulers who the Roman empire ever had, oh gloriuos one... (sorry, but it was impossible to speak about the court in Constantinople without praising ). I'm interested in how the genuine empire progresses.

Wow, Diehard_TH, what a big Polish country... Good, good... (wondering)

[edyzmedieval]

Glad to see this topic is still alive.

I might try some more MTW, I miss the risk style maps. BKB Super Mod for me.