First Impressions

[NodachiSam]

Hello all!

This is a bit late since I bought the game about a week ago but I want to contribute! I've been playing shogun for like two years now and I am pretty familiar with how the battles and such go. I started going through tutorials but I became bored after the second or third one and so far I havn't really done badly. I did start on easy though, I think that was probably a mistake but it has still been fun.

I started off as the danes and took sweden and norway and then ate away at the HRE and then I took all of central europe. I eventually got exommunicated and have spent most of the game in that state. It felt really really good to invade the papal lands and eventually Rome. The Pope doesn't know when to quit though! I think it is kind of dumb that he continues to reappear. It would be awsome if I could establish a new pope somewhere else and make the one in Rome utterly illegitimate. I own maybe 75% of Europe now anyways. He somehow seems to get stronger everytime he comes back too. I hate when games have things like that. Just because the pope has had major influence in reality doesn't mean he should continue to be powerful in the game regardless of the situation. I suppose I will play an orthadox faction next time and make everyone everywhere orthadox and see if he still comes back though he would have zilch support base. Next time he reappears I will sack Rome utterly and surround him with armies and finish him off last.

I don't think I will bother to play past 60% again though. It is just clean up now. Also, for some inexplicable reason, 200% loyalty provines all over started to rebel. One year I got 10 rebellions for instance.

I have a major case of battle fatigue, that is I hate getting into long large battles that I will probably win anyways. I find after a certain point I just out number and outclass my foes and auto calc the battles. The comp does an okay job at it on easy when I have enough of an advantage. I havn't personally fought a battle in over 50 years.

Anyways, I think MTW is a sequal worthy of my beloved Shogun and I should have bought it far sooner.

[NodachiSam]

Oh I wanted to add that I was pleasantly surprised that you could go in debt. That should mean that my opponents could get into debt too if their economy can't support their army size, right?

[Blodrast]

welcome to the club !
There's a bunch of subtleties about MTW, that will keep you coming back to replay it over and over again, and try things a little bit differently...

The Pope, yes, he has been voted the most annoying all-around TW character (if you can have that), BUT, he contributes to part of the fun ! There's so many things you can do about the pope, and just have fun doing them...
Keep in mind that yes, he will keep reappearing an infinite number of times (actually, only until the game ends ;)), but one thing to note is that while as a rule he keeps coming back stronger and stronger, the strength of his units is based on the number of enemy troops in his two provinces. So if you leave 1 peasant unit in each of them, he won't reappear with too many troops (for a Pope reappearance, that is).

Yes, everybody goes into debt. If you use the "-ian" option, you can switch to play AI factions, and check their financial state ;)

Ok, I'm giving away too much stuff, and I don't wanna spoil it for you

About the rebellions: it's normal. Once you get over 2/3 of the map, you'll have a wave of rebellions pretty much regardless of what you do.
Some of the time, part of this may be attributed to the distance of your leader from all the territories - when you own that much of the map, unless you have supremacy of the seas at all times, you're bound to run into rebellions... BUT that's also part of the fun, otherwise it would be boring steamrolling... ;)

have fun !

[NodachiSam]

Thanks for the welcome and the info!

I've been playing more and I am right near the end. Only the pope (he came back again) and the Sicilians are left on malta. I can move in for the kill at anytime I feel like but I married two of Sicilian princesses and I want to try to inherit his island by accelerating their demise

As expected the pope returned and I emptied the province of all men and buildings to let him sit surrounded by superior forces until the end of the game.

I accidentally left two spies and an assassin followed an emissary in and the province rebelled with about 1500 peasants with a 4 star general who pushed the pope into the fort he just built. The irony in it was so fantast yet I felt kind of sorry for him. On the other hand, it serves him righ for disrespecting my authority! Bwahaha!

He has two years to get himself out of the situation. I will probably end up hiring the peasants after its all said and done.

I am hoping against my intuition that their will be an ending video. I miss the videos from Shogun even though I eventually would just skip through them.

Thanks again for the tips and welcome.

[ichi]

All of the things you mention - being excommed, Papal reemergence, vices, and province rebellions - seem to me to be designed to slow a player down and make the game more difficult.

It is, as you say, a worthy successor to Shogun, but there aren't any cool vids, like the STW ninja movies or an ending.

Be sure to try the Viking Invasion Expansion. There are many good mods, I like the STW for VI mod.

ichi

[Satyr]

Rebellions are easy enough to avoid if you understand what causes them. Don't let your shipping lanes get disrupted because your kings influence is cut off and every province so cut off will rebel. Also be careful attacking or defending with your king. If you attack an island and the port gets destroyed your king is cut off and you get rebellions. If your king has to retreat into his castle to wait for reinforcements he is cut off and you get rebellions. Other than that, keep your loyalty at 120% or more and you won't get any reappearances or rebellions in your territory unless you get disloyal sons.

Enjoy, and do try out the Viking campaign. It feels much more like playing STW and I prefer it to the Medieval campaigns except that there are no mods for it and you can quickly tire of the same 8 factions.