Armies In Castles (Campaign Issues)

[yesdachi]

I have never had the AI bribe one of my armies. is this common?

When I bribe I often run into the “this guy wants more money” issue that always throws my attack plans off.

I have never noticed a difference between in or out of the castle.

[mfberg]

Bribe them both the same turn or bribe the one outside the first turn and the one inside the second turn (I usually use three emmisaries on each). I haven't seen the cost of bribing change between inside and outside, the v&v's of the general commanding the stack seem to be the main thing affecting cost (besides units in the stack of course).

mfberg

[Zild]

Bribe them both the same turn or bribe the one outside the first turn and the one inside the second turn (I usually use three emmisaries on each).

I usually do the same...

I've had the occasional army bribed in Early as the English (the campaign I play longest and most often). In my current VI (2.1) Mercians game, the Scots have bribed two armies of mine over the course of about three turns - I think certain factions are more likely to act in such ways, and the Scots might also have an abundance of wealth right now, I guess...

[Patron]

"Build up Province
Build up army
Attack

Rinse, Lather, and Repeat

I hope when I can play campaign mode, I will have an interesting game, thats why I will play the Turks on high period."

You have to throw yourseld into endless wars and on expert mode until you come across barriers and have to find over ways of negotiating around them. I'm always finding myself thinking how useful 10 spies would be and 50 bishops to convert my newly conquerred lands.

[EatYerGreens]

The rebels in my current Byz game got quite advanced, building keeps and all manner of buildings. Some hefty looking Viking units in Sweden, not to mention a readybuilt port, tradepost and shipbuilder (!!) were very tempting for a Byz emperor whose VG's hail from that part of the world.

However, all the rebel territories did a pretty good job of spliting their stacks between inside/outside the castles.

I did ask a question, in some other thread, on how to go about bribing in this situation which didn't get a reply but the above seems to have answered that - multiple emissaries. Not sure why 3 per stack is supposed to help. Is each being offered different prices? Rejecting the first offer doesn't interfere with the follow-ups?

My other question is about the value-for-money (VFM) factor. A whole other debate, perhaps? (I don't want to side-track this thread too much).

The cost of these bribes is usually upwards of 2 grand, even for some very basic unit types, like a few hundred spears and UM. I'm thinking it would be cheaper to build a two-stack army of my own and just take the province conventionally.

I can certainly see the value of bribing in provinces which are out of reach of me by both land and sea and I know Sweden's economic prospects well enough to realise it will pay for itself in relatively few years. On the other hand, lack of a sea link to my Emperor means I also know it's going to be rebellious for quite some time.

[tigger_on_vrb]

If theres stacks both inside and outside the castle its just too easy to bribe the one in the castle - the ones outside then have to siege it or you can then also invade the province conventionally and wont have to siege the castle yourself.
It makes the game too easy and I stopped bribing stacks inside castles completely.

[Zild]

It's not so much about bribing, as being bribed - protecting against it.

@EYG: If you're bribing multiple stacks and need to get the timing right, then it's best to use multiple emissaries for each stack. That way, if the first is rejected, the second will attempt to bribe at the increased amount. If he is also rejected, a third can try at a further-increased amount.

Sure, it's starting to get wildly expensive, but that doesn't mean it's definitely a bad idea - sometimes, there may be no choice. In my case, I'm just lazy - I only like the small battles ;)