Your arch enemy (the faction you hate in your games)

[dgfred]

@ Don- I agree 100% about the Hungarians, they give me a twitch
and the Italians are infuriating when I play HRE.



What did you mean about the AI's advantage and army's of speed?

[OlafTheBrave]

Probably the Sicillians, the most since their sole purpose in life seems to be to trash a good trade empire and get squashed in the process. The French also seem pre disposed to be agressive towards the human player if you neighboor them and can be an annoyance in early. Since I strictly play GA and once I have carved out the empire I have in mind I fortify it I don't really care if a faction such as the English, Almohads, Spanish or Byzantines takes half the map. I will have forces on my borders by that point that will stop them dead cold. If they manage to get the lead in points it becomes a matter of eleminating them. I do this either through agents or raid through their lands causing civil wars and eventually their elemination. I dont keep any provences beyond my desired empire. I may linger long enough to construct a port for withdrawal but that is it.

[m52nickerson]

I think the Sicillians are a universal enemy in the game. They always seem to piss someone off and get wiped out by the player or another AI faction.

[NodachiSam]

I posted this in the last thread just before it closed so I hope noone minds if I put it here once more.

I have only played a few campaigns so far so these might change in the future. Perhaps I dislike Egypt (they tend to get quite strong), the Turks (I like Rome I guess) (they are seljuk Turks right?), and... the mongols (I cannot play in the east in early without being obbsessed with their arrival for 70 to 50 years, which is an unfortunate detraction from the gameplay)

The papacy is annoying but is usually mostly harmless. The exception of course is after successive pope comeback tours where the pope'll keep gaining land after summoning strong high tech armies from the ether when he reappears. In my games they don't get attacked too often and I usually reduce them to their papal states and work to cast them off into inescapable dept. It is regrettable that the game is so inflexible. When playing byzantium most of eastern and southern Europe becomes 90 or over percent orthodox the pope would likely cease to be a huge significant factor politically to be able to gather so many soldiers with no land or sea connextion to catholic ruled areas in Britain, upper France and Scandanavia.

[Martok]

Probably the Sicillians, the most since their sole purpose in life seems to be to trash a good trade empire and get squashed in the process.

I think the Sicillians are a universal enemy in the game. They always seem to piss someone off and get wiped out by the player or another AI faction.

Yep, that about sums them up. I usually target the Sicilians for destruction as soon as it's reasonably practical to do so. And it doesn't matter if they're far away from me or not. If they start sinking my ships, I will strike back and completely wipe them out--even if I have to bankrupt my empire to do it (which sometimes happens since I've just taken a big whack to my trade income). When it comes to the Sicilians, vengance shall always be mine.....

[lugh]

The Turks, simply because if they're left alone long enough, you ned up facing thousands of horse archers and I friggin hate fighting them.
Oh and the Genoans, the last 3 campaigns I've played, they've spammed massive fleets, picked fights from Scandanavia to Egypt and been hammered on the continent only to retreat to ridiculous little enclaves (Estonia last time, Ireland before IIRC), but still with their massive navies!

The French also seem pre disposed to be agressive towards the human player if you neighboor them and can be an annoyance in early.

Everyone seems to think this but I've had a few Spanish and HRE campaigns where the French were model neighbours, leaving me to strip back my garrisons for centuries...

[Martok]

The Turks, simply because if they're left alone long enough, you ned up facing thousands of horse archers and I friggin hate fighting them.

You're preaching to the choir, lugh!

Everyone seems to think this but I've had a few Spanish and HRE campaigns where the French were model neighbours, leaving me to strip back my garrisons for centuries...

See, the French usually behave themselves in my games as well (unless I'm the English, of course! ). Otherwise, however, they usually leave me alone--as long as I'm careful and keep halfway-decent garrisons in my border provinces. The only times the French backstab me is if my frontier garrisons are woefully under-manned, in which case I really have no one to blame but myself. So as a rule, the French and I get along just fine, as long as I don't present myself as too tempting a target for them to pass up!

[lugh]

See, the French usually behave themselves in my games as well (unless I'm the English, of course! ).

Of course this wouldn't have anything to do with you pillaging the possesions of your rightful liege the King of France? They're just naturally obnoxious?
Thought not ;)

[Martok]

Of course this wouldn't have anything to do with you pillaging the possesions of your rightful liege the King of France? They're just naturally obnoxious?
Thought not ;)

No, certainly not! The French going to war with me has nothing at all to do with me taking their best provinces or bribing away their best generals; I would never do such a thing.....

[Don Corleone]

What did you mean about the AI's advantage and army's of speed?

With speedy armies, the important thing is to be able to control and constantly manipulate all 16 units simultaneously. A feint here, a pursuit there, it's an intricate dance. My hat is off to those that have the mental concentration to pull it off, but I generally find it frustrating. The AI doesn't have this problem, because it's a pre-programmed routine, something it does very well. It just sets up a 1 to 16 for loop and executes it repeatedly, constantly checking each and every unit. It never forgets to check in on and tweak any of it's units. I always overlook 1, and that's the one that starts the routing.

[dgfred]

Oh, I see . I too have some difficulties fighting with Muslim units . Thanks for the reply.

[antisocialmunky]

I change my mind:

Spain because of javelinmen spam armies. Those battles are lost through sheer boredom.

Aragon/Danes(nice challenge to play as) in early because of RK spamming royalty.

Germans because I suck at them.

Turks/GH/Novograd/Egypt because, like Spain they have tend to spend all their money on cheap spam units. Cavalry spam is ANNOYING especially with HA.

Huns because once a unit of their Elite Horse archers that joined an English Crusade single handedly routed one BI and routed my whole 6 star Byzantine army.

[AntiochusIII]

Arch-enemy? It must be the Sicilians. Their fleets are a pain in the arse, especially on my trade routes.

Otherwise our beloved pope (isn't he the default one )

Also, the Spanish, Turks, and Russians tick me off as they tend to establish massive empires at the cost of those who could've been worthy enemies/allies of mine. And the Turks especially because I like Byzantines...