A Cuman Campaign (long)

[Banquo's Ghost]

Would you get mad if I started a campaign and did the same thing your doing with another faction?

Of course I wouldn't get mad! Quite the opposite

I, myself, got the idea from some excellent earlier threads detailing people's empires and histories so I'm sure there will be a keen audience for your campaign.

Which faction were you thinking of? I'll make sure I don't choose them for my next campaign.

I look forward to reading your narrative.

[Gtafanboy]

Of course I wouldn't get mad! Quite the opposite

I, myself, got the idea from some excellent earlier threads detailing people's empires and histories so I'm sure there will be a keen audience for your campaign.

Which faction were you thinking of? I'll make sure I don't choose them for my next campaign.

I look forward to reading your narrative.

THis is Med mod(the latest one) and I'm not sure. Probably either the Turks or the Genoa, maybe Venice too. I'll think about it, and, i'll probably write it all at once, then after I'm all done, i'll put it on the boards.

[_Aetius_]

Excellent narrative Haurchai

I once wrote a rather basic history of a campaign I had as the Byzantines covering some 300 years,which turned out to be the most exciting campaign i'd ever had. However I never seem to have the patience to make detailed notes whilst playing the game, so afterwards I can give a fuller account, sometimes I just plain forget and end up having huge gaps by the tiem I remember to note something down .

I think you made a great choice of faction Haruchai, bound to have a hard time and surrounded by many enemies it was always going to be exciting. Some factions are rather predictable or are so easy it'd make boring reading or some to hard.

I always felt that the Byzantines in the high or late period were always fun to play as, a declining army and constantly under attack it makes for a very action packed campaign. A good combo of infantry and cavalry augmented by mercenaries offers variety also the Byzantine unit roster is almost entirely unique anyway. The history of the faction is also very interesting as you attempt to survive and perhaps regain its former glory.

If I had to pick one from your list though i'd say Norway, because it'd give you a very different campaign and style of warfare that you used in the Cuman campaign. The main problem is that it could easily stall, as its often luck of the draw whether or not you become a major power or remain isolated in the north of the map. You could just as easily choose Sweden or Denmark who I think have a slightly easier time than the Norwegians whilst being identical in every other way.

Whatever one you choose I look forward to reading it.

[ajaxfetish]

Thank you for sharing your campaign with us. Your narrative style is excellent and was very consistent through the long haul of over 350 turns! Congratulations on a well-deserved pagan victory!



Your next choices are all interesting. Just a couple thoughts:

The Almohads will give you plenty of individualized troops, and similar to the Cuman roster you mostly get just what you start with, and few of them can stand up to the better Catholic units without some skilled maneuvering and tactical excitement. The big differences will be you have a lot more variety to deal with and your units strengths and weaknesses will be very different. Camels especially will be a very interesting and unique troop type to learn.

The Venetians are very different in a different kind of way. You'll have your reliable core of Catholic unit-types for more straightforward fighting, but I think the most interesting difference is that your most unique and interesting units show up late in the game (such as Gothic Knights and Sergeants), so you have a little more to look forward to with the passage of time. A downside to that in my opinion is that the challenging part of the game is often over by then, so the elite troop types don't make much of a difference (unless you start in a later time period, of course).

Before I started on XL I tried a campaign as the Italians where I focused entirely on trade economy and virtually no expansion until the late period. It meant a lot of turns without much happening, but by the time I got access to the troops I wanted I had enough money stowed away to not worry about losing all my trade routes and the Spanish owned nearly the entire map besides me and the Pope (there were a few other stragglers with the odd province or two scattered about), so I had a formidable enemy to face with my super-elite champions. I got a few great battles in and had a great time.

Whatever you choose, you'll get a great contrast from the Cumans, and perhaps you may even grace us with another saga. I'm sure we would all be much obliged to hear more from you.

Ajax

[_Aetius_]

The Venetians/Italians have always been kind of boring, you can easily go dozens of turns with absolutely nothing of interest happening. You don't need additional territory and you need to be on the defensive quite alot as your surrounded by powerful factions, attacking will only get you excommunicated, so it wouldnt help the narrative very much to go Venice.

One of the main reasons why the Cuman campaign was exciting was because the future of the kingdom was uncertain, expansion was a necessity and heavy warfare pretty constant, Catholic factions are bound by the influence of the Pope, one wrong move can result in excommunication, never attractive and it deters some players from expanding to much, which may harm the narrative.

I think a good choice would be the Turks, it isnt easy and has an excellent balance of infantry and cavalry, horse archery is a main feature so it wouldnt be to difficult to adapt, gradually as units improve infantry will become more and more dominant. One of the better factions to go if you want to gain experience balancing infantry, archers and various cavalry units in 1 army. Many powerful neighbours, Byzantium and Egypt along with the steppe tribes to the north offers a wide variety of enemies, then of course theres the Horde, it all makes for an interesting campaign.

[Third spearman from the left]

Hi Haruchai
well done on the cumans campaign it was great to read. In the mirror universe that was my Volga-Buglar campaign the Cuman way of life was put to the sword early on as my Empire looked also to defeat history.
My first question for you is would you have liked to carry on the Cuman campaign trying to take the whole world?

The reason I ask is that you should be able to edit the end date of the game, I'm sure everyone would love to hear more of the great conquest by the Cumans.

As for a new campaign here are my suggestions, Norway is a great faction to start with for all the reasons people have said already but I'd suggest leaving them for now and starting an early XL game with them at a later date.

I have started a late XL game with the Genoise and it throws up some excellent situations that require quick thinking from the off. Yes the position is open to attack but at the same time you are surrounded by catholic factions who need to be careful in front of the pope, this means you won't find yourself overrun early on.

The Late period offers some excellent troops and all factions have been built up so they have the chance to access better units too. Choosing how to expand is also trickie but exciting as overseas conquest are a must.

Then there is also the Pope who might fancy a bit of your land, but i said no and kicked his butt into exile. However has recently returned with a massive army, but I'll push him back to the papal states. One other reason for choosing a catholic faction is you will get to fight a different type of war, one with your agents, i'M PLANING TO BURN A FEW KINGS, and then take there lands.

So in conclusion I'd suggest starting a later period game as the Genoise, but you will need to add the end date code otherwise the game will end to soon. One other faction worth a go is the Scottish, good luck!

[Csargo]

Nice story I really liked it.
When do u think u will start your next story just wondering

[Innocentius]

Necro-post, but what the heck: Excellent campaign! Bless the HoF Nominations, or else I would never have found this excellent thread. Will you start another campaign?

[Banquo's Ghost]

Necro-post, but what the heck: Excellent campaign! Bless the HoF Nominations, or else I would never have found this excellent thread. Will you start another campaign?

Thanks Innocentius.

I have been messing around with M2TW the last month, and not really enjoying it. The look is wonderful, but there doesn't seem to be the same edge as MTW. I think it's because I'm such a power hungry type I like to be able to give titles out rather than wait for a family member.

So a year after the Cumans, I am toying with the idea of doing the Moors. I had a plan to run a linked campaign for Ireland, that is take them through VI and then on again through XL - but there's a good Irish campaign AAR around, so I imagine it would get tedious for readers.

[caravel]

A memorable write up, well deserving the award.

Thanks Innocentius.

I have been messing around with M2TW the last month, and not really enjoying it. The look is wonderful, but there doesn't seem to be the same edge as MTW. I think it's because I'm such a power hungry type I like to be able to give titles out rather than wait for a family member.

You don't seem to be alone. Quite a few of the vets are going back to other games including most notably the RTW mods such as EB and RTRPE. I think that the initial buzz is starting to die off a little and we're now at the stage where people are waiting for the realism mods and the next patch. I suppose there were a few MTW fans that had never played RTW, that went out and bought this, I wonder what they made of it? I also wonder when CA will realise that eye candy isn't everything, and that a game needs that extra bit of "something" in order to have that timeless playability factor.

So a year after the Cumans, I am toying with the idea of doing the Moors. I had a plan to run a linked campaign for Ireland, that is take them through VI and then on again through XL - but there's a good Irish campaign AAR around, so I imagine it would get tedious for readers.

The Moors sounds like a good one.

[Vladimir]

Using gamey tatics (but no save and reload) I've had a lot of success with these guys. I also like your current name BG, the other one makes you sound like you were named after a grill and this newer one seems to capture your personality. Incredibly detailed posts, you must have put considerable effort into this one.