Food fight !

[doc_bean]

Two features have been unveiled by CA already

-you can choose whether you want to develop a settlement into a castle or into a city
-an advanced trade system including monopolies

Now, what if they actually combined both and made food a tradable resource ? Rich, city orientated provinces like Venice could be starved out if you cut of all their supply lines, or you could develop a city empire and import food from another (foreign) country. The amount of food could influence the population growth and a lack of sufficient food could cause some serious rebellions.

I think this would also be historically accurate, certainly in the early medieval period trade would have involved mostly food. It would also be a reason to build castles, instead of going straight for the cities and rushing towards advanced units.

[Mithrandir]

Nice idea,
especially seeing how it would add more strategy to claiming certain lands :).

[Silver Rusher]

Very appropriate title by the way.

And yes, agreeing with the holy mod here it would add incredible strategy to blockading ports and careful choosing which provinces to conquer next, although I doubt CA will do this as it will probably be a little too difficult for those general gaming "scallies" to grasp...

[caio giulio]

Now, what if they actually combined both and made food a tradable resource ? Rich, city orientated provinces like Venice could be starved out if you cut of all their supply lines,

Good idea!

[King Henry V]

I wonder whether you will be able to name the cities you found (like in Civilization) or will it be selected for depending on the castle's location.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

You can already rename settlements in RTW (BI). I would imagine they'd keep it in MTW2.

[Shottie]

This is great! After awhile it never really felt right to conquer contantly just to get your certain number of provinces. This new feature is cool though because you actually NEED to conquer certain countries and provences to survive.

For anyone that is has played Civ 4, does MTW2 seem like it might be like it but with more strategic fighting etc.?

[sapi]

Nice idea,
especially seeing how it would add more strategy to claiming certain lands :).

Great idea!!

/me prays

[Prince Cobra]

Oh, what will happen to the Byzantines ( one of my favourite factions)? Genoa + Venice + Turks + others ( I hope Bulgarians (other favourite faction) and Serbs) = problems with the food supply= great challenge (i.e. in Late- my favorite period). But this is excellent idea!

[Bob the Insane]

It would be nice if they also implimented feeding your army. There appears to have been room for this in RTW (when you looking in the units file) and it would be interesting to see if this will be implimented...

SO on your land the army takes X amount of food from the province it is in, and in someone elses land it take the same amount of food from their province (plus causing devistation)... It would make keeping wandering armies off you lands much more important and ever add a strategic element to where you garrison you large armies. Perhaps if you are in provinces that does not produce enough food you could have starvation reducing troop numbers as they march, especially if you are besieging a city there...

So many possibilities...

[Anti-hero]

Oh, what will happen to the Byzantines ( one of my favourite factions)? Genoa + Venice + Turks + others ( I hope Bulgarians (other favourite faction) and Serbs) = problems with the food supply= great challenge

4e4o, I don't know wether you've heard about this, but in the Balkans food shortages among the population were rather rare. Civilians died much more frequently due to wars in their provinces, than due to starvation. Food was usually enough. Maybe not abundant (there were weak harvests of course), but not so scarce as to cause famine.

This is a major difference between the Balkans and Western Europe where starvation was something much better known. I hope this will be depicted in the game when it ships. It's one of the details that convince the player he really plays with different nations, not just with factions with different names and colours.

[Prince Cobra]

Good point, Anti-hero!!!! You are right for Bulgaria , Serbia but not for the Byzantines. They have some problems with the food supply. You can open the old dusty books and see what happened to the citizens of Constantinople in the years of Our Lord 1307- 1308( I hope this won't happen to my Byzantine games). Anyway thank you for making it clear!

[SirGrotius]

Sounds interesting, I'm fain to believe CA will implement it though. I think it would also add a little more value to building farming improvements. It is my understanding that argiculture went through a mini-rev during the medieval period.

[Lochar]

It would be nice if they also implimented feeding your army. There appears to have been room for this in RTW (when you looking in the units file) and it would be interesting to see if this will be implimented...

SO on your land the army takes X amount of food from the province it is in, and in someone elses land it take the same amount of food from their province (plus causing devistation)... It would make keeping wandering armies off you lands much more important and ever add a strategic element to where you garrison you large armies. Perhaps if you are in provinces that does not produce enough food you could have starvation reducing troop numbers as they march, especially if you are besieging a city there...

So many possibilities...

This was one thing I was always surprised they never added. I would love to also have visible supply wagon trains that would need guards and can be raided.

When you form an attacking army you need to delegate how many will be used to guard supply lines. An enemy general can maybe spot the lines if he is between you and your nearest town. Also the ability to forage.

I think this would add a layer of strategy that would mean the biggest army isnt always the best if you can weaken them thru their stomachs.

One could get carried away and also suggest water as well that would give fighting in the deserts new meaning.

[Anti-hero]

Good point, Anti-hero!!!! You are right for Bulgaria , Serbia but not for the Byzantines. They have some problems with the food supply. You can open the old dusty books and see what happened to the citizens of Constantinople in the years of Our Lord 1307- 1308( I hope this won't happen to my Byzantine games). Anyway thank you for making it clear!

Unfortunetly the old dusty books had to be left back in Silistra when I came in Sofia. As for the 1307 famine - was this a rule or an exception of a rule for Byzantium in that period? I'm not completely certain, I heard this whole thing about food shortages more frequent in West Europe in a tv programme. Don't think I've compared written sources from East and West Europe from these periods. :)

[Prince Cobra]

Byzantium was in a permanent decline- the Turk invasion, the fleet of Genoa and Venice that controlled the food supply for the empire. The famine was something common to the citizens of Constantinople esp. when Genoa and Venice were at war -no ships, no food. And you are right- the famine was a part of the Medieval Western World. The Balkan people do not know lady Famine but they have let me see Mongol invasion , Turkish invasion ...