Oddities in the campaign

[AvramL]

Has anyone else had nothing but bizarre happenings in the campaign?
I started a sort of trial run as the Spanish (m/m difficulty) and am now about 60 turns in and:

1) The Moors, after making an alliance with me, were promptly overrun by Portugal (despite holding far more provinces) with nary a fight, in fact, I don't think I've even seen a Moorish army.

2) Denmark now holds 8 provinces after overruning the HRE (which is now reduced to one) etc.

3) Similarily, Poland, Venice and Milan have expanded hugely to the point where Milan is the largest faction in the game.

4) Scotland holds 8 provinces and has overrun England (which now only holds Normandy).

5) the Byzantines are expanding everywhere.

6) No one has attacked me except for the French who blockaded one of my ports one time (for no apparent reason). The French also hold nearly all the Cardinal seats for some reason.

7) No one seems interested in taking any of the rebel provinces, leaving me to gobble them up.

All this strikes me as so absurd that it's starting to ruin the game for me. Is this typical, or am I just having a particularily strange go of it?

[Basileus]

None of that has happend to me except, Milan owning the Frensh and the Danes owning the Germans which usually always happens in my games. If HRE do not take Hamburg the Danes become to powefull.

[TheImp]

It seems the AI favors Milan in most campaigns. Was it intended by devs in the first place? I wonder...

[CaesarAugustus]

Has anyone else had nothing but bizarre happenings in the campaign?

6) No one has attacked me except for the French who blockaded one of my ports one time (for no apparent reason).

The exact same thing happened in my Venice campaign. Relations weren't bad or anything, and then they just randomly blockaded my Genoa port........

[knoddy]

milan got crushed in my byzantine campaign, and the HRE is actually suriving, which is strange cos in my english camp they got smashed by everyone lol.

to answer ur question generally variety is good in a campaign, it gets annoying if the same factions own again and again, its good to see a little bit of difference, that said, in my own experinece, the campaign map ai for the muslim factions is crap, they dont expand, and they dont build armies, its very dissapointing when u go on a crusade and jerusalam is defended by 2 family members, and when u expand into egypt u face at most 1 half stack. the same can be said for the turks in my byzantine camp, im smashing them i have faced 1 full stack army which is smashed and thats it. a little dissapointing.

[Filipe24]

In my campaign milan, england, spain and hre have been eliminated and the danish are the most powerful. (Im portugal by the way). The danish expanded east and have reached moscow!!! Scotland own the british isles. Nice to see that no 2 campaigns are the same

[Mailman653]

Milan was quite a powerhouse during most of my campaign untill Portugal broke out and took over almost all of Western Europe. I'm guessing Portugal was the cause of the downfall of England, France, Spain, HRE and Milan, and contributed to part of the Turks downfall.

[Musashi]

Milan hasn't been faring so well in my campaign... I've been in control of the Papacy for 4 straight terms, and the fools keep attacking me...

[Quillan]

My Byzantine game went about like Mailman's did. Milan took part of the HRE, part of France (England got the other part), and part of Italy. However, late in the game the Spanish came out and took all of western Europe. Eventually the Milanese were reduced to a single city, and probably would have gone away if the Spanish hadn't made the mistake of attacking me at the wrong moment. Milan had the #1 military in the world for quite a while.

[AvramL]

The exact same thing happened in my Venice campaign. Relations weren't bad or anything, and then they just randomly blockaded my Genoa port........

In my case, I had an alliance with them (which they cancelled before attacking), my princess was married to their faction heir/king and we had very good relations and yet they still did it.

variety is good, but when Denmark and or Scotland is taking over Europe!? I mean come on...no offense to any Scots or Danes but it should have some plausibility....

Also I'm still annoyed that the AI can't seem to launch any sort of concerted objective based land campaign. All they do is the same old moving either weak or full stacks around the map randomly. Army composition is also a little iffy. The French armies, for instance, seem to be composed entirely of dismounted feudal knights and siege machines (which shouldn't be allowed in battles).

I shall start games on higher diff settings and see if it makes any difference. I'm loving most aspects of the game but am disappointed with the so far brain dead AI.

[Midnight]

In my first (Spanish) campaign, Poland and Hungary became huge, England only took rebel towns, Scotland did *nothing*, while the Byz gradually fell apart, the Egyptians took over the Holy Land, the Danes did relatively well, the HRE held on, and Russia did little.

In my (admittedly early) second campaign (Byz), it's turn 11 and already the Scots have 3 provinces, Portugal's expanding, France beat Milan to some rebel town (Dijon?), and the Hungarians would be expanding again had I not beaten them to Sophia.

Something I hated in RTW was the lack of variety in campaigns, but it seems as if each campaign turns out a little differently once again, which is excellent news.

[AvramL]

Something I hated in RTW was the lack of variety in campaigns, but it seems as if each campaign turns out a little differently once again, which is excellent news.

Surely though, variety and historic plausibility are not mutually exclusive. For me, when Scotland, Denmark or some Italian city state succeeds in overrunning Europe in little more than a generation, that takes away from the immersion factor.

[Faenaris]

Surely though, variety and historic plausibility are not mutually exclusive. For me, when Scotland, Denmark or some Italian city state succeeds in overrunning Europe in little more than a generation, that takes away from the immersion factor.

I don't see why it kills immersion. A brilliant leader and a great army CAN increase their lands enormously. Just look at Alexander the Great: From Greece to all of the Middle-East in about 12 years or so. So, when the Danes start taking over Europe, I just go: "Bloody Alexander, I'll have your head!".

[Lochar]

Thats why I love these types of games, they can allow more what if scenarios than just following history.

But it is funny hearing about Milan, they are the largest army behind the mongols and they were number 1 for along time. I actually seen a full stack of them invading a fully stacked french town, its still under siege so guess the comp is trying the waiting game.

I havent finished my first campaign yet since picked long, but curious to see if the starting generals are always the same or if that is mixed up a little.

[sarjenius]

If i as England didn't gave two provinces to Milan they would be extinct. The Danes and Sicily are doing good and Hungary is the power number one - even crushing the Mongols and stalemating the Timurids. (M/VH game).

[katank]

I'm also noticing Milan or Portugal doing very well. Perhaps those AIs are just by nature more aggressive?

I've also yet to see a case where HRE isn't turned into a punching bag. The best they can seem to hope for is hold their own. Just too many enemies, I suppose.

[Faenaris]

I'm also noticing Milan or Portugal doing very well. Perhaps those AIs are just by nature more aggressive?

I've also yet to see a case where HRE isn't turned into a punching bag. The best they can seem to hope for is hold their own. Just too many enemies, I suppose.

In my Danish Campaign, the HRE was holding its own and taking a new territory once it has a chance. At least, until the English came. They steamrolled me and the HRE and in the end, we had to ally just to stay alive. It was cool, but it was though. So many Englishmen.

Also, Milan wins sometimes and loses sometimes. It depends on luck.

[Burakius]

MIlan is über in my campaign