Holy heck... I just ended a war!

**Kraxis** · 12-01-2006, 22:48

The only time I have been rather impressed with the diplomacy, and hence the strategic AI, was when I (HRE) launched a crusade against Danish held Stockholm (excommed).

My only friends (not allies though), the English joined up on the first turn (I was going to get Stockholm no matter what since I attacked from Sealand, the easternmost Danish island in the game). So their crusade is moving up Flanders.
The next turn I 'wake' to a huge English fleet blockading Århus. DAMN! Then I was officially at war with every faction I had a border with.
When I looked at the diplomatic relations I saw the Danes had managed to wrest a ceasefire from the English, and apparently convinced them to attack me.

I must say I was pissed off at first, but then the beauty of the intrigue of the Danish diplomacy took hold. They must have spent a lot of money to buy the English. But the result was that a major english army would be sitting deep deep in my territory when I captured Stockholm. No way I could stop such an army if it had decided to attack Frankfurt or some other city.

'Unfortunately' it chose to head back to Bruges... And so the English war stagnated into a cold war as with most of my enemies.

**Musashi** · 12-02-2006, 00:36

Well, I enticed the Spanish into a foolish assault. I built 3 Urban Militia and 3 Crossbow Militia and sent them with a general to garrison a bridge on the border of my territory and Toledo... And assassinated his cardinal who had been forcing me to keep 3 Imams in Cordoba (PS: Catholic priests are TOO DAMN EFFECTIVE).

He was irritated with me and saw a stack of six militia units and thought he could crush it... sent in a full stack army and, naturally got his rear end handed to him.

I should mention that Moorish Urban Militia rock... they have a base defense of 18... My three units of Urbies fended off that entire army (Which included a unit of Bodyguard cav, a unit of Feudal Knights, and a unit of Knights of Santiago, plus 2 units of dismounted Feudal Knights and assorted other infantry) long enough for my crossbows to break most of them, and then I charged my general's squad with orders to break through clear to the other side of the bridge, and his whole army routed.

So now I have a reputation of "Trustworthy" or something like that (Went up from Very Reliable) and the Spanish have "Despicable" for attacking such a noble ally lol. And I beat their attack off with little more than a bloodied nose, and now I have an excuse to sack Toledo... and I don't have to worry about a Pope breathing down my neck for retaliating because I'm a Muslim faction.

Yay me!

**Whacker** · 12-02-2006, 00:57

Originally Posted by Musashi

nd now I have an excuse to sack Toledo... and I don't have to worry about a Pope breathing down my neck for retaliating because I'm a Muslim faction.

If you do decide to have a go at that, I'd honestly like to hear how the Papal Mafia and his Capos actually respond to your cheerfully mulching Spain. Regardless of who broke the alliance, from reading other's posts, attacking a catholic faction will reduce your standing with them all. Let us know how you go about, this, and what the results are.

Cheers!

**Musashi** · 12-02-2006, 01:06

Will do. I might have to sack Valencia on the way to Toledo as he's trying to menace me with an army from Valencia in order to put Granada and Cordoba in check... The obvious response is to use the assault army I've been building in Granada to sweep the army out of my way and then proceed to Toledo.

**Shahed** · 12-02-2006, 01:29

Musashi if I were you I would not have bothered keeping 3 Imams to counter the priest. Send them to his provinces and he will be forced to pull his priests back, eventually.

Nice read.

**Musashi** · 12-02-2006, 04:08

Well, further reports from the front:

Valencia has fallen to the holy conquering flames of Islam, and 2000 Christians were put to the sword (Resulting in a 5000 florin windfall for the Holy War Machine).

My global reputation has gone up to "Very Trustworthy", I'm still allied with all of Christendom (Aside from the soon to be nonexistant Spaniards), and my relations with the Papal States are listed as "Amiable".

I laid siege to Valencia with my offensive cavalry force, intending to wait them out and devour them when they sallied, which is my preferred method (I hate taking losses I don't have to) but a couple of turns into the 8 turn siege, the Spaniards began massing a force in Toledo with the obvious intention of lifting the siege from without... So I quickly moved my bridge garrison from the Toledo-Cordoba bridge to the Toledo-Valencia bridge, and brought up another garrison force to the Toledo-Cordoba bridge from Cordoba.

The Spanish King proved once again his lack of strategic acumen, falling into my trap a second time and wasting 2000 lives in a futile attempt to secure the bridge and relieve Valencia. The general who held two critical bridges for the Sultan was given great honors for his service.

With the defeat of their army at the bridge, the hopes of the Valencian defenders were utterly dashed, and they made a desperate attempt to break the siege by sallying forth into the teeth of the Sultan's mighty horse army. As usual, the ignorant Christians tactics were unsophisticated. The predictable charge of their overarmored knights was countered and crushed by a flanking movement of the loyal Tuareg camel riders, the Arab cavalry fell upon their archers like the wrath of Allah, and what few spearmen they bothered to field were subjected to a great hail of javelins from the Desert Cavalry, and quickly broke and fled.

The Arab Cavalry pursued the routing army into the castle and massacred them in the inner keep.

Thus fell the castle at Valencia. Surely the Infidel's infestation at Toledo cannot be far behind!

**monkian** · 12-02-2006, 10:24

I killed the Pope only to have my enemy to become Pope and I then got excommunicated

I love little things like that !

**jimmyM** · 12-02-2006, 12:56

Originally Posted by Whacker

If you do decide to have a go at that, I'd honestly like to hear how the Papal Mafia and his Capos actually respond to your cheerfully mulching Spain. Regardless of who broke the alliance, from reading other's posts, attacking a catholic faction will reduce your standing with them all. Let us know how you go about, this, and what the results are.

Cheers!

Originally Posted by monkian

I killed the Pope only to have my enemy to become Pope and I then got excommunicated

I love little things like that !

As the Byz, I was getting a bit antsy at a large Venetian crusader army lurking round on my westernmost border (N. Greece, Albania) so as soon as they boarded a single, rather depleted fleet I decided it was best to whack 'em and get it out the way-safe to say, after the engagement (which I'm still not sure finished them off) I got a notification saying my relations to all the catholic factions had pretty much hit its lowest possible level.
Now, Im at war with the HRE (probably the strongest cath. faction, as well as Venice and Hungary, and the rest haven't joined in only because they're too far away. It would be quite interesting to see how reconciliation pans out...

**Kobal2fr** · 12-02-2006, 15:43

Originally Posted by Musashi

And assassinated his cardinal who had been forcing me to keep 3 Imams in Cordoba (PS: Catholic priests are TOO DAMN EFFECTIVE).

You tell me, in my short-lived Spanish campaign I had to keep three priests in Toledo and Leon because there were respectively one 3 piety and one 2 piety Imams there and muslim/heretic faith just wouldn't go down... In fact, I tried to kill those guys so often and for so long they both turned ultra-paranoid (+4 or +5 to personnal security), and the Toledo one ended a mystic, convinced that so many assassins were god's way of saying he was right

. In the end, even a 18 skill assassin that had dealt with 3/4th of the Moorish royal family had a mere 32% chance to kill the 2 piety one (24% for the 3 piety mystic)... and died trying

.

I think it's just easier to build-up faith when you're the underdog than to convert the last remnants of another religion, i.e. those first 20-30% are a breeze, but going from 90 to 98% takes ages. Considering there still are die-hard Stalinists around, I'd say it's pretty realistic