Do you have any personal rules for MTW?

**macsen rufus** · 12-12-2006, 18:57

By personal rules, I mean any special restrictions you apply even though the game allows you to do more?

The few I have are:

1 - never train peasants
2 - never train bodyguard units - only use princes (but I do allow myself to RE-train them to keep up their numbers and to buff them with extra weapons and armour)
3 - never use vanilla units when my faction has something specific - eg when I play Italian factions I never train spears or sergeants, only Italian infantry; as Turks I never train vanilla archers; in VI if I have fyrdman then I don't use any other spears etc etc. The only exception I allow is if the special unit is high-tech, then I will use vanilla units until the tech is ready
4 - as a Catholic faction, only have one Grand Inquisitor

I'm sure there are more, but they're the main ones, really just to role-play and cut the cheese to a minimum

So what rules do you add into the mix to spice it up a bit?

**r johnson** · 12-12-2006, 19:28

The only rule I can think off.

If the computer game crashes I never restart it. I'll yell at the computer and hit it with a hammer and start a new game.

**Jxrc** · 12-12-2006, 19:51

- Always obey the Pope as long as it does not attack me.
- Never use inquisitors anymore (way too powerful - recent rule)
- Never assassinate the khan when the GH appear (but too tempting sometimes)
- Never attack allies (and never accept to get allied with your alliance enemy to get an excuse - ok if your ally attack one faction you are already allied with)

**Kavhan Isbul** · 12-12-2006, 21:06

Not really rules, but I limit myself to one Grand Inquisitor and use him only as a last resort, mostly in cases, in which a Catholic enemy will not accept a cease-fire.
No powerful mercenaries early.
No attacking one catholic faction just to get a warning so that I can attack another. Once I get a warning from the Pope, that's it for the next 10 years as far as smaller catholic factions are concerned.
No ridiculous expansion, such as sending a Crusade to Lithuania as the Spanish early in order to establish a base in the Baltic.

**naut** · 12-12-2006, 23:20

I have a couple sub-conscious rules, that are similar to those posted already. I barely ever use assassins or inquisitors. I likewise don't do any ridiculous expansion.

**Alexios** · 12-12-2006, 23:29

I never use Assassins or Grand Inqs. They're just way too overpowered and don't set a realistic tone to the gameplay (IMO). In fact, if you train your Assassins properly, you can practically wipe out an entire faction just by killing off its heirs! Not very realistic and not much fun either. I like to stick with general warfare as a means to win (or lose) a campaign. I will use special units, however (such as priests, bishops, princesses, etc.), to go on special spying missions, which I would say is not too unrealistic.

**Martok** · 12-13-2006, 02:40

Here some of the limitations I've set for myself:

1.) I don't purposefully station artillery with my defensive armies. They're too likely to kill the attacking general, thus robbing me of a hard-fought and well-deserved victory (or ignominious defeat, if I'm unlucky

).

2.) The only mercenaries I hire are artillery crews. Exception to this rule is I'll sometimes stick mercs in a Crusade.

3.) No more than 3-4 Inquisitors at a time, and no more than 1 Grand Inquisitor at a time.

4.) I don't employ more than a few units of "elite forces" (Hashashin, Sherwood Foresters, etc.) at a time.

5.) I don't spam Jihads. Only one Jihad marker per target province.

There's probably a few more, but that's all I can think of at the moment.

**macsen rufus** · 12-13-2006, 12:44

Some interesting examples of restraint amongst total warriors

You've reminded me of some of my others:

- never break an alliance by attacking, only if I get the "chose your allies" parchment (or by being back-stabbed!) [Having said that, I broke that rule just last night, in a Burgundy XL game - the French sent an Inquisitor after my only high-acumen governor so I retaliated by invading Isle de France where their king was. Obviously he abandoned the province and it was razed to the ground, leaving only farms and the church standing. I'm now milking it as a cash-cow and training ground against rebellions and loyalists

I also assassinated the Inquisitor, and the next two that allies sent into my lands. We''l have none of that here, thank you!]

- as a catholic, never ally with muslims, and rarely with orthodox factions

- I try to avoid exploits, like the two papal warnings one, and generally I try to do as the god-bothering interferer suggests until it's time to crush him and keep him on a leash

- crusades and jihads to be used sparingly, and mercenaries are for emergencies or really cool units like longbows...

Martok, you have better willpower than I have -- I can't resist artillery

**caravel** · 12-13-2006, 13:11

- Put wife outside
- Barricade door
- Open Beer
- Turn on computer, launch TW and start campaign
- Hard Difficulty only
- No Inns (thus no mercenaries)
- 1 Grand Inquisitor
- 2 Inquisitors
- 1 Jihad per target province, 1 jihad trained at a time, and only 1 on standby
- Never attack the pope unless attacked
- Never attack another catholic faction to reset the two papal warnings (exploit)
- Janissaries and other elite units used very sparingly
- No artillery except in sieges, or if I just happen to end up in control of some.
- Assassins only used defensively.
- No razing, whatsoever.
- No farming for rebellions
- No peasants (edit- almost forgot these!)

As to the attacking of allies. Your faction leader loses influence for this and loses allies, so it can in fact make the game harder under some circumstances. Strategically losing that alliance before attacking, by allying with their enemy, is more of an exploit in my opinion.

**naut** · 12-13-2006, 14:59

Originally Posted by Caravel

- Put wife outside

**Vladimir** · 12-13-2006, 16:14

1. Play on expert.
2. Win.

**Tony Furze** · 12-13-2006, 17:03

I don t have personal rules (yet) but I do like to split the whole campaign into manageable aims, otherwise I lose concentration and get confused.

for example, I always make it an aim to get Constantinople if I play as a muslim faction, then to build a Grand Mosque there. Sort of personalised GAs I suppose.

**Alexios** · 12-13-2006, 18:41

Oh, I did forget to mention, I never bribe enemy factions. This can definitely tip the balance in your favor if you have a lot of cash, which I usually do. And I never use mercs, either. To me, mercs seem to be another way of "buying" your way to victory (not only that, but there's something about not being able to rebuild a unit after battle that, for some reason, just utterly bothers me!)

**Kavhan Isbul** · 12-13-2006, 20:01

When I self impose myself a rule, it is in an attempt to make the game a bit more realistic and not necessarily to make up for the AI's shrotcomings. This is also the reason I prefer playing mods - more factions make for a crowded map and expansion is tougher, and I especially like the MedMod (and Pike and Musket to an extent) in the way it limits troops to certain homelands, and mercenaries are a resource. Also, to Crusades and Jihads in the MedMod require expensive structures and take a lot of time (10 turns per crusade and 5 per Jihad) and money to be built, rendering the spamming tactic useless.
Therefore most issues that required some sort of a self imposed rule in MTW/VI are addressed in one way or another in the various mods, and the only thing I try to avoid are AI's exploits, such as the Papal warning or raising structures for cash (The AI never does it, even in MedMod in provinces with structures it cannot really use). The only exploit I use is the killing of prisoners. It is an exploit because the AI never does it, but as it tends to eventually lower morale, I think doing it is OK.
I have no problem with back-stabbing though - it is realistic, and the AI uses it. Same with artillery - the AI uses it, so I do not have a problem with using it either, and personally I have never been able to kill a general with it. And I do not have a problem with mercenaries, as long as I do not employ Kwarizmian or Alan cavalry as the Danes in 1091 - it just does not seem right. In reality, mercenaries were widely used in the Middle Ages and it is a pity the AI never hires any. As far as brioberies go, I consider them fair - the AI has successfully bribed my generals on a few occasions, and it constantly bribes rebels.

**r johnson** · 12-14-2006, 10:03

Originally Posted by Kavhan Isbul

(and Pike and Musket to an extent) .

How good is P&M? I've been thinking of down loading it. The fantasy of being John Churchill marching around in Belguim.

**naut** · 12-14-2006, 10:35

P&M is enjoyable, it has some pretty features.

**macsen rufus** · 12-14-2006, 11:31

I can recommend Pike and Musket, well worth the download time

I don't have a problem with bribery (except when the AI does it to me, of course

) Usually by the time you've got cash to throw around the game's pretty much won anyway -- so I don't see that bribery is any more "buying" victory than having a production line of troops flying out of every province. I probably use it more for ending sieges than starting field battles, but on occasion I'll bribe a stack of rebels if they have interesting troop types (just for the variety). And of course, with some factions bribery is a non-starter, eg HRE in the early period can barely afford to train peasants, let alone bribe anyone

As for razing - I do it rarely, and usually out of desperation, to cripple an enemy province I can't expect to hold, in the style of the chevauchee. But when I do raze, I always leave farms and churches standing.

**Innocentius** · 12-14-2006, 13:31

I'm obviously not as strict as some of you, but I have a few rules nonetheless:

- Don't bribe
- Don't farm generals
- No colonies (ie taking Livonia as Genoa or something)
- Play as historically as possible

I don't use assassins, inquistors, spies or even emisarries that much, but that's no rule, I'm just not very interested in such. I try to keep a few assassins at home, training them by killing most emissaries that enter my kingdom and then use them to rid me of inquisitors or similar. I sometimes spam spies in enemy provinces to weaken them though.

**Arciel** · 12-14-2006, 14:50

-No bribing
-No backstabbing of allies
-No colonies
-No rushing at the start

That's all, although I may have forgotten some of the ones I used before.

**cegorach** · 12-14-2006, 16:34

Originally Posted by r johnson

How good is P&M? I've been thinking of down loading it. The fantasy of being John Churchill marching around in Belguim.

Hmm he really is amongst the historical heroes for England in the mod :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

clearly the best general for this faction.

My set of home rules ?

- historically acurate armies if possible,
- regional armies if I need to use non-national forces,
- assassinations and inquisition not used too often,
- bribery almost never in use,

Since I haven't played 'vanilla' for ages and I don't like classical medieval mods I don't have too many problems from the lists above.

**King Kurt** · 12-14-2006, 16:59

I always try to play as historic as possible - so that means GA not conquest. I do bribe and hire mercs because that is historic. I also try to use agents, assasins in a historic way as opposed to training them up on peasants. my assasins do start on emisaries, but only of enemies not allies and it is always to train up for going for the big boys.
I try to go with the religion side of things as well. I often try to obey papal warnings and requests and often try not to attack factions of the same religion - well, until they attack me!!
I never use seige artillery in open battles and, if my faction has a "national troop type" such as English longbows, I will always use those as opposed to a type which is available, better, but not historic - e.g. loads of arbs in an English army.
I also try to be surprised by the Horde arriving - but that is difficult.
I think the game benefits from trying to be a bit historic - I know it is in the end fairly unhistoric, if only in the fact that nobody conquered all of europe in the middle ages. However, I am now tending to play up to the point where victory is inevitable then stopping rather than playing through to world domination - so i suppose that is another rule.
However, I suppose my main rule is to take a chance - the game is more interesting if you are a bit stretched, out of money and you are being attacked by several factions. Rather that then turtling for ages until you have a massive bank balance and uber troops before attacking somebody.

**Kavhan Isbul** · 12-14-2006, 19:32

Originally Posted by r johnson

How good is P&M? I've been thinking of down loading it. The fantasy of being John Churchill marching around in Belguim.

Here is a link to a topic that contains some info
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=58346

I like that the homelands concept is applied in this mod too, but there are more region-specific troops available to most factions compared to the MedMod. The mod also has three different periods, and a variety of factions based on the starting date. No GA achievements unfortunately, but cegorach has done everything he could do as a modder to create a truly unique and historically accurate mod. This is the only mod where you can really have a go at an AI with large technologically advanced armies of gunpowder cavalry and infantry and lots of pikes. It is not my favorite period when it comes to military history, but I had plenty of fun destroying hundreds of slow armored pikemen using only some cool horse archers and overrunning the world as the Kazan Khanate with armies of tatars and muslim peasants - nothing more rewarding than being the absolute underdog and winning against all odds, incurring humiliating defeats to armies which not only have a numerical superiority to yours, but also surpass you technologically by centuries. And the cherry on top of the icecream for me was a specific unit in the tatar roser called Kipchak Asker (Cumans, basically), who use fire arrows - I do not think this has any impact on their stats, but it looks absolutely spectacular when several units fill in the sky with fire and smoke and well worth trying out the mod just to see this.

**Martok** · 12-14-2006, 21:27

King Kurt brought up another rule I set for myself. As much as possible, I try to not prepare for the GH. Goodness knows it's hard, but I do my best. Of course, it's easier for me as the Egyptians/Fatamids--if I lose territory to the Mongols, I can always just Jihad them to death.

**mfberg** · 12-14-2006, 22:26

If playing early -
Prepare the ground the GH move into initially with level 4 farming, and as much build up as possible in the time remaining. No grand inquisitors. No assassinations of generals. No bribery. Trading gives equal money to me and the faction with the port.

mfberg

**Innocentius** · 12-14-2006, 23:16

Originally Posted by mfberg

If playing early -
Prepare the ground the GH move into initially with level 4 farming, and as much build up as possible in the time remaining. No grand inquisitors. No assassinations of generals. No bribery. Trading gives equal money to me and the faction with the port.

mfberg

Hehe, I tend to do the exact opposite when dealing with the GH (if I'm playing as an Eastern faction - which I rarely do - mostly the Cumans or Volga Bulgars). I sieze Khazar quickly, build it up (although I don't build the Forest Clearing as it's indestructable), pump as many soldiers and money as possible from it, then delete it all and evacuate it a few years before 1230 so that rebels will have time to appear and at least briefly stall the horde. I sometimes keep a fort so that the Horde will be occupied for even longer

Not very historical, and not very brave, but then again, I really don't like the GH coming and messing up all the political balance.

**Scurvy** · 12-14-2006, 23:32

Never use Inquisitors
Always attempt to use faction specific units (ie. choose over non-specific if affordable)
Never use artilary (even when attacking castles, its just more fun, winning with art is too easy...)

+ i agree with caravel,

- Barricade door
- Open Beer

**cegorach** · 12-15-2006, 09:05

It is off-topic, so I will hide it.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Kralizec** · 12-15-2006, 15:46

I
-don't demolish buildings in captured provinces.
-use assasins and inquisitors with moderation
-use only 1 jihad per target province
-don't attack allies
-try to use ballanced armies, instead of using half the slots for elite units
-don't get rid of crappy heirs on purpose. I use them to fight risky battles though, to try to improve them

That's about it, I think.

**Czar Alexsandr** · 12-25-2006, 05:51

In my current Russian game I have some rules.

Like...

1. Never betray my fellow Orthodox. The Byz are my friends.

2. Never trust Poles, Huns, or Turks... -_-

3. Avoid continental European war. Russians in Toulouse and Leon is just odd.

4. Defend the faith. In my game the Byz are too week to hold the Orthodox lands in north Mid east so I do it so he can conncentrate on other things.

5. I also try to hold Lithuanina, Scandinavia, and the Balkans. Russia is more or less a country made of Slavs and Scandinavians so I try to hold both. I suppose my Grand Prince is very Nationalist. Thesse regions are also historic targets of the Princes and Czars.

**marcusbrutus** · 12-28-2006, 18:04

My personal rule - learned from experience - is to switch the game off in time for at least 4 hours sleep before work (6 hours during extended campaigns).

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