couple of noobish questions!

[Almohdistani]

Hi there,

first question is how come i seem only to build weaponsmiths in certain provinces despite fulfilling the construction prerequisite requirments of the guide?

And also, I get to a point in any compaign, where for some reason the morale in a large cluster of provinces suddenly drops and mass uprisings suddenly occur crippling my empire!

Probably really obvious but I cant figure it out...


Any help much apprecieted!

[Dutch_guy]

Hi there,

first question is how come i seem only to build weaponsmiths in certain provinces despite fulfilling the construction prerequisite requirments of the guide?

And also, I get to a point in any compaign, where for some reason the morale in a large cluster of provinces suddenly drops and mass uprisings suddenly occur crippling my empire!

Probably really obvious but I cant figure it out...


Any help much apprecieted!

To answer your fist question, I believe only certain provinces which contain the Iron resource are able to fully build up the weaponsmith buildings.

As to your second, once you hold a certain percentage of the map, the game tries to make it more challenging by dropping the happiness levels in your settlements - it's not a bug, it's an actual feature. It usually happens when you own around 60 % (or was it 80%) of the map. Irritating, but bound to happen sooner or later. It's basically why a lot of people prefer GA mode over conquest mode...

[Almohdistani]

I own around 40%

[caravel]

If it's occurring at around 40% then it may be that your faction leader has become isoltated from the rest of the empire. If he gets cut off on an island or isolated territory and cannot reach the other lands, those lands will suffer a massive drop in loyalty, making revolts very likely.

The bloat effect, that occurs at around 60%, is indeed a feature. The way to counteract it is to build loyalty inmproving buildings in your provinces (town watch, religious buildings, brothel, watch towers, border fort.) and place a spy in each province. Keep a garrison of not less than 100 men in each province also, the cheaper to support the better. Also you'll want to lower taxes in those problem provinces to get the loyalty to 120% or above. Anything below this and a faction re-emergence can occur.

[Almohdistani]

The way to counteract it is to build loyalty inmproving buildings in your provinces (town watch, religious buildings, brothel, watch towers, border fort.) and place a spy in each province. Keep a garrison of not less than 100 men in each province also, the cheaper to support the better. Also you'll want to lower taxes in those problem provinces to get the loyalty to 120% or above. Anything below this and a faction re-emergence can occur.

I did not know this. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!

[Martok]

Welcome to the Org, Almohdistani!

In regards to where you can construct the Metalsmith, Dutch_guy is correct. They can only be built in provinces that contain iron. It's yet another reason why I enjoy playing the Spanish--all those iron provinces allow me to produce troops with high attack values.

[Adrian II]

Good advice all around.

There are iron deposits in the following provinces: Leon, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, Tuscany, Franconia, Bohemia, Hungary, Carpathia and Sweden.

As for the Loyalty drop, this happens for a variety of reasons. Apart from the '60% of the map' drop and the 'isolated ruler' drop, there is also the 'worthless ruler' drop. The latter refers to the quality of your ruler.

Right-click your ruler's counter and look at his Influence (the number of crowns underneath his name) and his Character Traits. Four crowns is the least to maintain loyalty. You can increase your ruler's Influence in a number of ways:

1. let him win battles (the downside of this is that he will be way from his home province temporarily)
   
2. organise a succesfull Crusade/Jihad (the downside is that flunked Crusades/Jihads spell disaster for your ruler's Influence)
   
3. improve his character by balancing the traits, for instance:
   
   • if he is faint-hearted, increase his dread by killing all prisoners of war/rebels after a won battle or crushed rebellion
     
   • make him a Builder and/or Steward (causes +Happiness as well)
     
   • build churches/mosques to increase his Piety
   
   
4. skip your actual ruler (he will die sooner or later) and focus on 'raising' the Prince who is next in line into a fine (i.e. warriorlike, prestigious, yet friendly and steward-like) young gentleman.
   
5. check all your troops and governors and disband all units with Loyalty 4 or less, even if they are strong units

P.S. In my current English campaign (Early, Expert) the time is around 1240 and I own about 50% of the map in a sort of crescent from Friesland through Western Europe and North Africa into Palestine, which I conquered in a Crusade.

The Crusade was a hair-raising affair, yet on the same turn when my Crusade succeeded (yay, huge +Influence) my rather weak King Edward III died.

Alas, Edward IV was even more of a basket case (Doubtful Courage, also known as 'Screaming Girl' syndrome) and so was his oldest son Prince Stephen.

So - I let Edward exercise his muscles in Ireland by withdrawing all my troops and provoking rebellions there. I let him fight the rebels each time with an excellent army that was slighty smaller in number than the rebel armies. The first time, I let him counterattack (and win) in Ireland immediately, which made him a Skilled Defender. The second time I waited til Ireland had been taken over by the rebels, only then to let Edward invade the island as an attacker. This gave him Skilled Attacker status. After one more crushed rebellion he had Expert Defender. All I need to do now is raise him into an Expert Attacker, and I will have neutralised the 'Screaming Girl' factor. The added advantage of having him gallop around Ireland is that it is close to his home province, hence no unnecessary loss of Loyalty among the lads.

Meanwhile, in Portugal Prince Stephen is doing the same out of Castile, where I have installed an excellent governor as well to enhance his reputation. In between Stephen's Portuguese battles, his governor builds Nice, Shiny Things for him in Castile that help to increase Stephen's Builder status and Stewardship.

All in all, I have my Edwards nicely under control.

Yes, I am an old hand...

[Ripken]

I was going to start a dumb noob question thread of my own, but I decided it would be better to piggyback on this one!

Basically my problem is that I have a lot of units that are high quality but have a massive yellow streak (low valour). This is the first GA campaign I've played (English, early), and although I totally fumbled my Crusading attempt (lousy Jihads!) I steamrollered Western Europe fairly easily and am well ahead on points. Because of this I've been tootling along for a while and not launching any big campaigns, while building all the nice, shiny new units as they become available.

But the Horde have now made a move against me (it's about 1300), and I'm finding that even when I have modern, elite units I'm coming off second best in a lot of melees because they've got no bottle.

What is the best/ quickest/ easiest way of boosting valour without getting streamrollered by battle-hardened MHC...?

[naut]

Good generals, +1 valour for every 2 stars. Buildings at Guild level, +1 valour. Soldiers gaining battle experience.

[Adrian II]

What is the best/ quickest/ easiest way of boosting valour without getting streamrollered by battle-hardened MHC...?

The quickest way is by boosting your generals' valour. Make your two-star and three-star gens fight rebellions.

The surest way is to up your home bases to Guild level, build monasteries, shrines, etcetera.

A more intricate way is by using your low valour units on the battlefield in such a way that they gain valour. Whenever you can, you should give your lowest-valour units easy tasks to accomplish, such as flanking enemy units that are already engaged, killing off enemy stragglers or attacking weaker uits (e.g. by pitting your swordsmen or cavalry against enemy archers or peasants).

[Ripken]

Thanks guys.

Can valour be re-trained in the same way that you can get weapons/ armour bonuses by re-training units in a province that has been upgraded?

[caravel]

Regional valour bonuses and valour bonuses from buildings, e.g. a master spearmaker, will be passed into revelant men that are retrained in that province. The same goes for morale bonuses. Valour gained from combat experience is lost when the man dies in battle.

[macsen rufus]

Hi Ripken - when you say your units have "no bottle" do you mean they're running away before finishing the job in hand? If so your problems could be down to morale rather than valour. There are a few things you can do:

1) As well at using generals with good command stats that add valour, also check out their vices and virtues. Some of these will boost morale, others will undermine it. "Charismatic leader" will give a nice boost (+2 to morale I think IIRC), but "Unhinged loon" will do the opposite. I've found that a general can have high stars, but if he has morale-reducing VnVs his army will be less effective than a lower star general with morale-boosting VnVs.

2) Train your crack troops (preferably all of them ) in provinces that have morale-boosting buildings - eg for the English, these will be church, monastery, cathedral etc, to ensure your troops already have good morale before your general starts asserting his own influence on them.

3) Be aware which of your troops have high or low morale, eg halberdiers, although tough beggars, have bit of a lack of commitment to combat resulting in perilously low morale. They are apt to run at the drop of a hat.

4) Be aware of what will affect troop morale during combat:
- it is reduced by: being under fire, doubly so from fireams; if the general dies; if fighting uphill; if the enemy is on an exposed flank; if the enemy are behind; if the enemy seriously outnumber your troops
- it is improved by: having flanks and rear protected by other units (preferebly of higher morale themselves); if fighting downhill; when "winning"; if the general is close by.

[Peasant Phill]

don't forget that the moral of units will make a massive drop when they see a friendly unit rout what can cause a chain rout. Disciplined and elite units will only be affected by another routing unit if the routing unit also is disciplined or elite.

All the countermeasures have been mentioned already: build religious buildings in your troop producing provinces, keep your units flanks protected, keep your general close to endangered points in your line, try to move in a favorable position before committing your troops.

These are of course no hard rules as for every rule there are exceptions or situations where you could/should do something differently. But always be aware of the morale of your troops.

[Ripken]

Hi Ripken - when you say your units have "no bottle" do you mean they're running away before finishing the job in hand? If so your problems could be down to morale rather than valour. There are a few things you can do:
....

Yes, that is what I mean really, they are tending to waver, panic each other and then make for the nearest exit under circumstances where I really wouldn't expect them to (like when defending against a smaller Papal army!!! ).

Thinking about it the majority of my line was made up of halbardiers and chiv sargeants, which probably didn't help (incidentally, why are chiv sargeants so much more fragile than their feudal predecessors, is it just a quirk of the game designers'?).

Thank you for all the advice, I'll certainly be trying to apply a fair bit of what you suggest next time (although I'm a pretty rubbish general!).

[caravel]

Thinking about it the majority of my line was made up of halbardiers and chiv sargeants, which probably didn't help (incidentally, why are chiv sargeants so much more fragile than their feudal predecessors, is it just a quirk of the game designers'?).

Lower base morale. You'll need a good general to boost their valour, and morale.

[macsen rufus]

What Caravel just said during the time it took me to hit "Reply"!

[gunslinger]

RE: Valor

Remember that valor is calculated for each individual man in a unit. The number you see on the unit card is actually an average of the individual men. Keep this in mind when you're reforming units after a battle. I always turn off the "tidy up units" option (you get to it by clicking the arrow to the right of your minimap in the campaign screen) because the a.i. will always screw you when it reorganizes your army. If you have units that survived a battle, but took a lot of casualties, then chances are they gained a lot of valor too. If you combine these high valor units with each other instead of with green troops, then you concentrate your experienced troops which creates elite units. Just remember that if a unit is sitting in a stack led by a good general, it will show higher valor than a unit that's in a stack without a good general. Until you get used to compensating for this, try taking the generals out of the stacks while you re-organize the armies after a battle.

[naut]

Good point gunslinger.

[caravel]

RE: Valor

Remember that valor is calculated for each individual man in a unit. The number you see on the unit card is actually an average of the individual men. Keep this in mind when you're reforming units after a battle. I always turn off the "tidy up units" option (you get to it by clicking the arrow to the right of your minimap in the campaign screen) because the a.i. will always screw you when it reorganizes your army. If you have units that survived a battle, but took a lot of casualties, then chances are they gained a lot of valor too. If you combine these high valor units with each other instead of with green troops, then you concentrate your experienced troops which creates elite units. Just remember that if a unit is sitting in a stack led by a good general, it will show higher valor than a unit that's in a stack without a good general. Until you get used to compensating for this, try taking the generals out of the stacks while you re-organize the armies after a battle.

I have often picked through an army of about 7000 using those methods. It's very tedious but does ensure that the high valour units go together. I usually start by pulling all of the generals out then work from there. You can't then drop stacks into each other as they may still merge, which is annoying, so you have to pull out the same type of unit from all the stacks first. If you're working in a small province, this isn't funny. I find myself doing a lot of this during my Turk campaigns. Especially in Georgia or Khazar vs the Mongols or in Constantinople vs Crusades or i.e. the Hungarians. Another option in the same place as the "tidy up units after battles" is the "display non critical messages" option, the one that shows all of the building construction, assassination/spy missions and generals death parchments. I tend to turn this off and instead get a nice summary list of my agents actions and buildings that were constructed ( abit like the vice/virtues summary). Leaving this checked means that you have to click through all of those building parchments at the end of the year, listening to the annoying sound affect, and then go through all the "your assassin was caught and killed" etc "whip whip, singe argghhhhhh" messages.

The other ones I disable are the autosave and the tooltips. The tooltips are also a sort of an exploit, because if you pick up one of your agents and drag it over a remote province that you have no intelligence on, a tooltip appears informing you of which faction controls it.

[Ripken]

I didn't know you could do all that, but I do know, thank you!

[Ripken]

I didn't know you could do all that, but I do know, thank you!

Of course, I meant 'now' not 'know' the second time!

[gunslinger]

I like the tooltips because they allow me to find out what faction a boat, army or castle belong to if I'm not familiar with the colors.

On the subject of sorting out the armies, once my standing armies start getting bigger than one stack, I generally separate them into four groups: spears, swords, cavalry, and archers. This allows me to reorganize fairly quickly after a battle. It also makes it easier to figure out the composition of an army in each province. If I need to shift some troops to a province that just got hammered in a defensive battle, I can easily see if the surrounding provinces have a couple extra spear units or whatever. If you use this trick, just remember that the individual stacks will probably have 0 star generals, which is fine as long as there is a good general in the province in case of attack. You just have to make sure that whoever is the "general" for each stack has decent loyalty or you'll end up with a rebellion on your hands.

[Martok]

I always disable everything except for autosave (although I'll occasionally enable "see computer moves"). Everything else is a hamper for me and unnecessary besides. I don't need 7 messages telling me I've just finished building a Swordsmith's Guild, nor do I need to see where everyone's emissaries are travelling to.

Like gunslinger, I also organize my soldiers by unit type when I have multiple stacks in a province. It definitely helps with keeping them organized after battles, and also allows me to make sure I have the proper troop composition for the province in which the army is stationed.

[Ripken]

Ok, another valour question: if I have units that have been involved in a particularly bloody battle (in this case an uphill attack against high quality troops with a 2:1 advantage in numbers, albeit only rebels) and have gained 2-3 points of valour but lost 70%+ casualties in some cases, should I send them for re-training and lose some of that valour, or cobble them together in to larger units where it is possible to do so?

That was a long sentance wasn't it!

[caravel]

Merge them with another high valour unit. I often stockpile these types of units until I can merge them with units of a similar average valour. Remember that valour is an average. The individual valour of every individual man is tracked by the game during a campaign. This means that you may have a veteran unit of 20 royal bodyguards with this sort of valour:

3 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Average valour (3+2+2+2+1)/20=0.5 (valour 0)

They go into battle, don't fight, but ten of the worst are killed by missiles leaving:

3 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0

Average valour (3+2+2+2+1)/10=1 (valour 1)

They're not really any better, but AFAIK they will now get any attack/morale/defence bonuses due to the unit having 1 point of valour. The downside is that the unit is much smaller and not as effective.

So those 0 valour tail enders make a big difference. If you had a remnant unit of 15 valour 6 Feudal Men at Arms and retrained it, you could expect to see all of that valour diluted by the green troops.

[Ripken]

So those 0 valour tail enders make a big difference. If you had a remnant unit of 15 valour 6 Feudal Men at Arms and retrained it, you could expect to see all of that valour diluted by the green troops.

Yes, this is pretty much what happened! My problem was that my first 'gold' armour province came on line just after this particular battle, so I sent all the battered units there to get shiny new kit.

I was also rather annoyed that my general's valour 12 RK unit somehow ended up at valour 8 after the battle. It lost 3/4 of its strength, which may have been all the 'best' men, but it was in the thick of the fighting throughout so the rest should surely have gained plenty of valour?! Hey ho.

[Adrian II]

Like gunslinger, I also organize my soldiers by unit type when I have multiple stacks in a province.

There is a downside to this: when your province has 960+ troops in unit by unit stacks and the province is attacked, the AI wil group those units into an army for you and it will stack them in order of their entry into the province.

Beware of this effect, or you may end up on the battlefield with a totally clumsy army composed of, for instance, 14 Spearmen units, one unit of 3 Royal Knights (whose commander is a 'Coward') and one unit of 11 Elite Crossbowmen...

[macsen rufus]

One other thing to consider with your fragmented units - if one of the unit leaders has a valour-increasing virtue/vice (like "Famously brave" or "Pride") you can give him the lower-valour dregs, as his VnVs will boost them to his level. Or alternatively, send this unit back to your gold-plating province to be retrained.

[gunslinger]

There is a downside to this: when your province has 960+ troops in unit by unit stacks and the province is attacked, the AI wil group those units into an army for you and it will stack them in order of their entry into the province.

Beware of this effect, or you may end up on the battlefield with a totally clumsy army composed of, for instance, 14 Spearmen units, one unit of 3 Royal Knights (whose commander is a 'Coward') and one unit of 11 Elite Crossbowmen...

I don't think I've ever had this problem. When you go to the pre-battle screen you can pull whatever units you want out of the reinforcements pool and put them on as your starting army. If you have the Viking Invasion add on you can even arrange your reinforcements to come on in whatever order you wish.