New To Medieval Total War

[CybrGamr]

After obtaining some tips from the users here and perusing a few threads, I put in another evening's play - this time as Spain on easy with the Early period. Spain was much easier to manage than Egypt (not as much territory). I do have a couple of questions:

1. I received multiple marriage requests - should I accept all of them? Some of them? None of them? If only some, which ones?
2. I also received numerous treaty requests - how many of these should I accept? Is it bad, in game terms, to accept one and then later attack an ally?
3. I attacked into Aragorn (I believe) and received a warning from the Pope to leave within two years. Should I listen to his warning and get out? What will happen if I stay?

I appreciate all the help here - this is quite an in-depth game...

[Eltharon]

1+2) Breaking Alliances (marrying and treaties--same basic thing) lowers your leaders influence, iirc. So accept the ones you dont plan on attacking or dont want to attack you, refuse the others.
3) You'll get excommunicated if you keep attacking. Not sure about what happens if you don't abandon the provinces. You might want to save and find out, though its probably the same thing.
It'll decrease loyalty throughout all your provinces and leave you open to crusades. It's best to let them attack you if possible so they will be the agressors and therefore subject to excommunication instead.

[Sensei Warrior]

1. I received multiple marriage requests - should I accept all of them? Some of them? None of them? If only some, which ones?

The general agreement is to accept all of them. It can get hard to get your heirs married off so the sooner the better, and take what you can get, and all that. Although I personally won't accept a marriage proposal from a faction that I am about to attack as it will cause you to ally with them.

2. I also received numerous treaty requests - how many of these should I accept? Is it bad, in game terms, to accept one and then later attack an ally?

This seems to be a personal perference sort of thing and most players tend to have personal guidelines that affext their decisions. For example, if I'm playing a Catho Faction then I won't ally with a Muslim one. If you do attack an ally I believe your ruler will suffer a drop in influence.

3. I attacked into Aragorn (I believe) and received a warning from the Pope to leave within two years. Should I listen to his warning and get out? What will happen if I stay?

If you don't do something the pope will excommunicate you which is bad. You could either wrap up conquering the provence the very next turn, or retreat from the provence. If you retreat or the faction you attacked has more than one provence you cannot attack that provence for the next 10 years.

I appreciate all the help here - this is quite an in-depth game

No sweat, I like adding my 2 cents. You will be finding out the little quirks in this game for a long, long time.

[Specialist290]

One "cheat" regarding the Papal warning is that if you get one warning, then you won't get one for attacking another faction until the first wears off, so you can attack one as a "distraction," then back off and go for your true target and only worry about whether your army can beat their army. It isn't exactly an "honorable" tactic, but whether you use it or not is entirely up to you. (Personally I have never intentionally done this, though I may have ended up in the situation where I've attacked two factions and only been warned for one before.)

Also, the Pope will only issue the warning if you control significantly more territory than the other faction--I think it's 2x more provinces than your opponent, but don't take my word for it unless someone more experienced can vouch for the figure as well.

All of that, of course, goes out the window if either you or your target is non-Catholic.

[Martok]

After obtaining some tips from the users here and perusing a few threads, I put in another evening's play - this time as Spain on easy with the Early period. Spain was much easier to manage than Egypt (not as much territory). I do have a couple of questions:

Hey CybrGamr, glad you to see you made it here from the Entrance Hall. I'll answer your questions as best I may, specifically in regards to the Spanish (since I'm more familiar with them than most factions).

1. I received multiple marriage requests - should I accept all of them? Some of them? None of them? If only some, which ones?

First of all, make sure you pay attention to whether the faction's emissary is asking to marry a prince or a princess.

Getting your princes married off is crucial, as they provide future heirs. (In addition, marrying another faction's princess gives you a small chance of inheriting that faction's lands should it ever die out.) So if an emissary is offering their princess to your king (if he's still unmarried) or one of your sons, then it's generally wise to accept. The only exception to this rule (as the others already pointed out) is if you plan on going to war with that faction in the very near future.

Marrying one of your princesses to another faction, however, has fewer benefits--all it does is form an alliance with that faction. Whenever I have an unmarried princess available, I first check to see if I have an important generals or governor that could use a loyalty boost. If his loyalty is 5 or less, I'll marry my princess to him first. Only if all of my generals/governors are of sufficient loyalty will I then allow her to marry into another faction.

2. I also received numerous treaty requests - how many of these should I accept? Is it bad, in game terms, to accept one and then later attack an ally?

Your king will lose Influence for attacking an ally, so again, don't ally with anyone you intend on going to war with in the next few years. Many players (such as Sensei Warrior and myself) also like to roleplay--as the Spanish, I personally never make alliances with any of the Muslim factions (especially the Almohads!). The main rule, though, is to just make sure you don't ally with someone if you think you're going to be invading them soon.

3. I attacked into Aragorn (I believe) and received a warning from the Pope to leave within two years. Should I listen to his warning and get out? What will happen if I stay?

The rule of thumb is that if you can eliminate the faction the very next turn, then you'll avoid being excommed. If you can't eliminate the faction, however, then you probably want to back off.

1st example (Aragon is the only province the Aragonese own): In this case, you can avoid the excommunication by assaulting Barcelona castle immediately. If you're successful in doing so, the Args will cease to exist as a faction, so you'll be fine.

2nd example (The Aragonese own more than one province, but their king and all his heirs are stuck in Aragon when you invade): If you manage to kill the king and his princes in battle, and/or during the next turn in the castle siege, you'll still be fine. (Any remaining Aragonese provinces will now go rebel, since their royal line was wiped out.)

3rd example (The Aragonese own more than one province, and at least one of the princes is in the other province): In this case, you will get excommed by the Pope if you continue your attack, as the Arogonese will still continue to exist as a faction (since at least one the royals will have survived your initial invasion).

EDIT: Keep what Specialist290 just said in mind: If a Catholic faction has twice as many provinces as another Catholic faction, the bigger faction will get the Papal warning.

[Sensei Warrior]

3rd example (The Aragonese own more than one province, and at least one of the princes is in the other province): In this case, you will get excommed by the Pope if you continue your attack, as the Arogonese will still continue to exist as a faction (since at least one the royals will have survived your initial invasion).

Good call Martok I forgot about that one.

[CybrGamr]

I just sepnt a bit more time with the Spanish. I like this area because it is self contained for the most part and easy to manage.

I have some questions regarding trade and resources. What do you need to do to start pulling income via trade? Take Castile for example. Provides Silk and Iron. In order to trade silk, do I need to first create a merchant and then a port? Once I have these, do I need to do something else to promote the income (alliances, etc)? How to I derive any income from iron?

I ask this because I noticed this evening I ran out of cash about 25 turns in. I was building every turn in all provinces. I had taken the whole area from Aragon down to Granada. I had to slow up all production because of a lack of cash.

Thanks again for the advice...

[bamff]

Hi CybrGamr (funny, just when I typed that, I thought to myself "I wonder if that's a Welsh name....sorry - I'm full of random thoughts!)

There are some good threads on trade to check up on (there is an excellent one called "MTW economics 101 condensed edition", under "MTW Guides"), but the basics are as follows: you need a merchant, a port, and you need your ships to create a link between your trade port and another trade port. The link will be broken if any enemy ship occupies a bit of ocean along the trade route.

So for example, if you have a port in Leon, and ships in all sea sectors up to the English channel, your port will trade with each and every other faction port that is on one of these coastal seas.

Also, the more you upgrade your merchant facilities, the greater your trade income.

Hope that is of some help to you!

[Martok]

You have to have a Port and a Trading Post or higher (Merchant, Merchant's Guild, etc.). Then you need to have at least one ship in every sea region between your "home" port and whichever port(s) you wish to trade with. Bamff's example

So for example, if you have a port in Leon, and ships in all sea sectors up to the English channel, your port will trade with each and every other faction port that is on one of these coastal seas.

is a good illustration of what we're talking about.

As for iron, it cannot be mined like silver and gold can. What iron does is allow you to build a Metalsmith (and its upgrades) in that particular province, which gives all units trained there an attack bonus. It's very handy for the Spanish in their wars against the Almohads, especially since it's ill-advised for any unit (Catholic or no) to wear heavy armour in the desert!

[macsen rufus]

It's all good advice above, although in the early part of the game if offered a princess, I tend more to a policy of "grab the totty now, let the diplomacy sort itself out later", on the grounds that princesses are worth having regardless of the alliances - ie you can have your heir breeding before he reaches the throne, so can get a good bloodline up and running. Let's face it, most allies you have at any given time will not be the allies you have in 30, 40, 50 years time. There's time enough in the later game for reading those "There are no available foreign princesses so your King has decided to shack up with a commoner" messages.....

I second Martok on the use of my own princesses - they are really handy for those disloyal generals and governors! Although they do act as emissaries if the faction you want to ally to has no unmarried heirs.

Regarding excommunication the few points I would add are: once excommunicated you can't crusade yourself (but a crusade already underway is unaffected); other Catholic factions can crusade against you; your king loses influence and rebellions can occur (you get a message about the rebels being unhappy about their leader being excommunicated...) On the plus side, once you are excommunicated the Pope has no more sanction over you, so it can "free you up" to have a few wars with other Catholics You get recommunicated when either the Pope or your king dies.

[gunslinger]

RE: Papal Warning

If you already have a castle under seige when you get the warning, then you are safe to assault it on the next turn regardless of whether the faction has other provinces, heirs, etc. Remember, the Pope gives you 2 years to get your troops out of the enemy's lands. If you conquer the castle in one year, then it's now your land, not the enemy's, and you will be fine.

[naut]

You get recommunicated when either the Pope or your king dies.

Which is easy to arrange.

[bamff]

It's all good advice above, although in the early part of the game if offered a princess, I tend more to a policy of "grab the totty now, let the diplomacy sort itself out later", on the grounds that princesses are worth having regardless of the alliances - ie you can have your heir breeding before he reaches the throne, so can get a good bloodline up and running.

Put truly eloquently Macsen - and sage advice indeed! I hate it when all is going well and you suddenly have a king die with no heir!