The most enjoyable way you ever played MTW?

[marcusbrutus]

I've just recently dusted off my copy of MTW and hammered the Med playing as the Sicilians in conquest mode, early, hard. It's all fun and games at first but once I get to the point where I'm the superpower I just can't be bothered to carry on .

So... I need ideas for my next game. What's the most enjoyable way you have ever played the game? - can include rules you make yourself stick to.

I was thinking about playing as England and making my goal to conquer the holy lands - but by only having one 'real unit' in my crusading armies for every 3 units of peasants (just to keep it realistic).

[bamff]

Hi Marcusbrutus!

I think most of the rules I set for myself are similar to those of many others here....

• limit the numbers on assassins and inquisitors (preferring small teams of high valour agents rather than spamming small armies of either);
  ally with "like" factions (ie if Catholic, with Catholic - although I will confess that at times when I find myself unloved and unwanted by those of my own faith, I will accept alliances with 'non-believers');
  I always try all diplomatic avenues prior to going to war (though that rarely does anything other than allow further time for boththe AI and myself to arm up for the coming battle);
  I never hire mercs of a unit type that I can build myself; and
  I prefer to build my own faction's specific "version" of a unit type than a generic (ie if English, I'd rather build fyrdmen than other spear units, similarly if Italian, I'd go ILI over other spears).

Sorry - that's a bit bland and colourless I suppose.....

[bamff]

I would also suggest that you check out this thread....

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=74844

This one was started by Macsen Rufus...

[naut]

GA is a fun way to play, especially for turtlers like me.

[caravel]

I've just recently dusted off my copy of MTW and hammered the Med playing as the Sicilians in conquest mode, early, hard. It's all fun and games at first but once I get to the point where I'm the superpower I just can't be bothered to carry on .

So... I need ideas for my next game. What's the most enjoyable way you have ever played the game? - can include rules you make yourself stick to.

I was thinking about playing as England and making my goal to conquer the holy lands - but by only having one 'real unit' in my crusading armies for every 3 units of peasants (just to keep it realistic).

I tend to turtle the game, which makes things more interesting. I don't play GA, as I find it to restrictive. The game doesn't follow a histrorical path, so why try to achieve historical goals? I can understand why people play it but it's not for me.

Whatever you do you'll probably find yourself giving up at or before 60%. This is because total domination feels wrong and is boring to achieve. Once you're overpowered most of the map it gets very predictable towards the end.

The bloat effect can offer a way back, as can instigating a civil war or two. If your empire is large, boring and stagnating, you could train several crusades or jihads, destroy the ribat or chapter house, losing all of the crusades/jihads, and watch civil war erupt. Back the rebels and set out to regain your territory. The bloat affect, if not prepared for will drastically cut down provincial happiness/loyalty. This means that a mass of rebellions can occur. You may lose alot of provinces forcing you to have to win them back, and also faction reappearances can occur. Can make things interesting.

Also you may, or may not, find this interesting when it's finished https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=75388

[macsen rufus]

The most enjoyable way you ever played MTW?

Wait for Xmas holidays, lock all the doors, open a bottle of whiskey, choose a new faction and ignore the real world for a whole week

Okay, make that a crate of whiskey.....

[Jxrc]

I always play in GA mode.

I find that targetting only provinces that are GA goals (be it as homeland, crusade, Drang nach Oost, Holy Roman Empire, etc) and the ones adjacent to those makes a game that is a bit more realistic while letting you a chance to win on GA points.

It only works for "crusading" factions like the English, French , HRE and Italians (Imagine playing as the Danes conquering Sweden and Saxony and stopping there ..... only the AI does that ...). Tried it with Sicily lately and there is no way I could win that way since as from the Late Period you do not have any homeland point, only for conquest.

[Innocentius]

Playing as a small faction and only using crap/cheap units is a favourite of mine. My favourite is the Venetians in High XL, only using Militia Sergeants, Crossbowmen and Mounted Sergeants.

[Don Corleone]

I like to play GA goals, because you could play the whole game, never achieve 60%, and still win (or lose!). I also am big into role-playing when I play. I keep detailed notes of what's going on in each province, who my governor is, and I make up little stories as to why things are going the way they're going. I had gotten a decent start at this with the French, when the powersupply for my PC crashed.

I find it very difficult to return to a campaign after I've been away from it for more than 24 hours. Since it's just a game, why force yourself?

Right now, I'm playing at the Italians. I have some screen captures, but nothing is coming to mind, really. I think after work tonight, I'm going to start up a Holy Roman Empire campaign and really delve deep into the role-playing on that. If it doesn't come off as too cheesy, I'll post it in the 'Pics & History of your Empire' thread.

As for rules, somebody had a thread about that already. I actually will build peasants (it's historically VERY accurate, poor peasants) but I won't ever armour them or allow them to hold titles, even if they have a 5 accumen. In fact, I will only assign titles to the most technologically advanced cavalry I am capable of making at that time. As soon as I upgrade (i.e. hobilars to mounted sergeants to royal knights to feudal knights, etc) I force myself to build enough of them to give all my titles to them. I HOPE to get 3 & 4 accumen guys for those titles, but I find it much more realistic to make it a social class thing. I don't think there was much of a meritocracy in medieval Europe.

[Martok]

Well aside from what I set down in this post and this post, I also set a rule for myself to play GA mode now--as Done Corleone said, it's a different way to win without having to conquer the whole friggin' map!

With increasing frequency, I'm also starting to restrict my faction-specific units to my "homeland" provinces--being able to train Huscarles or Gazi Infantry in Ile de France has always struck me as being rather silly. (I rather wish the original game had this feature, but unfortunately you can't have everything.)

I also try to role-play my chosen faction as best I can, although only to a point: Playing as the Danes, I try to conquer Britain and the Baltic provinces. Playing as the Egyptians, I go after the Byzantines and try to be a good neighbor to my Muslim brothers....except that I really hate the Turks, so they always die no matter how friendly we are! Same thing for if I'm a Catholic faction dealing with the Sicilians--I destroy them as soon as I'm able, even if the Pope warns me off.

[marcusbrutus]

Cheers everyone - I'm going to have a play with the Pocket Mod and then mix a few of your suggestions together.

[Czar Alexsandr]

Ahhh... my last Russian campaign. I role-played my generals and kings a bit and had some good times. The first King's objective was to take Lithuanian and Livonia before the Poles took them and all the Stepee lands. He lived to see his goal accomplished and died a few yrs after I re-took Khazar from the horde.

His son, a bit slower than the rest, asscended afterwords and I worried the kingdom was doomed... U_U However he got the fast talker trait and the hard sums trait. He was actually my last Prince with any acumen to speak of. He saw Constantanople and the Orthodox Balkan reginons taken.

His son Reigned from Constantonople and saw the city developed and the Balkan regions as well. He also anhilated the Hungarians and Poles. At this point I decided I would take all Orthodox provinces to become the power of the Orthodox church.

The next son turned out to be the worst Prince I've had so far. He's a drunk and has less acumen than his grandfather the retarded Prince of Novogrod... He has become more involved with European politics. He allied himself with the Pope and has often had attacks ordered against the Germans and Italians who are both excomunicated. Fought a war to defend the Swiss from German agression only to be betrayed by the Swiss and the French. He's also seen the Almohads and the Egyptians wiped out of existince. At this point Spain had taken Iberia. France held a bit of England and it's Modren French borders. Italy is broken and the Holy Roman Empire is now just Burgundy and Bohemia.

Very fun game.. I'm dissapointed about a few things like how liberating the Orthodox in the Mid-east is so unrewarding.. but I'll try it again soon. Serriously... How come Orthodox can't recruit Armenians? They're Orthodox. And Turcopules are just Orthodox mercenaries that worked for the crusaders. How come the Orthodox can't get them? Ah well. It is still fun.