Out of Character thread

[GeneralHankerchief]

Well, you were in Staufen but now you're with Prinz Henry besieging Metz.

[Ignoramus]

Ok, and just one more thing. Apart from the patch, what mods are we using?

[TinCow]

OOC response: I don't think I have any control over what settlements the computer picks to block the queue in when there's a lack of funds.

That's because you've got them all queued up in advance. If you only purchase the buildings when production finishes, you won't have that problem. Then when that occurs and you have 2 cities that need new construction, but can only afford it for 1 of them, you prioritize the Bavarian cities. I know it's a pain in the ass, welcome to politics!

[GeneralHankerchief]

That's because you've got them all queued up in advance. If you only purchase the buildings when production finishes, you won't have that problem. Then when that occurs and you have 2 cities that need new construction, but can only afford it for 1 of them, you prioritize the Bavarian cities. I know it's a pain in the ass, welcome to politics!

Ah, all right.

*grumbles* I thought this would have been a nice, easy, low-maintenance Chancellorship too...

EDIT: Ig, we're using a small mod that fixes some Vice-and-Virtues traits. Check back a page or two for the full details.

[Zomby_Woof]

Hey, I don't remember if any of you remember me. But I took part in some RTW: BI PBMs a long time ago. Is it too late to get involved in this?

[Lucjan]

Nah, it's never too late, we just got started.

[econ21]

Ignoramus - I've put details of the mod in the first post. It's medifix 1.2.

I agree with TinCow about build queues - just because a governor wants something doesn't mean the Chancellor should actually put in the queue in game; if it's too expensive, just build nothing in the governor's settlement. There's a pretty hard budget constraint in the early game and part of being Chancellor is picking out the best investments. Farms, ports and barracks that enable free militia are good economic investments early on. In my early games, I focus on one or two castles to get high tech troops but tend to let the towns sit idle apart from economic investments.

Welcome, Zomby_Woof. The House of Franconia could use a Fourth Elector, are you interested?

Details of players and houses are now kept in the first post of this thread:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=77311

[Lucjan]

I have to argue against farms being a good early investment, but I've already made that point in the governor's reports section.

EDIT - Has it been two turns yet since Hamburg fell? I could post the construction queue for the castle then.

[econ21]

I have to argue against farms being a good early investment, but I've already made that point in the governor's reports section.

I have not found loyalty a big problem in homeland cities - maybe it is more of a constraint in occupied ones? But to be honest, it's mainly castles that I was thinking of, with the population growth rather than the economic growth being my main motivation for advocating farms.

Question: is Hamburg a castle? If so, do we need three castles? Or should it become a city? A coastal city may be lucrative.

EDIT - Has it been two turns yet since Hamburg fell? I could post the construction queue for the castle then.

GeneralHankerchief, it might be good housekeeping to edit your first post in the Chancellor's reports thread to include list your appointments. e.g.

MILITARY

Knighted this term

None yet, but Sigismund soon?

Army Commanders (major victories) - nb requires stack of 7+

Deitrich von Saxony - question: do we need to "dismiss" army commanders if they no longer have a stack of 7+? I proposed that originally, but now I don't think it's necessary. They would retain the +1 influence anyway, so what's the point? Maybe it's only Field Marshalls, who have their "own" named army that we need worry about dismissing?

CIVIC

Governors

List of settlements and current governors
Dietrich no longer governor of Frankfurt, but now of Hamburg? NB: His build queue for Frankfurt still stands until the mid-term (like everyone else's).

Settlements allocated to Houses this term

Are Hamburg and Bologna still imperial?

Counts created this term

None yet?

Dukes created this term

Is Dietrich married to Agnes yet?

[Lucjan]

In regards to three castles, I have to say absolutely yes. To expect Franconia to have wait multiple turns in the event that they would need to rely on Swab and Bavarian soldiery to provide strong reinforcements or cavalry to a depleted force in the north would be placing the north in some serious risk. <--- (blatant display of House loyalties mixed with logic )

If anything I think it would be wiser to advocate turning Metz into a city, building a fort on our side of the river crossing south of Metz, and keeping our western border with France secure that way. It's really not necessary to have three castles in such close proximity to each other and Swabia could use the income.

Can't remember right now if Florence is a city or a castle.

If Magdeburg can be voted for as an acquisition in the next diet and several turns spent on bringing it moderately up to date in regards to military infrastructure, I'll advocate turning Magdeburg into Franconia's key fortress and turning Hamburg into a city. But Hamburg sits at too important of a location for Franconia to turn it into a city right now. Coastal or not, it's our key block against the Danes, it's the only castle in the north that won't take us 4-5 turns to get troops from, and we can always switch to more cross-compatible pursuits (like ports, churches, etc) in the meantime of bringing Magdeburg up to speed with its military infrastructure. Then we can make the switch afterwards.

[pevergreen]

I say that you give Austria a huge army and let us run rampant.

[Ignoramus]

Surely it would make more sense to change Staufen to a city and keep Metz as a border castle on the French border. However, as Staufen is already a Wooden Castle, I would not like to limit the Swabian forces.

[Lucjan]

My reasoning behind keeping Swabia as the castle and turning Metz into the city is simple. Current infrastructure and cost effectiveness, as well as proximity to our core.

Staufen is already significantly more developed as a military structure than Metz, and still close enough to the river crossing I'm talking about that changing it to a city and spending the money to rebuild everything that is in Staufen, later in Metz simply isn't worth the time or the money. Having a castle on your direct border isn't always cost effective when a simple fort could do the same defensive job and the castle is a short enough distance away to receive reinforcements with little difficulty. Moving the castle to Metz would also place any potential help that could need to go east or north even further away than it already is. That's not really an appealling prospect.

Just my two cents.

By the way, short little epilogue of the Hamburg battle now up for reading in the Short Stories thread.

[Ignoramus]

It's a good write-up. I hope that I'll get to fight a battle soon. But if the Burgundians sally forth from Metz econ21 will get the battle, so I guess I will have to wiat for a while.

[OverKnight]

I'm not sure if anyone has stumbled on this, but Generals like Max, Dietrich, and Otto can be Men of the Hour and accepted into the family tree. I'm playing my own test bed game off of the original save and Otto fought some Swiss Pikemen brigands, dispatched them and I got the man of the hour screen after the battle. At first I was confused because the army already had a leader, but then I realized that Otto himself was up for adoption as MotH:



So there's more than one way for Generals to become real boys.

Edit: As for conversion of castles to cities or vice versa, should that be voted on in the Diet, up to a governor (if applicable), or the Chancellor's decision after hearing petitions from involved parties?

2nd Edit: Also another reason for caution when adopting is that I think each family member has four slots for kids, and if they are filled with adoptees then the family member can't have biological kids. Just a thought.

[Lucjan]

Staufen is the property of Swabia, and Swabia can decide what to do with it as it pleases. Metz has not yet been conquered or allocated to a house yet, but assuming it's given to Swabia, then the Swabian governors of Staufen and Metz decide how to develop the settlement.

EDIT - Basically cities and castles are the property of the Ducal House they belong to, and can't be touched by anyone but the governor.

[econ21]

The castle vs city issue is rather a big one to leave to a 10 turn governor. Perhaps the Duke of the House owning it (or the Chancellor, if it is not assigned) should have a veto on it?

Also, on adoptions and marriages - players should be able to give the Chancellor standing orders for whether to accept or reject candidates (e.g. no more adoptees!). We can't let them scrutinise individual candidates though - the player (Chancellor) has to decide immediately when offered; the game does not save the offers and it would slow things down too much even if it did. While we still have players without avatars, though, I would be fairly liberal about accepting new generals etc.

It's interesting that Otto could get adopted. The Chancellor might want to bear that in mind when assigning commands - I'd like to see Otto and Maximillan join the family tree.

[Ituralde]

I agree with Lucjan that the development of cities and or castles falls into the jurisdiction of the Houses. Of course the Emperor or Chancellor or even other Electors can try to influence them, but not more.

Also concerning Hamburg, has it been officially assigned to the House of Franconia yet? Just wondering, as it seems obvious but I haven't read anything about it yet and settlemenst were supposed to be allocated upon conquest.

[OverKnight]

5.3 The Emperor can allocate settlements to one of the Four Houses.

You're right, it doesn't mention the timing of allocations. It's completely up to the Kaiser. I think assigning territories on conquest could be a little boring. Let the houses twist in the wind a bit, argue for possession, make threats, make promises and when the Kaiser has good reason he can make a decision, if at all. It's more fun that way.

Edit: I'm quoting Econ21

It's interesting that Otto could get adopted. The Chancellor might want to bear that in mind when assigning commands - I'd like to see Otto and Maximillan join the family tree.

I can just see it now. "Otto, my boy, take these two units of peasants and go fight that full stack of Timurids, if you survive I might consider you for adoption."

[econ21]

...settlemenst were supposed to be allocated upon conquest.

Not necessarily - conquest is when they fall into the Emperor's lap, but he does not need to get rid of them immediately. The main effect of allocating settlements to Houses is to allow the creation of Counts, but as Franconia has no avatars who could become Counts (Dietrich is already a Duke or equivalent), that's not a pressing matter for her.

[Ituralde]

4.3 The Emperor controls the initial allocation of settlements (e.g. upon conquest).

I misread the text above. Sorry for that and I totally agree that the assignment is much more fun if the Houses can squabble for them in the Diet.

[pevergreen]

Hmmm. I could send a spy, and steal the settlement

[TinCow]

Any chance of getting the Library stickied? Since I rarely add posts to it, it will continue to fall off the main page, even though it's being updated regularly. It includes links to all KOTR threads, so it's a good place to find anything KOTR related.

[Braden]

Just a quick note: attempting to download the Medfix mod but the link from the download page doesn’t appear to be working. I’ll attempt it from Home but I suspect I may need another mirror.

[Dutch_guy]

Any chance of getting the Library stickied? Since I rarely add posts to it, it will continue to fall off the main page, even though it's being updated regularly. It includes links to all KOTR threads, so it's a good place to find anything KOTR related.

Good job on that, by the way. Looks great

[Zomby_Woof]

I'll go ahead and take the Fourth Elector role in Franconia. I better go get myself up-to-date now..

[econ21]

Just a holding note to say that I've had a call from GH to take Metz, but I only found out late at night so it will have to wait for tomorrow evening. I confess I've been guiltily bunking off Total War and enjoying Civ4 Warlords. While Total War are fantastic historical wargames, Civ has this terrible addictive "one more turn" quality. I try to avoid it, as it's ultimately rather an empty experience, but I have strayed yet again. I feel dirty - rather like Hugh Grant cheating on Liz Hurley by going with that LA call girl.

[Ignoramus]

Please be careful with Sigismund. I don't want him to get killed in petty street fighting. Buit also make sure he plays a part in the capture of the castle.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Please be careful with Sigismund. I don't want him to get killed in petty street fighting. Buit also make sure he plays a part in the capture of the castle.

I wouldn't be too worried. Our force is nearly double that of Metz's, and I believe that the only infantry is of very low quality.

[Ignoramus]

Oh I know that, but I've had experiences with MTW2 where generals have been killed charging into the rear of units.