Quote Originally Posted by macsen rufus
I did ally to the monophysite heretics of the Eastern Church

I had to look up the entry on 'monophysite' when I encountered it, quite recently.

For anyone who ever prided themself on posessing what they thought to be an above-average vocabulary, encountering any entirely new word for the first time, decades after leaving full-time education, comes as a shock.

After spending little more than an hour, browsing various Wiki articles, I'd clocked up half a dozen similar shocks... ;)


Anyway, this came about as a result of reading the Wiki article on the Byzantines which, in turn was caused by me returning to MTW:VI after a hiatus of 14 months or so (I've similarly been away from the forum without so my as a 'back later' notice, for which I apologize).

Seeing that word again, in your post, raised a wry smile.


I was interested to see your role-playing 'rules'. Currently I'm playing an English campaign, which I'd left dangling since approx. November '05. Whilst I can't vouch for what I did during that phase, since the re-start, I've been applying similar ideas. Churches built regardless of whether troops are going to be built there; bishops by the dozen, everywhere but on home soil...

I don't think I've been excommed at all in this campaign. I never did have the forces required to take on the French but a series of civil wars led to them self-destructing (young, heirless King) and I mopped up the shattered remains. Aragon & Navarre were taken in part one and I forget whether I got XC'd for that (they might have similarly gone extinct first). The Spanish let me be (alliance?) but got totally wiped out by a big Almo re-emergence whilst otherwise preoccupied with grabbing HRE enclaves in North Africa. The Almos rashly knobbled half my trade with a naval attack, yet neglected to blockade the northern seas and have recently paid the ultimate price... The Eggies have reached Morocco and also hold Asia Minor, bar a couple of left overs from a recent civil war. The HRE are all along my eastern borders but still neutral to me.

Three high-quality stacks of Sicilians in Provence were a long-standing thorn in the side - I could only afford 1 to 2 stacks in each of Aquitaine, Anjou and Burgundy. Their share of civil wars slowly eroded those numbers and getting themselves X-C'd eventually led to a HRE crusade winning it. All the while I could only stand by and watch this unfold because the Sicilians had those 'uncatchable' Dromons keeping me honest - in all the right places to interfere with whichever of my trade routes the Almos weren't blocking.

It's odd how the naval AI control will either be effective at making trading routes but fail to blockade thouroughly (Almos) or else be effective at maintaining the threat of blockade whilst failing to make functioning trade routes (Sicilians)...


M