Some common questions and notices.

[Budwise]

I am sure these questions have been asked a hundred times here but the search feature doesn't work as well as I would like so please help me. I also want to note what I have noticed and see if anyone has came to the same conclusion.

1. How does trade work? I understand Trade rights but do I have to keep a ship in every water square or not?
2. I never really work too hard on religion on my first campaign, is there a point in having the pope be yours? What perks are their, will he excom you?
3. Pirate ships, why are they so strong and so many?
4. Crusades, can I start one for somewhere the pope doesn't care about?
5. Just how many troops do I have to have in a city to make happiness stay there. In the first game it was a hundred but here if I drop down they happiness goes to yellow.
6. Are alliances more worth it this time around? In the first game it was all against you and I really wanted to play with an AI faction that would be like a longterm friend instead of backstabbing a-holes.
7. Has their ever been an UberPope? Has a pope ever gone nuts and tried to take over the world? Is it even possible with all the hardcoding to see this happen?

I have a few other questions but I will post them later because to be honest, its really late for me and I am tired and I forgot them. But, does anyone have a comment on the few things I have noticed.

1. England is now Nerfed. I used to love playing England but this time around I had to quit my campaign and go for Scots because with England you have to have archers just to break even on the battlemap. After seeing the French's Lineup, I don't see how England could break out of the isles.
2. AI is still breaking alliances without reason and doing stupid things again I see. Does it even matter if I hold up my end of agreements? Will they if I do?
3. French are powerful, more powerful than the first game, right?

Thanks for any imput. Also, please put on your notes too.

[Quillan]

1) You do not need a ship every square. Sea trade is automatically handled by the computer. Each city has between 1-3 sea trade routes. Each turn, it will trade with the X most profitable cities it is capable of trading with. That can change depending on wars, blockades, and pirate fleets as well as trade rights.

2) When a new pope is elected, the pope-o-meter changes. The faction from whom the new pope came gets the greatest boost. The pope has a tendency to favor his home faction also, though that isn't automatic.

3) To cause problems for the various factions, no other reason. You can either spend money on building and maintaining a navy, or you can save that money and live with the pirates. The choice is yours.

4) Not really. There is a list that shows which cities are eligible to be a crusade target when you request one. No city off the list can be chosen.

5) This number varies. The size of the garrison results in a positive modifier to public order. It can't go higher than 80%, which requires a very numerous garrison to population ratio. Total public order is a sum of a bunch of modifiers in both directions. The larger the city, the more troops you need. You have to adjust this one on the fly during the game.

6) Yes/no/maybe. The AI betrays alliances a lot. It's better about it if you have a good reputation, a strong military, and are well liked by the faction in question, they are less likely to betray you.

7) The Pope Monster™ does occasionally show up. It's normally when the Pope winds up with more territory than just Rome, either because someone gifted land to the Papal State or because one of the neighboring factions went to war with the Pope and lost territory to him.

[dismal]

1. How does trade work? I understand Trade rights but do I have to keep a ship in every water square or not?

No need for ships to trade. Basically, you get a certain number of trade routes and the game optimizes them for you - no trade is allowed with enemies. Trade rights increase the potential value of a trade route. Building docks and higher level markets increases the number of trade routes you can have. Perhaps most importantly vs MTW1, you can trade with your own cities. Your economy will not collapse when you go to war.

2. I never really work too hard on religion on my first campaign, is there a point in having the pope be yours? What perks are their, will he excom you?

You can get away with a little more versus your fellow catholics if you have a higher pope rating. The primary reason I mess with religion is to keep unrest down. You will not get excommed unless you ignore a pope warning not to attact, I think.

3. Pirate ships, why are they so strong and so many?

CA made them that way, I guess. They tend not to be much of a factor once you can afford a real navy.

4. Crusades, can I start one for somewhere the pope doesn't care about?

If your pope meter is high enough and enough turns have passed since the last crusade, you can request the pope call a new one. (there is a button on the pope scroll) There will be a list of cities that are eligible. How cities get on this list, I do not know.

5. Just how many troops do I have to have in a city to make happiness stay there. In the first game it was a hundred but here if I drop down they happiness goes to yellow.

The garrison effect is one of many that affect a city's happiness. There's no set answer to how big a garrison you need.

6. Are alliances more worth it this time around? In the first game it was all against you and I really wanted to play with an AI faction that would be like a longterm friend instead of backstabbing a-holes.

Anyone you share a border with will probably attack you eventually. Alliances seem to slow it down some.

[Lorenzo_H]

Crusade target options are based on whether that faction has either been excommunicated or if they are a Muslim faction. Muslim faction cities have a higher chance, and particular cities which have a high chance of a Crusade are Jerusalem and Antioch. The distance from chrisendom, population of the city, threat of the owning faction and general difficulty in reaching the target all, I suspect, help in your chances apart from your popularity with the Pope.

[dumas]

AI is still breaking alliances without reason and doing stupid things again I see.

This is something I have a problem with too, especially on the water. It's crazy how randomly they block harbors. It doesn't matter if my empire and army is 3 times as big as theirs, have good relations with the said faction, my reputation good, whatever: They still want to block my port! It doesn't matter if my empire is all the way on the other side of the world and it's very unlikely that I'd ever be a threat or gain to them: They still want to block my port! I remember once I was playing an England "turtlepower" game and to my surprise, a couple of battered Egyptian ships made it all the way to London only to block my port for one turn(thus, declaring war) and sail away the next turn! WTF? At least on land, if you look intimidating enough, they don't attack. But on water, there's no controlling it.