Small is beautiful - and potentially fatal
Nearly kicked the bucket last night. Not physically thank God, but M:TW-wise.
I was happily turtling along in my Expert Sicilian GA campaign. The year was 1280. Apart from Sicily, Malta, Napels, Sardinia, Corsica and Genoa, I had about 25 countries spread in a crescent from Castile through Africa to Antioch, plus Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Muscovy.
With all my Crusade goals fulfilled, I had over 1 million in the bank, a big well-balanced fleet, well-built provinces, a robust dynasty and a nice, tight high-tech army ready to strike at a moment's notice. The Mongols had come and gone (twice in fact, since they re-emerged in Lithuania) and it seemed that soon only the French would be left to oppose me. They had most of central Europe and a large chunk of Turkey.
I was working on the philosophy that small is beautiful, so I had small (though fully upgraded) armies, lots of ships and only a handful of agents. This minimal mode seemed to work fine because I had the best of everything. I had conquered the Italian province of Genoa after killing their 4-star general with my 6-star assassin, attacking them with a hand-picked army that was geared precisely to the Italian army-composition, and forcing a ceasefire before the Pope got his skirts in a twist.
Because of my minimal approach, I had no idea what was going on in the European mainland. I was not discouraged by the occasional message that the French had the largest armies. That was the whole idea, right? And they couldn't pin me down because of my naval superiority.
Then I noticed that the French were going into attack mode and began moving troops and ships in readiness for a strike on several fronts. They had the typical AI-fleet that is no good for trade and only serves blocking purposes; and it was moving into all the right blocking positions in straits and channels.
So I thought I would gamble and attack them first. The Pope was a long-standing ally and I hoped he would support me because of all I had done for the Church. I moved my fleet into all the right positions, too, and attacked the French fleet 'by surprise'. I sank a few, lost a few, the Pope kept his cool and merely cancelled his treaty with the French. I had the green light! So much for turn one.
On the next turn however, the French unleashed this GIANT army, coming from the center of Europe and stretching all the way to Denmark and Muscovy. It was as if the whole of central Europe had been a clearinghouse for French six-star generals, chivalric sergeants, Culverins, trebuchets and fancy horses. Hard to believe that they could build this monster on a no-trade budget, but there you had it: at least 25.000 troops of all shades, all ready to go for my throat under loads of Jedi generals.
It took me five turns and some horrendous defensive battles deep into the night, as well as some real strategic thinking and calculating with cold sweat on my brow, before I was safe again.
And then the Hungarians, the weakest faction left on the board, killed the heirless French king and turned them all into rebels. Easy as that.
Most of these rebel asses will be mine, but nonetheless... this was the first time in years that I was really strategically threatened by the AI and I feared I would get the game over' sign.
Great game, M:TW.
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, I spanked the Byz in several provinces and found they had stretched themselves thin, though I am sure they have plenty of troops that have retreated before my expanding armies
. Unfortunately, I am hardly 1 million to the good, more like close to going in the hole. But, MTW, gotta love it when the AI throws you for a loop.
Originally Posted by Caerfanan
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