0% loyalty bug?

[Deus ret.]

Thanks for your answers, everyone. I did a complete reinstall of MTW yesterday and lo: it works! Let's see whether and when this annoying bug shows up again. But in any case it means that there was some kind of flaw in the game, not in my saves. Maybe I should leave -ian out, it seems to produce some unwanted side-effects in the long run....

@Kavhan Isbul: I posted an account (which sounds rather frustrated in the retrospective) here

It's quite some time back but I remember it vividly. The hardest campaign I've played so far. I had to start over several times because I was quickly smashed to pieces and in the end I had to break my own house rules. It's essential not to let unit production stop, and to serverely punish anyone who goes to war with you (they'll all do it anyway). 'Severely punish' means invading and razing their heartland, at the very least; I did so with the Poles right in the beginning and with the Hungarians when they attacked. Seen from the aftermath, it wa a perfect action movie: whenever a given war was about to finish (i.e. turn into a stand-off), the next one started. Thus, I battled my way clock-wise through Poles, Hungarians, Venetians and Genoese; while fighting the latter the Danes attacked and were also vanquished. I know it's funnier to leave some small factions around but since everyone hates the HRE they'll attack even against all odds, and have no enemies besides you. This (and GA goals) were the reason I had to push into Southern Italy to get rid of those annoying Sicilians who can really ruin one's day with their uber-cav, as you rightly mentioned in some other thread. man I was glad when I had the first surviving set of ships in the sea squares bordering Northern Italy!

The downside is that once those chaotic chain wars cease and your position is secured, there won't happen very much from there on (mid-1150's in my case). So I added some colour to the scenario and moved the Pope to a ceasefire via -ian, enabling me to crusade again which makes things a lot more funny. So I'm sitting there, raking in GA points and waiting for the horde. It's a pity that there are no regular halbs in High but it won't be too hard anyway given all those fancy units I got in 1205 and which enjoy +3/+3 upgrades in my core provinces. Those +1v Imperial Knights from Bavaria, I tell you...! Quite unfair but then my armies aren't that big due to my still mediocre finances. all those wars eat away trading partners, now the Byz are the only significant power who trades with me.

The general pace of events on the remaining map is slow. Eastern Europe has remained the same since the Kievans swallowed the Poles. Even the Cumans just sat there for ages on their huge inland empire, doing nothing until I took Prussia and Livonia from them. there are only two wars in which I'm not involved, one is Byz vs. Seljuks, with the latter doing surprisingly well (I have a good watching spot in Palestine where interesting outremer units can be recruited) and the other is Spain vs. Aragon (with the latter being militarily inferior but nevertheless they keep three stacks in Languedoc, their sole border province with me ). The map seems just too small for two other super-powers to clash, so I guess I'll have to slug with the mighty Byz one day.

Don't know yet what I'll do with the horde. They'll likely go straight for me, and not relent until one of us is extinct. But I really don't feel like conquering all of the steppes....

Honestly, the HRE has a really hard standing but their units are also excellent and make up for a lot. I would be more interested, though, in how you carved out such a nice empire with the Pech since their units are not quite the crème de la crème, at least when I fought them....