Screenshots

[Didz]

Nice screens both.

Didz what year is that ?

1388 AD

beware of a crusade Didz.

No sign of a Crusade yet. The Pope just ordered one on Antioch which is currently held by the Mongols, who are also at war with the Timurids so it seems the Popes main focus in on the Holy Lands to the East.

Since the 1.2 patch I noticed several factions, in particular the English and Papal States sue for peace as soon as something upsets their plans. Typically, the English land an army in Northern Spain, I sink their fleet, essentially trapping them on the beach, then send a large army to destroy them and they immediately ask for a ceasefire. I grant them a ceasefire, and then they send in a fresh fleet, pick up their army and sail off in the sunset.

Likewise, the Pope has landed several armies on Sardinia laid seige to Caglian, then realised he doesn't have the men to take it and asks for a ceasefire. Once its granted he just collects his army and returns to Rome.

The other interesting thing I've noticed is that when I assassinate a French general the army he was commanding almost always turns tail and marches back to France. At first I thought the AI was just playing tricks and trying to sneak its armies out of trouble by declaring a truce but so far it really does seem withdraw its men from my lands even if it sometimes takes several turns for it to muster the ships to collect them.

[danobnano]

How much money do you have Didz?

I've started as the moors, in the first 20 turns I launched a jihad against Lisbon and sacked it, usually getting 7000 every turn, not too bad, I'm about to take Timbuktu, I'll set up mines etc.

Both Spain and Portugal have attacked Cordoba, but failed miserably.

Oh, and how do you play as the papal states?

[Didz]

How much money do you have Didz?

Depends what you mean by money, the following screen shot shows my latest End of Turn and Financial Summary. The year is 1444 AD

As you can see, not a lot of ready cash, but a pretty healthy income.

Oh, and how do you play as the papal states?

I don't think I've ever played the Papal States.

[DVX BELLORVM]

This is my first M2:TW campaign, played as English (M/M). Year is 1420.

I'm surprised by the very slow progress I'm making. When I played RTW (VH/M), I would usually finish the long Imperial campaign by this time (170 turns).

This campaign has been a constant struggle with the lack of money, numerous invasions, and interferences from the Pope. When I finally managed to get things under my control, the plague struck, living me with no money to face the invasion from Denmark and Milan. After some hard fighting, I won, taking two provinces from Milan, and forcing Denmark to became my vassals

I think this was a turning point, after that all is going well. I successfully finished the crusade to Jerusalem, made peace with Mongols and started to build a small empire on the East. I almost conquered entire Iberian peninsula and I'm about to wipe the French from the face of the Earth within the next few turns, thus winning the game.
As you can see, I had a lot of fun playing M2Tw so far...

I have a question, if you don't mind: do you also experience such a slow pace in the campaign, or is just me, due to the fact that I just started playing this game?

[Kobal2fr]

I have a question, if you don't mind: do you also experience such a slow pace in the campaign, or is just me, due to the fact that I just started playing this game?

Well, I'm no genius on the battlefield, which back in STW/MTW meant I had to be veeeery carefull planning my battles, the result of which is that I'm a really slow paced player. I don't declare war unless I'm pretty confident I'll win, and win quick at that . Plus, I like keeping small-to-medium sized armies all over the place to deal with brigands, meaning I rarely have lots of cash, which slows me down even more... so you're definitely not alone .

Besides (and that's even more true of 1.2) the AI needs quite some time to get in gear, capture the rebel provinces, build up an economy and some decent forces etc..., time I'm happy enough to give them. I know one could win a Grand Campaign by turn 30 or 40 (there was an animated .gif of an HRE grand campaign won in 12 turns IIRC) if one just rushes all over the place with mercs, but to me it's just no fun. I wanna be the plucky underdog !