The Complete Game

[Yun Dog]

I admire your desire, and think a fair number of us share it

I believe however the game itself cannot support anything other than a blitz strategy

while winning through other means ie diplomacy, religion, agents etc - these functions are broken or have never worked (or are just made irrelevent by the behaviour of the AI).

In my recent game VH 1.2 vanilla as the danes

I thought Id play a non-aggressive alliance/religion game

However constant war with my neighbours as well as constant blockading and constant invasion by england and scotland (every 3 turns - kind of kills the immersion - ALOT)

I was going broke - fast

so the AI with its kill the player at all cost strat - forced me to expand to stay in the black, and then well - the remainder of the game is a forgone conclusion - sing along *just keep blitzing - keep blitzing*

you can try other strats but your subtlties will be lost on the game engine and at some point the 'attack at all costs AI' will snuff out any flame of immersion you mightve been sheltering

basically all the elements are there but until there is a serious reworking of how the AI behaves - they are just window dressing

[Didz]

Thats the main reason I choose to play the Short Campaigns rather than the take 45 region's option.

I've found with the limited objectives of the Short Campaign, not only is the game more challenging in that ones objectives are focussed, but that it is possible to use diplomatic and political means to fend off those factions who might otherwise be intent on your destruction.

For , example in my Venetian campaign I was able to fend of the hostile attentions of the French for the entire game by a combination of Papal intervention and massed assassination.

The biggest problem at that time was always the reluctance of AI factions to make peace, which severely reduced ones trade income. However, since the 1.2 patch ceasefires seem to be a more frequent occurance. In my Moorish game both England and the Papal States have conducted repeated landings on Moorish territory, laid seige, then lifted the seige and sued for peace before collecting and removing their army from my beach. I've even escorted these armies to the beach to make sure they get on the boats safely.

This has not been consistently true, in that, whilst the English and Papal States seemed willing to negotiate the Sicilians persistently refused to accept any ceasefire despite having no greater success.

The behaviour of the English and Papal does seem a bit cyclic but at least it means that between cycles I'm getting some trade income out of these factions.