KotR Out of character thread VI

[FactionHeir]

Considering that Austria is the main force for expansion eastwards (although Franconia has been doing that so far mainly) and most of the world we can expand towards is in the east, you'd expect people to want to sign up for Austria :p

[FactionHeir]

I just had a look at the save and noticed something that also was the second piece of the puzzle I needed to confirm the exact origin of a hardcode trait bug. For details, check my latest post in the buglist.

As for what this means for this PBM, Peter von Kastilien came of age with a total negative piety that the game hardcode couldn't understand during creation and made it an overall positive permanently by giving +2 piety. As such, we can currently see the avatar with total 2 piety, which should be 0 (he does have ReligionStarter L1 and the tutor ancillary giving +4 piety total)
Now, since the hardcode gave him a permanent boost, we cannot remove it in any simple way. I can however recode a currently unused trait to subtract 2 piety as long as the trait is carried (which for him should be as long as he lives). Any objections?

[TinCow]

Does he have the default 3 piety that all avatars should get on spawn? We had a period of time when new avatars did not receive this default level of piety (see Gerhard Steffen). If Peter von Kastilien does not have the default 3 piety, I say leave him be.

[FactionHeir]

He does have the default piety. The only 2 who don't at the moment are Steffen and Günther I think.

[edit]
TC, I almost thought Günther had lost his somehow, but it seems the last few screens you took of him (since 1180) lack two traits: IndecisiveAttacker and PublicAtheism. In 1220 he has 1 level in either. Before 1220 he had 2 levels in the former and 1 in the latter.

[Northnovas]

I do think Austria is getting a bit overcrowded when it gets it's 3 new electors. Compare it to Franconia, which only has 3, 1 of which is on Crusade.

There is a bit of irony in that statement and I was wondering if it would ever be true with 4 Electors and 1 Avatar since the start. I am sure the house and avatar will balance out. I would think any new player would want an avatar to play and not be concern about the House. However, the House of Austria does rock!

[TinCow]

I am personally very pleased to see Austria as the new 'in' House. All the others have had their turn as the House of the moment and it's nice that Austria finally has the avatars to be able to reward their extremely patient players.

[econ21]

I have a dumb question about Edict 9.3: if we reinforce an AI faction in a land battle, do we get to fight the battle manually or is it an autoresolve? This is a technical question about how M2TW works, not a question about what we would choose if given the choice.

I'll vote yes to the Edict on the assumption that we get the chance to fight manually; if it is autoresolve, I'll change my vote to no as I don't trust the autoresolve with our precious avatars.

BTW: on Edict 9.4, we have a spy right outside Stockholm (I wanted to see what kind of son wants to kill his own father). If the edict passes, someone could write a spy story straight away.

[StoneCold]

I think it is still we are fighting it maually, but that is from RTW in the intro battle, with Juli reinforcing the Senate army. I think I fought one or two in SP campaign too. But no experience in M2TW.

[TinCow]

It is a manual battle. It's easiest to achieve by finding an allied army in enemy territory and ending your turn next to that army or a target you think that army will attack (riskier ending it away form the allied army, as you might get attacked instead without reinforcement). Another option is to sit next to an enemy army that is besieging an allied town (be adjacent to the town too). That way you become reinforcements to the ally on both a siege assault and a sally. I'm not sure if you get a reputation improvement if you start the battle to relieve a siege of an allied town, but for the purposes of that edict (which I wrote) I would say that would also qualify, even if it didn't result in a reputation improvement.

Ideally, I'd like to see this become a common thing for the Reich. Sending armies out to help our allies in their wars is a good way to have interesting battles, get generals traits, and induce roleplaying without further expanding the Empire.

[AussieGiant]

I whole heartedly agree TC

[StoneCold]

btw, should you guys be trying to get a Military access in order to help the ally? So as not to worsen relationship while helping them?

[FactionHeir]

StoneCold has a point there. But with our reputation at some ~ -0.3, that will be quite difficult.
And we get to fight the battle whether it is captain-led or general-led, but according to our charter, we only fight it if it is general-led

[Stig]

Which is one of the reasons I voted against it. Not only do I think our own wars are far more important, I also think it's more or less impossible. What we can do is try to get an MA with our best ally and hope he has someone to fight.

If the Edict gets through tho I'll be first to volunteer for the job

[TinCow]

Military access is a boon, but it depends entirely on the circumstances. We don't need military access to help allied armies in enemy territory, such as the English army near Antwerp. Of course, military access with our allies should be a priority and it is actually achievable with 1.2. Aiding an ally in battle is actually easiest at sea. Just keep a ship or two next to an allied fleet near enemy waters.

Obviously it is still an autoresolve if it is a captain led army, but I can't imagine we'll have a lack of volunteers to lead any army.

[FactionHeir]

Get yourself knighted and I'll send you somewhere ;)

[FactionHeir]

Oh, btw. I just uploaded version 1.25 of KOTRfix:

http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/KOTRfix125.rar

Please update if you intend to fight battles/take screens

[Stuperman]

Hey Hey the org is back!

I couldn't get to it most of yesterday, going to vote now.

[StoneCold]

FH, I think Stig's avatar is knighted already at the multiple battle outside Krakow.

[FactionHeir]

I know, I was referring to TC's avatar ;)

[StoneCold]

hhahah, ok. Btw, is there a list of the avatars joining the crusade somewhere out there?

[FactionHeir]

Not that I can see. Might be a good idea for people to post that.

Btw OK you need to appoint counts for the various settlements in Outremer still and those do the build queues, no?

Also, I'm going to hope OK does not end up being besieged by Mongols within Aleppo.

[Stuperman]

as steward I believe those are my duties, no?

build ques will be up tonight (8-10 hours) and there's not many people in Bavaria to name count....Sailler is count of Nurmeburg...lothar isn't knighted yet, Gerhard is steward, and Otto is king of outremer.

[OverKnight]

Avatars are thin on the ground in Outremer at the moment.

I can't appoint the Kaiser to a position, Elberhard is currently quasi-unassigned, the possible Crusaders near Ragusa haven't left Europe yet (can't assign counties to avatars in Europe), I don't know if Hans is returning, and I offered Acre to Hummel, but he never wrote back and instead proposed his own legislation.

I'd love to assign the counties, but I currently have no candidates. I will fill the ranks once the new Crusade has hit Outremer.

Edit: Not to be cowardly, but I'd rather face mongols behind walls than in a flat desert landscape. Aleppo is a Citadel, it would be an interesting battle if they tried to take it. Remember, Otto is a night fighter he can cut the odds down a bit.

[FactionHeir]

Thanks for the info OK, was just wondering.

Stuperman: was worried about the queues in Outremer, not Bavaria. You can take your time with those till say 9 hours after elections close. Won't get to play till then anyway since I'll be in a meeting before that. So basically 8pm UK time tomorrow.

[Stuperman]

OOPS! sorry, I mis-read your post.

[econ21]

On the crusade, I asked for volunteers towards the end of Henry's period in office and the following people stepped forward: Conrad Salier, Duke Leopold and Fredericus von Hamburg. So they should definitely go. I am not sure about AussieGiant, but his avatar is in the right place if he wants to crusade. Other interested players should declare asap - we are racing the Mongols to Damascus, AFAIK, and the main stack should not hang around.

There is also a gaggle of non-player avatars around Zagreb that I brought to be available in the east. It might be good to bring at least a couple as Otto and Henry will be gone soon, and Leopold is no spring chicken either.

I planned to launch the crusade within Zagreb province, as then we will get the option of recruiting crusader sergeants. Given the number of avatars and troops, it might be worth considering two separate crusading stacks. But Austria (esp. Budapest & Ragusa) also needs defending and its army is stuck far from home besieging Thessalonica.

[FactionHeir]

Unless Pharnakes comes forward you'll be taking Elberhard then? Or Dassel?

So best would be to take along a spare Bavarian avatar and a spare Austrian one, yes?

[TinCow]

Unless the Crusade delays departure for several turns, there are no Bavarian avatars to spare. Not that big a deal though, since Conrad is still pretty young.

[FactionHeir]

If Leopold's edict passes, I'll be sending it off right away and have the second stack follow with at most 1 turn delay. Actually I'll have to check on how many ships we got or the second stack will end up having to walk the landroute for a long while. Might even have to have a crusade with mainly generals and a few infantry if not enough ships are there.

I figure Austria will have to leave 2 or so knighted avatars behind to defend its borders against Hungary, or take Sofia. Are you going on crusade TC?

[econ21]

Unless Pharnakes comes forward you'll be taking Elberhard then? Or Dassel?

I am not sure. Dassel is too old and role-playing the lewd Elberhard may jeopardise my moderator position. I had been thinking about taking a Franconian avatar - that House seems the most stretched currently, but I'll see how things look when Henry dies.

So best would be to take along a spare Bavarian avatar and a spare Austrian one, yes?

Maybe a young von Hamburg and a young von Mahren?