What's your style of play?

[Martok]

This poll is just for fun, really. I know the question has been asked many times before.

So how do you guys generally prefer to play your campaigns? Are you a reckless warmonger, conquering the map as fast as humanly possible? Are you more focused on having a compact kingdom, building up slowly and only pouncing on opportunities for conquest if they're blindingly obvious? Are you more of an "in-betweener", balancing between conquest and internal development? Or something else entirely?

Set aside the fact that some factions in MTW are more suited to "rushing", and that other factions are more suited to "turtling" -- everyone here is well aware of that. All things being equal, what's your general style of play?

[Noir]

The faction i play usually determines the style (location-neighbours-roster etc); furthermore i play my campaigns in the home mini-mod of MedMod IV, in which certain factions need certain strategies to better succeed, for example: turtling with Novgorod or Kiev is a no-no - however turtling with say, the HRE is a very viable strategy.

In vanilla and in most mods when i tried to turtle the game either became quite boring as nobody was able to effectivelly challenge me or a superfaction would come and wipe me out of the face of the (MTW) earth (nothing to do with battle skills but with campaign logistics, believe me): that was part of the reason why a went on to make the mini-mod (to stop superfactions forming while keeping all factions competitive at almost all times).

I think i am a turtler by nature (nice little cycles of expand, defend, consolidate and so, expand... etc), but some times i play very offensively (super aggressive optimised blitz), the most latest of those was when i was trying to test if the mini-mod could prevent too fast conquest rates by rushings, with various factions.

Unfortunately, in most cases it could

Other times i play more in a role-playing/historical way: say as the French try to do the Crusades before take on the English or the HRE or the Italian factions etc or some times i set little role playing goals (kind of undeclared GA) following characters (sometimes even females or priests).

(OT: One idea i had was to set up only a handful of important provinces as valid for the domination winning conditions and see how that would affect faction behaviour, say only 1 per faction homeland: Constantinople, Egypt, Rum etc so you can have like 10-15 say provinces that make the 100% of the map winning conditions. Never did it though, hmmm...)

Many Thanks

Noir

[doctrellor]

My style is vared..

I can sit and wait, building up for 50 years thru peace while I tech up and then lash out in a Barbarossa style mass slaughter, or typically, I'll play agressively, backstabbing all who stand in my way of my "mini-objectives" I set for myself

so alliances generally mean nothing except a trade partner and potential victim later on..lol

playing on more difficult settings and playing with huge units have forced me to play more strategically and take riskier risks, and depend on "some" allies not to stab me in the back..lol

[danfda]

I turtle...oh, I turtle. Sometimes you simply must take some provinces right away at the beginning, but after that I will do my level best to sit back and let the rest of the world get developed. Its so much more fun when you have your homelands and a couple other provinces, some nicely upgraded, chevroned armies, and a horde of enemies all around. I try to go for as long in between conquests as I can. Since I always play GA mode, I often find myself battling one or two other AI superpowers that are ahead of me in points at the very end. It makes the endgame more enjoyable when you have something quite difficult to achieve. Also, its rather amusing to see eight gigantic stacks of Swedes hopping across their personal pond, the Med, from Algiers to take Palestine in one move. Very fun.

[cosminus]

Ok, I like to play as catholics and I know that I must expand, otherwise others will do. First step is to take rebels, bribe them if this worth or by conquest and to develop naval trade. Usually I'm hunting for every rebel province on map, no matter where is. If I can't reach it by land I try by sea, otherwise I'm crusading against it.
After all rebels are gone I will use spy to try to make rebels. If this step fail I hunt for provinces with iron and trade resources. Usually I'm hitting someone weak and which not worth to conquer to receive Pope warn and then I'm heading to HRE or Spain for resources. Then for Hungarians. This way usually let me in Early to have near half of the world.
I have anytime provinces building or upgrading troops. Usually I do not wait until tech troops are available I use what I have on hand to push the war.
Normally I'm stopping to consolidate the conquest, to avoid rebellions and I'm supporting my allies, this is fun to relieve sieges for my allies. I look to have good relations to not affect trade, so I'm fighting usually only one enemy at time, but war is constant for me, peace is only as long as rebels are available.
Also I do rebels from Catholic factions to keep Pope in silence, by murdering a full royal line (assassins and/or inquisitors).
I preffer to have short borders but usually my empire is shattered along entire map.

[MJF]

i am definately a turtle sort of guy. must be a deficiency in my personality or something but i like to have a nice compact empire with smooth edges (seriously), and give them almost all upgrades.

i always feel like there is too much to look after when empire gets too big. and underdeveloped provinces irritate me because you cant do anything with them except produce rubbish troops.

anyway, just my two bob's worth.

[General Dazza]

I'm a little bit of both, but I tend more to the warmonger.

I like to identify my key provinces then build them up. I love the sound of the building complete notification.

But I also to build strong armies and manoeuvre them against the enemy. It's the chess-like strategy that I like there. So I tend to not have a long time between wars.

For the first time I'm playing GA, and I turtled for about 50 years, and I was disappointed to see the carnage, because rather than having to take on the world, I've been able to sit back and pick of rebels as factions collapse. I think I preferred playing HRE when you're at war from go to whoa!

[MJF]

by the way, is there any reason why i cant vote?

[Martok]

by the way, is there any reason why i cant vote?

It's because you're still a junior member. If you PM TosaInu, he can probably fix that for you.

[Martok]

My style of play consists of GAH!-zi Infantry, hence the vote.

Ok coat on, etc...

*groans* You've been hanging out with Gregoshi again, haven't you?


As for myself.... I should mention that while I'm a turtler at heart, in practice I seem to end up being more aggressive than I'm really comfortable with. I think this is because I oftentimes feel compelled to blitz my immediate neighbors if I'm feeling overly "crowded". This is particularly true for when I'm playing as my two favorite factions, the Egyptians and Spanish. As the former, I team up with the Byz to destroy the Turks more often than not; as the latter, I usually take out Aragon early on as the former, and then shove the Almos off the Iberian peninsula soon after that.

Now it's true that once I finish my early blitzkrieging, I *then* settle down and (generally) behave myself. Until I've reach the point where I've secured control over the local vicinity, however, I admit I do have a tendency to do a little warmongering early on. It's not really my natural inclination to do so, but playing MTW for as long as I have seems to suppressed some of my instincts.

[Noir]

I would comment that local blitz goes well with your instincts: it allows for for ever effective turtling (can't turtle effectively with local enemies around) - i also do that as a rule, particularly when the game version favors it (for example XL).

Many Thanks

Noir

[caravel]

*groans* You've been hanging out with Gregoshi again, haven't you?

Well he's the absolute master and I was assuming the role of a mere cheap imitation.

But to quote Omanes for taking the thread off topic. Back to the style of play: Cautious approach, stop, mod the game, start again, stop, change something, stop, start again, change something else, stop....

It's been like that for a while unfortunately. I have to play Shogun these days as I can't mod that, and even if I could I don't think Mrs Caravel would put up with another mod - I'd probably get thrown out. The reading books and maps in bed bit is proving unpopular. Apparently I was talking in my sleep about provinces a few nights ago as well...

[Noir]

Originally posted by Caravel
even if I could I don't think Mrs Caravel would put up with another mod - I'd probably get thrown out. The reading books and maps in bed bit is proving unpopular. Apparently I was talking in my sleep about provinces a few nights ago as well...

Tell Mrs Caravel, that many other Mrs... feel her pain - i guess they should put it in the marriage oath questions for hardcore TWes:

"...till campaigning, modding, chatting, frequenting the forums, staying up in the MP lobbies for "one more game" tear you appart?"

Ah, the beauty of these games!

Many Thanks

Noir

[doctrellor]

Tell Mrs Caravel, that many other Mrs... feel her pain - i guess they should put it in the marriage oath questions for hardcore TWes:

"...till campaigning, modding, chatting, frequenting the forums, staying up in the MP lobbies for "one more game" tear you appart?"

Ah, the beauty of these games!

Many Thanks

Noir

Ah yeah, my wife kicks me in the middle of the night as she bitches about me talking about TW or HOI2 (a fav WW II strat game I play)

[Martok]

Oh dear. Perhaps you need to lay off for a bit, then?

[Noir]

Laugh young master Martok,

while (as i presume) you are single and free... enjoy playing (without having to dodge flying objects and make excuses by the dozen) as much as you can!

Many Thanks

Noir

[jadast]

I have to believe I'm a complete warmonger. The only time I am not attacking is when I am out of troops. I see more provinces as more recruiting stations which leads to quicker replenishment of troops which leads to quicker attacks.

[Ironside]

Now it's true that once I finish my early blitzkrieging, I *then* settle down and (generally) behave myself. Until I've reach the point where I've secured control over the local vicinity, however, I admit I do have a tendency to do a little warmongering early on. It's not really my natural inclination to do so, but playing MTW for as long as I have seems to suppressed some of my instincts.

You learn't blitzing from MTW?
I take it that you bought STW later then, considering that my opening moves from STW often involved invading up to 3 provinces on turn 1. An MTW blitz is awfully slow in comparation.

[Martok]

You learn't blitzing from MTW?
I take it that you bought STW later then, considering that my opening moves from STW often involved invading up to 3 provinces on turn 1. An MTW blitz is awfully slow in comparation.

Strangely enough, I didn't blitz that often in Shogun (and yes, I bought it well before I ever picked up MTW). Maybe it was just because of the clans I played, but I simply didn't rush my neighbors that much -- at least not early on. It wasn't until MTW that I really started doing that. Yeah I know that's probably a bit unusual, but that's me for ya....

[doctrellor]

Funny that I also didn't learn blitzing from MTW..

I actually also bought STW first, but even earlier I got HOI and HOI2, so I played Germany or the Soviets, so with a WWII game, one can learn blitzing quite well..:P

with STW I learned to turtle and to play defensively, which is why I play Hojo or Shimazu all the time.

[Bregil the Bowman]

I take the liberal path, trying to develop peacefully while expanding my influence. You'd be amazed how many times that requires me to invade my neighbours with overwhelming force (to maintain the peace) or take down their leaders with assassins or inquisitors (in the cause of justice).

Good men sleep peacefully in their beds because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf...

[General Dazza]

Funny that I also didn't learn blitzing from MTW..

I actually also bought STW first, but even earlier I got HOI and HOI2, so I played Germany or the Soviets, so with a WWII game, one can learn blitzing quite well..:P

with STW I learned to turtle and to play defensively, which is why I play Hojo or Shimazu all the time.

Hey doctrellor - what's HOI2 like? I played HOI for a bit, but eventually got a bit bored with it (I find it doesn't have the replayability of MTW).

I don't think I learnt blitzing from any particular game - I tend to blitz when the situation calls for it. Despite what I said earlier I probably am more balanced as I do turtle when I need to. But I guess I only turtle so I can build up my troop and training capabilities for future conquest, and maybe to get some cash.