The Provinces of the War

[Psiloi]

After playing some games with catholic factions i can say that there is one province, at least for me, specially crossed by the armies, all times have a good lot of battle's placemark: Bruges. English, french, german, danish and milanese all this faction will fight there and probably Bruges is the city with more sieges in all my games, i think, that the answer is in the position of England who usually attack the continent from there so there is their first and last point of their european empire. Secondly i will put Milano. But i have only played with catholics mostly in western Europe so i suppose there are other examples. What do you think about this, do you believe that there are provinces with a black destiny marked by the war?

[Von Nanega]

Any of the cities in northern Italy.

[TeutonicKnight]

A couple come to mind - Antioch, Kiev, Jerusalem, Pamplona, Antwerp.

Antioch has the Eggys and the Turks fighting over it. When one of them wins, the Mongols make a beeline for it too. Kiev has Russkies, Poles, and Hungarians stampeding for it. Jerusalem is a Crusader's timeshare. Pamplona is always under French or English attack while you are trying to complete the Reconquista. Antwerp is another hotspot like Bruges, simply on the path of expansion for a lot of factions.

Other than that, I think most everywhere else is only seiged a bit before the front moves past them. In my games I find Northern Italy entirely too stable. One faction takes it over, and that's it until I come through.

[Von Nanega]

My current game I moved England to the Holy land, lock stock and eel pie. Jerusalem is my capital and I have had no battles there since I occupied it.
Egypt is my bane though, and the Mongols are rampaging through.

[icek]

venice, venetians tried so many times to take back their beloved city

[Askthepizzaguy]

Very interesting, I was just about to post a thread pertaining to this.

Most of the Catholic factions in the game will eventually rampage through the Holy Roman Empire, making Nuremburg perhaps the highest-trafficked city in terms of Catholic warlords.

Sometimes I avoid northern Italy completely (My Russia campaign for example) because their militia troops are spectacular and I don't feel like wasting half of my western armed forces taking a single city.

As for the Orthodox, both factions are bound to attack Hungary, making Bran the most vulnerable to Orthodox invasions.

Muslim factions? Since they are split in half, I'd say the Moors are the most likely to take Sicily. It is written in the stars that the Moors will take lower Italy. The Turks and the Egyptians absolutely must take Constantinople.

Spain is also a particularly bloody place. England, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Sicily, Milan, and the Moors will all make their way here eventually. I'd say that Cordoba makes it to the most bloody place in Western Europe.

But definitley northern Italy... everyone roams through there.
Venice is a bloodbath.

So I'd rank the following:

Venice (Most likely to be assaulted by every faction, highest overall traffic)
Nuremburg (Catholic highest traffic, Most likely to remain Catholic)
Constantinople (Muslim highest traffic, Most likely to become Muslim)
Bran (Orthodox highest traffic, Most likely to become Orthodox)

Honorable mentions:
Cordoba (Western half award, most likely to become Catholic)
Naples (sitting duck award, most likely to be raided by any mediterranean faction)
Jerusalem/Antioch (Eastern half award, most likely to become stronghold against Mongols)
Jedda (most likely to remain Muslim)
Volga-Bulgar (Most likely to remain Orthodox)
Illinois Avenue (Monopoly award)

For the sake of fairness, I did not pick Jerusalem (most likely to be assaulted by every major faction) because the only reason any Catholic goes there is for crusades/victory conditions. It is not a high priority in the game.

Safest major province in the game is Rome. I hardly EVER take this city as a catholic faction. The pope is generally too valuable as an ally.

New world territories not ranked.

EDIT: Oh, in case I wasn't being specific, I didn't mean these were the ones from a single game, including the AI. I meant these were the most common places if a human were to play every faction in succession from beginning to end. The AI doesn't know how to build empires so they don't count.

[John_Longarrow]

Oddly, on my computer the trend seems to be the islands off of the west coast of Italy. I've seen six different factions try (and fail) to kick me off of these islands in one game. Over all they seem to be the most heavily attacked for me.

[phonicsmonkey]

As the Moors, for about 40 turns at the beginning of the campaign Tunis was the place to be seen for any aspiring young general at the head of a paltry collection of early-game units wearing padded armour and brandishing pointy sticks.

I saw off: Byzantines, Sicilians, Milanese, Venetians, Papal States, French

now it is relatively peaceful and all the action is at Ajaccio...

[Askthepizzaguy]

See my previous post for clarification

[gingergenius]

I had 11 battles at Preslav. The first was me taking it from the Hungarians, 8 times after that I defended it from both the Hungarians & the Byzantines until I eventually lost to the Byz, then I retook it and defended it again from the Byzantines.

I've only been there for a while but Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) has already seen about 6 battles plus the Timurids took it from me and I starved them out to get it back.

A fair few of the cities in Turkey also saw a lot of battles when I raged through defeating the Mongols, especially Antakya.

[Midnight]

Same as phonicsmonkey - a Moorish game will see Tunis attacked again and again by everyone. I also find that Toulouse is a bloody place, as Crusades here are frequent in my games.

[Lamprey]

I agree with the folks above, the AI seems to have a hardon for Corsica & Sardinia. Wish I knew why.

[Von Nanega]

Jerusalem in my English migration game has finally became bloodbath central. The Mongols decided they could not live without it. It has fallen to the Mongols twice, been taken back by me (English) twice. Plus about six battles around the place.

[Ars Moriendi]

The islands west of Italy were the dance ring for me too. Apparently every faction with a port in the Mediteranean wants those. In my last Venice campaign they got attacked by the Moors, Siciliy, France, Portugal and the Pope (yes you read that right : the Pope) . Milan never got there as I wiped them out quite soon, but I bet if they lived a little longer they'd go camping there too... Also got port blockades there from the Byzantines, Turks and Egyptians. As I said, everybody...

Most bloodied, though was Jerusalem : 20-30 turns of constant Jihads by the Turks and the Egyptians, then a short break (plague all over Levant), then the Mongols. But that's a rather special case.