Efficient handling of turns??? esp. agents

[Mangudai]

I have a problem. Once my empire becomes big and I have agents all over the place, it becomes a tiresome chore to check everything that needs checking. If anyone has tips that can help make turns go smoother, please advise.


My turn procedure is:
1) Look at the hotspots, handle my most active armies and nearby recruiting.

2) I use the army/city/agent menus and try to go through each list only once

Here is the problem: The lists follow no particular order (seniority perhaps?). The lists cannot be sorted by type ie (merchants/priests). If you move a character on the lists, you lose your place on the list.

In RTW the lists showed how much movement each character had available. This was extremely useful! In M2TW its a nightmare to manage >20 agents.

[Dîn-Heru]

The lists can be sorted by clicking on the headlines on the top of the rolls. Example to sort agents left-click where it says status.

[Mangudai]

Thank you sir!

That helps.

[Leimadophus]

You know, I totally agree: Managing even moderate numbers of agents is an extremely laborious task; it is a chore and a bore! If I were to make a list of the things about this game I dislike, this would definitely be at the top.
I do miss that feature in RTW that indicated the remaining movement for each character.

Does anybody out there have any tips on how you handle stuff like this?

[ramela]

IMO, spying, assassination and merchants should be abstracted. Maybe even diplomacy.

IMO, it would be best if you could assign missions (Spy city X, Assassinate General Y, Arrange Negotiations with faction Z and so on) to an abstract base of agents, the odds of success and speed of which depends on the number and level of appropriate buildings in your empire. (Town Hall line for diplomacy, Brothel series for Spies)

Or something to that effect. My favorite espionage system for a strategy game is actually in Master of Orion 1!

[Grand Duke Vytautas]

Well I'll tell you how I manage my turn mostly:
1. Checking 'droping boxes' info at the start of turn and acting accordingly.
Say I see that priest has died somewhere I go and recruit another to replace it in my specialized guild cities. Then if I see new family member of age i assign him settlement to govern.
Also open building scroll and see what buildings where built and assign new projects from there as it helps save time.

2. Check if all settlements are building, if agents (priests and merchants) are at the max (if not then build/recruit), check financial status and red tape stuff.

3. Quick check of loyalty, family members positions, assign to govern who and where, build watchtowers/forts where necessary

4. Agent (priest, spy, assassin, merchant, diplomat, princess) management - this is by far the most time consuming part. I do it in 2 ways:
a) if your empire is small enough (say <20 provinces) you can, as someone earlier told, open (right click) agents tab and sort them. Then press the agent and you'll see its position, then perform mission, go again into agents tab sort again, etc. This is really boring so when my faction is huge I do it in second way
b) try to remember general locations of your agents and just use them where you see them, try to move assassins in wolf packs i.e. as it makes easier to manage

5. general overview of empire for foreign threats, brigands and pirates - recruit units and act accordingly, try to complete a mission

6. military action - going into battles - this definitely takes the longest to finish the turn, but is by far the most interesting aspect (like a completely new game side)

7. press end turn and circle goes again

For me turns untill 1200s (im playing standard 2 yrs per turn) go quite quickly, but later it can be a nightmare as 4 turns can take even 2 hrs. I'm trying to learn other tips too, plz add, cause I really want to finish long campaign more quickly (it usually takes 2-3 weeks for me as I like turtling and play M2TW like 4 hours max a day)
So plz add your own ideas how to shorten managing time

Hope these little managing details helped
Cheers

[Gorm]

You can select one of your agents and cycle through them by pressing the left and right bracket keys. Works the same for when you have selected your settlements.

[Leimadophus]

You can select one of your agents and cycle through them by pressing the left and right bracket keys. Works the same for when you have selected your settlements.

I think that when you cycle through like this that you will sequence through ALL named characters, that is all agents plus all family members (but not captains and admirals). Am I wrong about this?

[Gorm]

I think that when you cycle through like this that you will sequence through ALL named characters, that is all agents plus all family members (but not captains and admirals). Am I wrong about this?

Yes, that is what happens.