H7,

Computer games like RTW & M2TW don't have conventional rules like checkers or chess. You can't have a bug in a Monopoly board game.

You're playing within the physical constraints of the game. You can set up some artificial rules like - don't autoresolve any siege battles - so that you don't benefit from certain quirks in the game design. But what are you trying to accomplish when you do so - to imitate real life? And there's nothing wrong with that, certainly, if that's what you want to do. Bringing our imaginations to the game experience is part of the fun of a game like this. For me the game is a diversion. I'm not competing with anyone, and I'm not trying to accomplish anything for the sake of bragging rights.

And, it's not as if this game is a perfect imitation of real life. Is the ratio 2 years for every one game turn a valid imitation of real life?

In RTW I never used the programmed cheats (pressing the tilde button and altering the game's play.) But I'm doing that a lot in M2TW. But, in RTW I did make some mods to the game so I could get a public order benefit from academy buildings and scriptoriums and the like. As I understand it, that mod was something that CA had intended to put into the original game but never got around to it.

I guess I would say to you - it's your game and your time, just have fun with it the way you want to. I couldn't do the save and reload thing that some players do when something goes horribly wrong in a battle. But that's just me. But, when I was a kid playing street games with the neighborhood kids, we used to have "do-overs" or "mulligans" and gave the kid who made the "claim" a second chance. (I'm giving my faction members superior administrative skills and trader skills. So sue me.)

The game pulls some "stunts" on me occasionally costing me time, money and soldiers.

Just have fun and do what you want. If you want to set some ground rules for yourself, to govern your relationship with the game. Go for it.