wavesword,
i've heard some others in here complain that the ai is economy cheating, but my personal experience doesnt really show it. i'm not really looking for it though, so i cant really say one way or the other. i havent seen any great unnatural 'hojo hordes' though.
insolent,
yes, i've seen the 'wormtongue' pic. in fact, if you look in the mod forum under my new mtw icons thread you'll see i did one of him :)
i havent really done the old shinobi trick with the spies. i'm playing a more traditional approach for now. i'm using all of the various networks; i'm not doing the whole mass spy invasion thing...yet.
i find it interesting to keep a variety of agrent spread around and am still experimenting with their capabilites on a small scale. the most massive agent attack i've pulled is about 4 assassins on 1 german general. love that one :)
in my current english isolationist game i'm finally a big enough faction that i've taken advantage of germany's aggressive war strategy. he's lost all of his alliances, been excommunicated and is fighting on 3 fronts. he was actually holding his own and driving the french to near extinction before i stepped in with a crusade and then a subsequent invasion of his sea lands from 3 locations. now, this was quite good on the part of the ai. knowing that i was coming with a crusade, and knowing that they were ex-comm'ed, and knowing that i would be invading, the germans killed off their own king. the ex-comm goes extinct and i cant raise another one against them. pretty cagey. i did manage to get one province out of the crusade, but now it's just a regular army sucking up my resources and somewhat vulnerable to a counter-attack. i was impressed with that one.
the germans then raised their own crusade against the egyptians, but it was really too late. i had beach fronts on 3 provinces, one to the north, the west and the southwest. and my little 4 man assassin team, ranks 2-4, were eating their southern generals. meanwhile the sicilians are now in on the war, attacking from the south and south east.
finally, the germans started getting some massive revolts and i was able to take a number of them. they also left flanders unprotected and i made a 4th beachhead with my main army...2600 men. their navy is gone and they only have one seaport down south to make any new ships and i've got that one covered also.
now, one thing i'd like to see in the game is the exchange or loan of troops from friendlies. this was actually a fairly common practice. for instance, in my current game i was allied to the polish and the novgorods. when i went to war with the germans the polish did some attacking of their own, but the novgorods were incapable of doing so because the polish block access for them to the germans. the nov's had no shipping, so they had no sea lane or land route to the germans. what i've been looking at is the possibility of a blocked faction that is an ally to help out regardless of being able to directly attack.
here's my solution. we have crusades, but perhaps a similar thing to a crusade could be done with an allied army sending a special military envoy/army to you through the lands of another friendly or willing faction's lands. it would use a similar routing procedure as a crusade. it would have no ability to attack until it reached its destination province and once there, would fall under your temporary command.
many possible deals could be done using this. one could pay the supporting faction for the use of its troops, or perhaps it simply gifts them to you on a temp basis, or if they dont wish to actually send troops, perhaps they could send money instead as a way to help and show support. this military envoy would pretty much follow the same rules as a crusade. it could be challenged by whatever lands it was crossing and if barred, it could then fight. one big difference is that it does NOT pick up strength and men as it goes. if anything, it might dwindle a bit as it moved. at the end of its journey it surrenders itself to your control for your use. it would NOT need the sanction of the pope to be done either. a country is sympathetic to you and sends help. i suppose their might be some risk to the supporting faction of being ex-commed if the pope has also excommed you, but otherwise it's somewhat beneath the pope's concern.
i have had the ship running away bug happen a bit, but i find that the solution for me is to put ships where the enemy ship is running TO. i think the original idea behind the ship running back and forth is that he's running to safe ground because he fears he cant win the fight. you chase, he moves again. if you simply 'blockade' his moves by putting ships in all of his possible escape exits i dont get the little bouncing ball effect. he just dies in 2 or 3 turns.
and here's another interesting occurrence. the germans attacked me in sweden. they had norway and whereas i was bracing sweden up figuring the germans would do this, i lost the battle when they did and retreated to the castle. since it was a castle and not a keep or a fort, i had a fairly decent force holed up there, but the germans had a decent force and a much better general. while they are laying siege, i'm gathering forces to lift the siege and in the meantime, the danes re-spawn IN norway and IN sweden! lol. now that put an interesting twist on the siege. who's fighting whom here? so, just to make it interesting i decide to send in the reinforcements. the germans are caught in a bad place. they own the province, since they are sieging, the danes are pissed with the owner, not me, since i'm in the castle. i attack, the danes withdraw figuring they cant win the simple battle with the germans, i end up fighting the germans and win, and the danes get norway! lol. this was hilarious. talk about timing is everything.
this is what i like about this campaign game. it's unpredictable. or at least, it's unpredictable enough to make it fun. yet, it's predictable enough to be able to control your own destiny, if you play it right. it's got a very good balance on those factors. many times i've been forced into trusting an ally not to attack my exposed borders so that i can move men 'to the front'. MOST of the time this works, but i've also been backstabbed enough to warrant my own v&v of paranoid. in my current game i have 3 very exposed provinces to allies. so far they are holding the trust, but i have caught the nov's killing some of my agents lately...in their lands. and when an ally starts assasinating your agents, particularly agents in your own territory, it's usually time to start protecting borders again. so, you do seem to get some warning of an alliance starting to break down...if yer payin attention.
thus, with the german strength now cut in half, me having taken all their sea provinces, and the egyptians now being reported as having the largest military and the pope now calling for crusades on egypt, it may be time to make peace with the germans, consolidate my wins and start busting up the egyptians.
the ebb and flow of this game is quite good. you also start to get to know how each faction 'thinks', though it's a LOT harder than shogun ever was. the germans are aggressive militarists. the sicilians are careful opportunists. the almohads are patient semi-peaceful, opportunists. the nov's, i havent got a real good handle on yet, but seem to be quiet, semi-paranoid, opportunists. the aragons are cowardly, desparate, backstabbers. the byzantines seem to be semi-aggressive expansionists, but not nearly as bad as the germans.
my view on those factions is prolly not completely accurate, since so much can affect how each faction will respond and operate. the point is, it's interesting and fun, particularly at expert level. i'll not be going back to normal or even hard. i can even see an arguement for making it a bit tougher :)
K.
------------------
The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks