If you can\'t beat them bribe them

[Didz]

Some of the discussions on this forum bring back fond memories of the early days of STW.

Archers Suck.

Horse Archers are brilliant

Warrior Monks Kick butt etc.

My take on MTW battle tactics is that the Rock, Paper, Scissors principle has become far more complex in MTW than it was in STW and the difficulties of countering enemy troops with appropriate units is far more important and the penalties much more pronounced.

In particular armour has a far bigger impact in MTW rendering missile fire almost impotent at the extreme ends of the scale. As a classic example of this in the earlier years of my Almohads campaign an army of 80 bandits appeared in Tunisia.

I felt little initial concern, after all 80 bandits is not a lot and I had nearly 500 troops in the neighbouring principalities. But these bandits were heavily armoured cavalrymen and despite being outnumbered over 5 to 1 they smashed my archers, peasants and urban militia in two successive battles. I had no units capable of standing against them even my desert horsemen got slaughtered charging downhill with 2:1 superiority.

What did I do?

Bit of lateral thinking. I paid 2,250f bribed the bandit chieftain and added a unit of Heavily Armoured horsemen to my army.

If you can’t beat them bribe them.

[oZoNeLaYeR]

True that.

[Kraellin]

hehe, yeah, the bribe function is fun. i just wish you could handle a failed negotiation all in one turn instead of having to wait a year to make a new offer. if the general is 'too loyal' and the initial bribe fails, it would be nice to be able to increase the bribe on the spot, at least once or twice. or, maybe this would be simpler, your initial inquiry always gives an amount that your emissary thinks will be sufficient to accomplish the bribe. let's say for example that it's 3000 florins. if, at the same time, your emissary also asked you not if you wanted to proceed with that amount, but rather what is the maximum you'd be willing to offer, including amounts well over the original 3000, it would make this a better bargaining arrangement.

in other words, you're giving your emissary broad instructions on how high you're willing to go at this time. he is, after all, going off somewhere to make this offer remotely. surely he would have a certain amount of leeway to bargain with, being that he, your emissary, is only going to talk with you once per year.

all other factors would still apply...loyalty of the bribee, skill of the emissary and so on. it's just that your emissary would now have a bit more flexibility in his bargaining range.

K.


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The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.

[Didz]

The only time I tried to offer a less than recommended sum for a bribe the enemy General executed my emissary for being insulting.

Rather put me off trying to horse bargain after that.

Didz