Kingdom Management

[Riblet]

I have recently started playing MTW and really enjoy the game. It's richness is great, but can be overwhelming once one's kingdom reaches a certain size. I normally start out in early and have success in GA mode until about 50 to 60 yrs into the game when the number of things that need to be reviewed per turn/year gets to be unmanagable. Even with factions that start out with few initial provinces (Danes, Poles, etc.) get large eventually with conquest and bribery.

I'd like to hear others talk about how they manage all the things that need to be done per turn. I've begun trying to methodically make my way through the tasks. It might go something like this:
1. New buildings needed?
2. Train/retrain troops & agents
3. Princesses & agents
4. Troop movement/Crusades

Anyone have any further suggestions on how they keep this portion of the game from being an overwhelming task? Do you keep notes? Do you assign some functions to automatically be done by the computer?
Tks.

[Heidrek]

The simplest way is just to queue up a few things at a time.

If you are working towards a certain militray unit for example, queue the necessary buildings if you can. You can't always do this (you may need the first building to be complete in order to open up the other ones you need), but if you can, It'll help smooth things out.

For example: Ireland has been taken and you want to start producing those wonderful Gallowglasses asap, then beef them up with armour and morale upgrades. Get to the point you can build a Swordsmith, then queue it up, followed by an armourer and Church

Similarly, with conquered provinces, select two or three units you want to build instead of one at a time. If you're going for a garrison, set up a Pesants, a couple of sword/spears and a missile unit or two.

Managing armies is harder, but I tend to trya nd jeep my number of firld armies to a minimum, while having decent garrisons in most front line provinces. this allows me to draw together a defensive army if necessary, but doesn't tie up my time. Have one or two big forces with your beest generals and concentrate on them, you can pretty much ignore the rest of your kingdom unless something happens like a province gets attacked.

I know what you mean thought, the depth of the game is great, but it can be a very time consuming exercise managing it all.

[Peasant Phill]

Having dedicated provinces, standard armies and short borders also help minimizing the management.

- You should use a few provinces to produce a specific troop type while using the others only for your economy. Say you are the English, then use Mercia for your spear units (and later for Billmen of course), Flanders as your prime trading province, Wales for your bowmen, ... and the rest just for farms and the occasional inn. This'll make your building ques a lot simpler.

- Use standard armies for garrison duties and for battle. I'm not saying that they should always be the same, only that every army should be similar when facing a certain threat (facing desert battles => lightly armoured troops, facing mongols => lots of arbs, polearms and spears, ...). That way you instantly know the size and composition of your armies on the map and so don't have to puzzle with your troops before an attack or when setting up a defensive line.

- Make an empire with short borders. This'll make it easier to defend your lands and you'll have less armies to keep an eye on. You're playing GA so conquest plays a lesser role. Find a good position on the map (defendable, economically rich enough for your needs, relevant to your GA goals) and then concentrate on your GA goals.

[CrazyGuy]

I 'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the problems that arise when trying to keep a track of your general's. Esp. when you have many armies, its very time consuming keeping track of who has gained what attribute. If you don't of course, you suddenly discover that all of your nobles get their kicks from eating babies...

Is there a way around this?

[Riblet]

The only problem with queueing up several things in advance is that if not carefully done, you'll have a negative cash flow for several years and can get yourself in a bind financially. Upon further thought, the first thing I usually do at the start of the year is take a look at cash flow, because that dictates what units and buildings can be constructed without bankrupting the country. Gotta have them florins.

I do already have provinces that are dedicated to either producing income or a specific unit. That does help in simplifying things.

Good comment about the generals. I find that I have to continually guard against low piety generals and provencial governors getting burned at the stake.

[Bregil the Bowman]

It shouldn't be too much hassle. If you have so many territories and generals that micro-managing them is a fag, you can probably get away with the odd mistake. If you are hanging by a thread, chances are you won't have much to manage.

One of my tricks is only to build ballistae/catapults on the castle walls only when there is nothing else I want to build in a province. Then, when I quickly scroll through the provinces, I can see at a glance the ones that don't need attention.

As for generals and governors, I tend to be lazy and leave them to it unless a) they offend me or b) a period of peace inspires me to conduct a domestic reform. At this stage I usually keep all my non-general governors around the king, tends to keep them more honest. But in the early stages I keep them too busy fighting to think about dishonesty.

[bamff]

My own tendency is that each turn I pick my first province (alphabetically speaking), bring up the province details and building queue, and then scroll through each province checking out what buildings I want, and who the governor is and what he is contributing.

I then work my way through the various troops in each province, really just to check (a) loyalty; (b) if any need retraining; and (c) if there are any generals worthy of governorship. Of course, then I need to find either a new province for them, or perhaps encourage one of my assassins to "find" a vacancy among my existing provinces (if an under-performer is identified).

Yes, it can be time consuming, particularly once you start to grow, but that reflects the problems one would expect to encounter in a growing kingdom....

[King Kurt]

I always use auto tax - seems like too much micro management to me to do each in turn. I also queue with an overall plan in mind - that is buildings and troops. I check all provinces quickly just in case there are any mercs about. I never worry about insufficient funds unless I am getting the message a lot and I don't feel I am progressing at the rate I should do. Then I do a tour of all my armies and disband all the odd bits. Personally I like the challenge of not too much cash - to me it means I am budgeting about right!! My current campaign is a great example of that - XL Late Byzantines - I have just reached 1400 and I reckon after the first 10 years I have had the insufficent funds message for about 80% of the moves!! - but my empire stretches from Egypt round to Hungary to Kiev to Kazar with my armies poised to crush all opposition in Central Europe. I think the mixture of delays and not quite being sure of what is happening is a good reflection of what the leaders of the time had - so once again the game has triumphed. So Riblet, throw caution to the wind and live on the edge - you will enjoy the game more if you do.

[Jxrc]

My own tendency is that each turn I pick my first province (alphabetically speaking), bring up the province details and building queue, and then scroll through each province checking out what buildings I want

That's indeed basically it. If money is thight, I just check how much cash I have available at the beginning of the turn and then do the simple exercice of adding up construction costs for all building I start building (while being careful not to omit to take into account the cost of shipbuilding in the same turn). IF I need to produce unit urgently that takes precedence of course. Once the kingdom gets huge money is usually no longer a problem. If that's nonetheless the case, just need to select two or three provinces you need to tech in priority and decide that for the rest you will only spend your remaining money on income producing stuffs or not not too expensive improvement (normally: keep, 40% agriculture, trader and port - if both available in the same prov - complex mines and all the 400 florins improvement you can build once the keep is there; if money is really tight: fort, 20% agric., simple mines and the 200 improvements - perhaps not the balista factory - enabled by the fort).

For v&v, unless I am mistaken you get a report at the end of each turn detailing the new ones and you just need to click on each line of the report to check who's actually getting those (means that you only need to make sure that no bad V&V is allocated to your best generals or the nine acumen governor in Flanders - the rest does not really matter that much).

For agents, it's a bit more difficult since you need to make sure that your assassins are not chasing their target through the whole map until they cross one province with a border fort (assassin on a mission appear in red in the agent list) and that you emissaries do not stand idle in enemy provinces until they are murdered (since you probably have not more that 4 or 5 that's no big deal). Scrolling through the list can get tedious if you chose (as I often do) to have a bishop in each of your provinces but you can select to have all agents appear on the list not in alphabetical order (assassins, bishop, emissaries, inquisitors, spies) but classified according to their valor (since most bishop will have 0 star, that save a lot of time).

[Kaidonni]

Hehe...I have no system. I just make sure I've moved all my agents, given them purposes (be it a marriage proposal, spying, or whatever), decided on what to build and recruit in every province, done all I want with each army, and that all provinces check-out okay. I'm usually random on the order I do these things, and I can get compulsive obsessive and do them multiple times...but less so now, I seem to have that under control.

[macsen rufus]

If you don't of course, you suddenly discover that all of your nobles get their kicks from eating babies...

Is there a way around this?

Yeah.... make more babies

I generally find that by the time the empire is too big to micromanage, it's also big enough to cope with the odd screaming cissy, embezzler and sheep-botherer in positions of power. If the vices get so bad as to make a guy useless I'll find someone better and strip titles (or maybe use a more ... entertaining.... agent than the emissary), but if I'm in a hurry I just disband the hapless dimwit.

I have never, ever used auto-tax, and never will. Tax is always screwed up as high as loyalty will allow (sometimes it allows only "very low" of course...), until such time as cashflow is no longer a major concern in which case I turn it down to "normal" everywhere but the top five provinces. My first "state of the empire" check each turn is to press "shift" - a good green map is what's called for, and any yellow or red spots get immediate attention, as trouble will be brewing. Stamp on the peasants before they stamp on you

If I have to keep it tight, I'll be sure to only train in valour-bonus provinces, or with the best upgrades, but if I can keep building and training in every province permanently, then I will. It means the economy is good, and you can get some serious infrastructure down

[Jxrc]

A really easy trick not to get an bad random V&V once the empire is to big is to avoid puuting a general's unit in a stack. Left on its own he will not get any good or bad V&V. Specially useful when you start being big since that about at the same moment that the computer "decides" to turn your best generals into hedonist crazies.

[sharpshooter]

Ahh Riblet - the problems of empire. I found the amount of administration a hassle when I first got into the game, but you get used to it. As you gain experience you get a good sense of what's happening where, and a lot of it becomes automatic. I think you're right to do it methodically - and I'd even add a couple of things to what you've suggested at the start. Basically it's bringing up each of the screens in turn - heirs, agents, income, alliances and maybe generals. In line with most of the posts here - I do more or less of the following each turn, depending on the phase of the game:

- Switch on the autotaxer when the empire gets to a certain size. This is usually around 15 or so provinces, or earlier if the cash is pouring in.

- Check the income vs expenditure, and keep the expenditure under half the income. That seems to avoid the Drinker vice , which is annoying in heirs and top generals, and from my take is mainly caused by overproduction of troops - ("never knows when to stop"). I see how much profit I have and what I can afford to build. I use this screen to check the loyalty levels of the provinces, and see if there are problems - especially when a king dies, a lot of provinces have been conquered in a short time, or the enemy has ships that may isolate islands or make other provinces feel cut off.

- Scroll through the provinces with the buildings parchment and maybe the province description parchments open. I don't queue until I'm rolling in cash, except maybe for key provinces. If I don't need it I don't build it - and that goes for Merchants and Farmland. I have the feeling that the AI prefers a lean style, and gives Materialist and Gluttony vices for raking in too many florins.

- Check the agents screen, and use the Valour link to order them if I have missions. Generally I'm using Emissaries to charm neighbouring factions, and Bishops to blackmail others or convert - again this is my take on their non-published abilities. Typically they don't need much movement. At peak times of agent activity, or when hunting for princesses, I'll use the Z and C keyboard controls so only the agents are showing. I try and keep up with what other factions agents are doing.

- Check the heirs screen to see if anyone is due to mature, in which case I'm careful about what I'm doing that might affect their stats and v&v's. Likewise I keep a track of aging princesses, and marry them off to generals at 30.

- Check the Alliances screen if I'm preparing to attack someone, or wanting to prevent a key ally from allying with a target. Sometimes I'll start a war early by launching a peasant unit or similar at the target and withdrawing from the battle in order to prevent these alliances, or simply to let the other factions know where I stand. I use princesses and bishops to target in the same way, especially putting them on rebel provinces to let the other factions know I'm interested in them.

- I check the loyalty of generals at the death of a king, and regularly click through the stacks to see what stats the unit commanders have. Ideally I'll do this when they're first trained ... but ... I get carried away with the rush of the campaign sometimes. I'll also check this when I'm assigning titles.

- As mentioned in another post, I'll click on the relevant v&v on the advice parchment as it comes up in the end turn sequence to see where particular v&v's have landed.

In other words, I check some or all of the screens each turn, and I haven't found a way around this. Heh. This seems the case with most here. You're probably doing something similar anyways, and were wondering if there were shortcuts - in which case my post hasn't much helped, but at least you know there are others doing the same thing.

[King Kurt]

Hey Sharpshooter - next campaign, take a few chances - the game becomes a bit more of a rollercoaster but much more exciting. Expenditure about half of income - you haven't lived until you get the insufficient funds message on a regular basis!!!!!!!! Find me a real life medevial King who lived within his means - give me glory rather than a full treasury.
I always try to never have a bigger treasury of 20,000 florins - handy for a bribe, but no army is worth more than about 15,000 florins.
So next time - give it a go - you might enjoy it!!

[predaturd]

order i do things in
check happiness (shift zoom out quick scan 4 seconds)
make units in army bases (40 seconds)
check income vs expenditure (5 seconds)
make my economic base get built (1 minute
mobilise armies for next conquest (2.5 minutes) (make sure i attack with best troops and make the armys evenish so i can attack in more places)
check most profitable provinces have high acumen governers (2 minutes)
move boats (20 seconds)

has anyone ever had the you are the richest nation come up when they were in the minuses before? i have and the comment is hilarious (not saying youll need to do it yourself :P)

[Peasant Phill]

The 'richest' comment refers to your anual income, not your treasury. So you can be the richest and still be in the red because your expenses are to high.

[Tony Furze]

In reply to Riblets topic:

I find it really difficult to handle the detail and the big picture; then , of course, there is also the battle side of things...

Im only just know realizing with my lateness in coming to such a fine game + my age, I lose concentration/forget things easily. I never remember to check on my emissaries/ agents before ending the year, for example. Then I make too many of things-agents or spearmen, then I forget to put a defensive army in my best province, etc , etc.

The result can be a mess.

Soooo, recently I decided to really narrow down my goals. It really is best to manage everything yourself rather than handing over to the AI.

Recently I decided to play the Danes so I limited a lot of things to make it easier for me to work out and manage things.

[dimitrios the samian]

Im like Tony too ...........

[Heidrek]

Playing as the Danes does make life simpler. Vikings are the answer to everything. You could conceiveably construct a decent military empire with a few provinces teched up to Caste level buildings and the rest at Fort/Keep level.

A basic army of Vikings (even the vanilla ones available from just a Fort), Archers/Xbows, Mounted Sergeants and perhaps some catapults can be constructed from Keep level buildings only, and when backed with an Armourer and Church for upgrades, this type of defensive army can do some serious damage to an invading force without requiring too much upkeep.

The advantage of this is two fold. One, it means you don't have to think too much about developing your infrastructure except in a few key provinces, and two it's cheap to get to this level meaning you don't have to worry too much about your treasury. At Keep level I think you can also get Ports, Shipyards and Traders, so you can still have a very effective trading empire.

In my experience playing as the Danes, they ar able to hold conquered provinces better than most factions due to their ability to always produce Vikings. This means that even a ransacked province cans till start churning out decent defenders straight away while you build up the infrastructure for the other support troops.

Norways Val +1 vikings are pure gold. I usually turn Sweeden into a giant forge making armour and weapon upgrades then march my troops of Norwegian Vikings over to them to get suited up. with such easy access to Valor, armour and weapon upgrades Vanilla Vikings can tangle with FMAA's and CMAA's and hold their own for a fraction of the price and building requirements.

[Roark]

This is my yearly routine for managing a large empire:

(auto-tax is ON)
- Check happiness
- Check sea lanes
- Check profit
- Cycle through province building screens really quickly looking for any that don't have buildings queued and fix it.
- Check frontiers/borders
- Cycle through province unit training screens looking for appropriate troops to train (if I've got established armies, I usually only train units for futher conquest, or to shore up dodgy defensive frontiers).
- Check agent overview and make sure I don't have assassins in enemy provinces. Likewise, check that emissaries and princesses are in useful positions, and (every now and then) that princesses aren't getting too old.

[stson]

I take a cue from the old USSR and go with 5 year plans:

Years 0 and 5: fill queues with buildings, new units, and agents.

Years 1 and 6: check royalty positioning and loyalty, marry off princesses, move emissaries, inquisitors, and cardinals.

Years 2 and 7: move other agents.

Years 3 and 8: place agents on top of other units (for marriage, strip titles, assassination, etc.)

Years 4 and 9: consolidate all stacks in a province. Place units to be retrained in building queues. Give marching orders to units moving over multiple territories.


This schema works pretty well most of the time. Years 0 and 5 take awhile, but the other years are pretty quick for admin. If I'm in a domination game, once I hit about 20 provinces I switch to 10 year plans for buildings while keeping 5 years with agents and units.