my compilation of useful to know stuff

[Martok]

I'm pretty sure it is the closest harbour, not the harbour where your ship was built. And there is a max maintenance distance as well, moving fleets longer away than this will not increase the maintenance.

Correct. It's your ships' distance to the closest friendly port (owned by you) that determines its support costs. (It's one reason why Sicily is such an attractive target for Mediterranean naval powers. ) I want to say the support costs cap out at 80 florins per ship/year, but you probably shouldn't quote me on that as it's been a while since I checked.

I'm not sure what's going on with your other issue, Faction Heir. I don't think I've played vanilla MTW since VI came out back in 2003, so I can't really remember whether or not the agent bonuses in 1.1 work in those two provinces.

Now that said, the Inquisitors don't really need a valour bonus -- believe me, I know. However, it's indeed unfortunate that you're unable to get Syria to turn out those lovely v1 assassins, as they can be very useful.

[Jxrc]

However, it's indeed unfortunate that you're unable to get Syria to turn out those lovely v1 assassins, as they can be very useful.

Isn't the bonus +2 ? I think that last time I had a fortress built in Syria asap just for the fun of spamming valour-5 assassins. Maybe I ma getting too old ...

[Martok]

Isn't the bonus +2 ? I think that last time I had a fortress built in Syria asap just for the fun of spamming valour-5 assassins. Maybe I ma getting too old ...

Hmm. I didn't think so, but now you've got me wondering as well. And unfortunately, I can't really check myself since I'm playing the Pocket Mod, which redoes a lot of the valour bonuses.

I still think it's only a base +1 bonus in Syria, but I could be wrong.

[Jxrc]

I can't really check myself

I can't either ... still at the office .... working hard as you can see ....

[FactionHeir]

Yeah, its difficult for inquisitors though. Grand inquisitors are quite easy to level up.

[Martok]

Yeah, its difficult for inquisitors though. Grand inquisitors are quite easy to level up.

If you've not already done so, I recommend using Inquisitors on your own generals as well, particularly the lower-level ones. It's a good way to valour them up -- and of course unlike assassins, they don't die if they fail in their mission. Better yet, a general that survives a heresy trial won't suffer a drop in loyalty (as opposed to a general who's survived a treason trial and/or assassination attempt).

[FactionHeir]

Ah, interesting to know. I guess I won't have to convert a population to 100/100 and then start trials then

Side question: How do you raise a spy's valour? Always seems to stay on 0 even if they succeed in missions.

[Heidrek]

best way is to try your own generals for treason. pick a junk unit with low loyalty and have your spies continuously try him for treason. either that, or "prune" various low loyalty troops until their commander has a decent set of stats

As your spy sucessfuly frames people he will get more stars.

[Martok]

Ah, interesting to know. I guess I won't have to convert a population to 100/100 and then start trials then

Correct. Having high zeal in the province where you're trying a general for heresy certainly improves an inquisitor's chances of success, but it's not necessary.

You'll probably never get a province's zeal to 100%, by the way. I believe it tops out around 80% or so, as the citizenry's religious enthusiasm tends to peak by then -- they can stomach only so many people burning at the stake.

Side question: How do you raise a spy's valour? Always seems to stay on 0 even if they succeed in missions.

In addition to Heidrek's suggestion -- which I do recommend as well -- spies can valour up in a couple other ways:

1.) Catching enemy assassins. You just need to have a spy in a province, and he'll automatically have a chance to capture any assassins lurking about. The more assassins he captures, the more valour stars he will gain.

Note: If an assassin is caught in a province with a Border Fort, the spy will *not* get credit for the capture. (In other words, you'll need to either dismantle the border fort, or just not build it in the first place.)

2.) Starting revolts in enemy provinces. You place a spy in another faction's province (preferably one where loyalty isn't that great to begin with). Given enough time, the province's loyalty will eventually drop below 100%, with an increasing chance of rebellion every passing year. If a rebel army does appear in that province, then your spy gets a star!

Note: You'll probably want to use several spies in the enemy province to pull this one off, as otherwise the process usually takes too long. If you do use a "mob" of spies to spark a rebellion, only the spy with the highest valour gets a star -- the rest of the spies helping him do *not* receive a star.

[FactionHeir]

Hmmm in my current campaign, I had taken a few hints from the forum regarding having a spy in each province, but I didn't know that had to be a province without a border fort..... I think I'll keep the forts though as they massively boost happiness, which is hard to come by on default unit size (as opposed to small unit size which I ran my first campaign under).

I used to think spying for vnvs would raise valour, so this is not the case? Opening gates neither....

Say if I have a mob of valour 0 spies, which gets the point if the province goes rebel?

Oh, and I had several zeal 100 provinces....well, actually they AI did, because that's where I parked my inquisitors last game.

[Martok]

Hmmm in my current campaign, I had taken a few hints from the forum regarding having a spy in each province, but I didn't know that had to be a province without a border fort..... I think I'll keep the forts though as they massively boost happiness, which is hard to come by on default unit size (as opposed to small unit size which I ran my first campaign under).

Fair enough. Of course, having spies in your provinces boosts their loyalty as well, although I don't know how their loyalty-increasing abilities compare to that of the border fort.

By the way, one thing I forgot to point out was that placing spies in your port provinces is the most effective way to catch enemy assassins. So it may still be worth your while to dismantle the border forts in at least some of your coastal provinces, particularly if you notice it's a territory that has a lot of emissaries & princesses passing through it. (Assassins love to go after those!)

I used to think spying for vnvs would raise valour, so this is not the case? Opening gates neither....

Gah! I forgot about opening gates. Yes, that should boost a spy's valour as well.

I can't remember now if they gain valour for exposing vices or not.

Say if I have a mob of valour 0 spies, which gets the point if the province goes rebel?

In that case, it would be determined randomly.

Oh, and I had several zeal 100 provinces....well, actually they AI did, because that's where I parked my inquisitors last game.

100% zeal?? Holy crap. Well I must've been doing something wrong in my campaigns all these years then, because I don't think I've ever seen that before.

[FactionHeir]

100% zeal actually seems rather easy to get too, if you can spare two inquisitors for a province and leave them there. Most of the time they don't start an inquisition either.

Opening gates successfully twice with a valour 0 spy still resulted in a valour 0 spy...

Do spies really boost province loyalty? I had a spy in distant Prussia and the loyalty would still stay the same as if he had never been there over a 20 turn period with the same king.

[Ironside]

100% zeal?? Holy crap. Well I must've been doing something wrong in my campaigns all these years then, because I don't think I've ever seen that before.

Busy inquisitors doesn't burn the population.

- apart from one Egyptian general, nobody gets the v&v "fine leader". Never seen anyone with the "legendary leader" v&v.

False. I've seen my king getting natural leader upgraded once. I was sending him out to gain v&v or die (as his son was better), so he was in the frontline all the time.

Should I guess you'll either need to kill the first enemy in battle with the general unit or take the first loss in multiple battles (in a row?) to gain this.

[predaturd]

im 99.99% sure that revealing vices increases a spys valour
i tend to do a lot of pure diplomacy games and i always seem to have 4-5 valour spys when they go on a revealing spree (-5 loyalty in one year ftw)

[Kaidonni]

Correct. It's your ships' distance to the closest friendly port (owned by you) that determines its support costs. (It's one reason why Sicily is such an attractive target for Mediterranean naval powers. ) I want to say the support costs cap out at 80 florins per ship/year, but you probably shouldn't quote me on that as it's been a while since I checked.

I've noticed that, while some ships cap out at 80 florins, others cap out at 60. Take Sicily for example (hehe...snap ), with Galleys and Dromons. Galleys are 20 florins per turn base, and they cap out at 80 - while Dromons, at 15 florins per turn base, cap out at 60. I believe, based on this, the maximum cap is four times the base cost. Haven't checked out Longboats or other ships with different base costs, though. If anyone can correct me, or add anything else, feel free to do so *readies Inquisition just in case anyone does that *.

[seireikhaan]

It should be pointed out that not all ships have the same upkeep costs, and as such, their 'caps' for support vary. For example, gungalley's have a support cost of 50, which means their 'cap' for support would be much, much higher than longboats, which have a support cost of a measly 7 in comparison.

[Jxrc]

False. I've seen my king getting natural leader upgraded once. I was sending him out to gain v&v or die (as his son was better), so he was in the frontline all the time.

Should I guess you'll either need to kill the first enemy in battle with the general unit or take the first loss in multiple battles (in a row?) to gain this.

Have you been able to trigger it again ? Honestly I've been playing MTW since it came out and have never seen that happen (and I never auto-calc). But fair enough, will put my next king in a province and trigger peasants revolts to check that out (start with the Danes Early, invade sweden make it revolt three times in a row and see what happens). Will not be able to play for at least two weeks so if someone want to have a go before just let me know.