Horde Play?

[Noncommunist]

On wikipedia, I read in the MTW2 section that if a fort of a faction survives, that the faction survives despite not having any settlements. "Scotland has fallen when the English took Edinburgh, their last city. If the player takes Edinburgh then Scotland should be unlocked, although if a fort holds out, the faction, while without territories, survives"

If that is possible, then why haven't I seen many ideas of becoming a horde and leaving some bit out in a place that's nearly invulnerable? But if it is true, what sort of things would you do if you were to become a horde?

[ReiseReise]

I've never heard of this. Hordes were from Rome: Barbarian Invasion but I skipped that expansion so I'm not sure how they worked.


The AI rarely builds forts so this scenario is unlikely, especially since they would be required to have a family member in the fort. If you kill the entire royal family (most often when they have only King and 1 Heir and you kill them in the same turn) the faction dies and all their settlements turn rebel (and often get a free rebel garrison, grrrrrrr).

If the horde thing is true, it might be relatively common in Kingdoms Britannia where there are permanent forts on the map. Haven't played a Britannia campaign yet so I don't know, I went back to vanilla after playing Americas and Teutonic.

I highly doubt that this is true, but here is a possible test:
During the course of a campaign, right before you defeat a faction, build a fort and move_character (or whatever the command is) to put one of their family members into the fort. Take the last city and see what happens.

PS I am glad you are not a communist

[Monsieur Alphonse]

The only factions that have the horde attribute are the Mongols and the Timurids. If they lose their last settlement but have a family member left they will survive as a faction and carry on scaring the hell out of innocent little girls.

[Iavorios]

Unfortunately, in MTW 2 if you take all the settlements of a faction it is gone. And this is it. I have many times seen 2-3 full armies with family members turning in to rebels when i take the last city or castle. The Turks or the Milanese or Sicily are typically case for this. It is boring, not fer and basically stupid. Not to mention that they can not be bribed. I mean these army's sometimes are so strong, that I have to assinete the general and bring a full scale army to kill them all.

[PseRamesses]

Deus Io Vult uses the horde feature for many factions not only the "classical" horde factions.

[Sentinel]

Ouote by Iavorios

Unfortunately, in MTW 2 if you take all the settlements of a faction it is gone. And this is it. I have many times seen 2-3 full armies with family members turning in to rebels when i take the last city or castle. The Turks or the Milanese or Sicily are typically case for this. It is boring, not fer and basically stupid. Not to mention that they can not be bribed. I mean these army's sometimes are so strong, that I have to assinete the general and bring a full scale army to kill them all.

If a faction wasn’t destroyed when their last settlement was taken then all their armies and navies would still be on the map. It would take forever to go around mopping these up. Imagine trying to find the last few Russian units that are lying in ambush somewhere. You could spend hours / days trying to find them.

One compromise could be to let them survive, but they suffer from desertion the same way crusading armies do. This way they will have a few turns to retake a settlement and get themselves back on the map before fading away.

[Ramses II CP]

Except that AI crusade armies do not suffer desertion. :(

[ReiseReise]

I don't think the family member armies gain any troops when they turn rebel, so you would have to fight them anyway, what difference does it make what color they are? The only thing that makes it difficult is that you must be the attacker and cannot slaughter them in a siege.