New hints ???????????????

[caravel]

Sorry Jxrc, after posting that I had an idea that I may have totally missed point.

[Jxrc]

Sorry Jxrc, after posting that I had an idea that I may have totally missed point.

No problem. I did the same at work yesterday ... an embarassing moment indeed ...

My excuse was that I was probably thinking about the faction that I would play as on the next Saturday or considering for the 1,000th time whether arbs +1 are better than pavise arbs valour 0

have a nice week-end

[Weebeast]

That coast-raid, mounted x-bow thing is an exploit. It's like spamming Chivalric MAA and deliberately auto-calculating when facing a combined army or horde of horse archers which you probably won't beat in the field with no forest. Roman Byzantine princes deserve better... I don't know, javelins through rib cage and total destruction of their army?

[Jxrc]

That coast-raid, mounted x-bow thing is an exploit.

Both hints are exploits, no question about that.

Even more so the one with the spies since the AI never uses spies and cannot really defend itself (it takes ages before it add a border fort).

For the one with X-Bows, it's an exploit that uses the AI's reliance on likely auto-calc results to decide whether or not to withdraw (just the opposite system as the one to which you refer with Chivalric Seargents). When the two mounted xbows attack, the AI is silly enough to imagine that the fight will be decided hand-to-hand and assume that a high valour katatank will prevail without problem.

On the other hand, you have to acknowledge that the Byz are massiverly advantaged when they fight the Turks lead by the AI. Given that all battles between AI factions are auto-calc, missile units are not properly taken into account and it's a common occurrence to see one jedi general with a few peasents and slav warriors beat one full stack of HA, spearmen and Turcoman horses.

I am not saying that those tricks should be used but I find they are a nice way to readjust a war between two AI factions without needing loads of ressources ... If you use those tricks against a faction that is already fully at war with you, the games becomes way too easy. I would say that the best part of those tricks is that they enable you to turtle while making sure that one of the AI factions does not own the map before you start making a move.

After that, it's up to anyone to use (or not use).

[caravel]

Even more so the one with the spies since the AI never uses spies and cannot really defend itself (it takes ages before it add a border fort).

The AI trains spies but does not use them on "drag and drop" missions. This is odd because it can use emissaries and assassins in this way, so one would assume that it can use spies to reveal vices also. One possible explanation for this is that it is a bug. The Spy is essentially the STW Shinobi rebranded, though it's drag and drop abilities are extra (the Shinobi had none). It may be that the missions were added but the code was not added to cause the Spy to perform them.

As to Spy behaviour, it's basically broken. AI controlled Spies in MTW do not do much except for massing in one home province. They occasionally do go on the move for no apparent reason but they have very little effect. I have a theory as to why this is. What keeps Assassins, Inquisitors, Princesses and Emissaries moving around are their missions. In particular, Princesses often sit in a particular province if they can find nothing else to do. If these other agents did not have their drag and drop functions they would probably sit around like Spies as well. Priests are far more interesting though, as they appear to work. Priests head for a province en masse and try to convert it. When they arrive in a province it's often the case that an invasion will be the next move. Spies should have been set up to do the same. Spies should also have headed out to reveal vices as this would keep them moving around.

On the other hand, you have to acknowledge that the Byz are massiverly advantaged when they fight the Turks lead by the AI. Given that all battles between AI factions are auto-calc, missile units are not properly taken into account and it's a common occurrence to see one jedi general with a few peasents and slav warriors beat one full stack of HA, spearmen and Turcoman horses.

Very true, this is because MTW does not have balanced armies as with STW. The AI Turks are pretty much a hopeless faction due to missile units. To compensate for this, the Turk unit roster needs modding and units such as Horse Archers removed. The Turks have Turcoman Horse which are stronger, so they don't need HA's. Also the Turks do not need Archers and Desert Archers. Turcoman Foot are better as a base archer unit and have stronger stats. It is also essential that peasants are removed from the game. Once the Turks are fielding these sorts of units, with Ghazis and AHC they have a better chance in auto-calced AI vs AI battles.

[Jxrc]

As to Spy behaviour, it's basically broken. AI controlled Spies in MTW do not do much except for massing in one home province. They occasionally do go on the move for no apparent reason but they have very little effect.

Perhaps the AI is very keen to get those very useful information bulletins "faction A is massing for a new offensive. It appears that faction B is their target" :-)))

Very true, this is because MTW does not have balanced armies as with STW. The AI Turks are pretty much a hopeless faction due to missile units. To compensate for this, the Turk unit roster needs modding and units such as Horse Archers removed. The Turks have Turcoman Horse which are stronger, so they don't need HA's. Also the Turks do not need Archers and Desert Archers. Turcoman Foot are better as a base archer unit and have stronger stats. It is also essential that peasants are removed from the game. Once the Turks are fielding these sorts of units, with Ghazis and AHC they have a better chance in auto-calced AI vs AI battles.

Is there a mod that would do that only ? Or an easy way even for an idiot to achieve that result ? The idea seems great but I am not at all proficient for that kind of thing and do not really want a completely new game, getting rid of peasants for all faction seems a nice project and that would help the Egyptian a lot in early.

[Weebeast]

Both hints...

Well you didn't say you're turtling. I know people have ways to play game their and I'm not trying to change those way. I presumed you're one of those people who play for challenge, whose goal is to conquer whole map so I kinda didn't expect the hint to be as direct as editing the game, giving Byzantine one province and give it an infantry plus the king unit while you invade with two mounted x-bows. I play using -ian on top of mod myself because I play SP mostly for immersion although I like challenge as I'm almost always outnumbered.

Is there a mod that would do that only ? Or an easy way even for an idiot to achieve that result ? The idea seems great but I am not at all proficient for that kind of thing and do not really want a completely new game, getting rid of peasants for all faction seems a nice project and that would help the Egyptian a lot in early.

I can't remember about BKB's Supermod but I know XL Mod gets rid of peasants and Turks are strong. It used to not have siege units too I think but I'm not sure why they're back. I'd presume all vanilla-based mods get rid of peasants or balanced AI's army in general. As for -ian, what it basically does is lets you control first 20 faction in game. You also have the option to play all battles that are initiated in the campaign but I can't recall which button as I don't play all battles. It's pretty fun. It's like playing series of custom battles with a map. It deals with most of problems you mention such as Turks army composition without the trouble of modding the game through trial and error since you're training the army yourself.
https://forums.totalwar.org/wiki/ind..._Line_Switches

[Jxrc]

Well you didn't say you're turtling. I know people have ways to play game their and I'm not trying to change those way. I presumed you're one of those people who play for challenge, whose goal is to conquer whole map so I kinda didn't expect the hint to be as direct as editing the game, giving Byzantine one province and give it an infantry plus the king unit while you invade with two mounted x-bows.

You misunderstood me. No modding involved. You may indeed gather from my previous post that I could not mod the game even if I wanted to. I have been playing the game as developped after VI for ages and never changed a thing. All happens on the strategic map. Just need to get rid of the byz navy (i mean sink it and not erase it from the map) and there is nothing more to it.just as simple trick to keep some balance among Ai faction no deleting of units involved

I can't remember about BKB's Supermod but I know XL Mod gets rid of peasants and Turks are strong. It used to not have siege units too I think but I'm not sure why they're back. I'd presume all vanilla-based mods get rid of peasants or balanced AI's army in general. As for -ian, what it basically does is lets you control first 20 faction in game. You also have the option to play all battles that are initiated in the campaign but I can't recall which button as I don't play all battles. It's pretty fun. It's like playing series of custom battles with a map. It deals with most of problems you mention such as Turks army composition without the trouble of modding the game through trial and error since you're training the army yourself.
https://forums.totalwar.org/wiki/ind..._Line_Switches

Many thanks for the info. I'll give it a go when I get the chance.

[Weebeast]

You misunderstood me. No modding involved...

I was just giving you a bad comparison with that province thing. My apologies. I understood you hence I told you about "-ian" which lets you take control of Byzantine and disband the navy. Anyway, happy gaming and here's the thread from early days that talks about switches in case you're unsure if your extension is correct, etc... https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=26511