When I was doing a short campaign as Scotland, I got one of my enemies to become as vassal. It might have been the French. I didn’t really get to see what it was like because that won the game for me, increasing my territory amount enough to put me over 15. I don’t know how it calculated that.
I think patch 1.2 tweaked the AI so they’d make smarter decisions about when to attack you and when to surrender and such.
I forced the Scipio into being my vassal in Rome: Total War. That meant that Rome, the Julii, and the Brutii were my sworn allies as well. That grand campaign ended VERY nicely.
Go Carthage!
It is my sad duty to inform this conclave that the empire hovers on the brink of destruction. :eek: Stretched to our economic limits, without the funds necessary to either build our infrastructure, our military capability or even to replace our troops, those bastards Milan and France have both waded into the fray, putting 3 of our fronteer cities (and a castle) under siege…a siege I have no idea how I’m going to be able to either withstand nor relieve. Those border towns and castle have the barest minimum of garrison troops…I having stripped everything to the bone just to keep the war with the Holy Roman Empire and Poland going. The HRE was pretty much on the ropes, and Poland falling back…until this turn of events.
I currently have one field force commanded by Prince Thorgils. This force is beat up and bedraggled with not a single regiment up to full strength. Facing me is at least 3 full stacks of Milan soldiers, a full stack of whats left of the HRE, several smaller stacks…and a few bloody Frenchmen on the borders moving our way.
It looks grim. I’ll let you guys know what happens and pass the game on to Miller as soon as the king dies off. Maybe HE can save us from disaster. Just a heads up Miller…prepare for the worst. 
-XT
In your estimation, what happened? Was it something you inherited? Was it all of the allies/trading partners turning their backs to you for whatever reason? Army/upkeep too expensive?
We were stretched too thin. Milan at least (gods know with the French) had a rather large army in the field. I had tried to send diplomats with treaties to Milan and even gave them some gifts…I pretty much figured they were going to treacherize us at some point. Its just the way the AI worked.
The problem was that we just don’t have enough money built up or enough reserves for such a back stab. I usually turtle, myself (and I never join a crusade early on which we appearently did at some point), slowly building up resources.
I’m not saying the game isn’t salvagable. I plan on playing tonight after our family gathering and I HOPE to make a few epic stands (and rely on the AI to do stupid things in the 4 sieges I told you about), as well as try and smash at least 2 of the 3 Milan field armies. The problem I forsee is that, again, we have zero in the treasury and negative income per turn (we were up to a few hundred gold positive, but with 4 sieges that dropped like a stone)…so I can’t replace troops or get new ones. I have to pretty much fight with what I’ve got. I’m thinking of stripping all the cities/castles we have in the holy land and trying to take a few rebel cities, then sacking them for cash. This will probably mean that, ultimately, we lose most of those cities and castles…but it might give me enough cash to fend off Milan while I finish smashing the HRE and Poland, then turn on Milan and France. In the mean time I’ll try and see if I can get either of them to agree to a ceasefire…and hope the Pope takes it into his head to call for one.
I’ll let you guys know, and definitely I’ll finish my turn tonight and send the results to Miller. Sorry its taken so long, I’ve been doing a lot of family stuff (since its a holiday weekend) since I got my turn, and haven’t been able to devote more than an hour or two. And at this point in the game you pretty much HAVE to play through every battle…we simply don’t have the option of automatically resolving things, as we can’t replace the losses.
-XT
Don’t worry about the length of time. It’s actually going quicker than I expected.
Perhaps there are some territories that it would ultimately be better to let the enemy take for now?
Don’t sweat it if we lose the campaign. If it happens we’ll keep moving through the queue the way it is now and someone can start a new campaign as Portugal.
Have you been keeping in the pope’s good favor? If so, then he surely can’t be happy with all the Catholic factions attacking us and hopefully has excommunicated one of them. Maybe you can get him to call a Crusade against one of them.
Well, we could eventually end up into a feint. I’d say, that what you may have to do, is to pull everything back up to Magdeburg or that big fortress above that, raze everything south to the ground, and let the Catholic nations get on the Pope’s shit list. After that (make sure the Pope isn’t too old) we can think about striking back.
Drastic? Yes. Necessary? I hope not yet.
Ok…good. Because I only got in an hour today and I’m not going to get much in tonight after all. However, the main fortress with the king is under siege and there is probably not much hope I can relieve the siege…its in a castle off the coast of France and its pretty isolated.
So far I’ve been able to hold off Milan by and large, though they have several castles and cities under siege I have a field force currently eating into the Polish and whats left of the HRE. My guess is we’ll have to write off the holy land cities and castles though…they just aren’t supportable unless Milan relents or something else breaks. That will probably be up to Miller as I doubt I’ll have more than 10 more turns unless Milan backs off of the siege the king is in.
I’ll let you guys know tomorrow and probably be sending Miller the file at that time.
-XT
Maybe we should have a rule where if you have less than 10 turns total you only get bumped down one or two slots, not to the bottom. Or something like that. That way people who inherit a bad situation won’t be completely screwed over.
That sounds reasonable to me. Sometimes your king starts off as old, or sometimes he’s in a really bad position to begin with.
-XT
Agreed.
A good idea, but how about if your king dies in less then ten turns, you just keep playing with the next heir? Seems it would make keeping track of whose turn it is easier.
Yeah, I suppose keeping things from getting too complicated is more important.
The King is dead…long live the King!
Unfortunately, my king has died and left Miller with a bit of a mess. The Spanish, in their infinite wisdom, have ALSO decided to wade into the fray (gods know why). Here is the current state of the realm my lords:
The new king is Thorgils…age 42. Currently we have a total of 17 generals, 9 cities, and 11 castles (for 20 controlled regions). It is the year of our lord 1316. The treasury stands at -808 and there is currently a net deficit, mainly due to the number of cities and castles the enemy have under siege. On the bright side, we currently have 4 enemy cities/castles under siege, and if we can take the capital of Milan we should net quite a tidy sum in a sack…probably something like 20k at least. In addition, I somehow managed to hold onto our cities in the holy land by the skin of my teeth and a few epic victories.
The realm is at war right now with the HRE, Spain, Milan, the Byzantine Empire and Poland. Of those, only Milan is a true threat, and I’ve managed to wittle them down quite a bit, as well as prevent them from taking any of OUR cities. I’ve even managed to build a few trading type structures and rebuild, somewhat, our various field armies. I leave Miller in good shape wrt several fully manned regiments that he can bring together to form some nice field armies to torture Milan…thats who I would concentrate on anyway, as well as finishing off the HRE and Poland (I would have finished them off already but the Pope basically called a halt to both of my efforts on that score…wish he’d have picked Milan!).
Anyway, I’ll email Miller the saved game now as soon as I find his email address and get the saved game file ready. Good luck!
-XT
The beginning should have been filled with more diplomacy. That’s my autopsy.
Well, the game was far from ‘dead’ when I turned things over to Miller. If he can manage to win one or two key battles I think we are golden. Basically the HRE and Poland have like one city/castle left each AFAICT. We have the capital of Milan under siege when I turned things over and Spain is really not much of a threat. Just before the king died I smashed 2 invasion stacks and fended off a major siege with heavy losses to the Spanish…I seriously doubt they have much left. Also, I had gotten France (whats left of it) to sue for peace just before the end.
The only problems I see are our lack of gold in the treasury when the plague will hit soon, and our weak position in the holy land when the Mongols (and Timerands) will be coming soon. We will most likely lose our 2 castles and city there eventually, unless we can re-inforce and finish off the Byzantine’s.
Still, I think we are doing fine…we’ll see what Miller thinks when he gives us a status report.
-XT
I hate how the AI cheats. You can have things wrapped up, or an ally since the very beginning tell you they don’t want an alliance anymore. I’ve had some weird ass shit go on, like Florence revolting and going to the Papal States (I was/am Portugese and bought Florence from rebels).
Stupid game.
It’s good to hear that the game isn’t dead yet, though. Considering that every one of your neighbors wanted to kill you, I think you did a good job, senor.
Alright, I give up. I’ve spent the last three hours trying to install the 1.1 patch, and I just can’t figure it out.
Little help here?
Are you on 1.2 or 1.0? If on 1.2 have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling? If on 1.0, what’s happening when you try to upgrade?
I hate stuff like this too, and the game we’re running appears typical. In reality, nations don’t do the crab-bucket thing because they’ll get creamed by the big guy they’re trying to take down – just like in this game.
I could understand it if they had a chance to win, but usually when nations gang up on me all it does is alter the strategy I was trying to test out :mad:.
btw, how are other nations’ infantry and cavalry looking like this time of the century in this particular game? I’ve never played M2:TW this far into it, but in M:TW you’d be getting into some pretty good cavalry and infantry units right about now, especially with the HRE (which we’re about to conquer thankfully, are have we already?) However, being Denmark we probably aren’t being totally surpassed in infantry just yet.