Well, okay, there's not much to talk about. I cheated my way into playing Poland right from the start, since that is about the biggest reason to wait for the game in the first place
I've got a great starting position. Nothing but rebel towns all around, with just the HRE and Hungary close by. I'm buttering up the HRE and moving for an alliance with Hungary, so that my flanks are (relatively) protected, and then - a big push to the East!
I just hope I'll be able to secure the eastern part of the map with gigantic castles before the Mongols arrive
The Pope is being a pain - he just called a Crusade, and I think I'm gonna give him the finger this time. I can't spare eight units just to please the old coot. I've got a diplomat on my way to Rome, though, so I'll bribe him if he decides to get rowdy.
What are night attacks good for? I see the option in sieges, but what does it do?
Okay, this post was pretty random, but I'm just getting into the game.
Also, aren't the archers really bad shots? (that's a total random guess by me).
I'm wailing on the Sicilians right now. I took Milan and Genoa from them. The Milanese have been wiped out. I just landed a Culverin equipped uber-army (with Knights Hospitaller) in North Africa, I'm gonna take the Moors out. They've only got Granada left in Spain, I'll let Spain have that.
Dartzap wrote:....Do troops have different clothes when in cold weather conditions? I swear I saw some longbowmen wearing animal hide coats, or something.
You sure it wasn't padded armor, one of the first armor upgrades for them?
Dartzap wrote:...For Retinue longbowmen? I doubt it, I was upto heavymail by that point.
Guess I've started seeing things
Tsk tsk tsk. Be precise. Retinue Longbowmen != Longbowmen.
To be honest- I don't see the point in Retinue Longbowmen- I mean sure, I've got them and I'll build them, but I'm not going to replace my Yeomen Archers with them unless one of my units gets decimated. The extra armor isn't worth it- if you use your archers right, they'll never take serious casualties, if any.
InnocentBystander wrote:So what did you do before cannons?
I generally let him attack the city and tried to destroy his army by making a stand in the city square. That's why I mentioned earlier that longbowmen can put down their sharpened stakes in the city square; a very handy feature when outnumbered in a siege.
Of course, my tactics have changed now that I have cannon towers. I can pound the hell out of them before they assault the city, and without culverins, they can't bring their siege weapons in range of the walls without losing them.
I've been using catapults and crossbows to lame the computer out of sieges, but against enemies with artillary it doesn't always work so well. I find that the best way to push back the computer from cities is with a field army, plus large city garrisons, which is very, very expensive to maintain.
Maintaining sufficient military power (without my uber-cities) to sally out and take besieging armies in the field is indeed quite expensive. I pay close attention to my economy, which is why I tend to use mostly militia units in cities because you get free upkeep to a point. I also expanded slowly in Europe until I had reached a higher level of economy and advancement. Overreaching yourself is a mistake.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
I'm really, really sick of the Italian armies. What the fuck is up with Sicily? Every army of theirs I destroy is comprised of a ludicrous amount of Pavise Crossbow militia. It's a fucking joke.
Oh, and warning about a bug in the game- Billmen and English Knights (and possibly other two-hander units) are fucking useless against cavalry. They won't even attack. This has resulted in ludicrous battle outcomes where a few cavalry will hack god knows how many men to pieces before I realise what's going on and rush a unit that can actually swing a weapon at them.
Interesting. I've never noticed because I always swing around my own cavalry to hit a flanking cavalry attack head-on.
On the other hand, the cheap spear militias that you get early in the game are surprisingly effective. For most of the game, my border cities were garrisoned with spear militia units (6 of which have free upkeep in the bigger cities) and 2 to 4 units of longbowmen (no free upkeep there, but planting them behind wooden stakes in the city square in a position to fire down the avenue of approach can really fuck up an invading army, especially since they're all crowded together on the city streets). I once repelled a unit of dismounted feudal knights at the ladders by putting two units of spear militia there. If it were RTW, and I was trying to stop a unit of legionaries with 2 units of town watch on the walls, my town watch would have been butchered.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Darth Wong wrote:Interesting. I've never noticed because I always swing around my own cavalry to hit a flanking cavalry attack head-on.
I first discovered it in a battle in a city- I sent in Billmen to finish off a few Mailed Knights- and was aghast as they promptly killed every Billman and the Billmen did absolutely nothing- besides die.
Same thing happened again with Dismounted English Knights later on.
On the other hand, the cheap spear militias that you get early in the game are surprisingly effective. For most of the game, my border cities were garrisoned with spear militia units (6 of which have free upkeep in the bigger cities) and 2 to 4 units of longbowmen (no free upkeep there, but planting them behind wooden stakes in the city square in a position to fire down the avenue of approach can really fuck up an invading army, especially since they're all crowded together on the city streets). I once repelled a unit of dismounted feudal knights at the ladders by putting two units of spear militia there. If it were RTW, and I was trying to stop a unit of legionaries with 2 units of town watch on the walls, my town watch would have been butchered.
I've yet to actually be attacked at a settlement and have them come at my walls- I usually sally out before hand and destroy them, but then IIRC you play on VH and I just can't deal with that level of masochism
Speaking of spearmen- England is supposed to get Armored Seargants- another bug. They only appear in the Custom Battle. Apparently the same applies to the Holy Roman Empire- they're supposed to get Dismounted Gothic Knights, but they apparently don't appear in the campaign.
Darth Wong wrote:Interesting. I've never noticed because I always swing around my own cavalry to hit a flanking cavalry attack head-on.
I first discovered it in a battle in a city- I sent in Billmen to finish off a few Mailed Knights- and was aghast as they promptly killed every Billman and the Billmen did absolutely nothing- besides die.
Same thing happened again with Dismounted English Knights later on.
On the other hand, the cheap spear militias that you get early in the game are surprisingly effective. For most of the game, my border cities were garrisoned with spear militia units (6 of which have free upkeep in the bigger cities) and 2 to 4 units of longbowmen (no free upkeep there, but planting them behind wooden stakes in the city square in a position to fire down the avenue of approach can really fuck up an invading army, especially since they're all crowded together on the city streets). I once repelled a unit of dismounted feudal knights at the ladders by putting two units of spear militia there. If it were RTW, and I was trying to stop a unit of legionaries with 2 units of town watch on the walls, my town watch would have been butchered.
I've yet to actually be attacked at a settlement and have them come at my walls- I usually sally out before hand and destroy them, but then IIRC you play on VH and I just can't deal with that level of masochism
Speaking of spearmen- England is supposed to get Armored Seargants- another bug. They only appear in the Custom Battle. Apparently the same applies to the Holy Roman Empire- they're supposed to get Dismounted Gothic Knights, but they apparently don't appear in the campaign.
I noticed that same thing with my English knights, during a city battle. I kept trying to charge French units that were coming down from the walls but my English knights just wouldn't charge. They just stood idly, taking casualties.
I've been having a difficult time expanding my British territories. I'm always scraping around for money, I can't reinvest in my cities and castles, and I can't sustain enough field armies. I can scrap together two full stacks of military units (not militia) in Northern France and maybe one on the British Isle, if I push it, but beyond that I can't really push beyond Angers and Rheims.
Yeah, I checked at lunch with some custom battles on Medium difficulty to remove any biases, and any unit with polearms or billhooks won't strike cavalry with them. Any cavalry casualties against such a unit are purely incidental, ie- as a result of a horseman running himself onto someone's weapon.
On the other hand, I also tried a quick test of heavy bill militia against French feudal knights in a city siege. Four units of heavy bill militia on the walls defending against four units of French dismounted feudal knights in siege towers. The HBM units wavered but held their ground, and the French eventually routed and fled from the walls. So those billhook militia units may be useless against cavalry on the ground, but they're quite good against infantry on the walls. Hopefully they'll fix that cavalry bug soon.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
InnocentBystander wrote:So what did you do before cannons?
I generally let him attack the city and tried to destroy his army by making a stand in the city square. That's why I mentioned earlier that longbowmen can put down their sharpened stakes in the city square; a very handy feature when outnumbered in a siege.
Of course, my tactics have changed now that I have cannon towers. I can pound the hell out of them before they assault the city, and without culverins, they can't bring their siege weapons in range of the walls without losing them.
Since archers can only be trained in castles, I generally don't have them available in cities, just pavise crossbowmen. Even so, the only way I could see 10 units of garrison quality infantry holding back a full stack is with the time limit, and I don't like time limits.
I've been using catapults and crossbows to lame the computer out of sieges, but against enemies with artillary it doesn't always work so well. I find that the best way to push back the computer from cities is with a field army, plus large city garrisons, which is very, very expensive to maintain.
Maintaining sufficient military power (without my uber-cities) to sally out and take besieging armies in the field is indeed quite expensive. I pay close attention to my economy, which is why I tend to use mostly militia units in cities because you get free upkeep to a point. I also expanded slowly in Europe until I had reached a higher level of economy and advancement. Overreaching yourself is a mistake.[/quote]
I have a full army defending Greece, two large garrisons and a small army in northern Italty, a full army in Sicily, a full army in Antioch, and another full army running around burning down muslim cities while the Mongols invade, burning every building I can and sacking the city to keep my gold reserves up. Plus I'm having trouble controlling the seas, where the HRE still has a significant navy (milan, Sicily, Byzantium, and the muslim powers in the east all have relatively small navies by now).
InnocentBystander wrote:So what did you do before cannons?
I generally let him attack the city and tried to destroy his army by making a stand in the city square.
That's what my best friend did against me and another friend in a 2v1 siege on Rome. He was playing Carthage. Me and my ally were confused when there was no one on the walls and after we break through and start moving we see phalanxes by the tonne blocking every route into the square. As we get closer we also find out he has some onagers as well, lobbing rocks at us (they actually did more damage to the city than we did). None of us had brought any archers so we're reduced to charging into the front of 2 phalanxes. Half my armies gone by the time i break through one of the phalanxes (My ally had already started running) and just as i'm surging past i find the next surprise: Elephants. I could hear his laughter as the beasts just rumbled down the street crushing everything in their path and pretty much ending the battle bar the crying.
Funny thing was a few weeks later i was on Teamspeak with some other friends and one of them mentions he's been playing Rome with him. When i ask him if he's played a siege with him i get the response "Fuck! Do you know what that fucker did?" to which i can laughingly reply that I did.
Ph34r teh eyebrow!!11!Writers GuildSluggitePawn of ChaosWYGIWYGAINGW so now i have to put ACPATHNTDWATGODW in my sigEBC-Honorary Geordie Hammerman! Hammer!
Guys, I want your own, perhaps unbiased opinion on this.
Wtf is with the AI? Im playing on medium and the computer controlled armies are utterly fucking stupid.
For example, an entire army marched right in front of me and stopped IN RANGE of my archers. I fired all my ammo at them just standing there.
Another example is the battle I described in another thread: I basically annihilated a 1400 army using two general units and a few crossbow mercenaries. I had my cavalry roaming their flanks, which probably confused them a bit, but when they punched two big holes in my walls the only thing they'd do is to assault the city en masse. And I'd be fucked.
Another thing is for AI reinforcements. I stupidly and recklessly handed the control of a small reinforcement army to the AI and proceeded to play with my cavalry units. What was the results? The general rushed HEAD ON the Denmark army and I almost lost a very good character (five stars). Luckily the unit routed before he was killed.
I mean, did I do something when installing or configuring the game? Or is there an "AI Retard" option in the menu that I checked by mistake?
Comparing to medieval 2, Rome was a fucking genius. At least they moved out of the range of my archer units.
I do still enjoy the game very much, but the overall experience would go through the roof if I could have a decent battle that would present SOME challenge. I maybe lost more battles than in Rome, but every grand thing that I was sure of losing I ended up with slaughtering their entire army. And Im no military genius either.
So what's your take on the enemy AI? Is there a way to improve it? Maybe setting the AI battke difficulty to high?
Tolya wrote:
So what's your take on the enemy AI? Is there a way to improve it? Maybe setting the AI battke difficulty to high?
Bug. The game is currently buggy as all hell. Just check totalwarcenter for a complete list. It pretty obviously needed a couple more months in the development stage.
I keep the fights on very difficult and when attacked the AI will just sit there and 'take it' until you decide to charge. They will manuver a little, they will have their archers engage where possible, one fight they even move themselves onto the top of a hill and made it impossible for my catapults to hit them, but they just would not engage.
If you start up a custom battle they'll do the same thing. I did some custom fights to see which artillery was the best (turns out its the elephants with the cannons, they're innacurate as usual, but because they get 8 per unit, they manage to put up an impressive wall of fire. Ballistas turned out to be the most effective howerver). The armies were a full army of artillary units versus a full army of aztec warriors
The aztecs would *never* engage. Even against the wacky multi-barrel cannons, which don't do shit, they will just stand there and take it for as long as you want.
Another wonky thing I've noticed is that towers can't seem to work 100% of the time when sallying to attack from a city. I'll try to goad the AI into moving into range, but when they take the bait the arrow towers never open fire.
Also, be careful where you fight. I was fighting in a particularily mountainous region near Palermo. The guy I was attacking as at the top of a mountain, catapult unit, and the reinforcements were down below. I told my units to all start high up on the mountain. Charged in killed the army of 1 catapult unit and found that I could not get down the mountain with any of my units. I had to exit the battle where it gave me a pretty staggering loss.
Milan just got a nice kick in the nuts when I got 3 heroic victories in the same turn. It cost me excommunication but since I was getting gangbanged from every direction, it doesn't matter anyway.
Heroic victory 1:
Rushing towards their capital with 6 cavalry units (3 generals included), 2 longbowmen and 1 ballista. Inside the city were your typical mix of Milanese troops and numbers were equal. Unfortunatly, I didnt saw their army on the map behind the city, which were 80% spearmen. I kept pounding in the flanks of the reinforcing army but only managed to rout a few units (they had excellent morale). What followed was a game of cat and mouse in the streets of the city. Losses where high but eventually I managed to sack the city.
Heroic victory 2: impossible defence with half a stack of militia spearmen vs 1.5 stack of a Milanese crusader army, lots of religious fanatics included (those bastards hit hard on the walls). They also had a spy which opened the gate, luckely for me, the enemy only used their ladders and siege tower. I managed to fend off the attack on the walls and completely annihilate their army when sallying out.
Heroic victory 3: My army (400) enroute to their last city (or so I tought) gets attacked by 3 armies (1200 total) (one in front, one behind and one in the flank). My cavalry kept pounding in the army behind me, while my infantry/longbowmen kept the line against the army in front of me. The army in my flank wasn't that big and got swept away by my cavalry. 200 losses on my part while killing 900.
I think Milan has 2 provinces left in northern Italy. I think I finish them off and go turtelling in while defending from the South (Spain, Portugal) and east HRE. Portugal and HRE appear weak so far but Spain is sending high quality troops. None the less, I got to build up my infrastructure before expending further.
So...it's the year 1092 (I'm playing with the proper timescale of two turn a year), and ever since I told the Pope I won't be going on his little escapade to Jerusalem, he pretty much left me alone. Occasionally, I'll grant him some florins as a gift, and that's enough to make things stay peachy. The old coot doesn't even give me missions.
I expanded a bit to the East, but found the Russians there. So I'm buttering them up diplomatically until I can secure my position, build up my castles and cities, and crush them (they're Orthodox. Heh heh heh...). My posessions in the West stretch as far as the Magdeburg-Stetin-Prague line, and I've got a small naval presence in the Baltic.
I married off the daughter of my king to a Hungarian prince, who apparently loved Poland and Polish ways enough to join up with my faction. Strange thing is, that the Hungarians weren't very satisfied with this and my relations with them dropped right after the giant, pompous wedding ceremony. I wonder if you can engage in some dynastic politics. What happens if I kill off the entire royal family, and the only heir is the one who married into my faction? I suspect nothing, though.
Merchants are suspiciously hard to assasinate, I'm starting to observe. There's quite a lot of wealthy Venician and French bastards running around my lands, snatching my resources, and putting my merchants out of business, and yet my best assasin (subterfuge of 8) only has a 16% chance of killing a merchant. He kills off faction heirs left and right...
On the topic of assasins, for a few years I had a man in service who was the worst assassin in the world. He failed at every single attempt, and sure loved his snakes. Every target he was given, he attempted to kill by slipping a snake into their bed, and the critter would always slither off, chasing after a rodent. And yet he persevered - instead of stabbing the sleeping guy, he'd attempt to use his snake. It was a sad story, really, when all the other assasins racked up kills and experience, he was still a nobody in the business, because of his mice-loving snake. He died, eventually, during a failed attemp on a life of a Russian diplomat.
