And now what???

[zburanuki]

Hello everyone, i'm playing one of the most unexpected campaign on bc 2.3.2 with the byzantines and i have one little problem,but first i will explain you the whole situation.Oh i also play in medium/medium difficulty.

I was in war with the Rum Seljuks from the second turn so i had to form alliances with the Armenians and the Crusaders,as they are my next possible enemies.I managed to take Dorylaeum,Amorium and with much luck Sevasteia (Sivas). But the Turks tried to answer by sieging Sevasteia and Herakleia.One turn before the sieges i allied with my fellow christians,by givins seleukeia and leukosia to the Latins and Sevasteia to the Armenians.So by accident the Turks declare war on the Armenians and after 2-3 turns the crusaders took Laranda from them.

Finally we destroyed the Seljuks,but i only managed to take Ankara,Iconium and Theodosiopolis (Erzurum),while the Armenians took Amasia,Kirshehir and Caesarea.The crusaders just destroyed the turkish full stack armies.After some turns i payed some money and gace some regions to my allies and took back all the anatolian regions and leukosia except Kirshehir and Amasia.I followed the same strategy with the georgians,as the had Kutaisi and Ani in rebelion very often.

Now i have all the Antolian regions except Kirshehir and Amasia,the 2 crimean regions,Ani and Melitene (Malatya).The Armenians have Cilicia,Cairo (i gave it),the whole Mesopotamia and 2 omani cities.The crusaders have all the Levant,Tayma,Medina,Mecca and the mediterranean egyptian shores.And finally the georgians have the whole russian steppe,azerbaijan,modern day armenia and georgia and the whole Persia until Nishapur (!yes it's true!).

And now i ask your opinion,what can i do to expand? Obviously i had to betray one fo my allies,but who? I'm thinking about attacking Armenia but will my other 2 allies follow me?Oh and my relations are outstanding with all my allies and my reputation is deceitful (i think) with the 2 orthodox factions and very untrustworthy with crusaders.

p.s. i haven't sack any settlement,only destroying buildings when exchanged a settlement.

[k/t]

Your reputation is universal; it doesn't vary from one faction to another.

[Farwest]

Can you show us a screen from your map ? I really wondered how georgians extended much far to there.

[zburanuki]

i cant upload the map,sorry.about the reputation i didn't know it,but anyway.so any suggestions please???

[Ansar Warrior]

Yeah if you betray one of your allies and they are also allies with your others then you run the risk of them breaking off their alliance with you.

Stop being a wimp lol.

The best game I ever played was with Oman I ended up completing the game.

1) I had to kick 2 super powers (Ayyubids & then Ottomans) out of the Hijaz, it was very back and forth especially with the Turks who kept throwing full stack armies at me.

2) When I beat them all the way up to Aquaba I invaded and conquered Egypt whilst keeping the Rum Turks off my back.

3) Now I can't specifically remember why or when but I ended up becoming a vassal of the Seljuk Turks who joint with the Ottomans were the 2 mass super powers in the game. lol now I remember the Ottomans were on friendly terms with the Seljuks and when I became a vassal of the Seljuks the Ottomans had to avoid attacking me otherwise all hell would have broken loose with the Seljuks.

4) Eventually it had to happen I was biting up too much Ottoman territory and they attacked back .... all hell broke loose for them anyway, Seljuks attacked them from the East while I hit them up from the Levant skirting the Crusaders.

5) My plan all along was to bide my time till I was strong enough then turn on the Seljuks, once I took Anatolia, Syria, most of the levant (apart from the crusader states) and most of Iraq and destroyed the remaining Ottomans I was equal with the Seljuks in power.

6) To make sure the Seljuks were crippled enough not to be able to retaliate hard enough I sent 3-4 units to as many settlements of their as possible and built up some stacked Arab cavalry armies to come sweeping up from the levant.

7) I hit within 3 turns probably about 10+ of their settlements at once and they fell like dominos, they tried to fight back but were already fighting the Kypchaks who I'd befriended somewhat and couldn't stop my rampaging horse hordes in Syria and Iraq.

8) I systematically destroyed the Seljuks then offered an alliance with the Kypchaks, they said no and I entered the Steppes with about 8-9 fully stacked armies and looked like an Arabic version of the invading Mongol armies and crushed the Kyps.

9) Won the game.


....... I just realise I completely hijacked this guy's thread, sorry lol.

[Kitsunegari]

Wow i could barely get them to accept trade rights when playing as the Romans, what difficulty are you playing on?

[Iguanaonastick]

I for one would not betray any allies because that's just skeevy. In this mod the AI is loyal to you when it matters. They saved your hide against the sultanate of Rum, so rewarding that with a stab in the back seems off.

So I'd attack the Kypchaks or mount a naval invasion against the Ayyubids. Egypt once was Roman, after all.

[zburanuki]

I play on medium difficulty,but if i didn't give some regions to Armenia and Jerusalem i couldn't have trade rights and alliance.The Kypchaks are dead by the mighty giant of Georgia lol,so i will attack the Ayyubids,but they just have all the Makurian territories and Luxor.So after the Ayyubids i have to take about 20 more regions to finish the campaign,but where? maybe an invasion in India?

[DirtyACE]

Why are you in such a hurry to finish the campaign? The 60 region goal is just a number, there's so much more to the game than just 60 regions. Enjoy it.

[R26]

If you have good reputation, you can buy regions from your allies.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...omatic+victory

[zburanuki]

on the contrary i don't want to finish the campaign so fast,but my problem is that i cant' expand right now.well,i took luxor,meroe,touggoul,ibrim and the castle next to touggoul and below ibrim,but i want my empire to be united and not have some parts of the whole map.i also took dvin,van and kirshehir from the armenians as they rebeled and i will try to exchange and buy some other settlements,but i'm bored of that way of conquest, i want battles lol !

[Dago Red]

Turn your campaign and battle difficulty up to hard/hard next time, that will help.

Short of that I agree with Iguana. Role play the campaign. What would the Eastern Roman Emperor do?
Firstly, you want to reclaim all the historically Roman lands, but how you go about it is up to how you want to role play. Some combination of deceit and backstabbing while still honoring alliances could be fun. The Kingdom of Jerusalem are not historically close allies of yours AT ALL.

Has the 4th Crusade happened yet? That's the Crusader's friends and family plan coming at you -- so your alliance is null and void imo. Feel free to engage in open hostilities with them. Personally I'd aim for a lasting peace eventually but you shouldn't hesitate to go to war with them over key regions.

Armenia might be different, they could be allies but better yet, incorporated into the empire. Sadly there are not many options for this in m2tw's engine. Without open warfare you have 2 options, or a combination of both: Buy them off with huge sums of money, and make them a protectorate. Use agents to ruin their cities and then liberate them once they rebel, that while dragging them into wars as your ally will degrade them to the point they may eventually welcome protectorate status with a simple land trade.

[zburanuki]

i'm around 1265 and i have claim all anatolian regions (as they rebeled),edessa (bought it from the armenians and gave them ibrim),antioch and on egypt i have cairo (pay the armenians),luxor, debarwa,faras,touggoul,meroe,axum (the ghorids declare jihad on it),and now i'm marching towards basse (the last ayyubid city).so after i finish with the ayyubids and the ghorids i will happily backstab the latins,but will the other 2 fellow christians follow me? that's why i hesitate to take off the crusaders (by the way the just took the little island on the indian ocean). anyway thanks for the replies!

[k/t]

If you send a crappy assassin who fails his mission and war is declared as a result, I think the war will count as having been started by the other side, so your common allies might be more likely to side with you. I'm not sure though, so save first. I think reputation and relations will count as well.