Roleplaying to make the game harder

[Pakana]

Hi,

Have you tried this?

For example playing as a good king. Never have higher than normal taxes. Always let prisoners go. And always try to have peace with everyone. And no sacking of cities.

I found that it makes the game more challenging and fun. Without high taxes you don't have so much money and it really limits what you can do. I am currently playing with this style on France. Milan was a real trouble at start. Now, after a bloody war ( they got Ajaccio from me ) they got only Bern and Ajaccio thou and they are peaceful so I can't take those provinces. As I can only attack them if they declare war on me From time to time they want to now make alliance and demand some provinces for it. Brothels are also not allowed and thieves guilds must be burned if you "free" cities from tyrannical bad kings.

Another game that I have going is playing as heretic / pagan Denmark. Demolish all the churches. Pope loves it And protect all the witches and heretics. You can do this with assassinating enemy priests and assassins. I am trying to turn Europe into Bastion Of Heresy The witches do nasty things to your generals, but you just have to accept it. As it is the new way to go. The people are not too happy on the forced conversion. If they revolt I might have to exterminate the problematic cities. I have even some fortresses that have unhappy people due to religious unrest, which I have never seen before

[Yayattasa]

Oh yeah, I roleplayed a lot. In my game I was the ruthless conqueror, no peace with neighbors, no one get's out alive, kill everyone in sight, very high taxes, unrests are quelled by extermination type of character.

I also did some kind of realistic/strategist character. It was fun, but took too much to end.

[UndrState]

I try and play for good Reputation and chivalry, though I don't limit myself on taxes like you did. I have tried always fighting at <1:1 odds when on the attack (i.e. when I can control it), and that can be tough.

[Pakana]

I try and play for good Reputation and chivalry, though I don't limit myself on taxes like you did. I have tried always fighting at <1:1 odds when on the attack (i.e. when I can control it), and that can be tough.

Intentional 1:1 odds. Hmmm, that sounds like fun. Did not even think about it myself. I have to try it too.

[Pakana]

I just got a one new idea:

Plague paranoid

-Do everything to avoid the plagues.
-No trade buildings, no trade deals and prefer war against every neighbour, just in case
-Concentrate on farming and mining instead.
-Try to close all the borders so even the foreign agents can't come into your lands.
-And of course get assassins ready in case someone slips through the lines.

-Try to build all the health boosting buildings.

[Kataphractos]

I'll sometimes roleplay a storyline that switches perspectives depending on what army I'm moving around. Been tempted to write an AAR, but I don't know if I have the time or focus for a continuing dedicated story.

[Maklodes]

RP idea: Paranoid Prince.

Roleplaying rationale: your ruler (king, sultan, emperor whatever) is terrified of rebellion. He thinks all of his generals are plotting murder him and take his throne.

Rules:

• Your ruler is always accompanied by his outsize "personal guard" -- a full stack army ASAP.
• However, your ruler's stack must not include those potentially treacherous "nobles." "Noble" units include knights, units with "noble" as a title such as highland nobles, or various other units described as noble such sipahis, boyar sons, aventurier, etc.
• Militias, with their pre-existing loyalties to their cities, which may be stronger than their loyalty to the ruler, are also untrustworthy.
• The ruler's personal guard thus must consist of professional units (mounted sergeants, pavise crossbowmen, janissaries, etc), mercenaries, and, particularly, "foreign guard" units, such as the Moors' Christian guard, France's Scots gaurd, and Byzantine Varangian guard, which are regarded as most trustworthy..
• Other generals may have armies that include nobles, militias, etc. However, their armies can never be more than half as strong, approximately, than the ruler's personal guard stack. Keep in mind that this isn't just about not having more than 10 units -- its cost should be approximately half the ruler's stack's cost or less, so if your ruler is stuck with mounted sergeants thanks to paranoia about nobles, keep in mind that a unit of chivalric knights is worth almost twice as much as a unit of mounted sergeants.

[Pakana]

RP idea: Paranoid Prince.

Roleplaying rationale: your ruler (king, sultan, emperor whatever) is terrified of rebellion. He thinks all of his generals are plotting murder him and take his throne.

Very good. I have to try this too. Without full stacks the game should be harder. The king would probably want to keep those armies as far as away from each others so they would not get any ideas of uniting their forces

Is there by the way any mod that emphasizes this aspect, military coup / rebellion? Instead of those armies turning into rebels they would turn into some more active faction.

[Aymer de Valence]

Only roleplayer once, as England -


Disbanded half of the soldiers you get at the start of the campaign, and shipped the rest + generals and priests etc over to Normandy, and let the English settlements in England rebel. Then you can simulate the Norman Invasion using William as the main general!

[UndrState]

zaroff1 in another thread gave me an idea:

1a) you have to use the General's view camera & 1b) you have to set 2/3rds of your stack in AI several controlled groups, each with a mandatory noble-type unit as leader, if possible.

Ouch, try that.

[Pakana]

zaroff1 in another thread gave me an idea:

1a) you have to use the General's view camera & 1b) you have to set 2/3rds of your stack in AI several controlled groups, each with a mandatory noble-type unit as leader, if possible.

Ouch, try that.

I hope someone makes a Lets play video with this style.

Can you disable the map too somehow? It would be hilarious when the player would get lost in the cities or citadels. There is one fortress where I have trapped my own units even when playing with free camera when there was heavy fog.

[zaroff1]

Somebody has to mod the AI Control back to Rome Standards before such a plan would work effectively though...

[zaroff1]

Is it possible, I wonder, to play the game absolutely historically...Obviously you mod it to play as 6 month turns to stop the Kings reigning for hundreds of years, but, apart from that, while it's impossible to stick entirely to history, can you follow the same general policies that your faction followed at the time and, when you have an historical King or General, to act in character with their real life counterpart?

[UndrState]

Somebody has to mod the AI Control back to Rome Standards before such a plan would work effectively though...

Why so you say that zaroff1 ? It's been too long since I played Rome for me to be sure what you mean.

[Pakana]

I started a campaign with the Generals view. I was a bit afraid so I picked England. I think I set H/H and retrofit mod with Really Bad Battle AI and deleted some campaign AI files to make the AI more aggressive.

I try to command the troops that are close to me. When some troops are far away from my general I put them to AI control. No lost battle yet. I have conquered British Isles. France made an alliance with me so I sent 3 armies to crusade middle east and one to attack Oslo.

Hungary has been very fast to take the crusade targets so one of my armies sack / raided Thessalonici and is now trying to sack Constantinopol. 2 other armies are sieging Jerusalem and Gaza and I already have Alexandria. No battles yet against Egyptians as they did not sally out.

Toughest battle so far has been against Byzantine army. I think they had 2 armies. I charged their archers and their cavalry did the same. If the AI decides to flank it is very hard to protect your own archers.

Big hills are the biggest problem so far. The view is pointed always downwards. So if you have to attack a hill you would need to view upwards in order to see anything and I think you can't do that. So I just have to give general order to everyone and order them forward with the map.

Funniest moment so far: I was attacking some Welsh rebels. I had bigger army so all my troops were charging including me. First it was some arrows raining down on us. Then I heard the crunch and horses scream. I turned my head to the right and noticed some of my men had rode straight into the enemy's stakes Nasty surprise. Being the target of artillery or arrow fire is also a very different experience from the general's point of view.

I recommend people to try this.

[zaroff1]

Why so you say that zaroff1 ? It's been too long since I played Rome for me to be sure what you mean.

Just that the AI control behaviour, particularly in sieges, is much more realistic and helpful in Rome in my opinion...

[Nzg]

Roleplaying: Christian fanatic

You obviously have to play christian faction and in addition:
- Allways have maximum number of priests
- Build churches/cathedrals first
- Never start wars with other christian factions, never fight them unless they are excommunicated.
- Whenever you can you must attack muslim and orthodox factions, allways attack excommunicated factions.
- Whenever you can, start a crusade and join it.

[UndrState]

Roleplaying: Christian fanatic

You obviously have to play christian faction and in addition:
- Allways have maximum number of priests
- Build churches/cathedrals first
- Never start wars with other christian factions, never fight them unless they are excommunicated.
- Whenever you can you must attack Muslim and orthodox factions, always attack excommunicated factions.
- Whenever you can, start a crusade and join it.

That could get complicated if you're far away from non-catholic factions, but would certainly make settlements captured during crusades more valuable. What about rebel settlements, does it matter if they're catholic?

[Nzg]

Nah, rebels are rebels

To be honest I just started to roleplay it with France, and It's quite fun. I just attacked moors by sea, and I defend my borders from England and Milan. I have an army or priests at Algier, waiting to get cardinal status. I thing in a few years Milan will get excommunicated and will become my lands

I don't think the distance is the problem. Danes - you have navy and Russia to attack. Scotland/England - go for the Moors. Italians - Moors and the middle east. Not to mention, using crusades is more efficient and can get you anywhere(Villinus is a crusade target as well).

[Maklodes]

According to descr_sm_factions, rebels are heretics. (Many of the "subjects" of the rebel/slave faction may be Catholic, but the rebel faction is considered to have heresy as its religion.) All the more reason to liberate those Catholic-populated rebel cities from the heretical counts and marquis who rule over them!