Ten Ways to play a GREAT Game!
Sometimes people ask me, Kyle, how do you make your games so damn fun sounding?!
Good question friends, let me tell you how.
1. Get LTC with Garniers and Klink's Add-ons
2. Pick a faction that needs some help to be a powerhouse, like the Byzantines!! AND MAKE SURE TO PLAY A SHORT CAMPAIGN! (It's nice to not have to worry gaining so many provinces and it allows you to take your time. Plus, you can always continue on after u win!)
3. Follow the house rules, don't be aggresive and spend your time building and lowering taxes so your base is strong and populated.
4. Once you get a good homeland growing, you'll need to extend your borders. Do so carefully, pick places that will be easily held and places you have good access to (for back-up, priests, and whatnot).
5. If you find yourself poor, be sure to get rid of any unneccesary units. Try to make units in your cities that will be "Free Garrisons" like spear militia, and just have a castle nearby to bail you out. Trimming the fat can be a good way to keep money flowing and to make sure you're not too powerful just yet.
6. The BEST way to make money to build those very expensive walls and buildings is to go on "RAIDS!!" How to do this is you make an army and use scouts to find a rich town far from your lands so as to make revenge seem a distant option. Next, you'll make sure you send diplomats with your army or make sure a few are placed next to allied Cities. I prefer a strong navy and a quick landing on a distant large city that has minimal chance of being able to taken right back from you. Loot the city and then instead of keeping it, give it to an Ally! Sound stupid? Not really, you'll not waste time and money keeping your army there trying to hold the place, and giving the province to your ally means making a good friend and possibly keeping a strong nation down by putting someone else in direct fire. (As the Byzantines I raided Alexandria and Cairo and got 60k for building the next set of walls for my empire!! I gave Sicily the lands and the Epytians and Sicilians fought hard and put my people in safety.)
7. As you extend your borders, don't take too many provinces, think small! Be proud of your tiny Empire, cause later you'll be even more proud of your gained strength!
8. When defending battles we all know that it's easier to set your guys up on a hill or in the center of the city and let the enemy come face the music. It works, yes, but you'll find if you play more battles in the field or at the walls, it's alot more fun and you'll find yourself actually Losing sometimes. Losing is good, it means your having to work hard and have to change your plans on the fly to still come out on top. Another good way to even the playing field is to sometimes auto-resolve close battles, not just the ones with the huge advantages. Come on, roll the dice!
9. While sitting defensively and building, it can get boring. That's why I say do those raids, they're fun and speed up the process. Another thing you can do is work on diplomacy, raids really help there too. Use those places as barganing chips and make many allies. Allies can be really fun when you can get them to fight alongside you. Make sure a couple of your allies are close by, and in lands you soon want to conquer. You don't want them to backstab you, but they will, so make sure you have allies that aren't already bearing down on you.
10. And finally, to make the game long and worthwhile, do your own little mini-games. One I've made up is to control all trade in a given area with my fleets. It costs money yes, but blocking all of Egypts trade lanes and destroying personel transports throughout the Medderteranian with Fire Ships is just cool as hell.
Maybe someone like, LUSTED, can answer this for me. As I was doing some Blockades with my many fleets I have wondered how exactly they work. I definately see that the trade flow has stopped, but how much does it really affect the AI? Like how much do they really suffer from having 5 ports blocked? Another thing, I see that when I am blockaded, I lose a good percent of my income, and when I get missions to blockade other ports it says something to the effect of "And it will fill our coffers as well". This makes me thing that maybe I am getting a kickback on some of the blockaded goods, but when I've blockaded all of Egypts Ports I didn't see a substantial amount of money coming in from it. Income of Corruption and Other was like 400? Maybe, or does it mean that I will get money just from completed the said mission?
Reply With Quote
Alltho i want to play defensive (which is imho impossible in very hard game settings, ****ing rep lowers even after sacking -_-) they always attack me. If they attack i exterminate the faction. In peace time i just build all elite army and go on raids **** yeah 
Originally Posted by Turbo
