3.2 and Lusted's Expermental
I want to begin by saying that I think Stainless Steel 3.2 is currently the best mod for Medieval 2. It is enriched yet elegant and I don't hear the sound of bowling pins whenever I charge infantry. I'd rather have Hungarian diplomats sending me greetings from England in English and not German. However it was missing something to sustain the enjoyment; this new AI has gone a long way toward resolving that issue.
Playing Venice on VH/VH (of course) I've been very impressed so far. To start I bought Bologna from the HRE but this time it cost me. 4,000 Fl, +1,000 per turn for 4 turns, alliance, trade rights, and Iraklion; and not on the first try. Much better than the guaranteed fairly painless purchase it was before. Very reasonable and I like it. I did notice something strange though: It seems that after your first offer is rejected you can come back with the same offer and the AI has a more favorable reaction (now that I said that I'm starting do doubt the purchase price in my notes). That being said, I had to make the purchase for just under "Very Generous."
Making an alliance with the Pope was too easy. He reacted happily to my offer just like a normal faction. It would be nice if you had to pay an indulgence to get in his good graces.
Had a strange diplomatic session with Milan. I don't usually let them live past turn 5 but I'm playing "good Christian" to get more enjoyment out of the game. When I offered alliance, trade rights and demanded map info, 1,500 they offered 2,600 and no map instead. I kind of like it but they were "very poor" and everyone else has given me a map. Maybe they had plans for the future???I didn't get a relations bump from them though.
I'm pretty skeptical about the AI's expansion. Hungry sent an inadequate stack against Belgrade around 1090 and since then they've been assembling a massive stack to take it. It's 1124. Bordeaux has a tiny untouched garrison. The evil Belgians and the Dutch who border them remain free as well (It's about freedom, yea baby!).
This may be a visibility feature with 3.2 but agents are always bumping into things and stopping. Milan even sent a small stack to attack Florence (mine) but bumped into an agent and didn't siege that turn. It's happening everywhere but movement points aren't as large as LTC. I think they're OK, whatever.
Before Milan (inevitably) attacked I noticed that they were poorly garrisoning their cities. Perhaps because they were bordering me, their "ally". Something neat though is that they had a 3/4 stack just north of Milan which could have been an excellent deterrent and siege lifting force.
That small stack which bumped into Florence in 1112 was followed up by two more; one to Bologna and the other to Venice. All my Italian cities were sieged, two of them effectively. A three pronged, intelligent attack! Next turn of course I sallied and broke a siege while using forces from the relieved city to assist the other (catapult in Venice). When Milan attacked (should be a show on FOX) it broke an alliance with four partners, very nice. They won't accept a ceasefire.
Forgot to say that I beat the French to Ajaco. They sent am appropriately sized force which would have been able to take the castle had I not landed one turn earlier. Eventually that stack went rebel but here's the shocker: they attacked the castle after I took it. On the campaign map their strength was superior but the battle map showed my forces as superior. I was surprised at just how far back they retreated when I sallied and it made it tough to get around them (true in all sallies). However, I eventually shot their back full of holes, pity.
Back to Milan! I established a fort to guard the road adjacent to their territory which also guarded the mountain pass to the north. They bypassed that (strange) and went straight for my cities. Usually they attack the fort giving me warning.
Here is where I experienced some weird Papal behavior. The HRE was excommunicated (no surprise) and I was warned by his popeness not to attack Milan. All I had done so far was lift two sieges and blockade a port. They attacked three of my cities and I had twice the popal favor they did. Next turn or two they attacked again and were excommunicated and recommunicated (whatever) during the end turn phase. I know they were back in because I couldn't crusade against any of their cities; that's what I was waiting for! It's been two turns of them attacking, at zero favor, but not they're not excommunicated (no crusade option). I received a mission to take Milan so I'm going to blitz it (gotta love catapults).
Problem during battles: The mercenary crossbowmen I received from purchasing Bologna are acting strangely. They seem to be real picky about who they fire at and refuse to fire when the target is screened by a friendly *or* enemy unit. Never had that happen before and don't think it's a unit issue, not sure how battle AI would affect it though.
That's my unscientific test. Haven't played 3.2 in a while but I've noticed the difference with the new AI. I'll keep playing at random and post anything interesting.
I recommend to anyone to switch AI occasionally in the same game as it puts the excitement back into mods.
Edit: Most of what I've fought were sally attempts, the field battles haven't been too impressive. A small battle against rebels resulted in them taking the high ground, but not high enough. They also refused to give it up as I maneuvered behind them. They constantly ran back and forth as my archers and catapult took them down. Back, forth, then dead. They were outnumbered but had missile parity. I'm sure larger field battles will be better as they usually are with Lusted's AI.
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Originally Posted by Valdamar
By the sound of your report the diplomacy is very cool and looks like hard chess. Thanks.
