Irish Difficulty: ?

[Rumpletumpskin]

i'm always looking for the most difficult factions in mods. ireland looks tough just from its starting settlements but in the the faction selection menu it shares a description with the english: superb bowmen and strong infantry.

does this mean that the infantry and bowmen of the irish and english are equal? what overall rating would you give each faction's infantry and ranged units?

[Chim]

Ireland is the hardest faction in the game in my opinion, It is really important to get a city very quickly or else your economics will die soon.
You also have some pretty expensive units at the start of the game which kill your economics.

[Rumpletumpskin]

thanks for your quick reply wonkuruben. but it doesn't answer my question. once you get established as the irish, how would you rate your infantry and ranged units you are able to produce compared to the english's?

[Chim]

I haven't played with Ireland too long, but they have very good early units instead of the basic levy units of other factions. they get average infantry in the end. Their ranged units are good but not (much) better than the english.

[whhyy]

They get skirmishers.. That puts them ahead imo.

[Gorrrrrn]

Ireland is playable and makes for an interesting campaign, with the proviso mentioned above. (If you're lucky Scotland will send an army to attack Dublin and fail, but it should cut the garrison down a bit.)

Don't worry too much about unit rosters - what counts is knowing how to use what forces you have and what's best against the various enemies you will fight. And much of that comes from experience.

[Marine Hoplite]

The infantry is maybe better than the english, but the early archers are useless and the late archers (Seathwyre) are, IMO, really somewhere between yeoman and retinue bowmen and weaker than they should be. I use archers a lot and am a history dork, so I tweaked them a bit to give them equal stats to yeomans, and to carry 50 arrows (I don't feel that it's cheating. Historically, many of the archers that england went to war with were irish so they would be on par with skill and equipment, and in real life the general would certainly be able to tell them to carry more arrows)

I really got use out of the med cavalry as a flanking unit even moreso than the light cavalry. Fast enough to stay way from the heavier knights, but heavy enough to slug it out for a minute after the initial charge. Same thing with the diesi javelinmen. Good for running around behind the enemy lines once pinned in place and shooting them in the back.

The big diffculty for Ireland is money. Right off the bat you need to convert your castle to a city to even hope to have enough money to survive . And move quickly to take whatever cities you can, you'll need them.

If you really want a challenge, load up xerex's campaign AI and hold on to your pants. Can you say, "multiple full stack invasions"......lol

[Kyias]

Ireland has a great unit roster.

Most of the units however are not as heavy as the English units and the cavalry for Ireland is excellent.

The medium cav rating of the Ridiure make them strong for flanking charges and fast enough to get back out without taking serious losses.


I find Ireland to be alot of fun, the authority rating of your King can make the game a bit more difficult and if you do not make aims to increase his authority then you could face an angry nobility.

Makes for a fun campaign

[Marine Hoplite]

I thought that the Muire were superior to the english dismounted fuedals. Could be mistaken though. lol

What exactly can increase the authority of a king with low authority?

[Kyias]

Muire are superior troops because they have 2 hitpoints. What makes the Muire somewhat sketchy is that there is only 30 of them in a squad making morale a potential issue.

As for authority, I found that completing papal and nobles missions helps my King gain authority. The issue I have with King Brian for the Irish is he is already in low standing with the pope, has only 2 authority marks and very high dread.

This combination is pretty explosive in making him get the "disrespects nobility" trait and the worse "incites Civil War" trait.

I think this is something that makes the Irish such an interesting faction to play though and adds to the difficulty it takes to play them effectively.

[Marine Hoplite]

The way I play, I always take the factionheir and he basicly does nothing but campaign until the king dies and always has a priest or two and a spy as part of the army. By the time he's crowned he'll be almost maxed out in dread and have lots of command and peity. That seems to give high authority.

[nosjo78]

Does carrying a priest/spy/assasin in your army actually help a generals stats? Can anybody verify this?

[Gazi Husrev-Beg]

My characters have got several traits from carrying agents with him. I think its mostly use of spies. Its good against other nosy spies and assasins to have your own near general.

[Marine Hoplite]

I know for a fact that carrying a preist will increse piety. I can only assume that other agents would have similar effects. Having a spy and high ranked assasin in the camp will probably do a lot for loyalty. lol