Your Faction, Screenies and Impressions of DLV 5.4

[Xtiaan72]

O.K... Some of you might remember that I used to do some pretty epic AAR's. Perhaps I will again if I find myself unemployed once more ( Let's hope that doesn't happen ) but in lieu of that I thought I'd start a thread where people can post their factions, screenies and impressions of their 5.4 campaigns.


Here we go, I'm playing KOJ on VH/VH.... I managed to get myself in a little pickle right away.....Prince Guy got himself killed 'accidently' when he insisted on taking on a whole rebel stack all by himself. With Raymond of Tyre and Bohemond of Antioch trapped in govenor's roles to deal with their rebellious populous, King Baudouin was forced to deal with the pesky rebels himself.

King Baudouin prepares to deal with his disloyal populous


King Baudouin 'The Burger King' prepares for battle


The 'Burger King' in action.


Opps!


Not out of the woods yet. ( Look at that huge fleet of land locked pirates!)


The Burger King encircles the fighting rebs in front of Jerusalem


Crusader Knights run off the rebs....( included cause it's purdy)

The Kingdom has settled down and I've begun building up my infrastructure.

Initial impressions. Nice Aggressive rebel activity. Challenging scenario with little money or ability to make an army before religious conversion. Much better pacing to economic and 'kingdom' events. The new building requirements add some strategy to the game imo. It's now important to have some of your characters be 'Governor' class.

And this might be my imagination but Cavalry charges appear to be more devastating than in the past. All in all, the most enjoyable update for me since 5.0

[s.rwitt]

I started a game as Sicily with 5.4 and, while I loved the new features, when I saw that everyone in Western Europe was already at war with the Native Americans in 1200 AD, it kind of put me off and killed the fun of the campaign.

Not sure why really, I guess just because I realized that instead of everyone fighting localized wars in Western Europe (like I wanted) they would be already colonizing the New World while I was still struggling to gain control of the Mediterranian. Alas I went back to the Americas campaign which I have found to be the best of all.

BTW: You should really get back to doing AAR's. I really enjoyed them.

[Meister Sibrand]

does 5.4 return legit banners?

[The10thLegion]

i really like the idea of accesible danube river. Also money making is way better in 5.4

[Xtiaan72]

Alright 20 turns in with KOJ: Married Baudouin to an Armenian princess and Baudouin's younger sister off to Raymond of Tyre. Baudouin has managed to have three daughters despite his infertility ( and Prince Raymond has a daughter as well). He is now my heir. Have not taken on any adoptions so I am a little short-handed.. That will shortly be changing as I have a lot of girls to marry off. Economy building slowly but surely. The big event of the decade was the siege of Apello.



The Siege of Apello- They sally rather than starve to death.


" Once more into the breach my friends"


Prince Raymond of Tyre 'Crowned Regent of the Realm' captures Apello.


Southern Kingdom of Jerusalem circa 1190 AD


Northern Kingdom of Jerusalem circa 1190 AD.

Alliances and trade rights with Byzantium, Armenia and Teutonic Order.

Mutual Military Access with Armenia...( She's me wife)

Trade Rights with the Egyptians but not with The Turks ( Following historical precedent with these decisions.

No trouble with the Turks or Egyptians as of yet.

Note to people with mid-level PC's : If you haven't updated your drivers in a while you should do so. I did that and also messed around with my graphic card settings and drastically improved my frame rate and the video settings I can play the game with. I can't play with 'shader 2' but besides that I'm playing maxed out. Amazing difference, as you can see my screenies are a lot better that those from my AAR's.

[The10thLegion]

i noticed that DLV is less laggy than regualar midivel. Am i right or is it just my imagination?

[Xtiaan72]

Sweet Twcenter is back up! I don't know if it's less laggy cause I haven't played vanilla since the week it came out! I really, really don't like it.

[RichiN]

i noticed that DLV is less laggy than regualar midivel. Am i right or is it just my imagination?

I recon its the same as vanilla, dunno what the glorious DLV team has done, but since 5.3 came out everything in DLV runs really smooth, no lag during massive battles

[Siculus]

I'm playing 5.4 as Sicily. It's 1200 and I'm progressing fairly well and even have a cash reserve of about 15k. I hold Sicily, the boot, and whatever that island is off the western Greek coast opposite Bari.

I did a 1200 "toggle_fow peak" at the rest of the map to see how other factions were doing. The only strange patterns involved Flanders and Ireland. The Irish control the entire island and have landed and taken Wales. The Flemish now hold Devon and Cornwall and have moved south and taken Dijon. The English appear to be on the ropes, pressed by Ireland, Scotland, France, and Flanders.

Siculus

[Xtiaan72]

I'm playing 5.4 as Sicily. It's 1200 and I'm progressing fairly well and even have a cash reserve of about 15k. I hold Sicily, the boot, and whatever that island is off the western Greek coast opposite Bari.

I did a 1200 "toggle_fow peak" at the rest of the map to see how other factions were doing. The only strange patterns involved Flanders and Ireland. The Irish control the entire island and have landed and taken Wales. The Flemish now hold Devon and Cornwall and have moved south and taken Dijon. The English appear to be on the ropes, pressed by Ireland, Scotland, France, and Flanders.

Siculus

Nice to see the AI invading Britain.

[Sidarthur]

I'd started playing as the Teutonic Knights, and took over a good chunk of Baltic territories, as well as a few in the holy land that had rebelled from the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The the 'Dark Ages' hit.

I have to say, this feature really ruined my game, and really turned me off the mod. I'm quite capable of angering my neighbors on my own, thank you, and it looked as though the AI didn't have a problem doing so, either. After all the work to introduce various RPG and realism elements, and the nice 'gritty' look of the Teutonic Knights, the Dark Ages event completely shattered my suspension of disbelief.

[Xtiaan72]

What year did the dark ages hit you for the first time?

[Black_Rider]

What is that "Darth Ages"?

[Xtiaan72]

Dark Ages = Times of Chaos and Plague...

Forty Turns in: Read on to the bottom as I'm in an interesting tactical and role-playing position and I'd like some opinions on how to proceed ( and survive)

First off Raymond of Tyre laid siege to Damascus. Edessa is off the table as the Turks have seized it.

POSTCARDS FROM DAMASCUS:


Crown Regent 'Raymond, Prince of Tyre lays siege to Damascus...


Raymond's dope battle mod - Notice that long speeches are enabled.


The Feeble Walls of Damascus..


Don't get in this guy's way...


Ill Fated Sally...


Carnage below the Gates of Damascus.


VICTORY!

Taking Apello and Damascus into the kingdom was expensive and has slowed economic growth. I'm keeping the family tree 'tight' so there are still no spare governors for my new conquests.


Married Princess' of the royal blood to Raymond of Tyre and Bohemond of Antioch. Guy's son Baudouin has come of age and is currently my only 'trained' general besides the 'Burger' King. King Baudouin is married to an Armenian Princess which means his whole line is of Armenian royal descent.....

Which brings us to the current strategic situation...


A Jihad has been declared against Adana, My Armenian allies ' by blood and treaty'... The Queen is demanding we go to their aid.

As you can see this will mean certain death. But with all these Muslim crusader armies trampling through my lands, relations are already abysmal and war is coming anyway. If I attack now at least I will have Armenia's help but I still probably can't win. If I don't attack, Adana will fall and I will be completely surrounded just in time for the 'Age of Darkness'.

What would you do? I'm thinking about trying to relieve Adana while calling for a crusade against Egypt at the same time. Then sit back and try to defend Armenia and KOJ until some crusader armies can get Egypt off my back ( And I won't have to pay for any of the armies I throw at Egypt). Any other ideas?

If I relieve Adana it will be a sick, epic battle... So if I go out I will have some pretty crazy screenies of 'The Bang'.

[Valantine]

My last family member was killed in battle today, was actually beaten by a combined attack by Ireland, Scotland, France and Denmark all allied against me as England. I held London Nottingham for 27 years before finally succumbing to their continuous assualts.
Guess il have to start a new Empire!
V

[Xtiaan72]

V-

Did Denmark invade England by sea invasion?

[Valantine]

Yeah, they landed just outside York with 1 full and 1 half stack lead by their King, the French and Irish both landed in Wales and Scotland pushed down to Nottingham almost straight away - was an interesting little campaign although a lot of it was brought on by my own bad moves!
V

[Xtiaan72]

Nice! Denmark sea invasion. It's definitely fun trying to dig yourself out of a hole.. even if you don't quite get out.

[Omar Nelson B.]

I have found that the AI in 5.4 is much more intelligent excluding Sicily who just sits there. The composition of the invading and defending AI armies seems to be more professional and much more cunning with flanking maneuvers. Also alliances are much more reliable. As Hungary I have been allies with Poland for a good 50+ turns. We both have Military access and we have 3 marriages between our two countries. They have also come to my aid when I was locked in a bitter struggle with the devilish HRE. Now Poland has lost it capital to the Russians and was down to one city left. This led me to the decision of taking back there lost city and promptly giving the Poles back there rightful home.

All in all the "world" fighting is fantastic. England is at war with the Irish, French, and Scots as they should be. HRE is angry aggressive and hell on the battlefield with plenty of aggressive maneuvers. HRE is by far my favorite to fight though. I have lost many good generals/captains to them.

Also the Pope call smart crusades all by himself and all countries respond if they can.

Basically I love this mod and it just keeps improving.

[Xtiaan72]

Anti-Climax!

So I decided to go to Armenia's defense. And was about to fight the mother of all battles ( And take some screenies for you guys)....Four nations and close to 6000 soldiers all together were involved..... And got three CTDs in a row trying to fight the battle. Major bummer

Thought maybe I had the graphics turned up too high for such a big battle but no, because it crashed on the lowest settings too.

So another campaign bites the dust while I try a reinstall..