Managing big Empires

[Samuel the Great]

I wonder,it seems to me that it is fairly easy to manage a small emerging empire.However,when i reach a large size it becomes harder and i lose momentum and sometimes interest.What tips do people have on how to approach this phase of the game?

[Laconian]

The key to having a lare and successful empire is a large economy. With a good economy you can maintain large armies and garrisons as well as have money in treasury. So built farms, mines and update your ports and you should have money flowing in.

[NobleNick]

The key to having a lare and successful empire is a large economy. With a good economy you can maintain large armies and garrisons as well as have money in treasury. So built farms, mines and update your ports and you should have money flowing in.

Exactly. I do what Laconian said. Always be building, with high priority given to economy and infrastructure which allows higher taxes. Be careful on the farm upgrades. It works.

But that does not fully address your question. There comes a point where you KNOW you are going to win. For me that has typically been about turn 30-50 (depending on the game and difficulty setting). But then I have to wait another 50 or so turns for the actual win. What I do to make this part of the game more interesting is set a goal at the beginning of the game: to win in 'X' turns. 'X' may be 80, 100, 150, or whatever I find mildly challenging.

For instance, I played an English campaign on Normal/Normal diffficulty, with the goal of winning within 100 turns. It took me 103 or 105 (I forget) turns; so I did not meet my goal, but my interest was piqued and the game was fun, anyway, all the way to the end. Next I played a game as the Moors on H/H difficulty, with the goal to win in 100 turns. I won in about 95 turns: again, fun all the way to the last battle. I am currently playing a game as Byzantium on H/VH (or VH/VH?, I forget) with the goal to win in 90 turns.

I noticed another thing: as my games get shorter, the mid-to-end game portion, which is the portion most find boring, is shorter and is also a lower percentage of the entire game.

My technique for cutting sown on micromanagement is: Every turn, go to 'lists' option. Then I quickly scroll down the list of settlements to ensure everyone is happy and building something.

I hope that helps.

[Ruprecht]

Hey,


I too really dread that part in the game, where you become insanely powerfull and all your agent's turn into one big blur on the screen.

That's when you enter, what i like to call '' Micro-management hell '' and i agree it does get tedious. The best part of the game for me is the first 50 turns.

However when i get to this stage where monotony sets in, i spice things up a bit. like give some regions away to neutral or enemy factions and stick them in a really weird region.

When playing HRE i stuck the turks right next to france and hungary next to spain, and it puts a cool twist on the game if it's begining to get stale.

And another thing, keep checking the pope scroll to see if you can order another crusade. Thats always good for a laugh.

[Sharpe116]

Crusades can be a rather large pain though especially if your playing a more northern faction like denmark or england. walking all the way down to the muslim controlled territories is painfull.

But ya i agree after a certain point it becomes very tedious and hard to manage. id love it if anyone had tips on how to really spice things up.

and by the way ill try what you said Ruprecht ill give the turks some northern territories and see how it plays out

[Ruprecht]

Crusades can be a rather large pain though especially if your playing a more northern faction like denmark or england. walking all the way down to the muslim controlled territories is painfull.

But ya i agree after a certain point it becomes very tedious and hard to manage. id love it if anyone had tips on how to really spice things up.

and by the way ill try what you said Ruprecht ill give the turks some northern territories and see how it plays out

Yeah lol, they will most likely anoy everyone with their islamic priests, and if your lucky, call a Jihad on someone's ass. hehe

[Dodge]

Crusades can be a rather large pain though especially if your playing a more northern faction like denmark or england. walking all the way down to the muslim controlled territories is painfull.

What I do when playing England is march down to Venice, hire some boats in the adriatic and sail to the holy land in 2-3 turns from there, I don't go marching through the balkans and asia minor.

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

But ya i agree after a certain point it becomes very tedious and hard to manage. id love it if anyone had tips on how to really spice things up.

here are my tips to spice things up:

1. play the very hard / very hard difficulty, so the game would'nt get boring
2. make an alliance with a strong and powerful faction, pump them up with new territories and money, then attack them.
3. launch crusades
4. change your geographical position by "trading" settlements with other factions
5. go to war with as small army as possible, but with the srongest units

[Kennylz]

The only time I ever had problems manageing late game empires is with the Russians. The steppes are such poor regions that I can have a giant empire, but still be receiving as much money as I would if I had slightly expanded as any other faction. The Russki's really have to venture deep into enemy territory to get those prize regions, and even then by the time you can get to them you have to exterminate populace and rush in Bishops.

Tough stuff. Russians were the hardest faction I've ever played. I did play on vh/vh though, with LTC, which increases difficulty I believe.

[BlackBart213]

I tend to play a game until I don't feel like playing it anymore. I'll start a new campaign. After a while, I'll get tired of that one, and either go back to the first campaign or start a third.

I've got 5 or 6 campaigns saved up, and now I just juggle them. It's a change of pace.

I also tend to set goals. So in my French campaign, for example, my current goal is to exterminate Venice and Byzantium. When I accomplish that, I'll probably be bored/tired of it and move on to another campaign and set up a new goal for myself.

[Mauzeer]

When my empire grows :
1)every turn check construction report and keep building where find it's necessary
2)when i sack some large settlement i scroll trough all cities and check if some
more(mostly expansive-huge walls,citadels,dockyards,cathedrals etc) upgrades are needed to be built
3)every 5 turns i scroll trough all settlements checking public order,pop growth,agents...

[Sith_Lord]

help wars, iots what i do, wipe out teh scots and give france those territories, then you watch as france and england have a hole new stage in their '100-year-war'