Distressing lack of troops

[Darviathar]

I have played about 75 turns on my VH/VH Byzantine campaign. I am literally having to "call off the dogs" against the Turks in order to give them a chance to recover and make a game of it. They simply haven't put together a single stack that was any challenge whatsoever. They recently besieged Iconium with a stack consisting of ALL archers and horse archers. I am afraid I am going to have to go back to DLV for a time, because I'm just not seeing much of a fight put up by the computer factions. What is keeping them from fielding troops? Do I need to go in and increase their king's purse?

[Aldwen]

I have to agree with you here. I've noticed the AI are not fielding huge armies anymore since 6.1. I'm not exactly sure why but I'm pretty sure it's has to do with whatever campaign AI 6.1 uses.

I know back in 5.1 I used a different Lusted AI that was amazing. The AI were not war crazy and they all maintained a large army even if they weren't at war. Look at my first post here and you'll see Scotland was a beast. I'm thinking about switching back to that AI if things don't improve...

Question for you Darviathar, what turn are you on? I'm right around turn 50 or so and I'm seeing this.

[Darviathar]

I have to agree with you here. I've noticed the AI are not fielding huge armies anymore since 6.1. I'm not exactly sure why but I'm pretty sure it's has to do with whatever campaign AI 6.1 uses.

I know back in 5.1 I used a different Lusted AI that was amazing. The AI were not war crazy and they all maintained a large army even if they weren't at war. Look at my first post here and you'll see Scotland was a beast. I'm thinking about switching back to that AI if things don't improve...

Question for you Darviathar, what turn are you on? I'm right around turn 50 or so and I'm seeing this.

I played a bit more today. I'm near turn 100, I believe. I am comfortably fighting both Egypt and the Turks. I could easily march one of my 3 20-unit stack armies and conquer all of Syria, including Jerusalem, based on what I see in the cities. I am not doing so, but I am honestly running out of things to do.

5.1 was different? I only started with this patch.

[themoob]

I'm 40 turns in on my Byzantine campaign and the Turks have sent 2 full stacks at me, with 2 more about to hit my weary forces soon.

Theire armies do mostly consist of ranged infantry and cavalry, but that is thier strong point after all, they have pretty lame infantry and heavy cavalry for a while.

Of course, my cavalry stomp all over them, but even then, with RAJ, they still do a bit of damage. All those archers really hurt in sieges.

[Darviathar]

I'm 40 turns in on my Byzantine campaign and the Turks have sent 2 full stacks at me, with 2 more about to hit my weary forces soon.

Theire armies do mostly consist of ranged infantry and cavalry, but that is thier strong point after all, they have pretty lame infantry and heavy cavalry for a while.

Of course, my cavalry stomp all over them, but even then, with RAJ, they still do a bit of damage. All those archers really hurt in sieges.

Are you using the Lusted files by chance? I am using them, and I've yet to be hit by anyone. I've not defended in one battle yet.

[Iustinianos]

I never had the full stack attack problem. I am playing the Templar campaign, 6.1, vh/vh. I am at war with the Kwarezmian Empire for about 30 years now and I must have fought about 10 Kwarezmian full stacks. However I do think that it's a pity they don't use more cavalry, after all they are supposed to have some of the best cavalry units in the world, but they just don't seem to use it well. Most of the armies I fought consisted of a bulk of spear milita supported by some archers/javelins but with very few cavalry units. That's really a shame since the battles are a lot easier to win, just kill the general with your own cavalry and charge the infantry's flank. With some more enemy cavalry it can be a lot harder, espacially when you are fighting the heaviest cavalry in the east. I just wished they used them better, it would make the battles a lot more fun.

[lesterthenerd]

dont have this problem either. using lusted updated ai and ive had lots of battles with enemy full stack armies.

[Naked Emperor]

I don´t have this problem either. I´m playing as the Byz right now and Venice and the Fatamids kept me pretty busy with a two front war and the Fatamids sent a stack after stack against me. Venice managed to put together decent stacks of Italian spear militia and pavise crossbowmen with cavalry support and those crossbowmen really hurt

[thdot44]

yah i havent had too much of that problem. you should look to see if the turks are at war with someone, if they lost their capital. they may not be able to fight you with all their focus because of some of those problems. conquer them or vassal them and see what they were doing east of them south north.

[Darviathar]

yah i havent had too much of that problem. you should look to see if the turks are at war with someone, if they lost their capital. they may not be able to fight you with all their focus because of some of those problems. conquer them or vassal them and see what they were doing east of them south north.

They picked a fight with the Cumans, but from what I can see, they simply aren't fielding a lot of troops period. I suppose I'll keep playing, if you guys are reporting large stacks. The Egyptians have fielded some decent sized stacks, and have repeatedly mounted amphibious invasions of Nicoscia.

My biggest gripe is that the Papal States have driven Sicily to the old Carthaginian lands. They are easily the most aggressive faction in the west. I believe this comes from Lusted's campaign AI, as I tried using it today in DLV, and for the first time saw the Papal States conquer Florence. I've stopped and started a near-infinite number of Byzantine games in DLV over the last year, and this is certainly the first time I've seen the pope conquer another city.

[User Name]

Well I thought I had this problem until I decided to attack Poland who only had one full stack at the moment. Then all hell broke lose they went at me with like 3 stacks that seemed to come out of nowhere it turns out that 2 stacks where hidingn in the forest waitng to ambush any poor bastard that wastn expecting it (ME.)

[DrMumbo]

I must say that I am very much experiencing this problem.
I'm using Lusted's Updated CAI and about 50 turns in there is nothing, no action whatsoever. Using toggle_fow and looking around the map, I can't find a SINGLE full stack, a couple of factions have 3/4s of a stack, the moors and egypt, and everyone else is running around with 2-3 units per stack.

I've increased the Kings purse by 5000 per TURN, and am at war with vencie and geona who were both very powerful, but they aren't sending anything but 2 unit stacks at me! It's frustrating.

This is the second time I've run a campaign and restarted because of this.

I hate to sound so whinny, and I apologize if it's annoying, but I've totally given up my game until I can figure out what's going on. If anyone knows how to edit this, I'd be very grateful! I perfered SS over DLV because there were a lot of things about DLV, such as the Americas, that I didn't like, but for now I'm probably going back.

[Darviathar]

I must say that I am very much experiencing this problem.
I'm using Lusted's Updated CAI and about 50 turns in there is nothing, no action whatsoever. Using toggle_fow and looking around the map, I can't find a SINGLE full stack, a couple of factions have 3/4s of a stack, the moors and egypt, and everyone else is running around with 2-3 units per stack.

I've increased the Kings purse by 5000 per TURN, and am at war with vencie and geona who were both very powerful, but they aren't sending anything but 2 unit stacks at me! It's frustrating.

This is the second time I've run a campaign and restarted because of this.

I hate to sound so whinny, and I apologize if it's annoying, but I've totally given up my game until I can figure out what's going on. If anyone knows how to edit this, I'd be very grateful! I perfered SS over DLV because there were a lot of things about DLV, such as the Americas, that I didn't like, but for now I'm probably going back.

I've reached the same conclusion, but I may give it a try without Lusted's file first. I put his campaign mod into a new DLV 5.6 game today, and the papal states immediately conquered Florence, while no one else did anything for 40 turns.

[DrMumbo]

I've reached the same conclusion, but I may give it a try without Lusted's file first. I put his campaign mod into a new DLV 5.6 game today, and the papal states immediately conquered Florence, while no one else did anything for 40 turns.

That's a very interesting experiment you did there; I wonder what Lusted changed and why?
As a side note, are different CAI interchangeable between mods? If that is the case, can the CAI from DLV be transfered from DLV to SS?

[MightyMak]

Isn't the money script from 5.1 gone? I've noticed the AI is broke all the time. I was ranked 4th place in financial and I only had about 1200 florins. maybe the Ai just doesn't have the money to build big armies and pay for new buildings.

[Xeno_cws]

Don't know what you guys are experiencing but I am facing the exact opposite.

Plays as the templars H/VH (heh), I've been sitting on the edge of my seat for well over 150 turns.

Using 6.1 + RR + Chim's mod (sctc?)

For this 8 turns nothing much happened. I took Antioch, then at turn 7 took Aleppo. Just as I started bringing my men back two full stacks of Fatmids + two half stacks invade, and it never stopped from there.

I'm at around turn 150 and I have fought at least 50 full stacks (and roughly 30 half stacks) no joke.

The Jihad against my Jerusalem alone saw 14 Full stacks (counted them) attack the city.


One thing I noticed was that when the Turks are at war with the Kwaz they focus all their attention on them. Its only when the two are at peace do they invade.

Another thing I noticed was that when crusades happen against the Fatmids they tend not to attack.

All and all I'm having a very tough time keeping the holy lands, let alone expanding them; hardest and most exciting campaign I've had yet.


One last thing, I've heard that Hard difficulty for campaign is tougher then Very hard (less backstabbing and wars between the computer factions). Might want to try that difficulty instead.

edit: Typos.

[Morfans]

One thing I noticed was that when the Turks are at war with the Kwaz they focus all their attention on them. Its only when the two are at peace do they invade.

Another thing I noticed was that when crusades happen against the Fatmids they tend not to attack.
edit: Typos.

Two Byzantine campaigns, both ca 100 turns, and I noticed the same.

[Iscariott]

Only thing about very hard. Is that at times it can seem like any ai faction that has every had contact with you sits down at the end of the night and asks "what can i do in the morning" and perhaps not every time, but quite often, the response it comes to is "invade the player "

Also, the ai's settlements grow at a much faster rate than yours. This is actually the one thing I hate about vh. I am a turtle at heart, my borders expand as a natural progression of my peoples needs to expand, or as righteous vengeance for border infractions by neighbors. Having to take a neighbor's city simply because it has far out tech'd you is annoying to me.

[ShockBlast]

If you are so good use SSTC + RR + RAJ + Byg's grim reality III + Lusted's AIs(both the campaign and the battle one)but don`t come back crying.
DVL may be good but not like SS and i don`t have a problem with attacking AIs even without Lusted's AI.
I play Venice (SSTC + RAJ) on vh/vh and i`m ok,i had a few fights with the ERE but now they are busy with the hungarians and Sicily put some presure on me and it is an intense campaign they attacked with 2 ,allmost full, stacks with 3 or 4 turns between then + all the other small wars with small armies and they don`t have more then 7-8 provinces,I hope France doesn`t start a war with me because they will steamroll over me.
If you want a challenge play as the lithuanians or the templars.

[lesterthenerd]

dunno if any1 has mentioned but the problem u have might be because of RR since with RR it takes multiple turns for units to be recruited. this results in the ai creating a way lower amount of full stack armies.