Pictures of Your Empire And How You Got There!

[misplacedgeneral]

Hello all, this here is a thread that is pretty common over at RTWH (Where I began) and I've since spread it to other forums here. Having recently started this mod, I thought it appropriate to start one, and hopefully get some people posting here, because this is an excellent mod.

I started a Byzantine campaign, and quickly stopped because I had a CTD (the only one that has occurred throughout my time playing) and I had been surprised by free-people vigilance.

Thus I started a Sicilian campaign.

I first goal was to subdue the home Isle, and I quickly came to rely on Robert Guiscard and the bountiful family members that you have at the outset of the campaign to do much of the fighting. This is because in the first action the Urban militia I brought to the battle suffered severely, some fleeing the field in a way that told me they were not as good as in MTWI :p

So it came to be that five/four family members and every Franco-Norman mercenary I could hire subdued the Island of Sicily, driving off the Muslim foe. They quickly moved onto Southern Italy. I originally went towards the city due east of the city which the Sicilians start with, but then, worried that my allies the Pisans would take Rome (I was interested to see if a special retinue or trait would come from holding the seat of Papal authority, add that into 2.0?) I ended the siege and marched north. I captured the city, and then the south-eastern city, quite quickly.

By now my army was mainly Frankish mercenaries with one or two family members still at the fore-front. My original starting navy, successful at first in laying waste Berber and Rebel fleets, was finally destroyed in a massive fleet-action. My funds being high, I decided to rebuild my navy, hoping to launch a crusade to capture Cyprus.

The Pisans, who pretty much owned all of Italia outside of my own holdings, then attacked me. My Fledgling navy began the beginning of what is now a successful naval war, and my armies quickly gobbled up all the cities of Italy south of Genoa. Genoa and Lombardy were soon taken by the HRE.

I finally launched my crusade from Rome, sailing on a fleet of four experienced galley fleets, within a few turns, Cyprus was reached, where I joined the siege of my Turkish allies.

Hoping to not lose out on the city, I built three rams and attacked the next turn, letting the Turks sacrifice their men for the city, which I then received at the sign of victory.

Sadly, my army was quickly thrown out by the Orthodox Christians there, and I moved west of Rhodos, which I captured and now hold.

Back in Italy, I fended off the Berbers who sent an invading army, and have punished their fleets enough to get them to cease blockading my ports. I then swept the seas of most of the Pisan navy, and invaded Sardinia. I recently captured it, and I am now marching on Corsica (after this, they shall hold only the city of Arles)

But I am also now engaged with the HRE, whom I have soundly beaten in numerous field battles, which led to the capture of their largest Italian stronghold, Milan.

Here is my empire:

I do not plan to attack Greece proper anytime soon, even though Dyrrhachiam is lightly defended, I have not sent spies far enough into the Byzantine hinterland to know what they have for troops. The soldiers on Rhodos shall either strike out to Cyprus again, or attack the near city on Asia Minor.

I plan to let the Pisans go after taking Corsica, and I hope to take Cisalpine Gaul from the Germans. After this, I know not what I will do. I am going to try to start within the Alps, and instead use my navy to take me into Greece, North Africa, or the Holy Land.

I have been having some problems with unrest in Sicily, but I hope my building up of punishment centers will curb their insolence, since the centers of piety have not!

Comments on the game:

Excellent, the one game for the Medieval world that rivals MTWI for the feeling of the period. Far better than MTW2. I like how my armies take on a rather historical shape, a few nights supported by a larger amount of medium/light cavalry, and backed up by mercenary or professional spear men on the field.

So all, post your pictures, describe your battles and conquest!

[DaVinci]

Thank you for your AAR - btw. we have an AAR thread
And yes, there will be a lot new ancs/retinues, also especially for holding Rome, under certain circumstances, and for certain factions a character gets the pope title.

So you say you had a ctd with Byzantines, please if possible describe this what happened in the bug-report thread, although in the meantime our build is quite changed, and direct comparison isn't possible anymore, it will help to get an idea about this ctd case.

[BNS]

How unfortunate about your byzantine ctd, i recomend you save frequently when using mods.

I may just start a campaign soon and ill contribute to your thread.

Edit:

Pssst that little island south of Sicily is a crusader base, there you can recruit a variety of crusader units

That's changed recently

oops

[DaVinci]

Pssst that little island south of Sicily is a crusader base, there you can recruit a variety of crusader units

That's changed recently

[misplacedgeneral]

Hey DaVinci, this is different from an AAR, it is a lot closer to the, "Post pictures of your Empire" threads.

I've never been much into making AAR's, that being said, I do like to write historical fiction.

As for the Byzantine CTD, I think it was because I had something that popped up on my desktop, as I said, I've not had any problems since.

[DaVinci]

it is a lot closer to the, "Post pictures of your Empire" threads.

Eventually change your thread-title (under Go Advanced button) to this?
If this thread grows then to something significant, i'll eventually stick this.

As for the Byzantine CTD, I think it was because I had something that popped up on my desktop, as I said, I've not had any problems since.

This calms me
Eventually restart the Byz campaign and report, i would like to know this exactly, as we haven't had any ctd reports since over a year since the 0.95+Hotfix build, and 0.96 is pretty identic to this.

[Gen.jamesWolfe]

mamlakat masr at the death of the scond sultan, in 1092 AD (sorry, the game itself is no more.)

1-Al-Qahira (capital) 6-Ghazza 15-Antakia 20 & 21-western anatolian cities
2-iskandaria 7-Kark 16-Qubrus 23-Girgenti, siqillia
3-asyut 8-trablus 17-tarsos 24-al-raha
4-baraqa 9-Dimashq 18-side
5-al-quds 10-halab 19-Anqara

at that rate I would have won by 1120-1140AD, then some. I had blitzkrieged 5 settlements in 2 turns! (vs. salajiqah). myth that arab units are weaker then europeans: BUSTED!!. byzantines lost 2000 soldier vs 500 of mine.

[BNS]

I don't do much writing, I let the pictures do the talking...
My kingdom 1083 ad

+ Edessa, - Atalia (spelt wrong) This is why:

It was supposed to be a simple defense, but I underestimated the piercing quality of the phalanx


The cataphracts finally demolished my line


Whats worse their phalanx held of my reinforcements!


Time for revenge


Sneaky, sneaky !


Victory ! Now the plundering starts !


And Constantinople is sent to the dark ages ! I got a nice price for returning this sad story back to the ERE.

It seems to have been a good strategy I got mad money from it and a haven't fought cataphracts or any other elites in a while

[Pompeius Magnus]

The city of Constantine, Theodosius, Justinian and Herakleios in the hands of the Armenians...

[BNS]

The city of Constantine, Theodosius, Justinian and Herakleios in the hands of the Armenians...

Well it was a tough fight to get it I lost 80% of my forces assaulting it. So what, I gave it a little sacking nothing it wont grow used to ! And unlike the crusaders and the Turks I gave it back . Though I did feel a little sentiment when I sacked it...

[Pompeius Magnus]

hear, hear
that's what I call " a noble man" :-)

[Túrin]

Bohemia is really hard to play - it has bad position in the middle of barrel with powder every friend what I had betrayed me... I have to be very hostile to all neighbouring factions.I conquered big area, but my economy is too low to have many big armies...

[DaVinci]

Last post above is from July 2008 (posts probable from versions 0.96-0.98), thought i shall reactivate the thread.

Current version is 0.99.10, January 2009.

I'm playing my favourite faction, when i have the plan to crusade:
The West-Franks (Regnum Franciae) on H/H

Always i try to play historically, no wonder, as my modding-goals in Chivalry are a historical-realism design, means for example also, to code/balance the game the way, that even AI factions are supported to play historically in a certain way, and i'm often surprised, that it works quite good.

So the little campaign-report: I as well was surprised that on H/H the campaign as France is actually hard, rather very hard (i lost some battles and settlements, and money is quite often short). To play Chiv as beginner, it is probable recommended to choose Medium campaign difficulty.

Now it is 1109 AD winter - a chance to let ressurect the Frankish Kingdom and to widstand as crusader state ...


What happened as of yet:

I developed the kingdom without to attack anyone, also i sparely recruited, and expanded then (taking court member knights, spear militia and mercenaries MAA for the job) to the region Toulouse (harbour settlement) and short later also to the Provence (Arles) at the end of the 1090s years, with the clear goal to preparate a crusade to the right date (1095).

That happened also, i sailed then with 4 ships, two barons (court members) and their Household Knights and a capable army, not very big, but enough to try an assault: four units of experienced different Men-at-arms (Norman, Frankish, Latin), two Italian crossbowmen, four Frankish Horsemen, one Mercenary Knight, 2 Archers, a spy and an emissary (units partly hired on the way to the Holy Land). While my money-debt grew with every year ... .

Winter 1098, i landed at the shores of the Holy Land. Jerusalem is possesed by the Grand-Seljuks, to my luck they in a fight with the Fatimids and the Armenians, the latter occupied Antiochia. I formerly stopped at the coast of Armenian Cilicia, and asked these Christians successful for an alliance. Formerly, on the sea-way, stopped at Sicily, i hired the Norman MAA unit, on Cypros and Crete (possessed by the Roman Empire) i hired the second Italian Crossbowmen and the Latin MAA unit. 1099 summer i sieged Jerusalem. The garrison was capable, but not capable enough for my crusaders - i took it at 1099 winter ... slaughtered the inhabitants - 1100 AD the first crusader state was proclaimed. Luckily Fatimids asked for an alliance, i accpepted of course in the hope that i could fight further against the Seljuks to take Tripoli from them. But also my emissary asked the Seljuks first instanty for piece, they accepted. So i was able to reduce the unrest within the few next years, and for trying to come out of the debt.

But, while i took Jerusalem, my former allies, Norman England attacked Reims, and they took it, because i had no money, no armies. The Frankish King was able to take it back, only to loose it again by the Germans:
In the next years my Frankish Kingdom has been reduced to Paris, Angers, Poitiers and Toulouse ... because the HRE, formerly at war with Norman England made piece, and attacked me as well in the next year as England made war with me ... what a struggle.

At Jerusalem, in the meantime the Fatimids soon attacked the young crusader state, obviously they had something against the growing christianity in this area, they made piece with the Seljuks - battles occured in front of Jerusalem (i always sallied out), successful for me, but though hard, because my money was very short, so i couldn't hire new units.

I even thought i would loose this campaign soon.

For some reason the Danes again (seasonal, they land armies via ship in Flandres and Normandie sometimes) decided to attack Norman England in Flandres and Normandie - that was my luck! And also Poland battled now with the HRE.
So the enemy garrisons in my former settlements (which they occupied) were shorter. My moment of revenge came: I took back first Reims, and even conquered Fougeres (Bretagne) from the Norman-English, took back Clermont and Arles, and even took Genova (Burgundy).
The fight in the Frankish realms is now back and forth ... Arles was re-occupied by the HRE.
I hope i can resist and develop my realms further, now that a bit more money flows.

(Edit: I forgot to mention it, i needed to become a vasall-state of the English somewhere in this struggle, otherwise they had wiped out Paris and the king who sat there pretty alone ... shame on me).

It's a hard challenging campaign, and i seldomly had that much fun in Chivalry prior to that version (and i know and mod the game now since may 2006 ... it so much atmospheric again, ie. the MTW I music fits wonderful to the original Chiv music

A battle shot of the fight in Arles, HRE took it from me there, and one member of the Capet family died heroic.


(Edit: This campaign is played with a wip version of the ai formations file done by Athenogoras, not released as of yet, but the in 0.99 released one is similar).

[Sun Devil]

Well I cant post pictures because of the stupid print screen problems with Vista nad dont want to pay for Fraps, but I will talk about my epic fail crusade attempt with England.

I started the game, disbanded a couple units, then focused on getting my economy going a little. Took Wales during this time. After I had around 20000 and growing I built up an army and attacked Scotland, but was defeated because of an undersized force, so I withdrew, retrained and grew my army, then reattacked and seized Edinburgh. At this point it was right around 1095 or a little after, so I decided I would conquer Scotland then go on a Crusade. With this in mind, I took Stirling, but then France decided to attack Normandy. I beat off the first wave but had to send the army I was starting to build to defend it as their was another wave coming. But when I started building my new army, I realized my economy was extremely weak and I was in a minor recession. I dealt with this and proceeded to take Iona without a man lost because the Scots moved there army out and left the general to defend, but he died right as I moved in so I gained it for free, except there was a large idle Scottish army I was concerned with, so I was forced to keep the army I had taken up there for fear of an attack.

But what I think was my final undoing came here. It was at this point I was preparing for my Crusade, it being around 1110 now. My plan was to sell Rouen to the Danes, my allies and fellow enemies of France, take my army from there, build it up a little, then sail for Crete and beyond. But right as my diplomat reached Jutland, France besieged Rouen with two full stacks and took it. This was a HUGE blow to my economy and ambitions for a Crusade. Rouen had been my top income city as almost every other port traded through it, so when it fell not only did it take the city, but severly damaged the economies of all other. I had a depression, and when I hit 15000 I decided to spend my way out of it, which was successful, but to wait and gain money took another ten years.

After my Great Depression I built my fleet and army and set off for Crete. I got to the Mediterranean with no problems, but while sailing along just north of Tunis, a tiny one ship Roman fleet got in my way, so I destroyed it and went to war with the ERE. I had done the same thing with the Moors. That was another fatal mistake of mine, as I was now at war with the two most powerful navies in the world. With that in mind, I got to Crete, barely and took it, but my much reduced fleet got destroyed by a combination of the two forces above, which stranded my army there.

So now I rebuilt my fleet, packed a couple Norman MMA, a Huscarl, and insignificant family member onto my new fleet and set sail again. I got the the Straits of Magellan faster than before, and allied with the Moors on the way. When I was north of algeria, though, a MASSIVE ERE fleet came and reduced my fleet in half with little damage to them. I retreated back out, and realzing my need for a super fleet I looed for a port close at hand I could take. Not wanting to end my alliance with the Moors, I attacked Lisbon, and thats where I'm at now. I have a newly recovering economy at home in England again, after a third mini-recession, a large stranded army on Crete, a decimated fleet, and I will most likely face war with the Moors because I will now have a border with them. Things are looking great!

Edit: Forgot to mention the year is 1145 currrently.

[DaVinci]

Interesting!

One tip when you sail for that much ranges: Land your sailing army at the coasts temporary, and have a spy on the ship, at least you will reduce the danger, that an entire army will sink with the fleet, if you loose the seabattles.
Also, you could have one main fleet and one ship sailing in front for screening purposes.
And of course, it would be possible to move an crusaderrarmy also via land to the Holy Land, but indeed, it will have the danger, that crossed foreign lands understand this threat ... so a diplomat is quite important to have as well with you on a crusade.

Why do you have screenshot issues: Just use the Print key of your keyboard, and then you need to load/open the shot into any graphics software (windows has at least one on board), save as jpg, then uploading.
Btw., i think Fraps is free to get, at least i got it for free in the net.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Well I cant post pictures because of the stupid print screen problems with Vista nad dont want to pay for Fraps, but I will talk about my epic fail crusade attempt with England.

I started the game, disbanded a couple units, then focused on getting my economy going a little. Took Wales during this time. After I had around 20000 and growing I built up an army and attacked Scotland, but was defeated because of an undersized force, so I withdrew, retrained and grew my army, then reattacked and seized Edinburgh. At this point it was right around 1095 or a little after, so I decided I would conquer Scotland then go on a Crusade. With this in mind, I took Stirling, but then France decided to attack Normandy. I beat off the first wave but had to send the army I was starting to build to defend it as their was another wave coming. But when I started building my new army, I realized my economy was extremely weak and I was in a minor recession. I dealt with this and proceeded to take Iona without a man lost because the Scots moved there army out and left the general to defend, but he died right as I moved in so I gained it for free, except there was a large idle Scottish army I was concerned with, so I was forced to keep the army I had taken up there for fear of an attack.

But what I think was my final undoing came here. It was at this point I was preparing for my Crusade, it being around 1110 now. My plan was to sell Rouen to the Danes, my allies and fellow enemies of France, take my army from there, build it up a little, then sail for Crete and beyond. But right as my diplomat reached Jutland, France besieged Rouen with two full stacks and took it. This was a HUGE blow to my economy and ambitions for a Crusade. Rouen had been my top income city as almost every other port traded through it, so when it fell not only did it take the city, but severly damaged the economies of all other. I had a depression, and when I hit 15000 I decided to spend my way out of it, which was successful, but to wait and gain money took another ten years.

After my Great Depression I built my fleet and army and set off for Crete. I got to the Mediterranean with no problems, but while sailing along just north of Tunis, a tiny one ship Roman fleet got in my way, so I destroyed it and went to war with the ERE. I had done the same thing with the Moors. That was another fatal mistake of mine, as I was now at war with the two most powerful navies in the world. With that in mind, I got to Crete, barely and took it, but my much reduced fleet got destroyed by a combination of the two forces above, which stranded my army there.

So now I rebuilt my fleet, packed a couple Norman MMA, a Huscarl, and insignificant family member onto my new fleet and set sail again. I got the the Straits of Magellan faster than before, and allied with the Moors on the way. When I was north of algeria, though, a MASSIVE ERE fleet came and reduced my fleet in half with little damage to them. I retreated back out, and realzing my need for a super fleet I looed for a port close at hand I could take. Not wanting to end my alliance with the Moors, I attacked Lisbon, and thats where I'm at now. I have a newly recovering economy at home in England again, after a third mini-recession, a large stranded army on Crete, a decimated fleet, and I will most likely face war with the Moors because I will now have a border with them. Things are looking great!

Edit: Forgot to mention the year is 1145 currrently.

erm...Trojans, you DO realize that fraps is free as long as you just want to make screenshots and very short videos? only if you want long videos you'll have to pay...
(oh yes, you will pay MUAHAHAHAHA )

[Sun Devil]

For some reason when I 'Print Screen' it just shows my desktop, not the game. I'll look into Fraps again.

None of my armies actually got destroyed, just marooned on Crete because I couldnt move them off. Screening ideas really good, thanks.

[charles the hammer]

This is my kiev campaign in 1147 converting these pagans to christians is harder than fighting wars ive had to spent years converting hence my small empire. ive only fought the cumans for olbia and i got the city on the other side of the crimea by rebellion pushing me into war with the romans so i decided to attack and capture chonossos the other battles have been against rebels just to recap kiev is freakin hard.

[Sun Devil]

This is a current screen of my AAR campaign. Poor Comune di Pisa. Anyway, France seems to always steamrole. In my English campaign without pics France had identical territories minus the two Italian ones. Ive ever had the Berbers do this good, usually the Moors beat them. Pretty much no activity from Kievs/Mongols.

[DaVinci]

Thanks. I just tweaked the Italians a bit.

Pretty much no activity from Kievs/Mongols.

With Mongols you mean the Cumans. Your minimap shows though a good expansion by the Rus and Cumans (both start with only 4 regions, and have now 8/7 regions), that's rather satisfying.

There you can see that the outcome is very different depending on the human player's chosen faction. Just look at Charles' screenshot a few posts above, where France is nearly crushed. Thus makes it always pretty hard to balance globally.