Thankyou, and goodbye

[Coxy]

Hi guys

Started playing BC about 3 weeks ago (my first mod) and have desperately fought the missus to get more time on it.

Anyway, playing as ERE on med / med with the short campaign I have sadly gone to the end of the road. I destoryed turkey and created a nice empire, but with georgia and seljuks attacking in the north, I had small garrisons getting smaller and smaller fighting back each time, whilst I launched my only army against armenia in the south. Sadly, my plan has backfired, with 4 armerians armies hitting me in the south and killing my only army, whilst having 3 settlements besieged in the north.

I know where I went wrong - I shouldn't have betrayed armenia whilst I was busy in the north, I stretched myself too much. I was hoping armenia would be too busy fighting the abbuyids, but sadly they finished them off quick.

So.. where does this leave me? Looking at a crumbling empire. Part of me wants to carry on to see if I can fight back - but I am sure armenia will keep hitting me.

So.. I move onto SS to see how I fare. The only frustrating thing I found as ERE is that I have never had access to my best troops, I just wish I had a chance to see how good they are, but I still don't have a fortress. I also find the AOR so challenging, as it is so hard and confusing for me as a newbie to know why some settlements can't even produce a single unit (still don't understand). It also seems to take longer at a castle for the unit card to 'refresh' for me to re-order some units compared to vanilla.

To the guys who made BC..blummen well done! Got me so hooked, to make this mod is incredible and really shines alongside vanilla. Thankyou so much, for making a game 'free' and so damned good alongside the freeness.

If I could, I would pos rep you all

Awesome, thanks for the time on BC, and one day I will return and hopefully fare better !

[gaius valerius]

Hehe seems the game backfired on you. I had that a couple of times to, the AI is really a pain in the ass, the minute they become your sole neighbour they'll sooner or later will attack/betray you.

The best thing I can advise is to make pacts and especially pay them a modest tribute (Kypchaks at a given time were an inch away from Constantinopel with a huge army and I thought yo this can't be right, so I made an alliance and payed them of for the next 15 years (about 30 turns) ), and always make sure you don't share a border with 1 faction only. So rather than having destroyed the Turkish Sultanate, you should have left them one settlement in a suitable strategical position, thus forming a buffer.

[Adhamh Ashashi]

QUITTER. QUITTERS NEVER WIN!!!!!!
only messin
SS is good I always switch between those 2 Mods.
Its a great of keeping your intrests high.

[Bull]

You don't need your best troops, they are never cost-effective enough and are really just eye-candies. A mainstay of solid medium troops with a bit of light and heavies are the way to go.

As ERE I usually find myself at war with KOJ and the Ayyubids even before I can produce the Vestiraiadfsdjfl or the Pelekyaldskfjdslkfj... Against the AI all you really need is massed Kontarion pike, ERE archers (crap, by the way), and light spearme. You can hire a mercenary horse archer or latin knights for variation of tactics but they are not essential.

[Aurion]

Not to rag, but the ERE should be able to field quite a sizeable army after owning the Turkish Sultanate, at least 3-5 full stack with good garrisons.

If you try it again, build your economy up early. Western Anatolia is pretty rich and Constantinople is a beast. More money ---> More troops ---> More ownage. Also, the AI seems a bit more reluctant to attack you if you're their primary trade partner sometimes, although that could just be me.

If you have to, spam Aklouthoi (sp?) Spearmen, they can hold a line decently well, are really cheap, and come in carload lots. Hosarii Lancers also make pretty decent early shock cavalry.

Of course, Romanoi Bodyguards are godly, but heh. It'll be a while before you can train cataphracts, but with your FMs, you've been gifted with several units of super-heavy cavalry.

On to the more interesting point, the Armenians beat the Ayyubids?! Daaaammnnn.......

[byzantineklibanophori]

Stick with it pal, its worth it in the end.

In my Abbasid campaign, i was at war on several fronts with a smaller army than my enemies and with a bankrupt treasury. I wanted to quit too, but in the end, the only that can save you is YOUR CHARACTER. Are you a quitter or a fighter!

At the moment, I'm sitting pretty.

And, like the previous post mentioned, you don't need an uber army. You need a decent army.

I rely on decent infantrymen to hold up the enemy who has far more superior infantrymen than I do.....but they serve their purpose of pinning the enemy while my mercenary horse archers and elite Ghulams do the rest.

Keep on punching

[St Naffatun]

My most memorable campaigns are the ones where I turned around hopeless situations - my advice is cogitate on a solution.

[Tail End Charlie]

I usually bump up the King's purse so I can field an extra army. Just one so I can have one army for each enemy.

[Persian Warrior]

Don't give up just yet! It's rather fun in my opinion to try to fight back. Also, I ususally rely on multitudes of horse archers to wither down enemy troop numbers before they reach my main force. I can usually kill atleast 200 before they reach me. Though on larger armies it doesn't help that much and since your playing as ERE you can't use very good horse archers... Oh well, just some advice if you ever play again!

[Coxy]

cheers for the advice guys. Mayhap I will return to BC shortly then...

Aurion - I did build purely economic buildings in every settlement - only in castles did I build non economic buildings. I take about 10k each turn, but when I want to build new buildings etc I just don't have the money to raise an army - and then the 10k will be much lower due to the upkeep of the army.

I'm not brilliant at these games, but I do think I know what I'm doing... just struggled with this mod as I can't seem to recuirt any decent armies at settlements - only levy spearman or something - and then after recruiting 1 unit it takes about 4 turns till I can build another.

Any advice??

[St Naffatun]

Before starting a campaign target what you think will be key units in your roster - some spears, some long range missiles, melee and missile cavalry, some armour piercing melee units to deal with seige towers and ladders, some fodder to soften up the enemy - cheap with high defence etc

Then use the building browser to see what exactly you need to recruit them - most will require castles probably - and those are the priority buildings asap.

[Aurion]

cheers for the advice guys. Mayhap I will return to BC shortly then...

Aurion - I did build purely economic buildings in every settlement - only in castles did I build non economic buildings. I take about 10k each turn, but when I want to build new buildings etc I just don't have the money to raise an army - and then the 10k will be much lower due to the upkeep of the army.

I'm not brilliant at these games, but I do think I know what I'm doing... just struggled with this mod as I can't seem to recuirt any decent armies at settlements - only levy spearman or something - and then after recruiting 1 unit it takes about 4 turns till I can build another.

Any advice??

When you're fighting a war, especially one where you're fighting for your life, it's prefectly acceptable to raise troops until you're taking in the absolute minimum profit per turn...say 2k or so. or, if you have to, go down to nil. You can always revive your economy during peacetime.

Typically, I hold off on upgrading my economic infrastructure except at strategic points when fighting a war, instead hoarding the treasury to increase the size and quality of my armed forces.

Well, that's if the enemy I'm fighting is a major threat.

I'm pretty much a vulture in BC, I prefer to pick on factions that have been critically weakened.

For example, in my current Seljuk campaign, I held off on attacking the Abbasids until they became involved in wars with Oman and the Ayyubids, which they were losing. I then took advantage of the decay of the Abbasid strategic position to annex Mesopotamia without signifigant losses. Then later, only attacked the Georgians after they were at war on literally every other front and had their troops strung out from the Crimea to the Caspian.

It helps, of course, to bring overwhelming force. 5 full-stack armies were overkill given that the Abbasids had probably lost a good 45% of their military in about 5 turns to the Ayyubids, and another third or so were tied up with Oman.

So I suppose my advice would boil down to this: Make sure you have both a healthy eceonomy and military, with room to expand the military quite a bit if necessary.

Use spies extensively, even if it's just to rove around instead of actually spying of specific units or settlements. It never hurts to know the composition and layout, as well as the strength, of possible enemies.

As far as diplomacy goes, the balance of power is everything. Don't allow yourself to become isoated and/or encircled. The enemy of my enemies are my friends, at least until they become inconvenient.

It's always better to pick on enemies that are distracted by war on multiple fronts, have been critically weakened, or both.

And finally, most importantly: There's no need to hurry, you have a good 500 or so turns in which to win. It's far better to take a few extra turns to adequately build up your forces and scout out the enemy than it is to go off half-cocked and get suprised.

I know it's just a game, but it is remarkably accurate in that foolish haste kills empires just as surely as economic or political collapse, or enemy invasions. That being said, when you attack someone, attack! Just because the situation is favorable now, dosen't mean it will still be in a few turns. Delay can be just as deadly as haste. Quick, short wars are vastly preferable to long wars, especially if you start with an advantage. I typically grab as much as I can rapidly, and then consolidate and deal with counterattacks.

In the Seljuk example I cited, I was able to sieze 7 provinces before the Abbasids were able to muster any kind of coherent response, and their response was remarkably weak due to the fact that their heartland had fallen. They couldn't even turn their full force on me because my allies were nipping at their heels, and would have (and did) take what areas the Abbasids still had.

Hope that helps, somehwat. Sorry if it's convoluted, I have a skewed view.

[The Cobra]

Just hang on, the campaigns where it seems impossible to win are the best ones, i had such situation while playing as the Ayyubids where Koj captured all of my settlements around the holy lands, and in the south i had Sallahuddin with a small army at dongola with three full stacks of makurian units surrounding him, in yemen i had a huge rebellion going on that killed many generals and noble family members.
I thought it was the end of my empire but still i continued, i prepared an army with my faction heir that headed to gaza and had a heroic victory against the crusaders, then i captured with the same army Damascus, Hama and Homs, then i paid 10 thousands to the makurians to settle a peace, hired a mercenary army that destroyed the rebellion in my cities thus i captured all of Yemen.
Now i have all of africa, the holy land and in addition all of the settlement lying on the red sea coast, i destroyed the Koj and the Kom, Captured the islands of Cyprus and Crete, and now i am at war with the Eastern Roman Empire.
Stop building and start training.

To those that flee comes neither power nor glory.
- Altair of Death

[byzantineklibanophori]

Send a spare general to recruit horse archers mercenaries around the Black Sea area, launch amphibious attacks behind enemy lines. You cannot believe how many times its gotten me out of a jam!

In fact, it does wonders for the treasury too!

Plus........you follow in the footsteps of Emperor Heraclius who struck deep into enemy territory rather than wage conventional frontier warfare back and forwards.

[redz27m]

funny.. my first try on bc as KOJ im bankrupt the ayyubids attack me with rediculous stacks of armies.. all because i choose to turtle around and see what this bc mod really is... and complain.. what did the bc/mirrage told me?- '' you have a problem on your style of gameplay!''.. so i say to hell with it.. ill show you my style, i blitz the ayyubids and won all the lands below my kingdom including machuria(sp?).. annexing it more likely since i made them my vassals.. now the abbasids grow strong beyond immaginable(well at least its my first to see an armies of full stack on my borders..) they attack me relentlesly and to tell you is the same situation you have, lost most of my settlements in there, they are even post to attack jerusalem itself since they already have the settlements above Acre(cnt remember their names) but i rally my troops weary though they are on my campaign against the ayyubids and machuria and bid time all the wihle defending jerusalem,acre,tripoli,etc. ... and men im telling you those are the best time i have playing on BC... so funny, since you would have been posting how thrilled you are and having a good time.. at least thats what i would feel....

but hey everybody has frustrations in life and then come back when they feel strong enough again to fight... i hope to have you again here kaibigan....

on more thing, about the AOR system.. for me its one innovation in bc that i like, since in reality it would be just that, ..you cant expect to train Knights of Jerusalem in india do you? you would ship them from jerusalem all the way to your frontlines and its great!!!

now what im piss off about bc is that armies spawn so ridiculous it makes them seems indistructible to the point it cant be right since you know they are bankrupt(diplomatic approach..) my campign now has india being the worst enemy since its more of a horde than the damn mongols..

switch to COH

[Lupu]

In BC you are forced to blitz it sucks.

[St Naffatun]

In BC you are forced to think and plan ahead, it rocks.

[Lupu]

true, but have you tried defensive play? In my ghazni campaign I've conquered India, and nearly everything exept sindh east for bamiyan, and I'm now fighting khwarzm, even with mongol help the3y still spam 5 stacks a turn to kill me, I defeat many, and sometimes take cities, but now I'm pretty dead, because if they conquer just my western fron I'll be left with 2 castles, but if I make some cities castles again my economy is screwed, the only reason I'm at all as strong as now is because I blitzed the ghorids and rajas, i tried another ghazni campaign before, and I was killed of by tunr 50 by the damn ghurs

[Persian Warrior]

Also, another piece of advice. Try to avoid war by capturing rebel settlements at first and then going after other factions after all other options have been exhausted.

[Coxy]

Really appreciate the help guys - can I ask though - I've always resisted recruiting to many units from my castles as I wanted them to grow to a fortress... if I keep on recruiting units from them, the populace will never go up high enough?

Please correct me if you can