Problems in the beginning

[Browser]

Hello, I just recently gotten my copy of TW: Medieval II. I've played it quite a lot over the past 3-4 days. To cut the chase here's what's up:

I've dissected a lot of FAQ's/Guides, but for time reasons I cannot spend the next 2 months browsing threads. I've gotten a few basic ideas and concepts down but I need some expertise. My problem:

I'm Venice. Im trying to do a "research over sword" approach(that doesn't mean I planned on never doing any wars, just a few calculated ones), but a lot of various factions drag me down into conflicts. I assumingly have alliances with HRE, England, France and a few others but they *never* ever help me in my wars. Im constantly attacked and I never aggressively hunt other AI factions. Right now Im facing the Byzantines, Spain, Portugal and Sicily. And Im alone. Strangely enough I've even gained more than I lost in terms of territory but the price has been heavy; my coffers are near bankrupt.

It's strange, though. Before Sicily decided that Ajaccio was a fair target(despite the fact that it was a rebel town before I took it, so there were no history in-between there of past conquerings or their former lands etc), we were allies. Then suddenly I was attacked. And that pattern has repeated itself. Im not out of favour at the Pope. He likes me more than anyone, more or less. Constantly. Same with Portugal and the others. I've conquered Zaragoza, even seiged Valencia and Pamplona, yet ceasefire is "very demanding" for me to offer.

I need to end the wars, and definitely reduce my army. I think that I dont have "free upkeep" in all cities, Im not 100 % sure what kind of specific units give me that, how many units of "free upkeep" I can use and how I see that. But most importantly of all, I need my alliances to WORK. Both the people that are allied with me to help me, and secondly some allies not to sneak-attack me 24/7.

Give me your opinion.

[clandestino]

But most importantly of all, I need my allianced to WORK

That's what we all want, but in vanilla it does'n happen, never. Allies will always backstab you, it's just a matter of time, so you shouldn't rely on them. AI will never let you alone, it will always keep attacking you without any obvious reason and without any sense at all.

Im not 100 % sure what kind of specific units give me that, how many units of "free upkeep" I can use and how I see that

You only get free upkeep in your cities and for militia units, for Venice it's Italian militia, I. spear militia and crossbowmen. Number of free upkeep units depends on settlement's level, huge city have 6 free upkeep units for example. When you move your free upkeep units from the town they are no longer free, so the free upkeep works only when unit's in the town.

[Browser]

Thanks for the info. Is there any mod about the alliances?

[eisenkopf]

Thanks for the info. Is there any mod about the alliances?

if you don't want to use a complete mod, try lusted's ai files from the "lands to conquer" mod. look for it in the kingdoms hosted mods forums...

if you want to continue with the vanilla ai but do not constantly wage war, then
- do not trust your allies but always build a strong military (deterrence works sometimes)
- gift them small amounts of money (bribing works often, 200/turn suffices) regularly
- avoid certain provinces (ajaccio and durazzo, for example, always lead to war - the vanilla ai is coded to get them at all costs)
- do not play on hard or very hard difficulty setting (they do not make the ai smarter at all, only more prone to hate you and attack you no matter what)
- finally, never be number one in the faction rating list.

once you're at war, usually do not expect a ceasefire unless under ridiculous circumstances (say, you could crush them this instant, but have to pay 100,000 and gift several provinces for a ceasefire). the ais are just a suicidal lot.

[saglam2000]

yeah, mostly every major mod fixes the retarded AI and makes the game more fun to play

[zeuxis the mighty]

It sounds like you need a lot more money. Build up your market buildings wherever possible, upgrade ports and create merchant docks at the ports to greatly increase income. consider raising taxes to very high in all settlements if you haven't done so already.
don't try negotiating to often with the AI when it comes to peace and war. instead try to get trade rights with anyone possible and maintain a good relation with the pope. if the other factions get excommunicated by the pope attack with all of your might and take as much land from them before the pope reconciles them (try avoid killing the king if you kill him they will be reconciled).
sack enemy cities for extra cash and as an added bonus if they retake the city most of their upgrades will be destroyed.
Hope this helps and good luck.

[Poach]

Play a mod. A good one for vanilla M2TW is Broken Crescent. I rarely play vanilla, modders tend to do a better job of the game than CA, imo.

[dr_guerra]

If you own Kingdoms also, retrofit mod is great if you want to keep the map the same but make the AI smarter.

Also, the more armies you have defending your cities, the less likely you are to be attacked. The AI targets weakly defended cities.

[masterbaker]

It may seem wrong to some, but M2 is all about war, conquest and killing everyone. It's virtually impossible to avoid wars, so by all means stay on the defensive, but build up your forces and take the fight to the enemy, or you'll struggle to make much progress.

[townie33]

There are two things that you can do to get ceasefire:
1. give the country back a city or two in return for peace, trade rights, ect.
2. since you are in good with the pope call a crusade on the faction if it is possible, then ask for peace, trade rights, ect.

About keeping allies, gift them money once in a while. If you and your ally are fighting the same person offer them assistance in attacking that faction, that improves your standing with that nation.

Eventually you will have to fight somebody but you don't have to make an army to fight them. Play a defensive game and just build up the garrisons on one front and build an army on the other front. ( i would fight the byzantines because the you get some really good trade cities )

[war91]

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=36993

Give this a read, it's in the first post, and it's very helpful. Using this I learned that diplomacy is not as bad as I first thought, and can even be very helpful. Using the helpful advice in this guide I have a good alliance with several factions, and we help each other. And so far I have never been attacked by an ally.

I find what he says to be true: when we make an alliance, we usually go, make the alliance, and never speak with the people again. I have a diplomat at the capital of all my allies, and each turn I interact with them (making offers, giving gifts, etc.) And by doing this I now have trade rights with all of them; I have the map information from all of them; I have military access from all of them.

This was done for RTW, and my campaign is in RTW, but I'm sure it would work perfectly for MTW2.

[Browser]

Sure as in "I've tried it" or sure as in "I assume so"? As for the trading/marketbuilding that's what I do. I got around 7-8 cities but only 1 castle, all other cities, the first thing I do is roads, markets and roads with a new city and then continue on that path. But then again Im constantly building in every city and I dont even look for price. I need some finetuning-practice, and a thread or a few helpful posts would do great, but the alliances issue is perhaps an even bigger issue. Why wont the others help me, can I pressure them in some way? And why does the AI sneak-attack 24/7, Im the top-ranked nation with a lot of soldiers with 6-7 allied factions. Yet little Sicily decided to wage war with only the support of Portugal, and soon Im of course dabbled in a 1 vs 4 struggle with no help.

[Dmongooze]

You should try Civ4, you can win games through technology. Never wage a war and still win the game. I wont pretend like the AI is better though, sometimes the AI in games just does weird things that make you go "uh..why?":hmmm:

[war91]

I would still suggest you follow the link I posted.

After playing a little while longer my allies (since around turn 3 or 4) were attacked by the Gauls, and they came to me asking for help. So I went and helped them with a few sieges, and later on they returned the help.

[Gornard]

If you want to stop the enemy waring with you, good reputation is necisary, but more important then that, you need large garrsions. Units that use the word 'militia' are free (peasents too) and as venice you have some of the best in the game. The Number you can have for free in a city (not castle) depends on it's size, but you can see their unit tile in a differnt colour.

If the enemy sees poorly defended cities they will attack as i'm fairly sure the military works on slightly independent AI to the diplomats. When the AI evaluates the threat of your cities the walls and defences will add alot to it, so they are less likley to attack if you have maybe 6-8militia units. Make sure the border cities and islands are the most well defended.

If you want to make peace, you should know that the activities you perform on that turn have no reprucusion on diplomacy. So if you occupy a city and defeat a huge army, you'll have to wait for the next turn for the diplomats to be quaking in their boots.

Lastly if you want your AI to help there are a number of ways.
1, Crusades - always call a crusade when it's aavailable, not only does this get all your allies to war with whomever the target is, but it also makes them send armies away from your fronts if they are your enemies. It's not uncommon for them to break of seiges to go on them. If the kingdom is actually at war with an enemy then they will be of more help.
2, Attack faction - this is usually too expensive, but some tiems you can bargain it into a cease fire.
3, Breaking alliances - Later on in the game there will be alot of aliiances floating about. if you want two allied countries to war, make an alliance with one then go to war or precipitate a war with the weaker of the two. The remainign country will have to break the alliance with one of you and he'll usually want to stay with the bigger one.
4, Drag your allies into war - If you attack an enemy next to an allies army or fleet, they will be dragged into the war weather they like it or not, so if you see an oppertunity for them to act a s reinforcements, then take it. Although this can happen to you sometimes. I accidently went to war with the papel states after being adjacent to one of my more sacreligeous allies.

[The Noble Lord]

Give me your opinion.

Hi,


Try SS 6.1 and Broken Crescent mods.
If you want more challenge when it comes to M2TW, then these two mods
are the best of the best.
For me they are.



CHEERS

[MrMofo]

the patches too, if you dont have them, are a must.