some more questions.

[gaius valerius]

1/ What are these dark ages and when do they end? I only encountered one and foooooooook it sucked I had a mighty large French empire (from the Rhine to Andalusia) but a mighty big empire has mighty long borders .

So how are these 'dark ages' (cause I read somewhere there are more? Is this true?) timed?

2/ Horses move akward in battle, they disperse after 1 charge and I don't really like this. But this is probably part of the game? Why? Is that more realistic?

3/ Why do the Byzantines only get 4 dromon each time they complete a mission Honestly, dromon don't conquer cities. Is this scripted to point out the(declining - up to the player to reverse it I guess) naval role the ERE had during this period?

4/ Which faction probably has the best starting position to survive them dark ages? I was thinking Egypt as it is on the edge of the map.

[Alexandrov]

Sicily is very good at surviving the dark ages in my experience. Plus if you take the 3 cities in south of Italy plus Malta and kerkyra ( spelling? ) you have all the income you'll need to build up your towns and castle. Plus only having one/ 2 major routes by land guarded by forts helps a lot.

On the cavalry side of things. 5.7's cavalry spread is manageable you just need to practice. Stops one unit of knights completely taking down entire armies. Gives infantry some chance to fight back after a charge and inflict some casualties.

[svean]

about 4) I'm using Furins Mongols Invasion minimod - (I'm not sure how it's in vanilla DLV) but when mongols appear - they might focus on the north direction - but pretty common they also take holy land and visit Egyptians - and then Dark Age might be just a warming up before Mongols

about 3) Mission rewards are based on your production capabilities - so if you can't build good land units game gives you best (most expensive) buildable unit... on the water But if you have money close to 0 (as I mostly do ) the is quite a big chance for getting gift or something like this But try not to get below 0 because your gov points will disappear

[gaius valerius]

And how about AOR? I mean, DLV is like the most thorough mod, so AOR should be a must? I was wondering to what extend are there any plans for this? Or will this be the work of mini-modders?

[Aszrayel]

And how about AOR? I mean, DLV is like the most thorough mod, so AOR should be a must? I was wondering to what extend are there any plans for this? Or will this be the work of mini-modders?

I started working on this for the 5.3 version of DLV but then got to some files that got to be extremely time consuming and did not have the time to do it. Also I was going on help from Harry Lime as this was my first time working on such a mod and was still learning. An AOR mod also uses a lot of hidden resources and there is a limit on the usage of these and believe that repman is using them for other things such as things like the new buildings.

[Furin]

1/ What are these dark ages and when do they end? I only encountered one and foooooooook it sucked I had a mighty large French empire (from the Rhine to Andalusia) but a mighty big empire has mighty long borders .

So how are these 'dark ages' (cause I read somewhere there are more? Is this true?) timed?

Dark Ages are periods of time during the AI factions become more aggressive towards the player and each other. Some factions are forced into a war no matter what the relations were before the Dark Age. They start with a "world wide plague". The first Dark Age is around 1246, there are many more approximately every 100 years. There are tips and tricks how to deal with them in the hints thread.

2/ Horses move akward in battle, they disperse after 1 charge and I don't really like this. But this is probably part of the game? Why? Is that more realistic?

It's a feature, some like it, many hate it. It has been toned down in effect with 5.7 and is a lot less hard to control now.

3/ Why do the Byzantines only get 4 dromon each time they complete a mission Honestly, dromon don't conquer cities. Is this scripted to point out the(declining - up to the player to reverse it I guess) naval role the ERE had during this period?

If you get a mission for military units or "best military units" often the ships are the best units statwise the game can gift you at that time, depending on your recruitment possibilities. You can only get a unit you would be able to recruit otherwise. In later periods you often get troops of religious orders or castle troops instead.

4/ Which faction probably has the best starting position to survive them dark ages? I was thinking Egypt as it is on the edge of the map.

Island factions can survive the first dark age more easily. But if you are planning to win the campaign at a point, you must expand and thus become vulvnerable. You cannot defend everything equally as you will not have enough money, or military points for that. Again, read the hints thread, maybe you will find new strategies and then it would be nice to post it in this thread to help others.