Total war = Endless war?

[frederickm]

I'm just playing my Turkish campaign and today I finally defeated all my enemies and I've realised I've yet to have a day of peace in the game.
Now I've got Mongol who are walking in anatolia waiting to backstab me, and Poland declares war on me :\ because of the rebelling of holy roman empire, hungary and poland have become extensively big.

Moreover, whats starting to annoy me is they are charging with 1 full stack a turn and all their cities are minor and have tons of fortresses, (insanely big kings purse?)

btw finally my first ship of Janissaries are being shipped from Kutaisi across caspian to seize Iasi! Yay!

Anyone else feel they have no peace?

[Abraxis]

yeah, i rarely ever catch a break either, i can never take out a faction because I'm always forced to declare peace once they're weak enough to accept because some other faction just got the jump on me and most of my forces are committed to holding back the other 4 jerks who want me dead

i find this is especially true with pagan/Islamic factions

[frederickm]

its like you never get a break, you are ALWAYS getting attacked from all sides, and when you retaliate its like a domino effect, you create more enemitys.

Its so good that Islam was united from the beginning, and that they are all atleast regional powers (except for kwarezmians who are destroyed by Mongols who left a Trail of rebel towns taken now by the Cumans)

If it wasn't a jihad which Egypt sent 4 full stacks to help, I don't think I could have taken Innsbruck easy with 7 full stack venetian armies around it.

[Point Blank]

Most people complain its too easy

[Belphegor]

It's the war the game is all about. I mean there is not that much to do in times of peace, build a few things, send out a spy, merchant priest etc. But your generals are sitting in your citites and they spend their time with adultresses, astrologers or sitting in a taver driniking their brains soft.

But historicaly, there were few times of peace in the middle ages, local conflict were a normal thing, so I'm not realy all that surprised...

[Marcus Ulpius]

That's exactly my experience. I hope I won't hijack this thread with description of my campaign, but it also turns into a hard war with no end in sight.

It's HRE campaign, around 1250 AD. I have all usual HRE territories, plus all of Italy (except Rome and Florence which belong to the pope). The war is with the Moors who were able to kill off all Iberian kingdoms. I attack them when they declare war on France. First - France are my allies, 2-nd they would certainly destroy France as the French are attcked by England, Scotland, Danmark, and Poland has Paris as crusade conquest.

I attack them with 2 full stacks and take Barcelona by surprize. then I move another army and manage to take Valencia. After that they send wave after wave at my 2 cities. Finally, Pope dies and I somehow manage to convince the new Pope to call a crusade against the Moors. With the crusade army I take Zaragoza and Sicilia manage to take Cordoba. Meanwhile I recapture Marcelle from the Moors with a reinforcement army sent from N. Italy. I try to attack Murcia but they bring 3 full staks to defend it. I'm forced to fight and while I manage to completely kill off one stack, the other one defeats me. I also see around 13 full stacks spread all over the peninsula.

Finally, not only their number of stacks is huge. Their troop quality is starting to outshine mine, which is strange. I mostly have spear militias (normal and Italian, thanks to AoR mod) plus some cavalry and a few better quality spearmen, archers, crossbomen, etc. They usually had the same militia, plus some desert cavalry, Jintets, Javeline throwers, etc. But lately it started to change. The second stack that defeated me near Murcia had a lot of dismounted Arab cavalry, some normal arab cavalry, some dismounted feodal knights. I've checked more remote stacks and they have lots of dismounted cavalry and also urban militia that is much better than any of my militias. How they are able to produce good troops at such a numbers is a mystery. I can recruit one good unit and wait for 5 turns until the next one is produced, they are mass producing them. So, now it looks like endless and probably hopeless war. May be some people find the game too easy, for me it's certainly not.

[Tetsu]

As Venice I control lands all the way to Constantinople, all Italian territories to the north of rome, the castle line north of the alps, and and also some lands west into france. I am currently at total peace due to diplomatic efforts, currently all armies are undergoing total refits before the assault is launched on the island provinces that the filthy moors stole

[Shabby_Ronin]

This is why i really miss the GA from mtw1. It was more fun to play without a gun at your back forcing you to take land and get into these endless wars.

[Sonny WiFiHr]

Do not destroy enemy factions. They could be used as buffer (vassals) on your borders.

[Abraxis]

why not take their lands, generate direct revenue from them, and still use them as a buffer if you choose?

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

IMExperiance If you choose The Purple People Eaters{Byzzies} You will suffer....

+ Jihads
- Crusades
+ Sicilians
- Venetian's
+Hungarians
-et al
+Then your Orthodox brothers {and allies} will want Byzantium gold. So basically I've never been Not screwed and have never finished a campaign.

[frederickm]

226, ummm I demand territory and have open offer they just reject and don't want to talk about it

[meese]

Lol well someone's unpopular ah well, there's plenty of land to conquer up north and west

[caralampio]

Ally with everyone at start. Allies virtually never backstab you. Then as diplomacy develops you will have to choose which alliance to drop because two of your allies went to war. Choose wisely and you can get long periods of peace and choose the moment for your wars. For instance, if you are ready to invade a neighbor, drop alliance with it. If not, drop alliance with the other faction and go on being chummy with your neighbor, who will watch your border for you.

[frederickm]

I chose all the Islamic factions, and for eastern europe I placed it on mainly Kiev, and for west I went mainly for papal states.

Islam is no problem, except kwarezmians have been destroyed by mongols, who in turn have left the land to rebel which have been taken by cumans.
Egypt and Moor are ultra aggressive, but no doubt the biggest powers other than me, they are almost enemies with everyone left they are the ones who made me lose my alliance with france, denmark, etc.
Egypt owns entire Egypt -> Holy lands and Arabia
Moors have Afrique and in Iberia they have Leon, Castile, and Granada.
Kiev was defeated by Novgorod, and because of my alliance with Kiev in the past Novgorod isn't friendly.
Papal states though an ally, is abysmal but whats worse, papal influence is utterly worthless, almost every catholic faction has been excommunicated.

[Skooma Addict]

As long as I'm not in western Europe I have peace as long as I want it. I have only been attacked a few times by the AI outside of the west. I usually have peace times of up to fifty or sixty turns until I have all the buildings I want and I'm so rich I can afford two wars at once.

[frederickm]

Well I'm in Germany so...
but its fine now, I crushed polish now they only got a fortress left and novgorod has got 5 janissary stacks coming for them, druzhina prove to be no chance against guns

[Gogolometro]

On VH/VH I made less allys and I get more war.Practicly I get maybe 5 turns without a war in rest.
I Total War so I need more weapons clash than diplomatic exchange or supermega comercial-economical development.

Offtopic how can play with papacy in SS?

[Skooma Addict]

Sadly, other than bloody England , I would enjoy it if the AI outright attacked me for seemingly no reason.