Manual mangement of towns and castles

[Oddleif]

Do alot of you guys check the manual management box when starting ? I seem to be getting annoyed when the casltes and towns without a governor build alot of peasants or buildings I can't afford. When I check the box I feel I'm cheating because i can build without governors.

[Viking Prince]

First -- welcome to TWC and a special welcome to the M2TW fora.

I manage everything always. The auto manage saves almost no time when you have only a few settlements and later in the campaign with 30 or more regions, I do not necessarily look to each one every turn anyways. Set the default preference and never turn back.

[Lord Feloric's Ambassador]

My Lord has tried letting the AI control his cities, he doesn't reccomend it. The AI builds and trains whatever it wants, which usually conflicts with his strategy.

[richmagpies]

Is there any thread which tells what is the differences between the various types of build/growth when u don't have a governor and are auto managing your settlements i.e. military build, cultural build, growth, financial etc. I get the overall difference but anywhere that tells you what specifically the impact of each is i.e. what and who does it build, build rates, priorities if not much cash, affect on public order etc? Or is this something I should work out for myself?

[Temeraire]

Yup, I agree... Manually manage everything, unless you want to find that you've just built the worlds supply of catapults.

[kkaana]

Its not good to leave our cities to AI. Then you could find a city full of catapults...

[Conquistatore]

To be honest I don't know if there is a guide in existence that explains the various 'builds' that the AI follows when set to auto-manage a settlement. Personally I only leave small unimportant settlements to be auto-managed and only when I have at least 10 - 15 regions. I make sure I control the most important regions and leave the rest for the AI to handle. I also adust the spend-save slider on the faction window to 'save' so the AI doesn't go mad and waste my money.

With regards to the different builds, one would think that if they were following a growth build they would build public order improving structures and farms, even a market or port as trade has a small effect on growth. Obviously with a financial build they would be building trade buildings, roads, ports and mines. With a cultural build It would be the same sorts of buildings as growth with the religious buildings aswell. Finally the military build would be all things military, so your military barracks and archery ranges, stables, defences and the like.

Not sure any of that helped you but that is my interpretation of the AI's 'builds'.

[Old Geezer]

Why even play if you let the AI build for you? That's like eating low fat cheese - yuk!

[UncleUno]

I ALWAYS manage my own cities.
I need to know exactly what's being built, who's being recruited, and where my money is going at all times.

The most "auto" I get is when I have a ton of cash, I will set sevral buildings "in the queue", so I don't miss them being built. Either way, i'm still in control of the order. Like Conquistadore, I mainly do this with "new" or "weak" city/castles, that need the basics at minimum.

Some of my turns take forever though, I do admit.

[Conquistatore]

Yes that is the downside, the endless cycling through cities to manually manage them all.. but the time usually does pay off.

[Haakon]

I just hate it when a general dies and the AI turns on, all of a sudden I have cities filled with ballistas and peasant archers. Is there any way of preventing the AI from taking over?

[Conquistatore]

I just hate it when a general dies and the AI turns on, all of a sudden I have cities filled with ballistas and peasant archers. Is there any way of preventing the AI from taking over?

I haven't seen this happen personally. The AI should not take over unless you manually put a city under AI control. Make sure to have your Manage Settlements box ticked.

[Pink Beard]

Oi I admit I have forgotten a city or two in the past... Just to came back and it was filled with:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

peasants and ballistas! yay!

So from now on I always click "manage all settlements" in the starting menu....

[Haakon]

I haven't seen this happen personally. The AI should not take over unless you manually put a city under AI control. Make sure to have your Manage Settlements box ticked.

Yes sir, I try to move all my generals to towns so I get an advantage from their traits. But when they die, cities automatically goes into auto manage i.e recruit and build.

Usually I dont even notice it because I'm always financially strong, but on occasions I hear "leaving the army!". When i search for who left the army, I always find a town or city thats filled with ballistas and peasants

[sinosleep]

Definitely manually manage cities. The concept of needing a governor makes sense but the fact that the AI makes absolutely horrendous decisions when you leave them in charge kills it. I basically wouldn't consider anything that's a toggle option in any game a cheat any way.

[Spartan90]

Letting the AI control your cities is like letting Stevie Wonder control your car.

[General Nuisance esq]

Letting the AI control your cities is like letting Stevie Wonder control your car.

Short sweet and totally to the point

[whitesoxfan]

I let the AI control my cities in the teutonic campaign of kingdoms when I had 3/4 of the world as denmark, so all my wars were on the far eastern edge of the map. So the obvious best strategy is to fill scandinavia with catapults and trebuchets, build cannons in the old HRE, and build spear militia in the north part of russia. All of my developed castles that were close to the action were just left idle.

[RaZor HeaD]

If you must let the AI manage your settlements remember to click the shield in the lower right of the screen and set the toggle in the bottom to "Save".
By default it is set to "Spend" and this is why you have problems.

[Conquistatore]

:hmmm: Most interesting.

Are you patched up to the latest version of the game? 1.03 or 1.05 depending. Sounds like it could be a bug because I don't remember the AI taking over the city if a governor died, ever.