ChivTW: The Crusader Epoche Campaign

[DaVinci]

... now in version 1.0, some info:

An in-game appearing event-message ... second turn.

A New Epoche Evolves
Anno Domini 1099 - The Norman, Frankish and Latin nobility conquered the Holy Land. 'Deus Lo Vult!' was the shout a few years ago at the Catholic Synode in Clermont. Between 1096 and 1099, first Edessa, then Antiochia and recently Jerusalem was taken by the multi-ethnic crusader army, led by barons and dukes. Balduin, brother of Godefroy de Bouillon, of Flemish noble houses, founded the Principlity of Edessa, the first crusader state. Principality of Antiochia, proclaimed as second crusader state under Boemundo di Taranto, a Siculo-Norman nobleman and adventurer. And finally, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, ruled by Godefroy de Bouillon, the holy city itself, recently under the realms of the Fatimids. It will change the world forever. It is this, what is laying the basements for the knighthood's property of the so-called chivalry, whereas its high goals weren't always the reality! - A note for the player (factions East-Franks/Germans and Norman-England): Take care, some of your crusading knights are still in the Levante.

The Levante starts with 3 crusader states:

Edessa - under the Frankish faction
Antiochia - under the Siculu-Norman faction
Jerusalem - under the Frankish faction ... here Raimond de Toulouse is aiming to go for Tripoli.
... and some allied East-Frankish and Norman-English crusader nobles start in the Jerusalem, taking their way back to their homelands through allied and enemy land.

The start situation is pretty hard, you'll feel the pain ... if ie. played on H/H.

[DaVinci]

I'm playing the Crusader Epoche myself atm. as the Franks on H/H. And, i must say, i lost Edessa, Tripoli and Jerusalem - as Jerusalem was lost to the allied Grand Seljuks and Fatimids, i for the first time reloaded a save game before i lost the holy city to make another attempt in the battle that i lost that led to the sack of Jeruslem.
In conclusion, i believe M/M is also a good setting for this Frankish campaign.
On H/H the Muslims will hit you very hard, and then every man in your army counts - only super strategists/tactics can save you there (as long you don't cheat of course). This campaign is more than a simple challenge.

[hammy the hamster]

It's probably worth remembering that the crusaders were driven out in real life before too long, doing better than them would be quite an achievement.

[Pingpong]

Very good point hammy. The more so since whenever I play as the sico-normans I end up being attacked, not by the arabs mind you! But by those aggravating Byzantines and their stupid Kataphracts. I'm playing on H/H. Kudos to Davinci for his work.

[martyr]

im doing this campaign as the sicilo-normans.

just captured triploi and cyprus.

i dont think the french or romans are too happy.


im also doing it as the romans but the armenians just launched a naval invasion against cyprus, and i have no navy to relieve them!

[DaVinci]

im doing this campaign as the sicilo-normans.

just captured triploi and cyprus.

i dont think the french or romans are too happy.


im also doing it as the romans but the armenians just launched a naval invasion against cyprus, and i have no navy to relieve them!

The AI outcome is very much dependent on the chosen campaign difficulty. On H camp difficulty, the Franks and Byz should do it quite good as AI.
As human player Franks on H camp difficulty, you'll have real hard tasks though. This is valid for the most factions anyway on this H camp.-difficulty.
Note, that the recent campaign balancing was done mainly on M campaign or on H campaign difficulty (sometimes), not anymore on VH campaign difficulty (i do not recommend VH campaign difficulty for this mod).
I also left a note about difficulty setting sin the main release thread (ie. on M the AI will have a harder time of course in regard of the cash flow compared to H camp- difficulty - while it is "rumoured" that the VH difficulty is bugged in regard of the AI money bonus, which is though never really confirmed officially).

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

12 minutes and i can finally play this...i shall report here (wich means i'm going to say how wonderful it is and i that i can't stop playing)

[DaVinci]

i shall report here

This thread is exclusive for the 'Crusader Epoche' campaign.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

yes, i was talking about that GREAT CAMPAIGN!



OMG, Dv, HOW COULD YOU? you have made the most wonderful campaign EVER!
really, this brings up the real "crusade" feeling, and i already touched it in the other versions (by going to the holy land, but now i am ALREADY in the holy land)


this is wondeful, i can't stop playing! (what did i told you?)


one question though;

if i would play as the English in The Crusader Epoche, is it possible to take a city in the holy land next to France and those Sicilians? (i mean gameplay wise, England seems to start with a small army...i have only played as France yet)

[hammy the hamster]

Kerak de Chevalier?

I thought that whichever army first sieges the settlment wins it as opposed to which army first assults

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

then your mind betrays you
anyway, i now have Tripoli (my house rules are simple: 1. avoid conflict with other Crusaders, only destroy them if they attack you, but that won't happen that much, 2. bring up reinforcements BY LAND or BY SEA....by land goes pretty quick btw, 4 turns and your in Italy, 3-4 turns and your in Anatolia...that's modern-day Turkey and another 2-3 turns later you are next to Antiochia....)


so, continuing, i have Tripoli, Sicily attacked me so i took Antiochia, they then asked for peace and they now only have one field camp in the Holy land with a general waiting to die
then i took Aleppo, have it fully under control.
France has taken a small part of Anatolia, and the Fatimids have taken Jerusalem so i have taken it back in name of god
now i'm besieging Jerusalem and a full stack reinforcement army is in Greece, it will not take long or i have my goal, since i have left France yet, but i do have that Nordic city (the one wich is needed for the English victory goal). I also have taken Scotland and Ireland, so France will be next....i'm not sure if i will attack them so soon, i've got pretty much trouble in the Holy Land (enemies: Grand Seljuks, Fatimids, Armenia. Allies: France, Sicily, HRE, Poland, Italic City States and the Byzantine Empire....most of them are not very able to help me lol)

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

new report: i higly recommend this to people who want a challenge on M/H, you'll be in red (money) very much, and it's difficult eough to hold on the holy land, even with the French and Latin allies there...


now, i'm going to continue...i'm losing Jerusalem, but Tripoli, Antiochia and Aleppo still stand firm in English Control, and Edessa and half of Anatolia are strong in French control!

[DaVinci]

Ok, thanks for the info, sneaky Bull.


... so you played this on Easy/Medium?
Perhaps something like that is still possible on M/M. Surely not on H/H, can't imagine it at least, as i have real issues to survive as Franks in the Levante on H/H.

Subtopic Difficulty theme:
And it is generally rumoured that VH camp difficulty is bugged, and the AI does not get the extra money of 10.000 what it is supposed to on VH - so maybe VH camp diff is similar to E camp difficulty or M ... i don't know, but still i believe the AI agression vs. the human player is increased on VH, the AI will go crazy against the human player if it can realise enough money for this job - however, VH is probably the most unrealistic setting for the camp difficulty.

Back on ChivTW in regard of the camp difficulty:
It is actually dependent on the chosen campaign and faction which camp diff the most playable is. I usually play everything on H/H, while a lot recent balancing was also done on M/M camp observations (with a passive playing to observe the strat AI). While the new CE camp got only a very bit strat observation prior to the release.

I would like to get some feedback when played on H/H or also M/H, if i shall make actually the conditions for the crusader factions (Franks + Norman-Sicily) more moderate or shall i rather let it as is.
This said, i though have already corrected region ownerships (historical):
Aleppo and Damascus is independent now as was in history at this time, as well i made Gaza independent what is in question (as probably not historical), just if i shall let it in the ownership of the Fatimids?

For the balancing it should be considered, that
a. if Frankish Jerusalem/Edessa (but Edessa would "fall back" to the Turks sooner or later would be reasonable, because historical) and if Siculo-Norman Antiochia can survive in the hands of a human player (but a quite skilled TW player, not a pure TW beginner), while Tripoli will be captured in the following 1100s years by the Frankish or Siculo-Normans.
b. if led by the AI, will they expand unrealistically or go down too soon.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Ok, thanks for the info, sneaky Bull.


... so you played this on Easy/Medium?
Perhaps something like that is still possible on M/M. Surely not on H/H, can't imagine it at least, as i have real issues to survive as Franks in the Levante on H/H.

Subtopic Difficulty theme:
And it is generally rumoured that VH camp difficulty is bugged, and the AI does not get the extra money of 10.000 what it is supposed to on VH - so maybe VH camp diff is similar to E camp difficulty or M ... i don't know, but still i believe the AI agression vs. the human player is increased on VH, the AI will go crazy against the human player if it can realise enough money for this job - however, VH is probably the most unrealistic setting for the camp difficulty.

Back on ChivTW in regard of the camp difficulty:
It is actually dependent on the chosen campaign and faction which camp diff the most playable is. I usually play everything on H/H, while a lot recent balancing was also done on M/M camp observations (with a passive playing to observe the strat AI). While the new CE camp got only a very bit strat observation prior to the release.

I would like to get some feedback when played on H/H or also M/H, if i shall make actually the conditions for the crusader factions (Franks + Norman-Sicily) more moderate or shall i rather let it as is.
This said, i though have already corrected region ownerships (historical):
Aleppo and Damascus is independent now as was in history at this time, as well i made Gaza independent what is in question (as probably not historical), just if i shall let it in the ownership of the Fatimids?

For the balancing it should be considered, that
a. if Frankish Jerusalem/Edessa (but Edessa would "fall back" to the Turks sooner or later would be reasonable, because historical) and if Siculo-Norman Antiochia can survive in the hands of a human player (but a quite skilled TW player, not a pure TW beginner), while Tripoli will be captured in the following 1100s years by the Frankish or Siculo-Normans.
b. if led by the AI, will they expand unrealistically or go down too soon.

the method of capturing Gaza was on Easy/Medium
the method of taking Tripoli was on Medium/Hard...i think it's possible on Hard/Hard, not sure though

and yes, i can post some screenshots...i'm not progressing very well though, i will need to sack some cities, because i'm deeply in the minus!

[martyr]

hey bull3pr00f, got any sceen shots of you crusader kingdom?

[martyr]

thats awesome

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

yes...but try it, it's damn difficult!

[charles the hammer]

This is my crusaders ephoce campaign

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I know i havent done much but i would like to mention that for some reason there are no fatmids i just thought that was weird considering how early in the campaign it is.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

one: have you used my tactic?
two: that must be an installation mistake...not sure though :hmmm:

[DaVinci]

This is my crusaders ephoce campaign

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I know i havent done much but i would like to mention that for some reason there are no fatmids i just thought that was weird considering how early in the campaign it is.

Must have been bad luck. I would just re-start the campaign. I doubt this would happen again.

Nobody else has just reported this event, nor did it occured in any of my playtests.

But, an upcoming patch will consider a few more starting family members, so this bad-luck-possibility will be drastically decreased.