Having the greatest campaign ever

[Arthelion]

Hi, I don't post a lot on forums, but I'm having such a great campaign I have to share! I had only played M2TW for a while when it came out and now decided to give it another go since the mods are on a totally different level than years ago.

I'm using the SS 6.2 RC4 mod with PB's RR,RC,etc. So maybe you'll want to move this to Sub mods, but I'd rather not, since I suppose that most of the thanks should go to the SS team.

So, Venice was my faction of choosing, because it suits my desires. It has a very good starting position - quick access to the Middle East, lots of possible sea trade, proximity to the Pope, strong early militia and overall balanced unit roster. BUT, as I learn the KEY to survival is DIPLOMACY. And here lies the difference between vanilla and the real world. Diplomacy works pretty logically and how it should (mostly) - and not necessarily as you expect it to work.

The beginning was actually so similar to vanilla that I almost lost interest in playing further. I made alliance with the Papal State, Genoa and Pisa, Sicily and Hungary - expecting to be at war with HRE and Byzantium sometime later. In the first 10 turns I conquered the whole east coast of Italy (two settlements) and Zagreb. Keeping only some basic millitia very soon I had around 50k. At that point I thought maybe H/H was too easy, even though there's a warning that the difficulty went up significantly. Then my neighbour Genoa declared war on HRE and marched a full stack on Bologna. They lost, but the defenders left were very few. And seeing that HRE keeps moving armies through my territory without permission, I was quite sure that sooner or later there would be war anyway, so I grabbed the opportunity and besieged the almost empty Bologna! Immidiately the Pope told me to cease hostilities, so I gave him another 10k and took Bologna with perfect relations with the Pope At that time the Crusader States really got their a$$ kicked and lost their last settlement - Jerusalem. A Crusade to retake it was launched right away, so not being actually involved in any war I sent my full stack too. Hungary besieged Jerusalem when I was sailing near Crete, but the next turn their army dissapeared - probably got slaughtered by a nearby stack of Egyptians (Fatimids). When I arrived, Jerusalem had almost no garrison and no army stopped me from taking it. Crusade successful . That was actually the point where I thought that not much has really changed from vanilla. What a mistake! Very soon "retribution" came on all fronts.

I kept my main army on the border with Byzantines and had my cities only garrisoned with some 'free upkeep' millitias and some crossbowmen. Certainly not enough to get rid of the HRE's full stack knocking on the door of Venice! So I sent it two of my generals, recruiting mercenaries on the way and with heavy casualities defeated their besieging army. Seeing my east front (Ragusa and Zagreb) almost undefended the Byzantines surely knew that was their opportunity and sent an army to take Ragusa! I had no chance to return in time so that castle fell. At that time I realized it was really difficult to train armies, since most units have really low 'respawn' rate. Therefore the core of my armies became mercenary macemen, spearmen, balkan archers, etc - and it was noticable on my budget as hell! So I got pi$$ed off and retook Ragusa and also captured the next castle on that coast. Very soon another HRE armies came knocking on Venice and even from the north to Zagreb! And guess what! The Byzantines landed at that 'heel' of Italy and captured my totally undefended settlement!! And guess what! The Fatimids were evidently pretty pi$$ed too since they marched from all directions onto Jerusalem!!! TOTAL WAR MY A$$!!!

Pretty quickly I found myself almost bankrupt warring in ALL directions with mercenary fighters. Finally the challange I've been waiting for since first playing RTW is here. I spent many many years repelling wave after of attacks of the HRE, Byzantium and Fatimids. I've allied almost all Europe and bought many countries to fight against HRE. Turks, Byzantium and the Fatimids fight each other too now. But still, the Pope truly rules this game. HRE got excommunicated pretty soon and an option I'd been waiting for was now available. A CRUSADE against those infidels who attacked the Pope's beloved pet (me ) and it was granted! The next turn happened to be my greatest amazement of all game. From the past I remember seeing one or two nations joining a crusade on turn one, maybe another faction would join on turn five etc. But this time! This time the WHOLE EUROPE joined the crusade the next turn it was started! Hungary, Poland, Sicily, Genoa, Franks, Danes, Aragon, even the Scots had a banner marching on Frankfurkt on the same turn!

That's where I'm standing now, so excited about the progress. I'll tell you more, but unless something even more unexpected happens, it should be pretty straightforward now. But still, so far it's been the most enjoyable and challenging caimpaing I've had in the TW series.

Observations: Nice progress in England - first the Scots drove the English even from York, then got pushed back even out of Edinburg. Similar to and fro is happening on the Iberian peninsula. Crusader States got trashed around turn 15. France is doing almost nothing, on turn 50 almost all rebel settlement are still rebel around then. Siege towers seem too strong against fire - I had to use 5 units of archers shooting fire to get one burning. The ram is totally indestructible.

But anyway - the rule of the thumb is:

War all you want, but diplomacy wins the game (especially getting in the Pope's but )

[Wurfspiess]

Nice nice ,I had a similar expirience.Abandoned Medieval II came back after two years, installed the mods and played the HRE.The first 20 turns I thought its way to easy still.The next 100 turns where a pure fight for survival

[carth]

i totally agree with you.. the first 20 turns are way too easy.. then it gets hard!! as genoa.. venice and sicily are a real pain in the ass xD

[Faramir D'Andunie]

Glad to see you are enjoying your campaign so much. With the mod combination you chose (I use that one as well) a wrong move could spell disaster. Especially if that move involves loosing most of your professional standing army.

If you are looking for an even greater challenge give a try over factions that can expect to have crusades/jihads called against em. Late campaign (1220) Crusader states, when those mongol stacks start join the inevitable jihad call against Jerusalem... things get nasty.

[Smikis]

if you want more action you should try ss 6.2 without rr/rc , while its probably nice addition, i got feeling it cuts 70% action away while most probably enjoys it, i got feeling you will enjoy fighting 10 armies each turn, and i mean 10 full stack armies

[SaxonRaider]

(SS6.2) Im playing France at the moment, without RR, and finding it really hard on medium level, its pure military build just to defend for first 20 turns, then even tho i managed to ally with all my neighbours, then get hammered by HRE, so i hammered then back with everything i had and took 4 cities, HRE made enemies with all western countries, had Crusade against Frankfurt, they got wiped out by myself and the Papal states and Denmark who took all the remainder of their lands, but, while i was fighting and taking all of UK, killing off Ireland, England and Scotland. (which was hard as the pope kept being a pain not letting me attack them). The Papal and Denmark then declared war on me, and now, although i got 24 regions, i stand agains 2 factions that both have 3 times my armies, oh oh. and because i spent so much money on armies taking mainland UK, i didnt have enough for upgrading, so im now fighting against full plate knights with militia spearmen, double oh oh! :O
From the start as France (and beleive me i tried several starts and died), you need full military recruitment (if you dont, then everyone will take towns on all of your borders, and there will be no stopping that unless u r a 'military genius', lol), and build only money making buildings to support the armies as money will be tight, go for half a stack in each settlement, and full stacks in your Castles, as you wil need to react from any border. I struck alliances with Genoa, HRE, England, Portugal and Aragon, but HRE will break it soon enough especially if you take their rebel settlements close to them on the rheinland. Spain i left alone after the alliances. and they left me alone rather than deal with 2 full stacks in Bordeux and Toulouse Castles.

btw i tried the Jerusalem late era start, but got wiped in like 40 turns, lol. every turn another full stack on Jerusalem, couldnt get anyone into it to defend it, was constantly under seige for 20 turns! every turn!

[footie55]

I was having a great time too with Venice with more or less the same setting but without RR and of course I had the usal CTD with Jerusalem under siege when I was having great fun!
and after 130 turns circa!
I had several ctd in different campaigns after like I said 130 turns and twice after 70 turns but now I gave up , playin' SV 130 turns no CTD yet and is funny too!

[Gogolometro]

Try 1370 campaign in RR. Is a real good campaign. I got pwned like HRE, like Aragon and Danemark is really interesting.

[Arthelion]

Thanks for the replys! I've only got the chance to play a few more turns. I truly couldn't believe the sight - the whole Europe had a full banner crusading onto the HRE territory the next turn the crusade was called. Spain was the winner of this "race on Frankfurt". Now everyone is still roaming their territory, so I hope they will take out some German armies on their way home. I've managed to capture Insbruck and Vienna and probably will get Strasburg soon, before the HRE gets over this blitzkrieg.

I also got a mission to capture Acre. So, seeing there was almost no garrison, I only sent about five units of spearmen and knights from Jerusalem to capture it. That was a stupid mistake! The besiegers got slaughtered by a Fatimid army standing nearby and another stack besieged my weakened Jerusalem! Seems my Doge of Venice and Kind of Jerusalem is now going to pay with his head.

Byzantium is still a pain in the ass, but since the Turks now keep pushing on them and Hungary is giving them a hard time too, there are less of them attacking me now.

But one thing that shocked me - when I looked at the nations rating, I saw that some of the top have over 100k florins and Byzantium has over 500k and HRE about 300k! Where the hell do they get that money from?

And yes, the next campaign I've wanted to try is late Crusader States. So are you saying the Mongols can join a Jihad? That's not fair! And the Mongols certainly weren't Muslims so wth?

[Faramir D'Andunie]

AI factions get a money script since they are horrible at their economic management. Without it they will never upgrade any kind of buildings and keep spamming the same old militia.

The script itself has many values over how much it gives to whom, can't remember much about em right now.