Hardest Campaign

[The Holy Pilgrim]

I'm curious, what was your toughest campaign (win or lose) in version 4.2 while playing this mod (please say why)?

My toughest is the Byzantine Campaign (followed closely by the Aztec Campaign I tired). I "accidently" sacked the Turkish Capital of Iconium and I got a Jihad called on me at Constantinople. Now I'm at war with all of the Islam Nations (including the Mongols and Moors) and I withstood 4 Jihad arimes attacking my capital. They just keep coming! And to top that off, I'm at war with Sicily, Hungary, and about to be at war with Venice or the Holy Romans. The highest diplomatic rating I have with anyone is "Very Poor". Sicily conquered Durazzo from me and I lost 2 generals fighting a Hungarian Invasion. Also, Emperor Manuel was assassinated by a Hungarian assassin! I can't believe that I lost him! And if all of that does not sound bad enough to you guys, think about this. It's only turn 32!!!

[Bitlaslt]

Pagan Lithuanian.If you are not going to convert....
No large cities ,no money .Ai priests marching near yours cities.(Poland,To,Mongols,Kiev,Danish,Norway)

[Darviathar]

I'm curious, what was your toughest campaign (win or lose) in version 4.2 while playing this mod (please say why)?

My toughest is the Byzantine Campaign (followed closely by the Aztec Campaign I tired). I "accidently" sacked the Turkish Capital of Iconium and I got a Jihad called on me at Constantinople. Now I'm at war with all of the Islam Nations (including the Mongols and Moors) and I withstood 4 Jihad arimes attacking my capital. They just keep coming! And to top that off, I'm at war with Sicily, Hungary, and about to be at war with Venice or the Holy Romans. The highest diplomatic rating I have with anyone is "Very Poor". Sicily conquered Durazzo from me and I lost 2 generals fighting a Hungarian Invasion. Also, Emperor Manuel was assassinated by a Hungarian assassin! I can't believe that I lost him! And if all of that does not sound bad enough to you guys, think about this. It's only turn 32!!!

I've started and stopped more Byzantine games than I can count. Let me give you some guidelines:

You are hated. You are going to be hated. Your only ally is the Kievan Rus, and they will quite possibly be the first faction out of the game. You will eventually be fighting Venice and Sicily from the west, Hungary from the North, and the Turks from the east. Sometimes the Mongols too, but you can usually avoid this for a long while by NOT taking the cities of the Crimea, Cherson and Caffa. It is tempting to do so, as they stay neutral for a long time, but the Mongols will eventually come and attack you there. You'll constantly have to funnel troops there for defense, and it simply isn't worth it, even if Cherson can grow to make a fair bit of money. You start at war with Hungary, and it is *extremely vital* that you take Preslav and Sofia. I cannot stress this enough. Even though this was not the case historically, Hungary is your main enemy in this mod for quite a while. Prepare to fight a war on two fronts very quickly. It is tempting to mass your troops for an offensive into Asia Minor against a Turkish faction that starts spread out and relatively weak, but I've found that it usually just leads to more trouble than its worth. I send my starting princess east to Antioch and offer her in marriage, which gets an alliance that is extremely useful. Antioch generally fares poorly against the Turks (who will concentrate on them for a while provided you take the cease fire they will inevitably offer early...you can even extort 5000+ from them for taking it!), especially if the first Jihad is aimed at their capital (which it usually is). I've yet to see them fend off the jihad, but it is much better for you if the city falls into Egyptian hands early. Basically leave the Turks alone while you deal with the catholics. You talked about getting a jihad aimed at Constantinople early on that wrecked you....This is probably why. The Turks will eventually declare war anyway, but their attempts will be somewhat half hearted (defend Sinope with real units, not just militia) for a while. This takes care of the east for the time being. This may sound rather cowardly, or even "Un-Roman" but remember you are the Byzantines, not the Eastern Empire at its height! Byzantium didn't survive so long by starting wars that they weren't in a position to win. They played opponents off against one another. Take advantage of the Crusader presence in the east as long as you can.

For the west

Dyracchium...uhhh...make that Durazzo (don't know why the Latin name is used) is going to be attacked almost constantly by Venice and Sicily. Putting a full (and yes, I mean 20 unit) garrison in it sometimes stops this if you really want some relief. A force with 6 infantry and 6 archers can usually stop anything the computer throws against it until they start bringing trebuchets. Catapults usually aren't a real danger, but the Trebs WILL knock your wall down. The computer always seems to attack from the same direction, which gives you somewhat narrow lines of fire to pincushion them with archers as they advance. Put 3 archers in the battlements above the gate. The computer will almost always send a tower to the wall area left of the gate, so when the tower arrives, pull your archers off the wall and have them stand where they emerge from down the stairs. Put an infantry unit (the Pronoia mace guys that you can build in your cities work very well against the western knights, and are much better units than the dismounted lancers you can produce in castles) there to replace them. The archer unit that just came down stairs will be able to stand and pour arrows into the right flank of the besiegers once they break the gate down. The computer will usually hit the walls on the right side with ladders. Watch where they are going to place the ladder and put an infantry unit there to intercept. Early on when facing militia it won't be a problem, but feudal knights and better (especially Norman knights) can sometimes defeat the crappy wall garrisons. Keep your archers moving so that they can pour fire into mass attack on the gate. Your archers are going to have to win this battle for you unless you've got a ton of infantry. These battles get progressively easier as the defending general levels up a bit up until the point the computer starts fielding better units. Durazzo isn't likely to be your main castle-troop producing point for offensive armies, but you've got to remember to keep building it up so that it can withstand the constant western onslaught. I've never had the computer attack Corinth or Athens, so you can usually skimp there. If you lose Durazzo....Thessalonica is in big trouble. Building the ballista tower there helps a lot with sieges, as it tends to knock out rams. I've had Durazzo fall a few times when the computer cleverly gave me the 1-2 Venetian/Norman punch and my garrison simply couldn't recover enough to withstand the second assault. Resist the urge to walk up the road from your castle and attack Ragusa for a while. Taking it will just give you two castles to defend, and the normans will keep coming after Durazzo even if the Venetians switch to sieges of Ragusa. You can take Crete from Venice without too much trouble if you get the breathing room to build up an offensive stack. Send a few priests there early in the game and start converting the population. It will sometimes even revolt against them. Basically, you want to just hold in the west against the Italian powers while you deal with....

Hungary

Byzantium, who historically had enough to worry about at this time, didn't have any trouble from the North, as they generally maintained good relations with Bulgaria and Hungary in the timeline of this mod. You won't be so lucky. This is your main opponent, and you need to concentrate your efforts on them to the exclusion of the Turks and offensive action against the Italian powers. As I said earlier, the keys are Preslav and Sofia. You need to use all of your starter units to take these two neutral castles immediately. You can reach Preslav easily with the stack around your Emperor in Constantinople. I use my faction heir and all the troops in Corinth/Athens/Thessalonica to move up to Sofia and take it not long after. Often times the Hungarians will already have disposed of the moderate garrison there for you, so you can just besiege them once they take it, or even wait until they take it. Build fire ships in Constantinople, block their ports on the Black sea, and leave one fire ship right on the land bridge between Constantinople and Asia Minor to bottle the Huns up in the black sea. The last thing you want is them to sail through and blockade Constantinople for even a single turn. Assuming you take both of those, the computer Huns will offer you a peace treaty. You can extort money from them as long as their wealth isn't listed as poor, or something along those lines.) Bucharest will look tempting, and you CAN take it, but at this point you shouldn't. Defending a castle is far easier, and Bucharest is so close to Bran, which will grow faster (and thus produce better units) than any of your castles. Take the treaty and use the time to start building up your stacks, because they are going to start a war again soon. Byzantine infantry is just horrible early on, which is very bad against the Hungarians. You are going to need to emphasize archers and horse archers. You may still be "Roman" but the days of Roman heavy infantry carrying the day in battle are long over...at least until you get Latinkons and Alamanoi! Do yourself a favor and upgrade your siege works in Constantinople to get Trebuchets. Bran is a tough tough nut to crack because the Huns are going to have advanced knight units by the time you go for the city. Once you've got the Trebs, knock Bucharest out. You're going to have to defend it rather well even after Bran falls, so be prepared. When you neutralize Bran, you've really rid yourself of most of the danger on the northern front. They still have Iasi far to the north, but be careful taking it if Kiev has fallen and you aren't already at war with the Mongols. It is a good buffer between you and the advancing Mongol horde. If you don't have any cities adjacent to Mongol territory, they will often leave you alone now that they are Muslim and no longer pagan. This strategy never really worked for me before 4.2. They'd always start blocking ports in the black sea, but I've yet to have that happen through turn 75 in my current game.

With Hungary neutralized, you've got some choices. Marching on Budapest (and eliminating the faction) is not what I'd advise. If you take it, you just open another front against more western factions, like HRE and Poland. You don't need more enemies. Leave the Hungarians up there, fend off their dwindling attacks, and either invade Asia Minor or go for Sicily's throat. I personally advise the latter, because the game ceases to be as much fun for me once the Turks are out...it is usually the point I make up an excuse to start over!

[Ak1980]

One trick that i learn to defend city, put 1-2 cavalary (cheapest one) in city to knock out their trebuchet.
When their trebuchet start attacking your wall, send your cavalary sally out to attack their catapult/trebuchet.

Chance are your cavalary will be routed, but as long as your cavalary engaged trebuchet crew even for 1 second, it will distract the AI and they will move their siege engine to assault your wall.

[Darviathar]

I've found my attempts to play as Antioch or the Turks much more difficult than Byzantium for a very simple reason:

Money


Byzantium makes a ton of it. It is ideally placed to dispatch merchants to a lot of extremely profitable resources, and Constantinople itself makes a ton of money. I have so much trouble getting started as the Turks due to $$$ problems that I usually end up deleting half my starting units. Antioch has to send merchants a long long way to find resources that are worth anything, as their capital is too close to make the profitable ones in the middle east worthwhile.

[The Holy Pilgrim]

Thanks for all of the tips Darviathar! But my campaign is getting worse. For example, I am now at turn 52 and a Crusade has been called on Constantinople (and yes, the Jihad is still going) because, by my luck, the Pope is now Sicilian (and Sicily despises me greatly!). Antioch is holding off the Turks quite well, so I can focus most of my army on the Crusaders/Jihads coming from the West (and East). I lost 4 cities to the Crusaders. I am now at war with all of the Islam factions, Sicily, Hungary, Milan, HRE, Poland, Lithuania (they converted), France, and England. I don't think I'm going to survive but I'm going to try!

Btw, I killed the Kings of Sicily, HRE, England, France, Hungary, Turks, and the Egyptians!

[Darviathar]

Thanks for all of the tips Darviathar! But my campaign is getting worse. For example, I am now at turn 52 and a Crusade has been called on Constantinople (and yes, the Jihad is still going) because, by my luck, the Pope is now Sicilian (and Sicily despises me greatly!). Antioch is holding off the Turks quite well, so I can focus most of my army on the Crusaders/Jihads coming from the West (and East). I lost 4 cities to the Crusaders. I am now at war with all of the Islam factions, Sicily, Hungary, Milan, HRE, Poland, Lithuania (they converted), France, and England. I don't think I'm going to survive but I'm going to try!

Btw, I killed the Kings of Sicily, HRE, England, France, Hungary, Turks, and the Egyptians!

Wow. I've never (in any mod) had a crusade called against Constantinople! I almost wish that it was possible to script one at some point, to simulate the 4th crusade.

What territories do you hold, and which Byzantine possessions have already fallen?

[The Holy Pilgrim]

I lost Durazzo to Sicily (reconquored it 3 times and lost it 4 times), Sofia is about to be lost to Hungary (fought off 4 seiges in a row), and Corinth was lost to Sicily (again) but, I'm about to take it back. Since my last post, I have taken back 2 of the other cities, Athens and the southern most region on Cyprus I believe. Other than that, I still have all of the original cities plus 3 Turkish ones I took eraly on (inluding Iconium, which sparked the Jihad), and the region on the far left side of the Caucuss Mountains (the mountain range seperating the Russian Steppes from Turkey).

I almost wish that it was possible to script one at some point, to simulate the 4th crusade.

Even though I would agree that would be a good script, it isn't nearlly as fun as it sounds.

P.S: Happy days! Despite the Pope bieng Sicilian, Sicily (that's right, Sicily) was excommunicated!

[Grislok]

KGCM and Scarface rocks!!!!!

[Koljan]

to be honest, you cannot survive if you remain on the defensive.
You must bring the fight to your enemies territory, one by one.
There wont be a ceasefire untill they are hurting bad enough.
I think primary target should be Hungary.

[The Holy Pilgrim]

I am going on the offensive soon. My first target is Hungary like you said, just because it's the closest and Antioch is taking over the Turks right now. My main worry though is keeping my captial. Crusades AND Jihads are heading to my captial right now (which gives me even more reason to kill their kings). This is campaign is going to be a cakewalk once this religious war on me is over (if I live!).

[Dave Scarface]

Well, I have decided to try and find out the hardest campaign. So I'm starting a new campaign with the Rus soon, wish me luck lol.

[The Holy Pilgrim]

Ooh, the Russian Campaign was tough. Those Mongols are nasty