Knowing When to Upgrade

[xxmaelstrom]

So I just installed this mod and I've got to say, it's AWESOME! It's a lot different than Third Age, so I've got some questions.

I'm doing the England Late campaign and I'd just like to know some starting tips (either for this specific faction or just in general). I've read the strategy guide, but I have other questions:

1. When do you know to upgrade your settlements to the next level (City, Castle, Fortress)?
2. When should you start recruiting units?
3. How do you get reinforcements?
4. What are "stacks?" (I see screenshots with TONS of units and I'm wondering how they get that).

That's it for now really. If anyone could help, that'd be awesome.

[Massive_attack]

Hey maelstrom, welcome to SS !

1. By mousing over the population of a settlement, and holding the mouse there, you will see how many people are required for that settlement to grow larger.
2. Depends on the unit and your situation. Bear in mind that you should always fill up your cities free upkeep units, and it would be wise to strengthen borderlands. Besides that, many people begin recruiting quickly if they want to try and "rush" the AI to get rebel settlements (which is wise, imo) or in preparation for a war. Its up to you, just remember that peasant and militia units are safer to recruit when your worrying about your purse.
3. Allied armies can appear on the field if you bring them or an ally sends them. Ill elaborate: whenever you attack an enemy, a red box on the campaign map forms. Any armies in that red box take part in the fight. As a rule of thumb, if your allied forces right next to the enemy when you attack him, they should appear as reinforcements. There are other faqs about reinforcements, i think you should check them out as well. Edit: Also, you can either have reinforcements come under your direct control (if you lose forces in the field, or have open space on your bar) or have them come under an independant AI commander, which can be given basic offensive/defensive/shootout commands.
4. A "stack" is an army with the maximum number of troops in it in the campaign map. "Stacks" are what we refer to when we are talking about large armies deployed on the campaign map.

[xxmaelstrom]

Hey maelstrom, welcome to SS !

1. By mousing over the population of a settlement, and holding the mouse there, you will see how many people are required for that settlement to grow larger.
2. Depends on the unit and your situation. Bear in mind that you should always fill up your cities free upkeep units, and it would be wise to strengthen borderlands. Besides that, many people begin recruiting quickly if they want to try and "rush" the AI to get rebel settlements (which is wise, imo) or in preparation for a war. Its up to you, just remember that peasant and militia units are safer to recruit when your worrying about your purse.
3. Allied armies can appear on the field if you bring them or an ally sends them. Ill elaborate: whenever you attack an enemy, a red box on the campaign map forms. Any armies in that red box take part in the fight. As a rule of thumb, if your allied forces right next to the enemy when you attack him, they should appear as reinforcements. There are other faqs about reinforcements, i think you should check them out as well.
4. A "stack" is an army with the maximum number of troops in it in the campaign map. "Stacks" are what we refer to when we are talking about large armies deployed on the campaign map.

Thank you for the reply! I should have elaborated on question 1 and 4.

1. By upgrading, you eliminate your ability to recruit certain units. How do you know when to upgrade your settlements, and thus eliminating these units? Will you be able to recruit them again at a later upgrade?

4. By adding a full army (or stack) to that red box you described in number 3, you would thus be able to have more "stacks" in the battle, correct?

Also, as a sidenote; when recruiting for war, that will in turn increase your upkeep and thus reduce your income. When this happens, that kind of puts a damper on any more recruiting. Is there anything that when preparing for war to balance out the effect of the upkeep?

[Massive_attack]

Right well, lets see then.

In stainless steel 6.0 and 6.1 (and gracul's unofficial 6.2 patch) unit recruitment is handled differently than you describe. Units are available across all ages, some being unlocked at certain times or from certain levels of barracks, stable, or archery range, but none ever being removed entirely. Sometimes recruitment pools are reduced (the maximum ammount of units available for recruitment), but this is minor.

However, in the RR (real recruitment) / RC (real combat) Compilation or sub mod, this has been changed, for historical accuracy. If you have anything RR/RC, the rules change a bit. Generally for this you have 2 major eras, the old and the new. The new era begins around 1300 and overhauls all faction's recruitment regardless of settlement size, while some old era units will remain, many are replaced, and the entire roster is different.

Also, yes, allied forces (either your own or from a friendly faction that is allied to you) will appear on the battlemap on your side if they are within the radius i described previously. This also applies to the enemy, so watch out for enemy stacks bunching up. To allow friendly armies to aid you, you need only check a tickbox next to whomever is commanding them in the pre-battle scroll (the scroll you see just before entering the battle-map).

As for upkeep, taxes can be adjusted to make the difference. Also cancelling construction efforts, and utilizing merchants and the like can help generate spare change. Honestly though this is largely unnecessary. Just be sure not to over-recruit, and you should be fine.

[xxmaelstrom]

Right well, lets see then.

In stainless steel 6.0 and 6.1 (and gracul's unofficial 6.2 patch) unit recruitment is handled differently than you describe. Units are available across all ages, some being unlocked at certain times or from certain levels of barracks, stable, or archery range, but none ever being removed entirely. Sometimes recruitment pools are reduced (the maximum ammount of units available for recruitment), but this is minor.

However, in the RR (real recruitment) / RC (real combat) Compilation or sub mod, this has been changed, for historical accuracy. If you have anything RR/RC, the rules change a bit. Generally for this you have 2 major eras, the old and the new. The new era begins around 1300 and overhauls all faction's recruitment regardless of settlement size, while some old era units will remain, many are replaced, and the entire roster is different.

Also, yes, allied forces (either your own or from a friendly faction that is allied to you) will appear on the battlemap on your side if they are within the radius i described previously. This also applies to the enemy, so watch out for enemy stacks bunching up. To allow friendly armies to aid you, you need only check a tickbox next to whomever is commanding them in the pre-battle scroll (the scroll you see just before entering the battle-map).

As for upkeep, taxes can be adjusted to make the difference. Also cancelling construction efforts, and utilizing merchants and the like can help generate spare change. Honestly though this is largely unnecessary. Just be sure not to over-recruit, and you should be fine.

Very helpful! Thank you so much!

[sbroadbent]

To expand on the reinforcements, any stacks on one of the 8 adjacent tiles to the army or settlement being attacked are close enough to join the battle. Additionally, only those stacks that are allied to either the attacker or defender will enter the battle. Take a jihad with Moors, Khwarez, Fatimids and Turks (and perhaps Mongols). Although they are all participating in the jihad, if there are no alliances between the factions, they'll sit out. This can be useful as some crusades and jihads can send 6-8 stacks at you if not more, so you can pick and choose which stacks you attack without worrying about the others joining in if they aren't allied.

I was involved in one crusade on Vilnius where I assaulted and 4 AI armies joined in on the fun.

Of course, because I initiated the assault, I got to keep the target and use the AI as fodder in the process

[Point Blank]

Actually RR/RC updates every unit's availability in as historical fashion as possible, with availability linked to unit type, current year and tier of building you are recruiting from.

[xxmaelstrom]

Is there a guide on starting out and rushing the AI?

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Is there a guide on starting out and rushing the AI?

This includes all the guides we currently have about Stainless Steel....


http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=329518
.

[xxmaelstrom]

Thanks.

What does this mean though:

- Remember and place Mercenary general trait in unit generating cities. You save $$ BIG MONEY $$.

[bɑne]

Thanks.

What does this mean though:

- Remember and place Mercenary general trait in unit generating cities. You save $$ BIG MONEY $$.

I think that refers to all ancillaries that lower recruitment costs

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Kay....The mercenary General trait saves you 10% off the cost of unit building. So if you build $ 1,000.00 worth of units, the trait saves you $100.00... {10% off unit recruitment costs ...yo}
.

[bɑne]

Use these to hire cheap mercenaries and aquire the "Mercenary General" trait. 10% off unit training & 10% bonus to looting

I think there is a minor missunderstanding here. The ancillary mercenary_captain has above trait which is useful for recruiting and he in turn is given to generals.

[JorisofHolland]

It doesn't have a trait. It has effects.

[bɑne]

It doesn't have a trait. It has effects.

The merc captain [ancillary] has characteristics (... traits) which are called effects because the ancillary has the effects [when equiping on a general] I quoted. Thanks for correcting the dot on that i for me.
Of course I should have said

The ancillary mercenary_captain has above trait which is in fact called effect and consisting of two at that which is useful for recruiting and he in turn is given to generals.

[JorisofHolland]

Okay, I get what you're saying but I dislike the way your saying it. I wouldn't pick a word already used in a related subject (traits & ancillaries are nearly the same when you take a look at the code).

[xxmaelstrom]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm still having trouble though. I tried playing as the Holy Roman Empire, and started off good and such. I allied against Denmark, France, Spain, Venice, and I think one more. Then not even 30 turns into the campaign, Poland starts attacking me all over the place. I would have lost if I didnt cheat (I'm not cheating to win, I'm STILL just trying to figure things out).

So my question is...how the hell do you combat that rush by the AI? I know the difficulty is upped in SS, but it would be nice if Easy was actually Easy...

My other question is kind of a technical question. I have really bad campaign map lag. It takes several seconds to scroll from one city to the next and they may be right next to each other. I didn't have that problem with Third Age. Can anyone comment about this?

[bɑne]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm still having trouble though. I tried playing as the Holy Roman Empire, and started off good and such. I allied against Denmark, France, Spain, Venice, and I think one more.

England is regarded as an easier choice and I generally recommend them to beginners. Their position makes it much easier for them to defend. A few fleets fend of invasions and besides early French aggression you generally are left to your own. Don't ally with to many factions as you will have to break the alliance sooner or later. Allying with France and concentrating on Scotland (with you playing England) would be my advise. There should be a French Princess right around Caen.

My other question is kind of a technical question. I have really bad campaign map lag. It takes several seconds to scroll from one city to the next and they may be right next to each other. I didn't have that problem with Third Age. Can anyone comment about this?

I'd like to direct you to Improving lag in strategic map
I think there is not much benefit from discussion this in 2 seperate topics on the front page

[sbroadbent]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm still having trouble though. I tried playing as the Holy Roman Empire, and started off good and such. I allied against Denmark, France, Spain, Venice, and I think one more. Then not even 30 turns into the campaign, Poland starts attacking me all over the place. I would have lost if I didnt cheat (I'm not cheating to win, I'm STILL just trying to figure things out).

So my question is...how the hell do you combat that rush by the AI? I know the difficulty is upped in SS, but it would be nice if Easy was actually Easy...

One thing you can try to do is improve your relations with the Pope with generous gifts. Eventually, if the Poles keep attacking, not to mention others, and you maintain high relations with the Pope, eventually the Poles will get themselves excomm'd. From there, try to call a crusade against the Poles or the faction whose giving you trouble, and you might see things turn around.

In my Templar game, great Catholic powers have collapsed due to their excommunication (Venice, England, France, Poland, HRE, Sicily is barely hanging on). Sometimes it takes a while, but once a faction starts to lose territory and the AI "smells" blood, they'll start attacking the excomm'd.

[xxmaelstrom]

One thing you can try to do is improve your relations with the Pope with generous gifts. Eventually, if the Poles keep attacking, not to mention others, and you maintain high relations with the Pope, eventually the Poles will get themselves excomm'd. From there, try to call a crusade against the Poles or the faction whose giving you trouble, and you might see things turn around.

In my Templar game, great Catholic powers have collapsed due to their excommunication (Venice, England, France, Poland, HRE, Sicily is barely hanging on). Sometimes it takes a while, but once a faction starts to lose territory and the AI "smells" blood, they'll start attacking the excomm'd.

Ahhhh, that makes sense! I'll try that. I've restarted so many times because I just can't get this timing thing down for when to recruit, how many to recruit, how to balance upkeep and income, and just what to do with recruited troops. You recruit in one settlement to move them to another, but that leaves your settlement open for attack. It's just all so confusing!