BGR vs Non-BGR campaigns

[Josh Knight]

I always play 6.3 without BGR, as it seems very complicated and complex to me, but im thinking about using it now.


Do you guys have more fun in your campaigns with BGR or without it, and what do you think that it adds in terms of fun factor or takes away from it?

[meese]

I think it varies from person to person. I started playing with it at the beginning of the year and liked it after I'd gotten over the "Woah...what do I do?" factor. That said, I do every now and then return to playing without BGR when I want to play without so many limitations.

It is complicated and complex at the beginning but mostly you don't need to worry all that much. The supply system is just a bit updated from what's in there by default so nothing drastic and the war council typically won't restrict you very much either. The main things you'll need to watch out for are the codes of conduct like chivalry which can cause a general to be banished, having less money so starting is more difficult, religious war taxation/costs and limited activities so you can only build/recruit when you have a general (but you can auto-manage). Also religion requirements for recruitment if you're on the outskirts.

But to really get an understanding, you should start a campaign yourself. I'd suggest an isolated faction like either scotland or england or norway or denmark. Play until you've consolidated yourself and see what you think.

[Kye]

It adds to the fun if your after a hard campaign where you have to plan your attacks and look after your family members. For the first time I really have to know who is where, and if my main kingdom is caught offguard, its a epic struggle to move my main army into position while my poor generals recruit miltia to defend.

The only real big thing I had to learn was keeping the treasury in the black. Generals and family members will buy supplies from the teasury. They have their own kind of income. They use this to buy estates or supplies, and you can tax them if you really need the cash.

My only 2 gripes are that the main army would have the supply train ancillary to help keep the army going (your army will take a moral hit if in the field to long because of the supplies that your general bought runs out) but it really limits the mobility of the army. Secondly the AI does not suffer from what you do, which is good and bad.

Good because the challenge is in the game regardless of how big you become. Getting bored at turn 100 wont really happen because your still facing the challenges a large successful empire might face. If you can live through your success and then struggle with it managing a large empire then this is for you. Its how you would want the game to be once your at that easy-mode stage in a non-BGR game.

Bad because sometimes when your struggling to maintain a full stack, the AI will come at you with 3. You cant help feel that they are cheating, even if they always were. The mod makes it that much harder that something like this is much more pronounced.

TL : DR nutshell, makes the game hard. If a realistic hard game is what your after its worth investing time to at least read the tutorial Byg has in his first post and play a few games as England to get used to the mechanics.

Kye.