Small Empire

[Yinafra]

Ive noticed that the larger my empire becomes, the harder it is to control, which is obvios, but I mean It makes me focus on the larger scale instead of the little things i enjoy. Like deciding what guild I want in each city, Where to place forts, exe. When my empire gets big I really just focus on, build really expensive crap in London for more money, Invade France with that massive army you made to kill the Scots. Once i am able to invade France I don't even need strategy I can just send a big stack and if I use it right I can always win? Anyway anyone else find this annoying?

[Wegen7 die Große]

Not really as that is historically accurate.

[Rowdytavern]

I always like the beginning of the game better as every facet of the game is more personal. Your family tree is smaller and you get to know your royal family on a more personal basis so to speak. I usually only use one field army that I send all over the my small empire gaining chevrons (i like to max out each unit to three gold chevs)and such. Once the empire gets too big this becomes too hard. Each city and castle has special importance to my empire as I build each for a specific purpose.

I find that once I get more than 15-20 settlments the game loses something... I can`t say for sure what. Maybe as my empire grows past a certain point it out grows all its antagonists. Like if your Byzantium and you beat the turks or if your Scotland and you beat the English. Mongols and Tims fill this gap for eastern factions but as a western faction once you`re the largest empire then the game, for me atleast, tends to get boring.

I always find myself turtling and staying as a small empire. If only MT2W had civil wars like empire...

[zcylen]

Once the empire gets too big this becomes too hard. Each city and castle has special importance to my empire as I build each for a specific purpose.

just like roman empire.when it grew too much
you can´t focus on small things of life since you have bigger problems

[thursgun]

I know what you're saying. What helps is taking overseas territories. For instance, if you are England then take Portugal, Palermo, Finland, Rhodes, whatever...don't go for France I think that's lame. If you expand like a growing ink stain then you won't care much about your inner settlements.

This will sound cliche but I recommend playing Stainless Steel because it's very difficult to blitz in VH/VH and you'll spend time focusing on each settlement to maximize your resources.

[shikaka]

1.
Try some mods don't allow blitzing. (high army upkeep, strong rebel garrisons, etc.)

2.
Since blitzing is so effective, give a headstart to the AI. Like don't conquer for 5-10 turns...

3.
Don't expand.
I usually conquer what seems to be a realistic empire, then only make war when attacked. Like with spain I conquer Iberia (leave Portugal with 1 province as vassal) and maybe Gibraltar and that's it.



I really don't like all the management with many settlements. I know it's heresy, but I even use autobuild (with focus on public order) sometimes

[modog]

Thursgun is right about SS - it's far more important to take a real interest in every settlement, for a longer period of time than vanilla - rather than just concentrating on your newest acquisitions.

[Xerrop]

... I can just send a big stack and if I use it right I can always win? Anyway anyone else find this annoying?

Sure. The main problem of any TW game. Some like MTW made it a bit harder (with reappearing factions and civil wars) and not so annoying by allowing enemy armies to abandon the provinces when they have no chance against your big stacks - but still it get´s boring to finish the campaign.

@shikaka and thursgun: avoiding blitzing is still no solution. The problem occurs only later in the game.

[Fireright]

Can't say the beginning of the game is my favourite part of the game. Once I've done all the economic stuff to get the florins rolling in, and clobbered the nearest rebel settlements, thats my 'housework' done and I'm off sharpish getting stuck in to the nearest foes. Turtling and plodding stuff is boring, although some guys enjoy that playstyle, it's not for me.

I much prefer the midgame where the 'grand strategy' is...moving all my stuff around for another giant pincer and all that.

Sticking around 'home' is a real yawner..I'm here to crack skulls on foreign shores and soil asap

[Shasqua]

Yeah, once you have two dozen regions or so you're an unstoppable force. I usually hunt down the strongest other factions after that, but even that gets a tad dull.

[Fireright]

Yeah, once you have two dozen regions or so you're an unstoppable force. I usually hunt down the strongest other factions after that, but even that gets a tad dull.

True enough, when the point of 'unstoppable momentum' steamroller is reached, and theres rock all else worth clobbering, it can get dull.

Usually its the diagonally opposite faction or two I'm last to clobber and get bored so I'll whip out the mighty console for a laugh. If I'm say playing as Turks I'll probably finish the sweaties off with a stack of flagellants, elephants and other wacky stuff

[Yinafra]

Yea DreamWalker I think exactly the same way, I like to get 7-10 regions and then advance in tech and economic fields, these 2 supply me with the capabilities to defend my land. You need to specialize in at least 2 of these to be successful

-military
-diplomatic
-economic
-religion
-mercenary

being a merc is pretty much you help other factions in wars.

[MJDreamWalker13]

Thought I was the only one who disliked having a big empire.
I always try to keep my country small as well, have a maximum of 12 regions. This way it's easy to handle, but still makes me a big player who can have his say in global politics.

[Medkirtys]

Thought I was the only one who disliked having a big empire.
I always try to keep my country small as well, have a maximum of 12 regions. This way it's easy to handle, but still makes me a big player who can have his say in global politics.

wat

[thursgun]

I think the true problem lies in the poor capability of the AI nations to expand as fast as we do. So, once we are 'big' everyone else is just barely bigger than in the beginning of the game. Is there any mod that could fix this?

[MJDreamWalker13]

@Medkirtys
I meant having a considerable impact on the factions in the game.

[KingsleyHunt]

It would be cool if there was a civil war aspect once your empire gets so big it splits in two because of internal rivalries or something, that would be interesting and slow down the expansion a bit

[Scelesticfish]

Yeah I tend to give up on campaigns when my empire grows too large. It seems that once all the family members I was attatched to have died and I've expanded tons I lose the will to keep playing.

[Il Medico]

I do enjoy building the empire more. But as I usually play a western faction, late game I have epic wars with well established Mongol and/or timurd forces. So still fun. And with out the annoying 'my empie just broke apart into a million different factions' like in MTW.

[Chad29]

I don't really like having a ton of settlements either. I think that's a big reason why I keep starting over after a while. I play as Hungary with Budapest, Zagreb, Bran, Bucharest, Iasi, and sofia. That gives me three castles and three cities, and makes a nice little home pocket for me.

Of course if you don't meet the requirement you'll get a game over, but since I think you can continue past the turn limit you can ignore that.