Is this supposed to be this hard?

[The Almohad]

First, why doesn't the player get the benefit of this garrison script? If your logic is to represent realism by gathering surrounding levies in times of emergency, why does this not work for me? Second, you claim the AI doesn't adequately defend itself......yea right! I'm trying to make a go as the Catalans in the Dark age and it seems impossible, there is no possible way not to lose money and still defend yourself, and the Moors have stacks all over the damn place, they have 2 in Zaragoza, two more at Toleo, One at Cartagena, and another currently beseiging Palma, if I leave to defend Palma, they'll take Barcelona, I have trade rights with about 5 factions, am allied with three others, but I can basically only afford about 5 units of spear militia before I start losing money, god forbid I take them out of the city, cause then I'll lose more money thanks to the field script. And why does the garrison script kick in even if the AI IS well defended, if they already have like 17 units in a settlement, it's pretty gay to just throw six more on top of it. Plus when I attacked Palma, there were only six units, next turn they had 15 free units, now how the hell are there that many people in the belearic islands? How do you guys play this game? Any suggestions? I'm only even playing on M/M version 3.3 w/hotfix.

[Drtad]

The Dark Ages campaign is only in the beta stage, and is therefore unbalanced.

The AI gets the garrison script only because the AI is a lot worse than a human player.

[Bruce the Silver-Tongued]

I play with this in mind...:
If the garrison script is keeping you from taking a unit, then beat the garrison script. Either build a spy or two, and up their skill till they can open Palma's gates for you, or buy a trebuchet, or a ballista. When you seige for a turn, the script levies the peasants and etc., but, when you hit the settlement fast, and attack in the same turn, there are no levies summoned.
After you take one or two settlements with your initial garrison / mercenary army, or what ever you saved up for then built really fast, disband units until yours are all paid for by garrison, then build forts in the field. Put them in strategic places to prevent other factions from loafing into your territory while you are saving expenses. Forts are expensive, but they pay for themselves very quickly. Sneaky b**t**d tip: 1. save money, 2. build army with about 6 or so nice units, 3. load them in a boat and sail south to the string of three forts south of Zaragoza, 4. send cavalry units to secure the farthest one, and your other two groups secure the closest ones. Now you have 6 units paid for every turn while you prep to take Zaragoza and that other Spanish city... the Moors don't normally occupy those forts. You'll be able to figure out everything in between.

Sorry if I said anything you already know. Good luck reclaiming Iberia!

[SicilianVespers]

It's not recommended to play the small factions, like Barcelona, Genoa, Armenia, and Bulgaria, if you are new to the mod.

Start with a bigger faction that has a relatively "safe" starting position, so you can learn what approach to take.

Without the garrison script, the AI has a habit of garrisoning with one unit. The reason we don't get the benefits of the GS, is because we are smart enough to to plan.

Have you fought many battles in ChivII:SV? Your Milites (or other hvy cavalry) should be able to take on hordes of Levies, with repeated charges. If you leave them engaged with speamen too long you will most likely lose your characters and cavalry.

Also, build up your economic infrastructure before you go a-conquering.

I think we could use a few permanent stone forts for this type of faction, to give free garrison to better units. I'll see about doing this in 4.0.

Another thing I have been planning, is a banking script. Basically to let you barrow money or confiscate church lands....with penalties..of course.

[VINC.XXIII]

To Alm.

"First, why doesn't the player get the benefit of this garrison script?"
I agree , the player should have some(not 15) elite knights and servants as siege garrison, just for his "Royal Demesne", or call this like you would for the arabs/turks/or orthodox factions. In my ancient campaign with the marinidun, I had been tired by the portugueses who won against me in Granada, or Fes so easily. That could be perfect if the AI was just interested to hold the forts around the ressources in the land of their enemies. As a colonial presence. Essentially for the "naval" factions: Gena, Venice, Portugal, Arago.
Its just impossible that the Spaniards domine all the Maghreb!!! Idem for Venice about the Balkans, Just they need to hold the islands and some strategic places in Greece and littoral Croatia.

[RollingWave]

There's a few ways around beating the garrison script (most obviously is siege equipment) . but generally speaking, I find it a pleasant challenge most of the time. even taking a small settlement requires me to pull out almost all the stops to win.

[Ahlerich]

i played many many m2tw campaign on many many mods.
it is always the easiest solution to take towns from the ai because pretty much never the towns are defended. therefore the player becomes dominant very quick. once a player is dominating the campaign becomes boring and is abandoned.

bottom line: the script keeps the game fun much longer
question to op: what difficulty are you playing? do you play on medium/medium? if not i d try that. it will essentially give you more cash which should let you have armies capable of conquering garrisoned cities

[The Almohad]

I am playing on M/M. I guess the Aragonese aren't a good darkage choice. I tried as Scotland and had some success but eventually ran into similar problems. I've decided on a new house rule, every time I go into debt I'm just going to give myself enough money to get back to 0. I know the AI needs some help, but if I can only get two/thirds of a stack to work with before I lose money something is wrong. Maybe I'm just dumb, or maybe my love of small factions is whats getting me. Either way, I apologize if my original post came off as a whining complaint, after I went back and read it I forgot to mention that there are a lot of things I love about this mod so I'll keep trying.

[sputnik]

I tried as Scotland and had some success but eventually ran into similar problems

I have recently finished a new submod for SV. It is challenging to get the economy up and running but there is 2 new potential provinces for Scotland, with patience this should make it easier to build a stronger army.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=420221

[Ahlerich]

of course sieging cities very long or even over the full distance should make conquering a city easier too. with each round of besieging the garrison gets weaker and if you wait until they attack you should be able to defeat the enemy with 1 full stack