Is this normal?

[AndariusHaliusScipio]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It's kind of... completely gamebreaking... unless I cheat to all hell as norm.

[Iguanaonastick]

Or find a chokepoint to defend (that bridge under Sis looks good.) or bribe them into peace, or better yet an alliance. (That may well involve giving up settlements to them, but with the balance of power as it is, it makes sense.)

I haven't played any decent-length campaigns in this version yet but you're quite far along in the campaign already. It looks like the Romans have conquered the Armenians, probably the Turks too and are massing a huge army. Can't tell if it's normal for this version or not, though. In the last I only saw the Great Seljuks and Ayyubids do this.

(Are you playing on "Very hard" campaign difficulty? That makes the AI factions richer and makes them spam more stacks, IIRC.)

[Smikis]

those 45~k you got can sport another 3-5 full stack armies.. i suggest you get them and this is normal if its vh , you are expected to beat 5-10 stacks with one of your stack.. and you should if you play on that difficulty

[SoulBlade]

Back in BC 2.02 Romans always got gangbanged by the Turks, Kypchaks and the crusade.
Now this is caused most likely by the initial territories of ERE - the biggest faction means the wealthiest and powerful.

[trollface]

Hahahaohwow... I would have some fun slaughtering them in bridge battles! Probably on the antioch bridge as the cannot outflank you on the other side... do you have a save? Perhaps earlier before they explode into the levant? I have a save for the crusader attack on constantinople which is alot of fun in trade

[treva]

this brings a question to my head:
do AI factions stick to unit pool rules? i mean, do they have to wait some turns for their units to be available to train again?

[AndariusHaliusScipio]

this brings a question to my head:
do AI factions stick to unit pool rules? i mean, do they have to wait some turns for their units to be available to train again?

From what I've seen... nooooo...

[wudang_clown]

Replenishment rates concern AI as well, but they are higher for AI, thus AI can recruit more in shorter time.

[saglam2000]

If you do toggle_fow into the command prompt you will see that all of anatolia is under ERE control. They are bigger/richer and more powerful than you, have fun

[AndariusHaliusScipio]

If you do toggle_fow into the command prompt you will see that all of anatolia is under ERE control. They are bigger/richer and more powerful than you, have fun

Considering that their capital was supposedly sacked not too long ago, I think that's bull

[saglam2000]

Well if i owned all of anatolia and half of the russian land to the north, losing constantinople doesn't seem like a hefty loss. They've also probably vassalized the turks+ armenians and since those two factions only have 1-2 territories they'd go bankrupt every turn so the computer gives them 10k and the ERE gets half of it since they are the parent nation. So theres an immediate guaranteed income of 10k for the ERE already + their territories

[AndariusHaliusScipio]

That's STILL not enough income to maintain TEN FULL STACKS in the Levant ALONE. And they don't have any vassals.

[Ibn Al-Quds]

I would love to have your campaign save file, pretty please

[AndariusHaliusScipio]

Attached save

[wudang_clown]

Well, Romans have vassals - those are Seljuks of Rum.

Secondly, how can you claim that Romans don't have money to upkeep all those armies, if their saldo is ~20k. They don't have to have whole sum of money needed to upkeep armies; they just run up a debt, but next turn they are on plus, due to various bonuses, including BC AI Cash Script.

AI receives a sum of money for each wall structure. Sums vary accordingly to wall level - the bigger wall the more money AI receives. Maximum is 750 for huge cities and 800 for citadels. Assuming AI possesses 20 huge cities, it receives 15000. And if AI is debt, it receives additional sum of money.

So, Romans may seem to not to have money, but they do have. Otherwise they couldn't recruit and upkeep all those armies.

EDIT: Stop using caps, please. We know how to read.

[metsikhovne]

EDIT: Stop using caps, please. We know how to read.

what the caps means? :\

[Iguanaonastick]

Writing in all-caps is annoying, but surely using them for emphasis on certain words is a valid writing technique? It makes the post sound annoyed, but then that is the impression I get from Andarius' posts. That he is frustrated that the AI gets more money and armies. But, well, that's the name of the game.

Andarius: I believe they get far fewer bonuses at lower campaign difficulties so maybe you'd enjoy playing at medium difficulty more?

But the bottom line is that the AI -does- cheat. It gets bonuses you don't, armies you don't, money you don't. Why? Because the Medieval 2 total war AI is utterly incapable of sensibly running an empire or conducting a campaign. Even with the bonuses a canny human player can do what he wants, when he wants by manipulating the AI. Without the bonuses an experienced total-war player would have no challenge whatsoever.

Lower difficulties and learning how to use diplomacy to prevent wars you don't want to fight are both quite workable solutions to the problem, though it's possible you may need to give up this campaign if you don't want to/can't fight off all those stacks.

It's never as bad as it seems, though. The AI will -not- keep all those stacks moving south at the fastest pace. They'll wander, they'll get distracted, you'll be able to beat them at bridges or pick them off one by one. As I said above. The AI is dumb. It can't mount a good offensive.

[wudang_clown]

Writing in all-caps is annoying, but surely using them for emphasis on certain words is a valid writing technique? It makes the post sound annoyed, but then that is the impression I get from Andarius' posts. That he is frustrated that the AI gets more money and armies. But, well, that's the name of the game.

Okay, maybe I've exaggerated. Yes, of course it is valid technique.

On the other hand, however, it's hard to miss any words in two-sentences long posts. You can use bold or underline words, instead of caps. Caps are like shouting on a bunch of malicious modders for creating a cheating AI.

[trollface]

47k in debt? hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng

[AndariusHaliusScipio]

Thomas Paine used caps on random words in "Common Sense" IT WAS FUNNY to me, but perhaps HE WAS attempting to emphasize certain THINGS, regardless of importance.

As it stands, I've already basically given up on this campaign, though mostly due to the army choices. I wanted to start with strong infantry, and the Jerusalots have knights that are only 60 or 50 per unit. I can't work with such dismally small units. Plus the only mercenaries they can hire are Turkopole horse archers. And Raynald de Chatillon is 95 and still won't die.