Emotions get in the way?

[Bringer Of Storms]

Anyone ever have any stories when their emotions got in the way and it either turned out really well or really badly?

When I was playing my Venice campaign, I had Barbus Selvo, (whom I'm pretty sure you start out with.) as my best general, I sent him on all the important stuff. Then the pope calls a crusade, and surely enough I send Barbus. He sacks a good 3 cities on the way to Jerusalem. Finally I reach my target and succeed. i now have Barbus the Crusader. So i decide to unleash his wrath on the muslim factions since hes already there. After many battles and two crusades later, he is Barbus the Scarred with over 15 hitpoints. 10 command stars, 7 skulls of dread, max loyalty, and 5 piety. He is on top of the world. My favorite general. No one can stand in his way.... Oh wait, that inquisitor can. Now hes Barbus the Burnt to Death. Because of this I nearly gave all my money to the Turks, Egyptians, and Moors to wage war with every possible christian faction I could get them to attack before they said no, I even gave up a few settlements. I dropped everything I was doing and made sure to massacre every Christian I could just because of what the Papal States caused. This ended up in the stagnation of Venice and the loss of a few settlements now that 6 Christian factions want me dead, 7 with the pope.

Overall I felt like avenged Barbus. Although not one of my brightest moments.

[Sulfurion Blackfyre]

Epic story +rep love the "now he's Barbus the Burnt to Death" thingy xDD

[.L.]

I often defend a long-standing ally from crusade/jihad's.

[Nazgûl Killer]

That was a truly awesome story. To be honest, I don't get my feelings in the way in anything in my life, just not that kind of guy I guess... But loyalty (I don't consider that an emotion) for me is beyond all, so I do as our dearest Locke has already said he does, I defend my best allies with all I have, even if it means having to go to war with all the rest of the world.

As for revenge, I do often avenge my best generals, but rarely do I get them killed with Inquisitors (To be honest, I keep an army of assassins ready just in case I see an inquisitor and I send him down to Hell myself), it happens mostly in battles.

I actually had a crusade for a general I had, Tomaso Corfu with the kingdom of Venice. I conquered Tortosa, Antioch, Aleppo and Damascus on that crusade (Target was Damascus) and renamed Tortosa to Tomaso, Antioch to Corfu and Damascus I changed to Tomaso Corfu. Very creative, I know, but he was the best general I've seen in a very, very long time. Full command, full chivalry, full piety, full loyalty, and he wasn't scarred, he was something below that, something along the lines of +8 to hitpoints. He was badass.

[Diamond]

I was playing as England, and had France as my ally for a very long time. This was my first campaign, so I didn't know the AI was a backstabbing jerk. So when France tried to take Caen after I fended off like a billion crusaders from Toulouse with the French, I got really mad. I brought all of the armies I had (including the ones in Spain, which were like three) to Paris, and exterminated it. Now I'm excommunicated, I lost all of my Spanish colonial possessions, and every Catholic faction apart from Portugal and the HRE want me dead. Most of my English cities rebelled because I took all the units from them to attack Paris, then the excommunication public order decreased hit, and I was at -10k or so in the treasury, so I couldn't recruit more units...

All in all, I had London, Paris, and York in my posession. XD damn backstabbing AI

[Silverheart]

Emotions getting in the way of the rational or most logical choice?
Yeah, only constantly.

I once attacked a town (polish, I think) as Russia, and after the intial fighting at the gates and walls there was one unit of Spear Militia that had lost all but ONE guy.
And then I saw that the enemy also had only ONE Spear Militia guy left, standing in the surrounded plaza and presumably wetting himself with fear.
So I decided there and then to let the two spearguys fight it out in the plaze and determine the battle, completely prepared to actually surrender and leave the town in peace if my guy lost.
I just felt so sorry for the poor bleeding sap in the plaza, that I figured he deserved a decent chance - and my guy was also bleeding and tired.

Luckily, my guy won, so I still got the town - but it could just as well have gone the other way, had the poor Pole only been a little fiercer.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Emotions getting in the way of the rational or most logical choice?
Yeah, only constantly.

I once attacked a town (polish, I think) as Russia, and after the intial fighting at the gates and walls there was one unit of Spear Militia that had lost all but ONE guy.
And then I saw that the enemy also had only ONE Spear Militia guy left, standing in the surrounded plaza and presumably wetting himself with fear.
So I decided there and then to let the two spearguys fight it out in the plaze and determine the battle, completely prepared to actually surrender and leave the town in peace if my guy lost.
I just felt so sorry for the poor bleeding sap in the plaza, that I figured he deserved a decent chance - and my guy was also bleeding and tired.

Luckily, my guy won, so I still got the town - but it could just as well have gone the other way, had the poor Pole only been a little fiercer.

If you would have lost and left that city and surrendered, I swear you'd be the most sportsmanlike guy (Or girl, not sure) I've met.

[PrestigeX]

Nice Story, & that sucks about Barbus's barbarous end! Can definantly see why you wanted to avenge his death, despite the ramifications of such action.

for me, the death of a beloved Character could lead to simillar action -- but usually, I find what really gets me, is when a Faction exterminates a settlement of mine (ie. Mongols!!!) -- after that, I put to death all captured enemies from said faction, in battle I make it my mission to kill their leaders on the field regardless of my own casualties, and I will exterminate their capital .

[Bringer Of Storms]

The freakin Polish get in my way no matter who I'm playing as. With their spear throwin' Nobles. Just cause he was Polish i probably would've surrounded him and charged all my units at once. Every campaign I play the come out of nowhere and besiege like 3 settlements in a turn with 5 units of Polish Nobles. Gets me angry thinking about em.

[Doge Domenico]

Sometimes I will go on personally destructive campaigns to avenge my generals. Once as England I failed a siege in Paris and lost a general. I sent 7 armies all of which got destroyed just to take Paris and sack it for revenge. It was like a hundred years later when I finally got it, and it was at the cost of tens of thousands of lives.

[Xellos_Moon]

Sometimes I will go on personally destructive campaigns to avenge my generals. Once as England I failed a siege in Paris and lost a general. I sent 7 armies all of which got destroyed just to take Paris and sack it for revenge. It was like a hundred years later when I finally got it, and it was at the cost of tens of thousands of lives.

your like the worst doge ever

[tefras14]

On my recent vanilla campaign i play as Byzantium and have Denmark as ally. I control the lands all the way to the border of Arthus their capital and just spotted a Danish princess (6 on her charm) and decide to make a proposition for her to marry my kick ass prince. I sent my diplomat to make the proposition but one step from reaching her she gets assassinated! One of the spies i had there saw that it was a British assassin and that my ally was already under siege. So i give the order to my general to go on an all caps rage against the Brits and even launch a naval invasion on them.
This was one of the times when my emotions proved more productive than destructive since i had complete control on Britain and gained a nice raiding point against the Spanish who attacked me out of the blue a long time ago and been at war with them since. Also Denmark is still my reliable ally as i draw close to completing my conquest.

[DennisRoos]

In my latest Stainless Steel campaign I was playing as the Crusader States, and I was at war with the Byzantine Empire. My best general, Bertrand the Honourable (10 command, 10 chivalry, 9 loyalty, 7 piety) was besieging Constantinople when he was assassinated by a Byzantine assassin. I was furious! I took Constantinople the next turn and burned it to the ground. I exterminated it and destroyed every building in the city. After this I let it rebel, so I could exterminate it again.
Rationally this wasn't a very smart move, as it destroyed my reputation and I destroyed the largest and wealthiest city in the word. But it felt so good.

[Sweger]

I was playing as Norway in a Britannica campaign and it was towards the end where I was THAT close to conquer the whole map. I had a monster ecnomy by then of course. But I was ambushed by some Welsh and they actually managed to capture a family member. Instead of demending ransom (which I would pay and could pay uncountable times over) they just executed him and some other guys of mine. I made sure to execute everyone after next battle.

[Kalinin]

Doing things like that makes it all the more fun; was playing as Sicily and there was a crusade against Cairo so I joined and whilst I was besieging Cairo my best general who was leading my crusading army got assassinated so I decided to sack and destroy every single city in Egypt then once I'd done that I just left and Egypt as a faction was destroyed 20-30 turns later because they had no way of defending themselves because they were bankrupt and every building in their empire had been destroyed. T'was lots of fun.

[Willowran]

nice story

i will occaisonally feel guilty about betraying a long time ally, and go out of my way to avoid it. and if an ai faction beats me in any areas i thought unbeatable... hall hath no fury like mine.

[Xellos_Moon]

On my last campaign as france i decided early on to have the english as an ally. I left them untouched and constantly gave them tributes and even sent a stack to defend their northern borders when norway attacked..... I recaptured york and even gave them back the settlement. I even married like 3 princesses to them to secure the alliance more.

125 turns into the campaign they suddenly and without warning attacked even thought i had an "immaculate" global rep and perfect reputations with them... I was so friendly with the pope and i did everything right diplomatically. But they still attacked. I tried to stay defensive and sued for peace for 10 turns but they just kept coming....

i got mad and turned back all my armies and fcked the whole lot of them.

[tefras14]

I have learned that its much better to trust a venomous snake than the AI of the total war games. Russia has just betrayed me after a long time alliance (i just married their princess in my family). I have reliable rep and great relations with them. They do not have the troops to wage a war and they don't even do anything but blockading Constantinople for a turn and then they run and come back.

[Balor]

Ah... emotions... they do get in the way.

[Highlander of Scotland]

rebellions are the worst. In rome I reduced tarsus from 2400 to 400 people because of a few rebellions. i destroyed every building I could and then used it to power my awesome egyptian fleet of quinquerems.