The Peasant Challenge POLL

[totalwar_legend]

Hey everyone,

It's not secret that I'm a bit of a glory hog. I've played this game so much that I seek out the hardest challenges worth doing and try to smash them.

Recently I've been doing the peasant challenge. That is, to put it simply, to only ever use peasants and conquer the whole world on vh/vh. However, some factions peasants are better than others. European peasants are much better than islamic ones. The islamic peasants have the lowest possible stats on the game. 1 attack, 1 defence, poor morale. Also, their defence can only be upgraded once, unlike European peasants.

So I began my challenge with Egypt, the smallest Islamic faction. I disbanded all non-peasant troops and sent all generals to a fort near cairo, where they shall stay the entirety of their life. No merchants, imams, diplomats, spies, assassins are used either. The only other unit i purchase are boats.

The results are so far inconclusive, as I've only just started, and this is way out of my comfort zone. However, I'd like to get a bearing of how you think this campaign will end. Poll your responses.

[lgoodin101]

what about peasant archers?? or is it completely restricted to peasants?

[totalwar_legend]

Lol, I'm a master of archers. With peasant archers I could do this blindfolded. It's only peasants.

[Comrade Roboto]

Lol, I'm a master of archers. With peasant archers I could do this blindfolded. It's only peasants.

I feel another challenge coming up, wining a game blindfolded! . Also to be truly screwed, combine the peasant challenge with the 1 city challenge.

[Kaiser Nonsense]

lol

Of course you shall win, but it will take time, spamming peasants can defeat even elite units, as long as they are overwhelming.

[Pyres Δt Varanasi]

Late Victory . Also you will have to fight them the Orc Way HORDE Style

[Maklodes]

I'm not sure it's actually true that Muslim peasants are worse than Catholic peasants: Catholics have better stats, but I think that Muslim peasants have a better animation with their knife, so I've heard claims that in tests the Muslim peasants sometimes prevail.

As for the campaign, I'd say that the Mongols -- or, really, other missile cavalry (most urgently in the early game, probably, Byzantines and Turks) should theoretically be able to wipe out your all-peasant, no-archer armies in the field without taking a single casualty. Beating the Mongols or Timurids with all-peasant armies on VH/VH seems like a pretty daunting task to me.

[napoleonic]

actually this maybe somewhat easier if your computer are good, with unlimited number of men on battlefield you can overwhelm enemies by numbers, you can in theory assault settlements with 4 armies at once and took it just by using AI as a bait and rush your peasants to the center and defend there.

same goes with any other battles... a full stack of peasants controlled by the AI are a good hammer while you manouver your peasants as anvil, that's just 2 stacks of them, if you bring 5 stacks at once, you can overwhelm AI no matter how elite they are... except mongols timurid stacks perhaps.

[totalwar_legend]

actually this maybe somewhat easier if your computer are good, with unlimited number of men on battlefield you can overwhelm enemies by numbers, you can in theory assault settlements with 4 armies at once and took it just by using AI as a bait and rush your peasants to the center and defend there.

same goes with any other battles... a full stack of peasants controlled by the AI are a good hammer while you manouver your peasants as anvil, that's just 2 stacks of them, if you bring 5 stacks at once, you can overwhelm AI no matter how elite they are... except mongols timurid stacks perhaps.

There is a serious problem with this strategy. Peasants are hugely expensive for their quality. A single unit costs 90 upkeep. so a full stack is 1800. 5 stacks of that would cost about 9000 a turn in upkeep. Since Egypt only has 3 regions to start with, how are you supposed to get that kind of income?

Don't forget. It is only peasants right from the start. All other units are disbanded right away.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Peasants only will mostly give you pyrrhic victories and defeats, so im voting that you win after turn 225. Also the fact that the mongols will eventually come by to say hi wont help either. Its a shame you are not using your generals as at least fort builders, its always a good strategy to just make loads of forts and put 1 pesant unit in each, its gives a bump for your enemies and it will also kill a few of them whenever they attack a fort.

[napoleonic]

Since Egypt only has 3 regions to start with, how are you supposed to get that kind of income?

I didn't say in early of the game surely after you expanded and have great income unless you refrain yourself from that too? hahahah...

the problem will be crusades... how are you going to defend? are you also will not use generals? speaking of that, what are you going to do with your generals?

[totalwar_legend]

ah i see. Maybe. The problem is the initial expansion. It takes forever to get the 1st stack (like 10-20 turns) by which time the AI have also expanded. Blitzing isn't an option this time.

I leave the generals in a fort near Cairo to sit and do nothing.

[JihaadJim]

I always look forward to your new challenges, I'm sure you can do it, but it will probably be a very close fight. Are you gonna to a youtube series of it? I'm loving your current one.

[totalwar_legend]

I always look forward to your new challenges, I'm sure you can do it, but it will probably be a very close fight. Are you gonna to a youtube series of it? I'm loving your current one.

Yes, I am recording this. I don't really intend to start editing the footage until I've done more of the blitz campaign. Plus I also have some stainless steel to get done too. Lol so many campaigns.

At the moment I'm up to turn 65. It's been damn hard so far. I've had to resort to all kinds of exploits and tricks to get anything done. To make matters worse, the pope called a crusade on me and every catholic faction joined except portugal. So there about 3 factions I'm not currently at war with at the moment. Oh and the mongols are due in about 2 turns.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Yes, I am recording this. I don't really intend to start editing the footage until I've done more of the blitz campaign. Plus I also have some stainless steel to get done too. Lol so many campaigns.

At the moment I'm up to turn 65. It's been damn hard so far. I've had to resort to all kinds of exploits and tricks to get anything done. To make matters worse, the pope called a crusade on me and every catholic faction joined except portugal. So there about 3 factions I'm not currently at war with at the moment. Oh and the mongols are due in about 2 turns.

How big is your PC's memory? Im guessing at least 1,5 TB if not whole 2. All that footage must weigh a lot.

[napoleonic]

1 city challenge? an interesting challenge, if it in a civilization game

in TW however that might be an impossible challenge...

[Comrade Roboto]

1 city challenge? an interesting challenge, if it in a civilization game

in TW however that might be an impossible challenge...

I do believe totalwar_legend mentioned a 1 city challenge in another thread not long ago.

EDIT: Nope, my mistake, such a thing was never mentioned. Still, could be an awesome challenge no?

[Yayattasa]

You have the advantage of not constructing most of the military buildings. So, you can focus on economic buildings to pay the upkeep.

[herne_the _hunter]

Peasants vh/vh and here's the twist... only use auto resolve...

[totalwar_legend]

I'm going to reply to the above 3 posts in order.

1. I have 640GB internal memory. I back up all my footage once a week one a 1TB HD, compress it to h264, and then store it to a 3TB HD. My entire blitz campaign uses up 64GB. And that's about 72 hours of HD footage. I'm a video editor by trade. I know how to store footage like a tetris pro.

2. I don't see how not using military buildings gives me any kind of advantage in a game where military success is the focus. Sure, I spend a bit more money on economic buildings. But peasants are terribly expensive to use as a driving force. I am broke all the time and my military ranking is like 30% that of venice, the no.1 at the moment. And I have the most regions at the moment too. Everything about using peasants is inefficient.

3. Auto resolve involves no skill. I never use it. In fact, sometimes the Auto resolve can produce better results than manual if you use experienced troops and overwhelming force. I only ever manual resolve.