New styles of playing

[Aramis]

Hello everyone! After many campaigns played, I somehow get bored from playing the regular way. I would like to make some new way of playing, it doesn't mean to be something extra hard, but kind of game that is more RP based and concentrated on specific thing. For example, I like to play with little number of regions and concentrate a lot on my family members and so, using my imagination to make the interesting story of it. However, I would like you to suggest some ways of playing that are not conventional and that are interesting to try.

[Larkin]

Relocation campaigns? Where you take everything you have and sail/march to somewhere else on the map, destroy all your home buildings, give away your cities and settle in new lands? I've had some fun starting the Polish Kingdom in Egypt or the Khwarezmian Empire on Sicily (in Stainless Steel) for example.

Defensive campaigns? Where you only expand to your historical borders, on VH/VH, with an aggressive AI and try to just defend against what they throw at you?

Blitzkrieg campaigns? Where you try and take everything as quickly as you can? I remember a Byzantine campaign where I had taken Greece, North Africa and Italy, all the islands and the Crimea and was halfway through Turkey pushing into Germany 30 turns in. Or a Moorish one where I had conquered the entire Western world along with all of Africa up to the Holy Land within 75 turns.

Or you could just get one of the many mods out there and have a different experience. If you like RP elements then Deus Lo Vult is a good idea.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

As you suggested yourself, it is quite fun playig with the Family tree in mind more. Do not adopt anyone or let your princesses marry anyone outside of your family.

Make yourself some far away claims, like crete for example, playing as Poland maybe. Its alaways fun going in the defensive and fighting untill the bitter end for your claims in places like the Levant as well.

Im guessing you're playing vanilla, if yes, then you can play as a muslim faction and conqer the americas. Always fun to do ahistorical stuff like that.

[Rijul.J.Ballal]

Survive for as long as possible with only one settlement and one stack...

[Aramis]

Thanks everyone for your answers.. And what about for example to try specialize in matters of some guild? for example getting theologians guilds and have a lot of priests and popes...

[Vampiresbane]

A favorite RP of mine is to do a crusading game where I try to collect as many religious relics as possible. You can also do the Islamic equivalent as well. If you're an in-game collector, this can be pretty fun.

[UndrState]

What about trying to play for very high Reputation, and family members with high-max Chivalry.

[Dr. Conquest]

I am currently embarking on a 'perfection' campaign with England. My criteria are:

- No saving and reloading (Play a fair game)
- Lose no battles, including naval engagements
- Do not lose or give away any regions
- Do not disband any units (These show up as 'Units Lost' in the turn summary)
- Do not allow any generals to be killed in battle
- Develop all regions as finances allow
- Conquer the map quickly (A sort of controlled blitz; I keep track of which turn I take each settlement on)

I have some additional preferences, but they are not key in maintaining any of the important in-game statistics. I've given this a serious attempt twice before, but started again each time as I developed new ways to optimise those crucial first turns. The following pattern of expansion has to be successful for me to want to continue a campaign, and it partly depends on certain outcomes based on the actions of the AI factions (France, Scotland).

Start: London, Nottingham, Caen
Turn 01: York
Turn 02: Edinburgh, Rennes
Turn 03: Caernarvon
Turn 04: Bruges, Dublin
Turn 05: Inverness, Antwerp, Bordeaux, (Bonus: Dijon, Metz)

A couple of areas still have room for improvement. It gets more difficult to meet these objectives as the game progresses because it's different every time. For example, I may get the option to adopt a general at a crucial time in one campaign, but not the next.

Turn 08: Hamburg
Turn 11: Aarhus
Turn 12: Oslo
Turn 15: Stockholm
Turn 17: Helsinki

(Somewhere in there I also take Angers, Paris and Rheims from France, purchase Staufen from HRE, and maybe take Stettin, too).

[totalwar_legend]

I am currently embarking on a 'perfection' campaign with England. My criteria are:

- No saving and reloading (Play a fair game)
- Lose no battles, including naval engagements
- Do not lose or give away any regions
- Do not disband any units (These show up as 'Units Lost' in the turn summary)
- Do not allow any generals to be killed in battle
- Develop all regions as finances allow
- Conquer the map quickly (A sort of controlled blitz; I keep track of which turn I take each settlement on)

I have some additional preferences, but they are not key in maintaining any of the important in-game statistics. I've given this a serious attempt twice before, but started again each time as I developed new ways to optimise those crucial first turns. The following pattern of expansion has to be successful for me to want to continue a campaign, and it partly depends on certain outcomes based on the actions of the AI factions (France, Scotland).

Start: London, Nottingham, Caen
Turn 01: York
Turn 02: Edinburgh, Rennes
Turn 03: Caernarvon
Turn 04: Bruges, Dublin
Turn 05: Inverness, Antwerp, Bordeaux, (Bonus: Dijon, Metz)

A couple of areas still have room for improvement. It gets more difficult to meet these objectives as the game progresses because it's different every time. For example, I may get the option to adopt a general at a crucial time in one campaign, but not the next.

Turn 08: Hamburg
Turn 11: Aarhus
Turn 12: Oslo
Turn 15: Stockholm
Turn 17: Helsinki

(Somewhere in there I also take Angers, Paris and Rheims from France, purchase Staufen from HRE, and maybe take Stettin, too).

What happens if you lose a battle? failed campaign? If you do manage to complete this, that does sound pretty close to perfection. Good luck. Also what difficulty is it on?

[Dr. Conquest]

What happens if you lose a battle? failed campaign? If you do manage to complete this, that does sound pretty close to perfection. Good luck. Also what difficulty is it on?

Okay, so the level is M/M. Part of my perfection involves my reputation resetting to 0 once all the AI factions are gone, and the harder levels are biased towards -1. This is difficult to counter without a constant supply of settlments to occupy and prisoners to release. Also, I am one of those people who disagrees with the artificial nature of the higher levels. Rather than facing a tactically superior AI, you simply get an imbalance of morale. The point of this challenge isn't to make things arbitrarily difficult. It's all about the numbers.

My record is approximately 67 turns, having won just as many battles and owning about 35 regions by that time. Then Russia attacked a single one of my ships with a fleet and I lost my zero defeats record. I hadn't paid too much attention to the details up to that point, but then I suddenly realised none of my generals had died on the battlefield and I started to formulate my idea.

I think it can be done. I have spent many hours figuring out a the ideal opening moves and have made several improvements since that campaign. Once you get a dominant position you can pretty much control the arena. I have learned the hard way to invest in huge navies to guarantee victories in each engagement, simply by having the numbers.

I prevent defeats in land battles by only attacking when I know I can win. Also, I always keep generals in my armies, or use them on their own to block the paths to my border settlements. I play with the timer, so when defending in the field I use the exploit of withdrawing all troops but the general from the battlefield, then walking around the edge of the map until the clock runs out!

[Dude with the Food]

Play a dread game with assassins and spies everywhere. Eliminate family members and spread unrest in foreign cities before walking in through open gates.

Go Denmark and Swordsmiths' and Explorers' guilds. Then with better ships, better infantry and best generals raid undefended cities, sack and destroy buildings before moving out.

Only take 1-2 castles and keep loads of militia in cities. Only keep castle units with best generals in forts in strategic locations.

[Kaiser Nonsense]

I am currently embarking on a 'perfection' campaign with England. My criteria are:

- No saving and reloading (Play a fair game)
- Lose no battles, including naval engagements
- Do not lose or give away any regions
- Do not disband any units (These show up as 'Units Lost' in the turn summary)
- Do not allow any generals to be killed in battle
- Develop all regions as finances allow
- Conquer the map quickly (A sort of controlled blitz; I keep track of which turn I take each settlement on)

I have some additional preferences, but they are not key in maintaining any of the important in-game statistics. I've given this a serious attempt twice before, but started again each time as I developed new ways to optimise those crucial first turns. The following pattern of expansion has to be successful for me to want to continue a campaign, and it partly depends on certain outcomes based on the actions of the AI factions (France, Scotland).

Start: London, Nottingham, Caen
Turn 01: York
Turn 02: Edinburgh, Rennes
Turn 03: Caernarvon
Turn 04: Bruges, Dublin
Turn 05: Inverness, Antwerp, Bordeaux, (Bonus: Dijon, Metz)

A couple of areas still have room for improvement. It gets more difficult to meet these objectives as the game progresses because it's different every time. For example, I may get the option to adopt a general at a crucial time in one campaign, but not the next.

Turn 08: Hamburg
Turn 11: Aarhus
Turn 12: Oslo
Turn 15: Stockholm
Turn 17: Helsinki

(Somewhere in there I also take Angers, Paris and Rheims from France, purchase Staufen from HRE, and maybe take Stettin, too).

Why Scandinavia? Why don't keep an historical reality level, head straight for France after Scotland is destroyed, if you manage to keep Caen, you will have a good start there, to recruit troops and assemble the men to take Angers, after taking Angers, take Île-de-France that is Paris area, and then France is basically yours.

[Dr. Conquest]

Why Scandinavia? Why don't keep an historical reality level, head straight for France after Scotland is destroyed, if you manage to keep Caen, you will have a good start there, to recruit troops and assemble the men to take Angers, after taking Angers, take Île-de-France that is Paris area, and then France is basically yours.

Why? It's too slow and doesn't support my rapid early expansion in the way I need it to. I take any and all rebel settlements within my reach first so I can delay starting a war. Scotland are always gone by turn 2. (If they take Inverness I start again; it's only 2 turns in and I like to eliminate Scotland simply by taking Edinburgh with Prince Rufus)

I mentioned that I'm always refining my method. Case in point: Yesterday I took Bruges on turn 3 instead of the usual turn 4. I used to assemble an army that would be ready by turn 4, but I was able to get the job done using just two units of mailed knights I got courtesy of having completed a mission (i.e. '[Take Rennes and] you will be rewarded with some of the best units currently available'). The other two units I got are on thier way to take Metz and Dijon while they are both still rebel.

[Kaiser Nonsense]

Why? It's too slow and doesn't support my rapid early expansion in the way I need it to. I take any and all rebel settlements within my reach first so I can delay starting a war. Scotland are always gone by turn 2. (If they take Inverness I start again; it's only 2 turns in and I like to eliminate Scotland simply by taking Edinburgh with Prince Rufus)

I mentioned that I'm always refining my method. Case in point: Yesterday I took Bruges on turn 3 instead of the usual turn 4. I used to assemble an army that would be ready by turn 4, but I was able to get the job done using just two units of mailed knights I got courtesy of having completed a mission (i.e. '[Take Rennes and] you will be rewarded with some of the best units currently available'). The other two units I got are on thier way to take Metz and Dijon while they are both still rebel.

Well, but you said you were bored with the regular way of playing mate, therefore I tell you, play historically. Download Stainless Steel, Real Recruitment + Byg's Grim Reality IV on VH/VH, that is a challenge, you really can't expand. You need to defend your "historical" lands and hope the AI does not destroy you.

[Dr. Conquest]

Well, but you said you were bored with the regular way of playing mate, therefore I tell you, play historically. Download Stainless Steel, Real Recruitment + Byg's Grim Reality IV on VH/VH, that is a challenge, you really can't expand. You need to defend your "historical" lands and hope the AI does not destroy you.

What??? I never said a word about being bored! I always blitz. It's how I play. There is no 'regular' way of playing. Everyone uses different tactics.

[Hmm Perhaps]

One thing I do is complete all the missions, and only do the missions. I don't attack any factions by myself, move troops against anyone myself, send diplomats to anyone myself etc etc. It's basically a test to see where the dumb missions AI takes you .

[Incredible Bulk]

I sometimes play where I only target generals and family members of an enemy and killed them in either battle or by an assasins hands my goal is not take any of their settlements but to destroy the faction and make all remaining troops and settlements rebels due to lack of family
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