Broken Crescent 3.0!!

**enes117** · August 16, 2013, 05:04 AM

Hey guys I really love broken crescent and look forward to see the new version. But I have a problem. This mod is nice but not as I want. I mean I can't recruit army. I have a lot of money but I can't build an army. I am the richest country and the powerless army in the game. Because you don't put enought soldiers in recruitment pool. Sorry for my bad english. If I can't recruit units even I have so much money then what? On my last game I was playing as Roman Empire. I took most of the lands of Anatolia. And I used my spies every time because I had no choice. I have citadels but still I can't have strong armies and I am the richest. The seljuks and Ayyubids are at war and I can only watch them because like I said I haven't enough army. I spent so much money for buıldings in my citadels and yet I can't recruit enough. I recruit a powerfull knight and then it says turns 11 for new available. and I really ask you in this new mod please put all the soldiers... I captured one of ayyubid's citadel but almost no units to recruit. So should I bring soldiers from Constantinople or nicaea all the time??

**zburanuki** · August 16, 2013, 05:42 AM

You can recruit your elite units only from western Anatolia regions, so you can't recruit elites or any other troops from Ayyubid or any other conquered region. So yes you have to bring soldiers from Cinstantinople and Nicaea all the time and try to upgrade Dorylaeum and Amorium to citadels as well toproduce more troops. As for the slow recruitment it's historically accurate as Kataphractoi or Pelekyphoroi weren't the majority of the Byzantine army, but the minority and were secured by other units (scoutatoi) and then did the final charge and broke the enemy. The same goes for the othe factions as well, Ghazi Ghorid Axemen, Tabardariyya, Late Templars etc. Also the Romans in most of may campaigns if they don't destroy the Turks they can't recruit more than 2-3 stacks.

**enes117** · August 17, 2013, 12:10 PM

but it's redicilious man. I have 200.00 florins but I have the weakest army in the game. those citadels you were talking about not enough. After I recruit some elite troops and it's not available for many turns. I can't go on expansion even I am the richest. You think is it sensible? I captured the armenians citadels with my spies. I can't even atack a town without spies so they can open the gate. The armenians built so much building and spent so much money for that citadel. But after I captured, I can only recruit some stupid peasants. I am afraid to declare war. I have money but i can't recruit and it sucks. That's why I won't play that mod. Can i send these messages to the mod makers. Is there any way?

**Trueman.** · August 18, 2013, 11:22 AM

You'll get used to it, the unit pools pissed me off at first, too. You'll just have to take your expansion slowly, one city at a time with soldiers you bring from your core regions, focus on retraining and rebuilding, and resupply your frontier settlements with more soldiers at a regular basis. You can also recruit mercenaries which aren't half bad compared with the troops you can recruit from conquered regions. You can also try to take mod tutorials and edit the pools yourself, look in the general M2TW forum for how-to files. Though I don't encourage this, it can hurt your game or make it unplayable if not done right.

**Iguanaonastick** · August 19, 2013, 06:54 AM

I've played several campaigns with the eastern Romans in this mod and I've always found it quite easy to maintain around 6 full-stack field armies (as well as crappy levies for garrison duties) as long as I play conservatively and make sure my armies suffer few casualties in battle. (So I rarely assault in sieges in this mod, since that tends to result in meat-grinders. Starve 'em out. It's slower, but much more certain.)

The biggest challenge for me was to keep my heavy cavalry units up to strength. There are typically few of these available, particularly for the Romans who do not get units like Askari Nobles or Ghulams or Knightly Orders. Still, as long as you do not try to field too many units of heavy cavalry per stack, it's doable. (I used 2-4 units, and 4-6 light cavalry units.) It helps to recruit the (quite decent) local heavy cavalry on Cyprus. Convert both settlements there to castles to get extra. Also, remember to recruit your stratatoi cavalry and such whenever they become available, and keep some extra around in times of peace so you can reinforce your stacks in times of war.

All in all Broken Crescent is more challenging than other mods in this regard, since you cannot simply spam armies once your empire grows. Indeed, conquest becomes more difficult as you expand farther away from your home territory, not easier. In this regard it's much more realistic than mods that allow you to conquer and immediately reinforce your armies in your new settlements.

The Romaioi actually have it easier than most since they're situated on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean. It's no coincidence that the classical empire was based around this sea. You can use navies to transport your armies and keep them supplied with reinforcements from Constantinople and Nicaea much more quickly and efficiently than land-locked empires. Try to conquer around the Levant and the black sea to make optimal use of this advantage.

Edit: Oh, and mercenaries indeed make a great way to supplement your forces. Particularly the Armenian archers and horse-archers are better than your own, and if they suffer casualties they can be re-trained in those Armenian castles that otherwise don't offer much in the way of troops to recruit. Latin Knights can also be recruited this way to help with the heavy cavalry situation.

**enes117** · August 19, 2013, 11:19 AM

I took some screenshots to show you what I mean but I removed the mod and all is gone

**enes117** · August 19, 2013, 11:18 AM

You say well but not challenging for me. Because Seljuks and Ayyubids have powerfull armies with great experiences. Last time Seljuks have 4 full stack armies around a fortress. How can it be challenging? It's impossible to declare war against any country. Kypchak declared war against me and I can't deal with them. I have money but nowhere to recruit. They have enormus experienced soldiers, I don't even know how they earned those experiences because They aren't at war with anybody. I finally destroyed the buildings ones I have captured. And I gave the fortress to the seljuks as present to keep kypchaks away from my country. Is it enjoyable. Everytime I send 5 spies to enemies castles and make surprise atack or otherwise I can't do anything. These are all the reasons why I can't and I don't play this mod. I hope 3.0 will have different recruitment pool

**Iguanaonastick** · August 19, 2013, 02:22 PM

I don't see any screenshots.

But anwyay. The AI does get some free stacks with bonus experience. It's not fair, but then the AI is stupid so it balances out. Their armies also tend to suck and consist of ill-balanced collections of levies backed up by only a few dangerous units. Even if they look intimidating, you can often beat 2 to 1 odds without sustaining too many losses.

Still, it's true that this mod is much harder than vanilla and if you can't win field-battles without losing many troops you can indeed get bogged down. Diplomacy and grand strategy are also important: you can use allies as buffers to keep from having to fight multiple strong enemies at once. It's definitely possible to win, though. Playing as Romans I've beaten all the factions you named. Though not at the same time.

But if it's too frustrating for you and you do want to play Broken Crescent, you can always try installing some sub-mods. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...55-AOR-Remover This one, as advertised, should let you recruit troops in all castles and citadels instead of just in western Anatolia.

**enes117** · August 20, 2013, 11:10 AM

Thx dude but I couldn't install 2.3.2. I tried everything but always told me the same problem: Kingdoms not found or something like that. By the way, if you know chess, the AI plays pretty nice. It plays smarter than humans. Maybe you heard casparov-deep blue matches. I mean, in mtw 2, can't mod maker the same intelligent AI like in the chess programs? And do you have any idea of the relase date of bc or ss?

**Iguanaonastick** · August 20, 2013, 04:14 PM

Short answer: No, modders can't change the campaign AI that much. It's mostly hard-coded in the game and it has been poor ever since Rome Total War introduced the 3d map.

Long answer: Creating a computer that plays Tic Tac Toe as well as a human is very easy: there are only a few possible moves and it's easy to calculate what the best one is. Creating one that plays chess well is harder, but still very doable. There are many more moves possible in chess, but it's still manageable. For example: there are only 20 different possible opening moves in chess. A computer can use brute force to calculate what moves will be successful.

Now consider, how many possible moves are there in a total war game? You start with a half dozen cities each of whom can build any of a half dozen buildings and a half dozen units in the first turn. Each of those units then have hundreds of possible locations to move to... what is the best one? How many troops do you need to send to win this battle? How many to complete that siege? And what type? And then after a few dozen turns you will have a half dozen stacks and dozens of garrisons and dozens of cities and fleets and spies and mercenaries, etc, etc...

Humans are good at "eyeballing" stuff. Doing what looks right and trusting our intuition and memories of past experiences will steer us in roughly the right direction. If it isn't going as planned, we're good at improvising and adjusting our strategy. That's why we're fine playing games like Total War.

Computers can do none of these things. They need to calculate things, they need to know what exact thing to do. That's why they suck at games like Total War where there isn't an obvious path to follow, and why they get better the more a game resembles chess with clearly defined rules and a limited number of discrete moves to make.

**AqD** · August 22, 2013, 11:21 AM

The recruitment in BC is very limited. You could try my AqD's BC submod for begineers which allow recruitment outside of homeland by religion conversion.

**enes117** · August 26, 2013, 06:01 AM

and I don't understand one more thing. Buildings are so much expensive and long time to build. i never used great jama for example. If I cant use it, then what is the reason of it's existens. Damn paved road is expensive too. i never used it. AI already doesn't pay for construction, at least human shouldnt pay so much.

**enes117** · August 26, 2013, 06:05 AM

I always play vh/vh and I never cheat. But in this mod I play medium for battles and I cheat. i add population and money cheat for the military construction. And it's so hard a settlement reach to huge city. The game is finishing and I can't get the huge city, it's redicilious

**DevrimJan** · August 27, 2013, 03:38 AM

You can change the cost of buildings in the EDB, and also you can increase farm productivity in the same file. The farms are referred to as hinterland farmland.