My House Rules - Share yours...

[madtomic]

I thought I would share my house rules for the grand campaign. These rules really help me to enhance my gaming experience. Please feel free to share any of yours I’ll update any good suggestions.

Role Play:

Role play your generals. This means no 16 years old kid leading an army.

16 years - They have to stay either at city or castle to study or to train.
20 years - They can join an existing general for combat experiences.
30 years - They became a junior general and allowed to lead a small army. (No more than 10 units stack)
40 years - They became a general and allowed to lead a full 20 units stack.
50 years - They can be retired to govern a city or a castle. They can also be recall to lead an army if needed to fend off the rebels or any aggressions.

You have to use your King or Heir at any giving time to lead the main army or any given huge army. This also means no generals hiding on boats or anywhere away from the inquisitors. Any men at age of 20+ must serve in the army. You can build fort(s) to house your reserves and in-active generals.

If you play the game with the right strategies you won’t have to worry about the inquisitors.

Govern:

Only generals over 30 years old are allow to governing cities and castles. These generals however can be recall to lead an army if needed to fend off the rebels or any aggressions.

Army:

You have to use a combine force army. That means no same units in an entire fighting army.

Crusade(s):

Always use your King or Heir to lead your crusading armies. You have to join the crusade even if you are the only faction act upon it. You can only retreat your army only if the crusade is called off or another faction beat you to it.

Church:

You have to have a priest in each province. You have to fight off heretics and witches at all cost whenever they popup on the map.

If you have priests early on and converting the populations. They should earn enough faith to convince these infidels. You should have no problem. Also, if they succeed trialing they have more chance of being promoted to cardinal.

Mission:

You have to comply and do your best to complete all missions. If the Pope tells you to stop attacking another faction. You have to call off all sieges. However you are allow to defend your country but you will not be the aggressor or create any war if isn’t cause by the AI. If cease fire is offered by the AI. You have to take it. You will try your best not to be EXCOMMUNICATED at all cost.

Expansion:

This will come in time. I know many of you like myself likes to expand fast but what is the real point here if you expand too fast? You won’t have the empire setup to defend your borders or have the money to keep your armies fed. It takes money to make war and also it takes money to keep peace. You will have enough time to expand your empire according to the Pope. You will not be the aggressor and will not be excommunicated at all cost. However you are not limited to join a faction to go to war. This is optional and personal taste.

Diplomacy:

You have to have at least one diplomat at any giving time.

Merchant:

You have to have at least one merchant at any giving time for any province you have that has a market built in it. You however can’t have more than one merchant per province. Thus is to prevent exploits with cash flows. Max no. Merchants = total provinces with/without market under your control.

Ship:

You have to keep a fleet of minimal of two ships if your faction has water access.

Battle:

We all know that AI is stupid when it comes to battles. Auto-Calc is only way to be honest and fair. This way no cheats or exploits are being used in any given battles. I know, we all want to see the battles but it's not fun when AI army just stands there and let your archers to take out their entire army from distant. This includes all cities and castles sieges. So plan ahead or reinforce your army to have a better chance of winning.

I agrees with auto-calcing the battles removes half of the game but it just doesn't seem fair now where AI fights the way they are right now in v1.00. I hope the new patch will have this fix soon. My house rules are for me. It don't mean you have to use them.

[selenius4tsd]

Like them ideas madtomic; however, late in the game when you have conquered many provinces, it is not always possible to follow some of these guidelines (e.g. Role-playing your generals). Don't get me wrong - your logic is good, but Im just not sure if I would be able to keep to these rules. But thats just my opinion.

[vikrant]

well sometimes allowing a 16 yr old to lead an full stack invasion army can turn out as a wise decision; it all depends on the characters traits

[SPARTAN VI]

well sometimes allowing a 16 yr old to lead an full stack invasion army can turn out as a wise decision; it all depends on the characters traits

QFT!

In RTW, the younger the faction heir, the better. Before they turn 30, they're already 5+ star generals, and it's pretty much gaurenteed that they will become 8+ star generals when they're 40 on up. When my faction leader eeks up into his 60s, I used to bring him back to the capital where he will spend the rest of his days. Now I pretty much let him die with his men.

Too bad the same doesn't go with M2TW. I noticed I can have a general defend the crap out of city.. siege after siege after siege and he never gains a single command star. Then off in another settlement, I have a general fondling other women (adultresses everywhere) and he becomes a 5 star general.

[jw1089]

QFT!

In RTW, the younger the faction heir, the better. Before they turn 30, they're already 5+ star generals, and it's pretty much gaurenteed that they will become 8+ star generals when they're 40 on up. When my faction leader eeks up into his 60s, I used to bring him back to the capital where he will spend the rest of his days. Now I pretty much let him die with his men.

Too bad the same doesn't go with M2TW. I noticed I can have a general defend the crap out of city.. siege after siege after siege and he never gains a single command star. Then off in another settlement, I have a general fondling other women (adultresses everywhere) and he becomes a 5 star general.

if you have the defending general sally out, it will count as an attack, which will give him command stars

[SPARTAN VI]

if you have the defending general sally out, it will count as an attack, which will give him command stars

I do this more often than not. Although, everytime I sally out, I run into passive AI where they basically let me surround their troops and take out 50% of their troops before they respond.

[jw1089]

I do this more often than not. Although, everytime I sally out, I run into passive AI where they basically let me surround their troops and take out 50% of their troops before they respond.

i hate it too, buts its better than auto-calcing with 2:1 odds and getting a friggin draw, losing many men in the process

[Leatherpenguin]

The only house rules I go by is to not take advantage of the passive AI bug. I just play aggressive and take the fight to them when they feel like standing there under fire.

[Cadmium77]

I was going to say that you shouldn't use fire arrows unless you're beseiging a town and you want to set fire to it but then I got to the end and said that you don't fight battles...

[dearmad]

Mine are:

No naval invasion on the same turn as I land. Surprise invasions like this rarely happened. I land, let the AI have a turn to defend up, then attack. Otherwise going around the med. and ransacking like a viking on steroids is simply WAY too easy. they garrison with <2 units a LOT- even in cities where they would be FREE! (And it's still too easy as the AI doesn't always add additional troops...)

NEVER more than 1 spy in an enemy city... otherwise the gates are ALWAYS flung wide open... way too easy.

No sneak attacks. I declare war diplomatically.

[savage_rabbit]

Mine are:

No naval invasion on the same turn as I land. Surprise invasions like this rarely happened. I land, let the AI have a turn to defend up, then attack. Otherwise going around the med. and ransacking like a viking on steroids is simply WAY too easy. they garrison with <2 units a LOT- even in cities where they would be FREE!

NEVER more than 1 spy in an enemy city... otherwise the gates are ALWAYS flung wide open... way too easy.

Yes, this needs to be corrected in a patch.

[Elmar]

No sneaking past the inner walls by way of going up and around on the outer wall. Over or through ALL the walls, like a real man.
Why CA decided to link the different rings is beyond me.

[General Dissaray]

No sneaking past the inner walls by way of going up and around on the outer wall. Over or through ALL the walls, like a real man.
Why CA decided to link the different rings is beyond me.

Beacouse they were that way. It enabled the defendors to move about the castle quickly.

[Elmar]

Beacouse they were that way. It enabled the defendors to move about the castle quickly.

I'm sorry, but that is wrong. Castles were made to making moving through them a nightmare for the attacker. The crappy internal movement was generally taken as a minor inconvenience, compared to leading your foe through multiple corridors stuffed with murder holes. Castles had extraordinarily complicated layouts to achieve maximum discomfort. This includes minor and larger towers being inaccessible from the wall they were part off, long zig zag corridors etc etc. Of course there were exceptions but at the high end of castles (the level of castle we are asked to break into in M2TW) these kinds of devious planning were the bread and butter of castle design. For us to be able to walk through doors into a second level of fortifications absolutely unhindered is a-historical.

[Duke_of_Bavaria]

It's probably because I'm a big noob but I lead most of my armies with captains. So far I've felt NO difference what so ever.

And thanks for the tip about putting the king in a boat to escape the inqusition .

[Destraex]

a) never ever reload a game if you make a mistake or lose a battle.
b) Do not outnumber the enemy in battles if you can help it. The AI actually performs well if they have a chance in hell ARMY STRENGTH WISE

I agree about the wall rings too.... what the hell is that being able to pretty much ignore the inner walls. What a waste. Shouldda known that any new feature is either just pretty graphics or half assed "due to limits of the engine"

[Metellus]

"never ever reload a game if you make a mistake or lose a battle."

My only and best house rule at present. Reloading really ruins the RPG element and the 'historic' flow. Having said that I sent a huge stack by boat to Antioch to attack the Mongols (crusade), they had to fight their way through the Hungarian Navy, then got attacked and sunk by the Mongols! Lost Mein Kaizer, my best priest, some of my best military units, and others. Well ja, we press on regardless, to the Glory of the Reich!

[ConstantineVII]

"never ever reload a game if you make a mistake or lose a battle."

My only and best house rule at present. Reloading really ruins the RPG element and the 'historic' flow. Having said that I sent a huge stack by boat to Antioch to attack the Mongols (crusade), they had to fight their way through the Hungarian Navy, then got attacked and sunk by the Mongols! Lost Mein Kaizer, my best priest, some of my best military units, and others. Well ja, we press on regardless, to the Glory of the Reich!

I think it's the best theory so far. If I could add the "always use a condom" axiom we have a full theory of life.

[Duke_of_Bavaria]

I think it's the best theory so far. If I could add the "always use a condom" axiom we have a full theory of life.

But sir! What happens after 100 years when our generation is dead and there are no babies!?

[ProudNerd]

i get the really young geenrals out in the field at the head of a huge army asap. then they can gain more stars and tratis from winning battles and have more time to use them.