Screenshots / Empires' Maps Thread

[Dekhatres]

My Kiev siege army. Had to rush it, not sure it will do...

based and axepilled

[Nemesis2345]

Oof


Game is getting interesting

[RodriguesSting]

Guess they took the title back.

[kostic]

It is indeed a fascinating uchronia !!!

[kostic]

Here is a test made with the part provided by DavidofLaSalle concerning Portugal in 1404.


I see a smooth and bug-free game, despite the impressive number of characters on the map. Several factions have been destroyed, which should also lighten the game.
The passage of the game turns remains at a maximum around 1:30 (which ultimately does not bother me) with many animations of diplomats curtsying in front of my cities ...



Here, the new capital of the Portuguese Empire, Rome, with an impressive number of assassins and priests. I think our friend shouldn't have played with the latest version which (luckily) limits the possible number of agents.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My first victorious battle near Cairo against the Fatimids.
You can see that my units are not quite vintage anymore ! (here with the dataXII folder)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Second battle north of Jerusalem ...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

... and a stinging defeat !!!





I have a 3rd battle with Albert the Pious near Aleppo, this time I use the data XIII folder, although it is hardly better suited than the 12th century one, since we are there two centuries later !

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The part of the army that I command is led by a captain who will receive a terrible assault from the Fatimids armies before the arrival of the main force commanded by Albert the Pious ...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Impossible to resist. He must flee to save his life.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The rest of the army is finally here! It is spread over a large area and far too slow to have been able to help their allies. The knights rush when they are not supported by the infantry, far behind ...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Albert the Pious arrived too late ... despite all these efforts he must admit his defeat after losing all these bodyguards.


Conclusion:
What is satisfying is to see that it is possible to play so far (550 laps !!!) and that the game remains difficult despite more than good finances.
I really hope to one day improve the units (at least the main ones) until the 15th and 16th century.
With my principle of interchangeable files, this project will be, I hope, feasible.

[Nemesis2345]

I also love to see Portugal , one of the most overlooked and weaker factions in the game , rule half of the world. Kudos for the patience !

[MikeFriks]

Conclusion:
What is satisfying is to see that it is possible to play so far (550 laps !!!) and that the game remains difficult despite more than good finances.
I really hope to one day improve the units (at least the main ones) until the 15th and 16th century.
With my principle of interchangeable files, this project will be, I hope, feasible.

Please ! Will be here to spend a lot of time on it !

[DavidofLaSalle]

Looks awesome @kostic!
I've been looking forward to adding your unit models to my edition, but since everything was working so well and I wasn't having any crashes, I didn't want to rock the boat and change anything. Glad to see that its work so well!
As for all those priests and assassins in Rome, I had a couple of high level heretics appear there and they were converting all my priests when I tried eliminating them. After that, I went all out lol When the empire gets that big, a limit to the number agents is welcome lol
Thanks again for the post! All the best!

[RodriguesSting]

Pretty brave, been playing Medieval 2 Total Peace with Portugal for almost 50 turns now and I am borderline suicidal. Guess it is about time to grab some men and kill Castille or kick the moors out of Iberia. The plan was to wait until Heavy Mail so I could have some sort of unit advantage, but having Toledo, the ONLY good castle in actually Spanish lands, I could probably have already done that if I wanted to.

[Slaytaninc]

Doesn't look like the Byzantines conquered anything else in your game Nemesis. Now that they have Rome you must surrender your imperial title to them

[Macaras]

Just want to give a short report after playing Serbia. I think of all the hours spent playing mtw2 I had more fun only once when I played late Byzantium in SS 6.4 with Gracul AI. For me the struggle to survive is an essential element to enjoy a long campaign, otherwise I get bored and never play to get all the 40 cities. Serbia is a challenge - underdeveloped, starting with no merchants, no diplomats, strong neighbors, hanging between the orthodox and catholic world- and a lot of fun!
I started the campaign allying myself with Byzantium. After conquering few rebel cities I found myself with four settlements and a question what to do next. Luckily the Byzantines started a war with Hungary, so as a good ally I joined them and conquered 3 or 4 cities that were a very easy meal, as their army were busy fighting Byzantium. The Germans didn't like it too much and attacked me -in the beginning with one army, but later with their whole power. I survived only because their infantry was weak - basically spear and crossbow militia, only sometimes foot knights. Their strong cavalry I managed to neutralize taking advantage of the fact that the AI abandons his battering ram if you play it well, and sends all the troops to the ladders and towers. I made a mistake though and married my princess who was the only diplomat available, so I couldn't stop the war.. I think I lost one city in the end, but managed to get a ceasefire. After this Germans started another wars and left me alone for a while. Byzantines all this time were happy and friendly with me, so at least on the South I was protected. Some time of peace allowed me to strengthen my small empire, I even bought a city from Byzantines. To my surprise checking my new city I saw a gift there - two units of banderium knights and three units of foot banderium . These units are very expensive but are total monsters, having 33 points of defense and superior armour. I used them later to capture some byzantine cities, I was vary careful with them because of no possiblilty to replenish the troops, as in the game they come much later.
Another reason for Serbia being a lot of fun is below: The Vlastela:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IMG][/IMG]

The Vlastela is one of the best units available for any faction imo. I never played the archers factions so this was my first time having a heavy armored cavalry archers, and they are awesome! They even shoot charging as you can see in the picture. They are tough cookie for any opponents - both infantry and cavalry and they are very useful to surround the enemy army and kill his general. Its easy to make them earnig experience, the golden chevrons unit has 10 attack and 19 defense, plus bonus for charging and the ability to shoot arrows. Also the foot vlastela are very strong unit, in addition to all they scare the enemy.

Anyway, continuing the campaign ,the byzantines attacked me, but somehow without conviction, they never siege my cities if they were even moderately defended, their super strong armies were just wandering about waiting for the pitched battle. I took advantage of it attacking their cities from the sea, one turn and the city was mine, they moved their armies, but then I attacked another city somewhere else, this is how they lost Constantinople - a good source of income:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IMG][/IMG]

I didn't make screenshots during the game, so they are all from the last turns.. but it gives an idea.
As a hint for anyone playing Serbia, I think its good to have an alliance with the papal state, help them and pay them every now and then 1000 florins per turn, for 5 turns. Immediately their attitude becomes perfect, and they never attacked me. After taking over Venice, it protected the norther frontier. Polish were busy fighting their enemies from the north, so they never bothered me.
France who was the other superpower that thankfully never bothered me. Here to show how strong they were:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IMG][/IMG]

I stoped playing when I saw the victory screen, which rarely happens, as usually I abandon the campaigns playing other factions when I get to 30 cities and nobody is able to threaten me anymore. This time I was even considering going on As I said it was the most enjoyable campaign ever, have fun!

[kostic]

Congratulations ! Finishing a campaign with victory must be rewarding ! Didn't you even need to go beyond 1272 ?

[Macaras]

Hi Kostic, I actually finished in 1285, after 307 turns

[a Dictator's Cigar]

Hi Kostic, I actually finished in 1285, after 307 turns

Impressive campaign, how was your encounter with the Mongol faction?

[Jurand of Cracow]

I've got 3 take-aways from the Maracas' game:
1. it's fun
2. one can play very long campaign with 097
3. a garrison script for the AI would be useful to implement since the AI is helpless with human tactics of invading from the sea.

[Macaras]

Impressive campaign, how was your encounter with the Mongol faction?

I didn't fight with them, they were busy with other factions - Georgia, Zengids, Kiev.. I only had one or two cities next to them, with very strong garrisons, so they stayed peaceful

@Jurand, absolutely - that would make the game more realistic and difficult =more fun. My usual strategy is to conquer cities when the AI is busy somewhere. If one waits for the right time to attack, the game becomes very easy. Even recently I found out that starting Denmark, you can conquer Norway in 10 turns (with their armies wandering somewhere), that leaves the whole Scandinavia an easy meal..

[CheriSh17]

Hello, this is my first time posting here, I've been a long time lurker of twcenter but I recently created a new account (and I still don't know to post images poperly). I just want to share my current 0.97 England campaign on H/H and give some feedback
I wanted to take it slow so I never attacked any Catholic faction who didn't attack first, and even then I was never aggressive towards them. I went for a quite peaceful campaign, building up a powerful economy.
I must admit that I don't play with fog of war on, so it might be cheating, but I want to play a relaxing game and also watch the world around me change.

Scotland was wiped out early on, then France attacked so I beat them down and managed to destroy them a century before the hundred years war. Denmark, which was pushed out of their lands by Norway, took over the Holy Roman Empire along with the Pope, who had a habit of attacking their neighbors and excommunicating them. Denmark then attacked me so I beat them down, and after that, consolidated my borders, buying Toulouse from Aragon, which was also my ally at that time, and who at one point owned almost all of of Iberia, and now is close to being wiped out by Portugal.
The Pope was my closest ally, and it seemed that they would quickly become the largest faction, but their expansion seemed to stop after beating HRE and Venice. As for the HRE, they currently don't own any settlements, but there's no announcement that their faction is destroyed, and once in a while a message pops out which says that the HRE is close to collapse. Do not all destroyed factions re-emerge? I have never seen France re-emerge, or is it because I control their lands?

I also always join/initiate crusades in the Holy Land, and gift the settlements I capture to the Pope, who always loses them through revolts, save for Aqaba. Twice the Pope called a crusade on Valencia owned by Aragon, and twice I captured it and gifted it back.
As for the Crowns system, I only had my King crowned twice, even though I usually had all the requirements fulfilled. My current king is Uncrowned even though he has very high piety and authority, is Fit for Office, and is not a Userper or Regent. Although I haven''t had a civil war ever since he became king.

Now at around 400 turns, I have standing armies on border castles at Toulouse and Hamburg, a reserve army at Orleans, and had taken three crusading armies to the Holy Land and conquered the settlements of the now destroyed Crusader States (all were full stack rebel settlements). I have a governor in every settlement that is a City/Fortress and higher, and my faction is ranked first on all categories. I am currently not at war with anyone.

Here is my usual army composition.


My economy that is supported by my army of merchants.


And eternal papal favor due to owning the college of cardinals


London is my capital, and my merchant recruitment center, due to having a master merchants guild. While Paris has a theologians guild headquarters, so it is my priest recruitment center, and also my teenage governor training center before they get sent out to the settlements whose governors have died.


I attacked a Fatimid army just to show some battle screenshots
Here is my usual formation, the default formation with infantry in the middle, longbows in front, cavalry on flanks.


My core infantry of heavy billmen (great against heavy cav) and knights/swordsmen.


Some longbows.



Knights vs Mamluk Lancers.


It's been an enjoyable campaign so far, and I've had minimal crashes, usually in battles. I'll continue playing on ultil the pike and shot era.
Looking forward to 0.98! Thank you modders!

[Jurand of Cracow]

Very interesting campaign! And the battle of the Flowers

I'd like to have a look at the file to look around how the situation is in 1334 . Could upload also a save and tell the version you're using (that one of 11.01.2021 or the 097 with patches)?

I would also like to know your opinion on the development of the traits (if the generals evolve in the distinct characters), and on the parameters of the agents (all the merchants seem to be at 10), and also on that uncrowned king.

[CheriSh17]

Here is my save file, I use SSHIP version 0.97 patch H.

For the agents, not all are at 10 but many of them are. I think it's because of the snowball effect as my empire grew larger. Early on, I had a dire lack of merchants who were always in danger of having their assets seized. The early game balance was great imo, but as the empire grew and with me having a stable flow of resources from which to recruit more agents, I was able to recuit better merchants and monopolize all the mines in western and central europe. Me playing without fog of war helped greatly in finding the best resources One thing I'm sure of, is that without merchants, my economy would be crippled.
Priests were also initially lacking, but when I captured French settlements, I found that even just leaving my priests inside of Paris, for many of them their piety would eventually increase to max. That's how I eventually monopolized the college of cardinals even though most of my priests just stayed at home.
Also, because there is no limit on spies, all my settlements on the mainland have spies for enemy spy/assassin detection, which I don't know if it's a good thing or not. Assassins are the ones I have the least experience on, because I prefer chivalry over dread. But one time I sailed four assassins to the holy land and killed as many muslim characters as I could. I even exterminated the Fatimids that way, but they re-emerged and eventually regained all their territories.

As for the character traits, early on I tried to roleplay as much as possible. So administratively minded characters to govern cities, while militarily minded ones govern castles and lead armies. I tried to focus on sending the teenagers to get schooled before sending them off to govern their own settlements. But as the number of settlements and governors grew, I admit that I hadn't focused much on the characters development, because right now, almost all my settlements which has governors (minor city/fortress level and above) has their own school/university/library so my characters would develop wherever they go. All coming of age characters I just send to Paris (administrative) or Norwich (military) and let then stay there until some other governor dies. I found that administratively minded ones are more abundant than militarily minded ones, which is my pet peeve because most of the time, I lack military minded characters to govern my castles or lead armies. I also think that I noticed that militarily minded ones gain economic traits in settlements and administrative ones also gain military traits in battle. So I personally haven't found much difference between the two branches, save for my roleplay fantasies. Then again, I trust that you modders know better than me

[CheriSh17]

Sorry for the double post, I haven't reached the required number of posts to allow editing of replies.
But about the uncrowned king, I just looked again through my king's traits and found that he is indeed a regent. On my opinion about the crowns system, personally I found that it is very hard to get a king crowned. Getting all the requirements is not that bad, but getting the regent or userper trait is very easy. In my opinion, the ability to choose the heir would fix this problem, because as of now, it is out of our control. Early on, I traied to roleplay in managing the family tree, but I think it is quite impossible simply because we cannot choose the heir