Using "check points" to maintain peace?

[James]

Ok, I'm curious if this is common practice.

I was using check points in RTW and am using them here as well. They help tons for maintaining long term alliances etc. Basically, find choke points and drop at least one unit there to limit all AI agents and friendly or neutral units from going through.

I've noticed that lack of AI units going through your regions limits likelihood of backstabbing, attacking, etc. It works quite well. In both of my campaigns thus far, I've maintained long term alliances on VH/VH. As Spain, had 100+ turn alliances. As HRE on turn 40-50, have had alliances since the beginning of the game. All with common borders, etc.

In Spain, I found check points important in early game to maintain peace. After awhile when I was supreme with reliable and always spanish pope, I didn't bother... and still had peace. As HRE, I'm in early game... so still using check points just in case. Managed to get very reliable reputation.

I guess what it does is help redirect AI attention elsewhere. In addition to this, I also use crusades to get AI focussed where I want it to go, my enemies.

Anyway, I find I haven't really gotten ganged up badly using such combinations of strategies. Don't find HRE VH/VH that hard. Almost caught up tech wise with AI factions.

Of course, sometimes units go rebel... but minor cost for long term alliances and trade.

AI doesn't really do this, but not necessarily an exploit I would suggest, since if you piss off AI and it really wants to attack you... it will... but you'll see the stack coming. AI would attack me despite such strategies, I think when I kep assassinating, merchant acquiring, etc..

Course, could just decrease difficulty level or mod the game to suit your play style. I don't mind using check points though. Something to do.

[MasterAdnin]

I did that in RTW, haven't tried it as of yet since the terrain is vastly different than that of RTW. I should though.

Salaam
Adnan

[Hells Black Knight]

Ive only just started to use that plan as Im the english and im trying to fortify my borders so i can focus on the french. But yea it works and i have bout a 64 turn treaty with the spain

[murat can]

Good idea, will try

[Tzif]

That is a good idea, I'm going to try it out in my RTW campaign.

Tzif

[Aristocrat]

After altering the diplomacy settings in the desc_strat I've found it isn't necessary.
I (playing Milan) held an alliance with the HRE for over 60 turns, till they got excommunicated, so I attacked them and made them a vassal.

Onto your theory of AI agents traversing your lands having a direct correlation to backstabing...your dead right.
If a faction is going to attack you they tend to send spies and assassins at your prior to that, in order to check out your lands and forces. Stopping their access keeps the AI cautious. I tested this as Milan with France. They were sending a lot of spies and assassins across the border, so I saved and just kept playing, not expanding or doing anything in particular.

After the pope called a crusade 25 turns after the save I sent my army of to Jerusalem and France pounced with 4-5 full stack armies.

So I reloaded to my save 25 turns ago and played as close as I could to how I played before, but this time my assassins slaughtered and French agent that crossed the border.

This time, when I went on crusade with my army the French didn't attack, even though they had the same diplomatic situation as the other time, and they had the same number of armies and provinces, etc.

Seems the AI makes decisions based on what it can see within it's line of sight, and agents are obviously a big part of this.

[Ironside]

I’m using allot of forts located in choke points which seems to keep the AI guessing or confused on M/M difficulty. I may find it tricky on harder difficulties due to cash but we shall see.

As England I took France and was left with Spain on one side and Denmark on the other. I’ve fortified all the choke points into my lands and the AI just doesn’t seem to attack so much even if some of the forts only have one or two units in them.

Lets me concentrate on crusading against the Muslims knowing my homelands are relatively stable.

[StupidusAssus]

After altering the diplomacy settings in the desc_strat I've found it isn't necessary.
.

What exactly do you need to alter in desc_strat?

[Miraj]

Be careful though. Captain-ed units hanging around all by themselves (w/o general) has a very high probability of going rebel. I always end up having to accompany my troops with a general just to get reinforcements to another army. Perhaps the likelihood of this happening is lower if the units are in your own territory, not sure.

[Mooncabbage]

Be careful though. Captain-ed units hanging around all by themselves (w/o general) has a very high probability of going rebel. I always end up having to accompany my troops with a general just to get reinforcements to another army. Perhaps the likelihood of this happening is lower if the units are in your own territory, not sure.

A rebel unit blocks the chokepoint just as effectively as your own, without having to pay the upkeep cost either ^^. Of course they also prevent trade along that route and you can't move your own troops through without fighting, so I guess whether or not they are an immediate problem is up to you.

[StupidusAssus]

What exactly do you need to alter in desc_strat?

Anybody?

[Anarion]

I think he means something in that section here

; >>>> start of diplomacy section <<<<

faction_standings england, 0.6 france, scotland
faction_standings england, -0.6 slave
faction_standings scotland, 0.6 england
faction_standings scotland, 0.6 france
faction_standings scotland, -0.6 slave
faction_standings france, 0.6 england
faction_standings france, 0.6 scotland
faction_standings france, -0.6 slave
faction_standings venice, 0.6 byzantium
faction_standings venice, 0.6 milan, hre
faction_standings venice, -0.6 slave
faction_standings milan, 0.6 venice, hre
faction_standings milan, -0.6 slave
faction_standings hre, 0.6 poland
faction_standings hre, 0.6 venice, milan
faction_standings hre, -0.6 slave
faction_standings poland, 0.6 russia, hre
faction_standings poland, 0.6 hungary
faction_standings poland, -0.6 slave
faction_standings hungary, 0.6 byzantium
faction_standings hungary, 0.6 poland
faction_standings hungary, -0.6 slave
faction_standings spain, 0.6 portugal
faction_standings spain, 0.8 moors
faction_standings spain, -0.6 slave
faction_standings sicily, 0.2 moors
faction_standings sicily, 0.4 byzantium
faction_standings sicily, -0.6 slave
faction_standings denmark, -0.6 slave
faction_standings portugal, 0.6 spain
faction_standings portugal, 0.8 moors
faction_standings portugal, -0.6 slave
faction_standings papal_states, 0.6 hre
faction_standings papal_states, 0.6 england, portugal, poland, hungary
faction_standings papal_states, -0.6 slave
faction_standings moors, -0.2 sicily
faction_standings moors, -0.8 spain, portugal
faction_standings moors, -0.6 slave
faction_standings byzantium, -0.2 hungary, venice
faction_standings byzantium, -0.4 sicily
faction_standings byzantium, -0.8 turks
faction_standings byzantium, -0.6 slave
faction_standings turks, 0.6 egypt
faction_standings turks, 0.8 byzantium
faction_standings egypt, 0.6 turks
faction_standings egypt, -0.6 slave

positive numbers speak of a good relationship while the more negative the more hate. The quoted text is my version I tested earlier (don't laugh ). No fighting in Europe for a long time making the AI build up and not spam "peasants" and early "Town Militia".

[StupidusAssus]

I think he means something in that section here



positive numbers speak of a good relationship while the more negative the more hate. The quoted text is my version I tested earlier (don't laugh ). No fighting in Europe for a long time making the AI build up and not spam "peasants" and early "Town Militia".

Can you tell me how to do that? I know the section you're talking about but don't know if I should add names or just change numbers. And if I add names, how exactly do I do it so I don't cause the game to crash if I shouldn't have added a space or something like that?

[ColbytheConqueror]

i dont exactly understand how you go about doing this... could you be more detailed?

[Aristocrat]

Basically you block passes leading into your lands with units of your own, if every entry is blocked by a unit of yours the enemy agents cannot enter.

[(insert clever name here)]

I do this if I am a faction that has the position for it. Sometimes though I find myself not really having the extra time or money to really do this. Generally I have never done it unless I wanted to set up defences so I can sit back and build up for a while.

But I should try it this way of doing it from the start regardless.

[Ryder65]

I did something similar in RTW. I set up forts along strategic choke points and garrisoned them with two cavalry and eight infantry units. But I made sure that each fort was no more than 1-2 moves away from the units in an adjacent fort. This way, any incursion into my territory could be met by a full stack within 1-2 turns. Eventually it got pretty expensive but no units rebelled (as they were in forts), and it was effective for defense. Seems it didn't stop factions from backstabbing me, though (damn Dacia). Never thought to just keep the agents out...

[Dooz]

After altering the diplomacy settings in the desc_strat I've found it isn't necessary.
I (playing Milan) held an alliance with the HRE for over 60 turns, till they got excommunicated, so I attacked them and made them a vassal.

Hey, that sounds interesting. Think you could direct me to some discussions regarding diplomacy modding or give me a few tips yourself? Or if you could upload your desc_strat file and mention what changes you've made and what they affect. This sounds like a really good idea, get alliances and diplomacy to work even better, even on harder campaign settings.

[Flavius Atius]

Hey, that sounds interesting. Think you could direct me to some discussions regarding diplomacy modding or give me a few tips yourself? Or if you could upload your desc_strat file and mention what changes you've made and what they affect. This sounds like a really good idea, get alliances and diplomacy to work even better, even on harder campaign settings.

Seconded, please do so.

[Aristocrat]

Thats the section, I'm at work right now and was not going to type it all up.
Basically I have made all catholic nations have a positive value of 0.5 to each other, have a 0.2 relation with the orthodox nations, a -0.5 relation with the islamic nations, and a -0.9 relation with the rebels.

Orthodox nations have a 0.5 relation with each other, 0.2 with catholic, -0.5 for islam and -0.9 for slaves.

Islamic nations have 0.5 for each other and -0.5 for all christian nations (catholic and orthodox), and -0.9 for rebels.

These values just mean the AI will attack the rebels first (thus developing larger empires) and be more inclined to hold alliances with nations of the same religion. Of course wars still happen, but so far the diplomacy has worked very well for me.

On another note, sometimes the campaign AI of factions stalls. This happened to England and Scotland in my game, I found that using the move_character command on one of their family members fixed this.
(This wasn't caused by my diplomacy settings, it is just a bug, and I just thought I'd let people know how to work around it).