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Thread: Hotseat Guide Index

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    Default Hotseat Guide Index



    A collection of Hotseat Guides created by helpful members of the community,
    all credited and linked to original sources. PM me if you think we've missed anything.


    How to manage the economy in a HS/strategy, written by Invicta

    Guide Created by Invicta, originally posted here - http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-a-HS-Strategy

    This is a guide intended to teach everyone how to play the game at its maximum.
    This is mostly intended to help less expert players who might feel discouraged to play against much more experienced players.
    The problem is, that some players (I'd like to include myself among those) are very experienced and know every secret about the game.
    Secrets that you will soon see, can make a huge difference during a game. I have played these games for many years before getting here,
    while others have played a little and then joined here.
    So if you are interested in reading lets start.

    Note: if you are interested in learning I suggest you do not to skip any part of this guide and try to carefully understand everything I'll write.
    Many of the things I'll write you won't find in any guide here on TWC or everywhere else.

    Settlement's management: using the scrolls is the best ways.

    I had the impression that very few new players here know how to use the scrolls to manage their settlements in an efficient way.

    As you can see from the image once you get on this panel , you can check important parameters.
    Putting on the cue a building, you can check on this panel how it will affect (if you see a semi-transparent addition it means that parameter will get an increase, on the other hand if it flashes it means it will get reduced):
    1-population growth
    2-Public order
    3-Income
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Addendum 1 - How to check directly the effect of a building on the 3 above aspects:
    Every building usually affects one or more of the 3 above aspects of a settlement (Population growth, Public order and Income). Now lets see an example so that everything is clear. You can see here, the details regarding the Huge City of Wexford which make 2146 profit from trade.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Now you choose, which building you put on the cue. Now lets see the projection if I upgrade the Warehouse to a Docklands , the change of the trade output:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    As you can see the semi-transparent addition indicate that the output would change to 2908 once the building will be complete. That's a +762 boost! The same can be done with every building for checking the effect it will have.
    Combined with the building tree scroll
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    You can plan the best path for developing the settlements of your faction . In fact you can check:
    1-how many turns it takes to build a certain building
    2-Requirements you need to build a certain building (for instance some building might require a market in order to being built)
    3-At what level you barracks should reach to being able to recruit a certain unit

    Combining with the Trade-settlement-Summary scroll you get an even better idea from where your money come from and how a war would affect you financially. Indeed with every mod (vanilla is the least dependent from it, and the most balanced under this aspect) most of your money comes from trade. Once you get at war with a faction, any trade with said faction would cease.

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    So if it's a neighboring faction, you might be greatly affected financially. On the contrary a war with a distant faction (like when you are on a crusade/jihad against a faction on the other side of the map) might not affect you at all (unless you have merchants on his lands, which will see their output reduced by 33%).
    That's why it's usually not wise to be at war with all your neighbors.
    Also that's why plagues greatly harm your economy, when a settlement is affected by a plague, all the income generated by trade in that settlement will go to 0 (so the richer the settlement , the most it will affect you). And not only that.. also the nearby settlements will be affected as they won't be able to trade with that settlement as long as the plague will endure.


    The Economy's management


    Although many do not realize it, this is the key factor in winning an HS. The more money your faction makes, the more (and better by developing the settlements) armies you'll be able to
    make. And even though many players realize this, they do not know which path to follow to get the maximum output.
    Lets start analyzing the financial scroll:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Here you can see all the entry about the income and the outcome. Obviously to maximize the profit, you would want to increase the income part and decrease as much as possible the expenditure part.
    So we start looking at the Income's entries:
    1-Farms: contrary to what someone believe and you can see, farming is in the game the least indicate way to increase your income. Actually every farm upgrade will give you something like +70 coins per turn. The output you see here, include the "base" farming input (and represent most of that output) which you would get even if you didn't upgrade any farms. I'm not saying you should not upgrade farms! . But if you do that, you should do for a different reason than increase than increase the income from that development, because as we'll see there are better building which will gives you more.
    Last note is that, in vanilla (and Retrofit ) mods, farming upgrade has better value under an economic perspective because is much more balanced (but still farming is not such decisive under the economy aspect) than any other mod out there.

    2-Mining: mining can be a very important part, depending on what mod are you playing and which regions you own. Usually gold mines give a very good profit. So whenever you have a region with gold resource, building a mine (or upgrading the existing one) is one of the best way to quickly boost the income (usually over +600 for the basic mine, which becomes over +1000 when upgraded to the mines network) from such settlement (also because mines can't be destroyed, so even if your enemy manage to capture it from a short window of time, he can't destroy your effort in building it).
    Other mine-resources (in order of importance silver, marble ,sulfur, tin ,iron , coal) might also offer some interesting profit boost .

    2- Trade: trade is the aspect that might play the most decisive part in increasing the income from your settlements. Although things might differ from vanilla to mod and from mod to mod, here are my general indications:
    A-Paved roads: unless your settlement is an island with only one settlement (on which road have no effect at all), the more the settlement is linked to other regions by road, the more the income will boost when you'll build paved road (keep in mind that simple roads do not give any boost on the income). Also they are very useful and decisive in moving more quickly your troops/agents and also they might give a slight boost on population increase. Also Warehouse and Docklands usually gives huge boost in trade (depending on the mod)

    3- Merchant trade: this is another factor which might be very decisive, and many players underestimate. Let's start by making comparison among the mods. KGCM (among the mods usually played here) is the mod where the merchant trade can make the biggest difference. In fact the gold mines in Technochtitlan can give a good merchant over 3000+ and you can have 2 of them in that region for that resource. Keep in mind that there are regions where the same resource is present in 2 locations. That means to you, that in such region your merchant would get 2 times the income he would get in a region where the same resource is present just once.
    Very importantly, is that if the resources is not in one of your regions, you should (unless it's your enemy) try to obtain the trade rights because that would increase by around 30% the profit your merchant would make out of that resource.
    How to choose the most profitable resources? I know how the system work and which files to look, but that would be too long to explain. So I'll explain in the simplest way:

    A-start a single campaign with the faction and the mod (or vanilla if you're playing vanilla) you're playing with.

    B-It's important the capital stays in the same place where you have your Capital in the HS (as switching the capital change also the values that resource will profit to your merchants).

    C-Open the console and press the code toggle_fow to see the clear map.

    D-Now left-click your merchant and with the mouse point on the different types of resources to check which ones will give you the most profit. keep in mind that silk will always give you the same profit, whether you trade it in Italy or Baghdad. Differences might arise if you have trade rights with one of the 2 regions and not with the other one. Also as I already wrote, if the same resource is present in one region twice, it will also give you twice the income (unless a merchant from another faction is exploiting the other one..).

    4-Taxes: there's not much to say about this. Not because it's not important, but because more important factors would decide whether you wanna keep your taxes low or high. Every step in raising taxes make decrease population_growth rate by 0.5.
    So if you are not in desperate need of money and you might want to keep taxes as low as you can until your settlement reaches the population_requirement to upgrade to the level you wanted it to be.
    Usually in KGCM and Vanilla you might want to keep low until you can upgrade to city level. After that , I suggest you keep as high as possible, because population will increase anyway very fast . In SS, instead increasing population would be very difficult in a HS. So it's up to you (as HS might finish in 50-60 turns your effort to develop the settlement might be in vain) decide whether lose money (by keeping taxes low) in order to reach more quickly the population level requirement.
    Good governors might give a good boost with taxes and administration income.

    5-King purse: that's decided by the the mod, and you can't modify with your actions. But what's important to know, is that King purse differ from faction to factions and from mod to mod. Why is it important to know? Because if for instance you are playing KGCM as Russia, and there's a Mongol human controlled opponent which you reduced to own only 2 regions, it might be important to know that he has a king purse of 5k (while the average is from 500 to 2500) and that so even with just 2 regions he can still represent a great danger (because he could support up 2 full stacks if he's given the time to recruit them) if you don't finish him off quickly.

    6-Diplomatic entry: that represent the money you give or get from other factions (like tributes or one lump sum). It's important you keep track of them (for instance to verify if someone is actually really paying you the sum or interrupted the cash flowing towards you).

    7-Corruptions and others: under this voice on the income side the should represent the income derived by "good administration" thing. Good Governors and building like city hall help to increase the amount coming from this entry. Usually this entry is not very important on the "income" side. On the other hand this entry becomes very crucial as far as you expand your "empire". Why? Because corruption output depends primarily from the distance of your settlements from your capital (which is actually represented by the number of tiles separating your settlement from the capital).
    So if for instance you own Bologna as capital and only 2 other close settlements (for instance Florence and Venice), you'll have 0 corruption, no matter what. So in areas where settlements density is scarce (means settlements are far one from the other , like for instance in KGCM in the Russian steppes ) even with few settlements you have a high level of corruption. On the other hand where density is high (like in KGCM in the British islands) you'll have very low corruption even with a relatively high number of settlements.
    Now keep in mind that in mod like KGCM, there's a cap to the max corruption drain you can have from a settlement. This malus is capped to 1000 max. But as long as it doesn't reach that level, the more you increase the trade/tax/farms/mining the more, proportionally will the corruption increase until it reaches the max of 1000. On MTW vanilla and SS I believe there's no max to corruption, but in any case it can never be higher than the sum of the income from that settlement.
    So I guess your big question is: how can I reduce the corruption, so that I can make more profit each turns?
    There are mainly 3 ways:

    A- the cheapest and most important is to move your capital in the most "centralized " zone, which is not necessarily the exact center of your empire. Well now it's difficult to explain exactly what I means, so I'll explain an easy method to do that:
    Open the financial scroll and get note of the corruption outcome. Then move your Capital in settlements which you think might be more central in your empire. Every time you do that take note again of the new level of corruption in the financial scroll. Then after you made all the trial you feel necessary, you move the Capital to the settlement where you registered the lowest level of corruption outcome. This trick can save you up to several thousands of coins every turn. It also will improve (generally speaking) the level of public order in your empire. Keep in mind that changing the capital, might change (for good or worse) the income from merchant-trading.

    B- Another effective way of reducing corruption, is to build building which gives +law bonus. Indeed law bonuses effectively reduce corruption. City hall usually give the best low bonuses. Also Barracks in KGCM and vanilla (I'm not sure about vanilla) and some other buildings (sometimes guilds too) or settlements upgrades.I can't give the exact list as it changes from mod to mod.

    C-Governors:the ones with the right traits, can greatly reduce the corruption to 0 or close to. On the other hand bad governors will increase it. So as advice regardless of the command stars they have, keep the best governors to manage cities and the bad ones use them as generals. Tips for having good governors: buildings like city hall help to get good traits (that are good to decrease corruption), and markets financial ones (to increase trade generated from the settlement), on the other hand churches usually increase chances to get give bad financial traits and brothel to get "corrupted" traits.

    OK now lets keep more attention on the expenditure side. We already analyzed one of the major components: corruption.
    Let see the other ones:

    8- Wages. It's certainly not the most important one, but if you don't keep it under control, it might become a problem.
    Usually you'll want to keep this entry to a max within 1/10th of the income sum (5% is the recommended). It included the cost of generals ( in some mod though generals have no cost) and your agents (priest ,spies, assassins , diplomats..). If the generals have an upkeep cost, do not make increase their number indiscriminately . Take only the good ones ( if offered for adoption) and distribute them according to your needs. The same goes for the other agents.

    9-Army upkeep: normally this one will be your main expenditure during the whole campaign. It's a good rule you keep this entry around no more than 40% of your income during peace-periods and to max 60% during war times. Only when it's really necessary you should pass that limit. This because the more you spend on them, the less you can spend for developing (which will secure the future growth of your income ) your settlements. Also if you spend almost everything on army upkeep it means that during war-time you won't be able to easily replace your loss as you'll barely make some profit every turn.
    It's important you keep this balance. Many players (even the ones considered experts) make this mistakes, although I noticed lately someone learned a bit this lesson.

    10-Recruitment costs and Construction costs: I put together as those are the 2 entries which you'll have to manage every turn.The money you'll have to spend on them will depend on how much you contained the cost of the other 3 expenditure entries. I personally always give priority to developing settlements. I recruit units only when strictly necessary and needed. Your ability to recruit units only when needed will make a huge difference during the HS.

    Blitzing the AI

    Blitzing the AI is something that some new players, not used to tricks, might have difficulty with. Problem is that if you don't expand fast enough, others will do, becoming too powerful while letting you weak.
    Beware: many players, including veterans do not understand that over stretching (expanding too fast, which means getting too many settlements without being sure you can defend them) might be a fatal mistake.
    If a player overstretch himself in the first turns against the AI, and his neighboring players are smart enough, they'll attack him taking advantage of his weakness. On the other hand, if you play against weak/inexperienced/hesitant players, over stretching may pay up.
    Also keep in mind a very important aspect: depending on the mod, and the difficulty level set for the campaign, the AI generally develop faster than the players the settlements (both with population and buildings built). So a very master of the game, will weight carefully
    when capturing settlements. For instance in one HS, as Novgorod (SS6.4) I purposefully had my army waiting on the borders of Palanga region, to wait that the AI controlling TO faction would make reach the settlement the level of population required to upgrade it to a Fortress.
    This way I rather than taking the settlement on turn 7, I waited turn 11 and immediately upgraded to fortress. By turn 15 the fortress upgrade was complete. If I had taken the castle on turn 7, I wouldn't have been able to upgrade the settlement before turn 30 in the best case scenario.
    This because the AI get a 2.5% population increase bonus, as also the TO faction leader has a +2.5% influence in increasing the population due to his chivalry level.
    The same apply to buildings: for instance, remaining with my example of playing with Novgorod, if you wait to capture Turkey, you might have the AI building Barracks or Archery ranges for you. It's also a matter of luck, as also you need to be sure no one else is going to point that settlement.
    Now there are 2 kind of tricks to blitz against the AI: battle tricks and campaign tricks to easily beat the AI.

    Battle tricks:
    1-No matter what mod (or vanilla) you play, cavalry is overpowered. With a cavalry unit you might beat a full stack of infantry. So most of the blitzers, will fight this way: have the enemy's infantry tire out by following the cavalry units
    along the map and when they got extremely tired (you should notice that as the speed of the enemy's infantry will visibly slow down), he'll charge them and they'll easily break. Obviously if the enemy has cavalry and archers things get more complicated,
    and you'll need to destroy first the cavalry and then the missile units before taking down the infantry.
    Now this in the open field is pretty straightforward, but what about sieges? The game is a bit bugged: if you attack with a small force (compared to the enemy forces, lets say with odds worse than 1:4) then the garrison inside the settlement will sally out (with the exception of the general unit)
    from the walls and chase you down in the open field. So all you have to do is take few cavalry units and either a siege weapon or you should have your spies opening the gates, and then attack the settlement. Then you apply the same tactic above, letting the enemy chasing you to one of the corner of the map and then when it's tired
    enough, charging with your cavalry.

    Campaign tricks:
    The AI works in a predictable way. That's why more experienced players do better than less experienced ,since they know already what's going to happen. Basically the AI (I'm referring to factions, so rebels makes exception) has a tendency to keep one or more units just next to its settlement.
    By attacking those units, the garrison inside the settlement will be forced to supported the attacked army, and by destroying both of them you can occupy the settlements. So knowing that, and depending on the faction you choose and the AI factions around you, if you plan carefully your moves on turn one then on turn
    2 you might be able to take many settlements without needing spies or siege weapons.
    In some mod also, there are rebel settlements with quite powerful garrisons not easy to beat. This is for instance the case for the ERE in late era campaign with SS6.4. You could beat those garrisons if you manage to use the trick I told you before.
    But if you're lazy (if like me you played so many time battles that you don't like wasting your time doing it over and over, but you prefer auto-resolve), or you prefer to dedicate yourself to other targets first, knowing that no one will try to anticipate you in capturing those settlements you might wait..
    Because like I said the AI behave in quite predictable way: so getting back to our example, the garrisons in Athens, Thessalonica, Corinth and Byzantium get out from the settlement at a certain turn.
    Knowing when this happen you might prepare yourself with a General with night fighter trait and a siege weapon, and attack the settlements as soon as most of the garrison gets out from it.
    Once you occupy the settlement, you can decide when dealing with the rest of the rebel garrison when it's more convenient to you.


    Strategy against other players

    Reputation: it's important you keep a high reputation, otherwise players would be little inclined to make deals with you, or if they do they might back stab for the fear of being betrayed by you as soon as you make your first suspicious move. There are also players ,like me, who would ask something in return
    for making deals with untrusted players or give worse conditions (in order to cover myself for the risk). Since reputation is important, it would be advisable to not lie about facts. Sooner or later you'd get caught with your lie and you'll lose the trust of other players. You might lie about the motives beyond your actions, but then again, don't push it when it's obvious what you're doing: lying it's most of the time a drawback. I personally never do that (not even about my motives), since gaining trust of the players is much more important.
    What you can do instead, without risking to affect your reputation, is to present to other players selectively only bits of the facts. For instance it might come to your knowledge that player x, intends to attack player y. If that outcome is convenient to you, you might wait to warn the player who's gonna be attacked . Or , if the attacked one is weaker and you don't want him to be destroyed you might warn him. This is a simple example, but you might make things much more complicated.

    Betrayals: not all the betrayals are seen the same way by other players, the same as you don't judge the same way a person stealing some food for hunger or a rich person stealing from poor people to become richer, despite being the same crime. Same way, betraying or breaking a deal, for necessity (like breaking a NAP with a stronger faction,
    because that other faction is piling up armies on your borders and you spotted a good chance to destroy those before the NAP expires and he destroy you) or for more noble reasons (a coalition of factions became too strong, and you decide to switch side, otherwise the game would become too boring) is not seen the same way as vile betrayals
    motivated just by greed (like back stabbing your neighboring-ally as soon as he moves away his armies, trusting that you won't attack him). A good advice for new players, is to ask around (through pm) to veterans about the reputation of the player you're dealing with. Such a simple thing might save you a bad and bitter surprise.
    Hotseating in Westeros, written by Dux
    Guide Created by Dux, originally posted here - http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post12111412

    If you have played hotseats before you can skip this part.

    Hotseats are multiplayer campaigns, not by playing in real time but by playing with saves.

    Here is how it works:
    Admin sets up a hotseat and creates the first save(more on that later).

    Player one(almost always House Lannister) downloads the first save and puts it in Medieval II Totalwar/mods/modfolder(e.g: Westeros)/saves.
    He starts the mod, and loads the save as he would normally load any save.

    After he has set his password he can start the turn. Remember this password, as each time you play a turn you have to first type your password before you can play it. Now he can start playing his first turn.

    After he is done with his turn he ends (VERY IMPORTANT!) the turn. After he has ended the turn the same hotseat screen comes up but now for the second player (often House Tyrell). Now he saves the game by using the format the admin provided. Often it is like this: hotseatname_house_turnnumber.

    Now he uploads the save file he just made to the hotseats topic. The save can be uploaded on any uploading site or directly on this site using the attachments feature. (Note however that this site does not support the .sav extension and you have to pack your save by using a program like winrar).
    After that he notifies the next player with a pm or a post on his profile.

    Now the second player can download the save file the first player uploaded and the process repeats itself.

    Participation
    If you want to participate in a Westeros hotseat, simply state in a new hotseat topic that you want to join that particular hotseat. You can also join as a sub or replacement for a member that leaves an already started hotseat. Hotseats that need players will post in the Replacement player thread. It is not advised to start a new hotseat topic if you have never played hotseats before.

    Be warned however, most hotseats have a long time span and require you to be active for a long time on these forums, at least for a few months. Most hotseats have a 24h rule, which means your turn can come up pretty quickly and when it does you don't have a lot of time to play. When playing hotseats it is advised to be online at least once a day. If you can't do that then there is no point in joining any hotseats.

    General tips

    • Read the opening post of the hotseat topic and in particularly the rules.
    • Stick to these rules or you will be punished, this can even lead to a ban from all hotseats in the subforum.
    • Try to make alliances and treaties with other players through personal messages or ingame messages (done by opening the diplomatic tab and clicking the faction's banner).
    • Don't cheat.
    • Don't use any bugs, these are often detailed in the opening post.
    • Always notify the next player.
    • Contact the admin if you think another player has broken the rules before you post that in the topic.
    • Betraying is allowed, this is game of thrones after all. But it is frowned upon and you risk making an enemy out of everyone.
    • Pick an easy faction, Lannister or Tyrell if available.
    • If you have time, read the links Loose Canon and Mithridrate posted


    Play tips:

    • Have a clear plan on what you want to do in this hotseats, setting a goal for yourself can help.
    • Try to know where your enemies are and what they are doing.
    • Only attack if you know absolutely sure the opponent has not set up a trap, again know your enemies positions.
    • Always make sure you are the attacker, as they seem to have a slight advantage in hotseats.
    • Build forts and watchtowers.
    • Try to move your troops around in large armies, depending on the situation of course.
    • Be prepared to lose your first 2 or 3 hotseats.
    • Play a lot of hotseats to become more experienced.


    Westeros specific:

    • There are no spies and only a very few assassins and priests in Westeros Total War. So use diplomats to scout the enemy and use watchtowers to guard your lands.
    • There are no siege engines, so be prepared for sieges that take at least a turn.
    • Forts are a really important component of Westeros Total War, use them wisely.
    • Settlements can't upgrade, so don't invest in improving growth rates buildings.
    • Most settlements have a good set of pre-build buildings, including economic buildings, so focus primarily on training units.

    Autoresolve and Commanders, written by Mithridate
    Guide Created by Mithridate, originally posted here - http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post12112271

    We have some solid guides here but id like to add a little of my own:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Auto-Resolve and how it works
    A key part in hotseating is carrying out the fighting and this is usually only done with auto-resolve, it can be just as important to have the right troops as it is to do the right moves. Exactly how AR engine works i do not know and have found little to no information but the cause and effect is easy to see.

    The AR engine uses Troop numbers, attack, Total defence ( armor+skill+shield+hp ) when calculating odds and whom wins a fight.

    ESTIMATIONSEffective vs armor counts as 1 or 2 attack, good stamina as 1 or 2 defense while very good and excellent each adds 1-2 more. Furthermore, these bonuses are not calculated in ar odds. So an army of Ironborn raiders with 1 chevron looks as if they will lose bad vs Armored spears while they in truth win easily.

    Because of this you want heavy troops over light ones, infantry over cavalry. A spear militia army will beat an army of mounted knights for example while costing only a fraction as much to create and maintain. Most archer units have very low attack ( note: missile attack is NOT used in AR ) and are thus both expensive and very poor. Keep in mind that experience, armor and weapon upgrades does add to the units values used in AR! (attack increased by better weapons and experience, defense by better armor) Try not to merge away these things if you can

    Command greatly affects casualties and thus the AR outcome ( note: command does not show up on the calculated odds, but it does greatly affect outcome! ) a 10 star general will decrease your losses in the army he is leading by an incredible amount but its really notable at 5 command already. Because of this you want your best troops with your best generals as he is the hardest one to defeat. When attacking it can be best to let him lead whatever army you want to take the least casualties or the army attacking ( whoever attacks is the one whom will get most if not all the traits from the battle )

    Defense bonuses also affect outcome, an army defending a fortress can be extremely hard to defeat while being easily defeated in the open. I suspect you can get this from defending bridges, hills and forests too but im not sure. The higher the level of the defenses the bigger bonus. It does not improve your AR when attacking however, only when defending.

    Info about the AR to your advantage
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    These are the more... tricky bits of the AR engine
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    If you attack say 10 men in a fortress with 100 of your own, youre likely to have HORRIBLE odds but will win every time provided the troops are above rubbish quality. So keep in mind that the "odds" is not always accurate.

    The AR engine seem to have a "breaking point" function for units involved, if a unit is calculated to lose a certain amount of men in % that is over the unknown "breaking point" it seems as they "rout". Its hard to explain but the effect is not. You want to keep your units as large as possible, if you have an army of decimated units you can easily be defeated by a lesser enemy. But if you combine your men to keep each unit strong he wont be able to. 20 units of 20 men ( 400 men ) is MUCH weaker than 4 units of 400 men. Also, you risk losing additional men to this as sometimes small units gets destroyed even though they have very few men left after a battle.

    You want to keep your strongest units first in the order of your men, this is the general consensus. I cant tell you how this is but im pretty sure this is due to the "breaking point". Either way, do it! If you are sure to win however, its better to keep easily replaced troops first. You will always lose a certain ( attack/def+number of men) value, and i rather lose 10 militia to gain that value than 3 armored swordsmen. But make sure to swap back so you end the turn with your best units first

    If you can, attack the weaker army as the heaviest losses are usually taken by the main attacker and defender army.
    because of this youre more likely to hit the "breaking point", the advantage is slight but supposedly there. Its possible that you may not be able to beat the Main enemy head on, but beat him when he reinforces only. Either way, youre more likely to cause more losses.

    Keep these things in mind and you can turn a defeat into a victory, expensive victory into a cheap one, it may very well win you the war!
    What you want in your commanders
    When choosing whom should be your main commander you should check them out properly, some characters will never be a good commander while others can become great! You want traits that cannot be affected by fighting battles, like "social drinker" "born to command" and "intelligent". As opposed to "proven commander" "confident attacker" "fierce in battle".

    Adopting someone whom is a born commander but unproven can easily reach 6 command by one or two battles, 8 after many and 10 if he gets a little lucky. While an Proven commander will have a hard time to reach 6 command, very hard to reach 8 and downright impossible to get 10. I try to use the ones with potential, really adds up in the long run. But let your armies be commanded ( when not attacking! ) by those with the most command.

    Look for +movement traits, these can be very valuable as 1 square can be the difference between losing everything or destroying your enemy. At least look for this when adopting new people, its pretty easy to get a drillmaster +15% movement and it really helps to get your men to the front lines. Try playing stannis with his 30% of some of the 20-25% greyjoy commanders and you will realize it can be a HUGE thing. If im sure my army is safe i often let my general with the most +movement lead it and only put my high command guy in charge when attacking/defending.

    I often find people using the "i cant get better" good command guy over the "im ok, but i can become great... and look how i make my men FLY!"

    Summary

    For best AR-odds
    • High attack/defence units with a lot of men in them.
    • Good generals leading your best armies, command is key
    • Upgrade your men, dont waste experienced men!
    • Try different combinations

    Generals
    • Natural commanders over Proven commanders
    • +movement can make all the difference
    • Potential over Talent when able

    Hotseating can be bloody hard, but give it time... Knowledge will give you that little extra for the start and help you peak, but experience is the way. Give it time, dont expect to win at first and play with care and have fun
    Forting and Fortwalling, written by Uriyaca
    Guide Created by Uriyaca, originally posted here - http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post12718429

    I was just thinking, we have a guide about general hotseating for begginers and another about Autoresolve, but we don't have one about forting which I think is a VERY major thing in WTW hotseating. So I decided to write one (maybe we should update the OP with all the guides

    Forting and Fortwalling

    Forting is a way of keeping away enemy forces by blocking his passage using fort's ZoC. Since there are no siege equipments or in WTW, forting is a critical tool to know how to use when hotseating.
    The uses of forting are so diverse, that not knowing how to use them is a major disadvantage. In this guide I will teach you how to use forts and how to master the art of fortwalling

    Forts: what are they?

    Fort is a short term for "fortification" . Forts are essentially a "settlement replica" as they have walls, meaning that they cannot be stormed without either being under siege for at least one turn, attacked with siege equipments (which are not recruitable in WTW mods and submods, other then KORAH but this is illegale in some hotseats) , have their walls opened by spies (which are also unrecruitable in Westeros Hotseat unless you choose to accept a spies guild, but either way they are normally illegale in hotseats anyway) or bribed by diplomats. Forts (and watchtowers) can only be built by generals. Much like castles, towns and armies, the forts are sorrounded from all sides, from all nine directions, with what appears to be 9 "brown circles" . Those brown circles are called Zone of Control, or in short terms ZoC. When an army lands on any of those "brown circles", all of their movement points are stolen from them. Meaning the cannot move, until the next turn when they get fresh movement points
    Pic:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Forts: how can you use them?

    The combination of unstormable fortifications with the sorrounding ZoC makes the forts an unpassable blockade, for at least one turn. That can be greatly used for your advantage in hotseats. 1 fort creates a 3 square barricade, 2 forts make a 6 square barricade, and so on and so on.... by positioning your forts wisely, you can accomplish a great deal of needs. By using it you can keep away enemy forces from lifting a siege you have made, seperating the forces to destroy them one at a time or slowing down an enemy's arrival until your forces have come to face them. Another major use is making sure that your armies are not attacked on your enemies turn- in hotseats the attacker has a big advantage, and by placing your armies in forts you can make sure that you are the one attacking. Also that way you can try and manuver armies to help you lift the siege, or try to reload your turn in order to get better results.

    pics for demonstration how useful forts can be:
    1) Maidenpool ready to be besieged
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    2) Maidenpool unable to be besieged by using fortwall tactic
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Forting tips:
    1) NEVER, unless you have to and cannot possibly avoid it, (for example, limited spaces to place the forts or lack of movement points) place your forts at a distance of 1 square from one another. Why? two very simple reasons:
    • Forts, much like castles and towns, can only have armies on the sorrounding ZoC squares reinforce them. Meaning, when you sally out of a fort against your besieger, all the armies (allied or non allied) that aren't on the fort's ZoC will not be able to reinforce in the battle. When two forts are at a 1 square distance from one another, their ZoC overlap. Because of this, an enemy army can be placed within any of the overlapping ZoC squares, as such participating in both battles but seperating the forces from the two forts. Example: you have two stacks and your enemie has two stacks. In order to make sure that the enemie cannot attack your forces on his turn, you fort your two stacks in two forts BUT you make the critical mistake of placing them 1 square from each other. Then, you enemie takes one of his stacks to besiege one of the forts, and another to besiege the other stack. he places both of his stacks in 2 overlapping ZoC squares. On your turn, when you sally out to fight the enemie stacks, you are outnumbered 2:1, as his two stacks are participating in each battle whilst your stacks are only participating in one.
    • When placing a fort two squares from your other forts, you make a bigger barricade and as such taking more of the enemie's movement points.

    2) Try to avoid placing your full armies in forts, because if a situation arises and you are besieged by an army greater then you which you can't defeat, then your entire stacks in insta-gibbed (meaning that your ENTIRE army dies without retreating, along with your generals) . It is better if you for example fort off your army so the enemy armies cannot reach it
    3) Try to avoid placing your armies whom are led by +movement points generals inside forts (also castles and towns btw) becasue then the extra movement points go to waste. It is better to fort off your armies instead
    4) Most hotseats have a "2 forts per region" rule, to limit fortwalling a bit. Almost all hosteats have a "4 units per fort" rule, to limit fort spamming a bit. Almost every hotseat has different rules, so make sure that you read them closely before joining . Most submods (Enhanced\YB, Fire and Blood, Blackfyre Rebellion), as far as I know, have a "1500 dragons" price tag to every fort, except the King of Rivers and Hills submod in which forts cost 500 dragons.
    You have to take all these facts into consideration when you are planning on building a fortwall
    5) If you are not sure if your forts will live up to their purpose, you can try playing a hotseat against yourself, and build an exact replica of the situation in your hotseat. Then you could see if your forts take enough movement points from your enemy.
    6) Other then the regular siege and storm technique to pass\break a fortwall, your enemy can also use diplomats in order to bribe your forts and break through- which can severely mess up your plans and might at times be the difference between winning or losing a war. So you will need to make sure of the following things:
    • There are no enemy diplomats in range
    • That there is a general garrisoning your forts, that makes the forts ~15 times more expensive to bribe and about ~5 times as hard (as in trying to get the fort they are trying to bribe agree to the bribe, even if they have the money) . If you put a general in a fort, pick the one which is the most loyal because they are more expensive and harder to bribe. You also need to know that Faction Leaders and faction heirs are unbribable. Also if you place any type of agent inside a fort (a merchant, diplomat, princess, priest, spy, or assasin) that fort is also unbribale
    • Make sure that the enemy is either broke or unable to afford the bribes, which are normally very expensive
    • That if a diplomat is in range that he has low influence- a diplomat with low influence is less likely to succeed in the bribe
    • If you have no agents\generals available to help protect the fort from being bribe, and an enemy diplomat is in range and there is a danger of a bribe- put as many men as you can inside that fort to make the bribe as expensive as possible. Try putting the most expensive units which are not neccecerily the most useful (as in inside of placing Knights and Armoured Spearmen which are very good in Autoresolve, put cavalry or Longbowmen which are just as expensive if not more and not as useful in Autoresolve)


    How to build a fortwall?

    Last but not least, comes the question that must be answered. The best way to build a fort wall is this:
    1) Why are you building the fort wall? you will have to adjust the fortwall for its purpose. If it's purpose for example is to delay an enemy, is it to seperate two forces, or something else?
    2) Now, take a look on the map and imagine that it is divided to squares. (that is how TW campaign map is constructed btw, on squares )
    3) check for the best position to place your forts, imagine that the 9 squares sorrounding them are unpassable. Check how wide is the pass you are trying to deny entrance to: do you need to use 1 or 2 or 3 forts?
    4) after you have decided how and where to place your forts, pick the general unit and construct them. Then, pic 4 units to enter each of your forts

    And just like that, ends the SPECTACULAR guide of how to construct forts and fortwalls by the mighty Uriyaca . Hope this could be of use to you, VERY important should you choose to hotseat
    Hotseat Admin Guide, written by Dux
    Guide Created by Dux, originally posted here - http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...f-Guide-Admins

    Greetings fellow hotseaters and potential admins,

    Just recently I was voted by you as best admin of the WTW community. To honor this, I decided to write a guide to admin a hotseat, including a general part with all relevant console commands for all hotseat areas, Westeros specifics and some known solutions to game breaking crashes.
    As an admin, you are the manager of a hotseat game. You need to start the hotseat, enforce the rules, skip or sub factions, clear turns and remove or add players. An admin should always be an independent and neutral actor, a player admin can be tempted to use the admin console to his advantage.
    As an admin you are responsible for the hotseat, you should make sure it runs smootly, that the rules are honored and that punishments are carried out if the rules are broken.

    Setting up a hotseat

    CFG FILE


    To set up a hotseat, go to the modfolder of the mod you want to play your hotseat on and open the CFG file.
    Let say you want to start a hotseat on youngbloods, go to medieval/mods/youngbloods and click on youngbloods.cfg.

    In this file, scroll down to [hotseat], currently you will find this:

    [hotseat]
    autoresolve_battles = 1
    disable_console = 0
    disable_papal_elections = 1
    save_prefs = 1
    update_ai_camera = 0
    validate_diplomacy = 1
    admin_password = ******

    This is how I originally implanted it in youngbloods, but for a good hotseat game you need to change and add a few things.

    First, disable console needs to be 1, to ensure that the console is always disabled for the players(admin console is always open). You can also do this ingame, however doing this here will make sure you won't forget.

    Secondly it is important to add these lines:

    allow_validation_failures = 0
    validate_data = 1

    These lines ensure all players are using the same files in a hotseat. These lines are crucial to prevent certain forms of cheating (that will not be explained) and to prevent crashes later on in hotseats, because people are using wrong versions of the game. (Thanks to Vipman, Invicta and Mithridate for this.)

    Thirdly, you should set your own admin password. This is the entry password to the admin console, crucial for the continuity of the hotseat. Simply add your password after admin_password =
    Important: Always check that the admin password works before uploading the save!

    Fourthly, Vipman (give him rep) made an overview of the best set up with some more additions, simply copy paste his set up, remember to change the password.

    Code:
    [hotseat]
    Code:
    scroll = 1                       ## 0 disables start turn scroll in hotseat campaign UNLESS passwords for players are enabled, 0 value also enables playing defensive battles vs AI
    turns = 1                        ## 0 disables forced separate human faction turns (including diplomacy)
    disable_console = 1              ## 0 lets anyone access the console without requiring admin password
    admin_password = password        ## admin password to be able to use console commands
    passwords = 1                    ## 1 enables player passwords
    autoresolve_battles = 0          ## 1 disables ability to play battles on battlefield
    disable_papal_elections = 1      ## 0 enables voting in papal elections (only first valid human faction votes), with value 1 the pope is elected automatically by AI
    update_ai_camera = 1             ## 1 makes the camera move to each faction's capital at the start of each player's turn
    validate_diplomacy = 1           ## 0 disables diplomacy validation for incoming propositions (I forgot what it means, but value 1 is recommended for TWC HS's)
    save_prefs = 1                   ## 1 makes these hotseat settings be saved in the savegame, this is required to prevent cheating by accessing console
    validate_data = 1                ## 1 checks if the mod files are the same as the person that created the HS save, this is required to prevent cheating and bugs/CTD's during the HS
    allow_validation_failures = 0    ## 0 will give CTD if savegame or data validation fails, this is required to prevent cheating and bugs/CTD's during the HS

    SET UP IN GAME

    Now that you have altered the CFG file it is time to set up the hotseat in game.

    Start up the game, go to multiplayer and hotseat. Now you will see the faction selection screen. Here, you can select all factions that you want to be in this hotseat, most of the time it is all the factions.

    You will also find some general settings like disable console, passwords and autoresolve only. You can set these to your own preferences, however it is recommended to keep disable console, password and autoresolve only checked.

    You will also find the battle and campaign difficulty, which is often set on h/h, but this is also for your own preferences.

    After you have pressed start game, you will find the starting screen of the first faction. In Youngbloods this is often Lannister. You can now save this with the abbreviation of the hotseat game name, the first faction and the turn. For example, the hotseat save of Winter is Coming is called WiC_Lannister_1.

    Sometimes the players want to change the turnorder of a hotseat, a bit experience with modding the descr_strat is required for this. Thanks to Aldor for this.
    You must change the faction order in the descr.strat (Medieval II Total War/mods/
    <mod name>/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial campaign --> descr_strat file):

    1. At the top of the file (playable factions)
    2. You must copy paste all faction segments in turn order.

    Turn order is best done from GMT + 12 to GMT - 12, so in a descending order.

    Always save your original file, when meddling with the game files. For the bold ones: "The burned hand teaches best" ~Gandalf
    Before you upload this turn, make sure your admin password works!


    Admin console

    As admin, it is your job to set up a hotseat, making sure it runs smooth, enforce the rules, add and remove players, skip or sub factions and be the neutral party in disputes.

    To assist the admin in managing the game, there is the admin console.

    To access the admin console type ` often this button is located in the top left corner of your keyboard, under the esc button.

    Now a screen will appear in which you can type you commands.

    Before you can type any commands, you need to login as administrator.

    Type:
    logon password (the password you set in the CFG file earlier)

    Now, you should get the message that the admin is logged in. After that you can use the console and various commands to deal punishments, clear saves, skip factions and more.

    After you have done your admin duties, type logoff to logoff.

    It is important to note that faction names in the console are still vanilla M2TW.

    The corresponding faction can (usually) be found in Medieval II Total War/mods/<mod name>/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial campaign --> descr_strat file

    A list of Westeros factions and their original medieval name used in Youngbloods:

    Lannister - england
    Tyrell - milan
    Stark - scotland
    Arryn - portugal
    Greyjoy- hre
    Renly - spain
    Joffrey - venice
    Tully - france
    Stannis- denmark
    Martell - moors


    A list of TATW factions and their original medieval names (thanks to Aldor for this):
    Milan - Rohan
    England - Mordor
    Egypt - High Elves
    Spain - Harad
    Scotland - Dale
    Venice - Rhun
    Turks - Eriador
    Mongols - Silvan Elves
    Sicily - Gondor
    HRE - OotMM
    Portugal - OoG
    Moors - Dwarves
    France - Isengard


    Console commands that are relevant for hotseats:

    1. clear_password faction

    This command allows you to clear the password of a faction to access the turn. Often this command is used at the start of every admin job and it is often required to clear passwords for subbers and new players of that faction.
    The command only works with the original medieval faction names of all factions.

    So when you want to clear the password of Lannister, simply type clear_password england

    2. set_password faction password password
    This command works the same way as the clear password and allows you to change someone's password without clearing it, it is often not necessary.
    It looks like this: set_password england Tywin Tywin

    3. toggle_fow
    This allows you to see the entire map.

    4. add_money
    This command allows you to either add or remove money from a faction. The easiest way to do this is on the turn of the concerning faction.

    To add money, type:
    add_money 2000

    To remove money type:
    add_money -2000

    You can also do this on another faction's turn, the command should be like this (thanks to Vipman):

    To add money, type:
    add_money faction, 2000 (add_money england, 2000)

    To remove money type:
    add_money faction, -2000

    The limit for adding and removing money by console is 40k

    5. show_cursorstat and move_character

    These two commands allow you to move a character, a captain or an admiral. Sometimes this is necessary when people move armies that were not supposed to move because they were defeated.

    show_cursorstat allows you to get the coordinates of a specific location.

    Simply stand with your cursor on the position that you want to move your troops to and type show_cursorstat.

    This will give you two coordinates, the X and Y, for example: 30,45

    To move the character type:

    move_character "full name" X,Y
    for example: move_character "Tywin Lannister" 30,45
    It is important to write the full name of the character you want to move, else it will not work. Every character has a surname, the title of the character is not a surname.

    So, for example to move Axell the Warrior' Son, you need to type: move_character "Axell Gardner" 30,45

    To move a captain:

    move_character "Captain Name" X,Y

    Captains don't have surnames, they only have one name, but you will need to add Captain for it to work.

    For example: move_character "Captain Robin" 88,100

    To move a admiral:

    move_character "Admiral Name" X,Y

    Same as the captain, beware that you can only move admirals on sea.

    6. process_cq, adding buildings
    This command allows you to build buildings located in the building queue of a settlement instantly. You can use this when buildings have been destroyed illegally.

    To build the buildings type:
    process_cq "settlement name"

    For example: process_cq "Lannisport"

    Important, the settlement name is the name the city currently has. So when someone has changed the name of Lannisport in Lannisters Rulez, then the command looks like this:

    process_cq "Lannisters Rulez"

    If you are restoring buildings, don't forget to add the money you spent on it back to the faction.

    7. create_unit
    This command can be used to create a unit for an army or a settlement, simply type:

    create_unit "character name or settlement name" "unit name" amount experience(0-9) armor(0-3) weapon (0-3)

    The unit name is not the name you see ingame, it is the name as displaced in the export_descr_unit file in the mod's data folder.

    For example to add 2 armored spearmen with 3 experience to Tywin Lannister, type:

    create_unit "Tywin Lannister" "Armored Sergeants" 2 3 0 0

    8. give_trait and remove_trait
    These commands are rarely used, it adds or removes traits to certain characters. A certain knowledge of export_descr_character_traits is required.

    To add a trait to a selected general, type:
    give_trait this trait level

    To remove a trait of a selected general, type:
    remove_trait this trait level

    You can also give it to a not selected general, by replacing this with "general's name"

    To give a trait, you need to know the original trait's level in export_descr_character_traits in the mod's data folder.

    For example to give Tywin Lannister the alcoholic trait, type
    give_trait "Twyin Lannister" Drink 3

    Drink 3 is the alcoholic trait.

    If you need to teleport or add/remove trait/anc from a character that has a title (e.g. the chivalrous) or is king/heir, there is a chance you can find out the family name by looking at relatives names in family tree, like wife/childs/parents.

    9. add_population
    Rarely used, but sometimes might be necessary.

    To add population to a settlement type:
    add_population "settlement name" amount

    So if you want to add 3000 to King's Landing type:
    add_population "King's Landing" 3000

    The limit is 4000 for adding population.

    10. control faction, turning to AI
    This command is used when you want to turn a faction AI, sometimes used to speed up the game when a player has left and the faction has only one settlement left. It is also used as a fix for a game breaking crash.

    To turn House Greyjoy to AI control type,
    control hre

    To turn back to human control, the same command.

    11. surrender_regions, killing a faction
    Sometimes it may be necessary to kill a faction by turning them to rebels.

    The command is surrender_regions faction

    So if you want to kill Joffrey, simply type surrender_regions venice

    That was about all important console commands that an admin can use.

    Fix to game breaking crash

    Sometimes, usually around turn 30, a hotseat turn on a Westeros mod might crash. This is often caused by slightly different versions of the mod or the original game. I have solved many of such issues in the past.

    To solve this, simply go back to the start of the turn and turn every faction AI by using the control faction command. Then let the Ai play an entire turn, transform every faction back to human after the turn has been played and test if it works.
    This has often worked. If you encounter this crash, feel free to contact me.

    That is all for now folks, I might update this in the future but it should be a good overview of what an admin can do. Any suggestions, updates and comments will be appreciated.
    Hotseat Rules Compendium, written by Aldor
    Guide Created by Aldor, originally posted here - http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ules-Compendum

    This thread will attempt to summarize rules commonly used in hotseats.

    Rules try to make the game a more enjoyable and fair experience for the players. For ease of reading the rules will be divided in subtopics.

    The rules were picked specifically with Westeros Total War (WTW) en Third Age Total War (TATW) hotseating in mind, but may apply to other hotseat subforums.

    That said, these rules might not be adequate for all hotseats. Furthermore rules are often dependant on democratic choice by the specific hotseat participants.

    You can refer to this ruleset when using this compendum for your own HS thread.
    ____________________________________________________________________

    Admin
    - The admin has the final word. It is almost impossible to list all possible violations. Use common sence and preferable ask the admin's opinion on a suspected move beforehand. If disagreement with the admin arrises, you are free to ask the opinion of other known admins (such as Aldor, Dux, Emperor of Hell, Matto16, ...)
    - The admin is not responsible for any other hotseat tasks such as searching new members or subbing. He can provide help in these areas, but is not oblidged to do so.
    - The admin can declare the final winner of the hotseat (see gamplay section)

    Agents
    - No assassinations or sabotage. No recruiting of assassins allowed.
    OR
    - No assassinations or sabotage. Recruiting of assassins allowed as spying units.
    OR
    - Assassinations or sabotage allowed to kill agents, minimum chance required: 35%.
    OR
    - Assassinations or sabotage allowed to kill agents, minimum chance required: 35% and family members, minimum chance required: 45%.

    - No spies to open gates.
    OR
    - Spies can open gates, minimum chance required for opening the gates: 35%.
    OR
    -
    Spies can open gates if settlement is defended by less than 6 full units. (adapted from Matto16)

    - No bribing.
    OR
    - Bribing allowed.

    - Indirectly breaking sieges or port blockades by alliance with factions allied to the enemy faction (turning them neutral) not allowed.
    OR
    - Indirectly breaking sieges or port blockades by alliance with factions allied to the enemy faction (turning them neutral) allowed.

    - Stealing generals not allowed
    OR
    - Minimum chance to steal general: 35%

    - Spies aren't allowed to spread plague, unless needed to open the gates in a succesfull siege during the same turn of infiltration.

    - Merchants can seize other merchants, minimum chance required: 50%. (adapted from Mithridate)

    - Merchant stacks not allowed (placing several merchants in an army or fort/military-unit securing a resource). (adapted from Mithridate)

    - You cannot kill agents by surrounding them with troops, unless this move was needed for other purposes.

    AI factions
    - No allying Pope. (adapted from Mithridate)
    - No gifting provinces in war zone
    (regions sharing a land border with an enemy faction) to an AI-controlled faction. (adapted from Mithridate)
    - Not allowed to turn AI factions into vassals. (adapted from Mithridate)
    - No money gain allowed through diplomacy
    with AI factions. (adapted from Mithridate)
    - Minimum chances and restrictions of agents do not apply to actions against AI factions.

    Battles
    - All battles are auto-resolved.
    OR
    - Battles against Rebels allowed to be fought.

    - No surrounding of an army solely to deny a retreat.
    - You are not allowed to move armies next turn if they were defeated by a player that comes after you in turn order.
    - You are not allowed to disband units to get around the previous rule.
    - Prisoners cannot be ransomed after battle. Release or execute.
    - Luring ambushers into ZoC of forts\settlement solely to deny them movement is forbidden. (adapted from Uriyaca)
    - Heroic victories are not allowed, unless a clear victory cannot be obtained and admin approval is given.
    - No usage of various movement bugs allowed. (adapted from Mithridate)
    - The admin must be able to get a similar outcome after 'reloading' 5 times. (adapted from Emperor of Hell)
    Spoiler for Extra information concerning this rule by Aldor

    Tell the admin how you placed your men and other changes in the turn that may have contibuted to your win. The admin will execute the moves the player did to win the battle and reload up to 5 times. (adapted from The Norseman)

    To put it short: reloading is allowed but don't reload endlessly to win a battle as this will be discovered. The admin has the last word on the decision (example: victory due to a bug is never allowed) and punishment.

    Some guidelines that might aid you to judge your actions before you post the turn. These are not rules:
    - Heroic victories are generally due to reloading.
    - Victories with odds less then 3 vs 5 are generally due to reloading.
    - If the outcome seems unlikely, reload the turn yourself and observe if you can win the battle within 5 reloads.
    - Screenshot required for all battles displaying odds (pre-battle screen) and outcome (post battle screen).
    Spoiler for Example
    OotMM army defeated near Imladris.
    Spoiler for Example


    - No screenshot required for battles with overwhelming odds, however mentioning the battle in post is required.
    Spoiler for Example
    Gondor army defeated near Minas Tirith, overwhelming odds.
    Crusades/Jihads/Invasions
    - Not allowed
    OR
    - Allowed:
    - Only the target settlement can be sieged.
    - Only one stack per faction can participate.
    - Armies, fleets or forts can not be attacked unless they defend the path towards the settlement.

    Destroying buildings
    - You can destroy buildings in your 'own settlements'.
    - Buildings cannot be destroyed after capturing a settlement. After 5 turns, you are allowed to destroy inns, religious buildings and guilds. After 10 turns these settlements are considered 'own settlements'.
    - Buildings cannot be destroyed when a clearly superior army is in the one range from the settlement.
    - Buildings cannot be destroyed when the settlement is under siege.
    - Buildings can be destroyed in 'own settlements' without restriction on turn 1. (adapted from Uriyaca)

    Dying factions

    - Not allowed to give or accept territory or funds belonging to a dying faction without the dying faction clearly seeking benefit from this.

    Etiquette

    - Reloading allowed to certain extent, see battle-section.
    - 24h to play your turn, though you may ask for an extension (usually 48h) or someone to sub.
    - Visitor message for the next player, when you upload the turn. Use private message instead if requested by the player.
    - Raging against participants cannot be tolerated. Use in-game faction name and be polite.
    - Delete old attachments to lower the burden on the site (My Account > Miscellaneous > Attachments). Keep the previous 3 turns you've played in case a replay would be needed.
    - Betrayals are allowed.

    Exterminating cities
    - No extermination allowed. (adapted from Dux)
    OR
    - You are only allowed to exterminate a city once, and should you capture the city again you must either sack or occupy it.

    Family members
    - Kill family member bug not allowed.
    OR
    - Kill family member bug allowed.
    Spoiler for Kill family member bug
    Put the family member in a stack with zero movement points left. The family member can not be the leader of the stack. Next, go to the 'army' tab and select the general. Move him to a tile and he will be automatically killed.
    Forting and watchtowers
    - Player-made (non-permanent) forts require a minimal garrisson of 4 units.

    - No fort ammount limitations
    OR
    - Maximum of 4 forts per player per region.

    - Watchtowers not allowed
    OR
    - Watchtowers allowed
    - Not allowed to place watchtowers to prevent forting. (adapted from Uriyaca)

    - Rules for sieges apply
    - Not allowed to to lure the attacker into the fort by disband/suicide sally to set up a trap.
    -
    Not allowed to besiege a fort solely to deny the besieged army from participating in battles (with enemy forces next to the fort).
    - Not allowed to sally from forts (except for sieges lasting longer then 1 turn) unless victory or draw is achieved.
    - Allowed to disband troops
    OR
    - Variations on (not) allowing suicidal sallies and disbanding possible.

    - No repeated attacks on 'yoyo/fort buged armies'. You can see when this bug accures, as the enemy army enters the fort and then leaves it. (adapted from Uriyaca)
    Spoiler for yoyo/fort buged armies
    A defeated army whom CAN fit a fort, enters it, and then leaves it, making it posssible for the enemy to attack again and again until nothing remains of that army
    Spoiler for yoyo/fort buged armies

    What is supposed to happen is the defeated army who can fit the fort, enters it and stays there. Making it impossible for the enemy to attack again and again

    Why it happens: a retreated army, and you can test it yourself, will never retreat to one of an enemy's ZoC squares. Because of this, when this situation happens (example):
    A lannister army is adjacent to a fort. An enemy army (Stark for example) lands on one of the fort's ZoC squares, and then attacks the Lannister army. The lannister army retreats to the nearest safe location, like the AI always does. He attempts to retreat to the fort
    He reaches the fort and enters it. But a problem- the retreating army is adjacent to the Stark's army ZoC square. The Lannister army is forced to leave the fort and pops up beside it. This bug happens only in forts, not in towns\castles (from Uriyaca)
    Gifting settlements
    - Gifting settlements is allowed, but spawned troops must be disbanded except for one unit. This unit cannot move the turn of accepting the gifted settlement.
    - You cannot gift settlements that are at risk to be captured.

    Naval
    - Ships cannot be attacked in ports.
    - Ships in ports cannot contain land troops.
    - Ships cannot leave a blockaded port until the blockade is broken. This counts for both naval and land blockades.
    - Demolishing a port to get around the previous rule isn't allowed, you must wait until the following turn before moving ships stationed in the blockaded port.
    - Not allowed to bypass an enemy zone of control with land armies by using fleet bug. (adapted from Uriyaca)

    Replaying turns
    - Original moves must be kept when replaying turns, especially if they involve battles versus other players. The factions which were the reason of the replay, can move forces involved freely, but other battles must be done as in the original save.

    Screenshots
    - Not required
    OR
    - Screenshot required for all battles displaying odds (pre-battle screen) and outcome (post battle screen). Depiction of the involved armies and their banners is obligatory in most hotseats. (adapted from Dux and Mithridate)
    Spoiler for Example
    OotMM army defeated near Imladris.
    Spoiler for Example


    Spoiler for Involved armies and their banners (if the HS demands this)
    Renly armies attack the besieging Tyrell forces.
    Spoiler for Involved armies and their banners (if the HS demands this)


    - No screenshot required for battles with overwhelming odds, however mentioning the battle in post is required.
    Spoiler for Example
    Gondor army defeated near Minas Tirith, overwhelming odds.

    - Screenshots required for princess stealing generals, bribing, assassination, sabotage and gate-opening.

    Sieges
    - You cannot sally out when facing certain defeat for any reason such as denying the attacker the option to sack/exterminate or luring him/her in a trap.

    - You cannot besiege a settlement solely to deny the besieged army from participating in battles (with enemy forces next to the settlement).
    - Sieging with a clearly inferior force (such as to deny trade/recruitment/...) is forbidden.


    Victory conditions
    - Play to win.
    - Victor is declared by a voting system (overrulable to some extent by the admin)
    Spoiler for Extra info on this topic:
    A player can attempt to claim victory by demanding a
    Spoiler for Extra info on this topic:
    voting round. The admin can, however, decide to continue the HS and deny the attempt.

    Vote question: Do you agree that player X has become unbeatable and should be recognised as winner of this hotseat?

    Vote scenario's:
    - All players give a positive vote: victory!
    - At least 3 players deny victory: no victory.
    - Only 1-2 players deny victory: admin looks into the save/arguments sent per PM and determine if a(n) faction(s) could be considered a threat to the 'victor'. So basicly: if all factions on the map would unite versus the victor, do they stand a chance? If negative: victory!
    In case of victory, reputation and congratulations to the victor!
    ____________________________________________________________________

    Author
    Aldor

    Contributors:
    Dux
    Emperor of Hell
    Gimli10

    Inarus

    Matto16
    Mithridate
    The Norseman
    Uriyaca

    Other useful information:
    Spoiler for How-to-play-a-hotseat-guide by Gimli10

    Instructions (how to play a hotseat campign)
    For those who don't know how to play Hotseat campaigns, here are some easy to follow instructions.
    1. Wait your turn -- Just like waiting in line for a ride at an amusement park, everyone needs to wait their turn, be sure to look who's turn is up, but keeping your eyes on the forums, for your kingdom to be called next.
    2. Download your turn -- When your turn is finally up. It's time to play. the person who was before you should have posted his turn in the thread, you need to click the link in the thread and this should automatically download the turn.
    here is an example

    3. Extract the file into Save Folder -- Alright, the next step is too uncompressed the folder, if you have a compressing tool (Winzip, WinRar, 7zip, etc), then it should automatically uncompressed the file when you Open, or double click on the file you saved. If you do not have a Compressor tool I suggest downloading WinZip. In the compressed filed you should see a new file ending with .sav ; this is the save file -- Extract this file into your Save Folder (in the case of TATW it should be located at C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\mods\Third_Age\saves.
    Here is an example of how to Extract

    4. Play your turn -- Now that the .sav file is successfully located in the Save Folder, you can play your turn. Load up the game like you normally would, (In this case the Third Age Mod). at the Introduction screen, with the options you will want to click on the Load Game --> Load campaign game --> (The save file you downloaded and extracted). If all goes well you should load up the Game. Yay!!, Now have fun, and play your turn. Don't forget to choose a Password, to ensure nobody else access your game.

    5. End Turn -- Don't forget to click the "End Turn" button when your done your turn. Many new people forget to do this simple action of not click End Turn, its essential when your done playing your turn to click End Turn and have the next players Scroll up before you continue. If you forget to do this the game will stall and you will need to load the turn you posted and Press End Turn. Just don't forget

    6. Send and Compress file -- Alright, your almost done!. You played your turn, now you need to send the .sav along. Go to the thread and post a reply.Clicking the "Manage Attachments" on the reply below Additional Options is what you want to do, Then click on one of the "Browse" buttons. Now you need to attach your new .sav file which you should find at your Save folder, do you remember where that was? mine is : (C:\Program Filesx86\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\mods\Third_Age\saves). Now before you sand the .sav file remember to Compress it. Unfortunately, TWCenter doesn't accept files that aren't compressed due to virus possibilities. That's why its essential to have a compressor tool to extract and compress your file. If you need a Compressor tool please refer to Step 3. Now "Right-Click" on your .sav file that you want to send and find the Compressor tool labeled "add to "(filename).rar" or if using winzip you should go to Label "Send to --> compressed Zip folder". Once this is done, a new compressed file should be created in your save folder. While its possible to compress the folder by simply using explorer, you can also do it through the "Browse" button through clicking the "Manage Attachments". Now that you have compressed the .sav file you want to send into a Zipped or Rared file, you can "Click" that compressed file. Then in the "Manage Attachments" screen click on "Upload", write a normal response and your as good as done.
    Spoiler for Hotseat strategy guide for new players by Dux and Mithridate
    Quote Originally Posted by Mithridate View Post
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Made for Westeros, but useful to read for beginners. "I would really like to recommend this
    Spoiler for Hotseat strategy guide for new players by Dux and Mithridate
    Quote Originally Posted by Mithridate View Post
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    post and the second and 4th in the same thread."
    Spoiler for Gaming Staff Admin Guide by Dux
    Spoiler for Hotseat Constitution\Rules Discussion and known bugs by Uriyaca
    Spoiler for Regarding Hotseats and Attachments by Inarus



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