Tsardoms Total War - Ask all questions here

[Artannis Wolfrunner]

I'm hoping someone can help me understand devastation. I had thought that devastation was caused by hostile armies in your territory, but no hostile army has been in this city's region for 2 turns. Every building is repaired but I'm losing a huge amount to devastation with no clear cause. If I take the governor out of the city it actually decreases by almost 200 but there's still over 1400 devastation whose cause I cannot find. I scoured the forests and found no hiding bandits. What could be causing devastation?

[Wallachian]

I know that jurceak heavily increased the cost of devastation so that the player is forced to destroy all of the enemy or rebel armies in a province. However, i don't know how long it lasts for. I can see there is a rebel army in the neighbouring province. Perhaps they were in your province in the previous turn and then they moved over in the other province? Im really not sure

[eyelurker]

So i just buy condotierri from Alberico da Barbiano for 15 000 and the army i recieve are a mere 1 italian lesser noble,
2 pavise crossbow, 2 dismounted armigeri and 2 guasatori marauder but if i choose to refuse payment they come with in full stack with 3 condotierri heavy cavalry and 4 condotierri pikeman.

Where's the condotierri in my purchased condotierri?

[jurcek1987]

Didn't you get Alberico de Barbiano character with Condottieri Heavy Cavalry as his bodyguard unit?

Devastation effect is long lasting. It will continuosly decrease but it takes quite a few turns before it completely disappears. It can be very annoying but I think it's better and more realistic this way

[eyelurker]

Didn't you get Alberico de Barbiano character with Condottieri Heavy Cavalry as his bodyguard unit?

Devastation effect is long lasting. It will continuosly decrease but it takes quite a few turns before it completely disappears. It can be very annoying but I think it's better and more realistic this way

I didn't check when i buy him but when i fight him he is in dismounted armigeri. I mean why would i buy him when he only give me so much weaker and smaller army than i could recruit and only become powerful when i fight him?

[jurcek1987]

They are supposed to be overpriced because they are basically blackmailing you into paying them off. That's what it happened historically, these guys were extorting Italian states for massive amounts of money in exchange for not attacking them. IIRC Pisa, and some other cities, become bankrupt from such machinations.

The script was created Lusitanio and it's a very cool and interesting addition.

[eyelurker]

They are supposed to be overpriced because they are basically blackmailing you into paying them off. That's what it happened historically, these guys were extorting Italian states for massive amounts of money in exchange for not attacking them. IIRC Pisa, and some other cities, become bankrupt from such machinations.

The script was created Lusitanio and it's a very cool and interesting addition.

I don't mind it being an overpriced mercenary that seek to extort me and i even delibirately save money so i could recruit them but since they decide to only give me a small and weak army that means they're useless and i just kill them.

[jurcek1987]

Well it's a choice between not paying and facing a large and experienced mercenary army, or paying the exorbitant fee and avoiding conflict. The army you get may be small but the units are experienced and you get a famous general with a powerful bodyguard unit. Maybe for the Barbiano script we could replace some of those generic units you get for some more unique ones. The John Hawkwood script (which appears when you play as Milan or Florence) gives you unique units like English Men-At-Arms and Longbowmen.

[Wallachian]

The idea is that you either pay him off and receive a small army or don't pay him off and fight a powerful army. But yeah perhaps Barbiano should get a couple of nice units too like some condottieri heavy cav to make him worth the money. They could also get some Braccheschi units, Sforzeschi and even an English longbowman since Sforza, Braccio da Montone all fought under Alberigo at one point and Alberigo fought as part of the Company of St George of John Hawkwood.

But we welcome any feedback on these scripts. They are really cool but hard to get them exactly right. So feel free to provide more ideas or feedback for them.

We would love to add more Condottieri to the game and make them more interesting. Ideally, we would have condottieri armies appearing and roving Italy all the time. Since this is exactly what happened historically.

[Antiokhos Euergetes]

That sounds like a great idea

[eyelurker]

The idea is that you either pay him off and receive a small army or don't pay him off and fight a powerful army. But yeah perhaps Barbiano should get a couple of nice units too like some condottieri heavy cav to make him worth the money. They could also get some Braccheschi units, Sforzeschi and even an English longbowman since Sforza, Braccio da Montone all fought under Alberigo at one point and Alberigo fought as part of the Company of St George of John Hawkwood.

But we welcome any feedback on these scripts. They are really cool but hard to get them exactly right. So feel free to provide more ideas or feedback for them.

We would love to add more Condottieri to the game and make them more interesting. Ideally, we would have condottieri armies appearing and roving Italy all the time. Since this is exactly what happened historically.

Just make sure the condotierri roster actually contain condotierri(pikeman and heavy cavalry). There is already exist a better generic event where if you have enough money you can buy random Condotierri for 20.000 and although the army are small(half stack) it does give you 2 condotierri pikeman and 1 condotierri heavy cavalry. Probably also make sure whether friendly or enemy condotierri have heavy cavalry as general bodyguard because infantry general is too vunerable.

Condotierri pikeman and heavy cavalry are one of the best heavy infantry and knight respectively but they can only be recruited in condotierri event which is why i'm willing to pay exorbant money for them. I think they recruitable later on but i never play that far yet.

[Wallachian]

You can recruit condottieri pikemen after the event in the XV century. They are slightly anachronistic in the XIV century but we thought it's a nice reward. I agree we can add some more condottieri units to these events. And these condottieri should always have heavy cav as general.

But your main point that you didn't get that far points to our main problem. We need to block player expansion as much as possible so that people play at least past 1400 if not 1450. If you can conquer many provinces early on it decreases the fun of the mod.

[eyelurker]

You can recruit condottieri pikemen after the event in the XV century. They are slightly anachronistic in the XIV century but we thought it's a nice reward. I agree we can add some more condottieri units to these events. And these condottieri should always have heavy cav as general.

But your main point that you didn't get that far points to our main problem. We need to block player expansion as much as possible so that people play at least past 1400 if not 1450. If you can conquer many provinces early on it decreases the fun of the mod.

I think that's fair condotierri are restricted until 1400 since they have a late game unit capability and i just simply think of them you cannot recruit them normally because this is condotierri at their glory day.

Beside to expand it's more important to have 3 army of cheap stack with some knight for each stack than to have 1 army of expensive elite units as knight are poweful enough to carry the weight in battle but you still need infantry to hold the line and garrison duty.

[Wallachian]

I was referring to the condottieri pikemen, as historically actual pikemen did not appear until the 1450s. Before that it was just long spears (the lanza longa).

[jurcek1987]

Condottieri Pikemen unlock in 1460 (as do all other pikemen) and Condottieri Heavy Cavalry in 1430 (Milanese event)

[MIKE GOLF]

I'm hoping someone can help me understand devastation. I had thought that devastation was caused by hostile armies in your territory, but no hostile army has been in this city's region for 2 turns. Every building is repaired but I'm losing a huge amount to devastation with no clear cause. If I take the governor out of the city it actually decreases by almost 200 but there's still over 1400 devastation whose cause I cannot find. I scoured the forests and found no hiding bandits. What could be causing devastation?

It is quite possible that there is some hidden rebels as well. I would recommend sending out scouting parties to find them, or lift the fog of war and find them that way.

[Antiokhos Euergetes]

so that people play at least past 1400 if not 1450. If you can conquer many provinces early on it decreases the fun of the mod.

I am currently in the year 1494 in several concurrent campaigns including the Habsburgs, Serbia, Wallachia. And it's a great campaign.
I still must say, pictures will show (forthcoming), that although the Ottomans now dominant, I had to help every stage. Is there late stricpts to try and force them to attack Hungary, Croatia and Austria?
What about peasants revolt in Hungary? I have not noticed any Polish invasion, thought I read about Polish intervention in Moldova.
Another question could something definitely be done with cannon spamming. Make them expensive and only at certain locations.
Also. What about phasing out "replaced" units?
One more thing I think all factions should start with ability to recruit their best units straight away (time period allowing) and a good stating army and infrastructure. Rather than spending thirty turns to build an army a local lord could just summon.

[Wallachian]

Very very happy to hear that you got to 1494 with several campaigns, please do share the screenshots! Would love to see them.

Yeah, the Ottomans have been an ongoing problem for quite some time. There are no late game Ottoman scripts. Ideally we would love for them to just become strong on their own but it seems that its not happening. We are working on scripts for the 1448 campaign like Ottoman attack on Otranto and siege of Nandofehervar. So they will be ported to the 1345 campaign too.

There are peasant revolts in Hungary, for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transy...peasant_revolt but only if the player is Hungary. We found that these type of things really mess with the AI otherwise.

There are is also a Polish invasion (rebel stacks) of Moldova, but again. Only if the player is Moldova.

In regards to the cannons, interesting. Does the AI spam lots of cannons? Sounds like we need to indeed make them more rare or only allow cannon makers in certain provinces.

In terms of phasing out what units did you have in mind? We do have the Cuman asssimilation event which notifies the fact that cumans are no longer recruitable as they have assimilated in the local populations. But other than that we don't have any other. But are open to any suggestions.

For the best units, that is a hard thing to balance. We don't want to make it too easy from the start to build a good army. It's a bit of a gameplay gimmic. But what we can do is perhaps add some units in the factional special building in the capital.

[eyelurker]

Very very happy to hear that you got to 1494 with several campaigns, please do share the screenshots! Would love to see them.

Yeah, the Ottomans have been an ongoing problem for quite some time. There are no late game Ottoman scripts. Ideally we would love for them to just become strong on their own but it seems that its not happening. We are working on scripts for the 1448 campaign like Ottoman attack on Otranto and siege of Nandofehervar. So they will be ported to the 1345 campaign too.

There are peasant revolts in Hungary, for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transy...peasant_revolt but only if the player is Hungary. We found that these type of things really mess with the AI otherwise.

There are is also a Polish invasion (rebel stacks) of Moldova, but again. Only if the player is Moldova.

In regards to the cannons, interesting. Does the AI spam lots of cannons? Sounds like we need to indeed make them more rare or only allow cannon makers in certain provinces.

In terms of phasing out what units did you have in mind? We do have the Cuman asssimilation event which notifies the fact that cumans are no longer recruitable as they have assimilated in the local populations. But other than that we don't have any other. But are open to any suggestions.

For the best units, that is a hard thing to balance. We don't want to make it too easy from the start to build a good army. It's a bit of a gameplay gimmic. But what we can do is perhaps add some units in the factional special building in the capital.

Well good to know the campaign will go that long that mean i could waste several years to build up my settlement and my army.

My latest playthrough from previous patch is around early 1400 and in that time most army seems to mostly use around 1-6 knights and the rest being mixed army depend on whatever barracks or local army they could recruit. I don't see any cannon

I'm always try to imagine what kind of faction would become for faction that could reunite Roman Empire that is not Ottoman and currently i'm trying to make Naples rebuild the second Latin empire(or something else entietly if Naples Sicily Empire didn't want to upset HRE like the first Latin empire)

Edit : Also Naples and Hungary are both Anjou and Hungaty can recruit Signori in Sicily so i think it would be interesting if Naples conquer Hungary and Croatia it could do the same

[Antiokhos Euergetes]

One other question, if I may, could we perhaps have something that the Landsknechte will be recalled same for Swiss if you are at war with thar particular faction or HRE.
Also perhaps based on how the crusade awol script works, could that be used for disease and desertion (especially in winter) etc.. If a lot toned down?