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Lol Monkey Brains that happens to me all the time. They attack, I beat them up real bad, they sue for peace then another stronger faction jumps on me. But, attrition has worn the HRE (4 provinces left from 8 or 9 it had at one time), Poland, and now Russia down to where they can no longer send those full stacks against me anymore. Spain as I predicted is pulverizing England now and I'm pretty sure they will wipe them out, unless I get there first after Scotland and Russia. Scotland has made it's final mistake because as its vassal I was able to build up my infrastructure immensely and have gold pouring in. The HRE has been in a big war against Scotland and Sicily and thus had to pull off of annoying me every other turn. lol I have my THIRD assault stack now and it's all she wrote for Scotland as she has not protected her English lands and I am sneak attacking in the north and working my way down. I will take four provinces from this phase alone. Russia is no match for just the 10 units I have marching around in its rear now. I will take 3 or 4 more of its provinces now as well. This is pretty much where I call a game over as when I can get this many provinces in my hands the ai can never overwhelm me again. Oh it will take its share of provinces as I move into it, but, from every TW game I've played I always take 2 or 3 for 1 and it just becomes a game of attrition until I reach the objective goals.
 
If I were CA one of the things I would adjust is keeping a bit better defense in their cities and castles. The two/three full stack rush against an inexperienced human player I'm sure is frustrating for those 12 year olds and teenagers. But, for me it's just a delaying action and just waiting till I can get that first attack stack out there without worry about my rear. The AI builds great, I'm amazed at all the buildings they have, but, they don't seem to build the units to support what they've built. Every long standing city/castle I've captured has yielded high value gold like that 71000 from taking Prague and I got more than half of that taking one of the Russian Castles. They build good infrastructure, but, don't protect it, thus for the experienced player its a landslide advantage for them when they capture one of these gold mines. You have to be willing to SACK it first and then sell off ALL the buildings. That's my torch and burn method of play. It works great as I don't really need the income from these provinces. I just need them out of the hands of the AI. I let them revolt even lol. I just take my army and continue marching onward until that AI is destroyed. Then I go back and take the provinces again and settle in. All that money you get from sacking and selling you can build up your main infrastructure and churn out enough stacks to spread out your terror and still protect your homeland with another stack or two.
 
I still have enjoyed the getting there part. I wouldn't call it EASY by a long shot. I got some lucky wins in there as well as actions by the AI that allowed me to expand and grow without fear. There was a point I could have been in a bucket load of shlitz malt liquer if Scotland had of continued the war they declared instead of asking me to become a vassal. England also had its chances, but, it also backed out. She had a full stack in my territory for a long time 20, maybe 30 years just sitting there near my capital and major castle and never attacked, never did nothing, but, sit there for that many years. Then finally just recently she pulled it out, much to my satisfaction.
 
I think I'm going to start a Hungary game now. From the looks of its placement and being really totally surrounded that one should be more challenging.
 
In the future I can probably see a couple of house rules to put into effect. No accepting vassaling and no selling off captured buildings. Sacking is still allowed though. perhaps even a couple of ironman rules, no accepting or asking for peace and no sacking cities/castles lol there goes my income that would be a tough one to play. I would say that vassaling has been the single best thing for me in this game as it gave me much time and freedom to build up my infrastructure. Of couse the well timed peace agreement sure helps as well.

Hey Ravinhood what are exactly benefits of vassaling? I always rejected it. You say that it brings gold, you mean peace and then gold of course, do you have to give something to that country you are vassal?

I have also sacked one city and sold all it's buildings. It was after I have taken Paris with my Jihad stack. As a Moors I have declared Jihad and ignored everything just went for a capitol. Later I took my 4 Bodyguards and catapult and took Rheims and sold all buildings.
Yes, all those countries in the middle are far more challenging. I would maybe start one game with HRE (Germans hehe) but they have 6 cities at the start.



Mario

My problem with the game is the near invincibility I enjoy vs the AI in siege battles.   I can hold a fortress against pretty much any AI stack with like 3 peasant archers and a couple of spearmen.  The AI just funnels it's men into kill zones, runs around back and forth, and doesn't coordinate anything.  Sure I can play quick battle all the time, but isn't half the appeal of the TW series the tactical battle?  I can play EU and get a much better game. 

I tried the mods and they don't alter the AI behavior.  They just give the stupid aimless wanderers better weapons and shinier armor.

ORIGINAL: carnifex

My problem with the game is the near invincibility I enjoy vs the AI in siege battles. I can hold a fortress against pretty much any AI stack with like 3 peasant archers and a couple of spearmen. The AI just funnels it's men into kill zones, runs around back and forth, and doesn't coordinate anything. Sure I can play quick battle all the time, but isn't half the appeal of the TW series the tactical battle? I can play EU and get a much better game.

I tried the mods and they don't alter the AI behavior. They just give the stupid aimless wanderers better weapons and shinier armor.

try that with mongols [:'(]

Once as Turks they just poured in and I couldn't stop their cavarly at the gates. I paused the game and was very proud of AI [:)]

I do agree CA should have had the AI try to enter the castle from several sides (I do this when I attack). But, the AI's main objective is that gate,

Now I don't use cheesy tactics like spearworks planted down in front of the gate. I do have spearmen up near it though for when the cavalry charge or try to charge thru it. Many AI sieges have ended at the gates because it does try to pour everything it has thru it even when it has other openings that the catapults/trebuckets have made. It ain't just spearmen stopping it though, regular foot soldiers will chop those spearmen to pieces pretty quickly. The bonus to morale they get on hard and very hard compensate for AI stupidity. That is why I recommend playing at vh combat difficulty. It is said that they get up to +8 points of morale bonus which is good and fair I think vs a human. I don't have any problems with it.

Remember I said above the ai is the way it is not to win, but, to delay and annoy you. It's one of the things I've said developers need to improve is create the ai to WIN, not just delay an annoy. The ai doesn't give squat if it loses a province or a siege battle. Its main purpose is just to hold you back for as long as it can. Then the next faction ai kicks in and starts doing the same. The ai is not thinking about victory because in this series it has no victory conditions. There's no goals for the ai in this series like say a Civilization where the ai can build a spaceship as well or get a cultural victory  or a diplomatic one. Most other games give the ai a victory condition as well as the player. The Total War series just doesn't give its ai's a victory condition. I think adding something like if any AI gets 20 provinces before you get 45 you lose and the AI wins. This series always comes down to you vs the last two strong AI's and by strong I mean ai's with lots of provinces and stacks. It's usually the Byzantine or Egypt in the South East and Spain or England in the West. I've never seen the HRE or Russia or Poland or any of those middle countries hold out. (Mainly because I'm the one knocking them out as the south factions take theirs). I actually miss the alternate great achievements victory feature of MTW origional vs just playing conquer the map as well.

Also, after futher play I still say the provincial play of the Total War series (MTW1) was the best for the AI. It did quite well protecting its castles/provinces and there was most often huge battles in provinces instead of these 1/4th stacks I'm seeing more of now. They are annoying at best, but, hardly anything to worry about. You also didn't see the ai doing back n forth movements as often either. Anyone remember when the AI had like 3 full stacks in one province in MTW origional? Remember how you worried which province they were going to attack next? Remember the epic battles when several stacks merged into one province for a battle? Remember how you could save those epic battles after they were over and watch them again an again? I also enjoyed the governor titles to place and take away from them.

If I could have but one change it would be to add the siege battles of this to the origional MTW game and go back to using provinces for movement in this RISKlike game (ok so that's 2 things haha). It's not medieval historical war/diplomacy. It's still and always will be merely a RISK game using historical LOOKING units in that particular part of history. And as far as that type of game goes it's very good doing just that, playing RISK in medieval times.

Just as I predicted (heh I'm good at predicting) Hungary is a much harder faction to play. Mainly because most of the cities/castles are 3 turns away from each other and I can't use my one stack guards 2 or 3 cities/castles like I could playing Denmark. It wasn't hard to pickup 7 total provinces though as I did with Denmark. Poland couldn't handle a siege in Russia area above me and to the right so I went in and took it by siege in 6 turns, amazingly the ai didn't even sally out on the last turn to attack me. Guess it knew what was coming next. lol
 
I went around the circle and got trade agreements and alliances with HRE (again), Poland (again), Byzantines and Venice. Well the HRE didn't wait very long until they came sneakin in and backstabbin with a full stack to attack my capital. (they are really an annoying ai faction in this game lol). So's I says ok I'll just send this partial stack around the top of Italy and take their open city which didn't have but 2 ? units in it. I already had a Diplomat in that area scouting out the territory and getting trade agreements with Papal States, Milan and Allying with Sicily again.
 
Well, I get one move away from my western castle and guess who sneak attacks me with a FULL stack?? Yes, Lying Venice attacks my west. Well from the position they came in at I was able to pull back my small stack and attack them with odds of 1.5 to 1 in their favor. What a battle, how did I ever win it? Well Hungary gets these lovely cavalry missle units with fair combat stats. Venice though came in with just about ALL spearmen units...ouch. I had four of these missle cavalry units, two foot peasant archers, two militia spear and a named leader of 3 stars good traits +2 morale to units on battlefield. Something CA did differently that I discovered though is a full flag now doesn't always mean 20 units. Venice had several peasant archer units as well and I used my cavalry in hit and run moves to take them out. I burned all my missles before ever using them in melee as well. I'd have to say the day was saved by my foot archers, amazingly they poured death into those spearmen and continued the whole battle. They must have some major arrow storage cause they rarely run out before the battles are over. Unlike my Horse archers who ran out rather quickly I think. (I must mod them in more arrows hehe) My spearmen units were routed as well and it came down to about 5 units of Venice spearmen vs my 3 missle cavalry, 2 peasant archers and my leader. You guys realize how hard it is to attack spearmen with horsies? hahah I was laughing so much during the battle I almost fudged up. They wanted my archers or my leader most of all and charging and pulling out was difficult to say the least without getting caught in an ant bed of spears on my horsies. They did chop up a couple of my horsies pretty good as I was sticking and moving. They also routed one of my foot archers arggggh and it still had nearly 40 units left. I raced to the map edge and blew my horn, but, they didn't listen at all. lol In this version it isn't as easy to tell who the general is with all those flags bouncing around and the sizes of them pretty much identical. Anyways while I was trying to save my routing archers I got the cutaway screen that we had captured their General. Oh this was great news though I didn't even know I had been attacking him. lol. Well that cut the AI's morale down and then it became a rout and it wasn't but a few seconds before the end battle popup showed up on the screen. Of course I offered their general and units back for ransom and Venice didn't pay....awwwww. lol
 
You guys really gotta try vh/vh or at least vh/h and just admire the number of stacks the ai puts out there against you early in the game.

Just to see if my "predictions" were correct I decided to try a m/h setup. Sort of normal but just a bit of an advantage to the ai during battles. Woah no wonder so many think the ai suks. It does on normal/medium difficulty. As Hungary again I'm doing whatever I want and the ai isn't even attacking me like on vh. So, something I see right off is the ai is more "aggressive" on vh. Mainly I think because it gets such an economic boost and there just appears to be some programming to come after the human player moreso on vh than on medium. I also notice diplomacy for tribute is much easier as well. Been getting 200gp per turn for 20 turns just for a trade and an alliance agreement with EVERY faction lol. That gave me soooooooo much money each turn I spread out much faster than in vh and now already have my 2nd stack to attack with in just a few years. Lol it took me 50+ years playing as Denmark to get where I already am in less than 10 years in this one. It is as I predicted though, normal or medium difficulty is for inexperienced players. This is so easy I don't even have to think or bite my nails or have any epic battles. Lol Even the Rebel AI is just letting me take cities/castles by siege and not even sallying forth to stop me. I'm all the way up to Ryannan in Russia now headed toward I think it's Bostock or something like that. Too easy though, there's no challenge in this one and where there is no challenge there is no fun. Going back to my vh/h game of  Hungary I started playing after my initial vh/vh loss to the overwhelming ai attacks from HRE, Poland, and Venice against Hungary. lol Much better ai than on medium. Hungary on vh/vh is the challenge of all challenges I wish you luck if you try it.

Hungary on vh/vh is the challenge of all challenges I wish you luck if you try it.

 
So, who tried it since all this time?