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[MikeJ]

Bloody hell Rev that was pretty impressive! I like the screeshots of the battles personally, because without them it'd be a lot like watching someone play civilization 3, just with nicer graphics.

[Vermillion]

Agreed on the battle graphics, especially when it's got bits like the foot soldiers being tossed in the air by charging lancers.  Still I gotta agree with DevHyfes the battles seem pretty easy, could you patch the AI mid campaign without it horribly fucking things up?

[DevHyfes]

Rev- Keep this up and I'm going to have to re-install this game and start anew!

I love the battle shots. One thing you might try is an overhead shot and then a perspective shot, both paired together. It might be a little more work, but it would really add some clarity.

[Reverend]

Agreed on the battle graphics, especially when it's got bits like the foot soldiers being tossed in the air by charging lancers.  Still I gotta agree with DevHyfes the battles seem pretty easy, could you patch the AI mid campaign without it horribly fucking things up?

Maybe I'm just a Medieval combat genius man. Maybe.

In more serious defence of what that last battle looked like- it can be misleading. The our kills/their kills ratio and some of the shots made it look like we just shat on them, but there were some tense times and I've never had to micromanage cavalry so much before. Those three units pretty much won the battle for us, zipping around everywhere hitting infantry, trying to time the right moment to break them without losing too many men. Also, it's less that I'm particularly amazing/the battles are piss, and more that I just haven't happened to lose a battle yet, if that makes sense. It's simply been that I've been able to pick my battles for the most part, comparing ours/their units, our start position/ how far off their reinforcements are, to know we have a good chance of taking the enemy down. You're still right though, they could do with being that bit better; the enemy should bunch up reinforcements, use cavalry properly etc, since a couple of these battles that should have been tense as fuck (the defence of Hamburg for example) ended up farcical as the AI spazzed out.

I've never tried using a mod mid-campaign before, my experience in other games suggests you tend to have to start anew to have the changed game, but I'll backup the save in case of fuckening and see if I can find a good battle AI mod. Or more like Dustbuster actually, since as much as I've said this already and been wrong, Knud is fucking old. I expect him to die in the next few turns today.

[Monoxx]

If my own experiences with Rome show anything, it is that modding half-way through a campaign ends up giving you lots of excuses to yell profanities at a monitor.

[DevHyfes]

On the contrary, I tend to agree with you Rev. That last battle looked pretty tense. So many of my favorite battles found me hi-tailing it to the nearest cliff face in an attempt to stave off a couple giant armies. And I agree, as was the case historically, the final kill numbers don't usually tell much about how close the battle is. You could be fighting tooth and nail, but once the enemy routes, that's when the carnage starts.

Cities will continue to be completely fucked up in this game, but oh well. This is supposed to be fun and funny, so why not?

[TropicalCoke]

Anyone hang out on the TWC forums? I finally decided to.  It's a great place that helps you a lot, if you don't mind the guys acting like it's a chat room.

[Reverend]

Sorry it's been a while coming, work shifts have increased due to various reasons and have incredibly stupid patterns. I've hardly had the computer on over the past few days, let alone sat here for long enough to update. This one is a bit bigger than normal to make up for that.

Anyway!;

More Stuff Occurring; Fuck You Germans



So, they declare war on us, lose their surprise assault, then suffer a crushing defeat, and now our army sits outside their capital unmolested, and they want us to be their vassals?



A clever renegotiation, I think.

(They do not go for it.)




A pleasant surprise! They initially just asked for a ceasefire, but evidently they're scared of us enough that I wangled getting Gaza into the deal.



Other news from the Holy Land; we're slowly bringing them round to Christianity, and the riots are at least subsiding a little.



Our councillors are stupid, and this will be nigh on impossible, even if I did want to offer them one of our cities in return (and I do not).



Oh, Pope, you dick. This means rather than go flying in next turn to take Frankfurt, like I planned to, we have to wait for the siege to end (as long as we don't actually attack we can stay besieging Frankfurt; if they come out to meet us that'll count as them attacking us.) It is also stupid since we weren't exactly the aggressors in this conflict, and we have a way better relationship with the Papal States than the HRE do. Oh well. We can afford to wait a few turns to keep the Pope sweet.



Goddamit! When a new Pope is elected, all excommunications are cancelled, so we could have just attacked since the old fucker was on his last legs anyway.



We actually have a good chance! We have three Cardinals in the college, one of whom is a high-up Bishop Preferati. We cast our vote to see a Dane become Pope...



Yeah! And we will remember those who did not vote for our man...



Awesome, check us (first left). The HRE might end up getting itself excommunicated if it keeps attacking us (third in from left) which would make prosecuting the war easier. We could even get our friend the Pope to let us Crusade against them.




I guess I wouldn't give up my capital that easily either. This time it's Skapti's 1045 vs the Emperor's 1707. So, less than last time, and they don't have any good Generals. We, on the other hand, have a veteran force led by a proven commander who keeps getting better. Hopefully this won't go wrong.



I hate when the computer picks to fight in mist. I never do, because look at it. If you want to try to follow the battle at all rather than just look at the pretty screens, I would advise using the minimap. I had trouble following the intricacies, so I would imagine it will be difficult trying to do so just from screenshots.




The enemy, torchlit, advances, and our archers stand ready.



At least this looks pretty in the mist.



Gunther felt like a true hero of the Reich. He had been drawn from the fields, only given time to grab his pitchfork before being jogged off to join the Capital Relief Force being assembled on the fields east of Magdeburg. The whispers among his fellow peasants was that they were there only to bolster numbers, that they were little more than fodder for enemy arrows, there to spare losses in the more trained companies and nothing more. But Gunther knew his people, they valued life higher than that, and he felt proud today to stand in the black-and-yellow line, defending his home from the invading Vikings. He had heard the stories of the butchering of the heroes von Saxony and Lukas Schwaben and their huge forces, but he knew how scaremongering spread through armies, and kept the fear at bay with the knowledge that theirs was the most powerful empire in the world and they would not fall to some simpleton northern interlopers.



Why, even now, they could not face their enemy like men, but could only throw things through the mist. Somewhere to his left down the line, he heard arrows impacting and hoped his brothers' armour was up to the task of keeping them safe until the Danes stopped shaming themselves and marched forward to face the enemy like men. He then saw, through the thick fog, torches being lit. He could finally see the line of Danes that had so far been obscured, the light flickering off the viking's armour and casting dancing shadows about. He saw then a strange synchronous movement of his enemy's front rank, but the damn mist again stopped him truly comprehending.

Then, the sky filled with flame, he watched it arc high, slowing at the peak before falling. This was it, his first taste of violence and death. He would make his Emperor proud and would see Frankfurt flying it's flag proudly for years to come.



He didn't see the flaming arrow that lit his breeches aflame, but he sure as hell let everyone else know about it as Gunther flailed at his crotch, unable to douse the flame that consumed him moments later.




Flaming arrows are pretty, and even more so when followed by a massed charge of spears, lances and Huscarl's axes.



The first enemy force routs



and we see the second, shrouded by mist and trees, coming toward our line.



Their Mailed Knights attempt a charge and are just thwarted by our own, mere metres from our infantry.



Our archers swap flaming arrows for the faster-firing standard ones as they return our flaming hello from earlier in the battle.



That's a lot of horses. I'm sure nothing will go wrong for us.



They have more horses than us, and I fail to hold them all off, leading to us taking one of those horrible full-pelt charges. The Huscarls don't break, being hardy nobles of Denmark and having the morale to go with that, but they take horrendous losses.



Skapti takes it to Charles Herden, hoping to show the HRE yet again that any noble sent to face us will not leave the field alive.



Skapti's unit is well-matched, so we cheekily charge in some Huscarls to help him finish the upstart Herden.



Herden breaks, as does the rest of his force, and we run them off the field for another Heroic Victory.



I normally don't execute everyone from every battle, preferring ransoms or releases for the innocents in the line, but the HRE is still listed as the supreme military power in the world, and we really need to cut their numbers down.

[Reverend]

Also, it's over now, Knud died a few turns later- I took a bunch of pics as an end-of-turn overview of our standing, and will put them up soonish. Dust Buster, sorry, I know you gave me your e-mail but I lost the bit of paper I put it on so if you could PM me it again, since I recall it wasn't the same as the one you have listed here.

[Vermillion]

Three cheers for good king Knut!

[Reverend]

Thanks Vermillion! He presided over something good while personally sitting on his ass.

Anyway; Update the Final (for me);

The King is Dead! Long Live the King!



One turn? One fucking turn? Are you kidding me?



Yeah blah blah blah whatever



Frankfurt is nearly out of defensive juices, I swear. Also hey, a French diplomat for no reason! (Pic taken as AI took its turns.) The point of the pic is I'm sending some reinforcements to Skapti, a nice batch of heavy cavalry, norse swordsmen (good heavy infantry) and huscarls (very good heavy infantry.)



Dammit, and I thought the insurrection was over. GOOD LUCK WITH THIS HOTBED OF HEATHENS, DUST BUSTER.



Ohho! What is this hi jinx!



Finance, yeah, we're switching to unexpected-war-economy-spending, but I aim to get that Production figure up before Knud dies (dies, died, you know what I mean) so DB inherits a profitable, defended and balanced Kingdom rather than an overextended broke one.



Yet still the siege continues. And we have those reinforcements.



I realised I never explained this before, those 'battles lost: 2' isn't indicating that I was being a dick and keeping lost battles secret somehow. They're naval battles, auto-resolved gaynesses that I'm so used to just clicking yes fine whatever for that it didn't even register to take a pic of anything really. Navies are useful for moving troops about when you're going a long way and that's about it, since the AI doesn't bother to use them cleverly. So yeah, sorry, turns out we lost two sea battles under my rule.




Auto resolve isn't good for Let's Play type stuff, but battles that are a foregone conclusion win/lose tend to be shit anyway, so since this was one of those I just thought sod it yes we win. Sorry if that's gay, but the battle would have been pretty boring for me as well as you.



Awesome.



Pic of us with our new holdings. The fact that I can't show our whole empire in one shot any more is a nice thing.



On the left, an army the HRE doesn't know quite what to do with yet. On the right, a fully-manned new Rebel force that used to be an HRE army. If a Generals' loyalty (or a random non-character captain like we had earlier) is low enough he can turn rebel, taking the entire force with him. Ouch for them.



Jerusalem is a damn rich city, and managed well, the extended walls (when we can pay for them) can help grow Jerusalem into a nice little earner.



Gaining Frankfurt, it being the old capital of the Holy Roman Empire, got us a pretty advanced economic hub, as well as extending our road networks to our allies and trade partners. I didn't expect it to jump so high so soon, so the Production thing is happily sorted sooner than I expected.



That's ANOTHER really big HRE army gone rogue. This is a happy day for us.



I sent Skapti and the larger part of his force over the river at a crossing to set up a fort. My intention was to tempt them into attacking. Unfortunately they don't, but holding that river crossing isn't a bad idea anyway. They would have to make a pretty big detour to use any bridge except that one, and would give us plenty of time to get Skapti and his force into whatever position we wanted.



The Germans are slowly building up a conflict force, either to take back Frankfurt or to assault something else we don't know as yet.



Turns out what I meant a few updates ago was CHECK OUT OUR FUTURE SCIENCE.



This is better news than it may first seem. We have easy sea-routes to England, and them being excommunicated means no bad feeling from the Pope if we go coast-raiding. This could turn out to be a very lucrative turn of events for us if we set up a strong army with a good fleet off the English coast and dive in for raids. We really will be true Vikings then. That'll be for Dust Buster though if he chooses to do it, I'm not in a position to build up the necessary money-base or troops for that right now.



Hey, we're building a thing (relevance of this at end of post.)



holy

shit



:(



An overview, showing our new King Charles the Honourable. Hail!



The trade has finally jumped to truly profitable.



I spent an asston in the last turn to shore up areas so Dust Buster could take over without immediate issues stemming from obviously not knowing exactly what I was doing at the time, but we are making a profit and our Production will rally. Probably.



The empire.

[Reverend]

Made this a new post since it's not part of the update and is more just notes for Dust Buster.

1. I'm sorry I've written your name wrong in every post except my last few, I dunno what the fuck. Feel free to call me Lord Handsome or something in wrong-name revenge.

2. The blacksmith that's building in Frankfurt is to finish a nice system of building in Hamburg/Stettin so you can stop troops off in Frankfurt to get armour upgrades on the way to the front

3. The small force to the West of the Germans I left standing on the bridge so you could decide a good course of action. Just because bridges are practically invincible against the thick AI so they're good to sit there for now or sally to take a daring assault upon the near city in a turn or two.

If I think of more I'll edit them in, I'm sure I've forgotten some stuff I thought you should know. Anyway, good luck to you and Charles.

[sarge112]

I'd love to play, but the only way I can is with one of the Kingdoms expansions. The multiplay on my original MTW2 is borked, so I can only join of you host it with a Kingdoms game.

[narjhan]

They are doing a single-player succession game sarge112. There is no multiplayer being used at all. They simply play single player with one king until that king dies, then they save the game, and send the save file to the next person in the line.

[sarge112]

They are doing a single-player succession game sarge112. There is no multiplayer being used at all. They simply play single player with one king until that king dies, then they save the game, and send the save file to the next person in the line.

Ah, I guess that momentary retardation is what earned me a -1 Karma. Well, I guess I'll join the line then.

[DevHyfes]

That was an excellent reign for King Knud. I look forward to his crusading son's exploits. Is there a list somewhere with the order of people on the game?

On a totally unrelated note, I loved the soundtrack in Rome Total War, but like it a little less in MTW. I even had words for the weird chick's Latin singing. The chorus was, "Yipee Kay ay aaaayyy, Mother Fuckers" and worked very well.

[Dust Buster]

So, I finally got a bit of time to start my turn as ruler.

First, let's look at our new king:

King Charles the Honourable is an accomplished general, strong leader, and devout Catholic.  Unlike in Rome: Total War, the player can't choose the heir to the throne, so I really lucked out here.



I begin to look around and get to know my new empire.  It seems like Reverend did a good job of not leaving unfinished projects, and I have a steady income to work with.

Still, it's a lot of information to take in all at once.  Feeling a bit overwhelmed, and itching for a fight, I decide to attack the Imperial army outside Frankfurt.



I've filled out the ranks of my army with some militia from the city, but it's still going to be a close battle.  Why didn't I wait a turn to gather a larger army, or hire some mercenaries?  Because fuck you that's why.



I deploy my army on a hill and hope the enemy will come to us.* Usually, as defender, the AI would be content to sit and wait for the player to attack.  However, I'm hoping that the relative strength of his army will compel General Ludwig to be more aggressive.

In case that's not enough, though, I send archers out ahead to soften up the enemy and bait them into my own lines.

*An army won't fight as effectively if they had to march a long distance uphill first.  Walking, running, and fighting all contribute to unit fatigue.  In a close battle like this, I'll take any small advantage I can get.



I was right.  Brimming with confidence, Ludwig orders his army forward in a solid block.  While his infantry aren't really a match for mine, all those mounted knights will pose a definite challenge.



My archers open fire on the advancing Germans, retreating as the enemy draws near.



Eventually the cavalry, fed up with getting shot at, break formation and charge.  I order the archers to fall back behind the rest of the army.




The battle is joined.  Notice all the gold-clad soldiers lying facedown in the snow.  Denmark's heavy infantry are second to none in a straight-up fight like this.



Unfortunately, flanking cavalry have caught my archers all alone.  Norse Archers are better than most at hand-to-hand combat, but they will get decimated by the HRE's Mailed Knights.  I can't afford to break any units off from the main battle to rescue them, either.



General Leofric and my cavalry are on the opposite flank, fighting Ludwig and some enemy spearmen.  I was hoping to get lucky and kill the German general, which would strike a huge blow to enemy morale and turn the tide in my favor.  However, this hasn't happened and I'm increasingly running the risk of losing my own general.

Just as I'm considering my options, Ludwig and his knights break off their attack.  I know they are only preparing to charge again, so I have to act fast.  I order my own cavalry into the rear of the German lines.



I'm hoping this will break the enemy infantry, freeing up my own Spear Militia to flank the enemy general just as he charges in.  It's going to be close, though.  If the infantry stand firm, General Leofric will be sandwiched between them and the enemy cavalry.  The outcome of the battle rests on this moment.



It works!  Just as Ludwig closes in, the enemy soldiers flee, and I immediately order my spearmen to charge.  Dismayed at seeing so many of their comrades slain and fleeing, the rest of the Empire's infantry soon break.

Finally, General Ludwig is slain and the battle is won.  To his credit, the general was the very last German to go down fighting.



I send my army to run down and kill as many retreating enemies as possible.  The fewer I allow to leave this battle alive, the more I'll end up having to fight later on.  Also, I derive a sort of sick pleasure from watching my cavalry cut down fleeing infantrymen.

But wait, what's this?  It looks like we missed one.

Only when the sounds of battle had faded off in the distance did Klaus permit himself to look.  He had been lying facedown in the snow for what seemed like an eternity.  Now he stood alone among hundreds, maybe thousands of the dead and dying.  His face was numb.

From his vantage point atop the hill, Klaus could see the Danish army in the distance, murdering his fleeing comrades.  "Feiglinge*," he muttered under his breath as he began to run.

*Cowards



The occasional plea for help went ignored as Klaus fled the scene of the battle.  He couldn't risk being caught should the barbarians return.



Klaus knew that surviving the winter alone would be difficult, but to stay meant certain death.



He would brave the elements.  He refused to lay down and die.



If he could just make it to Frankfurt, he- wait, what is that?

Galloping.  Growing louder.  Perhaps they don't see me, Klaus thought as he kept running.  Even louder, now.  Klaus stopped and turned to look.  Oh, they definitely saw him.



Next: Medieval: Total Politics!

[Reverend]

Sweet new start, the line of Kings continues. Looking forward to the next one.

[DevHyfes]

I was going to mention the Norse Archers. I was playing Denmark the other day and didn't realize just how powerful they are- able to stand toe to toe with early spearmen.

I've put them on my city walls and they are frankly better than Crossbowmen who seem to be bugged and don't shoot well at all. If spearmen get up on the walls, the archers are spectacular at kicking them off.

[Blica]

This is great fun! I like the caracterization added to the posts.. poor Klaus, alas! I knew him well.. before he was run down by the savage Danes... now he is half the man he used to be.

I almost want to join in, but I fear my aggressive style and penchant for over-spending and war-mongering would leave the next heir on the throne with too much land, too few troops and too many enemies.