Making nations last longer...

[sPOONz]

I would like to increase the other nations survival rate. If I was to put Campaign AI onto the Good setting will this help them? Its not that they are suffering from myself, rather their rival AI nations, particularly from Fierdsvain.

In my last game, D'shar and Sarleon got spanked quite quickly and the Empire was on its was out when I decided to try another game.

I had been busying myself in the arena (thanks to the arena overhaul mod) and village missions for most of the game. If one nation dominates too quickly then I'd be hurried into making my kingdom much faster than I'd like.

So would the Campaign A.I setting help, or would there be another way to make them last longer?

 

[Mattrim]

From what I remember reading in other posts, its a toss of the dice as to which nations are aggressive, dominate, dormant, ect.  Most of my games the Ferds are the early aggressors, though. The only way I've seen to stop a faction from being eliminated early is to join them as a merc and help them out.  As far as I know, changing the campaign AI won't do anything to stop AI vs AI.  Afterall, you're increasing both faction's heh.

 

[NicotiN]

It's the way the game was made, Sarleon will be decimated, Ravenstern will be pretty pasive, D'shar maybe yes....maybe not. fierdsvain the strongest, empire the second some times.

 

[mergaite]

Moust of the time its true but in my current game the Sarleon owned the  Ravenstern by taking 1 town and 2 castles from them in one campaign and afther that they turn there force to fierdsvain and got 2 towns. now they are ate peace with everyone. Sou the game is really a trow of dice you can never whats going to happen next.
( BTW i was with fierdsvain but there was nothing a could do to stop there 2000 men armie from owning me )   

 

[Donkerman]

AFAIK fierdsvain lords have the most reknown, so they usually have the largest armies. It's not so much about specific troops, seeing that Fierdsvain dont really have good cavalry. They will still beat other troop rosters of other nations, because they have more troops and at about the same level as other lords. So in more games than not they will dominate, unless the player intervienes. Join Sarleon or Ravenstern if you want to make sure they dont gobble up the map.

 

[Ryke]

Playing on hardest with 500 battlesizer and no saving i find sarleon gets wiped out every game early on then dshar starts losing territory while empire, fierdsvain and ravenstern fight each other with little to no success.

p.s being a merc will not stop this it will only slow it.

 

[M0rdred]

p.s being a merc will not stop this it will only slow it.

That entirely depends how good a merc you are.

 

[HunterAlpha1]

p.s being a merc will not stop this it will only slow it.

That entirely depends how good a merc you are.

indeed.  in every game ever made, the player's choices changes the tide of the game.  even if all you do is hunt bandits, the towns and villages in that area will be more prosperous, thus allowing the owners to field larger and better armies, thus allowing them to dominate the map.  might take longer than if you join them as a merc or a lord, but at least they have that chance.

 

[sPOONz]

p.s being a merc will not stop this it will only slow it.

That entirely depends how good a merc you are.

indeed.  in every game ever made, the player's choices changes the tide of the game.  even if all you do is hunt bandits, the towns and villages in that area will be more prosperous, thus allowing the owners to field larger and better armies, thus allowing them to dominate the map.  might take longer than if you join them as a merc or a lord, but at least they have that chance.

So interuptions on the enemys villages/caravans has a noticable impact? I had considered employing some kind of 'economic warfare' on my opponents but figured the A.I got some kind of bonus payout making it pointless.

I'd be really keen to see the effects off this in my current game. If I intercepted as many of their caravans as I can and blitz'd their villages then you think i'd make a difference in their force strength. Does the A.I have to repair their villages also, missing out on the building bonuses? Ohhh... Im gonna ditch this film Im watching and go chase some peasants.

 

[HunterAlpha1]

p.s being a merc will not stop this it will only slow it.

That entirely depends how good a merc you are.

indeed.  in every game ever made, the player's choices changes the tide of the game.  even if all you do is hunt bandits, the towns and villages in that area will be more prosperous, thus allowing the owners to field larger and better armies, thus allowing them to dominate the map.  might take longer than if you join them as a merc or a lord, but at least they have that chance.

So interuptions on the enemys villages/caravans has a noticable impact? I had considered employing some kind of 'economic warfare' on my opponents but figured the A.I got some kind of bonus payout making it pointless.

I'd be really keen to see the effects off this in my current game. If I intercepted as many of their caravans as I can and blitz'd their villages then you think i'd make a difference in their force strength. Does the A.I have to repair their villages also, missing out on the building bonuses? Ohhh... Im gonna ditch this film Im watching and go chase some peasants.

GN/BN:

Good News: yes, attacking villagers and caravans and looting villages does affect their economy

Bad News: unfortunately, if you attack too many villages, villagers, and caravans, you gain an achievement, and not a good one.  i think you lose a point in charisma or leadership, and in PoP those are two very valuable stats.

 

[Aetavicus]

You will lose honor when you attack villagers as well.  Intercepting your enemies' caravans will reduce other faction's town prosperity as well. The best way to for caravan raiding is to raid those that are going to your enemy's town, not the ones who are coming from them.

 

[drunkhobo]

I've played maybe 4-5 games over 1000 days now

Every single game, Empire and Fierdvarn get at least one extra town and 3 castles, sometimes two towns within 150 days, unless I interfere with unique spawn baiting.

Sarleons and D'Shar are always punching bags in every game, barring any very unlucky double-team wars on Fierdvarn and Empire. I find that I always  have to merc up with Sarleons and D'Shar to hold off Fierdvarn and Empire if I want a more balanced game when I decide to vassal/king up.

 

[noosers]

The really bad news about economic warfare isn´t the various penalties you get for it, be it honorwise or getting another tasty achievement (which´s effect is well cancelled out by a few others as easily obtained ones) but rather the way the AI decides to return the favour and loot your freaking villages or chase your caravans.

Which it otherwise won´t. If you play it honorable, hostile lords won´t loot your villages and leave your peasants alone most of the times. You won´t get negative relations with villages the farmer parties originate as well, thus making it really difficult to recruit off the villages once you brand them Pendor/motherfaction.

The positive side is, with the newer wealth impact originating by the AI´s ability to actually upgrade and repair their fiefs is it´s totally worth it, because it has a huge impact.

4-6 defeats on a single lord in a row and his army will start to detoriate massively in quality and quantity. If you manage to steal his fief and make him landless as well, he´s done for as he can´t anymore afford to field huge armies.

Smart gameplay, that´s all about it. Wether or not a faction survives or gets extinct greatly relies on the player. If Fierdsvain dominate and the Empire rolls over D´Shar simply start a war with both and enjoy the fun.

 

[sPOONz]

The positive side is, with the newer wealth impact originating by the AI´s ability to actually upgrade and repair their fiefs is it´s totally worth it, because it has a huge impact.

4-6 defeats on a single lord in a row and his army will start to detoriate massively in quality and quantity. If you manage to steal his fief and make him landless as well, he´s done for as he can´t anymore afford to field huge armies.

This is interesting. So battering their villages does effect the A.I lords wealth. Good stuff.

The next point you make about defeating lords 4-6 times in a row, I dont quite understand. What changes exactly to cause their quality/quantity to be reduced. Do they lose renown?

Or do you mean by damaging their villages, therefore wealth, aswell as defeating their armies causes their quality/quantity to weaken?

This all sounds great as it instills more strategy into the game. Are their any other methods to fight your opponent other than the standard, 'randomly beat armies and take land' approach?

I will start paying more attention now as to who owns what land. Are their any other factors to consider? Renown would be an obvious one.

Im itching to increase the campaign A.I to Good now. I read somewhere that only by using strategy you can beat the game on this setting. Im starting to see why. I never appreciated MnB to be worth thinking startegy, my interest in the game has gone through the roof now.

Sigh... I must finish my chores first before playing. God damn washing up, Grrrr. 

 

[Ryke]

p.s being a merc will not stop this it will only slow it.

That entirely depends how good a merc you are.

Try playing on hard with 500 battlesize and starting at lvl 1 with no stats changes or tweaks and you'll see how quickly sarleon is destroyed (weak faction and weak placement of towns/castles make them easy pickings)

 

[JatuWrangler]

If you want to totally screw over a dominant faction as a mercenary here is how:

Join them.  Then go ape****.

Threaten a caravan of a faction that your patron faction is NOT at war with and take a weak holding (weak and minor - the trick here is simply to give all of the other factions a reason to declare war without hurting them too much and without actually boosting your patron faction very much).  Buy forgiveness.  Rinse and repeat.  Once your patron faction has a holding from each other faction it is only a matter of time before they get owned.

As a bonus, they will take you back with loving arms if they are getting owned too badly to suit your purposes.

Of course, you can't wait too late to use this tactic.

 

[noosers]

Lords do have a purse which is used to determine which quality and quantity of troops they get. The larger this purse from personal wealth (and a free base gift each week) the better and more troops they get as reinforcement or after a defeat and the more money you get off them for a ransom.

It takes considerable time and effort though to realize this as it´s not easily done to defeat a lord 4-6 times in a row as he´ll usually hide in some castle after he´s under a certain power level waiting for reinforcements.

You can observe this degression of might best if the lord in question has got no fief at all and gets defeated a couple of times. His army will become puny. Try it out.

The AI´s there to be really kicked around and abused everytime you encounter it.