IngoB
Recruit
I'm going to list my issues with the "mid-game" here, by which I mean the time around gaining indepence as a separate kingdom (i.e., remaking the banner).
For background, I never played M&B 1. I have 250+ hours sunk in M&B 2 single player now, but on multiple campaigns that always end around this point by grinding fatigue and/or rage quitting. I'm reasonably competent at game mechanics otherwise. By the time of independence I typically have half to one million denars, won 50+ tournaments, have a tier 3 to 5 clan, am married, have 1-4 fiefs, ..., and I have a high tier army that can F6-beat other armies twice its size.
My issues are:
That said, if some of the above is due to me not playing well / properly, advice is apreciated. And I should stress that I really enjoy the "rags to riches" phase of this game. It's just that every time I get to the mid-game, I try for a while, find it a grindy annoying mess, and then shrug and restart.
For background, I never played M&B 1. I have 250+ hours sunk in M&B 2 single player now, but on multiple campaigns that always end around this point by grinding fatigue and/or rage quitting. I'm reasonably competent at game mechanics otherwise. By the time of independence I typically have half to one million denars, won 50+ tournaments, have a tier 3 to 5 clan, am married, have 1-4 fiefs, ..., and I have a high tier army that can F6-beat other armies twice its size.
My issues are:
- I want my fiefs in a compact area with bottlenecks so I can defend easily with a central army. But it is semi-random where one gets a fief (frustrating not to get what one conquers, silly to get what someone else occupied somewhere) and spending influence to dispossess is an annoying and slow process.
Suggestion: The conqueror should always be in the election, and get an influence bonus (say 20 invested for free). One should always be able to withdraw from an election, unless one is the conqueror (if all others withdraw, the conqueror gets it). - It's hard to fill up garrisons. I run my army at close to capacity, at least before policies that boost army size. If I park some of my army for troop ferying, I am exposed in war. Also it just takes a long time to ride around to pick up troops. If you conquer quickly, troop respawn does not keep up, and you are too busy to ferry.
Suggestion: The player should be able to give the garrison an amount of denars, and then the garrison auto-recruits from the surrounding villages (towns also from their pool) until either filled to capacity or the money is spent. Also, if you conquer, some of the defending army (20%?) should be willing to switch sides and stay on. - Everybody gangs up on you. Sure, it makes sense for the AI: suddenly there is a weak kingdom with a relatively small army, so let's get them. But from a player perspective I can hold off one kingdom with 2-5 x my strength, maybe two, but I cannot really deal with four or five of them. I have only so much Sparta in me...
Suggestion: This game needs an alliance system. That's how weaker kingdoms can stand up to a bigger one, by banding together. And for the independence move the alliance system needs a "support independence" function, where I can set up an alliance with a lord to come into effect as soon as I declare (see EU4). Till there is such a system, AI must make the (bad) decision to not attack the newly independent player if already attacked. - The enemy of my enemy should be my friend. Well, I'm actually not sure that this one is even real, because I find it is so tedious to keep track of who is fighting whom... But I have the impression that lords attack other lords basically indiscriminately. But if I am fighting A, and B is also fighting A, then B should not generally declare war on me.
Suggestion: The AI should be reluctant to fight multiple wars anyhow, but in particular not attack someone who is at war with their enemies in a current war. - Convincing people to join your kingdom, and keeping them, is way too difficult. You have to hunt them down first, then you have to convince them in a mini-game that gets boring quickly and is begging to be save-scummed. And if you don't convince them, they will reject further advances for a long time (for ever?). They often ask for unpayably high bribes. And if you do get them, and build them up by giving them fiefs, they often just pack up and leave, usually to rejoin their old kingdom - with the holdings you conquered for them.
Suggestion: I don't know how to fix the current system, I just find it tedious and broken. However, I suggest that if one conquers the last holding of a clan, then that clan becomes amenable to recruitment with a reasonably high probability (50%?). And clans that have switched sides should find it very difficult to rejoin their betrayed old side at least. Maybe there also should be a chance (20%?) to lose a holding to "rebellion" upon switching, with a lost holding added like newly conquered to the old side. That way a frequent switcher attritions down. - Making peace is way too hard. The AI seems to have no appreciation of it getting its butt kicked. Or maybe the AI just evaluates correctly that if I am in five wars simultaneously (see above!), I cannot keep trashing them forever. Anyway, after stomping their armies and grabbing several holdings, they still ask for half my money to make peace. Heck, I feel they should offer me money to stop beating them up...
Suggestion: Recent successes against them (losses of armies and/or holdings) should make the AI agree to peace readily, without asking for massive payouts. Indeed, if they are getting crushed, they should offer money or fiefs to get peace. And I should not be the only one suggesting peace. If I hit them hard enough then their lords should start asking me for peace whenever we meet. - My AI clans do not seem to build up and maintain the fiefs given to them properly. I conquer something, I give it to some other clan. A while later, it gets rapidly conquered by the enemy again. Why? Well, it had 0 garrison and no investment in defenses, and if I don't defend this shell holding with an external army, nobody else seems to do it.
Suggestion: The AI should make it a priortity to get all their fiefs into a somewhat defensible shape, at least to the point where they can hold out a bit until a rescue army (me usually, sigh...) can get to them. Other AI armies should prioritise defending existing holdings if they can help. - Dungeons are weird. They seem bottomless. I think the prisoners in there do not count for consumption (maybe they do? no idea) and prisoners in the dungeons never become available for recuitment.
Suggestion: Dungeons should have limited maximum capacity. Prisoners in them should cost food / money (if less than garrison members). But they should have a chance to become recruitable. Basically, storing prisoners in dungeons should have a price, but also allow me to fill up my army and garrison.
That said, if some of the above is due to me not playing well / properly, advice is apreciated. And I should stress that I really enjoy the "rags to riches" phase of this game. It's just that every time I get to the mid-game, I try for a while, find it a grindy annoying mess, and then shrug and restart.