the longest thread, thread - Occasionally NSFW

[Gillipig]

Take the English islands first and solidify them to yourself by having very loyal vassels control them. From there, hit Scotland, fast and hard. In the meanwhile, keep your territories bordering the Holy Roman Empire well fortified, just to be on the safe side. Maybe make an alliance or a pact with them if you can. Anyways, after Scotland, solidify yourself by keeping it under control of trusted vassels and strong armies. Strong enough to keep the English from instantly attacking, but not so large it drains your money. From there, you now have some good places from where you can launch attacks from, as well as more money with taking Scotland.

I want Scotland but I'm worried about my finances, I think I'll have to wait before I can take it. Right now I'm leaning towards declaing a war on the holy roman empire, much money to be gained through taxes of those regions and it could be a relatively short war if everything works out well and they don't land a mega army on the shore. The population is norwegian as well so they no doubt would rather be a part of my kingdom then the holy roman empire. If they do land a big army and squash me I'll have to signal for peace and hope they accept it. It feels like the most urgent matter right now. If I lose I wait until the Holy Roman Empire's king dies and hope they'll squabble for the throne and then I strike them. If I win I can soon land an army in Scotland and take what is (not at all) rightfully mine. But I migt be bold and hope the Holy Roman Empire won't do anything and go straight for Scotland instaed. Ahhh so many options lol.

[AndyDufresne]

Have you investigated the "Ledger" yet, Gilli? It is pretty helpful when deciding things. It can show you where you rank in terms of world army strength, prestige, finances on hand, wars currently on, etc. So perhaps you can strike during an internal struggle, or when they have exhausted some of their immediate coffers, or have a weaker than usual army, etc.

**Munches on a banana**


--Andy

[mcshanester29]

Okay between Andy and Gilli I had to go get the game as well....still learning a bit about it but seems to be a lot of fun. I started by Russia and succeeded in a holy war. But having a heck of a time with factions, revolts, and invading armies....I think I might have to try from Sweden to start with.lol

It's shockingly much fun! And there's so much you can do in the game, so much strategy to plan. Not only where to attack, but who to marry, where to improve your diplomatic situation, what to do with your council members, who should be your council members, your vassals, changing the laws, the list is endless. And your choices matters. It's not like who you marry doesn't mean anything, your heir will take after his mother as much as he takes after you so you can't just choose any woman. Furthermore if she's royal you can make claims to her fathers throne when he's dead. I ended up later usurping Norway through marrying the oldest of the norwegian princesses to my heir. A slick move to say the least hehe.
Sweden is a good place to start from. Watch out for the early civil war between you and your uncle though. He will most likely name you a pretender and start a civil war on you. And you start as mortally ill. In the game I play now my first king lived eight days before he died and my uncle immediately started a civil war. But I've also played a game where he survived. Nothing is certain, it doesn't get boring because the same things doesn't happen over and over, some things are more likely to happen though. Since your uncle has a strong claim on the throne and doesn't like you, he will at some point rebell on you (if you don't kill him in his sleep ).

Who did you proclaim war on? Must be many to choose from in Russia, they're pretty much surrounded by heathens.

I can't remember who I declared on, but the second declaration didn't go so well as a few of the heathen tribes started fighting together against me and I didn't have the man power to keep it up.

I did start another game as Sweden and have to say I have enjoyed it thoroughly My king lasted for about 5 months and then died lol. I have ended up causing my Uncle and two other rebels to surrender. And am pressing my de jure claims and have doubled my kingdom. Luckily I was able to arrange a marriage with Norway to keep them from attacking me. So all in all pretty good.

[AndyDufresne]

When your king dies and an heir takes over, I've found it is usually pretty worthwhile to immediately pause to assess the situation and see how everyone feels about the new King. If most of the vassals have a negative opinion, that should be rectified if possible. Moreover, those who with real power, I.E. Counts and Dukes, make sure they have a good opinion of you, since they are likely to revolt, or join together in a revolt. Sometimes throwing them in jail, even if you take a hit in opinion, is worthwhile to avoid civil war, or at least, a protracted civil war with multiple enemies. Moreover, giving away some things is necessary, like Baronies, and making sure you don't have more than 2 Duchies, etc. Also, be wary if you have any counties that are De Jure part of someone else's Kingdom. If the rebels go "independent," that means that additional foes from whoever wants those areas back may join in the melee.

In my game, I've finally and formally united Scotland and Ireland under my crown, and my King is now the King of Scotland and Ireland. Norway, who was occupying England to my south, was being very pesky, so I started a campaign to plot to overthrow their Norwegian King. And what do you know, the Spymaster they put onto their Council was Saxon, and he was more than willing to help dispatch 3 successive kings that were foreign. It was great fun to keep England/Norway in disarray while I was dealing with some internal civil wars.

I think I'll continue to try to plot against my neighboring English throne, to see if I can keep them with a weak King in power. But England is a difficult target, so I think my next target is Wales, so I can get a foothold in two places when I eventually go to war with England. Moreover, I'd like to become friends with the Frankinsh Kings...I'm sure they'd love to help beat up England if I can massage a relationship between our two cultures.

Also, I've got to the point where Genghis Khan has showed up in the Far East, and he seems to be ravaging the Islamic Empires east of Lebanon.

**Munches on a banana**


--Andy

[muy_thaiguy]

Mongols are not fun to play against in Medieval 2 Total War. Best cavalry in the game, and they just keep coming. Takes a lot of armies and resources to push them back. And when you think you've finally dealt with the Mongols, along come the Sassanids. Who, like the Mongols, have incredible cavalry. But to add to that, they have elephants. With cannons. Elephants with cannons. Say good-bye to pike formations and cavalry, as the cannons will destroy the infantry and the elephants frighten horses and infantry.

[AndyDufresne]

**Munches on a banana** Hm. Weekday.


--Andy

[AndyDufresne]

Hm. Weekday again. **Munches on a banana**


--Andy

[Quirk]

Hello norovirus. I haven't been this sick in over a decade. All three of us are sick. Good times.

[jonesthecurl]

Last comedy gig I did, one of the stand-ups wore rubber gloves to hold the mike. I'm not that sure he was being paranoid.

[AndyDufresne]

Last comedy gig I did, one of the stand-ups wore rubber gloves to hold the mike. I'm not that sure he was being paranoid.

Maybe he just came from surgery? Or maybe he has very sensitive hands? Or maybe, he was hoping to lube someone up after his set. **Leaves behind a bowl of bananas**


--Andy

[jonesthecurl]

He specifically said it was for fear of noro. Not as a part of the set, that's what he told us beforehand.

[Quirk]

BPotW

[AndyDufresne]

Hm, week day again. **Munches on a banana**


--Andy

[jonesthecurl]

Three in a row. Coincidence? I think not.

[AndyDufresne]

Three in a row. Coincidence? I think not.

Jonesy, I think you are onto something. We better discuss this in the conspiracy topic.

**Munches on a banana, suspiciously**


--Andy

[AndyDufresne]

Wait a minute. There's been a sighting of another weekday. **Munches on a banana**

On a side note, I received the film "Robot and Frank" from Netflix, and I think I will watch it tomorrow...


--Andy

[AndyDufresne]

And week nearly done. Phewfta. **Munches on a banana**


--Andy

[AndyDufresne]

Triple posting. **Munches on a banana**


In case you've ever wanted to know how and why cockroaches (and some other insects) groom themselves, and see some great video of it in action. Thanks to NPR's "Science Friday."


--Andy

[pancakemix]

Not much activity in here.

[AndyDufresne]

That's why I posted about roaches. To drive up the activity. **Munches on a banana**


--Andy

[AndyDufresne]

Gili, Mcshanester.

So I've still got my Scotland game going pretty strong. Still aching to take over England, but luckily my nephew in my Dyansty is the heir to the throne, since I had the prince of England in my court some years ago, so stinks for his dynasty coming to end. I'm curious to see how it all turns out. Also, I wanted to mention that the Kingdom of Sweden in my game has been eliminated from map essentially. The tiny republic of Gotland has taken over their kingdom, haha. And Iberia, and even portion of southern France, is all Islamic.

I also setup another game to play around in. This time, I'm the Emir of Tunis I think, a nice little sheikdom in North Africa. My goal is to reunite the North African counties and duchies into kingdom of Africa. Playing as an Islamic dynasty is interesting...the did a pretty good job mixing up the dynamic. I have so many wives, and so many children, but I have to manage "decadence" or take some penalties and risk assassination attempts. But with so many wives, I produce a lot of Princesses. Which means I have a large number of diplomatic relations which is nice, especially being so close to the Crusades area and the Papacy in the Med. I'm fostering relations nicely with Cairo, since they are big and strong. And a neighbor of mine in northern Algeria. I'm definitely more in the mix of action now, than being in the far north in Scotland.

**Munches on a banana**


--Andy

[DoomYoshi]

A much cooler video proves that roaches run head first into walls.

[AndyDufresne]

A much cooler video proves that roaches run head first into walls.

I would too if I was indestructible. **Leaves behind a bowl of indestructible bananas**


--Andy

[mcshanester29]

Gili, Mcshanester.

So I've still got my Scotland game going pretty strong. Still aching to take over England, but luckily my nephew in my Dyansty is the heir to the throne, since I had the prince of England in my court some years ago, so stinks for his dynasty coming to end. I'm curious to see how it all turns out. Also, I wanted to mention that the Kingdom of Sweden in my game has been eliminated from map essentially. The tiny republic of Gotland has taken over their kingdom, haha. And Iberia, and even portion of southern France, is all Islamic.

I also setup another game to play around in. This time, I'm the Emir of Tunis I think, a nice little sheikdom in North Africa. My goal is to reunite the North African counties and duchies into kingdom of Africa. Playing as an Islamic dynasty is interesting...the did a pretty good job mixing up the dynamic. I have so many wives, and so many children, but I have to manage "decadence" or take some penalties and risk assassination attempts. But with so many wives, I produce a lot of Princesses. Which means I have a large number of diplomatic relations which is nice, especially being so close to the Crusades area and the Papacy in the Med. I'm fostering relations nicely with Cairo, since they are big and strong. And a neighbor of mine in northern Algeria. I'm definitely more in the mix of action now, than being in the far north in Scotland.

**Munches on a banana**

I am thinking about starting in Scotlan as well but will wait for a bit more. For the record never convert to Waldensian everything goes to crap until you die and one of your heirs can fix it


--Andy

[AndyDufresne]

Yeah, converting to a heresy is difficult---especially if the main religion has a strong moral authority. However, if the moral authority has been weakened down to the 30's or below, a lot of heresies start to pop-up! I'd like to make a heretic ruler sometime.

**Munches on a banana**


--Andy