Tipps, tricks and tactics

[JoCa]

I want to start a thread with you tipps for noobs, with your ricks and with your tactics...
Its like the thread in the german Gamplay Support/Spielerischer Support!
So, lets post...And help others...

[Shealladh]

I am playing the Demo and am waiting for the xmas holidays to finish so I can buy this excellent game, well now that I know where to get a copy in Australia :biggrin:

Bohemia is my choice for starting atm, scotland can be a bit hard for noobs, so try out this way first.

1) As soon as the Demo loads, hit the * key to slow the game down (top lefthand side of screen in white text is the GameSpeed info).

Next goto your Royal Family screen (bottom left) and look at how many stars both your Duke and Prince have in which skills, ie. Diplomacy=1 Star, and so on. This will help you decide which tactics they perform the best.

Now that you know which skills they have, choose an approach as to how you'd like them to act. With alot of warfare skill you could start by beginning a war with your neighbor (smaller is usually better). Goto your town (with the Marshal next to it) and create an army with as many militia/peasants as you can. Sometimes one town is better than the other, but I find you can always create a partial army in one town and then top it up at the next one.

You may also wish to use your Duke or Prince if they have a lot of skill stars too. But remember that when you loose them both with no heir, you'll lose the game. Be careful :D :blush:

Now send this army out to the neighboring town to attack.

2) Now create at least one Trading Diplomat before you attack the first town so that you can keep the armies going.

If you don't wish to attack anyone as yet, create as many traders as you can. Start with the Duke and Prince (they're free) to start the money rolling in. I usually use this method as my first choice;

Create both the Duke and Prince as Traders, retire the marshal (to save money), then make sure that there is at least a granary in each town. Goto the Political viewscreen and select all the largest countries and try to get a Trade Agreement with each of them. You can always wait abit for those that refuse, especially when you start gaining money fast, they'll usually come onboard fast.

Next, as your income allows, create all your Knight slots into traders and leaving two at the end for emergency Marshals just incase you get attacked.

3) Once the money is rolling, create the basics in your 2 towns: A Granary, ToolsSmith, Inn, Town Guard, Pallisade, Moat, Inn, and so on.

You'll figure out which are the best one's first for the strategy you've choosen.



If anyone is interested, I'll post some more tips soon. Hopefully the shops will soon send my copy :bowdown:

[JoCa]

Thanks... ;)

[Karamazov]

When besieging a fortress: the most valuable units are the longbowmen. Place them near the wall so they have a good reach and tease the defenders with your "non-archers" by destroying the gate and "peeking" in!
The defenders will try to charge you and will come closer to the archers(wich is exactly what you want)! When they come near you pull your "non-archers" out and leave the defenders under the rain of arrows(your archers still outside the walls).
From my experience defenders NEVER get out of the fortress! When you greatly outnumber them they will act more causciously and will hide their remaining units(with/without the marshal) out of your archers range and will not fall for your trick. Thats where you assault them impetuously!

Play on!

P.S. Works every time even if the enemy outnumbers you! Be careful with his archers and catapults!

[dayle]

sorry to pick on you but you obviously know the game, i wondered if you can help me, it says there are 3 views i can only seem to get 2 the over all view and the tactical one were you see the different provinces dont qoute my spelling :) but i cant soom in the city to see my city at work is there such a view ?

[Largefry07]

There needs to be a battle in order for you to see your city. When an enemy army seige your city you can break the seige and a window will pop up and it'll ask you if you what to lead (I'll lead) And you get to lead your army into battle. Note: you can only lead in open field battles in the demo.

[All Hail Scotland]

There needs to be a battle in order for you to see your city. When an enemy army seige your city you can break the seige and a window will pop up and it'll ask you if you what to lead (I'll lead) And you get to lead your army into battle. Note: you can only lead in open field battles in the demo.
What are you smoking? They are equally valuable :blueohh: :bash:

[Zakarumite]

As far as i know there isnt a 3 view mode... that "third view" is a wish of some players like me, where you will be able to zoom in the city and watch the built of the town structures, choose their place in the city, see the people working and so on

[Largefry07]

What are you smoking? They are equally valuable :blueohh: :bash:

I thought he was talking about the battle view and I was explaining how to get to it. I guess I misunderstood him a bit. :bash: Oh well :confused:

[Elvain]

3rd view is real, have you led any battle in KoH? there is strategic (one where you see cities and marshalls), political (political map, relations, map of religions) and battle (only when you lead a battle)

[Zakarumite]

3rd view is real, have you led any battle in KoH? there is strategic (one where you see cities and marshalls), political (political map, relations, map of religions) and battle (only when you lead a battle)

Yes, but the view that Dayle is talking about is a view where you can see your people working and living, like a zoom inside the city, and unfortunatly, there aint such view.

[Deerheart]

Some of you may have found that when playing on the hard level and you are having success becoming high profile in the game world, nearly every new knight you recruit turns out to be a spy.

My experience is that this is the case even when you have a fully educated spy in your Court, knight after knight keeps getting caught or randomly does mischief or damage to your Kingdom before he's caught or disappears after the damage is done. Further, you normally discover their true colours after you've spent a pile of books educating them.

The way around this is partially covered a little in the posts. That is make your king a spy.
When his heir shows up and is recruitable make him a fully educated spy active in the Court from the beginning, and call the old man back if he is venerable.

If you are lucky enough to have other princes that come along use them as traders, builders, whatever. I normally priorize a prince first as a cleric for conversion and adoption. Second, a builder to quickly develope those towns you conquer that have no defences. Any other available Princes I progressively promote as Marshalls but team them up with an experienced Marshall for protection.

Don't bother using royalty as traders because the most damage as spy trader can do is embezzel gold and disappear.

The disadvantage of this method is that you have to use the first born legit heir as the future King. If you don't the other Royal members you've promoted will turn to rebels when the King dies if they are marshalls. If not they'll just disappear from your Court.

If you do it right, your Royal knights will remain as normal knights when the King dies and you know they are not spys.
Further there seems to be a kind of lineage connection, because usually one of the ex Royals takes over when a new King eventually dies without heirs.

[Zakarumite]

Usualy is my spy that takes the place of my king when he have no heirs....

[Lord-Piecemeal]

Deerheart, this all sounds Interesting and you are right In the way you have put It.

But one very big problem with this is the lack of spaces for your Prince's,knights,traders etc,etc.

I play with one spy(Prince fully upgraded), three Marshals and the rest traders holding three province's(England say).

This till I have the province's up to strenght then hold with two marshals and use other to conquer another province.
Once tadeing with me own products I have more marshals.

I find the governor,Cleric etc to much for the space's allowed in the game, so leave them out.

[Deerheart]

I find the governor,Cleric etc to much for the space's allowed in the game, so leave them out.[/QUOTE]


From the start I use a max of four marshalls for the whole campaign working in teams of two where you can carry the full array of seige equipment between the two armies. they cut across Europe like a hot knife through butter.

I found out early on in playing this game that if you don't take care of the nostagia issue, you need another two marshalls running around quelling rebellions all over the map in Provinces that should be stable. So I find a cleric essential to solidify loyalty in conquered provinces as you progress.

Sometimes I'll promote a fifth marshall to handle rebel armies from other kingdoms but only if they get out of hand.

So with the King as spy in the Court, a cleric, a builder for putting up quick defences as you're leap frogging across the map, and four marshalls, this leaves two free spaces for traders. And you're right, you need fewer traders as you conquer and revenue increases.

The key for all of this is having fully defensible garrisoned castles before moving on. When your cleric who's fully trained is idle, leave him in a province with a University and you'll find you'll get 26 books on each turnover from that province alone.

[Elvain]

I usually prefere king being a spy (counterspy), one more spy for ofensive actions, 3 marshalls, 2 merchants and one cleric. That is 7
One slot I keep free for possible enemy marshalls captured and the last slot is for my prinnce. Most of time he's cleric, writing books and when I reach enough books to upgrade his experience, I call him back and educate him as spy (but before that I educate him to at least 2 stars of cleric)
My marshalls have all strategist skill so they are very fast, 2 cooperate (mostly but not always together) in expansive wars, the third is to keep Order inside the kingdom and to move necessary elite troops (but many times only local units like templars or steppe cavalry) to provinces where they can be included into my expansive marshalls' armies

[Deerheart]

I think we all come close to the same conclusions as to what the best knight line-up should be.
Interesting in what you say about using a marshall as a conveyer of elite armies to your working marshalls. Never thought of that.

On hard level the lineup I described I find ideal, but if you're enemy spy shy like I am, I normally have two or three empty slots while waiting for extra princes to come along. These like you say are handy for prisoners.

I've concluded that it's best to just keep the enemy marshalls as prisoner because I believe this ties up the enemy's knight line-up resource. Because why does the AI keep offering ransoms when you have prisoners? I decline these offers and just bump them off when I need the slot. I don't know for sure if this is the case because I've never had one of my marshalls captured.

As previously posted, the annoying aspect of a Catholic Kingdom is that the Pope keeps whisking your clerics away. When this happens I disassociate Papacy relations to re-open the slot and risk heresy and negative nostalgia by recruiting another cleric because I find them essential, and I keep promoting until I find a good one.
I also refuse all Papacy requests for Crusades because it normally involves losing a good Muslim trading partner making another enemy (not part of your strategy).
You're normally excommunicated for doing this but it normally occurrs at a stage of the game where the lost church revenue doesn't make that much of a difference. Further, If you keep doing conversions as you should the opposing Papacy favour for doing this delays excommunication.

[longbow]

Might be a flaw, or a realism detail. But I find that my own archers are killing my own units. I usually deploy Templars in front of the archers. As the enemy approaches, the archers rain down arrows until I order my Templars to charge the enemy.

At this point of melee combat, I have to order my archers to cease fire, or the crossfire ends up killing my own Templars engaged in combat.

[Da_weasel]

I think that is anormal till you have a marshall who is better at some skills but I am noty 100% sure,But i think it was posted somewhere else here about that happening

[Deerheart]

It's a realism detail, saw it in one of the interviews before the game was released. As you said the strategy is to direct your archers to stop shooting before your melee troops start fighting.
On the other hand your mobile ballista units are 100% accurate. You'll find them handy.