Demo.... Does the computer cheat?

[Ikarius]

Okay,
So I read up on this game and it sounded pretty sweet- definitely up my alley. Diplomacy, Intrigue, kingdom building. Since the US version of this just came out, I decided to download the demo.

First, I start out as the king of Bulgaria. Hmmm, I didnt like that start - two of my neighbors started out not liking me, I couldnt get an alliance with anyone without ceding one of my two starting provinces, rebellion in the first 20 minutes of play, no, I dont like it.


So, I retire and start out in scotland. This time it looks much better. England starts out on pretty good terms with me, and I manage to finagle a royal wedding with them, so we're absolutely buddy-buddy. Ireland hates me though, I don't know why. I started out by pausing the game and looking around at the political climate, I set my prince up to be a merchant and initiate trade with England, putting me at a pretty good +30 gold / turn. I order my one town to build a granary and the other town to build a swordsmith so I can build swordsmen. One thing I notice is that virtually every city on the map held by opponents has walls, mine have none. Hrmmf. Oh well. So, I let my towns start building their improvements. At the point where my swordsmith is approximately 20% complete, I get invaded by an irish army. No problem, I think- I'll just summon up some peasants and kick them out. HAH. Turns out ireland came at me with 3 swordsman units in their army, before I could even complete building my town improvement to build ONE swordsman unit. So, after I engage them unsuccessfully, I leave them alone and go back to my city to nurse my wounds. I call up england, and invoke my alliance for england to invade ireland. England agrees, and I figure once England starts abusing them, they'll call their armies home to defend themselves. Yeah. Sure. After they've razed one of my villages, the invading army sets their sights on my home city. They attack, and I fend them off, barely. They decide that they've had enough, and jump on a ship to go home. About this time, my swordman shop finally finishes building, so I pop out a couple swordsman units. They've pissed me off, so I jump on a ship to take my army over there and harass them along with england. By the time I get halfway to ireland, THEY LAND AGAIN WITH A FULLY REINFORCED ARMY ON MY SHORE. What The ****? I left right after they did, and they got home and back to me before I got halfway there?? And in the meantime, england, who is between me and Ireland, is 3 times the size of me and ireland, hasn't done anything which made ireland stop their offensive against me?

The other thing that I noticed, I was certain I saw some folks commenting on playing the demo and mentioning that they were using archers. One of my cities started out with the improvement to build archers, but when I tried to create some, it told me they're not available in the demo.


BTW, I was playing on normal difficulty. So, what gives? Is the game normally this tough? Did I get a bad start? Does the computer cheat? I normally have no problem with strategy games, this seems ridiculous though, for "starting out".....


--Ikarius

[Ikarius]

Hmmf. So I played the demo a bit longer, and I really dont get this- the army from scotland came in and looted my main town, but didnt take it over. In the meantime, I let my army land on his shore and took over one of his two provinces. I also raised another knight so I could start another army in my 2nd province, and eventually got it back to my main town to defend it from more looting. While I was screwing around beating up ireland, wales literally took england out (!!!)- the only bit of england left is one province back on the european mainland. I dont get that- how did wales manage to virtually eliminate england?

Sensing that the political winds were changing, I made peace with wales, and asked them for a non-agression pact. Sure they said, but first you'll have to break your treaty with england. I agreed, only to immediately upon breaking my treaty with england, find that everyone now hates me, and wales NOW says "We know about how you betrayed England, we cant sign a non-agression pact with you!" What the hell- THEY were the ones who told me to break my treaty with england!

Now I'm hated, my "kingdom power" dropped to negative five, and as far as I can see, I can't raise it back up because they dont allow me to hire a cleric in the demo.

My other problem is that I seem to make money MUCH faster than I can spend it. While I was off conquering ireland, I racked up about 12,000 gold, but all my provinces are still busy trying to complete very early buildings, which only cost 1000 gold or less. It takes way too long to build improvements!

I donno, all the "buzz" I've read about this game sounds great, but it's really hard to match my demo gameplay experience up to what I've been reading. Is the demo really that different from the real game?

--Ikarius

[Angryminer]

Welcome to the forum, Ikarius! :halloha:
No, your defeat wasn't caused by a cheating AI. It is actually possible that the AI cheats, because it sometimes (once in about 60 hours of gameplay) uses a feature that was officially disabled by the developers (the specific feature is the bribing of enemy knights to make them become a spy to you).
But that wasn't the case with you.
What propably happened is that the irish ruler was so cunning to send a second army to Scotland while your army was on route to Ireland, while the irish ruler had his first army still move home.
And about England - propably the english king had his own problems - England usually messes around with one of the continental powers in the game.
My advice to you is to negotiate peace in the beginning of the game or expect the enemy onslaught immediately (which means: keep at least one army with 9 squads of peasants in one of your keeps to interfere).
You may also want to use excessive trading. That means having 6 traders, who trade gold with all major powers. That gives you enough money for 3 complete armies and extremely fast development of your towns.

You may also want to restart the game. Usually you don't start out with a war waging on. :wink:


Oh, many questions.
1. Raise your kingdom power by clicking on the number that indicates your kingdom power. It will also show you what is required to raise the kingdom power.
2. Use the "Lightning"-button in the construction-menu (in the lower progress bar) to force buildings to complete. That costs a lot of money, but you have the money and the building is constructed immediately.
3. Yes, in the original game the "political winds" change quite fast. Use the political map to keep track of that.


Angryminer

[Illuminatus!]

I donno, all the "buzz" I've read about this game sounds great, but it's really hard to match my demo gameplay experience up to what I've been reading. Is the demo really that different from the real game?

Erm, I don't have the actual game either (NA release in FOUR DAYS :slobber: !!!), but your posts sound like my first two or three demo experiences. Basically, you're still learning (a newb). What really helped me was: 1) Exploring the Royal Library feature (second tab from the left at the bottom) and 2) the Featured Story section of the KoH website.

[Tompskij]

Also, try the tutorial....its nice :go:

[Ikarius]

I did run through the tutorial, and yah- I'm still working on learning the game. I am pretty disappointed at how many things are disabled in the demo... c'mon- I cant make archers, or clerics??

Are there any guides on the game that go into the various skills that your knights can learn?

Also, do merchants / clerics / spies level up at all like the marshalls do?

--Ikarius

[Da Bomb]

They don't actually level up but they have a similar feature of teaching them. When you get 1000 books, which takes a long time in the demo, you can educate anyone other than a marshal by clicking their icon and clicking 'educate so-and-so." In a full demo game I only was able to promote my landlord 4 times, which was awesome to me but I only could get 6 churches from the maximum amount of provinces you can get in the demo before it ends (6, once you get a 7th it says the demo is over).

And teaching them really helps. Like when the pope dies if you have a really smart (taught) cleric he can become the new one.

[yobbo]

There are a number of things that are disabled in the demo (what's the point of buying the
game if the demo has it all :-) ) but I have been able to make archers. Spearmen are disabled
as well as Men at Arms and Teutonic Knights, among others. It was disappointing not to be
able to get a feel for Clerics and Spies... but I got enough of a feel for the game that I decided
to buy it.
The setup is random, it sounds like you had tough luck in your first few tries. I would definitely concentrate on getting your kingdom power up (to 5 as quickly as possible and
then keep it there). Remember who your allies are and stay loyal to them. Defend inside
cities if you aren't sure of the open field. You get extra "home guards" in the city.

[Sir Sigmund]

No the game does not cheat, but I have notcited that the Demo is buggy at times.

In my version Archers was playable, but I had to have a training ground and then a fletchers shop. Then I could access those units in the Demo Version.

Still looking for the game, but playing the demo is great. Wish I be able to test all the features but oh well. :)

[Angryminer]

Be sure to, while playing bohemia, look at the political map to find out where you can recruit teutonic knights and mounted archers. Both aren't too far away and can kick a lot of buttoms :wink: .

Angryminer

[Elvain]

I decided to download the demo.

First, I start out as the king of Bulgaria.
Is it possible? I thought that only Bohemia and Scotland are playable in the demo....

did I miss something?

[Angryminer]

No, he propably confused Bohemia with Bulgaria.

Angryminer

[Elvain]

how could he?

*this is not really a serious question, but still I wonder...:lol:

[Ikarius]

Sorry, I think I did confuse Bohemia and Bulgaria. Ignorant American, I know ;)

I'm trying to lay hands on the full game now, because while I'm frustrated with some bits of the demo, overall I really like the content of the game.

--Ikarius

[Illuminatus!]

I did run through the tutorial, and yah- I'm still working on learning the game. I am pretty disappointed at how many things are disabled in the demo... c'mon- I cant make archers, or clerics??

Actually, you *can* make archers. You tried to make "Bowmen" in the highlands. Bowmen are irregular troops that have a morale penalty and some lower values. You wouldn't want them anyway. "Archers" can be made in Strathclyde...and as Angryminer mentioned, if you conquer the correct provinces in Poland/Hungary, you can get some horse archers, which are probably the most fun unit in the demo.

Be sure to, while playing bohemia, look at the political map to find out where you can recruit teutonic knights and mounted archers. Both aren't too far away and can kick a lot of buttoms :wink: .

No Teutonic Knights, unfortunately.

[Angryminer]

Really not? I would have bet 5€ on it!
Good I didn't, though. :wink:

Oh well, the demo is too long ago.

Angryminer

[Elvain]

are horse archers available in the demo? I thought they weren't... but it's so long I played the demo that I might have forgotten it)
Sorry, I think I did confuse Bohemia and Bulgaria. Ignorant American, I know ;) take it easy :cool: Who knows how many Europeans would confuse Maryland with Massetchussets f.i. :cheers:

[Sir Sigmund]

I remember making light Cavalry units and Feudal Knights, but no horse archers. The demo will throw out a lot of Mercenary units and you can buy them from the Mercs. Just have to be careful after that not to get them killed. :rofl:

If you have a pure horse unit you can ride around most of your provinces and destory rebels and keep your residence happy.