Newbie needs help

[LordSlayer]

Im really really new to this game and it looks beautiful-especially the haunting and haunted face of the Knight in the intro!
The game has a whole load of features and it s a job to know where and how to 'start'.I spent time looking around and there s alot to look at. Can you point me i n the right direction?

[Mircoslavux]

Im really really new to this game and it looks beautiful-especially the haunting and haunted face of the Knight in the intro!
The game has a whole load of features and it s a job to know where and how to 'start'.I spent time looking around and there s alot to look at. Can you point me i n the right direction?


Firstly, welcome to this nice forum...

Secondly, it is very good to start with tutorial, it helps you to understand many things and be familiar with game.

Where you want to start, it depends only on you and your wishes....

so nice gaming... :go:

[Elvain]

everytime when you start a game it's good to pause the game at the very beggining and look how are your relations with others etc. then consider which state it would be good to marry your prince and consider a strategy depending on relations (every game is diferent in this case)

then as soon as you can hire at least one merchant to get higher income (if you have princes it's no problem then)

and then start building up your empire as you like it...

btw I think it's the best to start with some medium kingdom with 3-5 provinces - you have high probability to have enough resources while your empire is not so large so it's not so hard to manage it all

good luck :go:

and of course, as Mirco said - try the tutorial first. It won's show you all features, but the basic ones at least and the other you'll discover while playing :wink:

[qorda]

Welcome my Lord. true this game can be daunting in the beginning but you'll start enjoying it soon. I suggest that you play the tutorial twice and then read the Tips and tricks thread in the game play section of this forum and note down the points you think are important. Plan your game accordingly and soon you'll be having fun! :angel:

[LordSlayer]

Thanks for the much needed advice. Ive played through the tutorials twice and hopefully the other tips will get me going. Any advice as to which province I should play to make things go smoothly?
Again, thanks!

[Mircoslavux]

Thanks for the much needed advice. Ive played through the tutorials twice and hopefully the other tips will get me going. Any advice as to which province I should play to make things go smoothly?
Again, thanks!

As Elvain already mentioned, try to start easy game with a state consisted from 2-3 provinces, then you are not too weak and you do not have too large empire to manage, what is not to difficult. You will find many answered questions already in this forum.
So have a fun.
:go:

[Gallifrey]

Any advice as to which province I should play to make things go smoothly?

I concur with the suggestions of playing a small 2-3 province kingdom. I find it far easier to manage that than starting with a behemoth of a kingdom or a single province kingdom. It's also the most fun, in my opinion.
You'd probably want to start with a Catholic kingdom, or a Muslim nation. As a Catholic you don't have to worry about crusades being called on you (at least, as long as you don't anger the Pope), and as Muslims you get a morale bonus which is very handy in war.
Look at your neighbours as well with expansion in mind; it's easier to take over a province that shares your religion.

[qorda]

One special tip:- select a 3 province kingdom at a corner of the map. So that you wont be surrounded by neighbours all around who might be too keen on attacking you before you strengthen up. Ireland or a scandanvian country will better.
I would advise against choosing a muslim country. Crusader armies are very strong and you need a lot of experience to survive them.
Good luck and hope that from the rank of Lord you will soon rise to be a king. :go:

[LordSlayer]

Thanks,everyone for the excellent advice. The weekend's coming so I ll be able to concentrate on the game a bit.All the best.

[LordSlayer]

I ve chosen Kazan, a kingdom right in the east of the map. It has 4 provs and turns out to be muslim.I ve made 3 marshalls (given your warning about c Crusades) and 4 merchants since the Khan is economically stronger.
Two Crusades have been announced but not touched me yet-how should I prepre?
I ve set up granaries and a tool smithy.
I t mentions that I can educate my merchant with books-how does this work?
I ve started trade agreements with a number of kingdoms,and settled any uneasiness with neighbours.

[Picotrain]

Just a couple of pointers. Firstly, try to make trading agreements with only your closest allies, and allies that are liked by your other allies as well. Making trading agreements with you ally's enemies will eventually lead to your ally asking you to break said agreement. No matter what choice you make, a relationship will suffer.
Secondly, early on it's nice to have a spy and a cleric, 4 merchants are unnecessary, you should be able to gain enough gold with three maximum, usually two. Leave the spy at home, he makes sure none of your new recruits are spies. In fact, it's best if your spy is a member of the royal family, that way you can rest assured that he is not a spy himself. A spy who himself is a spy can be quite dangerous.
Thirdly, you need books to educate a knight. I can't remember how you gain books, but I think you need to have a cleric governing in a city that has a church, or something along those lines. It should be in your manual, look it up. I'm in Korea and I didn't bring mine with me.

[LordSlayer]

Thanks Picotrain for the tips. I ll keep them in mind when I play next.

[Elvain]

the crusades last very long to reach such far "kingdom" as Kazan is so you have enough time to either sign a peace with the crusaders (look who has started the crusade and - AFTER SOME TIME - offer him peace. It is very likely that he will agree)
In military way you can prepare by hiring garisons in your provinces, especialy those who are the closest to the crusade-starter, he will probably attack these provinces.

Secondly. To educate knights you need books. Books are gained from churches/mosques(in some mods also temples) and also when a cleric is assigned to govern a province, he writes you books (the more experienced/educated he is, the more books he writes, so it's good to educate the cleric first)

good is also to build inns in every town (it is with a tool smithy the first building I build. it increases both hapiness and number of workers), granaries and tool smithies are also useful. Don't forget the military buildings, palisade preferably :go:

[tenryu]

I would recommend hiring no more then one or two knights in the beginning as they cost money. If you have 2 princes, great, make one a cleric and another a merchant and assign each to govern a city. The first knights I hire are usually a spy followed by a cleric. You are probably not going to be running around stomping on your neighbors for a while anyway so hold off on hiring any marshalls for a bit.

Another couple of good ideas is to pause the game the second it starts then look at the royal family and your resources.

If you king has 2 or 3 stars in economy you will get more money. Look at the 1st son also because he is probably going to be your next king. The second and third sons are useful mainly as clerics or a marshalls I feel. They go bye-bye as soon as the King dies and their brother becomes the new king. I never spend any books on them.

IF YOUR ROYAL FAMILY ARE A BUNCH OF MENTAL DEFECTIVES>>> Restart the game. ( I had a game start with a King with like 3 stars and a hier with 1)
If you like that sort of challenge, fine, but do it after you have figured out the game a bit.

Secondly, the same goes for you resources and towns. Look them over in the beginning and if they are rather hopelessly poor, no resources, bogus buildings restart unless your royal family is really really awesomely gifted. I have found a gifted royal family or an assortment of provinces with good development potential make things much easier. Get a province with pastures( for horses, sheep, cattle) if you can.

It may take a few reloads to get a decent balance of positive starting attributes, but having a bogus kingdom at start is probably just going get you stomped on eventually and that's no fun, lol.

Another good starting kingdom is early Wessex. You can usually take Wales and East Anglia fairly early without too much difficultly and that will give you a 4 province kingdom. Watchout for Irsh and French raiders, York and the Scots must be absorbed, both are dangerous with the Irsh at your back and the French looking for any excuse to invade.

Wait a bit before you put the Irish in their proper place. Do it after you have sat your Royal backside firmly on the faces of the of the Welsh, Scots and the other riff-raff upstart wannabes on YOUR main island.

DO NOT NEGLECT TO ADOPT EACH PROVINCE YOU TAKE. In many ways the pace of your expansion should be guilded by how quickly( or slowly) you adopt and maybe convert a province. Otherwise you will be fighting endless rebellions. Switch to defense play when appropiate, you'll know when, lol.

I found it was a good bit of fun.

[qorda]

I would follow Tenryu's advice if I wanted only to win. Restarting game if conditions are not suitable to you is not a good idea for me. Failures teach us many things and the true victory is the one that we really work hard for not the one offered to us in a plate:angel:

[LordSlayer]

Thanks for all the advice.
I,too, thought about the distance from any Crusade idea,which made me stick to Kazan.
I ll be onto it again today after a heavy weak with itchy fingers wanting to get back to KoH.

[LordSlayer]

My kingdom is underway...all the knightslots are full.1 Cleric,1Spy,1 Builder,3 Marshalls and the rest Merchants.The merchants are doing well. Im a bit overawed by the choice of buildings:Ive made granaries and toolsmithies and thought I might need st for defence-Muscovy is looking dangerous..
How exactly do I find out who is allied to who?
Three more Crusades have been launched but not at Kazan thank goodness.
Again,thanks for everything.

[Magyar Lazlo]

I find so far with my royals that I use marshals entirely, plus one or two merchants, and possibly a spy.

[Rolf]

Lots of good info for this newbie as well. Thanks a lot. I have a few more days before I go back to work, and with snow outside, it's all the excuse I need to go another round with KoH. BYT, Picotrain--nice to know there's a fellow player in Korea. I figured that when I'm on the forum here, everybody else must be sleeping. Guess that ain't so.

One sign of a good game is the fact that I've played in two different areas (as Cordoba, a nice peaceful event where I made the most of trading and did little warring) (now in Austria, where rebels seem to come in twos and there's always somebody who doesn't like somebody else and I'm stuck in the middle), and the play is quite different.

[LordSlayer]

After Khan of Kazan got married and had two kids,one of each, my PC decided it didn t like KoH and crashed with a blue screen saying Windows has interrupted due to destabilization of system.
It didnt save,of course so Kazan has returned to bachelor status.
The games been playing well for some time,but has crashed 3 times this way in the last 2 dats. I ve put a post on Teach Supp but dont know when the reply will come.
Meanwile Khan remains a bachelor....
Hope someone can help.