Well... I looked around the game folder a while ago, and some things seem easy to customize. There folders system is made the same way as Civ III mostly. Most of the rules are in a .txt file, and the game art is easily accessible in it's folder.

I also saw a scrrenshots folder, but it was empty.

Game rules in a .txt?
Well that just screams cheat all the way.

Another Dan Brown is born ;)

Cheat what? The computer? Yourself?

Hehe, good point, I guess you only are cheating yourself since it's singleplayer. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Guess I'll just have to call it a usefull game editing tool then.

You can keep track of all your troops coming and goings and status via the little buttons on the left of your screen.

Yes, medieval is a great game. I especially love playing english (due to billmen+ longbow combo) and turks ( late on the best units in game bar none) and byzantines (trading from constantinople.... wow)

I once got a ship in every sea so all my products were getting sold all over the world. It rocked, at one point i was getting over 100 000 per turn! It sounds crazy but its possible.

Also,
all the bugs mentioned (such as infinite general life) are all fixed in the expansion Viking Invasion. GET IT. It is soo much better. Not only do you get to play ancient britain and the vikings (the map is focused around just britain and scandinavia with much smaller counties) but it opens up the argonese and the sicilians etc to play, plus adds units (especially various skirmishers).

One extremely annoying thing about this game which is hard coded and can't be changed.. is the arrival year of the Mongols. Always the same and thus you can't help but prepare with the foreknowledge.

And when, pray, is that? :confused:

It's more fun if you don't know it ;) Personally, I don't think the 'Horde' is that bad. As they managed to destroy pretty much all my enemies before arriving at my border :D

Hehe, in my game they we're whiped out by the Danes, the Kievians and the Egyptians, as a result I'm left to deal with the Danish superpower. :(

Well, I've successfully executed my attack on the Papacy...just as they were about to excommunicate me AGAIN for my continuing attack on the Germans (the previous Pope had already excommunicated me but he passed away).

I'm glad I waited a few years to build a really big army in Greece, I had about 3500 men that I shipped across the Adriatic to the Papal States, Naples and Rome. Took Rome and Papal States in a year and Naples the year after. [img]graemlins/evillaughter2.gif[/img] Now I've installed my puppet and can pursue my war with the Germans with impunity (they just keep conceding provinces to me, I reckon they'll make a stand in Burgundy).

Once I get the Germans out of the way it'll be the Hungarians' turn, then I can start thinking about the West - Aragon, France and Spain...I've now got an empire that stretches from Finland, Muscovy, Novgorod and Volga-Bulgaria to the east, through to the Crimea, Bulgaria, Constantinople, Nicea and Greece to the south, then on to Naples, Rome and the Papal States, through to Scandinavia to the north, with pretty much all of Germania under my boot. The only provinces within central Europe I don't hold are the Hungarian provinces, but I'll take those soon. I've also got Scotland, Ireland and Northumbria. Finland and Lithuania and Livonia are starting to get annoying - they keep on rebelling, and I'm starting to spend a fortune on garrisons there. :eek:

As for the Horde, good idea - I'll whup them when they eventually rock up anyway. I'll be their first port of call I think... :D

If an area is proving difficult, just litter it with priests and build a church, that improves their happiness. (Atleast in christian areas)

What year is it in your game Memnoch?

About 1170 or something...I'm into my third king so far. The first couple were both Olafs, the second had a long and brilliant reign and took most of the east under his wing, but this last one is proving to be a bit of a dumbass. He's got good influence and dread, but his piety and acumen are pretty average, and he's got zero stars for command. [img]graemlins/awcrap.gif[/img]

That is the usefullness of spies. You have a prince you don't like? Frame him with high treason... :D

One thing I noticed is that after a few years, whatever you do, your income drops. Am I the only one having this problem or is it just part of the game?

That is the usefullness of spies. You have a prince you don't like? Frame him with high treason... :D </font>[/QUOTE]I haven't got spies yet...I've only got emissaries. I've held off on building brothels so I could build all the important stuff, like bowyers and swordsmiths and so on. Is it worth going down the brothel path? :eek:

Also, what good are inquisitors? I've made a few and as far as I can see they're no different to priests.

Also, I've never been able to get an assassin ranked higher than 6...no matter what I do. Is this the highest they can go? I'm even thinking of creating a "killing school" where I build my own emissaries and then have my assassins practice on them. Will this cause any discontent among my subjects if I'm found out?

[ 08-19-2004, 11:12 AM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]

Don't know Dreamer, my income's pouring in at the moment. I've built all those farmland things and saltmines though (you can tell my Civ background :D )

I've always used my spies as an anti-assassin defence, which is a job they do absolutely marvelously.

Inquisitors differs from the priests in that they can be used to track down heretics (like enemy generals for example), this, of course, only works on christians, and like the assassin they only have a certain percentage chance to succeed, unlike the assassin, they don't die when failing though.

As for income, the only reductions I have is when my enemies cut down my trade routes. I rarely bother with building more than the 20% farmland (to get horse farmers), instead I build plenty of trade houses and ships and try to stay friendly with the onther countries occupying the valuable coastlands.

True, but you don't need to buy such structures in all your areas. I pick a few key areas to build castles and troops. As for the others, I check which of the lands behind my lines have the highest annual income and build as many farmlands as I can there, it's also smart to raise taxes in loyal provinces while dropping it in..uh.. unloyal or newly conquered lands.

Inquisitors are really annoying, the other factions always send some, and they just sit there in your province accusing your generals of heresy and trying to burn them.

I never make more than one spy and one assasin. It make it easier to keep track of them. The higher I got is 6 rank for an assasin and 5 for a spy.

I just find that the farmlands need too long to pay themselves off, the increase in profits is simply too small.

I always build spies and assassins in huge numbers, that way I always have a pretty clear picture about who's messing with me. (I even had the pope try to assassinate one of my bishops :D )
I never build emmissaries untill I need them though, they always get killed before long, so I finally figured, what's the point, they're just a money sink.

Emmissaries are way better spies, they don't get killed just for standing in another faction's territory.

They can also be very usefull.

In my most recent game, I sent an emmisary to bribe the army guarding the papal state. The pope was caught by surprise and the next turn I controled rome had killed the pope.

ABout those inquisitors...how do I get them to accuse an enemy general of heresy? All they ever do for me is preach. Do I just drop them on an enemy general?

That would be the correct approach Mem.

I'm surprised though that you've never noticed them starting an inquisition.

I once conquered constantinople using nothing but 7 spies, 8 inquisitors, 10 bishops and 2 emissaries. In two years I had the castle, and no enemy troops in the land,meaning by year three it was mine.

How does that work BoB?

Christian rebellions, as soon as I moved any one military unit(a group of cavalry in this case) the rebels in the land(some 2k of them) sided with me and I got the land with the empty castle(I got mistaken in my previous post).

You managed to spark a Christian Rebellion in Constantinople? That's pretty impressive [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

as you might remember from this thread.. your not alone.

http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...2;t=001015;p=3

I think that the way to overcome this is through shipping trade - which I rarely do because ports offer access to being invaded.. at least until the technology makes this redundant.

Ports mean nothing to invaders, what they do make a difference to is enemy agents.

Enemy troops just jump ashore on the best beach they can find, no need for a port. That would be just a bit too convenient for the defenders. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Enemy agents such as spies, assassins and priests, need a port though since they just travel around with regular merchant vessels, and regular merchant vessels don't like beaching their ships.

Got another question now that I'm at it.
In combat I usually use the following standard approach:
Swordmen against spearmen.
Spearmen against cavalry.
Cavalry against swordmen.
And archers against whoever is within reach.
But what good is halberdiers and other "axemen"? I never really found any use for them, they just get slaughtered.

Try using those Almohads' Militia, they're quite unkillable. Halberdiers are a cross between a swordsman and a spearman, not as good as either of them in their field, but versatile and mostly disciplined. They're great for defensive purposes(a group of halberdiers defending those catapults against enemy castle siege lifters). There's just one modification to your otherwise good strategy: have archers attack the fast and lightly armored, because even elite archers can't take down heavy armored cavalry(it's like killing a king with swordsmen, he will go down eventually, but not soon).

I'm playing as England, my longbowmen will take down anything. :D
But thanks for the halberdier explanation.

Bah! You can fix anything with a good charge! My strategy consist of sending an army of royal knights charging the ennemy and run them down.

I do like to carry some lighter cavalry every once in a while, to destroy the routing ennemy.

The pope just owned me!

He rebeled, and brought along almost 5k soldiers, but most of them were technologically advanced for me, and I'm the most technologically advanced...

So I reloaded, destroyed everything and removed my troops. Let's se how he plan to pay those troops with no income!

My emisaries are on their way to offer those generals a better source of income... :D

I've nearly wiped out the Germans and Italians now (stupid fools attacked me for no reason, probably to defend their German allies). I met their armies in Serbia and ended up killing their Doge Giovanni after a massive battle. I've pretty much gotten them to hole up in Sardinia and Corsica, but their fleet is causing a bit of a problem for me - I haven't enough ships in the Med, most of them are out in the North Atlantic and it's taking a while to get to them. [img]graemlins/awcrap.gif[/img]

Once I finish them off then I'll get rid of the Hungarians and then it's westward, baby. :D

PS I'm finding spies pretty useless, they always get caught before I even get to do anything with them. And my Rank 5 assassin got caught trying to go through Flanders and got executed. Bummer! :(

Hehehe, I've been reading this thread all along, and its really fun reading the tales Memnoch's kingdom [img]smile.gif[/img]

In fact, I'm going to get the game pretty soon. It just sounds so realistic with virtually anything possible!

Questions:

1) Are there different modes of play (eg. Campaign) as well as a freeform country-building?

2) When you go into battle, is it realtime where you control all your units and use tactics and strategy?

Oh and Memnoch, what's your country called? Where is it located? I imagine that its expanded rapidly, so there's probably no definite answer... How about where it started?

Jaradu, I strongly recommend getting into it. This is seriously the most addictive game I've EVER played. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

In terms of game play, you can play Campaign (which is basically freeform country building) where you can either have Domination (kick everyone else's ass) or Glorious Objectives (achieve objectives similar to those that your faction achieved in history) as your win criteria. The campaign part is all turn based, you move your units around the place like in Civ, but when you go into battle it's all real-time, and the engine is EXCELLENT. :D

I love the feudal nature of the game, handing out titles to your nobility in return for their service, and the fact that you need to make sure you manage your lineage effectively. At one stage I was laughing as I had six princes all in line for the throne, then during my war with the Germans I lost three of them. I'm trying to get my king's wife to pop another one out of the oven as soon as possible but short of praying there's not much else I can do. [img]graemlins/awcrap.gif[/img]

I'm playing as the Danes at the moment - it's been a hundred years since I started, so my expansion hasn't been all that rapid, it took a hundred years to do it all. And I'm not done yet - still most of the Middle East and Northern Africa, as well as Western Europe to conquer.