Screenshots / Empires' Maps Thread

[Lifthrasir]

All image hosting sites such as Photobucket or Flirck are good. I personnaly prefer the latter as there's no ad poping up and the pics' quality is kept. The bad side is that Flirck seems to have difficulties to handle .png pics with transparent parts.

[+Marius+]

As I said many times before, use imgur.

[Alavaria]

The pope should be happy that finally all the little squabbling factions have been unified.




Look at all the progress we've made in the east!

[tmodelsk]

Alavaria - just curious -> where is the Pope ? Are Papas States on the map ?

[Alavaria]

Alavaria - just curious -> where is the Pope ? Are Papas States on the map ?

The pope and his bodyguard unit are standing outside Roma. That's all the faction has.

[tmodelsk]

The pope and his bodyguard unit are standing outside Roma. That's all the faction has.

Papacy exile in Avignon.

[Jurand of Cracow]

I've decided to put screenshots of my Polish kingdom on-line so that the players don't get scared by the Alavaria's empire. Hey! He's unique! (I hope) people usually are slower to conquer around. Btw - I didn't turtle deliberately, I've played everything I could, just observing some home-rules (no unit outside settlement without a general, no deliberate killing of bad generals (and especially of a bad High Duke - I've lost many years because of one such type), no infrastructure destruction to achieve public order (eg. markets stay), no extermination of the cities if of similar religion (eg. christians), very rare killing of prisoners (only if a general has Dread) etc.





A short report on the other countries:
- Lithuania was very weak, it didn’t expand otherwise than the scripted attack on Riga, it simply did nothing. I came and crushed them relatively easily, even thought they had time to develop (it was turn 55). There’s one place in the woods north of Kernave where a general spawns every turn (perhaps if Kernave is taken), until the faction is destroyed.
- Hungary attacked me right from the beginning – they’ve made the short way up to Kraków, and sieged several times. I destroyed many of their units and it may be the reason why they fell prey to Byzantium and Serbia in the south. They also had a few wars with HRE. Interestingly, they took Olomuc from HRE, while losing Varad to ERE and Szekesfehevar to the Serbs.
- Serbia grew and is going strong with a few provinces. Byzantium is the strongest faction on the map.
- Novgorod launched invasions on Kernave right after I'd conquered it. They sieged and stormed right after 1 turn (and were repulsed). Difficult battles, armies grouped into dozens of units. Their heavy troops are like tanks: crushing everything in charges, very mobile, very difficult to kill. I had hard times to take Polotsk (many battles around), but the city itself was weakly defended. Further fight (taking Pleskau and completely empty Novgorod) was very easy: it seems they'd spent all their forces beforehand.
- Kiev behaved very oddly – for 100 years did nothing even if there're rebel town around, then lost 2 provinces in the civil war and didn’t manage to take them back. At some point they took 2 provinces from the Cumans. Finally, around turn 180 they attacked me and we are waging a war since. Boyars are formidable heavy cavalry and Luchniki great archers, but the composition of the armies is sometimes strange (eg. trebuchets). Battles are fun, very difficult. Around turn 200 a civil war broke out and Kiev lost half of the provinces. They don't want to make peace, but they don't take those lost provinces.
- Denmark was destroyed by the Norwegians and HRE after 150 turns. Actually, one crusade was called on them (on Twangste). It has re-born a few times afterwards, but was not eager to fight much.
- HRE first took some provinces then lost them – to the Papal States, to France, but also to Hungary. They never attacked me, but I also gave them a lot of money (actually, it's like an imperial tribute: constant gifts of 200-300 florins), keeping relations at “reasonable”. At times they fought Hungary, Denmark and Papal States, what made them more positive towards me, I suppose. All in all, the peace with HRE was absolutely key to creation of my kingdom - already war with the Pope showed quality of the units from the west: I'd have a chance to defeat them until turn 150, I think.
- Papal States – expanded into Italy, and then north to Carinthia and Bavaria. How they took Bohemia, I don’t know. Then they attacked me (Wrocław) for no apparent reason but it was strategically reasonable and aggressive. And they sieged it three times a row, with large armies (+/- 15 units). They stormed on the following turns and I managed to defend the castle (at that time - around 1230 - the only developed one in the whole kingdom) with very narrow margin. That was indeed fun. I managed to get peace and after some time I bought reconcilation.
- Crusader States – at some point after a crusade they’ve taken Twangste (Prussia). I see it very much historic – like Teutonic Knights! They roamed on my lands, but did nothing aggressive - just passing on their way to Jerusalem. After 50 turns Prussia rebelled, then a re-born Denmark took it and then I’ve taken it. I don't think a country in two places on the map is sustainable.
- Norway has beaten Denmark and border HRE and my Lubeck now, but they're not aggressive.
- Mongols arrived to Marv in 1221. I think there could have 20 armies indeed. However, they had much troubles in taking anything: they sieged the rebels settlements (they rebelled from the Seljucs), but didn’t attack. After 10 years they took Marv only to lose it back. After another 10 years they took 2 provinces, and then they expanded to 7 regions. They’re about to destroy Seljucs, but not really a threat for the others. I’ll see how they will progress.

[tmodelsk]

I want to show you my standard initial battle deployment formation, playing most of the games as Aragon :
Unit size is huge.

• First line - missile troops, obvious, they can easily seek protection inside the box when clash starts
  .
• Second line - Professional Spearmen thinned line.
  They are main battle line, their task is to hold any kind of enemy.
  Their ranks number are rather small : 4 -5, their line is thinned - it's because I want to cover with a few units quite large battle line, but not for long.
  They just need to pin enemy, bind in combat and don't let anyone inside :-).
  They're very good against cavalry & other spears, medium against sword infantry.
  But it's better than to put my swords on first battle line - because enemy is very likely to charge swords units with cavalry.
  .
• Flanks - common Spearmen. Their tasks vary on the type of battle.
  They can protect 'rolled' flank, they can expand main battle line, go to reinforce center or another flank.
  Or they can perform flanking maneuvers with heavy infantry over the enemy.
  .
• Last infantry line - these are often heavy infantry units, placed on both flanks and often in the center as reserve.
  Their task is to perform flanking maneuvers or reinforce main battle line or they're 'strategic reserve'.
  .
• Such formation forms large protected BOX - here is the general, here is safe place for missile units or place to withdraw any heavy wounded unit.
  Whole formation is very compact, units can easily change their positions.
  .
• And lastly - cavalry. Initially they're protected by spearmen. Now they are in square or even column formations for maneuverability.
  Before the real battle start when enemy positions & intentions are known some of them will be placed on far flanks in 2-3 rows formations.
  They are to protect flanks, or better to heavy punish any enemy cavalry unit that will try to flank me.
  Usually I defend against enemy cav with spears and than hammer them with my cav charge.
  As battle goes those cav will exploit flanks, surround enemy, charge enemy lines from back, kill archers, etc.

But I find important to rather protect my cavalry and use it in the 'second' phase of battle - they are excellent for rear charges, chasing enemies, etc.
As you see I have quite a lot of reserves, I find it important not to initially commit all my units into the battle.

Edit.
Below is example how it may looks like after a few minutes of fight. Its with Hit Rate = 1.0 (longer battles). Unit size - huge
This is another army, but deployment & tactics is the same. I'm figting very large muslim army but very weak, mostly Ahdath Infantry and so on.
My thin and long center battle line holds the enemy.
On flanks I'm surrounding enemy with Spears and heavy shock infantry (not here, but potentially).
My missile units have 'unleashed hell' into large enemy infantry blob, they're massacring the enemy.
My cav is starting to turn the tide of battle, there's some first rear action and on the right flank.
As you see I still have some uncommitted troops - this is easy battle.

[Torn]

How do we see those red markers below enemy troops in battles?

[Jurand of Cracow]

You click with your mouse in the centre of the steering circle or you press space on you keyboard.

[lundvir]

have two campaigns going at the moment.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

i started an abbasid campaign as my first try at SSHIP (played SS before tho), difficulty is vh/vh. i renamed many of my settlements to nonhistorically-accurate names (usually either fantastical names or named after my faction leaders or other random stuff). currently i'm in a coldwar with the fatamids who are about tied with me for strongest faction. at the start of the campaign, the seljuqs refused to accept a ceasefire despite numerous offers of money, so i spent the first 35ish turns not expanding at all and just fighting the forces the seljuqs kept sending at me (that's pretty much all they did, was send stack after stack at me).

after the initial period of fighting to stay alive i was able to defeat and route a full seljuq stack which i thought (correctly) was the last large army they had at that time (had much of their territory scouted). also by this time i had the assassins' guild headquarters in one of my settlements too, and was assassinating their family members fairly consistently. having defeated their full stack, i conquered a large city (might've been metropolis) of theirs, and then began taking their settlements one by one. i also secured an alliance with the fatamids at this point that held up for almost 100 turns more. shortly after i also secured an alliance with georgia.

after fighting the seljuqs for awhile and taking all but their four northeasternmost settlements, my campaign of assassinations paid off as one turn i assassinated another of their faction leaders, afterwhich the message popped up that the seljuq faction was destroyed, and their last 4 settlements turned rebel. i mopped up, taking the rest of that area, then shortly after that the fatamids attacked the georgians and i decided to stay allied with the fatamids, and promptly invaded georgia. after some years i wiped them out too (the fatamids agreed to a ceasefire with them after taking only one of their settlements for some reason). then i finished off the zengids, who had only their capital left after much aggression by the crusader states, fatamids, georgians, and two crusades being called against them in a row. around this time i also allied with the cumans, and then shortly after that the fatamids betrayed me by sieging one of my settlements. i paid them a ridiculous amount of money to get them to agree to a ceasefire.

the fatamids have 6~ stacks near our border just chilling, so now i'm just building up my settlements while assassinating every fatamid family member i find, and paying them off a little bit each turn to stop them from attacking me. gonna just build my economy while i prepare for the mongols, who come soon.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

next campaign i started after the abbasid one, altho both are still ongoing. hungary (vh/vh). at the very start of the game i gathered almost all of my forces and went to siege the serbian capital. i got it a turn after i sieged it, as there were only a few troops in it since most had went south to siege the settlement directly beneath it. immediately after that i sent three family members to take the settlement directly west of it (had no walls so no siege was needed). within a few more years i took that last serbian city below their capital, then took ragusa and obtained an alliance with the romans.

i thought i might have to worry about the hre since they refused an alliance with me, however civil war brokeout in their realm and two of their cities went rebel and were shortly thereafter conquered by poland, so now i had poland as a kind of buffer between me and hre as the two civilwar settlements were near our border. poland and hre at war with eachother helped keep my northwestern border safe, and in the northeast i allied with kiev. at around this point the romans betrayed me like the rat bastards they are by beseiging ras and the settlement directly beneath ras, which screwed up my plans as i was originally gonna go to war with poland while they were distracted with the hre. however, after some years and many dead, most of the greek mainland belonged to me; the only roman settlements left in the area were constantinopl, adrianopl, and corinth. also taravgod (sp?) that i conquered from them but they took back. planning on conquering then rest of the greek mainland and then who knows.

[tmodelsk]

SSHIP-Tweaks, year 1156, 50-th turn.



Jerusalem was captured by Fatamids, recaptured by Crusaders, and then captured again.
Crusader States are dying cut on half.
Currently there's Crusade called (by me) on Jerusalem to save them & levant.

Look how Norwegians nicely expanded, also Novogrod, little Danes, Georgia was bigger but is heavily attacked by Seljuks from both sides.
It's "Fight for survival" in action - small factions got bonuses.
Seljuk Turks in Anatolia are expanding even after being hit hard by crusade - they've got big money bonus from 'Factions Fate'.

[tmodelsk]

Heroic bridge defense, Reconquista, Moors counter offensive after driving off those infidels from Murcia.
2000 vs 4000. I thought it will be easy battle.



Four crossbow militias and two professional archers unleashing hell. They will fire all their arrows & bolts on first army.


Permanent arrows at dusk. I imagine that real after battle bridge could look like that.


Here lies about 3000 dead men & some horses. I've barely survived, thanks to excellent crusader spearmen units.


Crossbows units have little more kills per unit (170 - 190) than archers units!!

[Jurand of Cracow]

SSHIP-Tweaks, year 1156, 50-th turn.
Jerusalem was captured by Fatamids, recaptured by Crusaders, and then captured again.
Crusader States are dying cut on half.
Currently there's Crusade called (by me) on Jerusalem to save them & levant.
Look how Norwegians nicely expanded, also Novogrod, little Danes, Georgia was bigger but is heavily attacked by Seljuks from both sides.
It's "Fight for survival" in action - small factions got bonuses.
Seljuk Turks in Anatolia are expanding even after being hit hard by crusade - they've got big money bonus from 'Factions Fate'.

Looks interesting! I've got some questions:
- it seems the big factions don't desintegrate due to the civil wars? Have you seen info about civil wars breaking up somewhere? (or maybe this will flare up later in the game, when more kings will change and the points for usurpers will accumulate...)
- the pope is tamed, isn't he?
- I see Piza going strong, including a successful crusade on Kayseri in Anatolia (or it's Serbia there?)

[tmodelsk]

Looks interesting! I've got some questions:
- it seems the big factions don't desintegrate due to the civil wars? Have you seen info about civil wars breaking up somewhere? (or maybe this will flare up later in the game, when more kings will change and the points for usurpers will accumulate...)
- the pope is tamed, isn't he?
- I see Piza going strong, including a successful crusade on Kayseri in Anatolia (or it's Serbia there?)

• I saw germans civil war for sure, this Civil War always starts. Thanks for pointing this, I'll pay attention to Civil Wars.
• pope is tammed, yes. He is still excommunicating - Germans are excommunicated for sure.
• Piza is surprisingly going strong, hey they captured Kayseri. Venetia is weak. Normally there's vice versa.
• Piza is now in wars with germans. Germans seems strong (large for sure) but they are 'over stretched', long communication lines, so I think they loose soon some nearby city to Pisa
• Serbia is destroyed, as many times before. I'm thinking how to additionally support them
• thanks to Gibraltar land bridge Moors are VERY strong. It's really crazy.
• English kingdom is strong, also thanks to La Manche land bridge. They're beating France (my ally, me Aragon) attacked from other side by Germans.
  I wanted to support them as Aragon, attack Germans, even give some german city to French, but I'm pushed hard in Andalusia by Moors.
• I wanted to block choke points - bridges with small forces and go help France, but it seems that bridge defense is not always easy.
• Yeah, my young Aragon Kingdom is also over streched, fast expansion and now my economy is on the edge of profit.
  I started with profits from 'Fight for survival' because of 3 starting settlements, now all bonuses are gone.

[Jurand of Cracow]

When I read about many events in history (eg. the political situation after the battle of Manzikert, 1071), I conclude that it would be useful to have a special script prompting civil war after the Faction Leader is killed/taken prisoner in a battle (or maybe it's alredy implemented?)

[tmodelsk]

When I read about many events in history (eg. the political situation after the battle of Manzikert, 1071), I conclude that it would be useful to have a special script prompting civil war after the Faction Leader is killed/taken prisoner in a battle (or maybe it's alredy implemented?)

Good idea.
Medieval I has this feature or similar : province unrest level was very much dependent on Faction Leader authority & 'connection'-distance from the leader to province.
If Faction Leader died in combat or even was isolated in some province (surrounded or besieged) - the connection to Faction Leader was lost to many provinces & there was chain of rebellions.

Jurand - there's condition 'Faction Leader Died', maybe there's condition 'Faction Leader imprisoned' or similar, so I could use it but then what ?
What should happen ? Lower down law or happiness or both in all settlements ? It's possible.
For how long ? A few turns ? One turn ?
We can do it, it's even not so hard.

Civil War ? If it is possible via script , why not.

[tmodelsk]

Jurand - No, it can not be done or not so easy.
There's no direct condition or event : Character / Faction Leader Killed / Died / ..... .
There's event BattleGeneralKilled but for the attacking general and it's probalby not working or working in Rome:TW only.

There's condition GeneralWithAncKilled but what anciliary has every faction leader ? and it's also very problematic.

So, no, impossible or very hard.

[Lifthrasir]

It can be done. There's a mod (forgot which one) in which happiness and/or public order is/are tied to the battles results happenening in the relevant region of the settlement. If the general win, then the happiness/public order raise. If he looses, that's the contrary. Of course, it works that way while defending your territory and not when you conquer.
I'd also like to remind that we have tried so far to keep the script as "light" as possible in order to minimize the AI turn duration. So any change in the script has to be done carefully

[Alavaria]

Our greatest general, the guy who doesn't fight. 175/199 settlements, we're good to go.
Hope we can clean house in the remaining 690 turns.



Will the west be unified in time to throw back the approaching Mongol Horde? Who knows.