A little Plea

[Pherion]

I consider SSHIP to be SS7.0 do to all it's trying to achieve and specially the new Campaign map and new Units. But I'm afraid of one thing. I consider Stainless Steel to be the only good working Medieval mod outhere for M2TW that includes Portugal. And I really hope that SSHIP isn't planning on deleting Portugal from the World just like so many mods have already done.

Me being Portuguese, makes Portugal amongst my favourite factions to play with, so I'm making a small plea here to never ever remove Portugal from this awesome submod! Please!

[Dekhatres]

even if Portugal gets deleted you can always ask someone to make a minimod which adds it back, or learn to mod and do it yourself

[Lifthrasir]

Once again, no faction change planned for now. So, unless further notice, Portugal is safe

[bigdaddy1204]

I consider SSHIP to be SS7.0 do to all it's trying to achieve and specially the new Campaign map and new Units. But I'm afraid of one thing. I consider Stainless Steel to be the only good working Medieval mod outhere for M2TW that includes Portugal. And I really hope that SSHIP isn't planning on deleting Portugal from the World just like so many mods have already done.

Me being Portuguese, makes Portugal amongst my favourite factions to play with, so I'm making a small plea here to never ever remove Portugal from this awesome submod! Please!

I am interested. What do you normally do in your Portugal campaign? In the early game, I can see you could capture Lisbon and create the modern territory of Portugal. But once you have achieved that, what next? Do you cross into Africa and try to conquer Morocco and the North African provinces? Or do you capture territories such as Cordoba, which were never historically part of Portugal? Or do you invade Leon and try to take over the whole of Iberia?

I ask because I have this problem in my mind, I can't do things that are not historical. I can recapture lost territories for Byzantium, for example, but once I have achieved the frontiers of the year 1025, I don't know what to do and I lose interest. I think this is one of the reasons I never played Portugal - I can't see what I would do once I have achieved the modern territory of Portugal?

[Lifthrasir]

In your case, you have to think logically. Try to imagine what the faction's leader would have done at that time if he could. For instance, for ERE, once you have restore the empire as it was in 1025 AD, what would you do next? Carry on to the Levant and further to Egypt? Or would you try to recreate the ancient Roman Empire by expanding to the West (taking yourvrevenge on Sicily for example)? For Portugal, would you try to unify all Spain under one banner or would you focuse on North Africa? There are many options for each faction. Even if SSHIP tries to be historically accurate, don't forget that the game is still based on the "what if..."

[Swarbs]

In your case, you have to think logically. Try to imagine what the faction's leader would have done at that time if he could. For instance, for ERE, once you have restore the empire as it was in 1025 AD, what would you do next? Carry on to the Levant and further to Egypt? Or would you try to recreate the ancient Roman Empire by expanding to the West (taking yourvrevenge on Sicily for example)? For Portugal, would you try to unify all Spain under one banner or would you focuse on North Africa? There are many options for each faction. Even if SSHIP tries to be historically accurate, don't forget that the game is still based on the "what if..."

It doesn't even have to be based on "what if" for many factions. The ERE is a prime example - real life emperors like Manuel Komnenos didn't limit themselves to the empire in 1025 - Manuel actively tried to conquer southern Italy, Sicily, Egypt and the regions around modern Croatia, so that's an easy target for any ERE ruler trying to emulate RL.

Personally, I've taken the ERE back to the full length of the Danube, all of Italy, all islands in the Med, Africa as far as Morocco, Mesopotamia and the Caucasus, and even as far south as Mecca. After all, once the Arabs conquered the Magreb and Persia they aspired to capture Constantinople, so why would a resurgent RE not attempt to take Mecca given how important it became in that period?

Portugal is also an easy one to think around - they were one of the great colonial powers of the 16th and 17th centuries, and given sufficient leadership could have surpassed Castille as the spearhead of the Reconquista of southern Iberia, and carried on into Africa. After all, the boundaries of modern Portugal are only defined by the amount of Iberia the Portuguese managed to capture during the Reconquista.

[stevietheconquer]

just conquer the world,does not matter wich faction you play,but expect some resistants from the other factions too when you try,it's only a game too have fun.

[bigdaddy1204]

Thanks guys!

I've set myself a goal in my Byzantines campaign. I have saved it as "Byzantines to Jerusalem!". The plan is, once I've captured the 1025 frontiers, I'll resume the eastern advance which kind of ended with Basil II in 976. That means going into territories like Tripoli which were captured by John I Tzimiskes, and ultimately on to Jerusalem. Once I've secured that, it would seem logical that I can expect undying resistance from the Fatimids, so I'll probably end up having to invade and conquer Egypt too. This would then bring the Empire back to its original frontiers, as at the division of the Roman Empire by Theodosius in 395AD.

So far, I've got to turn 28 or so and I've captured Ankara, Iconium, Caesarea, Sivas, Malatya, Qaliqala (Armenia) but I still haven't taken Cilicia and Antioch. the frontiers in the Balkans haven't moved, and I don't hold any land in Italy. So my next move will be to take Cilicia, then if possible Antioch. Once I've done that, I should probably turn west to capture Serbia and southern Italy. And then the grand offensive towards Jerusalem can begin!

[jurcek1987]

Sounds a lot of fun, but I'm waiting for the next version before embarking on another epic ERE campaign

[j.a.luna]

Yes jurcek,me too, when the new release come i will play other awesome campaign!

[bigdaddy1204]

update: I took Cilicia but decided to leave Antioch alone as the Kingdom of Jerusalem was strong. I decided I'd wait until they're about to fall to the Ayyubids and Zengids, and then snap up Antioch at the last minute. In the meantime, I defeated an invasion of Pisa at Dyrrhachium, and fought several battles against various rebel armies in Anatolia and the Balkans, destroying them all. I then noticed that Serbia was about to fall to the Hungarians, so I marched in and laid siege to their capital. After about 8 turns of siege, the castle fell without a fight. So I now hold Serbia. My plan was to gather that army and invade southern Italy, but before I could do so the Hungarians immediately declared war against me. Meanwhile in the east, the Crusader-held city of Antioch fell to the Zengids in a surprise attack that ruined my plan to sweep in and take the city from the crusaders at the last minute. So now I am thinking about using my strong eastern armies to simply attack the Zengids and conquer Antioch, Aleppo and all the cities as far as Jerusalem. I want to do it.

It is a real nuissance the Hungarians declaring war though. I don't want to conquer their lands, but they refuse my diplomat's offers of peace and they send armies onto my land to attack my cities. I am going to have to fight an endless war against them which I don't want. It's very irritating and I wish there was some way I could just get peace. Perhaps I'll be forced to simply conquer them outright and then gift their lands to some other faction, to create a buffer?

[jurcek1987]

It's very difficult to obtain ceasefire if your reputation is low. Mine always is even though I (almost) never declare war on anyone, I never sack or exterminate settlements and I always release prisoners. That is one of the major gripes I have with SSHIP, I mean why would the the Catholics hate me for capturing a Muslim city and why am I universally despised when I'm behaving in the most honourable manner possible?

I remember fighting a tiresome war against Hungary as well, just keep a strong garrison in Ras or wait for them at the bridge to the north with an archer-heavy army, guaranteed heroic victories. I remember giving them a huge amount of money in exchange for peace which they broke almost immediately, so I wouldn't recommend doing that. Fortunately the diplomacy in SSHIP is far more reasonable than in any other mod and after a couple of heavy defeats they begged me for peace, especially if they're already engaged in other wars. I guess capturing a town or two and exchanging it for peace would also do the trick. Good luck!

[bigdaddy1204]

Thanks!

Yes I have the same problem, my faction is always rated as despicable and it is near impossible to get peace with a faction that directly borders my lands. Factions that are separated from your territory by the sea can be easily convinced to agree to peace, however.

My campaign has progressed a bit since last time. I decided to ignore the Hungarians, leaving my full stack army in the former Serbian capital at Ras (which I now control). The Hungarians laid siege to the castle, with two full stacks. They had about 1800 men and 1600 men in these two stacks. They attacked from two sides, but fortunately only one of the armies had built siege equipment. I was initially confident of victory, but the battle ended up being a lot closer than I would have liked! Defeating the first army was not difficult, but when the second army arrived my troops at the walls were weakened, and the enemy were able to break in.

To make matters more difficult, most of my remaining units consisted of archers, javelins, horse archers, heavy cavalry and general's bodyguard. The infantry had already been somewhat damaged even before the battle started, due to having just conquered the region. They then took the brunt of the casualties in the first wave. Massed enemy horse archers burst through the gate, shooting up a lot of the units I had nearby, even those on the walls. I was able to kill them all with a combination of spears and archers, but by the time this was done I had taken casualties.

In the end I narrowly managed to win, but my infantry had been completely destroyed and the archers had taken losses. The finale came when my horse archers ran out of ammo and I was forced to charge the enemy spearmen coming into the town square with all my remaining heavy cavalry, horse archers and general's bodyguard, supported by what toxotae and the pitiful handful of broken infantry I had left. Fortunately, they were down to their very last units and I was able to rout them.

Ultimately, all three armies that had participated in the battle were almost totally destroyed. The Hungarians had lost 3,500 men and my own force had lost about 1,000. After the battle, I had perhaps 500 men left alive, from the original force of around 1,500. And many of those were actually men who died, but were classed as "healed" in the battle statistics.

On the eastern front, I decided to attack the Zengids and quickly captured Antioch, Aleppo and Edessa. Unfortunately however, these settlements were all struck with plague and so was my army, so I now have plague raging across all three cities and in the army of the general, who I withdrew into Cilicia to wait until he recovers. The Zengids do not appear to be much of a threat, but my conquest has been delayed because I don't want to send reinforcements into an army which is suffering from plague!

In the west, I've now moved up substantial reinforcements to Ras, so the city is in no danger of falling. My plan for the time being is to simply fill Ras with strong forces and leave them there while I concentrate my attention on defeating the Zengids in the east and driving towards Jerusalem. If the Hungarians attack me again on the western front, the forces I have sitting on the frontier should easily be enough to resist any attack successfully.

[jurcek1987]

Sounds like a great campaign, hope the update comes sooner rather than later. Reading your posts makes me wanna try my own ERE campaign.

A few helpful tips I want to share: personally I wouldn't use heavy cavalry and horse archers defending settlements. Their key asset (manoeuvrability) is wasted there and they're very expensive. I found Acritae and even Acontistae to be quite useful on walls. Their javelins cause considerable casualties and Acritae can easily defend against units climbing the ladders.

The trick is also to use archers effectively, I deploy them in a deep square in the same section where enemy towers land but as far away as possible from where the units land so they don't engage your archers (I never deploy units to face the enemy towers directly because I lose too many men). That way your archers will fire at enemy units coming from the towers at point blank range, inflicting heavy losses. Put them in guard mode just in case they do get engaged they'll continue firing. Crossbowmen are even better for this, I believe you can recruit mercenary crossbowmen in the Balkans. I also position archers behind the gate on both sides for the same effect.

If you wan't to "cheat" deploy stakes behind the gate. I find that to be to easy so I only do that against Mongols. If you don't have Mourtatoi hire some Bulgarian brigands, they're good archers, better than toxotai, and they can also deploy stakes. Also I find mangonels to be devastating, position them behind your infantry at the gates then wait for the enemy units to start pouring through. They sometimes hit your own units but they'll do far more damage to the enemy.

I also found plagues to be very annoying, I hope they will reduce their frequency in the update because I swear not a turn goes by without one of my settlements being affected. Romans especially suffer a lot because they have so many heavily populated settlements. I remember Constantinople being hit once when I had a full stack of elites stationed there to be retrained/upgraded just as I was about to depart for Cilicia. I learned my lesson that day and never again left a unit that finished retraining in the city.

[bigdaddy1204]

If you wan't to "cheat" deploy stakes behind the gate...Also I find mangonels to be devastating, position them behind your infantry at the gates then wait for the enemy units to start pouring through. They sometimes hit your own units but they'll do far more damage to the enemy.

!!

This is brilliant - I never thought of that!

I wouldn't want to assault one of your cities, that sounds absolutely brutal! Lol. I can just imagine one of those massive fireballs striking the tightly-packed enemy units as they attempt to come through the gate. Absolute devastation! Bahahaha. This is just so awesome I cannot even find the words to express it. I am definitely going to try that next time!

As for the comment about hitting your own troops, reminds me of this clip from the movie Braveheart, where bad English king Edward I orders his archers to fire at his own men. "Excuse me sire, but won't they hit our own men?"

"Yes," the king replies. "They'll hit the enemy as well."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYFGRD1T9wQ

[jurcek1987]

I can't say I'm a fan of Braveheart but Patrick McGoohan is always a delight.

I think we should start a SSHIP screenshots/post your empires thread. Surprised there isn't one already, I'm sure plenty of people play this excellent mod.

[Lifthrasir]

Your wish has been fulfilled

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...es-Maps-Thread

[jurcek1987]

Now all we need is a new update

[Lifthrasir]

I was expecting something like that
I was just wondering when

[Swarbs]

I was expecting something like that
I was just wondering when

Now you know how the rest of us feel