Slitherine

I'm pretty sure Seljuq peers lose more than they gain by appointments, iirc they lose 5 or so, but I haven't tested it since early Kingdoms, if they don't its a bug according to the flavour text, I'll test it when I take the next turn.

So. as you can see AI went on the path of least resistance once they saw no high CP troops standing in their way. But as I predicted in the last turn we were able to intercept them. Take a look at the fact that we are Defenders. If both armies on the move Order decided by a random Faction placement queue on each Impulse with tilt towards the side who has more units. Garrisons despite not being part of your stack count for that equation. So I got unlucky with placement considering 2-0 General and Snowy Forest providing less Defense compared to regular version.





Take a note why I said I want to minimize Infantry SAUs and go above the limit with Cavalry. High Base stats + Effectivness for attrition + Evasion negating Heavy Infantry and Mediums to a lesser extent + no Charge in the difficult terrains which saves attrition for bad roles + high minimal roles that are based off effectiveness + high Combat Power compared to other units. Another funny scenario where their Evasion combined with my Steady Trigger saves them two effectiveness.



I roll through with Insults from the previous turn. Finally reach 25 Relationships with Hungary, so I can shed off my region to them. Its time to roll for Cooperation with Byzantines until I get it, then for the Passage Rights. Clicking through various message categories while browsing my neighbors reveals two points: latgalia didn't lsoe any units in combat, while Novgorod tries to come in from the other door, which will be shut down when my weak region transfers to Poland on the next turn.








I assign Loyalty buffing leader to the new utility Peasant. I hire more archers to fill up my Patrolling stack. My main stack won't be Assaulting. The reason is Capitals always have tough Garrisons - Heavy or similar in stats Infantry full line combined with full line of +3 supports. Thats where you need harassment stacks to connect prior to delayed main stack arrival. I don't have resources for that early on, so my options is to exploit by planting a single peasant on top to force sortie and crush them in the field (which I won't do this AAR), Starve them, which is easy in this region OR try to get significant casualties roll on Siege that wipes out 1 HP +3 Supports. Also I queue up Pillage again since we need all gold we can get and lower the region Bargain Points value







I queue up Peasants for Manpower and to boost my Military Expertise to 1 ASAP. Military Expertise takes all your regions and divides them by the number of structures, where tier 2 counts as 2 points. Tribals always have an issue with that since we don't have high level Forts, the ones we get hinge upon random event before requiring extra POP to upgrade. Thats why we have to rush for 8 POP and then to 12 for Great Temple and then to 20 to have slots for good buildings. We get another positive random event!





I don't have any new RGDs, but you want to press that button anyway and check your neighbors. AI unknowingly sets up a trap that can actually backfire if I had a proper stack. When any Recruit type regional decision goes off AND invading stack has Assault command queued up FIGHT gonna happen on the underlying terrain instead of City and if they lose I get region for free. But they have defensive terrain and 2 Defense general, so I can't seize the opportunity.

Nothing new under the sun for Diplomacy. I send a few deals. Metal is crucial, so I'm ready to pay 100 gold and Authority to get a pinch. Novgorod manages Siege with no losses, which indicates a Doom Stack. Good thing that our SE protected by Poland & Latgalia buffers & lake. So we have to cover a single entry point since AI get huge debuffs for routes involving long sea transportation. Also we sweep up Local Units RGD no problems.










Very tough Garrison, so I can assault only after starving them for two turns hoping for Supports Efficiency drop to 1, so my archers likely to Exhaust them, Significant Siege roll that wipes them out or Wall breach so they don't have any +2 Wall bonuses.



As you can see we are starving ourself cuz after 2 active Pillages region degraded to this condition, but I get ton of Gold in return. As we are stretching our resources no hiring this turn. First we have to develop our regions more towards Gold, Manpower and Metal. I will be disbanding some archers after I deal with Livonia, cuz I don't need full +3 coverage when not being on attack. My army should be able to Forage Lowlands, but likely roll will result in Pillage, so next turn all units gonna lose Effectiveness.



Another positive event where Noble free edicts Anchorage, which I'm okay with. Since no hiring process takes place I assign 5 Administration 3 Piety leader to increase amount of good random events and for the Loyalty perk OFC. My main stack not on our territory, so Upkeep increased by 25%. No new RGDs again.

I try to strike Cooperation with Hungary and reroll 9% with Byzantines. Later on I will try to exchange my region with Hungary to get neighbors with Byzantines. Smolensk doesn't crush Latgalia main stack so far. Interestingly I get a 2nd Claim against Pechenegs via Insults which I didn't expect.

Papal State got in the war with Apulia. We start to insult them since all Christians and Orthodox love Papal States generally and I don't wont to risk end up up Crusades target in the future.







3 of my Main Stack units starved, but I breached walls and intend to Assault on the next turn. Region under me is Pillaged already, so I have to move out with Assault to Pillage region to the north on the next turn, end up in supply and get 25% Upkeep reduction. No recruitment this turn.



Next month gonna be harsh, Suomi raises claim against me, which is not good since our Relationships terrible. We can start getting Hostile Claims Authority drains. I pay 50 Gold to put Develop Region in Very High and play on the region where our Patrol stack stationed. I get Pastoral Council naturally.

It went better than I expected. First of all enemy sallied out knowing they doomed, which goes off faster than Assault, so I ended up on Defense. You can see that they started at 0 Effectivness from the get go, which means they lost 1 from Starvation and 1 from Siege casualties roll. No +3 support bonuses and weak shooting meant I got no attrition at all.







After round of Insults I beg Poland and HRE for Metal. Poland agreed to Cooperate. I got lucky that HRE didn't accept my exchange deal. Also still no Negative tokens still, big Authority and monetary boost for capturing Capital. Sweden finally gets to 25 Relationship so I cede my last Island region.









I switch Governor for my only Province. The reason is 10 Loyalty bonus propelled region I intend to Pillage past 50. I see Novgorod pulled up their stack, so I switch general to 1-1 with bonus for holding Open terrain. No recruitment this turn.



Main stack gonna be rotating between two regions to Pillage them gradually for constant money influx. Good thing that our last island region will be transferred on the next turn. Livonia camps their stack in water to fork one of my regions. I actually decide to hire 1 more Peasant so I can assign General with Defense rating to my provincial capital.



No new buildings queue up since Council has one turn left to build. I sell Forfeit Claim and downgrade Odds to very low for 50 gold. Queue up buildings dissasembly to have 49 when I arrive here with my -10 Loyalty Character to make region elegiable for Pillaging.

Livonia and Novgorod scoot away in FOG of war, so I can switch back my Governor and General for Loyalty boost and Upkeep reduction respectively. Hefty Pillage almost destroyed our future Vassal region completely, but nice money in return.



I won't be using this situation to score free regions, because I have to build my Authority generators since most of my regions reached 250 Stewardship right now. I already established positive Authority gains by gifting the extra regions, so can afford this. How to use situation on the south? Declare war on Latgalia to capture Latvian regions they temporarily occupy. In 10 turns they will become mine permanently. What I would like to do is to travel to Islands and get back regions that HRE lost to Rebels, but I can't since water controlled by Livonia.



I have to strike Peace with Novgorod, so I will rotate patrolling stack to Pillage duty, while main stack will proceed to gain WarScore against Novgorod. A few more turns of Pillage before vassalizing Livonia. I have to stay on defense before Main stack arrives to not provoke Novgorod attack. No recruitment again.



I get Spy Network finally and py 150 gold ti put Send Councilor in Vert High. I don't edict for Chief House atm because Metal production proposed to me. Regions where Nobles reached 250 Stewardship send them to Commerce to boost my Gold per turn to +58

TURN 15. Still 0 Negative tokens. Seems like some nation agreed to donate Metal. Pillage turned over nice chunk of coins.



Diplomacy is brewing. I send dozens of proposals begging for Metal or Cooperation to friendly Countries or their Vassals. All within 8-15% range. Only Coops boosted by Trade Opportunities modifier. HRE falling apart. Half of their Vassals wage wars against them. I start rolling Peace with Novgorod 15% per attempt.





Meanwhile Novgorod pulled stack back and ready to pounce. It looks like switching General makes them want to attack me. So I use switching trick to keep them predictable before main stack arrives on the next turn. No Hiring for now. I switcharoo my governor to Pillage 50+ region. Previous Pillage completely recked Livonia former Capital.





I get my first Chief House naturally in the same region where random event finally created missing Priest. That can only happen if you have 0 tho. I get Sap Authority, which combined with next Deploy Spy Network will allow me to offset Negative Token by stealing progress from opponent.



Lets Inspect affairs around the world:

1) Seljuks and Vassals almost got Buyids, Abbasids under Siege, Ghaznavids falling apart as well



2) Fatimids fighting with their former Vassal. Dont advance anywhere else so far.



3) Pechenegs in big trouble



4) Almoravids backstabbed by Ghannah while their main force appears to be ppreoccupied by dealing with tribes



5) Some progress for Reconquista.

First turn resolve where its better to show a vid.

Here the concept of Defending Harass stack in action. Game becomes exceptionally laggy and tend to freeze when I record on my potato laptop.

https://youtu.be/QX_UzocoSxY?si=MU-MU6pU0zmBdXp7


CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE since this board can't embed YT vid properly.

Nothing new on Diplomatic front. I find new target to hurl Insults at. I need to find 11 WS with Livonia, so I leave their lands unprotected to bait stack hiding on the other shore. Another priority is to build a shipyard I guess. I will be chilling waiting for Livonia Peace deal sine AI usually gives you better conditions.





I reshuffle Governor since I start hiring again. Send in 2 archers to catch up to the main stack to fill +3 Support frontage for Woods and 1 extra Merc will be chilling to restore HP and fill up the last 8th frontline slot. We gonna be Raiding Novgorod heavily for the next dozen of turns to fuel our economy.

I hire extra troops to repel potential Livonia attacks on the weak regions. Plus I need somewhat competent stack to recapture Rebelled region that HRE lost. Yea, and Im Assaulting their weak 26 POW garrison right away.



I notice 3 things. First is the Authority losses for AutoGarrison SAUs, the main reason why I didnt upgrade to the newest patch. Second is that our 3 fights against Novgorod got my Food Storage AutoPillaged. Third thing is that its time to rush 8 POP in 7 POP regions.

The reason is we got hit by the BUG: that event that gifted me Priest pushed my 5 POP region to 6, which leads to autodestruction of Permanent Fortifiaction that will be restored in upgrade form at 8 POP. I reshuffled all my Peasants and Freeman into Food, and pulled out Priest from region that are over 250 Piety to Infrastructure which pushed us to the previous 65 Production Points level, so we havent lost anything since Nobles work on the Gold since the last turn.



I received Remove Natural Obstacle, which isn't useful for now since I have to build 3 Great Trade structures first. I put Remove Hostile in Very High Odds for 150 gold.

Diplomacy goes as usual. I repeat begging for Metal and Cooperation deals. We see that Smolensk stack suffered heavy losses and Livonia docked their infantry proly preparing the invasion in their previously owned lands. I easily crush Garrison on the last turn.





I queue up 3 more Med Infantry Mercs that will be led by Stingly character for Upkeep reduction. Meanwhile my main stack has Pillage order while moving out to besiege a dangerous region I intend to raise to the ground. You know the drill - rotation between 2 Pillageable regions. I switch main General to Character with bonuses in the Open and 1 defense rating, since my intention is to starve their region.





I queue up Trader Borough for Gold since we expecting rebuild of Patrol stack and to unlock possibility of Small Harbor to create our own Fleet. No new RGDs.

Pillages continue to cover our Military Upkeep plus no negative tokens in almost 20 turns.



Diplomacy goes as usual. I decline ridiculous Novgorod Peace proposal. Regional food display doesn't account for the Garrison armies food usage, so keep that in mind. We get our first Authority event and random Noble free edicts Anchorage. Levonia lands their troops to capture Rebel region that broke off from HRE. Now I need a fleet. Nothing new for RGDs or Recruitment, so I shuffle my governor.

I get Negative token, so the next 5 turns will have a lower chance to acquire the next. Our nation gets Low War weariness exacerbating situation around Gold income. Merc patrol stack that went on Pillaging trip have to return to respond to a Livonia sea invasion force Pillaging only a single region. I send utility Peasant to provide 0-1 Defense general for the garrison.







I will starve their garrison for one more turn before Assaulting. Meanwhile my Merc gets Improved equipment rolled by Levy Camp, but unfortunately that fact increases Upkeep further.

Livonia decides to strike at a distant weak region, which I lose but "kill" two of their units in return. Diplomacy treads along, I won't bother you with the patterns until smth interesting happens. No worthwhile events near our borders.





I send my troops on top of the region instead of targeting army itself cuz all their potential routes take 3 or more Impulses. My Peasant moves back to provide bonuses for the proper region. My patrols stack returns to Pillaging targets. Main Stack cycles back and forth with Assault command queued up.



Another bad random event spawns Occultist in temporarily Novgorod controlled region. We receive no RGDs for 3 turns. Another key structures appear naturally in the rotation.

Starvation combined with Siege rolls wipes out all supports, so the only damage I take is from starvation of units who werent foraged food from the underlying Plains after Levonia cut off my supply last turn. Here the issue with Cavalry on terrains where you can charge and caught on Defense - any negative rolls will be amplified.





I get another Negative token despite lowered chances. No Warscore from Levonia beause I didn't kill SAUs or Characters. Cavalry retreated with a single HP left, so they will starve out in coastal waters next turn. HRE entertains my 15% Metal request. Now I will be begging for Gold from all my Full Cooperation friends. I find another non-Vassal nation near HRE with good relationships.







After CRUSHING their main army we get a bunch of modifiers, so I can start rolling Vassal at 16% while Pillaging their territories further. With my main stack I will proceed to rotate between two regions Pillaging them to the ground for money with occasional Retaliate against Unwalled cities to get XP for my SAUs. I also disband 2 Light archers and dont hire anyone.





New Population born in 6 POP region, but we have to go to 8 ASAP. I get another copy of Remove Natural obstacle, which is fine.

Even with -10 Loyalty leader I can't tilt previous Capital to feel below 50, so I queue up Raid and pondering about Disbanding those Mercs for now. Novgorod sends me a generous Peace offer, so I sandbag it to accept after a few rounds of Pillage.



I get Thieves Gang bad random event structure, which is Expected when Nobles focus on Gold. Gypsie comes to my town, but I don't want it because my goal is to dump Luck stat to enable Characters deaths via combats. Another perfect structure I want in every region pops up Naturally.

Unexpectedly Novgorod stack jumps me from the Fog of War. They arrive faster so I declared attacker which is good to counter Druzina cavalry. My General stats help, so Charge backfires on Druzina, but not on the left flank.







I get hit by 1.0.6.1 bug where ANY SAU killed on your territory counts as yours. Pillaging report which I won't post as often from now on unless I get really big sum of money.





My main stack Pillages + Retaliates to finish off SAUs hopefully, but knowing AI they will run away. Retaliate will go off anyway against garrisons which should push my 2nd SAU to 3 stars XP level.



Our first region reaches 8 POP, so I can start Recruiting Cavalry SAUs to replace temporary Patrol Mercs.



Very Low quality characters arrives at our court, Spy Network revealed many Nobles loyalty and our Leader Health sits at Average, which means he has a chance to die each turn. Since we drained our Luck reserves with constant fighting it can happen at any point. I also showered with 2 Authority events.



No new RGDs and I roll another Chiefs House naturally.

As expected opponent Horses run away faster than we arrive. I get a bit of War Score for killing their Garrison SAU and upgrade my SAU to XP lvl 3. Now Livonia Vassalization rolls at 20+% which nice to see. I take a daring step of jumping in the water when I see no Levonian fleet nearbly + I know where they stack is.







No new buildings or RGDs.

We are showered with succesfull Diplomacy begging. Meanwhile I try to strike Passage Rights with nations I don't have 75 Relationships with, while beg for Metal our Full Cooperation partners again.
Full Coop with Rus will gradually improve Relationships with all their Allied states.







We momentarily see their fleet location, so my hope is to get lucky because my stacks out of their FOW. If AI heatseaking function won't work we should be able to invade the island. Fingers crossed.



Hired SAUs travel to merge with the main stack. My main stack executes Pillage + Assault command, while I assign Sally Out for the Garrison to debuff Besiegers before main stack arrival.





I get rid off Low Military Expertise penalty, but SAU is over the limit since garrison counts as a legit stack.



We get Diplomacy penalties for Extortion/begging which swiftly restored by Insults. Another Authority event, but no new RGDs. In one of the earlier you had a chance to receive two per turns while below 3 stored. Right now the best way to get multiple per turn is to advance to Civ Lvl 3. I queue up Pastoral Council in one of the regions. I stop dissaesmbling Horse Collar to have a chance for upgrades on our horse SAUs.

Good news. Luck stat is emptied out indeed. We purge poor character via Combat on the DRAW, which is less than 3% chance. Opponent horses run away again, but we mauled their stack on 3 combats. Thats another reason why I intend to use my Custom AI later on. Make them merge more forces before attacking typically 5 to 1 Combat Power before moving on top of your settlements. Altho I pay with Authority for that.









Congratz, we got Levonia as our Vassal after 20+ of constant fighting. I start sending them Gifts to restore our Relationships. Otherwise nothing new for Diplomacy.





Next thing I do is disband Mercs from my patrolling stack on Livonia territory. Funny if Bandit Hideout gonna appear there. Other than that I continue my Pillaging journey on Novgords territories.



I spend 300 money to Increase WitchCraft Trial, Gift to A Peer and play Forge Claim on the region I intend to hold in the future. Nuts and Seeds is the early game resource that okayish as a bonus for Tribals, but the main point is 5 Health.

We completely wrecked Novgorod region, so need to get a new base for rotation. I continue sending Gifts to Livonia and Insults roulette atm.



I target Novgoros army + Pillage + Assault on main stack. Garrison uses Characters I want to get rid off to Sally Out. We know almost all Nobles loyalty thanks to the Spy Network.





We get positive event to build Roads in our last uncivilized region. Authority from events. YES, Bandit Lair appears on our Vassal territory because we Disbanded Mercs there. Forge Claim on Latgalia unfortunately gets rid of claim I got via Insults. Maybe in midgame I will increase Forfeit Claim to Relinquish claims from some specific far away nations that big players won't consume.