Slitherine

Meta talk:
Its Suicidal, I haven't done that for a long time, so its time to get mauled.
First point is to lookup what does it actually mean ingame, but it doesn't say, one moment ill be RTFM, OK no penalty in combat right.
The Sultan is not 2-2 on Suicidal but only 1-2.

Prepping turn 1: The Sultan notes some things after looking up in the Great Magic Book by Hocus Pocus.
1) We got 2 Domains with zero peers, lets select some!
The Heir 4-0-3 is actually somewhat competent, he gets Jibal, the only 5 admin gets Khorasan. (we ignore their loyalty for now)
2) Check if we have a spy network in Regional Decisions (RGD)
3) We have positive auth growth, we can edict somewhat if needed.
The political overview shows
1) there are unconquered regions in the east
2) 18 units defending the Buyid mountain capital ... that could be a problem.
3) The Abbasids has our summer palace, the Great Book says we must fortify our capital in Baghdad, but our capital is Isfahan.
4) The Oracles says the Ghaznavids will backstab us at an in opportune time so we must finish off the Buyids fast, slight problem see 2)
5) The infidels in Byzant will also attack at an inopportune time soon.

Further points, we have several regions that are not part of a Province/Domain, none of them are easily expanded unless we want to absorb a vassal which can't be done for some time.
Most of the regions doesn't have impediments ... well nearly.
This reminds the Sultan to go on a Lion hunt soon, we need to exterminate the Persian lion before the 19th century!

The least developed region Hazar has no buildings except the natural exotic fruits.
And Balkh which only has a lion, a sheep and nine unemployed pops.
This reminds the Sultan to go on a Lion hunt soon, we need to exterminate the Persian lion before the 19th century!

Nearly all pops are on infra, only the 2 front line regions have some food productions to let the army survive.
Hamlets for extra MP
Trade for more money
Some trade goods to cover missing ones to save money.
A levy camp to improve troop quality.
Discreet hamlets to make free reroll, gives a bit of food and a fortification.

The sultan chose not to prioritize anything and just let all build at the same time as nothing is super important.

now save and continue tomorrow.

You skipped building Dismantling phase. My tip for the heavily fortified region is to get yourself 2-3 peasants, move on top of the region, split one peasant, move your main stack back and forth. There is a high chance that opponent garrison will sally out immediately or later on. Siege roll checked before moving, so you don't lose anything if they don't sally out. If they do you will fight them on the underlying terrain.

Now, if that isn't possible you will have to stagger attack or beef up your siege scores with Peasants and/or mercs. What is stagger attack? Hire 6 levy archers and 6 light horses. Either put this stack on top of the region similar to how you delivered peasant or mastermind a route in which your main stack moves back and forth or laterally with Assault command queued up say spending 3-4 Movepoints, while this harass suicidal squad of skirmishers spends 1-2 move points with Assault order to connect first to leverage maximized Shooting phase + Superior Skirmisher margin trait to deal 1 more effectiveness in melee (light horses) + hopefully Evasion to survive + put low quality character in charge to have a chance to lose him in combat.

Now, keep in mind that you have to focus in Gold hard in Suicidal, since Court Expenses will be a thing fast. I will be interested in more details on your regional development to see how you can beat imposed Economy boons.

You didn't show us units that is available to your and your main stack compositions tho, which is the most IMPORTANT part of Kingdoms. Also you have to go to Factions.CSV to see which exact units you can hire at the next age range, and more importantly what Non-Standard RGD nets you. Because one of the big ideas is to get good relationships with Nation that has good Non-Standard units, strike Passage Rights and sent 1 hiring unit there.

Also, please Send gifts to your Vassal to start trading resources for units later on. And expand your comments on Diplomacy plans. Show your Character traits and how you spread those characters around attached to a single peasant for the benefits. Don't let them rote in the Court like many players do. If you have Char assigned as a governor already, you can still assign him to Peasant and provide his perk bonuses to the other Domain without losing AMR stats.

I am very happy you especially took time to answer, which is why I deliberately split this in multiple post over time. I will try to answer your questions, remarks and suggestions.

SuitedQueens wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:57 am You skipped building Dismantling phase. My tip for the heavily fortified region is to get yourself 2-3 peasants, move on top of the region, split one peasant, move your main stack back and forth. There is a high chance that opponent garrison will sally out immediately or later on. Siege roll checked before moving, so you don't lose anything if they don't sally out. If they do you will fight them on the underlying terrain.

Indeed I did, I will revisit this now to see which I want to dismantle.

Now, if that isn't possible you will have to stagger attack or beef up your siege scores with Peasants and/or mercs. What is stagger attack? Hire 6 levy archers and 6 light horses. Either put this stack on top of the region similar to how you delivered peasant or mastermind a route in which your main stack moves back and forth or laterally with Assault command queued up say spending 3-4 Movepoints, while this harass suicidal squad of skirmishers spends 1-2 move points with Assault order to connect first to leverage maximized Shooting phase + Superior Skirmisher margin trait to deal 1 more effectiveness in melee (light horses) + hopefully Evasion to survive + put low quality character in charge to have a chance to lose him in combat.

The main problem is first to survive to get into the region if the army stays and the garrison sorties, there is a good chance I will be mauled, so I will reinforce the main army first.

Now, keep in mind that you have to focus in Gold hard in Suicidal, since Court Expenses will be a thing fast. I will be interested in more details on your regional development to see how you can beat imposed Economy boons.

That will be a huge problem when I start playing, I might have to disband some units at some point.

You didn't show us units that is available to your and your main stack compositions tho, which is the most IMPORTANT part of Kingdoms.

And it sucks, the spearmen has has 1 (one) siege value, so either I take it by storm or park the 2nd army on it while blitzing with the main army.

Also you have to go to Factions.CSV to see which exact units you can hire at the next age range, and more importantly what Non-Standard RGD nets you.

I am not that familiar with these files, which column is important there?
I have though played through to the end as Seljuqs a couple of times, but not in this version nor with the DLC, so I will just use that knowledge to continue.

Because one of the big ideas is to get good relationships with Nation that has good Non-Standard units, strike Passage Rights and sent 1 hiring unit there.

Hmm didn't think about that ... ill try to send a spear-carrier to my largest vassal and see if its good.

Previous playthroughs show that Fars needs to be totally occupied before any real progress can be made, the 2 other regions on the border are low in food and will be further damaged during fighting.

Also, please Send gifts to your Vassal to start trading resources for units later on. And expand your comments on Diplomacy plans.

Costs 110, so I will not do many, in fact ill only send one gift once before the next peace. Rawadids as the largest will be the target, most other will be gifted later once the first war(s) are done if needed, they will align 1 per turn anyway.
I need one of the 2 northern soon to be absorbed to form the Province there.

Also as Seljuqs I will get troops from the vassals in huge numbers if I chose to, its costly but cheaper than hiring my own.

Show your Character traits and how you spread those characters around attached to a single peasant for the benefits. Don't let them rote in the Court like many players do. If you have Char assigned as a governor already, you can still assign him to Peasant and provide his perk bonuses to the other Domain without losing AMR stats.

I'll cut that pie different, at first I need to hope that none of the 3 army commanders coup me as only my Ruler has known loyalty ... so ill not add a lot of suspect or illoyal peers in armies. Its not the size of the army they command that increased coup chance, but the mere fact that they command it, and coup chance must be minimised.

This unfortunately also means I need to increase spy on nobility ... i'll wait with that till next turn to see how things develop.

Also adding or removing Seljuq peers from armies or provinces severely impacts their loyalty as opposed to most other nations.

Did I comment on all?

Turn 1 continued
Based on the Queens advice we send 2 emissaries to the Rawadids with gifts and to potentially hire non-standard units if needed.

Another advisor tells the Sultan that we can expect "Balanced aggressiveness" from our neighbours.

Also playing a few RGDs Two wargoals, that the great book by Hocus Pocus tells us have been improved.
And hire locals which are elite footmen and non-standard that we expect to be bowmen and Elephants, we would know better what to get if we could decipher the secret CSV. The bowmen should be good.

Jibal Province: Isfahan goes full in, only leaving one freeman to farm this turn as we want the musalla done this turn.
Two other nobles go into military to finish a Mameluk cavalry.

Navahand keeps 3 peasant in farming to keep the army in the nearby enemy regions feed.
All regions use the Imams to build in the first turns.

Khorasan Province + non-province regions:
All peasants go into infra.
All regions with Imans where the loyalty doesn't go under 50 helps with building.

Later when national auth increase a few more nobles can go into taxation.

We are missing the following trade goods from start costing 86 before doing anything:
Nuts: 1
Wool: 1 (building sheep)
Legumes: 1
Livestock: 2 (building chicken)
Wood: 1 (-3 mining exploit in desert/steppe removed, these need to be replaced at some point)
Preserved food: 1 (minor stockpile, keep this for 1 turn to build Veteran Dailami Food)
Leather: 0 (-1 shoe)
Brick: 2 (tennet house).

Need to build more Traders Borough on trade routes to unlock some of the exotic trades.
Also build some bricks next turns if possible.

We are not building health buildings yet, but the largest regions should do it soonish.

We are also saving on Edicts to get more national auth which directly gives loyalty, when we reach around 50 we will write more edicts.

Our best infratry We are building one, getting one from hire locals and then I think we are broke and must reduce the spending.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 10:46 am I am not that familiar with these files, which column is important there?
I have though played through to the end as Seljuqs a couple of times, but not in this version nor with the DLC, so I will just use that knowledge to continue.

https://mega.nz/folder/fRAVnSjQ#JtGtQN3isFjuL-qmKm3ziw
Here the link that contain 3 Excel files with very relevant info split into many sheets. Keep in mind that goods and structures is not updated to the current version, but many new buildings are a no brainer choices anyway.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 10:46 am Hmm didn't think about that ... ill try to send a spear-carrier to my largest vassal and see if its good.

Description of your decision doesn't update. Its always looked at from your perspective. Vassals considered to be your native territory, so this hiring logic works for Allies and Passage Rights nations. You can start sending your Vassals troops and then request them for War to half your Upkeep. Remember that they return as underlying type i.e. Levy or Standard Unit. You want to have some Mercs that gold only in your army.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 10:46 am Previous playthroughs show that Fars needs to be totally occupied before any real progress can be made, the 2 other regions on the border are low in food and will be further damaged during fighting.

Those low value regions can be a good candidates for gifting away in Diplomacy to activate Unit trading, remove Too Far Away boon and create buffer. I would argue its one of crucial things you have to do to beat units inflation since good units often have Asterix to their name indicating that on difficulty above Balanced their Cost and Upkeep will be increased with each new unit of the same type.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 10:46 am Costs 110, so I will not do many, in fact ill only send one gift once before the next peace. Rawadids as the largest will be the target, most other will be gifted later once the first war(s) are done if needed, they will align 1 per turn anyway.
I need one of the 2 northern soon to be absorbed to form the Province there.

Also as Seljuqs I will get troops from the vassals in huge numbers if I chose to, its costly but cheaper than hiring my own.

Yea, your relationships with Vassals should go up gradually. You can speed up those increases if Vassals join Jihad and you Insult your target. Or by fighting common wars and destroying enemy units.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 10:46 am I'll cut that pie different, at first I need to hope that none of the 3 army commanders coup me as only my Ruler has known loyalty ... so ill not add a lot of suspect or illoyal peers in armies. Its not the size of the army they command that increased coup chance, but the mere fact that they command it, and coup chance must be minimised.

This unfortunately also means I need to increase spy on nobility ... i'll wait with that till next turn to see how things develop.

Ok, Ill say that you have to max Character related RGDs for sure and keep them for the whole game. The next priority are Convert to a New Faith, POP transformation (esp. Ordinate Priest) and Spying + Sap Authority. Others have to fade into Very Low priority except Recruitment ones that stay in Normal.



ON SIDE NOTE:

HERES the link to the AI mod file. Turn processing speed will slow down like 3 times, but AI will be 10 times as smart and challenging. https://mega.nz/file/ichwhTqS#nQwbuP6FR ... 4cCaVLV5O4

Place in the Data/scripts path, but backup the original file. BUT do this one you find that its easy to beat your opponents and they never present adequate resistance. YOU CAN ENABLE MOD at any point of AAR.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 11:41 am Turn 1 continued. Based on the Queens advice...

What I recommend is to do the next set of strategies:

1) Do an estimate on how much stacks you can maintain and what it takes to create another one. You need temporary extensions for open terrains, but for hills and assaults which are the most common you need 10 skirmishers, 8 Infantry (if Medium stock up on extra 4-5 units to account for the attrition, if Heavy have 2-3 backups) or better off Medium/Heavy Cav mix like 4 Infantry + 4 Cavalry (Cavalry takes less losses unless you line them up with Heavy Infantry or being on Defense). Flanks depend on your economy and their composition. Light horses are fine, but you have to match their flanking Cavalry first and foremost.

2) For provinces develop one region per Province and setup Notifications to High in order to receive Structure finished pop ups. You have to do this to keep minimal number of Peasants on Infra, while focusing 95% of them on food. Why is that so good? Because you have complete control over your economy and have the ability to spend Authority to get what you need. Put freemans to Gold and keep them there for the whole game. Nobles on the other hand depend on your region Loyalty. I tend to put all Nobles that are close to the Capital on gold.

3) Try to get Gateway structures in each category before focusing on Food and Health. Build Legacy gain structures when offered, but don't Edict for them. You have to use Edict to get Tier 2 Authority generators faster. If you are cornered with bad picks everywhere use Temporary Military structures as your Pseudo Shuffle to not waste Authority initially. Try get to get to tier 2 Commerce buildigns quicker. As far as Tier 1 goes build Parchment, Cloth, free structures.

4) Start Insulting factions to build relationships with your neighbors you don't plan expanding into. Same for the Nations you want to get Passage Rights or Trade Units with. Build relationships with small nations you will buy out regions from and then Vassalize via Diplomacy. Getting them Allies doesn't hurt too. Diplomatic Frenzy penalty is easy to beat. Its like -0.3 per turn. You want to build relationships with your neighbors because if they become bad and they have Claims on your territory get ready for constant Authority drop events. As long as they are neutral or positive you don't care. Insults also have very high chance to place a Claim in the territory of your future targets. You can even Insult your future partners a bit to trade off Claim later on to get them as Vassals.

SuitedQueens wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 3:52 pm

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 11:41 am Turn 1 continued. Based on the Queens advice...

What I recommend is to do the next set of strategies:

1) Do an estimate on how much stacks you can maintain and what it takes to create another one. You need temporary extensions for open terrains, but for hills and assaults which are the most common you need 10 skirmishers, 8 Infantry (if Medium stock up on extra 4-5 units to account for the attrition, if Heavy have 2-3 backups) or better off Medium/Heavy Cav mix like 4 Infantry + 4 Cavalry (Cavalry takes less losses unless you line them up with Heavy Infantry or being on Defense). Flanks depend on your economy and their composition. Light horses are fine, but you have to match their flanking Cavalry first and foremost.

This will be fixed during the first couple of turns hopefully, I won't wait on perfect army setup, but will more or less blitz the east first then go after the next capital, I will also check each turn if they want to be absorbed!!!

2) For provinces develop one region per Province and setup Notifications to High in order to receive Structure finished pop ups. You have to do this to keep minimal number of Peasants on Infra, while focusing 95% of them on food. Why is that so good? Because you have complete control over your economy and have the ability to spend Authority to get what you need. Put freemans to Gold and keep them there for the whole game. Nobles on the other hand depend on your region Loyalty. I tend to put all Nobles that are close to the Capital on gold.

I have set notifications to max from the very first game!!! I even look in the log from time to time as some things are not notified
I will put EVERYONE on infra the first 5-10 turns, the peasants can starve for all I care (despite the Sultan doesn't currently has psychopath) only enough food is generated to feed the army.
We need more national auth before we can move nobles that much around, I also use freemen for food most of the game, which I think is superior.

3) Try to get Gateway structures in each category before focusing on Food and Health. Build Legacy gain structures when offered, but don't Edict for them. You have to use Edict to get Tier 2 Authority generators faster. If you are cornered with bad picks everywhere use Temporary Military structures as your Pseudo Shuffle to not waste Authority initially. Try get to get to tier 2 Commerce buildigns quicker. As far as Tier 1 goes build Parchment, Cloth, free structures.

I will use edicts at start sparingly to get auth, then generally edict some building, mostly conversion and gateway.

4) Start Insulting factions to build relationships with your neighbors you don't plan expanding into. Same for the Nations you want to get Passage Rights or Trade Units with. Build relationships with small nations you will buy out regions from and then Vassalize via Diplomacy. Getting them Allies doesn't hurt too. Diplomatic Frenzy penalty is easy to beat. Its like -0.3 per turn. You want to build relationships with your neighbors because if they become bad and they have Claims on your territory get ready for constant Authority drop events. As long as they are neutral or positive you don't care. Insults also have very high chance to place a Claim in the territory of your future targets. You can even Insult your future partners a bit to trade off Claim later on to get them as Vassals.

The evil magician Hocus Pocus has limited diplomatic to around 3 per turn, ill have to be careful with the use.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 4:31 pm This will be fixed during the first couple of turns hopefully, I won't wait on perfect army setup, but will more or less blitz the east first then go after the next capital, I will also check each turn if they want to be absorbed!!!

By Perfect army I meant one that can proceed with fast conquest without losses. You want wars to be quick and efficient. So you have to optimize your army for Assaults and fight in +2 Terrains. Those armies take less Maintenance due to the reduced frontage, so less units required. Usually you have to take some medium infantry for Siege score and holding Just Conquered regions from AI blowbacks, but they have the highest loses mainly because of susceptibility to archers and low HP. OFC the best part is that they are cheap.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 4:31 pm I will put EVERYONE on infra the first 5-10 turns, the peasants can starve for all I care (despite the Sultan doesn't currently has psychopath) only enough food is generated to feed the army.
We need more national auth before we can move nobles that much around, I also use freemen for food most of the game, which I think is superior.

I find that this leads to the regions that you will have to rebuild more than you want. You cant dispense your Authority early on, since you want to spike to about 57 on Suicidal if you don't try to go for Rush strategies where you don't care about Authority at all and happy to float at 0-20 range.



Hope you saw my message with links and more tips. Some useful selfexplanatory tables there.

Turn 1 results part 2.

We got 2 new regional decisions (RGD)
Spy on nobles, we will increase chance to high odds, and immediately play it on the capital as we want to know as much as possible this might get the loyalty of wify or sister, neither of which is useful afaik.
From peasant to Freemen, all our regions has a freeman, so we will save it.
Which means we need to get rid of one of the others.
Absorb minor, we don't want the any of the 2 I can get in central Asia, too far out.
Instill revolt none we want to play on, as we either don't want to annoy people or on regions we are going to take immediately. So we sell one, keeping the last Sneak attack.

The Sultan insults a random vassal of Buyids all by himself, that will be useful in the future.

Our insult to the Soomras apparently didn't improve our standing with Ghazavids, maybe they are not enemies?
We try to send a gift to Ghazavids as they are the most irritating and useless to fight.

Isfahan builds a Musalla, but the new selection is not what I dreamt off Maybe use an edict?
We could use wood, but none available
A Craftman's district, cost 5, but we have no tool so -16 gold ... not good.
a Trade borough, cost 3, but we are not on the silk road, good
a reinforced palisade, cost zero, kind of a reroll.
hamlet for MP, cost 2, we really need MP, like really, there are no legumes so cost 7 gold.
or
just take the graveyard, which is kind of good and can be upgraded 3 times.

I think we go for Hamlet, we really need that MP.

SuitedQueens wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 5:40 pm
I find that this leads to the regions that you will have to rebuild more than you want. You cant dispense your Authority early on, since you want to spike to about 57 on Suicidal if you don't try to go for Rush strategies where you don't care about Authority at all and happy to float at 0-20 range.

Hope you saw my message with links and more tips. Some useful selfexplanatory tables there.

I am on 16/41 regions giving +2.5 per turn from demesne.

We will see how the auth situation looks like in 10 turns.

Turn 2 Plan (summary from results)
We will assault Arrajan, besiege Sus as they are losing fast food, move to Shiraz the enemy capital, we hope they saved some wine, but they are on negative food for now.

We edict build a hamlet (-2 auth) to get +3 MP (must be -50% due to Sui). We are at -77 ...

Bribe the Ghaz.

Play spy on nobles -50 gold.
Sell instil revolt.

We disband the emissary to the Rawadids to recover MP.

We don't:
gift our vassal as we are already terminally into negative MP, we need to lose some spearmen.
insult anyone this turn.

Expected result next turn:
Ghaz doesn't hate us so much
We take Arrajan.
Possible counter attack from the Bujids in Sus.
A hamlet, fortifications and some random farm animals complete.
We go into negative MP, forcing us to storm Shiraz

For some reason Seljuqs has the largest army in T2, we will have to lower that unfortunately. +21 gold, -77 MP +0 metal, +2.4 auth (as I used 2 for the edict)
-51 gold from importing goods I don't have, I need bricks and legumes!

Link to T2 https://we.tl/t-Dhs3QEUpC1 valid 3 days.

Turn 2 Result

Battle of Arrajan Those Indians travelled a long way just to die for the doomed Bujid. (indian close fighters ... is something wrong?)
Even the irregular foot fought well, only the Mamluk somehow failed storming the city taking -1,-1.

Our gift to the Ghaz was not well received only +9 relations, we send another gift.

We arrived in Shiraz to find their granaries empty, reports from Isfahan says ours are too.

Khorasan:

Turn 3 Plan 1) We continue the siege, they should weaken next turn and we will then assault.
2) We assault Shiraz to get their wine.
3) 2. Army attacks toward Ahwaz, cutting off the Fars province from the rest of the Buyids.
Arrajan starts a road, but put all except one in food to support further advances, so not much progress is expected.
4) Hamlet -> Edict Legumes, as the cost is 16 gold if missing. We will need one more with the ones we are building.
5) Noble created
6) Discreet hamlet -> goat, bonus for 7) and 14 needed, 8 consumed, 12 produced, 25 food extra gathered.
7) Subsistence Agriculture -> Hamlet, missing bonus livestock and fish.
Isfahan puts more peasant into food to feed the army in Isfahan.
9) Send gift to Ghaz, hoping we can be friends, but we don't know their enemies, except us, so we can't insult those.

Khorasan:
10) Konjikala: Graveyard -> Iqta (food, auth, gold, garrison).
11) Merv: Chicken -> Goat, As the Khwarezm buys our chicken we need another livestock for Sarah.
12) Maymana: Sheep (->Rayy)-> Road for infra and gold
13) Balkh: Discreet hamlet -> Flax field, missing goods, the fortification has to wait. Also 25 extra food are gathered. 14) It doesn't look like the vassals are aligning on Sui ... nor are they attacking hmm. so we gift them 140g.

Turn 3 Some stats Current builds
Current trade goods, note only 4 shown?
Byzant has really militarized? ehh hired a lot of troops.
They are still at war with Pechenegs.
They are now at war with Fatimids, both are really weak at start.
Fatimids are also at war with Banu Sulaym Great Tribes, from here known as BS Tribes.
We need to support Fatimids before Byzant defeats them. If the Ghaz doesn't act stupidly.

***Changed the setting for the Vassals to Partial call safe. That should get the show on the road.***

Ghaz attacks their own vassal ...

Turn 3 save
https://we.tl/t-OVapUKqJxI

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm From peasant to Freemen, all our regions has a freeman, so we will save it.
Which means we need to get rid of one of the others.

I don't get it TBH. You should always play convert POP decisions immediately.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm Absorb minor, we don't want the any of the 2 I can get in central Asia, too far out.

Maybe you don't need it now, but its OK decisions. You used it to peacefully reintegrate regions that were Abandoned by you, which is very common action against AI.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm Instill revolt none we want to play on, as we either don't want to annoy people or on regions we are going to take immediately. So we sell one, keeping the last Sneak attack.

Sneak attack ok, but not necessary against AI. Instill Revolt doesn't worth it on Suicidal difficulty since insane Loyalty boosts for AI regions often propelling them above 100.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm Our insult to the Soomras apparently didn't improve our standing with Ghazavids, maybe they are not enemies?
We try to send a gift to Ghazavids as they are the most irritating and useless to fight.

Yea, Insults improve relationships with nations who are in war with the subject of your defamatory statements. But if you Insult target of Jihad or Crusade you will improve relationships with the whole religion slightly, Don't send Gifts to them tho, because like with normal gifts mechanics your relationships with opponents will degrade.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm Isfahan builds a Musalla, but the new selection is not what I dreamt off
Maybe use an edict?

All buildings present here are actually ok. I would go for Hamlet as well since you want to maximize Manpower in each region you have ASAP. Commoner Cementary is always welcome addition and very necessary because of upgrade path giving more Health and Legacy in the end. Infrastructure building is top 1 priority since it upgrades to the Builder Hall for Freeman Conversion chances, which you want to get ASAP. Flax like almost any food (besides Hemp, Horses and Event barley fields) and health (exclude wells and wise woman), temporary fortifications is a pseudo shuffle. Butchery depends, usually you want smth better. Fletcher is nice since its +2 levels for skirmishers off the bat.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm For some reason Seljuqs has the largest army in T2, we will have to lower that unfortunately.

You should really balance your Gold and Manpower i.e. hire more mercs. Again, start sending troops to your vassals. Say typical infantry eats 7 Manpower, but when you launder them through sending and then requesting you get a 3 Manpower version.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm 11) Merv: Chicken -> Goat, As the Khwarezm buys our chicken we need another livestock for Sarah.

You want to overbuild food anyway. Try to use your building slots for the Livestock, Legumes (early game), Wool, Flax (early game), Wood, Tiles&Bricks, Iron, Copper, Brass, Drugs&Herbs (early game), Tools, Parchments and Cloth. Then Legacy producing buildings, buildings with upgrade paths, percentage Conversion to Nobles and Freeman buildings.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm We need to support Fatimids before Byzant defeats them. If the Ghaz doesn't act stupidly.

That won't happen, I promise you. Byzantium has programmed historical areas of interest, so usually max they want is northern regions. True struggle of Fatimid's lies in Crusaders.

SuitedQueens wrote: ↑Sun Jun 01, 2025 7:10 am

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm From peasant to Freemen, all our regions has a freeman, so we will save it.
Which means we need to get rid of one of the others.

I don't get it TBH. You should always play convert POP decisions immediately.

Maybe its stupid to delay using it, but I always do until I need it for a priest in some region, I will find a nice region to use it on soon hopefully.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm Absorb minor, we don't want the any of the 2 I can get in central Asia, too far out.

Maybe you don't need it now, but its OK decisions. You used it to peacefully reintegrate regions that were Abandoned by you, which is very common action against AI.

Yeah I am saving it for some free acquisition.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm Instill revolt none we want to play on, as we either don't want to annoy people or on regions we are going to take immediately. So we sell one, keeping the last Sneak attack.

Sneak attack ok, but not necessary against AI. Instill Revolt doesn't worth it on Suicidal difficulty since insane Loyalty boosts for AI regions often propelling them above 100.

Instil Revolt is not very usable so I will maybe end up selling them all, I'll keep one sneak attack.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm Our insult to the Soomras apparently didn't improve our standing with Ghazavids, maybe they are not enemies?
We try to send a gift to Ghazavids as they are the most irritating and useless to fight.

Yea, Insults improve relationships with nations who are in war with the subject of your defamatory statements. But if you Insult target of Jihad or Crusade you will improve relationships with the whole religion slightly, Don't send Gifts to them tho, because like with normal gifts mechanics your relationships with opponents will degrade.

Hmm I will need to insult the former vassal of Ghaz that they are at war with, I was remembering it was enough to have bad relations with someone.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm Isfahan builds a Musalla, but the new selection is not what I dreamt off
Maybe use an edict?

All buildings present here are actually ok. I would go for Hamlet as well since you want to maximize Manpower in each region you have ASAP. Commoner Cementary is always welcome addition and very necessary because of upgrade path giving more Health and Legacy in the end. Infrastructure building is top 1 priority since it upgrades to the Builder Hall for Freeman Conversion chances, which you want to get ASAP. Flax like almost any food (besides Hemp, Horses and Event barley fields) and health (exclude wells and wise woman), temporary fortifications is a pseudo shuffle. Butchery depends, usually you want smth better. Fletcher is nice since its +2 levels for skirmishers off the bat.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm For some reason Seljuqs has the largest army in T2, we will have to lower that unfortunately.

You should really balance your Gold and Manpower i.e. hire more mercs. Again, start sending troops to your vassals. Say typical infantry eats 7 Manpower, but when you launder them through sending and then requesting you get a 3 Manpower version.

I will disband most spear-carriers when Im done with Fars region, ill need to see how my change to vassal call does.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm 11) Merv: Chicken -> Goat, As the Khwarezm buys our chicken we need another livestock for Sarah.

You want to overbuild food anyway. Try to use your building slots for the Livestock, Legumes (early game), Wool, Flax (early game), Wood, Tiles&Bricks, Iron, Copper, Brass, Drugs&Herbs (early game), Tools, Parchments and Cloth. Then Legacy producing buildings, buildings with upgrade paths, percentage Conversion to Nobles and Freeman buildings.

I've got a tendency to build trade goods to reduce overall cost, but like Byzant in normal I will need to overbuild peasant roundup, hamlet++, maybe the slums. I'll see if I can get some nice buildings from all the trade roads.

Surt wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 6:51 pm We need to support Fatimids before Byzant defeats them. If the Ghaz doesn't act stupidly.

That won't happen, I promise you. Byzantium has programmed historical areas of interest, so usually max they want is northern regions. True struggle of Fatimid's lies in Crusaders.

Hmm, I think I've seen Byzant really beat up the Fatimids, but that might have been later in game.

excuse me I got to run off an insult some minor!!!

After consulting with advisors the Sultan also sends an insult to the Ghurids to improve relations with the Ghaz.
And order the assault on Shiraz.

Turn 3 Result
Assault on Shiraz Missile exchange is favouring the Sultan.
Opps, that didn't go well, but looking on the bright side, we saved a lot of MP usage.

Turn 3 result
Gift to Ghaz raises relations to -2
Insult to Ghurids lowers it to -30
Gift to Rawidid raises loyalty to 50
All other vassals finally increase to 26.

1st Armys failure
2nd Army reach Ahwas unhindered.
Only Buyid army seen is the one in the capital, what are they doing?
3rd Army starves Sus a bit.

We are at -56 MP not good.

The disassembles are done, freeing up some gold.
Termez fortification -> gather 25 food and their nobles build a fortification.
Balkh: Flax -> Brickworks, 3 are needed, zero consumed within range 3.
Merv: Goat -> Hamlet, we need that MP.
Hazar: Subsistence -> Cemetry, good, not what we wanted, but its the fastest.
Sarah: hamlet -> Village for MP
Tus: Levy Camp -> Discreet hamlet
Isfahan: hamlet -> Bowyer, we need to improve our quality.
Qazvin: Goat -> Brickwork, 4 needed 1 used. Good gold opportunity.
no Legumes ...

We receive:
Absorb vassal - but we don't want to absorb Rawadids, so we wait
Embezzlement trial - we need to form a new Province to appoint corrupt leaders to so we can persecute them!!!


(hmm is there a way to export all this from the game in text form?)

The near world in Turn 4
We are 1 turn behind the plan now ...


Turn 4 plan
Gift to Ghaz
Insult to Ghurids
We change Rawadids to give us their army.

1st Army will siege Shiraz, Also disbands 2 javelin men.
2nd Army will storm Ahwas and them move to Shiraz to force the storm next turn again, a spearman stays as garrison.
3rd Army continue sieging Sus.

We recruit 2 merc elite infantry in Isfahan.
And 2 Turcoman in Herat.

Play freemen on Gorgan to reduce the number of Shiite there.
And sell another instil revolt.

Turn 4 save
https://we.tl/t-sSNeXB0JK0

https://we.tl/t-sSNeXB0JK0

Turn 4 Result
The defenders of Shiraz decide to sortie instead of starving to death and meet a glorious defeat. 213 Gold plundered.
Same in Sus.
Also Ahwaz fall to a storm.
A stunning reversal from the turn before.
And thus success, 52 legit. pressing go to place opens nations, I had expected the war goal.

Mazyadid(Buyid vassal) attacked Uqaylids (our vassal) that didn't go so well for them.

We insult the Ghurids -40 down 20 from last, and get a claim, which we must unhand before the Ghaz gets mad at us.
We gift the Ghaz +12, up 14, our first gift gave 9 so the insult might have helped with 5.
Rawadids apparently tries to defuse the tension between Seljuq and Buyid, and relations jumps to 55 (intrige?)

Sus: nothing -> Bricks, its far from our others and we need infra here.
Ahwaz: nothing -> Anchorage
Shiraz: nothing -> goat, we need food.
Hamadan: Traders Borough -> Subsistance, a Imam is created.
Tus: Discreet village -> Hamlet (the bill for legumes will be huge), 25 food gathered.
Gorgan: Road -> Anchorage, hope for fish next turn. The new Freeman is Sunni as hoped.
Balkh: Heretic! we need priety here next as its only 2.
Termez: Fortification -> Flax as one is needed.
Navahand: Legumes (the only plane in the realm ...) -> Village (uses cloth instead which is not available)


We receive:
Remove hostile -> used in Balkh to remove Lion.
Sneak attack -> sold we need only one.
War goal -> cant be used before turn 20
Instil revolt -> we sell one to come down to 11 again.

Legumes can't be grown in arid nor mountain, so most of our realm ...

Elsewhere Castile vs Normans, I didn't see that coming.

Turn 5 Plan
Insult Ghurids and gift Ghaz, should bring the latter to +26.
We gift Kakuyid so we can absorb them later.

MP upkeep falls to 42 as all armies now are on our or conquered territory. Last turn MP was -56 now its -1 so 55 improvement.
Buyid still don't want to be absorbed.

We recruit 2 more elite infantry mercs.

1st and 2nd Army moves to Bushehr together to crush the enemy there.
2nd Army will move on to Siraf which has no fort
1st will siege.
Each detach a spear or javelin to garrison Ahwaz(original was taken as a loss) and Shiraz, we don't want anything funny to happen.

The 4 new recruits will join 3rd army as there are avalanches in Shiraz.

Turn 5 save
https://we.tl/t-bIJmVNE6JA
Had to set to suicidal again, all this saving and loading to play multiplayer in between apparently resets settings
Is there a way to have two instances running?

Surt wrote: ↑Sun Jun 01, 2025 9:20 pm Turn 4 Result

HERES the link to the AI mod file. Turn processing speed will slow down like 3 times, but AI will be 10 times as smart and challenging. https://mega.nz/file/ichwhTqS#nQwbuP6FR ... 4cCaVLV5O4

Place in the Data/scripts path, but backup the original file, cuz you proly have to switch it back to continue your MP games. I highly recommend to use it if you want to get an interesting AAR. You cover each turn, so slowed down processing shouldn't be a boon.

SuitedQueens wrote: ↑Mon Jun 02, 2025 8:11 am

Surt wrote: ↑Sun Jun 01, 2025 9:20 pm Turn 4 Result

HERES the link to the AI mod file. Turn processing speed will slow down like 3 times, but AI will be 10 times as smart and challenging. https://mega.nz/file/ichwhTqS#nQwbuP6FR ... 4cCaVLV5O4

Place in the Data/scripts path, but backup the original file, cuz you proly have to switch it back to continue your MP games. I highly recommend to use it if you want to get an interesting AAR. You cover each turn, so slowed down processing shouldn't be a boon.

I'll need to find out how to run 2 games simultaneous so I don't have to switch.
Or you can try to gift it to Pocus!