rfcfanatic
Mercantilist
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to share a game where I played as Poland and which proved to be quite challenging even on Viceroy difficulty. Two attempts ended with failure before the third attempt to win Historical victory finally succeeded.
In the first failed game I got invaded by Germany while my knights were campaigning in Lithuania and fighting Keshiks on eastern front and while my western cities were being ravaged by plague. The knights died of plague before they even got to defend western Poland from German invasion. I finally abandoned the game, after losing a couple of defenseless cities to German knight/bombard army.
In the second game I decided to be wiser and launch a pre-emptive war against Germany before Germany could take advantage of my plague-ridden cities. After wiping out Germany and stretching Polish borders all the way to Augsburg and Freiburg am Breisgau, Burgundy volunteered as my vassal and so I enjoyed better times for a while. Before going after Lithuania, I fought lengthy wars against Austria and especially against Hungary (Hungary had their castle replacement UB in every city basically!) in order to get Bohemia, Moravia and Upper Hungary for an UHV. This all delayed the campaign against Lithuania and when this finally happened, France-Spain declared war on me! Because a lot of military resources went to defend my Burgundian vassal from French-Spanish onslaught, I didn't have enough units to gain control over cities conquered from Lithuania and in that phase, also Muscovy. So, I failed the UHV of controlling 12 cities. I was doing even worse in Western Europe. Burgundy was losing city after another to highly promoted huge stacks of French knights... I don't understand why France and its vassal Spain got so powerful!
In the third game where I finally succeeded, I repeated the same mistake of delaying the war of eliminating Germany. The plague hit in its expected year - 1287. A few turns later - Germany declares war. Again, a large stack of german knights, bombards and macemen was ready to strike while my cities were ravaged by the plague. Here's the picture just before the plague:
Luckily, the stack was waiting in Prague this time, so I was saved only by the spawn of Austria - Prague and the stack in it all flipped away. Only a plague-struck unit was defending Berlin when I took it. Frankfurt was captured a lot later when my stability could afford it. Meanwhile, another plague struck in 1485 and it provided a good chance to rename Paris to Paryz When Burgundy capitulated to France, I had to destroy Burgundy as well. With Germany capitulated, Burgundy conquered and France collapsed - only then I could do what I was supposed to do for UHV - conquer Lithuania and Kievan Rus' leftover cities.
Finally, the Polish Commonwealth stretched from Calais to Kaluga. Actually, not just from Calais but from Bordeaux which is a lot more important city because of AA.
It's kind of paradoxal that in order to control Eastern Europe for its UHV, Poland has to conquer Western Europe. Here are the main reason why this particular start yields a challenging game:
1. Black Death hits early. REALLY early. I guess 1287 is almost as early as it can get. When it hits, the Mongol invasion event is still active. So it means that you won't be able to concentrate the military power to your western border. Plague + German invasion can get very frustrating.
Do I assume correctly that the plague spawn dates already get calculated when the game starts in 500 AD? Three times I loaded from the 966 AD save and the plague hit exactly at the same time. Moreover, in the two recent games, the second plague also hit at the same time - 1485.
2. Germany is very strong and has hostile attitude towards Poland. Germany is also technologically advanced. For example, Germany had bombards already in 1250. If you want to win this game, you'll have to conquer Germany at least.
3. Unless dealt with, France will become a big problem in late game. Just like Germany earlier in the game.
There's one more, but it's more generic challenge. How to reap the best possible production from the core land Poland has? There are a lot of grassland and so little amount of hills from which the most are located in the mountainous area separating Hungary from Poland. So where to build the Heroic Epic? Here's my solution. City of Plock, 3 tiles east from Poznan the capitol:
Not really the best solution, but Plock had a lot of food and also, no useless mountain tiles. Watermills are very powerful with Rep. parts tech and Apprenticeship civic.
I also attached the save from the turn Poland spawns. For anyone interested of taking the challenge. The difficulty is Viceroy, but the game itself is much more difficult I think. AI having Gunpowder in 1250 is much earlier than its historical invention in Europe (1326) AI being so much technologically ahead of history is essential on Emperor, OK on Monarch, but intolerable on Viceroy.
So what do you people think what'll be the best way to deal with Western Europe when you're playing as Poland? Maybe this part should also be covered in RFCE_CivSpecificInfo.html document in the mod directory?
PS! A question about the research bar. When it says "Military Tactics (+302%)", what does this +302% mean?
Just wanted to share a game where I played as Poland and which proved to be quite challenging even on Viceroy difficulty. Two attempts ended with failure before the third attempt to win Historical victory finally succeeded.
In the first failed game I got invaded by Germany while my knights were campaigning in Lithuania and fighting Keshiks on eastern front and while my western cities were being ravaged by plague. The knights died of plague before they even got to defend western Poland from German invasion. I finally abandoned the game, after losing a couple of defenseless cities to German knight/bombard army.
In the second game I decided to be wiser and launch a pre-emptive war against Germany before Germany could take advantage of my plague-ridden cities. After wiping out Germany and stretching Polish borders all the way to Augsburg and Freiburg am Breisgau, Burgundy volunteered as my vassal and so I enjoyed better times for a while. Before going after Lithuania, I fought lengthy wars against Austria and especially against Hungary (Hungary had their castle replacement UB in every city basically!) in order to get Bohemia, Moravia and Upper Hungary for an UHV. This all delayed the campaign against Lithuania and when this finally happened, France-Spain declared war on me! Because a lot of military resources went to defend my Burgundian vassal from French-Spanish onslaught, I didn't have enough units to gain control over cities conquered from Lithuania and in that phase, also Muscovy. So, I failed the UHV of controlling 12 cities. I was doing even worse in Western Europe. Burgundy was losing city after another to highly promoted huge stacks of French knights... I don't understand why France and its vassal Spain got so powerful!
In the third game where I finally succeeded, I repeated the same mistake of delaying the war of eliminating Germany. The plague hit in its expected year - 1287. A few turns later - Germany declares war. Again, a large stack of german knights, bombards and macemen was ready to strike while my cities were ravaged by the plague. Here's the picture just before the plague:
Luckily, the stack was waiting in Prague this time, so I was saved only by the spawn of Austria - Prague and the stack in it all flipped away. Only a plague-struck unit was defending Berlin when I took it. Frankfurt was captured a lot later when my stability could afford it. Meanwhile, another plague struck in 1485 and it provided a good chance to rename Paris to Paryz When Burgundy capitulated to France, I had to destroy Burgundy as well. With Germany capitulated, Burgundy conquered and France collapsed - only then I could do what I was supposed to do for UHV - conquer Lithuania and Kievan Rus' leftover cities.
Finally, the Polish Commonwealth stretched from Calais to Kaluga. Actually, not just from Calais but from Bordeaux which is a lot more important city because of AA.
It's kind of paradoxal that in order to control Eastern Europe for its UHV, Poland has to conquer Western Europe. Here are the main reason why this particular start yields a challenging game:
1. Black Death hits early. REALLY early. I guess 1287 is almost as early as it can get. When it hits, the Mongol invasion event is still active. So it means that you won't be able to concentrate the military power to your western border. Plague + German invasion can get very frustrating.
Do I assume correctly that the plague spawn dates already get calculated when the game starts in 500 AD? Three times I loaded from the 966 AD save and the plague hit exactly at the same time. Moreover, in the two recent games, the second plague also hit at the same time - 1485.
2. Germany is very strong and has hostile attitude towards Poland. Germany is also technologically advanced. For example, Germany had bombards already in 1250. If you want to win this game, you'll have to conquer Germany at least.
3. Unless dealt with, France will become a big problem in late game. Just like Germany earlier in the game.
There's one more, but it's more generic challenge. How to reap the best possible production from the core land Poland has? There are a lot of grassland and so little amount of hills from which the most are located in the mountainous area separating Hungary from Poland. So where to build the Heroic Epic? Here's my solution. City of Plock, 3 tiles east from Poznan the capitol:
Not really the best solution, but Plock had a lot of food and also, no useless mountain tiles. Watermills are very powerful with Rep. parts tech and Apprenticeship civic.
I also attached the save from the turn Poland spawns. For anyone interested of taking the challenge. The difficulty is Viceroy, but the game itself is much more difficult I think. AI having Gunpowder in 1250 is much earlier than its historical invention in Europe (1326) AI being so much technologically ahead of history is essential on Emperor, OK on Monarch, but intolerable on Viceroy.
So what do you people think what'll be the best way to deal with Western Europe when you're playing as Poland? Maybe this part should also be covered in RFCE_CivSpecificInfo.html document in the mod directory?
PS! A question about the research bar. When it says "Military Tactics (+302%)", what does this +302% mean?