[GS] Loyalty in the Black Death Scenario

[leandrombraz]

So, I tried the scenario today and this happened:

Everybody but the Holy Roman Empire was hit ridiculously hard by loyalty, so hard it didn't feel like it was intended. I don't think I could have built enough plague doctors to keep cities loyal and the penalty doesn't seem to go away. Also the loyalty from doctors merely buy a few turns. Did anything went wrong in my game or there's something I'm missing?

 

[Browd]

Pillage, pillage, pillage for gold to buy plague doctors. Easiest is to buy a caravel early and send it around the map pillaging free city harbors.

Also pillage like crazy for science and culture, to complete the scenario before the loyalty problems get too bad.

 

[Halcyan2]

I encountered this on Deity.

On Settler, there are multiple Black Death waves but none of them actually affected my loyalty.

On Deity, during the first initial Black Death (around Turns 10-30), a lot of people died (not surprising since it sticks around for 11+ turns on Deity) but no loyalty issues. However, a second wave of Black Death came (around Turns 40-55) and this time, it led to rampant loyalty issues (which the OP talked about).

In my game, 2 of the AI's (France and HRE) got wiped out entirely by loyalty revolts. England survived with just one city (Dublin). Before the second wave, I had all of Iberia (as Castille) and lost all but 3 cities. Once a city was in a disloyalty spiral, there wasn't anything I could do to get out of it. I tried using Plague Doctors but they just bought me a few turns. With one city, even after the Plague was all gone (for several turns) the loyalty kept going down.

So I would recommend against wasting any resources trying to keep those cities. Just let them go and try to reconquer them.

The key to my Deity win was investing heavily in units (Knights mainly). Even as my cities started to revolt, my armies were taking new cities. In fact, in the end game, it turned out easier to take the former French cities (which had lower strength) than taking back my old Spanish cities (which had much higher strength).

 

[Hans Castorp]

There are some cities - Dublin as Halcyan2 mentioned, Parma, Cork, (possibly Copenhagen, keep meaning to check) that don't get hit with Plague, and so never face loyalty problems. On Deity, England can win easily if you use Dublin and Cork as a base from which you can then plunder your way to victory once the Plague has passed - put campuses in all your English cities for best effect. Parma works for Castile or France. Copenhagen, I think, is the German equivalent, but haven't tried them on Deity. It saves the expense of constantly buying Plague Doctors, and you can concentrate on producing knights to pillage. A couple of caravels will keep you in gold.

 

[Halcyan2]

I just completed a Deity HRE game on Turn 51 just when Loyalty was starting to go bad.

I didn't pillage much. It was mainly a game of conquest, and generating enough culture before the second plague wave (and ensuring loyalty problems) hit.

Never needed to buy a plague doctor.

 

[Halcyan2]

Finished the last of my Black Death scenarios. Turn 43 with France on Deity. Since you are at war with England, there are some good pillaging opportunities. Best time to invade is AFTER the first Black Death outbreak, when England has lost most of their units.