RFC Europe playtesting feedback thread

[Chep]

if you settle too many great persons in one city the game "groups" them together.

so if you go to your game and move the mouse over the "single" GM it will tell you that there are actually 5 of them.

I knew something

Milan and Corsica (even though only 1 is listed)? damn, means I will really have a lot of cities. What do you usually do with Firenze? Leave? Burn? Take?

and yeah, the 3rd UHV with Venice can really take a while, either you save enough GP for 2 golden Ages (Venice produced one GP every ~15-18 turns in my game) when you take Tangier or you have to wait for the "Nightguard" or whatever it's called to give you some stability. At least I always had trouble becoming slightly unstable and then Tangier declaring its Independence -> ~ 5 turns waiting until you can continue buildung the colonies.

Thanks for your input concerning Germany. Seems like they're not really my favorite way of playing/I need much more experience with RFCE before playing with them.

The dutch seem interesting, maybe I'll try them some time. I'm currently trying to play with Portugal. But my starting situation seems kind of crazy. Spain has "finished" the Reconquista - there is no sign of Cordoba/Islam on the Iberic Peninsula and Spain has settled everything and built virtually every wonder Oo

 

[gilgames]

if you settle too many great persons in one city the game "groups" them together.

so if you go to your game and move the mouse over the "single" GM it will tell you that there are actually 5 of them.

I knew something

Milan and Corsica (even though only 1 is listed)? damn, means I will really have a lot of cities. What do you usually do with Firenze? Leave? Burn? Take?

and yeah, the 3rd UHV with Venice can really take a while, either you save enough GP for 2 golden Ages (Venice produced one GP every ~15-18 turns in my game) when you take Tangier or you have to wait for the "Nightguard" or whatever it's called to give you some stability. At least I always had trouble becoming slightly unstable and then Tangier declaring its Independence -> ~ 5 turns waiting until you can continue buildung the colonies.

Thanks for your input concerning Germany. Seems like they're not really my favorite way of playing/I need much more experience with RFCE before playing with them.

The dutch seem interesting, maybe I'll try them some time. I'm currently trying to play with Portugal. But my starting situation seems kind of crazy. Spain has "finished" the Reconquista - there is no sign of Cordoba/Islam on the Iberic Peninsula and Spain has settled everything and built virtually every wonder Oo

1, I didnt knew that but good to know i havnt lost my GPs
2, I tried a game as Genoa, uhv doesnt want Milan, only your best interest.... i also took Frinse! if you build a banking state ?! no way not to have THE city of banks
3, "Nightguard" is Nightwatch, Although i didnt reached PW, just astronomy and ~5 turn or 10 to build the cheapest one....
4, As portos don not concern about spain just keep strong guards and focus on uhvs, non of then ask yopu to do anything on Iberia! you can get Torre de Belem if eager and lucky...

+1, If you are afraid of "big" emipers (nonsense???) then first try hungary! they not about conquering their land but defend, thus might be easier for you!


ps: VEnezia + Genoa is defenietly not my playstyle

 

[merijn_v1]

Hey,
sorry that I seem to use this as my personal feedback-thread, if I "spam" please just tell me so.

Don't worry about that. Every feedback is welcome.

I started with Genova but became unhappy with them after I found it very hard to decide what to do and since there seem to be some errors.

1. (in the German translation) the intro-text says "It is the year 1060" while it is only 1014 (no prob, still might wanna fix that)

Most people play in English. So it very likely no one has seen it before. But you can fix it while you are doing the translations.

2. I don't know if I'm supposed to conquer Venice with my starting units(thus probably forcing that "empire" to collapse) or just leave them be until I can "take care" of them later. (still not really a problem)

I don't really like "supposed to". You should be able to choose your own path. If you feel like you should, do it.

But it can be a good tactic. You loose one opponent and get a pretty decent city. I don't know if your starting units are strong enough however. (remember that you also get a amphibious penalty)

3. My 1. UHV-condition says I have to conquer/controll "Milano, Sardinia, Creta and Cyprus", however when I found my cities on Corsica and Sardinia the advisor marks them as green. So it seems the description says "Milano" although it means "Corsica" or do I have to controll both of them? I'm not really sure I want to keep Milan (or conquer it in the first place for that matter)

You have to control all areas.
But Milano isn't one of them. I see that the German text says you have to, due to a translation error.
This is the correct UHV:
Respublica Superiorem Non Recognoscens: Control Corsica, Sardinia, Crete, Rhodes and Crimea in 1566AD.

So there is some confusion and I'm too lazy to play them through to check what is correct and what isn't.
Also: where would you settle? My first instincts where the plains hill on Corsica (Bonifacio) and between wine, silver and fish on Sardinia, so that Bonifacio will eventually get the food and salt. Or is it better to settle on the forrested hill on Corsica? (4 of Bonifacio)
And since all those nice juicy lands south of Italy seem to be stable provinces I really don't want to burden myself with 3-4 cities in northern Italy...
Could you give me some general pointers for Genova? Thanks.
So long I'll try Germany (Burgundy seems to "depend" or profit very much on/from quickly conquering Paris, which I don't really like)

On Corsica, I always settle Bastia, which is the most northern tile. I do really avoid the hill, it's the only way to get a little production in that city. (or you have to build La Laterna it it or settle some great engineers)

For Sardinia, I often settle Ajacco. IIRC, it's the tile south of the peak. (I'm not completly sure as I'm not on my comp now so I can't check and I also couldn't find a screenshot of Sardinia in the OMG, look what happened in RFCE thread.)

edit: there also seem to be some errors with the italian audio files (venezia & genova), they play correctly but I always get an audio error-text displayed.
And the Germans don't speak German. Why?

They are already fixed and will be in the next version.
(If you play with the SVN, you can play with the most recent update and fixes)

The Germans (and Austria too) were given the HRE sounds, I thought the German sounds were too modern and the HRE sounds sound more medieval. But that is reverted and will also be in the new version.

edit2: if you had some general pointers for the Germans as well...which cities would you found? I think I'll try setting up my capital in Lothringen but after that...?

As Germany, I settle my capital a few tiles to the North-West.
If you look at the bottom screenshot of this post, I settle my capital 2 tile north of the size 9 city. (between the hills)
It has a great production and enough food.

For the other cities, try to get many resources in it's BFC and it should (must) be next to a river. Try also to get at least one coastal city to. (Rostov is a great spot for that)

 

[Wessel V1]

Interesting Arabian and Austrian empire in those screenshots by the way, the Austrian is very near historical it seems.

 

[gilgames]

I don't really like "supposed to".

Do you even like this game? imo its full of supposed to do!!!

Interesting Arabian and Austrian empire in those screenshots by the way, the Austrian is very near historical it seems.

Austria was close to historical size an later surpassed it too...(~2700+ points)

I dont get it: why is genoans and venetians stability map soooo badly reduced? for both Neapolis is foreing state :O or should i w8 till 1700 to become historically good? and anyway, both civ have settled across the mediterraneum with small or big trading post cities, but in game i cant, or my stability drops below sea level

As Germany, I settle my capital a few tiles to the North-West.
If you look at the bottom screenshot of this post, I settle my capital 2 tile north of the size 9 city. (between the hills)
It has a great production and enough food.

or say: köln , but imo thats not really good, i like to settle Essen, on the forested hill + strassburg. But this german city sites is a liability, no satisfying solution.

For the other cities, try to get many resources in it's BFC and it should (must) be next to a river.

you dont need to be next to a river! just place it where it seems good.

Try also to get at least one coastal city to. (Rostov is a great spot for that)

I won germany many times without any ship!

@AR another german/norse error! IF norse take Lübeck its got renamed to KIEL!! but kiel located 1 south from the horse! back then it was Liebach or what....

 

[Wessel V1]

Rivers and a port are of great use though. Think of trading possibilities for example. Rivers are extremely powerful because of commerce and production benefits. You could easily trade one or two BFC resources for river access.

 

[merijn_v1]

or say: köln , but imo thats not really good, i like to settle Essen, on the forested hill + strassburg. But this german city sites is a liability, no satisfying solution.

IMO, it's one of the better cities in that area. I don't know which spot Essen exaclty is, but when I searched for a good spot for my capital, I thought this one is the best.

you dont need to be next to a river! just place it where it seems good.

I disagree. The (potential) benefits of a river are IMO too big that a river is neccessary if you want a good city.

Ofcourse you can build some decent cities without a river. But city with a river are much stronger.

I won germany many times without any ship!

I didn't say it's impossible to win the UHV without one, but a coastal city is often very useful. I was talking about city placement in general. Rostov was just an example for Germany, as Chep was playing them.

 

[gilgames]

So the river issue

The rivers are a must: river->irrigation->hammers!!! for me, the trade/health bonus is just a welcome addon...

Ships: I used to have costal cities with Gemans but do not build ships...you have nothing to do with them...and if costal city: Hamburg/Bremen rules
Yes costal cities are useful, but not in case of germany

@Wessel what the hell is BFC???

@Merjin I do talk about the spot 2 north of the iron, northen peak of that province (Lotharing??)

 

[Chep]

BFC = big fat cross (the workable tiles of a city, aka the area covered after 1 culture-expansion).

I just finished a nice game with Portugal - without ever having a Golden Age
(I fullfilled the last 2 UHVs on the same turn)

Not because I couldn't finish them earlier but just because I thought it was fun. I had 11 colonies in 1640 with only the English having 2 colonies, everyone else was limited to Europe

Again a few short questions:
1. I founded Lisboa (at the starting location, although I was tempted to move to 6, inland) and Faro (2 west of the pigs). Or would you take the first settler already to the isles?
2. Although my stability was always decent (~ +5) the city in Northern Africa (Oran, I think) always rebelled (3 or 4 times in total) - why is that?
3. Is Spain "hardcoded" to be nice to me? At first I was afraid they would kill me by taking a city but they never went less than pleased with me, no matter how close the borders were.

PS: If you play with the Portugese, I recommend settling your first "non-Iberian" city in the Canary Islands, I went for north africa and spain almost took over the islands before I noticed it :/

Again a nice small empire with lots of wonders/projects to be build, although I got attacked by Burgundy sometime in the early 1200s with 15+ Units most of which were Paladins using the roads provided by Isabella, which made me restart on my first try -.-

So, now to your helping comments:

By "supposed to" I meant that it is highly recommendable to do so. E.g. with Venice when fullfilling the 2nd UHV ("conquer Constantinople") I'd say it is highly preferable to do so by sea (using open borders, either there is still that open spot before Constantinople or you just pass through and then attack from the black sea) than by land. (although that might also be a viable option, depending on Bulgaria)

Maybe I'll try again with Genova soon, I mean I already tried to optimise the first 2 turns^^
(unload the military unit from the ship, take in the 2nd settler - via open Borders with Burgundy you can still land the first settler on corsica wherever you want on the first turn, and start moving all land units, except the one you unloaded towards Venice )
The problem here seems to be that it is extremly luck-dependent:
My units had a 23% chance to kill one of the 4 defenders of milan - I had to wait for one of the random rebellions there (at first I thought they always come after Genova starts, but then I waited 5-6 turns without any luck outside the city)
However by taking really EVERY military unit I had, I could take Venice (losing all but 1-2 units, so I'm not sure I'd be able to hold on to it, if they don't sue for peace/crumble)...
I just don't really like to play a) Civs where I HAVE to know when to do what (-> France, maybe Byzantium to a lesser extent) and b) everything hangs on 1 or 2 lucky/unlucky fights (->Burgundy)
Sure, you can always try it the safe way, but if there is this really juicy target hanging in front of you...I often turn to "forcing" the battle by reloading, and I don't like that (yeah, I'm weak, I don't want to lose )

So now I might try, Poland or the Dutch both seem interesting, or I go back to Genova...
I think I won't play with Germany soon, subpar city-placement and heavy fighting...na, I just played "Road to War" for exactly that

 

[Chep]

sorry for doubleposting: I just posted the translation / fix in the thread you mentioned.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=12352439#post12352439

What I didn't mention there was the incorrect phrasing of the UHV of Genova (I like the Italian version of the name more than the English one ), I hope you can fix that as well ("Korsika" is German for "corsica" and Mailand means Milan(o) )

and now I think I'll try the British, although Wilhelm is a very ugly boy, unless I don't like the start

edit: hmpf, I don't really like the start - why do I have to settle SO MANY cramped cities in England? I'd rather have 2 in Scottland and Ireland
and having to deal with France also means a decapitating strike at my launch seems tempting...well, let's try anyway for now.

 

[gilgames]

BFC = big fat cross (the workable tiles of a city, aka the area covered after 1 culture-expansion).

thx, of course i know big fat cross, just the mosaic word was new.

I just finished a nice game with Portugal - without ever having a Golden Age
(I fullfilled the last 2 UHVs on the same turn)

uesd to happen accidentally too. Happy you liked my suggestion...

Again a few short questions:
1. I founded Lisboa (at the starting location, although I was tempted to move to 6, inland) and Faro (2 west of the pigs). Or would you take the first settler already to the isles?
2. Although my stability was always decent (~ +5) the city in Northern Africa (Oran, I think) always rebelled (3 or 4 times in total) - why is that?
3. Is Spain "hardcoded" to be nice to me? At first I was afraid they would kill me by taking a city but they never went less than pleased with me, no matter how close the borders were.

1, lisboa on the spot is a nice place anyway.
2, There areminor nations whom like to rebbel: i.e.: oran, belgrad, barcelona ect.
3, NO, spain is not coded to friendly, maybe a lil' better relation as avarage..u did well

So, now to your helping comments:

By "supposed to" I meant that it is highly recommendable to do so. E.g. with Venice when fullfilling the 2nd UHV ("conquer Constantinople") I'd say it is highly preferable to do so by sea (using open borders, either there is still that open spot before Constantinople or you just pass through and then attack from the black sea) than by land. (although that might also be a viable option, depending on Bulgaria)

These optoin are not a problem, i allways go by land through bulgaria...
The prob. is Neapolis shouldnt be foreign or with Genova, it shouldnt be the north afr. coast..ect..

Maybe I'll try again with Genova soon, I mean I already tried to optimise the first 2 turns^^
(unload the military unit from the ship, take in the 2nd settler - via open Borders with Burgundy you can still land the first settler on corsica wherever you want on the first turn, and start moving all land units, except the one you unloaded towards Venice )
The problem here seems to be that it is extremly luck-dependent:
My units had a 23% chance to kill one of the 4 defenders of milan - I had to wait for one of the random rebellions there (at first I thought they always come after Genova starts, but then I waited 5-6 turns without any luck outside the city)
However by taking really EVERY military unit I had, I could take Venice (losing all but 1-2 units, so I'm not sure I'd be able to hold on to it, if they don't sue for peace/crumble)...

imo, its not worth it....if no units around somebody will dow you! trust me they do...
Let venice buildsone wonder, and take then with arm.lancers...

I just don't really like to play a) Civs where I HAVE to know when to do what (-> France, maybe Byzantium to a lesser extent) and b) everything hangs on 1 or 2 lucky/unlucky fights (->Burgundy)

Hey dude, play on viceroy, and all civ fullfill this expectation.

So now I might try, Poland or the Dutch both seem interesting, or I go back to Genova...

These are sooo different. Netherlands is a peace running, Poland is "an ill Bear Grylls" , strugling to survive, while you are the strongest

I think I won't play with Germany soon, subpar city-placement and heavy fighting...na, I just played "Road to War" for exactly that

its aintthat bad! RtW like israther lithuania(everybody) or Kiev(barbs) or the first 600 years of france

end relpy---------------------------------

Now i won byzant's and it was true fun, just....
There were words about barbs ~1050 see below:

View attachment 347817

and my stability should be 20+ but thanks to barbs it jumoed between 0-15
another nice crap from them:

View attachment 347816

 

[Chep]

ok...wow...how about some warning?

A few turns before the Mongols start appearing IN YOUR CULTURE ( -.- ) there could be an info along the lines "there are rumors of barbarian hordes from the east coming your way" or something. Because without this it massively favors players that have played RFC:E before aka makes the game unnecessarily harder for beginners. I knew that there would be mongols at some point, but I always figured I'd have Kiew as a warning beacon 5-10 turns before they reach me ><

I had them appearing 1 turn after lituania appeared and Germany dow'ed me, of course I was not prepared
thanks to Krakow (producing exp8-knights in 2-3 turns) I managed to mount a defense, when the Austrians appeared and the plague hit me. 4 weakening factors for my stability within a handfull of turns? I'd probably make it, but since Byzantium is still thriving and France expands and expands it would probably be really tough/impossible to meet the UHV.

 

[merijn_v1]

So the river issue

The rivers are a must: river->irrigation->hammers!!! for me, the trade/health bonus is just a welcome addon...

Changed your mind about the usefulness of rivers?

Ships: I used to have costal cities with Gemans but do not build ships...you have nothing to do with them...and if costal city: Hamburg/Bremen rules
Yes costal cities are useful, but not in case of germany

I also don't build many ships in RFCE.
Only a very few transport ships (if neccessary). Sometimes (but often I don't), I build some warships to guard my fishing boats.

I do however build a lot of privateers when I get the chance. I just love it to annoy the enemy by blocking there coast and destroying huge amounts of ships. (Caravels are no match for privateers)
A nice side-effect of this is that it also provides some gold.

@Merjin I do talk about the spot 2 north of the iron, northen peak of that province (Lotharing??)

No, just 1 tile north of the iron, between the hills.

 

[gilgames]

A few turns before the Mongols start appearing IN YOUR CULTURE ( -.- ) there could be an info along the lines "there are rumors of barbarian hordes from the east coming your way" or something.

a nice idea at all, true many palyers knows the time, when they appear But the 1241-42 mongol invasion also can varey between 1240-70 so a good idea anyway!!!!

I told you poland is a dangerous game

Quote:
Originally Posted by gilgames
So the river issue

The rivers are a must: river->irrigation->hammers!!! for me, the trade/health bonus is just a welcome addon...
Changed your mind about the usefulness of rivers?

NO i didnt! I sad only, the river's trade route function is not important to me....

I build some warships to guard my fishing boats.

veray true, aslo its a pain when play as: france, spain, cordoba....

I do however build a lot of privateers when I get the chance. I just love it to annoy the enemy by blocking there coast and destroying huge amounts of ships. (Caravels are no match for privateers)
A nice side-effect of this is that it also provides some gold.

I've had very bad exp. about privateers even if I can push out 1/1 turn, they are weak, got too much dmg and everybody hunt'em....the side effect is not a real summ that help pyu out....even if you can allow to build them, by that time you don not really need that several gold/turn

Quote:
@Merjin I do talk about the spot 2 north of the iron, northen peak of that province (Lotharing??)
No, just 1 tile north of the iron, between the hills.

OK, you talk about between the hills spot, and I talk about on the hill()/w forest)...

 

[gilgames]

I created a close-to-ideal settle map for germany, might be a bit crowded :s
But i put it to discuss....
View attachment 347876

 

[Chep]

well, restarted and now things went quite different. I led the crusade and my crusaders arrived home at about the time of the mongols, so no big trouble with them, I even conquered Lituania during the Mongol Invasion. Now my remaining ~8 experienced knights just took out the Austrian army and since France (and later burgandy!) collapsed, my only competition for the food production are Spain, Byzantium and maybe Germany (but I think I'll crush them next).
Stability never became an issue (I hardly built any stability buildings and don't have the Wonder that gives you free Castles...).

some points about Poland then so far:
1. Give the player an info that there will be a tough Mongolian army appearing out of thin air ("Rumors of nomadic barbarians that have overrun the East reach your ears. Witnesses say their high mobility allowed them to move undetected. Your citizens urge you to strengthen the eastern borders" or something like that)
2. What is with that stone in Prague? I build my city next to the silver in the east and produced culture non-stop for at least 200 years but when the Austrians flip Prague from the Germans they immediately get the stone, severely disrupting my construktion of walls. And the only other stone is in Hungary and would require even worse city placement. Is this intentional?
3. While the UHV says "controll" vassalized cities don't seem to count towards this goal. Why not "own"? (Or is it again a translation error?)
4. I love the idea of "have a total of X cities in these provinces" - if England had this instead of the current "cramp your cities together and don't settle scottland&ireland" I'd like them much more. The French provinces could be solved like with Portugal "own 1 city in each of these areas: ...."
But I guess that might be a bit too much to ask for.

since there is no way anyone or anything stopps my Polish game by now (all I do is just "settle and conquer"), I might abandon them (although officially I haven't fullfilled any UHV yet^^) for a while and give Genova a real try.

edit: I opened your map - while the placement seems basically okay to me (I like them wider spaced) my first question is: do these fulfill the UHV? else it would be nice to have the cities that one needs to conquer there as well, to see how they overlap in the "final Empire"

 

[gilgames]

well, restarted and now things went quite different. I led the crusade and my crusaders arrived home at about the time of the mongols, so no big trouble with them, I even conquered Lituania during the Mongol Invasion. Now my remaining ~8 experienced knights just took out the Austrian army and since France (and later burgandy!) collapsed, my only competition for the food production are Spain, Byzantium and maybe Germany (but I think I'll crush them next).
Stability never became an issue (I hardly built any stability buildings and don't have the Wonder that gives you free Castles...).

some points about Poland then so far:
1. Give the player an info that there will be a tough Mongolian army appearing out of thin air ("Rumors of nomadic barbarians that have overrun the East reach your ears. Witnesses say their high mobility allowed them to move undetected. Your citizens urge you to strengthen the eastern borders" or something like that)
2. What is with that stone in Prague? I build my city next to the silver in the east and produced culture non-stop for at least 200 years but when the Austrians flip Prague from the Germans they immediately get the stone, severely disrupting my construktion of walls. And the only other stone is in Hungary and would require even worse city placement. Is this intentional?
3. While the UHV says "controll" vassalized cities don't seem to count towards this goal. Why not "own"? (Or is it again a translation error?)
4. I love the idea of "have a total of X cities in these provinces" - if England had this instead of the current "cramp your cities together and don't settle scottland&ireland" I'd like them much more. The French provinces could be solved like with Portugal "own 1 city in each of these areas: ...."
But I guess that might be a bit too much to ask for.

since there is no way anyone or anything stopps my Polish game by now (all I do is just "settle and conquer"), I might abandon them (although officially I haven't fullfilled any UHV yet^^) for a while and give Genova a real try.

edit: I opened your map - while the placement seems basically okay to me (I like them wider spaced) my first question is: do these fulfill the UHV? else it would be nice to have the cities that one needs to conquer there as well, to see how they overlap in the "final Empire"

Well....

1, as i told it before good.
2, I experienced this too, and really annoying. But stone IS THE RESOURCE in the game. There are disscuss how to change it, but its hard to figure out. Imo in RL stone is the most common resourse that almost everywhere! Is this intentional? donno...
3, IT might be translate error. Controll means OWN all cities in a specific area. some UHV allow you to Controll OR vassalize them/it. So in poland's case: 18 cities out of core area you must own them!!!
4, to have x cities somewhere: no good, there are lots of small territories. and in england: yes cities' placement are crap, and croweded England should have total 7 cities in uhv instead of 8-9!
France has no problem with placement, just need too much, but hasnt tried them since SVN is up on my comp.

+1, that map fullfill the first uhv's north to alps part.

 

[Askiya]

2. What is with that stone in Prague? I build my city next to the silver in the east and produced culture non-stop for at least 200 years but when the Austrians flip Prague from the Germans they immediately get the stone, severely disrupting my construction of walls. And the only other stone is in Hungary and would require even worse city placement. Is this intentional?

If you want the stone, you need to raze Prague before the Austrian spawn and make sure there are no other Bohemian cities with the stone in their BFCs. Alternatively, you can get the stone in Russia just north of Novgorod, but that wont count as part of UHV provinces.

 

[merijn_v1]

I've had very bad exp. about privateers even if I can push out 1/1 turn, they are weak, got too much dmg and everybody hunt'em....the side effect is not a real summ that help pyu out....even if you can allow to build them, by that time you don not really need that several gold/turn

Just don't let your privateers alone. You only have to put 1 extra privateer on the same tile, and the AI won't attack you. (Eventually, he will. But that is at least 250 years later.)

The AI just thinks it's caravels/carracks (no matter how many he has) aren't strong enough to defeat 2 privateers. It does think he can defeat only 1 privateer.

The gold bonus for me is just a nice side effect. What I really like is destroying it's ships. You can easily destroy 10 ships/turn at some point.
I don't remember if the XP also counts towards Great Generals. (I believe it does)


I usually have 1 ship for blocking and 1-2 ships for attacking. Promote your blocking ship with Medic I, so the attacking ships can recover faster after attacking. And the attacking ships must be able to get to a safe spot (own harbor or a group of privateers) by the end of the turns, so it won't be attacked.

 

[gilgames]

Just don't let your privateers alone. You only have to put 1 extra privateer on the same tile, and the AI won't attack you. (Eventually, he will. But that is at least 250 years later.)

The AI just thinks it's caravels/carracks (no matter how many he has) aren't strong enough to defeat 2 privateers. It does think he can defeat only 1 privateer.

False, i did stacked them by 2.... not worked, or just wasnt so dedivated to the case
But AI regulary attacked me even with 1 ship too. It looked to me, all AI was up to destroy any privateer at all cost + the barbs ships / every 5 tunrs....

something else----------------------------------------------------------------

here is a strange, never before stuff: if barbs take a city in asia minor, islam instantly spread there....you can see the with Byz and Arabs too....

View attachment 347968

View attachment 347969


ps: there is one more thing, but the net here is crap, will post later...