Galicia's hardcoded doom...

[Octavio]

Hi there, I'm having problems playing my favorite nation, Galicia, in the earliest start date. Galicia is a vassal of Asturias and the Umayyads declare war on them every time in the first 20-30 years of gameplay, and it's always, 100% of times, Galicia they annex first.

Reloading doesn't help very much because it's not guaranteed that he declares war on somebody else. And even if he does, he will declare war on Asturias sooner or later.

The difficulty for the Umayyads doing this is pretty low, they have about +6000 troops and Asturias merely 2000 or so. As the game progresses, the difference gets bigger.

So I pretty much tried everything but maybe some of you have a different approach. I tried forming an alliance with Charlemagne and other greater powers, but those alliances only help when I'm the aggressor, since they dont join the war if Asturias is the target.

Btw I find it a bit ridiculous how easy it is for the Umayyads... they blob in the beginning of all my games and, if we want to keep the peninsula a bit historical for the first years, the opposite should be the case.

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[Monphat]

Well, you have to come to terms with the fact that vanilla 769 start is absolute mess in terms of game balance. Asturias as a kingdom is pretty much doomed itself and you have to show some impressive player skills to beat the Ummayad blob with little resources you have. Obviously playing as Asturian vassal would be even harder.

Just like playing Russian count at the beginning of Mongol Invasion start date. it's not fair and chances of your survival as independent nation are miniscule.

 

[Dr Gonzo]

Well, you have to come to terms with the fact that vanilla 769 start is absolute mess in terms of game balance. Asturias as a kingdom is pretty much doomed itself and you have to show some impressive player skills to beat the Ummayad blob with little resources you have. Obviously playing as Asturian vassal would be even harder.

Just like playing Russian count at the beginning of Mongol Invasion start date. it's not fair and chances of your survival as independent nation are miniscule.

lol playing as Asturias is not particularly hard. Ally up with Charles and then get on with it. Playing as a vassal of Asturias would be pretty difficult because you can't rely on the king to be sensible. Your best bet is probably to start as k_asturias and then switch titles to Galicia.

 

[cosmeIII]

That or to start in 1066, where Galicia is in a better position.

 

[Octavio]

Thx for the answers!

I started as an Elusive Shadow Genius who is ugly, slothful and wounded and immediately managed to get the Sultan murdered with the luck of having his spymaster on board of the plan. The heir is a kid and will turn out pretty bad, but I'm still afraid of the DOW xD

If it doesnt work out again, I'll have to play Asturias I guess

 

[Monphat]

lol playing as Asturias is not particularly hard. Ally up with Charles and then get on with it. Playing as a vassal of Asturias would be pretty difficult because you can't rely on the king to be sensible. Your best bet is probably to start as k_asturias and then switch titles to Galicia.

Compared to other realms Asturias is pretty hard and you obviously should have enough gaming experience to pull that off, that's what I'm saying.

Thx for the answers!

I started as an Elusive Shadow Genius who is ugly, slothful and wounded and immediately managed to get the Sultan murdered with the luck of having his spymaster on board of the plan. The heir is a kid and will turn out pretty bad, but I'm still afraid of the DOW xD

If it doesnt work out again, I'll have to play Asturias I guess

Keep 'em rollin!

 

[Jia Xu]

"Hardcoded" means that it can't be fixed with modding. You can definitely mod it so Galicia starts as an invincible super power. Just saying.

 

[Dr Gonzo]

Thx for the answers!

I started as an Elusive Shadow Genius who is ugly, slothful and wounded and immediately managed to get the Sultan murdered with the luck of having his spymaster on board of the plan. The heir is a kid and will turn out pretty bad, but I'm still afraid of the DOW xD

If it doesnt work out again, I'll have to play Asturias I guess

Awesome! One thing I've thought of is that if, as you mentioned, you can ally with Charlie while a vassal, you could declare independence from Asturias, let Charlie fight the king for you and then be able to call him directly as an ally while defending.

Compared to other realms Asturias is pretty hard and you obviously should have enough gaming experience to pull that off, that's what I'm saying.

I wouldn't call it easy, but there're far far harder starts such as the Russian one you mentioned. Nonetheless I appreciate it's not exactly one for the newbies.

 

[Octavio]

The problem about Charlie is that he implodes in nearly all of my games. In my game 30 years have passed so far and Burgundy, Poitou and other counties split off... Fun thing is, the Umayyads declared war on me, but surprisingly, it was them helping me to win the war. That and the +2500 i contributed, I was lucky to afford the mercenaries so long.

I still have no strong allies to take some provinces from them in the next war, hope the Umayyads implode a little too or maybe I'm lucky with intrigues again xD

"Hardcoded" means that it can't be fixed with modding. You can definitely mod it so Galicia starts as an invincible super power. Just saying.

Oh right, should have used "scripted doom" or something hehe

 

[Simmy93]

Eh, balance is one thing but we're playing a historical grand strategy, there was no balance in Iberia in 769. Some realms are simply going to roflstomp others; I understand why people get frustrated with 769 but there are other bookmarks that aren't associated, let's be fair, with a single character, Charlemagne. Galicia is doable but it requires luck like many other incredibly difficult starts.

Badly balanced suggests that it can be improved, but Galicia's position can't just be improved without destroy the authenticity.