In the grim darkness of Middle Ages there is only war

[Me_]

I've played the demo a couple of times and it appears to me that the wars are extremaly popular, perhaps too much, I'd say. In all of my games the Holy Roman Emperor was almost constantly at war. Either in a holy wor, a war with one or more of his subjects or at war as an ally to an outside nation. France sems to be only slightly more peaceful, with civil wars as the main feature. And finally there is Iberia where the Reconquista is a real race where everyone (all the Iberian kings, France, HRE and one time even Hungary) tries to take something from one of the muslim states.
One problem is the fact that the AI declares new wars sometimes as soon as a few months after finishing the last one. The worst perpetrator is the Holy Roman Emperor. I don't think I've ever seen him at peace for more than a year. Since he does not pay anything for his troops (using mostly his vassal's forces) and has a pool of vassals so large that there's always someone without a "vassal levies raised too long" penalty from whom he can take troops. HRE is basically designed as a perpetuall war machine.
Anyone else thinks that there are too many wars?

 

[ranbir]

Yes, in the sense that the larger kingdom can just steamroll from the offset.

 

[HolisticGod]

I'm not sure whether the quantity of wars is the problem. It's just that most of them should be ending inconclusively and it should be much harder, and more expensive, for large Kingdoms like the HRE and France to raise a large portion of their levies.

And the war AI does need some work. Only the neighboring regions should be participating in the Reconquista, for example (England, France, Italy, perhaps some enterprising counts from Germany looking for a fresh start). Hungary absolutely shouldn't be.

 

[Hidden Legend]

Put it this way. I managed to conquer england in less than two years but was limited so much with my troop numbers that. France decided to steam roller me with their pitiful 3k of troops and would have succeeded, however Haadrada not being dead also declared war on me for the throne. As there was nothing I could do I decided to surrender to Norway so the opportunist France could go fly.

It seems very difficult to keep troops in reserve when playing as Normady as you never naturally get such a high number of troops and you will go bankrupt waiting for the towns to pay taxes. i can only assume that you conquer only Harolds lands and spare your troops then at least you can call on your new vassals if you stop them revolting it is very frustrating.

 

[Darrigan]

I also think that when your vassal cannot afford his troops no more, the liege should get an event where he has to choose between either disbanding the units, or paying them himself. That way the big guys can't keep large armies up for too long.

 

[Aeon221]

The HRE starts off pretty well, but every game I've seen in the 1090s and beyond they're almost perpetually at war with rebels and totally unable to act on outside requests.

I think that rather than the liege having to shoulder the burden, the levies raised penalty should just degrade far slower. Almost as slow as EU3 badboy, in fact. That seems the perfect way to handle things, as eventually an overly aggressive liege would find himself swamped under a tide of vassal rage.

 

[takedown47]

what i like is how losing wars is not the end of the world. when playing as matilda of tuscany the duke of lombardia started a ducal claim war over my county of brescia. my armies were crushed and i gave in. i just focused on saving up some cash, hired some mercs and promptly declared war on him to reclaim that lost title. because his armies were recently disbanded his levies were somewhat depleted and were crushed by forces. this is contrary to other paradox titles where any loss of territory is the beginning of the end.

 

[Me_]

what i like is how losing wars is not the end of the world. when playing as matilda of tuscany the duke of lombardia started a ducal claim war over my county of brescia. my armies were crushed and i gave in. i just focused on saving up some cash, hired some mercs and promptly declared war on him to reclaim that lost title. because his armies were recently disbanded his levies were somewhat depleted and were crushed by forces. this is contrary to other paradox titles where any loss of territory is the beginning of the end.

Unfortunately this also fuels the problem: since wars are not crippling they end up being very popular. One could think that in Middle Ages wars were fought every other year.

 

[Amadeu of Savoy]

I think it should be harder to move armies across large regions outside your realm or allies, except in rare cases such as Crusades. Maybe the cost could be in money, increased attrition or a worsening of relations with vassals. Or all of the above.

 

[Joel M Bridge]

Reason wars are not hard one it demo, and two your are not estate build up to pump the mass lavy in later game make mercy look like something quicke pitch then a game buster.