Knights vs Otto / Allies & 2 questions

[BennBenn]

Hello all,

I am currently trying my hand at the Knights, but have practically already failed with what I thought was a safe bet against the Ottomans. Possibly this is the end for this run, the AI let me down because it did not want to attack the enemy armies, splintered completely uncoordinated, marched a lot, then slowly let itself be defeated in small stacks and started to peace out by now. One should not rely on the allied AI, I know, but this is tough. However, I had two situations which I had anticipated differently, as follows:

- The Ottomans were allied only with Tunis. I thought Tunis would not be able to reach Anatolia without transports because there was only one rival of the Ottomans in between, the Mamluks, and they would not give them access. This happened anyway and broke my original strategy to let the main Ottoman force fight in the Balkans with Austria, Burgundy, Venice and the Papal States, while I slowly besiege the eastern borders (Tunis simply walked around the whole southern mediterranean through Mamluk land and erased my work). The Mamluks had just lost a war against Tunis, in the diplo-screen I could not find anything about military access. So was my assumption here simply wrong, that the Mamelukes would not clear the way for their last opponent and rival's partner?

- I had fled my last troops to the island of Cephalonia in the crazy assumption that the Ottomans could not reach me here, since I had so far held both sides of the strait as well as naval supremacy in the Ionian Sea. Again, I was astonished as apparently the Ottomans could cross unhindered (see screenshot), what will thereby now end the war (and presumably the run) for good. I checked the rules for blocking straits and I cant see what I missed here. Anyone?

As can be seen from the picture, I will probably not turn the war, though I and my allies still have the majority of troops, but the war fatigue has meanwhile finished Venice and the Papal States, Austria, Burgundy wont hold much longer and have anyway fled from the doomstacks from the start. On top of that Castile has declared war on me to take Corsica, they are allied with Portugal, Aragon and France

Undoubtedly I made some mistakes (in addition to the ones above), but the fact that it all went this terribly wrong really irritates me. I love the game and the challenge, but seeing all these allies contributing 0% frustrates me right now.

Cheers everybody!

 

[AvengedK1ng]

Hello all,

I am currently trying my hand at the Knights, but have practically already failed with what I thought was a safe bet against the Ottomans. Possibly this is the end for this run, the AI let me down because it did not want to attack the enemy armies, splintered completely uncoordinated, marched a lot, then slowly let itself be defeated in small stacks and started to peace out by now. One should not rely on the allied AI, I know, but this is tough. However, I had two situations which I had anticipated differently, as follows:

- The Ottomans were allied only with Tunis. I thought Tunis would not be able to reach Anatolia without transports because there was only one rival of the Ottomans in between, the Mamluks, and they would not give them access. This happened anyway and broke my original strategy to let the main Ottoman force fight in the Balkans with Austria, Burgundy, Venice and the Papal States, while I slowly besiege the eastern borders (Tunis simply walked around the whole southern mediterranean through Mamluk land and erased my work). The Mamluks had just lost a war against Tunis, in the diplo-screen I could not find anything about military access. So was my assumption here simply wrong, that the Mamelukes would not clear the way for their last opponent and rival's partner?

- I had fled my last troops to the island of Cephalonia in the crazy assumption that the Ottomans could not reach me here, since I had so far held both sides of the strait as well as naval supremacy in the Ionian Sea. Again, I was astonished as apparently the Ottomans could cross unhindered (see screenshot), what will thereby now end the war (and presumably the run) for good. I checked the rules for blocking straits and I cant see what I missed here. Anyone?

As can be seen from the picture, I will probably not turn the war, though I and my allies still have the majority of troops, but the war fatigue has meanwhile finished Venice and the Papal States, Austria, Burgundy wont hold much longer and have anyway fled from the doomstacks from the start. On top of that Castile has declared war on me to take Corsica, they are allied with Portugal, Aragon and France

Undoubtedly I made some mistakes (in addition to the ones above), but the fact that it all went this terribly wrong really irritates me. I love the game and the challenge, but seeing all these allies contributing 0% frustrates me right now.

Cheers everybody!

View attachment 825394

I think its gulf of taranto you need ships in not current one

 

[InvisibleBison]

- The Ottomans were allied only with Tunis. I thought Tunis would not be able to reach Anatolia without transports because there was only one rival of the Ottomans in between, the Mamluks, and they would not give them access. This happened anyway and broke my original strategy to let the main Ottoman force fight in the Balkans with Austria, Burgundy, Venice and the Papal States, while I slowly besiege the eastern borders (Tunis simply walked around the whole southern mediterranean through Mamluk land and erased my work). The Mamluks had just lost a war against Tunis, in the diplo-screen I could not find anything about military access. So was my assumption here simply wrong, that the Mamelukes would not clear the way for their last opponent and rival's partner?

This is probably due to conditional military access. If one of your allies got military access from the Mameluks, then Tunis would have also gotten access.

 

[BennBenn]

I think its gulf of taranto you need ships in not current one

Yeah that was my first idea as well, thats why my fleet is beeing halfed in the image, 9 ships cruising over to Taranto. But the strait is clearly within the borders of the Ionian Sea, so that would be mistakable. Anyways, after unpausing a few days went by and the army stopped crossing. Maybe I was a bit too hasty here, but I am sure my fleet was positioned there long before the Ottomans started crossing, therefore the irritation.

This is probably due to conditional military access. If one of your allies got military access from the Mameluks, then Tunis would have also gotten access.

Yes I read up on that, you are right. Is there any way to see this up front a war? Who is willing to accept who? I would guess only maybe by scanning the relations between each nation...

Nevertheless, thanks for the replies. I started a new run, but after such a frustrating break off I feel I am acting way too impatient and the first years didn't go as well as in the previous run, oh well ...

 

[joos]

You can always reliably assume that some random belligerent in your war, either on your side or the enemy's, will spam access the minute the war starts. Unless you are going 1v1, you can rest assured (or rest stressed) knowing that everyone involved in the war will be able to reach everyone else sooner or later.

Often times, it works in human favour too. You will be able to march your troops through a rival's lands without asking for access once some other rando country gets it from said rival. So only straits and islands are reliable when it comes to predicting/blocking enemy movement. Even fort ZoCs are suspect when it comes to AI.

 

[necro84]

Yes I read up on that, you are right. Is there any way to see this up front a war? Who is willing to accept who? I would guess only maybe by scanning the relations between each nation...

Only safe assumption is that when all of the participants in the war are rivals they won't get access. In your case Tunis and all of your allies (and their subjects) needs to rival Mamluks or someone would ask for access.

 

[vitek69]

I think its gulf of taranto you need ships in not current one

This is correct. To the OP - on the province interface, there’s a tooltip which says that the province is connected via a strait over [name of the sea tile] - you can double check there.

Wrt to the access through Mamluks, as others pointed out, it was prob one of your allies having a big brain moment Btw, with your army selected, try hovering over any Mameluke province, a tooltip should show up saying who asked for the access.

What strategy did you follow? I did an achievement run in 1.32.x as the Knights, and I was able to get rolling on my second try. I annexed Byz, waited for Ottomans to declare on someone in Anatolia and march their troops over the Strait, declare war on Ottos, naval barrage Gallipoli, assault the fort and it was smooth sailing from there. Is this no longer viable in 1.33?

 

[AvengedK1ng]

This is correct. To the OP - on the province interface, there’s a tooltip which says that the province is connected via a strait over [name of the sea tile] - you can double check there.
Wrt to the access through Mamluks, as others pointed out, it was prob one of your allies having a big brain moment Btw, with your army selected, try hovering over any Mameluke province, a tooltip should show up saying who asked for the access.
Btw, what strategy did you follow? I did an achievement run in 1.32.x as the Knights, and I was able to get rolling on my second try. I annexed Byz, waited for Ottomans to declare on someone in Anatolia and march their troops over the Strait, declare war on Ottos, naval barrage Gallipoli, assault the fort and it was smooth sailing from there. Is this no longer viable in 1.33?

Ai keeps forts on maintenance alot more, eg morea is almost always fortified by byz

 

[grisamentum]

Possibly this is the end for this run, the AI let me down because it did not want to attack the enemy armies, splintered completely uncoordinated, marched a lot, then slowly let itself be defeated in small stacks and started to peace out by now. One should not rely on the allied AI, I know, but this is tough.

This is precisely the problem I am having. My allies should be sufficient to defeat the Ottomans on land while I have sea superiority, but the AI is acting absolutely insane, afraid of its own shadow, simply sitting in Hungary while the Ottomans siege all their forts down. The Ottomans are actually outnumbered, but the AI won't put its stack together and attack. Even something like Hungary+vassal Moldavia, let alone Hungary+Austria.