im downloading it right now but wont be able to play it for a while.

how is it? what is you're most interesting campaign so far?

Capital idea, EoJ. I feel like a broken record: "Hey guys, SS 6.1! SS 6.1! SS 6.1!"

I've toyed with campaigns as Venice and HRE, but have now committed to France. EoJ, I noticed your positive experience with the Knights Templar. Sounds like a Kingdoms campaign on a grander scale and with longer odds, which could be very cool, indeed. How is KT's unit roster--pretty stout?

As for submods, basically to me it's hard enough getting used to the Byg II army supply system, which I understand is removable with the 6.1 patch but I guess it's worth keeping. It is somewhat frustrating for my troops to run out of supplies faster than the defenders can hold out whenever I lay siege--even in a neighboring region. Byg III, Total Combat, Real Recruiting, etc., all seem to add excellent facets to the game and most players would appreciate these changes. I'll probably stick to the basics of Stainless Steel. Heck, I didn't know what a "mod" was a month ago.

France
I'm about 50 turns in on an H/H campaign. The starting position for France is a bit tougher than vanilla at first, but once you get a good grip on the homeland the improved geographical layout can really help you solidify your position in the mid-game. My first moves were to take Toulouse with troops from Bordeaux and to take Rennes with troops from Angers. After that, it was vital to move up along my border with HRE and Genoa to take Lyon and Dijon before someone else did. I had to forget about Marseilles early on as Genoa took it immediately and an early war with them was unwise.

The first faction I went after once the Rebels were conquered was Aragon. I took one army from Bordeaux and another from Toulouse and went on either side of the large mountain range to take Pamplona and Barcelona simultaneously (using basic siege tools the next turn). Not too long after that Aragon was excommunicated and I went on to nab Zaragosa. Before a couple of full stacks headed my way, I took a catapult recruited from Zaragosa with a good army by sea to Valencia--their last holdout. Two big rebel stacks remain on my lands to this day--I'll get around to defeating them eventually, but they're so close together I think I'd have to fight them both at once. These four settlements are as far as I go on the Iberian--Spain is an ally I'd like to keep close; I may take Moorish settlements and gift them over to keep up a good relationship with them, but if I take anything in North Africa I'll hold onto it most likely.

From Toulouse and Valencia, I'm building an invasion force to take Marseilles and Palma (nearby island) in one swoop with catapults to take Genoa by surprise and avoid the potential for excommunication. Then I'll brace for the push-back.

England moved in from the north and my armies there were ill-prepared at first. Luckily, I saw them coming with a heavily archer-oriented stack and recruited merchant cav militia--the result was a 10 to 1 victory in the French plains. I finally put some units together to take Caen, but it was heavily defended and I had nothing better than sergeant spearmen and mercenaries to assault. After starving them out a while I took the castle just as my supplies went to zero. [EDIT: Forgot to mention I took Bruges from England as well before asking them for a ceasefire]

Oddly, the two crusades called thus far have both been to nearby settlements (excommunicated factions), so I've not incurred a penalty for failing to join. Hey, I was tied up at the time. I'm ready to call one on the Moors, but if not I'll be ready to head for Egypt's far-off lands.

Oh, and I had a jihad called on me at Pamplona. I'm looking forward to that, actually.
[EDIT: I reported this elsewhere, but it turned out the jihad was against Palermo, not Pamplona. ]

Stainless Steel 6.1 Overall
Love: expanded unit rosters (e.g., French missile units), improved naval movement points, more factions

Like: sensible diplomacy (I have no enemies at the moment), the geography, the time scale, transferable titles and ancillaries

Bottom Line: I highly recommend it.

[This message has been edited by crusading1 (edited 05-21-2008 @ 12:13 PM).]

Does this mod require a separate installation of M2TW or will it work along side your existing game.

I've got some long running campaigns on the go and I don't want to lose them.

works along side from what i understand, but i made a copy just in case anyway.

I'm willing to try it (just busy with exams at the moment) - but I am reading messages on the forum (the SS forum) about a lack of a garrison script causing empty cities leading to dull sieges. Plus there is some complaints about some add-on with mercenaries/recruitment that makes the AI to run around with full stacks just of spear militia....these gripes I've read have put me off the mod to a certain extent, anyone care to elebarote on these things - I hope they can be fixed.

I've also looked into DHHR and DLV and I will be trying these when I have the time (read; after my exams when I still have a round 3 weeks of exam leave with no exams so I can just do what I like).

[This message has been edited by Scud (edited 05-20-2008 @ 05:17 PM).]

I have it installed but have yet to have a proper go at it, for some reason it kept crashing when I went to select certain factions on the campaign selection screen.

Im playing it as Venice in the Early Era and I must say this is one of the best mods yet.

I have conquered all of the rebel cities in Italy first, then turned my attention to the East.

Zagreb (I think thats what it's called) was my first target and was taken over easily. Then instead of takeing the two rebel castles next to the Byzantine Empire, I decided to attack the weakened Byzantine Empire whos fighting a war on two fronts, me coming from the west with 1 1/2 stacks and the Turks from the south east with an unkown nuber of soldiers.

I have taken Cornith and the samaller castle North of Cornith but i have been in and out over the past couple of turns. I recently lost Zagreb to a group of rebels but I'm taking it back in the next couple of turns and Thessocolina and Athens are in my sight.

Just off note, I have noticed that the Mounted Sergeants are alot better then they usually were, anyone agree?

[This message has been edited by KeithLB (edited 05-20-2008 @ 08:18 PM).]

I've wanted to try this mod, but do you need Kingdoms for it to work? If so, I'll have to get that first.

yes you need kingdoms.

no, i havnt really noticed any of those problems scud. its very challenging on vh/vh and really fun to play.

aftermath, if you click too many buttons on the menu/factionselection screen, the game crashes. its a bug SS has allways had. allow about 10 second between everytime you click on something else, or just get straight into the action. the game is brilliant once you start playing.

i just started one as genoa. really fun so far.

Does this mod require a separate installation of M2TW or will it work along side your existing game.

It's modswitch. So yeah, I can still play online

There are some traits which I've edited out which are just plain daft in my view, including the giving of piety to princesses (Edited to do charm instead) and the big bad severly wounded trait

I've got Total Combat installed on mine, and it makes it so much more beautiful- I can watch it all day

Templars were a fair challange during the early to middle game, but as soon as you were able to recruit noble spears and some decent cavalry it was just plain fun. I've got to try them on 6.1, though.

In my Byzantine campaign I'm happy to say I'm being outfoxed quite regulary, as the Turks seem to pop up from nowhere and disrupt my little 'supply lines' of retrained troops I have. A stack also made it to Constantinople, but I kicked them happily.

One of the greatest experiences I've had so far was, when a Jihad on Jerusalem was called, sailing over to defend it. Awesoem fun, and Jerusalem actually helped, backed me up, used me and didn't attack me. Like you say, Diplomacy means something

i love that my allies dont immediatly betray me.

as genoa, i have taken over all sarting aragon settlements, florence, milan, marseille, cagliari and ajjaccio, tunis, morish spain (excluding corduba, damn castillians), athens, rhodes, smyrna and crete. i know it doesnt sound like much (doesnt look like much either on that huge map) but it took ages, VH/VH is actually VERY HARD for once.

venice and sicily have been my allies through marriage from the start. they both have very good relations with me and attack the same factions i do. i border sicily in north africa, italy and greece, and they help me out in battles if they are nearby. Castile and france are also my faithful allies.

venice are doing exceptionaly well. they have taken over lots of greece, bologna, and are invading germany.

what i really like is that the balance of the factions is as such that the computer factions seem to be lossley re-enacting history. the spainish christians immediatly began expelling the moors from the iberian peninsula, turkey attacked byzantium and took constantinople, england invaded northern france, norway invaded scotland, the tuetons attacked lithunia and were in turn attacked by novgorod, (i switched off the fog of war for a while to see what was happenning) the mongols are devasting iran and persia, the egyptians took jerusalem but cant seem to destroy KOJ, who still cling on to a few settlements in the Levant.

it also seems harder to be ex-communicated, but, if you are, there seems to be far greater commitment on crusades. i declared one on Granada and the next turn 6 catholic factions had joined.

its fun.

Mod switch you say, how big is the download. It looks/sounds very good.

Amen on the crusades, Meph. I called one on Granada, too. Within the same turn, I laid siege upon the castle with an army I transported by sea. Good thing it went so quickly, because immediately after that a Spanish (Castilian) army showed up and four other Catholic factions had joined the crusade. Gone are the days when you could join a crusade late, figuring you'll still beat the other Catholics to the punch. I can confirm the more realistic expansion of AI factions, too, although I've been viewing everything through "the fog of war." I imagine a lot of these diplomacy, crusade and expansion facets stem from a general animosity between factions of different religions that's built in to the mod.

Right clicking on it and selecting properties shows it's 3.56 GB. I suggest uninstalling the Americas campaign, then

But thats my favourite campaign. It's more the download size than the overall size. My internet connection isn't too good. As well as kingdoms, is anything else needed?

Kingdoms is all that's needed.

The download's in two parts, but it's rather beefy- not sure how big, though

quick question, in my genoa campain im having a difficult time with recruiting units. Basically feudal knights/sergeants seem unavailable to me, it say's they will be recruitable in 9 turns but the clock never runs down.

also, i looked through my building browser at more advanced buildings and what they can recruit when i am able to build them. basically, it doesnt say anything anywere about muskets, high end cannons, familgia ducal (sp), mounted/dismounted broken lances.

am i going to be fighting with militia units and crossbowmen the enitre game? i cant even recruit mailed knights!

the year is about 1250 by the way, and the gunpoweder event has happened.

[This message has been edited by Mephistopholes (edited 05-21-2008 @ 02:26 PM).]

I found both downloads, 800mb and 560mb, I should be ok. I downloaded EB1.1 which is about 685mb so i'll just wait a bit longer. Holiday coming up, perfect time to get it

quick question, in my genoa campain im having a difficult time with recruiting units. Basically feudal knights/sergeants seem unavailable to me, it say's they will be recruitable in 9 turns but the clock never runs down.

I think it's because you've got some Real Recruitment files on your game- did you download any mods?

Quoted from Mephistopholes:

quick question, in my genoa campain im having a difficult time with recruiting units.

Meph, did you install the sub-mod Bigg's Grim Reality III? I was reading other forums and have seen postings similar to yours but no explanation for this issue. The only thing I can think of is with BGRIII (or maybe the Real Recruiting mod) there is a limit on what type of units you can recruit depending on the level of general there--and without a governor in a settlement, you'd have the lowest availability of advanced units.

This probably doesn't address your problem, though. Your comment makes me want to double-check my building browser the next chance I get.

EoJ, you've played long enough into campaigns on SS. Any problems with gunpowder units, etc.?

[EDIT: Sorry for the duplicated response, EoJ. It takes me much longer to post these dang things, apparently.]

[This message has been edited by crusading1 (edited 05-21-2008 @ 03:04 PM).]

Read That Alliance's are better in this mod...I dont have Kingdoms yet and only dailup connection live out in wilderness. But anyway what would half to be done to change that in M2:TW 1.2? If ya dont mind me asking?

EoJ, you've played long enough into campaigns on SS. Any problems with gunpowder units, etc.?

Gunpowder units behave roughly the same as in Vanilla, but I think their damage has been tweaked slightly, but yeah.

You want Greek fire, in any case- I've won so many battles just because I've run them around the sides and torched everything

Also when it says battles last longer due to higher morale and the combo of higher defence with lower attack - how long?

The problem with vanilla it spouts the tactic of "flanking" yet you only find your pinning force that attacked the enemy front has already caused a mass rout like headless chicken running away from a meat grinder....or your troops are the one's running away from the enemy's meat grinder of swords and spears. This is why one of the reason I like EB for RTW so much (including all the other orgasm inducing features) is because they have edited the stats battles do last longer and units actually stand and fight for more than 10 seconds before routing allowing to actually use flanking tactics.

So, battles lasting longer - do units rout less quickly in SS, or is it just cunning ruse on the modders behalf?

[This message has been edited by Scud (edited 05-21-2008 @ 03:56 PM).]

I've another question.

I should be no surprise to anyone who've read previous posts that I really like militia armies (free upkeep is very useful).

The blurb on the forum leads me to believe that complete militia armies (infantry, missile and cavalry) are rather difficult to come by.

Is this so?

Same reason as always - I hate uber-troops. there's just no generalship needed if you could win with your eyes close or worse yet, the AI could win.

as far as i know, i have no mod's installed.

i had SS 5.1 which has now been moved out of the mod file and onto my desktop. other than that i have never downloaded a mod. i have SS 6 parts 1 2 and SS6.1 patch, thats all.

i was just wondering if any one else has this with genoa. it really sucks. i dont think it could be a mod buecase when i look at the buildings that are supposed to train Familia Ducal it doesnt say anything about them even existing despite them being my elite unit on the factions select screen, same with broken lances/musket/pikemen/halberds and any cannon over a great bombard.

also, and this happened to me on 5.1, in custom battles i can NEVER choose all the units which are available to that faction in the campaign, they are simply not their. kind of a pain becuase you cant see your factions recruitment prospects before you start a campaign. im not sure if this is how its meant to be or not.

have any of these things happened to anyone else?