Mod: Bretonnia, Knights of the Grail

[Squirrelloid]

So, the grail hero theory wasn't working especially well for me for a couple of reasons. (1) Grail heroes success rates weren't as stellar as i hoped. I took crippling injuries occasionally to really silly things, and lost to indies i probably shouldn't have. I'll try it again, but thus far not impressed by them naked. (2) It eats the commander buy from the capitol every turn until you get a new fortress up. Seriously uncool.

Works really well for expansion: ~20 archers + ~equal numbers of men at arms kills many independents surprisingly well, especially if you do something really weird like put your lord right behind your troops (yeah, not way at the back, weird) and use his banner to reinforce morale (or just have a KotR or two around). And your casualties tend to be purely men at arms, which a lord can replace, so you can field supply at least your first army. And yes, that's right, your starting army + a handful of archers can expand. Crazy.

After that you're going to want to use indie commanders as your troops leader, because the goal here is to free up that valuable commander buy in your capitol for researchers. Especially that juicy 10RP cap-only mage that you want to start buying every turn ASAP. When those indie commanders burn out their army's expansion pretender, they should build a fortress. *Now* you have somewhere to recruit those Bretonnian Lords and Grail Heroes and whatnot you want.

"I still can't use all my cash" - buy Grail Knights (you have some sort of bless, right?), KotR (and sprinkle them around - if Burnsaber is right, and i haven't checked - every 2 let you increase the tax level 1 step with no unrest! Sold!) Also, it would be useful to know if they provide the benefit the turn you buy them, because that way you could do clever things like instantly bump your capitol taxes to 110% without patrolling, and just buy 2 KotR.

Edit: I am a little disappointed the archers don't have longbows. I mean, their precision sucks, and it should, but in WH they have longbows.

[Burnsaber]

Thanks for the all of you for contributions to the discussion. It's a shame that I don't have the time to give appropiate respond to each point, but I'll try to pick up the things I need to address.

About the pretenders in general, I'd highly recomment taking some death if your pretender has nature magic. Lamia Quuens are perfect for this nation to diverse into death and minor blood magic.

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Edit: I am a little disappointed the archers don't have longbows. I mean, their precision sucks, and it should, but in WH they have longbows.

Yeah, I know. But longbows in dominions are seriously awesome. No matter how low I make their prec, the longbows will overshadow the knights by a wide margin. This would result in rather unthematic 90% Longbow armies with some yeomen arrow catchers.

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Ok, the magnitude of their unrest reduction seems to be different than what burnsaber is advocating. Taxing at 120% with ~10 KotR present (and no patrolling) i'm at a steady state 2 unrest. Based on burnsaber's statement, 4 should be able to keep 120% taxation at 0 unrest.

Hmm, this might be a bug, I'll look into it. Perhaps the #incunrest -1 command dosn't work on non-commanders? I deem that reather unlikely, considering that it's just the like unrest increasing aspect of Panganean satyr sneaks, expect in reserve.

Originally Posted by Radio_Star

On indies 5 I've been able to get 30+ spread out provinces with heroes in one year and I can reliably bring down somewhere in the low 20s with a more centered and balanced expansion strat. Part of the key is probably the first fort. First fort MUST start at turn 3 at the latest.

I'll have to try out this Hero expansion strat. Sounds intresting.