Knights of Honor 2: Sovereign

[Gusington]

^How's it going?

I am going to try Transylvania in the Late Era as my first, tonight.

[Anguille]

^How's it going?

I am going to try Transylvania in the Late Era as my first, tonight.

I am doing a slow gameplay and so far it's doing ok. I am focusing on building up my cities (barracks, Inns etc)  and their specific special resources (salt, minerals, lambs for wool production). I think i have already a full list of counselors (2 being my sons and 2-3 merchants). One Diplomat is improving my relationship with England (my big neighbor), one of my daughters is married with a young dude from Ulster and i have trade treaties with 3 countries so far i think (England, Leinster and another one in the British Islands). So far only one war with Holland (England asked me to support them) which resulted in the defeat of Holland. I have one full army for the moment.

I'll have to expand at some point but so far everyone's been so friendly with me so that i will focus on improving my cities for the moment and learning the game step by step. :bd:

[W8taminute]

I started in the early era as Cilician Armenia.   :)

[Gusington]

^How are things in that neighborhood? I am attempting to begin an easy going start as the guides recommend but I am not sure if 14th century Transylvania will fit that bill.

[SirAndrewD]

I plan on starting my first game today after I finish running a webinar. 

I think I'll be unoriginal and start with England.

This will be a productive day of work for sure!

[Jarhead0331]

I plan on starting my first game today after I finish running a webinar. 

I think I'll be unoriginal and start with England.

This will be a productive day of work for sure!

I started with England. Preparing to crush the Welsh followed by the Scots. Something tells me it won't be a walk in the park. 

[Gusington]

Funny I looked at Wales as a possible starting faction. Or 'Gwynned' depending on the era. All of Europe will tremble!

[W8taminute]

^How are things in that neighborhood? I am attempting to begin an easy going start as the guides recommend but I am not sure if 14th century Transylvania will fit that bill.

Surprisingly pretty calm so far.  I do have Antioch and Jerusalem constantly asking me if I will join their war against Damascus however.  I really don't have an army as I've been concentrating on getting my farms, harbors, and churches up and running.  I have a feeling that I'm going to be dragged into a war I don't want sooner or later. 

I'll be trying to train up some soldiers next other than the peasant militias I have now.

[Gusington]

I am also going to build infrastructure first, then warmonger second.

[Gusington]

How are you guys getting calm neighbors?? Started my campaign as Bosnia (changed my mind) and an hour into the game Hungary started smacking me around and just would not stop. I do like that villages and towns rebuild on their own, but Hungary then took a castle near my capital. I did manage to upgrade my capital's defenses and recruit enough peasants to keep the Hungarians away, but the army and the clergy are not fans of mine. The merchants love me.

I think the real time structure here is throwing me after so many years of turn based games. How do you keep everything organized? And how are you making more money? I am trying to get as many trade agreements and infrastructure upgrades as I can but it is not as quick or successful as I would like, yet.

Hungary may be declared a great power soon if they don't bankrupt themselves through war and make enemies of half the map. I do have a spy in Hungary but usually don't have enough money to take advantage of him there.

I've also had like half my knights taken hostage by Hungary in these wars.

Any advice welcome on how to deal with a much larger a-hole neighbor! I really was just minding my own business :/

[W8taminute]

^Ouch that's a rough start you have there.  Maybe the Hungarian ai is programmed to go after Bosnia right away?

The first thing I did was make trade agreements with most of my neighbors, especially Byzantium since they are the largest near me.  I also noticed that most of my neighbors have neutral feelings towards me so that helped.  Not sure if all of this is random or designed that way on a case by case basis.  I initially could only afford to recruit one peasant militia in each of my two starting towns.  It wasn't after an hour of gameplay that I had enough money and infrastructure to recruit 3 spearmen and two archers for my one and only field army. 

In the case of Bosnia I think you need to immediately recruit as many peasant militia as you can.  Build a couple of farms to support them and try to make trade agreements with your neighbors.  The money will come later.  I have one trade route that makes 9 gold per day/week.  That plus my towns income seems to net me 50 gold per time unit (day/week).  It's taking forever though to accumulate 1000 gold but since no one is bothering me time is on my side.

[Gusington]

^I think you're right and starting with Bosnia was not the idyllic, peace-loving existence I was hoping for. Got smacked around really good by Hungary but they themselves are suffering (I sent a spy there to track everything Hungarian) attrition. I should have known that the 14th century Balkans were not going to be a cakewalk.

Also took me a while to figure out that yes I could fill my knights slots, even though they weren't lit up or indicating that...I just need 200 gold and could hire some knights.

I have the game set to easy - some mechanics I was able to grasp and some not so much. But I did play for almost two hours, late into the night, on a day where I had to get up at 430am for work.

That alone really says something about KoH2. I think I have a winner here, as soon as I educate myself on its systems.

Good vibes! Next playthrough I just need to select an area a little more forgiving.

[W8taminute]

I believe this game is a winner as well.

You bring up a good point though that I discovered last night.  Although you knight slots are not lit up you can still recruit.  I think it was sort of like this in the old game as well.  What I forgot about but saw last night is that on the map there may sometimes appear a little tent icon near your villages.  Send a knight to that tent and you can hire mercenaries, just like the old game. 

I think part of the problem of understanding the mechanics in this game is that we have gotten used to the old game so much that we're looking for mechanics in all the wrong places in the new game. 

Edit:  Oh that is a good sign that you played late on a work night. 

[Gusington]

^Yeah man, when I first sat down it was 930pm and I was dead tired. I said 'f it just start a game' and next thing I know I am getting smacked upside the head by Hungary and its almost 1130pm.

There is a charm to the game that will keep me coming back for more I think, especially after I learn.

I also thought that all the audio cues might get on my nerves but they have not yet.

Thanks for the tip on the tents...I was going through the motions with trying to hire, not having enough money, etc...by the end of my session I had just enough money to hire a few higher quality merc units to try to take my castle back.

I think my goal for this Bosnia campaign is to first survive, then set up a really heavily armed merchant city state :)

[Grim.Reaper]

Update today......seems they tweaked on how soon others attack you based on the difficulty level you play.


General

• (Important) The SSRT option is now set to "None" on all graphics presets. Setting it on "high" causes severe frame rate drops, especially on 4K monitors. We are still working on other known issues, mostly related to switching resolutions, especially on multiple monitors

• Loyal mercenary squads are now free to hire for their kingdom. (The cost for hiring the entire army remains unchanged)
• Tweaked the AI behavior of army leaders in tactical battles to resolve an issue where they were being too aggressive and rushing into fights (particularly in battles when their side's estimations are really high)
• Added a cancel button when attempting to join a multiplayer game
• Courthouse upgrade no longer requires Scribe Offices
• Tweaked AI difficulty

Diplomacy

• Lowered chance of AI signing a trade agreement or non-aggression pact after signing a truce
• War declaration against player now depends more on difficulty level.
• Excommunicated players will get attacked more often, especially on higher difficulty levels and if they are commanding large empires or have many vassals.
• Increased chance of AI honoring non-aggression pacts
• Increased chance of AI helping the player on lower difficulties if they are either their vassal or sovereign
• Decreased bonuses to vassal relationships for Germany if controlled by a player to even the odds in multiplayer campaigns
• AI is less likely to grant independence without request or reason
• AI is a bit more likely to accept players' marriage offers
• AI unwillingness to attack you in the first minutes of the game now lasts longer for "easy" and shorter for "hard" and "very hard" difficulties
• Other minor diplomacy tweaks

Fixes

• Mouse cursor is now properly confined to the window's bounds, when playing in exclusive full-screen mode.
• Fixed some settlements on the map starting out with incorrect visual levels
• Fixed an issue causing green tutorial highlights in places like the Royal Court to reset every time players exit a tactical battle
• Fixes to invalid resolutions being loaded, leading to rare game crashes on start-up