Problems with starting as Aegon the Conqueror

[TheArrogantOne]

So, I started as Aegon at the 2nd bookmark.

I thought "This will be easy, I got dragons".

Welll... not at all. The dragons aren't OP enough.

A dragon should be able to annihilate the opponent army, whilst it does not. If I go 3000 vs 30000 for instance, they still win even if I call my dragon. That's absurd. Also, there should be a possibility of having more than one dragon in battle. On the Fields of Fire, all the three dragons were released. And when you fight the Westerlands and the Reach at once, one dragon just isn't enough. Moreover, when Balerion gets maimed (and it already happened quite a bunch of times), I can't replace him with Vhagar or Meraxes, since for some reason Rhaenys can't lead my armies and Visenya can, but even when she does, it's impossible to use her dragon instead of Balerion, even if Balerion is maimed.

I do appreciate the special event chain that you've surely put a lot of work in, but... it just seems to be impossible to win as Aegon, unless you have way bigger armies than Aegon actually had.

 

[Pukovnik]

10,000 troops with Aegon and his sisters leading the army seems sufficient to me, any additional troops coming from newly conquered Stormlands and Riverlands make it extra easy, just aim for smaller (10-20k) Reach armies immediately after you DoW them, and you would be sitting on the IT in no time.

 

[just_a_beaver]

I played as Aegon as well, but I managed to defeat large armies 3000 vs. ~12000 troops with dragons, but even those need me to fire the decision twice. Even with my sister-wives on the battlefield, they don't even unleash their dragons. I seem to be having the complete opposite of your problem, since Balerion never gets hurt and the events where someone tries to kill him just get them nice and crispy. To tell you the truth, dragons are boring, I know I'll get a lot of flak for this, but the decision is godawfully repetitive, you click the check box, you select the event option "Dracarys!" then let them do the mostly morale damage for you.

Modding-wise, maybe there can be a modifier of some sort like ai_will_do with a 100% of firing the "Use your Dragon in battle" decision for Aegons sisters?

 

[Arcvalons]

If you read AWoIaF you'll know the Conquest wasn't as easy as it appears to be.

 

[queermobile]

I play this bookmark more than other and it is still surprisingly easy. Just be sure to give gifts to as the Lords of Rosby and Duskendale and the war with Harren Hoare is a breeze. After that, I raise extra levies from Darry and Bywater and have them meet me in Kings Landing before moving on Arrgilac. After that war (I always ensure Arrgilac ends up dead so the event to start House Baratheon fires) I disband and reraise. Orys will keep the Reach busy while you regroup in Kings Landing, and it takes them a long time to organize as well because the Reach is so large. After this war I disband again, give the Harrenhal duchy to Quentyn Qoherys and the LP to whichever lord strikes my fancy and move on to the Westerlands. Really, the Reach is the only time consuming one simply because it is SO large and can raise SO many troops. Also, I typically only use myself and two other normal generals in battle since Vhagar and Meraxes have a nasty tendency to die or be maimed within five battles.

I do agree that dragons perhaps need to be changed a little, but they still do make a huge difference. Just don't go into battle with so few troops that you won't last past the opening phases. You should easily be invading the Reach with 15,000-20,000 troops.

Edit: Sorry for text wall, I'm on my phone.

 

[KaiserNoncehelmIII]

If you read AWoIaF you'll know the Conquest wasn't as easy as it appears to be.

Also, even with dragons, the red mountains were enough to stop Aegon from conquering Dorne.

 

[TheArrogantOne]

Also, even with dragons, the red mountains were enough to stop Aegon from conquering Dorne.

...which leads us to another problem, because Dorne is easy to conquer after you took everything else. And it shouldn't be that easy in my opinion, since it's ahistorical.

 

[queermobile]

...which leads us to another problem, because Dorne is easy to conquer after you took everything else. And it shouldn't be that easy in my opinion, since it's ahistorical.

Agree completely with this one. It's so easy to load yourself up into a few ships and quickly dragon siege Sunspear. It's too bad there's probably not a way to restrict invasions of Dorne to land, or add naval attrition to Shipbreaker Bay (believe there was only one attempted naval invasion of Dorne (Aegon the Unworthy maybe?) and every single ship was destroyed in a storm.

Edit: just came to mind that there may be a way to add an event that kills X number of transports/troops in Shipbreaker Bay similar to the Smoking Sea events....? Who knows. Might be worth thinking about.

 

[just_a_beaver]

Agree completely with this one. It's so easy to load yourself up into a few ships and quickly dragon siege Sunspear. It's too bad there's probably not a way to restrict invasions of Dorne to land, or add naval attrition to Shipbreaker Bay (believe there was only one attempted naval invasion of Dorne (Aegon the Unworthy maybe?) and every single ship was destroyed in a storm.

Edit: just came to mind that there may be a way to add an event that kills X number of transports/troops in Shipbreaker Bay similar to the Smoking Sea events....? Who knows. Might be worth thinking about.

Really, there should be more amped up attrition. CKII doesn't have a variety of ships, only transports, and not warships, etc. *Racking cough* BLACKWATER BAY! *Racking cough*

 

[Arcvalons]

Make most of Dorne have 1k supply limit. May seem harsh but even vanilla does that with some mountainous provinces in Afghanistan and the desert in Sahara.

 

[TheArrogantOne]

Make most of Dorne have 1k supply limit.

Might be a bit exagerated.... but perhaps it would be useful in desert and/or mountain terrain, though not that small. And it should be way bigger in summer.

 

[TheArrogantOne]

I might have exagerated a bit in my first post, since now I realized how easy it really is... after 10-20 retries, that is ^^
Still think the dragons should be able to fight alongside each other, not only one dragon (Fields of Fire...).

Besides that, when you conquer Westeros, you can also conquer Essos. And it's shockingly easy. Because the dragon CB is still here for them....

Aegon should get the dragon CB according to the initial choice - either in Westeros or in New Valyria. Both is ridiculous.

 

[just_a_beaver]

Aegon should get the dragon CB according to the initial choice - either in Westeros or in New Valyria. Both is ridiculous.

Yet, if he, say, as an example, had all the power of Westeros, save Dorne, those three dragons plus the combined power of Highgarden, the North, the Vale, the Westerlands, the Stormlands, AND the Crownlands as one massive host, it would be able to defeat Valyria in a heartbeat. I haven't played as a character in Essos, therefore I cannot estimate how much power they have military-wise, but they can be beaten, and badly.

 

[TheArrogantOne]

Yet, if he, say, as an example, had all the power of Westeros, save Dorne, those three dragons plus the combined power of Highgarden, the North, the Vale, the Westerlands, the Stormlands, AND the Crownlands as one massive host, it would be able to defeat Valyria in a heartbeat. I haven't played as a character in Essos, therefore I cannot estimate how much power they have military-wise, but they can be beaten, and badly.

In the Conquest game I'm surrently playing I already conquered Westeros (The Vale, The Reach and the Stormlands have surrendered, I had to fight for the rest) and then I've gone for Essos. All of the Stepstones, Tyrosh, Lys, Myr, Pentos and Volantis surrendered.....so much for the exciting wars. I gotta see how much I can grab. I will probably get most of the world eventually

But seriously, remove the CB.

 

[just_a_beaver]

In the Conquest game I'm surrently playing I already conquered Westeros (The Vale, The Reach and the Stormlands have surrendered, I had to fight for the rest) and then I've gone for Essos. All of the Stepstones, Tyrosh, Lys, Myr, Pentos and Volantis surrendered.....so much for the exciting wars. I gotta see how much I can grab. I will probably get most of the world eventually

But seriously, remove the CB.

Wow. At least there should be some valiant hold outs of non-Targaryen civilisation, like Pirates wanting their glory, plunder and independence, or some cities with Unsullied doomstacks or even the misguided idiot that decided to refuse to surrender. Game-wise that really sucks nuts. I guess after seeing this that removing the CB would be the only possible solution.

 

[TheArrogantOne]

Just tried again, a Conquest start.

....well, damn.


And then I retry.

Damn you Harren, you should've really done this earlier.

 

[just_a_beaver]

Just tried again, a Conquest start.

....well, damn.


And then I retry.

Damn you Harren, you should've really done this earlier.

You win some, you lose some. My poor Aegon died at 30 against some lording count scum in a duel even though I had Blackfyre, Balerion and a personal combat modifier, not to mention 37 Martial...

 

[TheArrogantOne]

You win some, you lose some. My poor Aegon died at 30 against some lording count scum in a duel even though I had Blackfyre, Balerion and a personal combat modifier, not to mention 37 Martial...

Yup, that's the beauty of starting as Aegon.

In another game, I conquered Harren, good. But some petty lord from the Riverlands was still resisting me. So I send an army, dragon siege his castle and Balerion gets maimed. Sweet.

 

[just_a_beaver]

Also, I just noticed in your first screenshot that it says "Long live King Visenya" even though she was a female...

 

[JodelDiplom]

Might be a bit exagerated.... but perhaps it would be useful in desert and/or mountain terrain, though not that small. And it should be way bigger in summer.

I don't think it would be exaggerated. Keep in mind armies enjoy bonuses to supply limits on top of that base value, when marching through "friendly" provinces. So the lords of Dorne could march armies of 10-12k through those provinces without hassle.

Dorne definitely needs to be a harsh place for invaders.