Suicidal Sovereigns?

from Elemental Forums

I have only recently started playing Elemental and in my 3 or so games have started to notice a problem that I have not seen mentioned by others. The sovereigns of very powerful kingdoms are leading their armies into battle in enemy territory and getting themselves killed off when its not really necessary for them to risk themselves.

Example: My most recent game on a medium map. Everything was going along nicely. Nobody really had an upperhand on anybody else, and I was looking forward to playing a long game. Then over the course of the next 50 turns everyone gets wiped out because they march their sovereigns against the Magnars (huge army anyway, running deficit, at war with everyone). So now it is me and them. They now attack me, and throw their sovereign at me in the first battle, which I win. Bam. Game over.

Anyway, I'm wondering if this is something that others have noticed and if this is something that is going to be worked on(maybe allowing actual inheritance if their is an heir or getting the AI to not use the sovereign as the first response?) because it is killing the possibility of long games quickly.  

elemental
3,274 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, this is one of the reasons i have put the game aside for a while- everything builds up nicely then...

Perhaps an alternative to the death of a sov in enemy territory would be its capture and imprisonment instead. The sov could then be ransomed for various diplomatic settlements, or kept in the dungeon to rot, but incurring various diplomatic penalties with the other nations 

I just think that the death of a sov should not spell the end of the civ - it should just be the major set back that it is.

Of course it could also represent an opportunity for dynastic succession, with the offspring taking up the mantle of leadership.

But then again, some of the kids may not be happy with the oldest taking over the nation and it leads to a civil war... oh the possibilities! 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

No, I don't lke the Disney death option, it's too much like Mount & Blade, and if I wanted to play Mount & Blade, I'd play Mount & Blade. I think they should take the Total War approach and have it so that the enemy's remaining settlements become rebel settlements, in this case maybe minor factions.

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

This is a rather well known and acknowledged problem, there are actually a lot of the topics regarding this but they got pushed down a few pages (or are in the subforums). Apparently SD is going to have the AI protect their Sovereign more (only fight if it has a massive advantage) in the next patch, so I guess everyone is just waiting for it to see how much it improves. Not sure if they have settled on a solution to the empire destruction, but last I checked, they are considering using the dynasty system to turn over an empire who lost a sovereign to another based on who the heir was married to.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Well, you don't need to go all Disney. How about the Voldemort Version.

A Sovereign that gets killed can cast a ritual that reanimates him after death. There might be some drawbacks, like getting the Ugly Disadvantage, or diplomacy penalties for all good races, etc. Depending on the mana pumped into the ritual the return to (un)life could take some time.

The Sovereign could be kept alive by some artefact, which could be stored in a city, or be protected by a hero or one of his children. So if you really, really, really want to get rid of Sauron you have to find that phylactery and destroy it.

You could have a timer showing how long until the Big Bad comes back.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top


have started to notice a problem that I have not seen mentioned by others.
End of quote

You must be new here :)

Seriously though, if you put the title of your post into the search box, you'll see it's been discussed to death

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Im in favor of succession to the heirs, with some of the Essence and Stat bonuses (only if they fix the Sov to get  more stats on lvl, 1 stat per lvl just isnt enough). Could also add a chance that another Heir might want the throne and revolt making your children take sides.

 

just a thought