Of Turncoats and Traitors Stephan seems harder than Mleh

[James3157]

I noticed that if you play as Stephan it is apparently harder if you play as him on this mission than going to Mleh. On moderate or hard difficulty how do you win while playing as Stephan? Mleh for example is vulnerable to attacks from both Turks and Franks at the same time. While the Turks and Franks might offer a truce if playing as Stephan they only give you 15 minutes. Do you just simply ignore Mleh and focus primarily on the secondary objective of liberating city and focusing on the Byzantines first by defeating them before the Franks and Turks? I apparently made the mistake of trying to defend Mleh, but the problem is that the Byzantines (purple) will try to attack me at the same time I am trying to defend Mleh, but on moderate difficulty that strategy does not seem to be working where I messed up and get overwhelmed by being attacked on all three fronts.

[James3157]

My focus while trying to defend Mleh was taking out the Turks by defeating them first, but it was not working out and I obviously need Mleh to survive as well if I want to win more easily especially on moderate or hard difficulty. Ornlu the Wolf's video shows people how to possibly win as Mleh on hard difficulty, but not as Stephan. Also, contrary to the first four missions this is the first mission in my opinion that seems like an actual challenge at least on moderate difficulty despite being one sword difficulty. Some people apparently think that playing as Stephan is easier than playing as Mleh, but I am not so sure about that which as mentioned previously I got overwhelmed when trying to protect Mleh who only has one castle, but no walls.

[Quintem]

I went with Stephan's base in my first play through of the mission since it was easy to defend. I focused on building my economy and getting castles down. I then built up my military. Once I had a decent army I took out Byzantines first. I just left Mleh to fend for himself.

You don't really lose much by letting his base get destroyed.

[James3157]

Originally posted by Quintem:

I went with Stephan's base in my first play through of the mission since it was easy to defend. I focused on building my economy and getting castles down. I then built up my military. Once I had a decent army I took out Byzantines first. I just left Mleh to fend for himself.

You don't really lose much by letting his base get destroyed.

Probably the only proper way to play as Stephan apparently especially on moderate or hard difficulty. I am just hoping that Mleh can survive long enough at least until I can get the city (cyan) liberated for getting as an ally. Fortunately, I have a saved game shortly before having to decide between these two civilizations so that way I do not have to start all over again from the beginning. If I play as Mleh I may not need to worry about Stephan, but if I play as Stephan apparently I am not supposed to help Mleh or at least not early on; although, if a truce trigger does show up again for the Franks or Turks I definitely would accept it even though it lasts for only a short period of time. After taking out the Byzantines I would then probably go after the Franks and after the Franks then I could then focus on the Turks.

[James3157]

I finally won on moderate difficulty. I decided to continue playing as Stephan instead of Mleh and ended up winning from an earlier save. I did help defend Mleh a little, but mainly for taking out the rams which I did not build any castle near Mleh until later in the game when the Byzantines were not a threat anymore and never built any town center near Mleh either contrary to the first time.

Fortunately, the Turks seemed to be distracted by Mleh's castle mostly which not only were they unable to take out their only castle, but they were unable to take out their town center as well thanks to my villagers and some of my other military units (but not all of them) that I intentionally kept near those important buildings just in case if I needed them to help protect Mleh. Also, I was given an offer for a 15 minute truce again and I went with the Franks. I went with Qunitem's advice mostly, but in the end both of my allies survived. I went after the Byzantines first because they seemed to be the weakest if replacing Stephan instead of Mleh, then Franks, and lastly the Turks.

[James3157]

I did however buy some stone (but only after researching guilds first) and help repair Mleh's castle in order to help prevent it from being destroyed. Additionally, I would highly recommend getting sappers as well if going to Stephan instead of Mleh and using villagers to help defend yourself/Mleh. I also repaired their town center, but was attacked only once by the Turks and never was attacked by the Franks. Also, when you liberate your Armenian ally the Franks get distracted by them instead of focusing more on Mleh. Last thing I want to mention is that before I won the game I was successful in capturing almost every relic, except for the Turk's relic.

[Quintem]

Glad you succeeded in the end and my small bit of advice was worth something.