How do you spend your money?

[JeromeBaker]

I just got NTW a couple days ago so I am in the learning curve stage of playing. I just started the 2nd French Campaign which is for Egypt. The campaign mentions taking out the Mamluk faction head, taking out 3 turkish strongholds, and as an option fighting off the British navy and take away their island fortress to get the best troops from France avaialble.

My goal here was to blitz the Mamluks by taking a stack of troops south and kill their leader and take their territories and eventually use this stack to take out the Bedunin (spelled wrong). THen I sent another stack east to start the push towards the Turkish strongholds required for victory. I slowed up a bit and lost track of time trying to upgrade farms/schools so I could get enough money flowing to build my Navy to take on the Brits and take their island. I then get the message I have only 20 turns left to complete the campaign so I am now taking what I have left troop wise to sack the last 2 remaining turkish strongholds which shouldnt be too hard, but here is the point of my question.

There doesnt seem to be enough time to warrant building up my territories so I can afford a Navy. I would have been better off to neglect most of the territory upgrades, put the money into my troops and keep fighting. How do you guys spend your money on this, are you building up your territories?

I like the fact the game pushes you to keep moving, but I personally like more time. NTW is a lot more polished than ETW, but I am not sure I like fighting micro campaigns for the sake of being more historically accurate. I prefer the open feel to ETW where I maybe had 1 completion date, but plenty of time and freedom on how I want to proceed.

1 more question - if we fail to complete the campaign in the alloted timeline, can we continue playing? I might do a save game when I get home and play it 2 ways, 1 to win in the timeline and then play it again forgetting about time restrictions and simply play to build up my navy to take out the Nelson naval group and then take out the island.

[Fisherking]

Egypt is not my favorite campaign. Still it can be fun.

You can not build a navy and take on Nelson in the time. If you want to take the island you have to do it by craft and stealth. Still with the forces on the island it is a hard fight.

I have taken Cypress a couple of times but you only need one ship. You either have to run away from the English Navy or run out the clock on the naval battle when they attack you. One fast ship will get you there.

What I generally do is take the required southern regions while building forces to head to the east. Once the level of threat has dropped in the south you may disband excess forces and build troops you need on the way north.

You don’t need to eliminate the Bedouins or go deep in the desert. Just the wealthy regions and protect what you have to win in time.


And yes you can keep playing after the end...I think...lol