View Full Version : The Importance of Naval Superiority
I'm currently playing a campaign (GA) as the Danes. I control a modest amount of land: All The British Isles, Flanders, Freisland, Saxony, Pomerania, Prussia, Lithuania, Livonia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Constantinople. I am running neck and neck with Spain, Byzantium, and the HRE in points. It's 1360.
Obviously dominating the high seas is important for a strong and vibrant economy. I currently run at least +9000 florins a turn, with about 200,000 in the bank. I find I'll attck just about anyone who puts a ship in the water just to keep the seas to myself, and not give other factions an oportunity to build their navy at all. This eliminates the occasional surprise attack on my ships, and keeps my economy from being disrupted at all.
The other point would be the ease with which land can be aquired. For example: The Byzantines and Golden Horde warred for a long time, Constantinople changed hands several times. Eventually they shifted their front north and east. There were no troops in Constantinople, and a rebelion occured. It was however a small 1 unit rebellion of Cavalry. Having an unbroken chain of ships, I sent a unit of Gallowglasses in on a lark. The rebels retreated to the castle. Next turn I sent in a couple demi-culverins and a unit of Royal Knights. Next turn I ended the Seige and took the province with minimal effort or damage to infrastructure. This immediately added 2500 florins a year to my economy.
There are a lot of provinces I've sen this happen to, a long war where it changes hands 4 or 5 times, then essentially abandonment followed by a small rebellion. There are a good 7 or 8 provinces I could take at any given time thanks to my naval superiority.
This also applies to allied or nuetral provinces where a small garrison is kept. Because I sink all ships, I can get anywhere unblocked.
Mithrandir
11-25-2002, 22:55
I never bothered with ships until my English Campaign.In the begining I had a true naval empire, stretching from the scandinavian countries along the coast all the way down to Marocco, using the ships I invaded pretty much every coastal province, my main reason before this campaign was just to prevent suprise attacks by blocking the seas...
Can someone explain me how trading routs work? I controlled all the seas ,yet my trading posts didn't earn more money...
You need an unbroken unblockaded string of ships from one province to another province. The source province needs to have tradable goods, a port, and a merchant and destination province needs to have a port.
It's important to remember that if a province doesn't have anything to trade it won't make any money from it's port.
And you cant trade with yourself, so leave a few coastal provinces for the computer.
Actually, I like to induce rebellions in coastal provinces. Since the rebels are always neutral, they increase my trade profits http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
-Musashi
Hey Mithrandar,
If any province has some tradeable goods, build a trading post there.
Next, build a port so that trading ships can access the province.
Then build a Merchant. Very important since it is the Merchant that facilitates trade overseas.
Link your ships from the port to as far as you can go. For example, as the English, I started building ships in Normandy and in Tripoli. Eventually, they met in the middle.
On the Campaign Map, Push V. All the waters you have ships in will be displayed as green. If the green areas are linked, you have established a trading route.
Also, while pushing V, any areas that are Blockaded will be highlighted in red.
Wow rpasso. The rate you're going, you don't need to trade. You would have to expend 2222.22 Florins per turn, every turn, for the next 90 years to become bankrupt.
Hope it all goes well.
Azrael
Quote[/b] (rpasell @ Nov. 25 2002,15:33)]I'm currently playing a campaign (GA) as the Danes. I control a modest amount of land: All The British Isles, Flanders, Freisland, Saxony, Pomerania, Prussia, Lithuania, Livonia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Constantinople. I am running neck and neck with Spain, Byzantium, and the HRE in points. It's 1360.
Obviously dominating the high seas is important for a strong and vibrant economy. I currently run at least +9000 florins a turn, with about 200,000 in the bank. I find I'll attck just about anyone who puts a ship in the water just to keep the seas to myself, and not give other factions an oportunity to build their navy at all. This eliminates the occasional surprise attack on my ships, and keeps my economy from being disrupted at all.
The other point would be the ease with which land can be aquired. For example: The Byzantines and Golden Horde warred for a long time, Constantinople changed hands several times. Eventually they shifted their front north and east. There were no troops in Constantinople, and a rebelion occured. It was however a small 1 unit rebellion of Cavalry. Having an unbroken chain of ships, I sent a unit of Gallowglasses in on a lark. The rebels retreated to the castle. Next turn I sent in a couple demi-culverins and a unit of Royal Knights. Next turn I ended the Seige and took the province with minimal effort or damage to infrastructure. This immediately added 2500 florins a year to my economy.
There are a lot of provinces I've sen this happen to, a long war where it changes hands 4 or 5 times, then essentially abandonment followed by a small rebellion. There are a good 7 or 8 provinces I could take at any given time thanks to my naval superiority.
This also applies to allied or nuetral provinces where a small garrison is kept. Because I sink all ships, I can get anywhere unblocked.
UPDATE
It's now 1410, I have 250,00 florins in the bank. I've crushed all factions who were ahead of me in points, except the Byzantines who lead be 2 points. I believe I'll pass them at next count. I'm going to eliminate them anyway. At this point all I have left to do is build on my already huge army, and go marauding about the world spreading peace and happiness of the Danish empire. As an aside, this is the first time I will have built every building in the tech tree(in Denmark). I played the Italians once, and achieved about 75% domination, but I think this campaign was much more satisfying. I have kept the same 17 provinces for a long time and haven't had to expand to maintain my economic growth. It was fun.
Gregoshi
11-26-2002, 16:09
Show off http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif
Hosakawa Tito
11-26-2002, 16:19
While were showing off http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif my Danish GA campaign has reached the year 1248. I currently have 700,000+ florins in the old warchest. The elmo's and byzants have me beat in GA points by about 16 points. That is about to change as I'm going on the offensive now, first the elmo's, then the byzant's.
Quote[/b] (Hosakawa Tito @ Nov. 26 2002,09:19)]While were showing off http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif my Danish GA campaign has reached the year 1248. I currently have 700,000+ florins in the old warchest. The elmo's and byzants have me beat in GA points by about 16 points. That is about to change as I'm going on the offensive now, first the elmo's, then the byzant's.
Post when you finish and let us know how it went.
Quote[/b] (Hosakawa Tito @ Nov. 26 2002,09:19)]While were showing off http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif my Danish GA campaign has reached the year 1248. I currently have 700,000+ florins in the old warchest. The elmo's and byzants have me beat in GA points by about 16 points. That is about to change as I'm going on the offensive now, first the elmo's, then the byzant's.
Oh, is a size comparison thing. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Italians, 82k/year with 6,148,737 banked in 1452.
Gregoshi
11-27-2002, 20:08
* stops checking for florin under seat cushions and furniture *
No comment. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/redface.gif
* thinks: the laundry is always good for a few florin... *
I am not sure about the You cant trade with yourself: comment.
As egyptian, I also made a strategy to own the seas. If I click on the economy icon (the one with a stack of coins), I could put the cursor on a province I own that has a port and trading goods (such as Antioch). At the bottom, I see a break down of how much I gain from farming, how much from trading.
Now, if I click on the province Antioch, I see how much that province brings me in trade and in farming income. If I click on the trade line, I would see a list of which other province I am trading with, and how much.
I see both the provinces I own and the provinces I dont own but I have shipping lane. Also, I could see I can trade with province an ally or neutral has with his ships. So, it seems there is no requirement that trading has to be done with another faction.
Maybe I missed something here?
Annie
HopAlongBunny
11-29-2002, 17:36
Actually, I like to induce rebellions in coastal provinces. Since the rebels are always neutral, they increase my trade profits
I'll have to check that out. I find that rebel provinces never trade, but I can think of at least 2 possibilities for our different observations. 1) absence of ports (I'm sure I checked for that) 2) invading a rebel province (neutral)puts you at war with all rebel factions? I regularly use rebel provinces for valour upgrades and territory acquisition w/o declaring war on a major faction. Possible...
The importance of NAVEL superiority is that you can be Britney Spears.... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Annie
Gregoshi
11-30-2002, 04:28
Only if you have an inny though. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif
youssof_Toda
11-30-2002, 10:58
Why keep saving the money? I find it a big laugh to bribe an enemy 7 star general for 120,000 florins. See it as a soccer team: you want your capital to be on the pitch not in ur pocket. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif
Hosakawa Tito
12-01-2002, 01:50
Quote[/b] (rpasell @ Nov. 26 2002,09:31)]
Quote[/b] (Hosakawa Tito @ Nov. 26 2002,09:19)]While were showing off http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif my Danish GA campaign has reached the year 1248. I currently have 700,000+ florins in the old warchest. The elmo's and byzants have me beat in GA points by about 16 points. That is about to change as I'm going on the offensive now, first the elmo's, then the byzant's.
Post when you finish and let us know how it went.
I haven't finished yet. It is now 1300 and the last of the Elmo's are holding on in Morroco. They are finished on the Iberian penninsula, I have Granada and Portugal, the Spanish have the rest. The Egyptians have conquered all of Africa and are pressing the Byzants for Constantinople. The Golden Horde have also punished the Byzants and Russians, and after I took Kiev from the Russians the Horde attacked me there from Khazar. I've been slaughtering Mongols as they have to cross a river to get to me. My arbs and several catapult units have been racking up big kills at the bottle neck of the bridge. In one battle alone 6 arbs and 2 catapult units killed a 1000+ Mongols, my Cav and Feudal Sgt.'s mopped up another 1000. After 3 battles like that, the Mongols military force has been much reduced. They stopped attacking me and are busy harrassing the Russians. I'll let them keep each other busy, I have bigger fish to fry, the Egyptians. They lead me in GA points by 10, but are stretched thin over a huge empire. They are my best trading partner, but with 1,250,000 florins in the bank they will have to be my next target, though I must also keep an eye on the Spanish. To date I hold Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Saxony, Flanders, Ireland, Livonia, Lithuania, Kiev, Sardinia, Sicily, Granada, Portugal, Rhodes. I love the ebb and flow of this game http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
vBulletin® v3.7.1, Copyright ©2000-2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.