This topic is for the Scottish faction in Kingdoms expansion's Britannia campaign.
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This topic is for the Scottish faction in Kingdoms expansion's Britannia campaign.
I started a campaign here, and so far is't been fairly easy. You can get an alliance with England and possibly Wales and Ireland quite quickly, and then move on Norway. Norway is fairly easy (almost all infantry, which you have equal or better equivilents), but with one hitch: They're spread EVERYWHERE. So you need a good navy, and you need to keep pumping out ships, because Norway will destroy them quickly and easily.
I'm only a few turns into the war with Norway, so can't help much past there.
On M/M
Scotland is one of my favourite factions to play. I've tried a few different approaches. They all start with me pumping out about half a stack of highlanders/highlander pikemen/highlander archers from Stirling and Inverness. I gather all my non-militia units under my generals. Either militia or highland rabble is sent together with some crappy general(s) to take the two forts on the west coast of Scotland. I make sure to leave some low level troops in the fort south of Edinburgh (it keeps the English off my back) and some in the fort outside Dumfries, which while not very strategically situated also intimidates the English. The better units are put under the command of a better general (maybe the king) and sent north to kick the Norwegians off the mainland. I ally with the English for money (or maybe even Carlisle depending on their mood).
After that I either knock out the Norwegians, which is tedious due to the Island-hopping, or make peace with the Norwegians (park a diplomat on one of their islands or let them keep the fort out of Wick, and they will accept ANY peace offer due to the retarded AI which doesnt want war against non-land neighbours... Either way the Norwegians will keep landing troops either outside Wick or on the islands you took from them.
Economy: Money is tight until you have all of Scotland. You can save some money by having two expensive units (usually highlander nobles for me) rest in each fort in between battles. Btw, it seems to be a better initial deal to build happiness buildings rather than economy buildings in Perth, since that allows you to jack up taxes and Perth has a huge population. I set taxes to low everywhere except Perth, and let them stay low until a city reach 5000 population (after that its just a few turns before they hit minor city level). Usually I use either the "growth" or the "financial" management scheme to accomplish this, as that means I wont have to check up on the cities every turn to micro-manage taxes.
City management:
There's clearly too many castles in mainland Scotland. Stirling seems to have the best location due to its central location with good communication in all directions (you can reach the fort on the English border in 1 turn, and a fleet in Glasgow harbour in just over 1 turn). Once I've knocked the Norwegians out of Wick I convert both Wick and Inverness (which turns out a major money maker quite soon). The castles on the west coast can either be converted or stay castles, I found them to not make much money as cities until very late. You will basically need a navy to ship troops out of these places, but if you choose that course of action then they are good staging grounds for invasion of Norways possessions. I put high-chivalry governors and low taxes in the smallest cities, and once a general has three chivalry or so I put him in Stirling to get it up to fortress. I found that if I leave Inverlochsomething west of Inverness a castle I can use it to produce reinforcements for Wick and Inverness (two turns to Inverness with a pause in the fort, and three or four to Wick depending on whether you ferry them the last leg of the journey from Inverness). Excellent for keeping the annoying Norwegians at bay.
The islands: as said you can take one island at a time from the Norwegians. Their navy will always be stronger than yours, so you will want to land your troops at the end of every turn. If you have the money you can move your land army close to the island you want to invade, and buy mercenary ships at the start of the turn to ship over your troops in one turn. Any ship that isnt in port is taking a huge risk against the Norwegian longboats. If you are doing a Norway first strategy it's easiest to move counterclockwise and start with the Orkney islands. I tend to convert all the islands except Isle of Man to cities. And I convert Islay to a castle. The reason is that I havent seen anyone except Norway go for these northern islands, and once the Norwegians are out they should be reasonably safe. Put high chivalry governors and low taxes to encourage growth (if you have generals to spare). Arran is also a special case, as it is easy to take (sometimes the Irish do it) but impossible to keep without a governor. The reason is that it is so undeveloped that there is no church, hence no spread of your culture without a governor present.
The reason for converting Islay to a castle is that the Irish, who by now will be the real masters of Ireland (unless the Norwegians somehow got a foothold there) will try to land troops there, and almost inevitably attack the place. I garrison the island with a full stack of highlanders, highlander pike, and highlander archers. I also build up a stack for future invasions on board the ships in the Islay harbour. Isle of Man is usually the last place I go, and the reason is that both the Welsh and the English seem to want a piece of it, and that the Norwegians always seem to leave 3-4 full stacks there. So I tend to leave the place until I need it for winning (depends on the length of the game). These islands are great for reinforcing Ireland (Islay) and Ireland+Wales (Isle of Man).
Once you feel the Norwegians have been dealt with there are a few options for expansion. You will have William Wallace, a general with a bonus against the English, who I like to marry to one of my princesses. It is tempting to use him for his intended purpose, but since I generally find the English to be the least backstabbing and weakest nation (they get eaten by Welsh and Irish simultaneously) I like to do a Bruce invasion of Ireland instead. The Irish are tough enemies with good cavalry and some heavy infantry (what's the historical basis for that???), and will require the simultaneous invasion of 4-5 stacks unless you want to be driven back into the sea. Once Ireland is conquered I tend to make all of it into cities, as it's a money machine. With Scotland+Ireland you will bathe in money. I tend to find that once I have the mainland I am in a bit of a pinch, but sacking the first developed Irish city (and maybe giving the burnt out and emptied hulk of a city to the norwegians or English as a gift?;)) turns the tide money-wise. OTOH England will be weakened by civil war and a Welsh uprising, and the Irish will leave you alone. Take your pick...
Speaking of money I usually train my merchants on the fish (?) outside Wick. once up to 4-5 stars I send them south. Scotland also has a lot of potential wool monopolies for merchant training. In the south the Iron in Wales (usually not contested) is good for building them up further. Once they have 7-8 stars they can be moved to the tin in Cornwall (SW England) where there will be high level competitors for a monopoly, or to the gold mine in Wales (best money maker on the islands), one of the two silver mines, or the dye in the southeast. On Ireland you have a silver monopoly, a dye monopoly, and a cloth monopoly, in addition to a lonely silver mine. I tend to build all my merchants in either Perth or Edinburgh. Perth is very likely to get the merchant guild HQ either way, which will give a global +1 to merchants and a +2 to those trained in Perth...
Unitwise I love the highlander pike for its flavour and cheapness. In the beginning I build armies of 5-6 highlander pike, 5 highlander archers, 5 highlanders, and the rest highlander nobles plus maybe one or two cavalry to deal with archers. Highlander pike take heavy losses to archers due to their lack of armour, but my main initial enemies Norway and Ireland dont bother much with archers. Basically I let the pike grind anything up, and flank with highlanders or highlander nobles. When storming castles I go for a blunt approach of shooting up the gate or the wall with artillery (the basic bombard seems to be avialable earlier than in vanilla and is easy to replenish) and let my disposable highlanders swarm through the breach. When the highlanders have pinned the enemy I let a second wave with highlander nobles charge the busy enemies. Finally I let the pikemen grind their way through this bloody mess. Not very subtle, but it has done the trick for me so far. Later I replace the highlander archers with the noble variety, but these come in low numbers (as do the highlander nobles), which made me regret converting dunstaffnage (southernmost rebel castle on the west coast) to a poor city...
Fighting enemies with missiles I try to hide in the woods, and let my limited cavalry charge the enemy missile troops (if the cavalry is in short supply highlanders will do as well).
Of course these Korean war (red side) tactics are totally unrealistic for a Scotland that IRL never had the manpower to do anything of the kind, but what the heck. If I use the (somewhat realistic) units that are low in the tech tree and easily replacable its inevitable to take heavy losses due to the lack of armour. The scots always seemed like a hold (with pike) and flank (highlander nobles) faction both here and in Vanilla anyway...
I tend to make my garrisons consist of pike militia and 4-5 highlander archers. It's sufficient in the North where your main concern is the Norwegian raiding party, and the Southern border tend to be peaceful until you go on the offensive yourself... Heavy pike militia is available from cities (so fairly early) but has a too high upkeep in the beginning, when you will be short on cash. Later I replace my scots pike militia with heavy pike militia though... I havent actually used the heavy pike militia or the noble pikemen in battle.
On the gamey side: Making peace with the Norwegians (who only have their islands left) whenever they land troops at Wick is definitely an abuse of AI weaknesses. It's not necessary either, as long as you keep a fair sized garrison at Wick. You can also be fairly sure that the English will leave you alone since they have a short border with you, and your troops in Edinburgh+Dumfries are likely to outnumber what they have in Newcastle+ undeveloped Carlisle...
I guess the gist of it is: Control the mainland, kick the Norwegians out of Wick, convert a few castles to cities, use mercenary cogs to island hop, and the world, or at least Britannia, is open to you... It is however sad that the English dont have the strength to try to conquer you outright.
I once used William Wallace's nearly full stack, a siege machine, and a mercenary cog to take out all Norwegian islands except for the Isle of Man. Just make sure he's on land at the end of every turn, or he'll swim with the fishes...Quote:
Originally Posted by Benandorf
Like the faction summery tells you, getting in a war with England and Norway is a terrible idea. The Norwegians are the more immedate threat, because their king is coming soon, and he has a whole lot of vikings with him. They tend to hang out at the fort near Wick. To the West/Northwest is a rather large and sheer hill, which is the perfect place to strike from. Lure them into attacking you there, and use the high vantage point to your full advantage. I beat nearly three full stacks in a huge heroic victory not too long ago by doing this. On even ground, pin them down with highlanders and pikemen, and flank them with cavalry and Highlander Nobles.
You should be able to at least drive the Norwegians out of north Scotland by the time Wallace arrives, by which point you should team up with Wales and the Baron's Alliance (if applicable, as they tend to appear in the south, so you have the English fighting a three-front war) to gobble up England whole.
I played the Scottish in the MTW and Conquered All Of France, Denmark and the England. IReland should not be easy to keep, they should 'rebel' and try to free themselves every few years. I would like to raid cattle though, either as the Irish or the Scottish or do a chevauchée (destructive and profitable raid) as the English.
The Irish had very powerful military units such as the Gallowglasses(Gallóglaigh), Hobelars and noble cavalry, these were very powerful units. One gallowglass was worth more than two English men-at-arms. Hobelars were later recruited by the ENglish.
"I generally find the English to be the least backstabbing and weakest nation (they get eaten by Welsh and Irish simultaneously.." why they (m2tw) did that I don't know. The ENglish had the largest armies and were the most backstabbing, IRL. The Celts had something called Honor. If you saw the Movie Rob Roy the problem in the movie and in his real life lied in Rob relying on people's honor and their word. Kern and 'Ceithern' or 'Ceitherne' are the same and both carried Javelins not axes. Why cannot you fight the highland way?
Do you know here the Scottish came from?
Im having trouble getting Bron's point. Can anyone summarize for me?
Well, the English NOT being strongest and most backstabbing somewhat defeats the purpose of the Britannia campaign:( The English should be all over the place and be the main foe for any faction.
I'm trying Scotland on H/H and am desperately poor. I was only making about 1,000 a turn until William Wallace showed up, and on the first turn after that my treasury went to -1,600! I'm running my cities at Very High taxes, but only converted 1 castle to a city. I have all the mainland Scottish provinces plus Islay. Should I restart and convert more castles to cities? Does the difficulty level affect the economy?
I have Land Clearance and dirt roads in most but not all provinces.
I have about one and a half stacks of good troops total, besides the Wallace stack. I have 4-6 garritroopers in each settlement. Is that too much?
I take it you've either abandoned that game or started over by now, but as a general rule I tend to supplement my early income by plundering cities.
As Scotland in the Britannia campaign you can put your troops on a ship and raid Ireland or Wales for relatively low risk. Destroy all buildings in the captured settlements and either let them rebel or give them to the English (who'll be very happy to deal with local unrest and enemy factions). Put a diplomat there to negotiate peace with the locals once you decide to pull out.
Given the various unit strengths and weaknesses of the factions, I played the Scots as a siege-only faction. I think I had one open-field battle in the whole game.
It got a little tedious toward the end, but when you have weak cavalry and archers compared to everyone else, it makes sense.
A pike-and-infantry army is made for marching down city streets, not running around the hillsides. Build to gunpowder ASAP and field a lot of cannon to open the walls for you, fight one enemy at a time, and the Scots are unstoppable.
Move Alexander Stewart´s army towards Inverlochly and take it. Then move him on Dunstaffnage and Isle of Islay. Move all other expendable troops to Inverness and start cranking out pikes, highlanders and archers there. Convert all castles but Stirling and Inverlochly to settlements. I don´t convert Inverness until I have a 2nd full stack. Build ships asap to intecept the Norwegians. The ones produced on the west coast will ferry A.S over to take Islay.
Make shure all your ships are outside Wick when the Norse invasion comes and sink all their ships off coast. They will spawn a bit out to sea to the east of Wick. The king goes down and the only troops they have left is the ones they start with and a spawned stack on the Isle of Man which you will take last. Now your army in Inverness, can take Wick, Kirkwall, Stornoway, Skye, Mull, Arran and finally Castle town which will render a really good developed castle, the 3rd. It´s all you need. A.S will reinforce the south english border togehter with William Wallace.
I always tend to ally with the Irish and Welsh. Help them out as much as I can but usually I´m too late to help the succumbing Welsh. Only one major foe left - England. Once I flipped and allied with the English and took on the Welsh and Ireland and that worked well too.
I always thought it'd be fun to pull a Bruce and invade Ireland. That's my plan for my next game.
Laugh Out Loud - Playing as Scotland - Money talks:-
I was quickly able to kick Norway out of all Scottish territories, especially after The Wallace appears with his experienced army.
Having gained control of mainland Scotland & all of her islands, I concentrated on generating money, converting all settlements to towns/cities except where I needed castles.
The Western Isles are frequently attacked by Ireland, but no real threat ever comes from the South, England seems to get pounded by the Rebel Alliance and an aggressive Welsh army who take most of the South rapidly.
So, once I became fairly rich I attempted 2 or 3 ventures into Ireland, which proved difficult to maintain, the territories are swamped with Irish armies. My retraining capacity could not compete with them, multiple castles would need to be taken, and I reckon you need to land 4 full armies to gain a secure foothold.
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Options for territorial expansion:-
1. Try to conquer Ireland with more troops.
2. Start a fight with England/Alliance/Wales.
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What I did instead was...
1. Demand Ireland to become vassals (offer of 1.2 million credits accepted).
2. Offer Wales money for all their English territories (500k for 3 turns accepted).
This gave me enough territorial control for victory conditions, (I was playing 0.5 time mechanics, so probably regular tm settings would not generate so much wealth to be able to afford such deals).
Anyone worked out any edits to make England more aggressive?
Really every faction should be struggling to kick England out of there home territories.
Ive seen Ireland alllied with England...