Archived: Turtling as England [RXB1004]

[daigaku]

Hi @all,

here some stuff dedicated to the turtling gamer ;-)

PART 1

Campaign: Redux 1004eVI/English/veteran/GA

Campaign character: Slow, building up max available, maxed-out units only, small armies only

Unit restrictions: Only "native" units, nothing of the feudal/royal line;

Garrison: LightBillmen

Spears: SaxonHeavySpearmen, IrishSpearmen

Swords: SaxonWarriors, ClaymoreWarriors, HighlandClansmen

Projectiles: EnglishForesters, Longbowmen, Kerns

Cavalry: IrishHorsemen, ScottishNobles, EnglishKnights, "inherited" RoyalKnights

As soon as Lithuanian provinces are taken:

All region-specific Lithuanian/Slavic units available

Units modded: To stand a chance against Feudal/Royal cavalry units I increased

ScottishNobles and EnglishKnights to 40 men. LithuanianNobles and SlavicCavalry come with

these numbers, so no change there.

NO OTHER UNITS USED

Development:

In the beginning, I only leave a small unit in Normandy; playing "standard", the French normally don´t attack till I´ve got my regions built up and I can keep it - quite different in "veteran"; between 735 and 770 they always attack (tried and retried, to be sure). I left, destroying everything before leaving. For me, it makes no sense to keep a province "at all cost", breaking my economy, interrupting my building schemes, just to keep hordes of Frenchies at bay...
I don´t produce any units except ships (to keep my borders clean), so getting Wales, Northumbria, Scotland and Ireland is done by bribe. I made the maths about this a few times, and economically it makes more sense to build up and bribe than to recruit, battle and recruit again to keep loyalty high enough. Cost of battling is, in the end, about 40% higher. Side-effect is getting a few regional special units without building the infrastructure.
To build up everything possible/necessary on Keep level takes till about 850 at least. On Castle level, there are only left the "master"-buildings and some upgrades not available on keep level. Because this is quite costly, I must have built up my economy to max at this point. FeudalEstate++ only built in Scotland(Nobles) and Wessex(EnglKnights). Chancellery/Treasury everywhere. Office buildings built, but nothing being recruited from them.
After having built up on Castle level every single existing unit is retrained. Only then I start to recruit, valour, morale (except Cathedral), armour maxed out, Weaponsmith on Workshop level.

Region specific recruiting structures I build up to:

Wessex: ArchersGuild, RoyalCourt, MasterHorseBreeder

Wales: ArchersGuild, CountyMilitia

Northumbria: MasterSwordsmith, MasterSpearmaker

Scotland: MasterSwordsmith, RoyalCourt

Ireland: MasterSpearmaker, MasterHorseBreeder

Mercia: All religious/political agents buildings

LargeShipyard is built everywhere

This way, every province produces max. 3 different units maxed out, necessary to cut down building time (which is still horribly long).

Expansion:

I keep it "small and beautiful" ;-)) Not only my Kingdom, but my army as well. Therefor expansion happens earliest about 880 on Castle level.
One of the big problems on "veteran" (NOT on "standard") are the Norse, being much more aggressive and having this tremendous infantry. To keep them small, I spam spies.
As soon as they are weakened by revolts I take Sweden for the money and it´s central scandinavian location, being a doorstep to Lithuanian provinces as well. With the english infrastructure already built up max, here only economy and defence upgrading.

The main expansion problem with this style of playing is that

1st) I give quite some time to my concurrents to expand, some even horribly; at the moment(880), the Byz own a third of the map...

2nd) to get captured provinces to the same level as my home ones is a pain in the ass, taking another 100-150 years depending on the infrastructure still intact after conquering. So units of lithuanian provenience play a role in my game only from about 1000/1100, depending on when I take them.

Besides all that, I use unwanted, but completely maxed Heirs for suicide missions to cut down enemy strength (as told in other threads). Double benefit: No drooling drunkards as Kings, and no need for mass battles (one stack must suffice).

So far my newest news,

greetings to everyone, daigaku

Addition: After a hard day´s work (year 935), I finally wiped out the Norse. Was a hell of planning, bribing and fighting (may all gods bless my Longbowmen!), with their "great morale" boosted right into stratosphere with their "veteran" game bonus.

Byz still going strong, but due their King being cornered in Asia Minor by my fleets, they got quite some rebellions going. Haven´t got the strength yet to go for them (economy breakdown, either them or rebels owning most coastal provinces and me building all those stability structures to keep Scandinavia happy).

Now it will be those Lithuanian provinces. I´ll report.

greetings again, daigaku