Holy Roman Headache!

[EatYerGreens]

For EYG, I would definitely recommend pumping out Swabians as soon as possible. If I remember right, they require a swordsmith's workshop, so they're a little further off, but I'd dedicate Swabia to doing nothing else till it techs up to that level and then mass-produce those killing machines.

Thanks for clearing that one up, ajax. I double checked the VI leaflet to be sure and it's not that I misread it the first time, just that I forgot the significance of the workshop part, meaning level two, meaning full castle first. More on that in a moment...

In the meantime, my recent foray into multiplayer has got me used to FMAA's, so I'm happy to pump these out for the time being, with MilSerges coming out of Switzerland, I can put together 'attack' stacks and 'defence' stacks to make the best of their respective good attributes. Fortunately, none of the neighbour factions has these yet, so I'm ahead on tech.

I am however, broke. Well, almost. Full story to follow.

I build forts ASAP to try and boost population loyalty. Am I wasting my cash/time trying to build them so quick? I could wait a few years for interior/non boarder provinces.

Hmm, possibly. I got a parchment right after the very first press of 'End Year' in the campaign, which warned me about low loyalty amongst my generals. I suppose that's pretty standard for HRE's opening position? I set about fixing that asap by a frantic building programme of border watch towers (no need for BFs just yet) and at least one 20% farms somewhere in every successive year. After about 4 years, the Emperor got 'Builder' which is +10% happiness in all provinces and +1 loyalty on all generals, so it's money well spent, IMO.

The other thing with my style is that there is a natural tendency to accumulate troops in the border provinces and this alone will boost loyalty enough to get taxes into the Very High range.

I say wait with the BF's because I know that when my Builder king snuffs it, there will be an instant drop in happiness and loyalty. I need to have cheap, quick items still on the building shopping list to get my new king his builder virtue in as short a time/least money as possible. BWTs will stave off (low valour) assassin threats well enough in the meantime.

By treating a province as a 'fighting zone' and by not building a fort, I know that, if I do happen to lose on the field, at least the survivors and the general are forced out completely, not trapped and thus they can play an immediate part in the counter offensive. At a pinch, repeated take-backs gains the gen his first couple of stars. Entrapment either has him starved to death, killed in the assault, or sent back to you for a hefty ransom, befitting his star rating.

I never seem to use forts in the way they're supposed to be used - small 'trip-wire' garrisons to hold up attackers at the border and a heavywieght stack placed someplace where it can strike in many directions, to retake the ground quickly. Much more efficient use of troops, as stated by someone previously.

My problem is that my early spending goes on farms and economic improvements and I cannot afford to do that AND build forts in 11 starting provinces, all at once, or however many it is the HRE get. [EDIT] The homelands list in GA mode shows 13 for HRE! [/EDIT] The Byz start with 12 provinces but only one training centre, which is just as much of a headache.

In fact, it may be habitual Byz use which got me using this policy. Their starting generals are 6,7,8 star, so I'm a tad over-protective with them and daren't risk getting them snagged up in sieges.

Now I think about it again, I suppose the idea is that you just rally him out of the castle and he's the leader, so it matters not a bit that the relief stack has a no-star leader. Hmmm.

[EatYerGreens]

HRE GA/Early/Hard/Default size ...continued.

My overall state of mind at the moment is that this is one of the worst botch-jobs I've made of a campaign to date. However, I may be being a tad harsh on myself. I think this may be the first time I've actually played any campaign on the Hard setting. I think all my STW successes were played at Normal and my one go at Hard with that went so badly wrong I gave up in (self) disgust.

After putting VI in place, I did start a Byz campaign on expert, had moderate success with rushing the Turks but ended up packing all the gamesaves into a zipfile for a time when my expertise can cope. A huge HRE crusade had just blatted Bulgaria and was one move away from a thinly defended Capital

My ongoing Byz campaign was back at Normal level again and I have to say it was really bad preparation for what I'm in now, seeing as how the Byz uber-generals make all the difference to winning or losing, not actual player ability. I got a false impression of both unit type capabilities and my own level of tactical skill. This bit me in the backside, as you'll see below.

Back to the action...

Friesland was retaken and held for long enough for a fort to go up. The French stopped attacking it and a garrison of 200 appears to be enough to keep them at bay.

The bad news is that they eventually shoved two stacks into Lorraine and I let them have it without a fight. Those stacks have not moved, so I still haven't got it back yet. No matter, it let me focus my attention on matters down south.

The really wierd thing was that they were somehow able to offer a princess to me on the same turn. As per that screenie I posted up a while back, the icons flashed to indicate that the alliance offer was in conflict with an ongoing war situation. I wanted them off my back and knew a retake battle was not on the cards, so I accepted the offer. So they've gained a province from me and achieved alliance with me in the space of a single turn. This alliance only lasted a year, since I opened up against Italy, who was their ally. Not a problem for me as both sons are now married off and more heirs are being born already.

I attack Genoa and Milan on the same turn and they retreat to the keeps, which was a pity. Some troops have to go back to guard Provence and I withdraw my better troops from Milan, so only some peasants and UM will receive losses in the siege. Two large stacks of Italians are in Venice and I attack it out of Tyrolia, with backup from the Milan stack, so that they can't pull off a siege-lift.

This is the first of a string of embarrasing defeats. I begin in a gully, with a medium height hill to my right and snow-capped steep hills to my left. The Italians are off in the distance, on the flattish section. They have two RKs, the rest all UMs and reinforcements due. I have fewer men but I have 5 archers and intend to shoot them to bits, as they have no missile units to fire back with. I go at running speed to the hill on my right, to maximize firing range. Fast forward on the speed control for a bit and was so busy concentrating on my own position and facing that I fail to notice they've gone for the steep hills on the other side of the map. GAH! Looks like a mile of marching back down, across the gully and up the steep slope. Fast-forward again. After the climb, my men are down to two bars, so yet more FF to freshen them up.

All goes well at first. I send some archers forward, they send UMs piecemeal to chase them off, only to be cut down to 40 men, at which point they turn back and lose some more. My front line is on a 30deg slope and they charge at my right side, which is lower down. Good, more archers come into play and my spears are down that end. I pin, I flank but it must have been their bonus valour UMs which did this as they carved up my men a treat. The battle log showed something like 31 friendly kills by my archers, which must be a record for me and not something to be proud of either.

His RKs are on his right (my left) and one of the pair looks to have been shot up completely by my left-most archers, without it ever making the short dash required to send them packing. Good, I think that means a Prince of theirs is dead. Their other RK (king!!!) I find safely out of range on the downslope of the ridge they'd defended on. I don't think he played any part in the fighting.

The meleé action gets progressively more messy. I switch archer targeting constantly but this has them pursuing broken enemy UM units when I'm not looking and making my force spread everywhere. Archers are running out of ammo, my spears and UMs have vapourised down to 20 men each and archers are being called on to meleé. Half my units are routing at any given time.

Enemy peasants are coming up the gully, which means the reinforcements are here and I might just pull this off. My sole RK unit (Prince Conrad) has been sat back doing little, so far (daft to send him against AP units) and charges into the flank of some peasants just from sheer proximity, not an order of mine. He sets off in pursuit but I'm looking at 16 badly damaged units, half routing and unrallyable. Even peasants could mop them up as prisoners in this state and I consider pulling off a controlled withdrawal.

Before I could act on that thought the blasted battle ending screen reared it's ugly head. Dumbo, here, had left the battle time limit ON!! All that marching at the start used up half the clock by the time I'd marched twice and rested. The subsequent action kept me too busy to pay attention and it genuinely took me by surprise. Maybe I was going to lose anyway and it did me a favour?

EDIT: Typos...

[EatYerGreens]

..continued

The casualty bar was at the 50:50 mark at the end of all of that and it sunk home what a difference the Hard setting plus valour bonused Italian UMs can make. I had 86 prisoners and was mindful to execute them before pressing the proceed button. The ransom was small and affordable but, significantly, my 4-star Prince was now a three star.

On the upside, what was a pair of 3/4 stacks in Venice was now just a single, near full one and Milan was held for that year.

In the same turn came my second embarassing defeat. I'd left 1 archer, one v0 UM and two v1 (Provence's bonus) peasants to siege 2 v1 UMs and one of v0 peasants.

The swines only went and rallied out at me! A doddle, with the archers about, or so I thought.

I start on a low hill, they're on a higher one. They come down onto the flatland, I crab sideways, across a wide dip, hoping to get on top of the big hill they've just come down from, to use the height to fire down on them.

I left my archers in line formation, instead of setting them to square for the march. I put the 2 pez units on my left, my UM general on my right. A mis-click has my general moving by himself. I select all and move them together. I preview their arrangement at the first waypoint and fuss for a few seconds over the duff facing of the general's unit. A crucial few seconds, as it turned out.

Wherever they were initially headed to, the enemy units have turned to close with me, so they are more in column than in line. However, it does mean that, as I climb this hill I was so keen on, they're hitting my unit's flanks head on! Worse still, a couple of archers on the end of the line make a grazing contact with the front of their peasants. It's meleé icon comes on and they continue to climb, when this is all time wasted when they could have been keeping their distance and firing. Their pez follows through, causing one of my pez units to break and run. They refuse to rally and are chased into the distance. I turn and attack using the downslope. My archers are firing but against two UMs with boosted valour, it's hopeless. Instead of me being in their retreat path, they are in mine. Lots taken prisoner. Gah!

The force in Provence is large enough to retake Genoa in a later attack and the keep is reduced to a fort because they pulled out completely.

More wierdness now.

Milan has a stack of returned prisoners from the Venice battle and I cannot command them yet. I set the 3/4 stack of siegers to assault the fort. I only have one unit of archers and they fire-arrow a hole in the stockade. For some daft reason, instead of fighting through the breach, I use two peasant units on the left of my line to batter down another section of stockade and make it wider, while the archers use the 1/3 of ammo remaining on the UMs lurking on the other side. The pez must have tired themselves out doing this and the stockade failed to collapse on top of any enemy. A combination of bunching, being shot by the forts arrows and v1 UMs soon had them running. My own UMs fared no better once through the breach. Within a minute, they were coming out and chasing me all over the field. Later checks showed their general was valour 3!! I must have lost 400+ guys to very few of theirs. Another humiliating defeat and probably the only time I've ever stuffed up a simple fort assault.

The wierd bit is that, right after the defeat screen, I pay ransom again, return to the strat map and am told that Milan's castle has fallen to my troops! Whaat the...? The fort itself has been blasted off the map and the enemy troops are nowhere in sight. Evidently my stack of former prisoners was enough to keep the province in my hands. One wonders if the programmers stopped to think of this eventuality, unusual as it is?

So, back to the big picture. I've lost Lorraine but I've gained - and held onto - Milan and Genoa. In spite of this string of embarrasing defeats, no civil war has broken out and I have generals loyalties up at the high end, with the lowest maybe 4 on the scale.

I have this feeling that stagnation - no battles being fought - can breed low loyalty and loss of provinces whilst in that depressed state is what sets the civil wars off. I have just lost a string of battles and an unacceptably high number of men (likely more than 1000 in total) yet the constant activity has somehow kept my generals' loyalties up. Okay, I've lost one province and gained two, plus my borders are strongly guarded, maybe those factors help too?

The biggest issue now is that I've been cranking out troops non-stop, to replace all these losses and it has cost me dearly. My building programme has virtually ground to a halt. Cashflow was down to just 340 at one point and the Treasury has been floating around the 1500 level for the past three or four turns. I had just enough to rebuild Genoa's 20% farms and with two new govs in place, cashflow is back up to around 750 a year. However, I've been cranking out FMAA and MilSerges for several turns and the maintainance squeeze will force me to demobilise the weaker troops very soon.

Trade? Ports? Ships? You're kidding me. Not even a trading post setup anywhere yet - 800 is half of what I have in the bank. Swabian Swordsmen would be great but 2000 for a castle is pie in the sky for about another decade and a 12 year wait after that. And another 6 years for the workshop. (grumble, mumble).

Okay, so Tuscany is down to walkover garrison size and there's just that stack in Venice. I want Venice first but it'll take a few years to rebuild troop numbers. Oh, just to complicate matters, I think the time limit on the Papal warning dating back to France's first attack must have run out because, just as Genoa and Milan had been caoptured outright, Popey raises his ugly head, tells me to stop fighting the Italians and get out within two years. Hmm, so I'll have to wait a while anyway, or else test those loyalties with a slice of excom pie.

The Venice problem kind of sorted itself out but not in the way I would have hoped. Out of nowhere, the Byz decide to drop a stack on them. There's been some siegeing, rallying, Byz forces coming and going and, after about 4 or 5 years, it finally falls into their hands. They are still neutral but offered alliance a while back. I declined so that my emissary could score some valour out of striking the deal but he and two Princesses have had to chase him via Georgia, Khazar, Crimea (he moved out that turn), Kiev, Carpathia, Bulgaria (the swine won't keep still now I want him) and finally back to the big C, which was the Em's first port of call. C'mon guy, I want that princess married off before she gets to nunnery age!!

EDIT: If lack of agents means you don't know where the other faction leader is but you can see one of their emissaries, drop your Em on theirs and then look at your Em's info parchment. The mission details give the current location of their leader. In this case, it said Crimea for several turns in succession but the nearest ports were Georgia and Constantinople. Like I said, he gave my Em and Princess the slip, attacking Kiev in the turn they moved in, leaving them looking at a deserted province!

Churches are up in Switzerland and Swabia and I'm going to need the morale boost from them soon, by the look of things. I have a 3 star Emperor, a three star Prince (winning provinces without a proper field battle did not get him his fourth star back, it seems) and a four star Prince with mostly low-tech dross up against a 6-7 star Byz Prince and those juicy units of theirs.

Oh and my mismanagement of both the army and the economy means I'm broke, so there's not a lot I can do about it, if they come a-marching in. Fingers crossed that it'll be Tuscany that they go after next, rather than me.

My eastern border has pathetically small forces guarding it at the moment. The Poles and Huns ought to be having a feeding frenzy on me right now but haven't budged. Maybe there's some kind of mutual distrust between them, or they see nothing worth stealing yet, or they're more worried about the threat of the Byz??!!??

I can't say that I'm fully looking forward to what's to come but it certainly has been fun and interesting, so far. Like I said, it's all very well dishing out advice on strategy but actually pulling it off is another matter entirely. For now, it's a case of building up funds again to be able to put in place about half of the policies I suggested. I'll feel a bit more comfortable once I've got some traders in place and, money permitting, the port, keep and shipbuilder which I know I'm going to need to keep me financially afloat for the remainder of the game.


EDITS: Insert extra para and yet more typos!

[bretwalda]

I really enjoyed these stories so I started a HRE/Early/Hard campaign. This is living on the edge... I am attacked by every neighbour of mine except the Danes and Papacy (oh yeah, I kicked the Italians out of the mainland. I had to do it they managed to get Austria: If I have to be excommed for retaking it I might as well kick them out...)

Reduced the French to two separate provinces when the English attacked and fought them off in bridge battles. I really experience the might of the spearmen and mounted crossbowmen... they are battlewinning.

And amazing how much the v0 low moral spearmen can take. (I cannot afford many churches, nor any high tech buildings...) Princes with their royal knights can also start massrouting the enemy if they can flank. Cool.

However in the east the Hungarians and recently the Polish give trouble. Somehow it seems that nobody makes them busy on the other side of their border... If I could tech up I could roll over them but that does not seem too likely. Probably I try to reduce them and push them to be a buffer zone... Anyway: all plans are rewritten in each and every turn when something new turns up... I expect the Danes and the Papacy to turn on me and that is not gonna be nice... I want to get some ships in the water but they are so fragile and expensive... eh good game!

[EatYerGreens]

And amazing how much the v0 low moral spearmen can take. (I cannot afford many churches, nor any high tech buildings...) Princes with their royal knights can also start massrouting the enemy if they can flank. Cool.

Actually, I only have two keeps in all of my territory, which means just two churches - Swabia (FMAA production) and Switzerland (MilSerges). However, they both have archer and spear facilities, so when not busy churning new units, I can cycle old ones through there, to give them the morale bonus for no actual expense. It's a pity there's no indicator on the unit icon or its parchment to show this. Whilst one can generally keep track of how retraining is going during a series of turns, the next time I start a game session, I'll have lost track.

A better way would have been to wait until I had an armourer, get 2 upgrades in one go and a marker to show you've done it.

I'm steadily beginning to appreciate just how much discipline it takes to look after the HRE. Me and the Byz are taking turns at having the largest annual income and/or the biggest army but, in my case, big income is largely academic. So many troops are required to keep all the neighbours at bay that the economy is strangled by the maintainance costs. Worse yet, none of the provinces has an outstanding base-level crop yeild. It's a lot of cash to put in for what seems to be very little return and, of course, you never know whether you're going to be invaded right after you've splashed out half of your entire treasury on the next farm upgrade, or whatever.

I think a bank balance of around 1000 is about as low as I'll ever dare to go - that's enough to buy a bunch of troops for some dire emergency. I'm up to the year 1125 at the moment and my bank balance isn't a lot greater than that!!

So, running the HRE is rather like life. Bags of things you want/need but, instead of that, you end up spending on other stuff, simply because it's all you can afford.

If it wasn't for all the constant fighting they have to do and the troop replenishment which naturally follows, I'd have built quite a healthy infrastructure by now.

I'm seriously considering a radical, experimental approach, in my next attempt at starting HRE/Early (no plans to restart just yet). Basically pick 4 or 5 'core' provinces, withdraw the bulk of my troops to that area, leaving only token forces in the outlying provinces. Earn money from those for as long as they last. Let invaders take what they will but defend the core without fail. Let the other factions spend the money on developing what was my outer reaches. Meanwhile a small army and a good cashflow allows me to advance crops, castles and training facilities to the point where I can mobilise a tough force and start pushing them back. The money from pillage will feed further mobilisation and infrastructure repairs in reconquered lands. By this time, their should be some choice governor candidates available too.

It just might work!

[EatYerGreens]

I completely forgot to reply about spears. I've always found them to be useful and, since about 95% of my game experience has been in Early, I never really feel comfortable without at least two units of them in every border stack.

The French, in Toulouse, had built about 7 units of Hobilars, which I had constantly been expecting to attack and chop up the archers I'd built, to counter the 11 or so archer units the French had stacked in Lorraine. I decided I had to take Toulouse while it was still a no-retreat zone for them.

I know most people hate bridge battles but I hit upon a plan where I could actually use the bridge to my advantage. I attacked Toulouse from Provence, specifically to make it a river crossing. I was able to push across the bridge using just spears and the choke point meant that they couldn't properly flank me. Meanwhile, my archers can setup within range of them without fear of being charged at and pick off horses while the spears merely hold poition on the far end. By the time I'd got a third spear unit across, they'd wasted the better part of their horsemen on foolish attempts to beat me back. They had very few foot troops and would have been better off defending further back, or to one side, allowing me to cross and then using their speed and maneuverability to the maximum, to get around the flanks, behind me, cutting off my escape etc. Yeah, we all know how dumb the AI can be....

I had two FMAA with me but they didn't even start to cross until the bridgehead was established and most of their horsemen were impaled or shot. If I'd sent them first, they would have been arrow fodder and, if they had turned their backs on the horses, they would have been goners.

I should point out that my Emperor was in charge, with 3-stars (the prince who lost a star in the Venice battle; this time he got it back but he's now the Emperor), so these spears were boosted to v1 for the battle. Come to think of it, I don't think you get v1 spears fresh from training until you've built the master level spearmaker.

The real test of v0 spears came very soon afterwards. My Emperor moves back to Burgundy, leaving a 0-star FMAA in charge. I autocalced the siege, since it was a keep and I had no siege gear. Cheesy, I know but I won it and got a general's promotion out of it.

The Aragonese attack the following year with some RKs and a unit of archers. Two archers of mine were set in a tempting position and shoot up a good few RKs as the come up the slope but, when a pair of RKs charges together, one lot get chased away and severely carved up. The remaining RKs I take on using the trees at the map-edge to the utmost. The Aragonese king parks himself about 5 ranks' distance from my two spear units, in holdpos. Well, if he won't attack me, I'll oblige. I charge both simultaneously, to a position just behind him, rather than explicitly an attack instruction. Only one engages properly, the other has to about-face and come back but, as my FMAA general emerges from the treeline to join the fun, he makes a run for it before the about-face unit can properly hit from behind and trap him. Shame, I could have done with the cash.

So that general is now a 2-star. About time I had a general who wasn't a Royal unit.

Provence is no longer on the front line, so I leave only enough men to maintain the tax rates. Silly me - in come the Italians, by sea! I sally out and bring in troops from every conceivable direction. Naturally the Italians bring in follow up troops and I find myself attacking a 5-star general. Fortunately, they didn't bring nearly enough troops and the battle was mostly an exercise in groupings and maneuvers. I think they refused the ransom, so they really are on the ropes. Another victory for the Emperor.

Byz never did attack Tuscany in the end and I should have attacked their while the garrison was still puny. As of now, it's another full stack and I'm not quite ready to take it on yet. Papal warning for Italy expires soon, I hope.

Another warning came up after Toulouse and they retaliated by going into Friesland again. I lifted the siege immediately and got to use my three units of Vikings for the first time. Battle timer is still on and took about a quarter of the limit just to find out whereabouts in that huge patch of trees they were hiding. They would have fared much better out in the open, to use the four or five archers units they had to full effect. They can't seem to fire properly when deep in the trees themselves and I hit from two directions with pez and UMs. My men routed a bit but rallied and, once I had the rough location of the enemy, I set the Vikings loose, to comb through the woods and they were scattered all across the map. So much for hide-and-seek. That'll teach 'em

The Vikings go back to Saxony and the shrunken garrison is visited again. Strangely they use 5 archer units and nothing else. Cool, I get to use 'rush' on the AI, at long last! Everything right up against the markers and only about 50 yards to dash. I think they got about three rounds off at me before they bolted.

I have a feeling this was a repeat of their previous effort to knock a homeland off me just in time for the points year and they even make allowances for siege duration in when to time the attack. Chasing off the archers was 1124 and no attack was made in 1125 itself, as this would have gained them little.

I am currently in second place, on 25 points (still 1 homeland down) previously something like 4th/5th, on 12 points, with the Almohads leading, on 26. Well chuffed, I was.

That reminds me. There seem to be two glitches in the GA points table. Firstly, it tells me I get one point for conquest 'for every 5 provinces taken' and retaking homelands doesn't count, apparently. I've only captured three so far yet it gave me a point anyway.

Secondly, the French have Antioch, Palestine and Tripoli listed as 'Homelands' and these are shown in grey lettering, for obvious reasons. Shurely shome mishtake??

Oh, a fun thing happened. I got an Emissary to Rome but abandoned ideas of requesting an alliance, since he's allied with Italy, who I'm at war with and Sicily, who will be next on the list - it seems they've poached Naples off the Byz, which explains why the Byz have three stacks in Venice and very lean armies everywhere else. Next thing I know, the pope requests an alliance with me! I just HAD to accept, didn't I?

I had a 1000 off him early in the game and could really use another dose right now. I only have two bishops but they're doing sterling work converting the pagans in Pomerania and Prussia (Poland's) right now. (grovel, grovel)

[dgfred]

Good stuff EYG! Enjoying the lurking intently .

My biggest problem in my current HRE game has been Italians and Byzantines
invading from the sea , until I built my Med. fleet up to snuff. Now
I have them outnumbered at sea and control most of the Med. Since most of
my ships are built from Denmark, Norway and Venice- it seems the are very
nasty 'battleships' indeed . Before I gained control the Italians
would keep knocking at Provence and the Byzantines would keep trying for
Venice . Now I am returning the favor to the Byzs .

[ajaxfetish]

Good to hear all the juicy details in the updates. I've got no idea on the explanation for conquest points, but I'm guessing the French homelands in the levant are because of the "Frankish" crusader states established there during the 1st crusade. I know the French begin with those territories during the high period, and I suppose they might as well consider them homelands during that era and get the points for keeping them-not necessarily an easy task.

[OlafTheBrave]

Reading this made me decide to reinstall MTW and give the HRE another go at GA. On the first turn I hit Denmark and Venice, Denmark is just something to focus the pope on because on Hard I dont see it happening. Italy retreats from Venice so it is just to good to resist, also by waiting a few turns they will have a inn up in Milan that can be used for mercs to drive them off the mainland. By producing spears, UM and archers out of my first production provinces I was able to keep France at bay. Not that they didnt attack repeatedly I was just able to hold them off. Also since Swabia had a chancelor I built a royal court there after upgrading to keep for some decent cavalry and while expensive the few RKs I have built have been worth their weight in gold.

Since Venice hada keep I built a church and chapter house there. While waiting for ships to reach the holyland I sent two crusades to Pommerania and Prussia. I built keeps in my two iron provinces for troop production. One is geared towards swords and the other currently mounted sargents. Around the early 1100s I had enough of France and since they were down to Champaign, Isle de France and Flanders bordering me it seemed like a good time to rid myself of them and their constant attacks. Also along in this time period I had built up enough troops to finaly take down Denmark.

With a line of ships across the med I launched two crusades that I beefed up with some Fuedal Seargents and archers and hit Plaestine for the big points and Tripoli since it is adjacent. I was contemplating the last two crusade goals or the HRE goal for 1150 when Sicily made up my mind. They broke an alliance and attacked my ships so they have just been smashed out of Naples. On their attempt to retake the province their king bit the dust with no heirs so good ridance. Its currently 1148 and I think I can wrangle the troops I need into Rome to take it without loosing Naples. The bummer of it all is my King Died breaking the excom I got off Sicily but since the pope is 60 I think I will proceed.

Poland and Hungary havent troubled me suprisingly as I am a bit weak on this side of the empire. Pommerania and Prussia do have the good troops left from two crusades so Poland can be delt with if they get upity. The English snipped one of my ships and lost their one ship and absolutly refuse a ceasfire, however with the troops they have they are of no concern at the moment. I wished I had remembered to pay attention to the hero years as both Albrecht de Bar and Henry the Lion are Fuedal Seargents.

[dgfred]

Nice playing Olaf! Our playing styles are very similar, but I never
thought of sending Crusades to Prussia and Pommerania . Not
only did you get some excellent troops, but you captured Prussia much
sooner than I was able to .

[yesdachi]

Here is a little update on my HRE/early/expert game. It is about 1205 and I have been able to completely take over everything north and west of my original starting provinces, plus everything south to the pope. The poles and Hungarians have been a nice little buffer between the Turks and me (although they attack about every 5 years it is still nice to have them there to separate us). The Turks are still the main eastern power. After defeating the French and English (the English must have had massive loyalty as they kept popping in recently conquered provinces, with bills and longbows too), neither would stop attacking me, I thought I could have some peace with my new neighbors the Spanish and Arg. Nope, after sharing boarders for only a few years they both attack me, not at the same time, the Spanish just finished eliminating the Almos and had some nice sized armies. I was still lacking really good troops but I did finally have some decent cash flow so I built some mounted crossbows and royal knights from conquered provinces, and they really helped.

Not only a turn after I finish off the Spanish the Almos reappear in full force, 6 stacks, down in northern Africa, the province next to Morocco, and next to them to the east reappear the Egyptians, with 6 stacks. The Turks left their backdoor half open and the Egyptians will probably make some good ground in reclaiming their conquered lands. The Almos come after me right away and I hold them back in a costly battle (my 5 star general was 1 province away, darn it) in terms of numbers but they were outdated troops so I will mourn their lose but not their support costs as I create new and better units. I think I will spend some time getting my empire in order and watch what the Turks do when the Mongols show.

BTW the Sicilians rule the water and are at war with me after breaking our alliance. I never would have guessed… NOT!

[EatYerGreens]

Reading about everyone else's successes was, in parts, encouraging, in that it proves the HRE is capable of a lot but, at the same time, disheartening in that it only served to emphasise what a pig's ear I was making of my own effort!

I came within a hair's breadth of jacking in this campaign and restarting it along the lines I'd set out a few posts further back.

I'd kicked the French out of Toulouse but sent my Emperor away to look after the border with France again, Swabia being the province I absolutely must not lose.

While he heads north, a 0-star general performs an autocalc-ed castle assault and gains a star in the process. Soon after, he gets attacked by the Aragonese king and somehow carves a victory out of the situation. Given my dire financial situation, I was severely disappointed that their king escaped my spearmen's clutches but settled for merely getting a 2nd star on the gen and some valour boost. That province should at least be able to look after itself now.

Or so I thought. Not content with having 3 wars against me now (French, Italian and Aragonese), the AI decides it's time the English joined in. It wasn't immediately clear from the displayed AI moves on the strat map but the pre-battle screen showed I was 7-800 versus 1000+. Strangely, the English had less than 16 units showing and the description made no mention of an ally getting involved, on England's side, though it was obvious this was the case.

Instinct said to abandon the province and let them fight it out amongst themselves but I was up for an against-the-odds challenge and hoped my mounted crossbows could maybe take out the Aragonese king and swing things in my favour.

The English fought up-slope but were beating me in spite of that, the Aragonese came in on my flank at the same elevation as me and being engaged by both forces at once was simply impossible to withstand.

I was faced with a ransom of only 480 or so but, with the Treasury at barely 1200, this is a significant amount. I had the cursor hovering on the big 'X' for nearly a minute. Okay, so I needed the men to keep Provence secure, for one thing. He's now only a 1-star, potentially a good runner too but he's an FMAA and possibly still better to be in charge than the green UM general currently in place. So I go ahead and pay up, if only to see if there was any way I could recover from near bankruptcy. (This was the point at which I considered packing in the entire campaign).

I'm glad I didn't.

I think I was content to let the English take Toulouse, at least for the time being, as I was still concentrating my efforts on keeping the French at bay in the north and knocking the Italians off the mainland in the south. It also breaks my border with the Aragonese, which should mean that war comes to an end. I got myself allied to the Byz some time ago, so I can't take Venice. The alliance which the Pope made with me was flashing icons to show the conflicting allegiances and I got the 'Treaty Cancelled' (due to war with Italy) message the following turn, anyway.

Either on the same turn as the loss of Toulouse, or shortly afterward, I attack Tuscany. There is no field battle (I thought this would be compulsory when the defender has no path of retreat), just the message about 'decide they cannot win and are retreating'. As if by a miracle, there is no force left in the castle, no siege to settle. The 600-odd troops there have just vapourised! Pillage money boosts the treasury up to 2000+ florins.

I order some fresh troops and commit to 40% farms in Bavaria, since it's not on a border with any other faction and seemed a safe bet for gambling half my treasury on. I'm surprised to get the 'Insufficient funds!" message at End-Year but relieved to discover that it let me get all the troops I'd ordered and placed the farm upgrade on-hold.

The pushback from Toulouse let me redistribute stacks in such a way that I felt able to attack Lorraine and succeeded in winning against greater numbers. Slight cheating on my part though. Their main force was set wayyy back in the deployment area but the radar-map revealed a blue blob in some woods on the western edge of the map, very disconnected from their defence line and clearly intended to ambush-flank me. I move my whole force over to them, bed in my whole force off-centre and set my left flank to mash up 200 feudal sergeants. He then has to abandon his defence position to rescue the situation, so I can sit and let him come to me. We kind of broke through each others lines and the last of their units to be chased off were way back at the end of the map I was supposed to have entered from.

So now I'm starting to earn ransom money too.

My chronology is a bit out. After the victory, I actually destroyed the 60% farms they'd built (I'd only got Lorraine up to 20%, to give some idea how long they'd held it) partly to get some cash towards my 40% farms in Bavaria and partly to disincentivise the French from wanting to take Lorraine back again. I'll have plenty of time to rebuild it, assuming they play ball and don't attack until after I've shelled out for the repairs...

Lasty, I'd kept a strongish garrison in Genoa for a number of years but capturing Tuscany meant it was no longer under threat. I assumed that the vapourisation of the Italians in Tuscany would mean that a repeat of the Provence attack by sea was no longer on the cards. Foolish and wrong in every regard. Lack of agents on their remaining islands was also a bad idea.

Luckily, the bigger idiot of the two of us was the Italian Doge. He comes into Genoa by sea with 2 RK's, including his, one UM with 60 men, a UM with 1 man and some Genoese Sailors. I have but one unit of archers but they shoot down half of his RKs, who'd hlated to let the foot troops catch up. This provokes them to charge. I thought they'd fixed the 'suicidal Daimyos' problem but both RKs make straight for my spears and Militia Sergeants. Again, my gen and archers are on a hilltop and my defensive line slopes down to my right (it's a coast map). I have 200 peasants as 'surrogate cavalry', down on the flat and he should have seen those off first. They were intended to chase off his archers but they were too far back to be a threat at this point, so I swung them round to come into the rear of his RK's and UMs, already held in a spears sandwich. My MS's were down to 18 men and routed but I still had just enough other to hang on.

Joy unbounded, I get the message about enemy king being captured and what little is left of them makes a run for it. I only see 14 prisoners on the execute button and, tempting as it was to bump him off and get rid of their ships for good, my dire finances still held sway, so I let him live.

I get something over 10k for the silly beggar! I found myself with 12k in the bank and spent so long dithering over what to build now that I simply had to save the game off and get some much-needed sleep.

Struggling on gamely for years trying to recover from the poverty situation (Treasury 1200, profits ~350 pa) may have been highly educational for me but masochism has no place in something which is meant to be a game. One might be able to run a 1-province faction like Denmark or Aragon, sit tight and keep pressing end-year while funds slowly accumulate. I'm fighting battles practically every turn and what little money I make goes on replenishing troop numbers. Basically, I like building stuff

Annnnyway, I'm now loaded and can set about building up some much-anticipated infrastructure, maybe get a fleet going in a decade or so's time and really get my teeth into this game. I haven't had a bash at crusades since an English campaign from months ago and that is now in the realms of affordability but some years of building and training still to come.

I got my excom at long last, after retaking Lorraine and forgetting the expiry date on the last warning but, sadly, the second Emperor in a row has died of natural causes in his fifties and the latest is only 17. Losing the first one's 'steward' bonus is what first drove the economy from 'healthy' to heading into the gutter in the first place. I simply couldn't afford any of the 40% improvements after he'd gone. They really ought to make that trait 'inheritable', don't you think?

Meanwhile, the Byz have lost some key homelands to the Turks but have run rampant everywhere else. I don't have agents in the right places but using the pick-up-and-hover-over trick, I can tell that much of southern Russia is theirs and the Huns have taken a beating. Venice is no longer an outpost of the Byz either since the Balkans are now theirs. The Turks have a good enough foothold to play a significant role in the later game.

What with all the battles needing to be fought, I'm only up as far as 1136, so this is still early days. For now, I'm off to decide how I'm going to use all that loot.

[OlafTheBrave]

If its any consolation I have played the HRE more than once so I more or less know what to expect. I think the real key to them is quickly driving Italy off the mainland in the first 10 or so turns and concentrating on keeping France at bay. Also due to the size of the HRE if you can ever survive long enough to get your legs under you it easy to become a real powerhouse.

[Budwise]

If its any consolation I have played the HRE more than once so I more or less know what to expect. I think the real key to them is quickly driving Italy off the mainland in the first 10 or so turns and concentrating on keeping France at bay. Also due to the size of the HRE if you can ever survive long enough to get your legs under you it easy to become a real powerhouse.

I"M SOLD, I thought my next game would be the French but I always had a thing for Germany. I have played too many games killing them (I also play First Person Shooters and Nazi Hunting Season was plentiful this year) and always wanted to play them. Now, I am good at this game, if I wasn't - I wouldn't be posting here. But I always was a little awkward with a two front empire. I guess thats why I love the Elmos, Danes and British. I guess I need a swift kick in the butt - the kind like seeing a warning next to your name for a stupid reason.

Well, I'm sold - I also want to say that when I watched the newer Gladiator movie. I SO WANTED THE GERMANS to win that opening battle. I mean come on, when the dude though the head I thought it was freaking sweet.

[ajaxfetish]

With that 12K I would be sure to get a castle started in Swabia, if you haven't already. Also, if you're still holding on militarily, it'd probably be a good idea to get some of those farms up a level to make higher income more than a one-time thing.

Congrats on pushing the Italians off the mainland and good luck vs. the English & French. Has anyone else gone to war with you or is that it? If so you can concentrate all your best troops on the one front and pray the Byzantines and Pope leave you alone long enough to be ready for them!

[yesdachi]

Glad you didn’t pack it in EYG! It sounds like you may have just turned the corner on the starting pains with the ransom money you got from the Italians. (If you get the chance I would love to see a screen shot of where you are at) In my game I produced a lot of troops with some cash I received, not a hefty amount like you got but I got $2,000 for a French prince, and used it to push thru the rest of the French and English. I was able to get a nice solid boarder but my infrastructure suffered, seemed to be worth it in the long run.

OlafTheBrave is right on the money, once I got my legs under me I was a powerhouse and could defend pretty well.

Just out of curiosity where do you guys keep your king? I am manually controlling taxes and trying to keep everyone at normal but I am already seeing some bad $ vices. Would king placement help.

[EatYerGreens]

With that 12K I would be sure to get a castle started in Swabia, if you haven't already.

Done and it's now fully built. It's 1148 and I'd just set the Swordsmith's Workshop to be built at the point where I saved. It had been quite a long session and I decided to do a proper gamesave at that point but the darned thing crashed to desktop between pressing the escape key and arriving at the menu screen! Good job I always do a quick-save before exiting to the menu and fingers crossed that there's no file corruption with it.

Also, if you're still holding on militarily, it'd probably be a good idea to get some of those farms up a level to make higher income more than a one-time thing.

Bavaria is already up to 40% but it has recently completed a keep and I only need to develop the spearmaker workshop (from town watch up) to get decent cavalry at long last (the horde breeder is already in place but only one MXB has seen action, to date and only three have been built) so it's going to be busy for a few years yet. Milan has a high acumen governor, so it's been brought up to 40% to make the most of that. Provence would probably give the biggest boost at 40% but is on the frontline and I'm wondering if the build would simply make it more attractive to invaders. For the money, I'd rather buy troops and retake Toulouse first.

I've spent so much that I'm down to about 4k, which is all more or less spoken for in upcoming builds, one of which is repairing Genoa or Tuscany's fort back to keep level, plus trade post, with the port being added afterwards, so that I don't gift too much income to the Byz and Sicilian ships, currently offshore, too soon. Shipbuilder to follow...

Congrats on pushing the Italians off the mainland and good luck vs. the English & French. Has anyone else gone to war with you or is that it? If so you can concentrate all your best troops on the one front and pray the Byzantines and Pope leave you alone long enough to be ready for them!

Thanks. Well, the Pope is minding his own business and I'm not about to attack him. Meanwhile, I'm cycling my stocks of UM through Tuscany, for the valour upgrades, yet wondering if I'm wasting my time doing that, since I can have armoured MilSerges from Switzerland for the same maint costs. The only difference is that retraining is free and doesn't increase my maint costs total, whereas fresh MS will do.

The Byz cancelled their treaty with me thanks to the Danes attacking me in Saxony. They piled into Sardinia and wiped out the ex-Italian rebels with ease and, perhaps due to the lack of a fort on the island, the port wasn't smashed, which was disappointing.

It could be that I'm next on their menu and it suddenly occurred to me that I have never faced an AI-controlled Byz army, in any campaign! I've no idea how well the Cathy units hold up against BI, for instance. Never mind the 8-star jedi princes, I have so few star-rated generals to begin with and all of them are in the wrong place. Their 3-star gen in Venice could make a mess of my thinly held eastern front. The Poles have full stacks across the border, so I have no idea why they're not coming my way too. I need to get more agents out there, to work out what size of Byz forces they're defending against.

Oh, before the Danes hit Saxony, the English paid a couple of visits, by sea. They'd come in, beat me up, then my Emperor in Fraconia would take it back. I killed their king but they repaid the favour when I'd left a brand new prince in charge of the defence battle. He had the same star-rating as my emperor and the balance of forces looked favourable, so I went ahead. I swear the pre-battle screen had lied to me about the units they'd come with. Something like 2 units of hobilars appeared on the field which were not on their unit list. My archers skirmished away, drawing them onto my spears, which mauled them badly but took some losses themselves. The real pity was my spears were intended to be there to trap the single RK unit I'd been expecting (the gen, a Plantagenet ex-Prince) and never got the chance.

The battle was at a stage where it could have gone either way and, whatever it was I'd sent my prince to chase after, he got snagged on a unit I'd not aimed him at, possibly MilSerges, meaning good against armour.

I keep reading about 'charge, disengage, charge again' but I keep getting unit control icons greying out, so I can't disengage, even if I want to. He just kept on fighting until he got killed and that was the end of that.

I drove them out again with my Emperor, picked up more ransom, 900-odd, but by now most of my Vikings are gone and I can't adequately garrison Saxony without exposing Franconia to the French force in Friesland. This is the point where the Danes moved in. I think a fort was a year or two from completion when the Danes attacked, so that was 400 florins down the drain. On the other hand, we all know what the AI is like with ceasefire requests, so they may have saved me some money in that attempts to establish a Baltic trading fleet are now pointless, so they've saved me some investment costs up there and I can concentrate on the Med.

On the upside, I have the two 'hero' generals, Albrecht de Bar and Henry the Lion but, unfortunately, they've both come out as Militia Sergeants, when I'd rather they'd have been something stronger, or more mobile, like cav of some kind.

I forget which year but an extra GA goal has appeared on the list, which wasn't there at the beginning of the game. It's the one about 'The Holy Roman Empire', where Rome and the former Italian states are on the list. Fortunately, I've got two of the required provinces already, worth 3 pips and points year is only three turns away. The pope only has his RK unit in Rome and I could probably take it right now, using only UMs but a full castle means a long siege and I'm not ready for immediate excom on my young Emperor at the moment.

EDIT: Reason: Got Albrecht's name wrong.

[EatYerGreens]

Glad you didn’t pack it in EYG! It sounds like you may have just turned the corner on the starting pains with the ransom money you got from the Italians. (If you get the chance I would love to see a screen shot of where you are at)

I could do that but not sure whether it would be better placed in the 'History and pics' thread. It's nothing spectacular at the moment anyway. Friesland is in French hands, Venice is held by the Byz and I've taken Genoa, Milan and Tuscany.

The French have just 4 UMs in Champagne, currently worth about 600 a year and I could have strided into there several turns ago but got distracted by all the action in Saxony and didn't wish to weaken my Lorraine garrison and risk losing both by moving too soon. Basically too few decent generals overall. Enough to hold what I have but not yet in a position to expand.

I suppose the idea is that I get a green general to earn some stars and this has been happening but they're getting clobbered by 5-star hero generals from the English and French and losing their stars just as fast. To get a green general to win, I'd need overwhelming numbers to do so and a cashflow around the 500 mark severely limits my ability to do that.

Fingers crossed that I can stay on good terms with the Byz and the Sicilians don't get any fancy ideas about seaborne invasions. If so, I can trade with them both and get up off my knees. The only alternative is to make a determined push for Flanders and not fuss if the Danes take Saxony. The French have two stacks in Brittany so, if I knock them out on my side of where the English are, then the two of us can squeeze the English off the continent before we meet again. The English are quite a threat at the moment but, as soon as I've got the Swabian swordsmen and some Mounted Sergeants, then I'm going after them

[ajaxfetish]

Of course your best defense against the Sicilians or anyone else with piratical invasion tendencies will be to get a ship or two in the med to patrol your shores. Fortunately that's also a prerequisite to bringing in trade income. You can use your next princess to try to reestablish good relations with Byzantium, but my success rate is pretty dismal with that tactic. I think you're right on track aiming for Flanders. It will soon become the most lucrative province in your Empire and also box the English homelands off from the continent.

Once you've got Swabians and MS's coming online, you can retire some of your outdated troops to other fronts (Denmark, Poland, Italy) where numbers may be enough to dissuade further aggression, and use your fancy new guys to crush France & Britain. If you throw in a few archers with your Swabians, MS's, and a decent general, you'll have a versatile powerhouse of an early army and accumulating stars shouldn't be as difficult anymore.

I'd also make it a priority when you can to get ahold of a brothel as well. A good spy network is invaluable in maintaining loyalty across a large realm and this tends to be a significant weakness for the likes of the Germans.

Schlagen Sie bitte die Franzosische gern!

[EatYerGreens]

Sound advice there, ajax.

Finances again ran low, at one point, which again delayed my construction plans, down south. Like I said, the keep (Genoa or Tuscany, when I make my mind up) will go in place before the port, so that the Byz don't make a mint out of additional trading with me, if I did it the other way around. Another 6 years(?) for the shipbuilder then 3 more for the first vessel to roll out. Sicily is likely to be my first trade partner or even Aragon. The loss of Toulouse to the English at least brought the war with Aragon to an end and they have a port just two ships away. Maybe the trickle of import income could help them out a little too?

Because of the Byz stack in Venice, I've had to keep stacks, of mainly militia, in Tyrolia, Milan and Genoa, the latter two being the bigger earners and now up to 40% farms. The Byz could also strike at Austria from there but haven't, seeing as I can retreat to the fort and strike back later. At some stage, I managed to restore the alliance with them but I'm on my guard, nonetheless.

Unless anyone knows different, I'm not expecting the Pope to strike at me. He keeps a near-full stack in Papal States and just his bodyguard in Rome. I held a stack in Tuscany for some years, mainly to assure loyalty after the takeover and was recently able to cut it down to a garrison of 240 without a drop in taxes. This allowed a chain of moves to cope with action in the north and east.

Yet another surprise attack by the English took Saxony from me, in 1148. This should have been predicted, given points year was approaching yet again. GA really seems to affect the way the AI behaves and it will go to any lengths to take points off you where better strategic targets may be available elsewhere. The loss of Saxony broke the border with Denmark, ending that war and enabling me to ally with the Byz again. The following year, the English king attacked Brandenburg and, being a river crossing, I opted to accept the battle but used a defence style I'd not tried before and made a hash of it. Just two RK's mashed up 2 full spear units and a UM when my three-direction sandwiching trick failed to work. Their 3 archer units stayed out of harm's way for much of the battle and it seems that their crossing the bridge and opening fire was what finally swung it. My 0-star UM general got "weak defender" for his troubles. I wonder if this is linked to the kills ratio as it was heavily in their favour at the end?

The Poles finally made a move, striking at Bohemia just in time for points year, so I was down by three homelands when the count came in. Thanks to the 3 points for the 'HRE' goal, I somehow contrived to sneak into a 2 points lead, in 1150.

All of this was what prompted the stack shuffling from Tuscany northwards. One of the Princes attacked out of Bavaria to lift the siege and the Poles withdrew without a fight. The Emperor lifted the siege in Brandenberg, similarly with no battle. Leaving a stronger garrison in place, he moves back to Franconia, so as to avoid the river crossing into Saxony and the general who lost Brandenberg has his unit disbanded. The Tavern is not yet complete, so he can consider himself lucky not to have suffered a worse fate.

Cashflow is slightly negative at this point and a certain amount of desperation calls for some bold moves. Flanders and Champagne have puny garrisons for some reason, whilst Isle de France and Friesland have the big ones. Henry the Lion takes a half stack into Champagne and a no-star general takes a similarly sized force into Flanders. Both retreat to their castles. A heavy counterstrike is expected but, craftily, I pull back both forces to Lorraine, to defend there and Lorraine's stack attacks Friesland. They used two large stacks to retake Flanders and, inexplicably, no garrison whatsoever was left in Friesland, so it was taken without resistance and about 1100 in pillage money was obtained. Unfortunately, the port and trade post got destroyed in the process, amongst other items.

In the same year, the Emperor strikes at Saxony and the English suffer a crushing defeat. Another English king plays the hero and gets himself killed. A pity, I'd rather have taken the money... again. Sir Henry Roos was captured, so the remaining prisoners fetched a handy 900+ florins and the treasury looks healthy again.

So all the homelands are restored and a bishop secures a ceasefire with the Polish. This might have something to do with the Danes having invaded Pomerania. Not sure when that happened but the brief English invasion was enough to break the border with the Danes, end that war, enabling the Byz alliance to be restored and the Poles' war with the Danes maybe helped make the idea of a ceasefire attractive. Stars to my Emissary and Bishop, so I'm happy. Slightly different timing and none of that would have worked.

The only fly in the ointment is an English crusade to the middle east, which looks to be taking a land route, right through the heart of my territory. Burgundy looks to be its next stop. I've frequently been getting lists of 10 fresh V&V's at a time and 'Fervent' is a popular one amongst my unit leaders. Zeal ranges from 60-85% in my lands, so I'm expecting a whole bunch of my men to get vacuumed up by this thing. I'm still years away from a chapter house and my first crusade and need to exploit this zeal factor while I still can. This is the second English crusade - their first one, to Livonia, failed but didn't trigger any troubles for them so I don't expect to gain anything by blocking this one's progress.

At some point, I accepted an alliance with the Egyptians, which now seems rather foolish, since 3 out of 4 of my GA crusade targets are in their hands. I don't like being the one who reneges on an alliance but that's the way it'll have to be, when the time comes.

An interesting side effect came from the attacks on the French. Champagne was earning them 648 per year and Flanders slightly over 1000. The sieges deprived them of this income for a full year but there was no way I had enough men to hold onto them. All the same, the enforced change of governors means that one of their guys, with Acumen 8, somehow found himself without a title, after they'd regained their lands but lost Friesland. Champagne is now worth only 300 per year and Flanders around 350. Presumably, the AI can't cope with title-stripping and re-assigning, so this is a permanent dent in their economy. If anything, I think their armies are oversized, relative to their land holdings. This should provoke them to attack me and defensive battles are what I'd prefer right now. If I can get them at war with the English too, then all the better.

I'm puzzled about the Papal warnings system at the moment. My attacks on France got me a fresh warning and I had thought one was already in place, which came after the Danes attacked me. Perhaps the fact that the Danish war ended, thanks to the English, in effect annulled that warning?

In any event, if I can't make any further inroads into the French for ten years, I can at least attack the English (Toulouse) while I wait. A pope recently died and my Emperor is still young. I'd like to avoid excom if at all possible as all the crusading activity needs to take place in the next 50 years or so.

The Swordsmith workshop in Swabia (with church for +1 morale!) is two years from completion and Mounted Sergeants are only a spearmaker's workshop away, so things are about to get interesting. Like ajaxfeish said, the older troop types can look after the south.

[dgfred]

Good playing and writing EYG! Thanks for your time and effort.
Lurking forward to your next chapter .

[Deus Ex]

I'm puzzled about the Papal warnings system at the moment. My attacks on France got me a fresh warning and I had thought one was already in place, which came after the Danes attacked me. Perhaps the fact that the Danish war ended, thanks to the English, in effect annulled that warning?

Actually I think you have the answer right here...

A pope recently died and my Emperor is still young. I'd like to avoid excom if at all possible as all the crusading activity needs to take place in the next 50 years or so.

I would guess the pope died prior to your attack of France. When he died, all ex-communications were annulled (and I assume warnings are as well). So your attack of France got you a warning because your earlier warning was gone with the dead pope - but I could be wrong... *grin*

DE

[EatYerGreens]

Schlagen Sie bitte die Franzosische gern!

Translation?

Please do ...something... to the French? Would this... ...be close?

[EatYerGreens]

I would guess the pope died prior to your attack of France. When he died, all ex-communications were annulled (and I assume warnings are as well). So your attack of France got you a warning because your earlier warning was gone with the dead pope - but I could be wrong... *grin*
DE

There's so much going on that I do sometimes get the exact sequence of events muddled up but my guess is you're right about this.

There was an excom against me earlier in the game but it didn't last that long. On this occasion, it was only a warning in force. The message about the death of the pope only mentions excoms being void and doesn't mention warnings being affected as well but here we have fairly conclusive proof that it does. Something to look out for, in future.

[EatYerGreens]

The story continues...

That English crusade was on its way to Tripoli and I fully expected Burgundy to be its next stop. To avoid troop 'suckage', I moved the Burgundy stack to Provence, brought in a seige-type garrison from Milan and used the Provence stack to attack Toulouse, hoping to inflict heavy casualties at the bridge, if not win outright.

The English confounded me by abandoning Toulouse with no battle, then the Crusade marched its way into Lorraine and hoovered up enough that 60 man units were down to below 40. Grrr.

I knew the English would strike back at Toulouse with anything up to two stacks and that I had to reverse my previous moves so that Provence and Burgundy both had full stacks once again. I made sure to destroy everything in Toulouse first, for the cash. A fort/motte, 20% farms, Horse Breeder and salt mine, most of which I think I built myself. No more hobilars from there for a while... I'll leave them be until they've used up some of their own dough on rebuilding the place, since they've been costing me a fair penny elsewhere...

For te second time, I attempt to put a fort in place in Saxony so that, if they do invade, they get no income from it and I can counterattack and take yet more prisoners. In the year where I start the build, they attack again, with superior numbers and I'm forced to abandon, losing another 400 florins. I should have spent 500 on the Chapter House, elsewhere, instead. Gah!

The first Swabian swords are rolling out and one is in Franconia, ready to go into the forthcoming battle.

My Bishops have been surveying the route to the Middle East and, in 1153, witnessed Constantinople being invaded by the Turks. The city is still under siege and 'about to fall'. The Byz Emperor watches, somewhat impotently with his half-stack in Greece. The lack of response is most curious since he has large stacks at his disposal, in the Balkans and recently wiped out the Hungarians. It was slightly amusing when I'd set an emissary to request an alliance with him but, by the end of the turn, he was trapped in his castle and politely stating that he didn't see the purpose of one at this time. (So much for stock replies!).

Meanwhile, much shuffling of troops while this crusade passed through my lands. I tried to get some of my peasant units to tag along and get soaked up, with some success. I should be disbanding them completely by now but preferred a gradual reduction in numbers, instead of large and sudden reductions in troop numbers. The crusade advanced into Hungary and saw the message that 'The Byzantines have decided they cannot win the battle and are retreating'. Evidently they were not happy to grant it freedom of passage. Strange choice, given this thing is probably going to meet a hostile reception in Constantinople and maybe even play a part in the relief of the city. We shall see.

The Poles retook Pemoerania and there's a large stack there glowering at Brandenberg. Only the river crossing stood to deter them but I did increase the garrison and put one of the hero generals in place on the last turn, although this had more to do with keeping the English shut into Saxony.

I'm still in two minds whether to take prisoners this time. I still really need the ransom money but common sense tells me that the only way to assure I'm left alone for enough time to get the fort in place is to inflict maximum casualties and cost them both time and money in assembling a force for another attack. Currently, there's just over 1000 of them in there.

My first asssassin is now on the loose (from Switzerland) and his first target was a 1-star French emissary, spying in Burgundy. Landlocked provinces are such fun. Scratch one emissary...

[Roark]

1. The Poles can keep Pomerania, IMHO... Are you allied to them, EYG?
2. Are the Danes looking like they're bankrupt, or are they a potential threat to the English?

[EatYerGreens]

1. The Poles can keep Pomerania, IMHO... Are you allied to them, EYG?
2. Are the Danes looking like they're bankrupt, or are they a potential threat to the English?

I'm not allied to the Poles at the moment, no. I forget if I was in the past. If anything they may have turned me down. They did recently attack and I got a star onto an emissary in arranging a ceasfire, so they have served a purpose. For now, I'm going to leave them alone as they seem to be the only thing keeping the Byz from running rampant up the western end of the Steppes. Mind you, the Byz now have a little, errr, problemette of their own, at home. I can't believe they let slip so much of their homelands - this is GA, after all.

The Poles are welcome to Pomerania. I'm not utterly broke but I need to concentrate developments in my core provinces and can't afford to develop any new lands I take, so I'm happy to let them spend their money on it and I can rob them when the time is right. Also, if they and Denmark can keep squabbling over the place and this keeps both of them out of my hair, then I'm happy.

As for Danes' threat to the English? I need to recon more. Last I looked they hold Sweden and Norway, with Sweden's income in the 800-900 bracket, likely much more by now. No signs of any conflict with the English and I only wished I knew how to provoke wars between AI factions.

I've often speculated about the consequence of assassinating faction A's agent on faction B's home soil but getting past border forts to be able to pull this off is easier said than done. Some provinces lacking even BWT's do still exist but not in the right places, if you know what I mean (eg Venice -> Byz).

The Danish king offered me a daughter, which I happily accepted as no-one was taking any of mine lately. No guarantee of peace, I know, but it's a start.

I read another thread today where someone says you can gain influence by lifting sieges on behalf of your allies, so I'll look out for such opportunities now. Obviously, since the human player moves first, it's not possible to assist an ally in a straight battle, other than by pure fluke, because you can't predict what they're about to do.

I'm lucky the papal warning was about the French, as their two and a half stacks in Brittany plus the rest must be throttling their income after I pulled that switcheroo and messed up his governorships. Checking again, I see that Flanders income was the lower figure, 300-odd and Champagne 348. I've probably shaved 1000pa off their income and they don't seem to be mobilising anything on my side of the English holdings. A ten year wait before I take them on is no big deal. Besides, it's the English I need to be thwacking now and I can do this with impunity.

In truth, I'd rather not have any local conflict at all and get started on this Crusading business instead. Money, time, building requirements and how many troops can be spared to beef it up are the big concerns right now.

It's even a toss up where to place the darned Chapter House. Places with high zeal have minimal training facilites and no armourer (actually, no armour might be a good thing). Places with good facilites may not have the best zeal and I also want to avoid having training of things like sword units plugged shut for 4 years at a stretch. I'm raising fresh troops on every turn, to replace losses from all the constant fighting.

Getting this fort built in Saxony, once and for all, will be a great relief and give me more freedom of movement with my stacks. Put the meaty troops into Franconia and hit back at any lost (sieged, I mean) border areas from there.

Time to quit blabbing and get playing...

[ajaxfetish]

Translation?

Please do ...something... to the French? Would this... ...be close?

Very close

Schlagen-verb: to hit (imperative mood)
Sie-pronoun: you (formal) (subject)
bitte: please
die-article: the (feminine)
Franzosische (should be an umlaut over the o)-noun/adjective: French (direct object)
gern: with pleasure

all auf Deutsch since you're playing the HRE!

ps my German's a bit rusty by now so any German members may be cringing at my grammar, but I'm sure they get the drift.

[OlafTheBrave]

Just wanted to say that I think your after action reports of the battles are much better and more detailed than mine EYG. My Russian campaign is more of in a story format as your is a progress report type thing. Keep posting the updates because I am sure more than just me want to see if you can still pull a GA win out of this. The HRE can be difficult when all goes rather well so I can imagine the headaches you are having.

[EatYerGreens]

The HRE can be difficult when all goes rather well so I can imagine the headaches you are having.

I'm finding the whole thing highly educational, shall we say.

Technical troubles have kept me from ever finishing any campaign but my prior experience has been confined to the English, Byzantines and Almos, all in Early and only one English campaign got as far as High era before devloping a repeating glitch.

All of those can be said to have either kick-ass units in Early, uber-generals or capacity for sheer economic might, which keeps your tech at the cutting edge which does nothing but flatter the player into thinking they're a military genius.

The HRE has an unremarkable economic base, farm upgrades compete for funds with other demands and take an age to afford. Sea trade will come, in time but even that will require prolonged peace to make much gains from.

The unit roster is no better than any of the neighbours and the starred generals are thin on the ground, so you have to make the most of what you've got until unique units, like Swabian Swords, can be obtained - and there's a lot of investment required to get those.

I've suffered numerous defeats at the hands of the AI, which is sobering after past experiences of almost non-stop victories (as the other factions) but I generally manage to win back the lost ground by using the top generals.

The frequent casualties have slowed the infrastructure growth, on account of the need for constant mobilisation but, if anything, the only thing propping up the economy is all this constant battling and the ransom/pillage it has brought. Fighting at times not of my choosing was initially quite draining but it all builds experience of what battles are like at hard difficulty. Hopefully, it will hone my skills somewhat.

All in all, running the HRE needs much more discipline, careful management of the economy, decisive prioritising of infrastructure builds and overall strategy. Budwise's comment about the big difference of running a two-front empire are highly appropriate, in this regard.

My last shot at running the Byzantines (Normal difficulty) had got halfway across Africa and I've not gone back to it since starting this. Frankly I think I was getting bored with the interminable troop movements each turn entailed and it was looking increasingly like I was going to win but it would still take hours of slog to do so. It's the uncertainty about what might happen next which maintains my interest in the game and a predictable future makes me want to pack it in and start another one.