Americas Campaign: Spain

[frogbeastegg]

This topic is for the Spanish faction in Kingdoms expansion's Americas campaign.

[Squints]

Thus far, the nice thing about being New Spain is that you don't have to care about your ethical standing with any of the other factions. Feel free to break alliances, loot and exterminate cities, and other atrocities. There is no Pope to excommunicate you in The Americas.

My first step was to ally with the Aztecs. They simply have too many cities and armies to fight in the beginning unless you are feeling adventurous. Instead, I just helped the Aztecs wear down their multiple enemies and sneak in front of them to take the cities.

New Spain will be overloaded with money after only a few turns, and cheap mercs will become the backbone of your armies. And by backbone, I mean the meat you throw at your enemy while your good units like conquistadors and muskets wait. Your good units will be mass-produced in Cuba at first, creating a multi-turn wait for the next premium stack. You should also change your capital to a city on the mainland, so that you can use reward units instantly.

By taking new cities, Spain will reward you with titles and large sums of money, from 5k to 15k to beyond. You also gain the ability to build advanced buildings. So it's really in your best interest to be on a total path of destruction and conquering.

The Mayans are a tasty target later on, and you even get a unique conquistador who arrives to help with a nice stack of Spanish units. Fill out the rest of the stack with cheap mercs and he can begin to pick away at the Mayans.

I just got the event that introduces France, so I haven't run into them yet - but I'm eager to actually face an enemy who wears armor.

[lars573]

I took an entirely different track as New Spain. The campagin objectives are elminate the Maya and Aztecs. This in mnid I decided not to ever ally with either for any reason. I decided to think like Hernan Cortez. Ally with the Aztec's neighbours lend my guns and steel where needed and let the natives kill each other. Worked well. The Tlaxcallans, Tarasans, and Chichimecs all welcomed by friendship and gold. And it became very appearant that for all their apperance of force the Aztecs are a paper tiger. They had serious trouble dealing with the Tlaxcallans (who start with 1 city, who grap their rebel neighbour to the south in the first 5 turns). And the Aztecs lost ground to the Chichimecs and Tarasans in the north. Add to this that paid off with trade rights and map info the Aztecs will leave you alone till you start something leaves you fit and ready to deal with your real threats. New France and the Maya. The Maya are as agro as the Tlaxcallans and you are in their way. I've had trouble keeping them off my arse and lost a settlment to them. New France shows up in Florida. I was trying to get a NA foot hold and got fed a plate full of my buttocks with all the trimmings by New France. Kicked my out of Florida and Promtly named the village I was holding Fort Caroline.

Militarily New Spain is flat footed till your Viceroy is at least a Viscount. By then you can build a full tech Minor city. Your stuck with Pike and Sword militia. Plus dismoutned conquistadores at large town level. Guns come with either Count or Marquis (I haven't goten that far yet).

[Mad Mac]

And it became very appearant that for all their apperance of force the Aztecs are a paper tiger. They had serious trouble dealing with the Tlaxcallans (who start with 1 city, who grap their rebel neighbour to the south in the first 5 turns). And the Aztecs lost ground to the Chichimecs and Tarasans in the north.

Yup. Most of the factions in the campaign are predisposed to be hostile towards the Aztecs, so it's easy to take advantage of. Try playing as the Aztecs, and you'll see what a pain in the arse the Tarasans really are.

Maya on the other hand, starts out totally unhindered, and will quickly grow into an unstoppable monster if you give them time to collect enough settlements.

[TeutonicKnight]

I agree, I'm now into my second campaign as the Spanish.

Expansion east from Vera Cruz is critical. Take as many of those rebel settlements as you can before the Mayans or Aztecs get to them. This initial rush will leave you vulnerable to the Mayan attack, but by the time they start to attack you, Spain will send you another army in their rear near Chetumal. This should be enough to help you hold the line and then crush the Mayans completely. Rely on local mercenaries as cannon fodder, and preserve your Spanish troops as much as possible as they are very hard to replace.

The Aztecs have remained remarkably well behaved. Even remaining neutral, they don't appear to be interested in starting hostilities. My defense plans have relied on the Aztecs being occupied with their own problems, and it appears to be holding true. The same cannot be said of the Tarascans or the Apache.

Alliances with the other Mesoamerican factions are desirable and advantageous. Not only can you quickly get maps of their areas, but the Tarascans are rapacious and will eventually betray you. Having good relations with the smaller factions will keep them on your side, and you need the alliances to keep a steady flow of troops.

The mercenary element is very interesting as well. You need alliances with the natives in order for your mercenary pool to fill, so try not to piss off too many people at once. You simply can't produce enough Spanish troops to carry out campaigns, and supplementing those good troops with cheap local cannon fodder is absolutely essential.

European competitors will arrive. The French arrive with two stacks in the Florida area. They are too far away to worry about for a long time, and you can win the game without ever encountering them. They appear to be there to give the Apache a way to "tech up" by providing horses and firearms.

The English on the other hand appear totally at random. My first game they appeared near Miccosukee Camp. My second game they've appeared in the Yucatan. No sensible appearance logic that I can see as yet.

[Squints]

I'm not sure if this is too obvious, but a nice way to totally annhilate your enemies when using your musketeers: Use a normal 2-man deep line and shoot from afar. As they close in, rush your infantry forward to keep your muskets out of the fray. Slide the musketeers to either side of the fighting and set your lines up sideways, boxing the enemy in between two sides of bullets and one side of infantry.They should break within seconds and take huge losses.

[KingKnudthebloodthirsty]

Here's my opening moves: u go to the aztecs, offer them ally, trade rights, map info, military acess, and 6500 fr 10-20 turns in return to all their cities except capital. right after the aggrement, offer another proposition and refuse to pay tribute. u got the land completely free. then send an army to take the capital, perhaps hiring another stack of mercs along the way. reloading is probably needed as u need to find a quick through many stacks. after u reach the city, it should be a piece of cake taking it, provided that u hired EVERY merc along the way. With the aztecs destroyed, the plague has set in and here i am.

[Tecnik]

Playing on M/M it's the second campaign i ever do. I used this tactic:

- Allied with West (the impossible to pronounce T-something tribes)
- Killed the Mayas
- Killed the French and English invasions over and over again (i must have killed them about 3 times both now)
- Aztecs got slain by Tlalala
- Am now fighting the Tlalala tribes

I found that Conquistadores are THE way to go. Storming in with 5x30 Conquistadores makes for an instant 50% kill in outdoor battles. You can then even retreat and go for another charge numerous times. I currently have 100k florins even with continuous building / huge army upkeep due to Looting all settlements i took.

I have only 2 questions:

- Can you not build assasins?
- Can you not build castles?

[Must`]

Mayans gone crazy in my game, took 2 settlements from me and it took couple of turns I fought back, took chicken itza with my mega army from cuba and mercenaries(2 full stacks) and i have red head in chicken itza despite big army and low taxes but mayans are now on back foot and i expect to finish them in max 10 turns.

btw. my first campaign and i already like it very much, amazing expansion