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Thread: England

  1. #121
    Corrupter of Souls Member John_Longarrow's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Sir Smudge,

    As a tactic, one of the best units I've seen for the English against Cav is longbows. Lay out stakes and shoot them as they close. If the Cav charges your stakes you get a bunch of horsemeat, free of charge.

  2. #122

    Default Re: England

    Just grabbed my first foothold in the Americas by capturing Cuba. There was little resistance; I just recruited a 6-unit mercenary army of light native warriors to supplement my main force and defeated them with that. I only lost 4 of my 'regulars', 4 Flemish Pikemen who got a little too close to the action. Gunpowder works great against the Mesoamerican civs, as I routed half of the enemy army just through several volleys from my ribaults. Hopefully I can conquer the New World before the weekend ends!

  3. #123

    Default Re: England

    Quote Originally Posted by pianonator
    I had a similar battle. Well, sorta. I was in a Fortress under siege, and the attacking army just stood there forever. Didn't move at all. Has this bug been discussed before? I have patch 1.2 I turned on triple speed and read through the building tree until it ended.
    you don't have patch 1.2 because it hasn't been released.

    You have the unoffical, leaked 1.2...which is filled with problems.

  4. #124

    Default Re: England

    Quote Originally Posted by John_Longarrow
    Sir Smudge,

    As a tactic, one of the best units I've seen for the English against Cav is longbows. Lay out stakes and shoot them as they close. If the Cav charges your stakes you get a bunch of horsemeat, free of charge.

    I think I'm being stupid but i can't work out how to get the Longbowmen to lay stakes
    Old warriors know more tricks!

  5. #125

    Default Re: England

    Don Esteban it's their "special attack" (like setting the arrow on fire for most other archers).

    I think the keyboard shortcut for the "special attack" is "h"...

  6. #126

    Default Re: England

    Quote Originally Posted by McIwoo
    Don Esteban it's their "special attack" (like setting the arrow on fire for most other archers).

    I think the keyboard shortcut for the "special attack" is "h"...
    For some reason i thought they had fire arrows special attack as well....

    Like I said, I was probably just being dumb, i'll check again.

    Thanks!

    P.S. It would have been handy for my last battle where they got charged by a bunch of Danish war clerics
    Old warriors know more tricks!

  7. #127

    Default Re: England

    Dude, you can lay stakes only before the battle begens.

  8. #128

    Default Re: England

    Quote Originally Posted by Iavorios
    Dude, you can lay stakes only before the battle begens.
    AAAH, Cool. Cheers, problem solved

    Makes sense actually
    Old warriors know more tricks!

  9. #129

    Default Re: England

    You can get a good start by sending Cecilia (first princess) to Denmark and the Diplomat to Spain. Marry the princess to the Danes faction heir for an alliance + cash and offer a marriage between a Spanish princess & Rufus. At the same time, take York, Caernafron, Rennes and block the land bridge between Ireland and Scotland. This will stop the Scots taking Dublin. Send diplomats to Byzantine, Rome getting some good allies & trading partners if possible. Keep the Pope sweet with a gift of 100 per turn tribute for 10 - 20 turns & maps.

    Build up a force in England as you advance on rebels there. Now you can either take Edinburgh or take a gamble with Dublin by allowing the Scots to cross to Dublin after you have established a sizable army. Two things can happen. They can seize it or die trying. Ideally they'll blow half their army in a failed assault on Dublin, leaving the Scots very vulnerable. Take Dublin then siege Edinburgh. If this gamble fails and they take Dublin the Scots are still reduced in strength and by re-establishing the blocking of the land bridge you can keep a lot of their forces busy touring Ireland.

    Every settlement on the Isles becomes a city except Nottingham. Flog all buildings that will be destroyed before the conversion completes (not sure if you get the cash anyway, but it's easy enough to destroy 'em yourself).

    Through the marriage alliance to Spain and Denmark you have reduced the difficulty in mainland Europe by effectively ruling them out as enemies for a while. It's still possible they'll turn on you but in all likely hood they'll concentrate on their immediate neighbors rather than you if the take the rebel provinces near Caen. You can then focus on France. Sometimes Portugal thinks it can have a go at you early on even though that's suicidal.

    If they ally with Spain the marriage alliance you have means little chance of Spain dropping you for Portugal. When they attack you pay Spain to attack Portugal or bide your time until either the Moors or the Spanish decide to have a go at them. Deal with any forces that come up to France and send em packing. This is pretty much guaranteed to end Portugal if they're stupid enough to attack you. Their forces will be split fighting you and their Iberian enemies. The Pope won't like it either and may be open to excommunicating them early allowing you to take their territory through early Crusading. Assuming you've been stuffing the Popes coffers of course.

    I convert every province in France to a city with the exception of Caen, Toulouse. Toulouse is used to reinforce incursions in Iberia and discourage Moorish/Spanish expansion into France. When Iberia is almost all English territory it is converted too. Toledo then serves as the main garrison in Iberia after taking out the Spanish a while later.

    I can usually do ok with this strategy until the Milanese and HRE show up on my Eastern front. Then all hell breaks loose and the real fun begins. I just watch the western side of my empire looking for opportunities to strike into Iberia/Africa while at the same time plotting the demise of the HRE, Milanese, Venitians, etc.

    Unfortunately in my current campaign the Pope allied (only!) with the Moors, so it's put a bit of a spanner in that plan at the moment. He also has El Cids' region for some reason I don't quite understand. It's like the Pope decided El Cid is getting it, loaded up a boat full of troops and off he went. Seen him take random places around Italy but never seen him sail for an attack on anyone before. Anyway, this is making the campaign a little tricky. Don't really want the Pope to gain any more territory. It's all mine!!!

    Another word of advice is to use crusades continuously to strike out. This is especially true as England is unlikely to gain easy access to the south of France for a bit has to send navies around the Iberian Peninsula before it can start policing those waters. Using a crusade against the Moors say for Marikesh, allows you to travel really fast, sacking and swallowing their land very quickly while giving you lucrative trading ports & easy access to the Med is it called?

  10. #130
    Member Member YAKOBU's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Hi everyone

    After reading the strategies on here and playing the English in M2TW I would like to share some thoughts with you all.

    From my earlier experience of Shogun/MTW/RTW I understood that many of you rush to develop a settlement as quickly as possible to churn out your better troops. In RTW for example this meant disbanding units etc in order to get settlements up to the next level as quickly as possible. My experience of M2TW is that I am unable to disband units in order to grow settlements and that producing units in a settlement does not reduce the population.

    As the English your key historical unit is the Longbow. The majority of strategies on here recommend building Nottingham up as a Castle in order to get access to that unit quickly. After my initial campaign using this strategy I felt that it had taken a long time to get in a position to produce Longbows so it set me thinking. Nottingham starts with a population of 3,000 and a base farming of 1 whereas London starts with a population of 3,800 with a base farming of 1.5.

    I decided to stage some tests.

    Firstly I started a campaign and immediately converted London to a Castle whilst developing Nottingham and then London with roads, farms and ports. To my pleasant surprise once London was converted to a Castle it had basic roads; a drill square; and a chapel in place. This meant London had access to infantry already at a higher level than Nottingham. At turn 14 London was ready to upgrade to a Fortress and by turn 22 was ready to produce Longbows. Nottingham meanwhile took until turn 28 to be ready to upgrade to a Fortress and turn 36 before it was ready to produce Longbows.

    Upon looking at the population growth of London I realised that as a Town it grew at a faster rate than a Castle. I wondered if I built up the Town first until it hit the population cap for the Fortress what would the result be. This I did and managed to hit the population cap on turn 8 and after converting to a Castle was ready for a Fortress at turn 10 and Longbows at turn 18.

    The final 2 tests involved timing the conversion to a Castle and setting the tax level on low. The optimum result was setting the tax level on low and building Land Clearance for 2 turns and a Port for 2 turns. On turn 5 converting to a Castle meant on turn 7 just being a few individuals under the population cap. On turn 8 London was ready for upgrading to a Fortress and on turn 16 Longbows were ready for production.

    So to summarise.

    Following the standard strategy of recruiting from Nottingham England does not have access to Longbows until turn 36. Using my strategy the benefits of town growth and lowering taxes means Longbows can be ready for production in London on turn 16, a full 20 turns earlier. In addition to this London gives you a Castle on the main entrance to England from France as well as enabling you to build higher level infantry from your starting drill square.

    I hope this is of use to somebody.


  11. #131
    Member Member YAKOBU's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Hello again

    After playing a game again last night and advice from other members I did realise I could get both the Bowyer and the Practice Range at the Castle level which would mean Nottingham would have access to Longbows quicker at turn 6.

    My idea still works well for teching to the Fortress and then getting access to Yeomen Archers as well as superior infantry. I am going to see the best strategy for obtaining a Citadel later.

    For my style of play I like to get access to my higher-end troops as it is they that will be with me at the end of the campaign. I prefer them to mercs so that I can build up their experience and retrain them as needed.

    Generally I don't have cash problems as I prioritise building in my key settlements if funds are tight.

    In 1 campaign I noticed I got a population boost because of my governor but it appears their starting stats do not give it. I will look into this further.


  12. #132
    Member Member YAKOBU's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Hi again

    After further testing this morning I found I could have a Fortress ready 1 turn earlier on Turn 10 thanks to the advice from Foz.

    Turn 1
    I would set the taxes on London to Low and start building Land Clearance. Rufus would take York (using mercs if necessary) and Robert would set off to Rennes. Also I would set 1 fleet moving to Rennes.

    Turn 2
    If Rufus gained 1 chivalry without any dread then I would set him off to govern London. Robert would lay siege to Rennes. The fleet would move next to Rennes.

    Turn 3
    Start building the Port in London. Robert would take Rennes (using mercs if necessary). If Rufus hadn't gained 1 chivalry then Robert always had in all my tests. If this was the case then Robert would get on the fleet and set off to govern London.

    Turn 4
    Continue moving Rufus or Robert to London depending on who has the highest chivalry.

    Turn 5
    Convert London to Castle. Either Rufus or Robert should now be governing London depending on who has the highest chivalry.

    Turn 6
    Nothing to do in London.

    Turn 7
    Upgrade London to Fortress.

    Turns 8 and 9
    Nothing to do in London.

    Turn 10
    Fortress ready !!!

    From here you can go for whichever high-level troops you desire !!!


    I did find that sometimes Robert or Rufus would pick up additional chivalry but this was not always guaranteed.

    Using this method it's possible to keep running London as a Town until near the 9,000 population mark and then converting to Castle; upgrading to Fortress and upgrading to Citadel 1 after the other. I think this should make it possible to obtain a Citadel by around Turn 30 but may vary depending on chivalry ratings and timing of conversion.

    I hope this helps further.


  13. #133

    Default Re: England

    Thanks for all the tips. It's my first game, M/M, didn't dare to go higher, patch 1.2 if that makes any difference (got the game only a couple of weeks ago). Anyways, I just learnt first-hand, how powerful are the longbows (I didn't build so many of them before reading this thread). I'm at turn 60, and I've put an army near some german town, 6 longbows + 1 peasant archers, 1 general, 1 armored swordsmen, 1 levy pikemen and 6 horses, 4 light and 2 heavy. Germans attacked me with 3 armies, one big and 2 small ones, about twice my size in total. They had almost no archers, just a few siege units, the bulk of their army were armoured sergeants, and a couple of heavy knights. Luckily for me, it was happening in a mountainous area, so I holed up in there, and my archers literally ripped the germans apart. I mean hundreds in casualties (i'm playing at huge scale), even before they got close enough to get in hand-to-hand combat... As a result, I lost about 10% of my army, mostly cavalry which I had to use to protect flanks and chase down the routing enemy... Germans lost 95%!

    I know it's a little off-topic but it illustrates pretty well one of the main points in this thread - use longbows... a lot! In this particular case, they saved my neck

    BTW, the mongols have arrived and I have to figure out how to prepare myself... I've got a couple of cities in the middle east, which I kept after crusading down to jerusalem, now I need to make sure they survive the mongol onslaught... those archer cav really scare the crap out of me
    Last edited by Zetto; 06-26-2007 at 00:01.

  14. #134
    Notepad user Member Red Spot's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Bit of advice for anyone that turtles on VH campaign difficulty.

    Dont go for the castles across europe, I've had England build up with Nottingham and Caen up to Citadel level and got into a fight with Denmark (up to that point I had "general peace") because I tried to help them get rid of a bad familie member wich they didnt seem to like when my assasin failed as big has he could (wich he thankfully payed for with his life ..:P)

    Denmark declared war, France wich was their ally stopped being mine and later on declared war on me, Spain and Portugal joint soon after.
    Not to worry as I had a good big garrison in Caen and more troop where already on their way, so I in the momentum of others attacking me took Bordeaux and Toulouse and that city in the corner(wich you often get a mission for to take at start of a campaign), bit later bumped Portugal out of their Citadel in North-Spain.
    At that point my forces where being rebuild in the castles taken, but before I could decide to take them back out I was being attacked at all sides, France from the center, Denmark from Sea and assaulting Caen, Spain and Portugal mostly pressing the south but also making naval invasions on Caen.
    I could handle it, barelly, but every turn being under heavy fire my bank dropped an other 10k florin wich had ~50k in it, so after 5-ish turns I got pretty desprate, collected my full armies from castles into 1 full stack with a general and launched an attack on the Citadel a bit South of Caen wich had a close to full garrison wich included lots of French Nobles.

    Never ever have I lost an evenly matched open battle from the AI, they triggered the battle by having 1 Crossbow unit attack me wich I accepted as it would save me a heavy siege.

    Anyway the advice would be, come with as much cav. vs France as they do and leave your archers at home .... (or expect to lose ..:P)

    Things looked great untill my center broke, they rushed out 2 pretty much intact nobles and caused havoc among my archers, my chances where lost, I managed to use my general and remaining cav. to take down some infantry that where still fighting my swordmen than retreated wich my general and a very crippeld set of cav. units made, it proved to be of no use as in a couple turns I got pushed back into England ... :s

    That battle should have saved me as getting that Citadel would have broken the Frances back and given me a much better front(and hopefully a more stable econ.)


    G

  15. #135
    Corrupter of Souls Member John_Longarrow's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Red Spot,

    Did you lay out stakes for your archers first? If so, you can make a pretty effective wall behind which to fight against cavalry. That is where long bows shine against French cav.

    If you did not, or if you were not able to, I'm not surprised that a strong French cav army would do nasty things to your troops.

  16. #136
    Notepad user Member Red Spot's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    yeah I know, thing is they didnt attack and I have battle timelimit off, so all I could do is launch the attack myself or retreat.

    they came with pretty much as much crossbowmen as I did archers so I didnt wait for an unexpected charge, if it wasnt that my general took too long routing some cav. I wouldnt have lost, than again I could have expected their cav. to last a bit longer than others ...

    still the only fair battle I've lost so far ... and I dont like it (I want to lose more ..:P)


    G

  17. #137
    Member Member ole-warhammer's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Don't know if it will work (havn't tryed it!) But gain controll of whole England (and Ireland). If you have to, evacuate Caen (destroy every building) and reatreat to England. Build up a navy and declare war against the Scots and Danish. Eliminate the Scots, and Invade Denmark (and Norway and Sweden) Also, if you are lucky, Denmark wage war against THRE so the armys are fielded there.

    When taken Denmark, you have two choiches:
    - East to Russia
    - South to THRE
    - South west to France (and retake/fortifie Caen)
    - South east to Polen

    Also you can send a huge army with a huge navy to Jerusalem (will take many turns to do) and establish a strong "country" there. Scicilia can also be invaded for quick invasions (by sea) against any European faction (almoast)

    As said before, not tested out by me!
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  18. #138
    Senior Member Senior Member Fisherking's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    England has the strongest archers in the game and many of them can stand up and fight with other infantry. That coupled with stakes to stop Horse makes them very powerful. If you are looking for the killer faction against the Mongels etc. this is it.

    To go along they have great infantry...only lacking pikemen. But hay the archers fill that role with the stakes!

    The English also build horse in cities (Demi Lancers). From a tactial standpoint there is not much more to ask for.

    Overall I would say that they are the most militarily potent faction in the game.


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  19. #139
    Amazing Mothman Member icek's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    england lack four things to be uber: good quality spearmens, guys with pike wall formation, mobile skirmishers and red coat's- long range musketers. But actually lack of those typos makes playing with other factions worth a try.

  20. #140

    Default Re: England

    Hi,

    I'm playing on VH/VH with patch 1.2. I have huge experience from RTW but this is my first campaign; started with England.

    I'm surprised how easy it has been, at least, so far. Currently I'm on turn 26 and have 19 settlements. My strategy so far:

    1. Taking York, the city in Wales and Rennes ASAP.

    2. Then Bruges and Antwerp.

    3. Scotland made 2 siege attempts that failed on Inverness and I had 1 spy in Edinburgh that opened the "front door", so with my faction heir and his 51 knights I was able to defeat the Scottish faction leader and his bodyguard (their only unit there at the moment). When the battle was over my faction heir and 6 of his bodyguards remained and the Scottish were eliminated. I lost 2 in rating at the pope but no big deal.

    4. After this, Inverness and Dublin was conquered.

    5. At the second turn my faction heir married a french princess, and my relations with France is and has been superb so far. So I have bought cities from France; in exchange for giving tribute to them for a couple of rounds.
    The cities I have bought from France are Rheims, Angers and Toulose.

    6. From the Spanish I bought Bordeaux.

    7. I conquered the rebel settlement Metz.

    8. Sicily attacked me and the turn after I defeated them I proposed peace in exchange for 5000 florins and their 2 provinces in Northern Africa; Tunis and Tripoli. They accepted.

    9. I'm allied with France, Denmark, Spain, Portugal and the Pope.

    10. The Denmark king has been excommunicated so it is hunting season now on the Danes.

    11. 1 thing I made asap was to send diplomats to the Pope; I give him tribute and map information from time to time. I proposed an alliance which they accepted. So currently I have a "pope rating" of 9. So high that he accepted the crusade I proposed to Antioch.

    12. I have currently only 2 forts; Toulose and Caen. The rest are cities; making a lot of money.

    There has not been so much fighting yet; mostly with rebels. Perhaps it will happen when I engage the danes.

  21. #141
    Member Member James the First's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    mcpa - you can do with this info what you will. It may be considered spoilerish so I will give some space so you can choose not to read it!
    -
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    Don't trust the French!!! No matter how good of a relationship you have with them. The Portugese also seem to have a thing for going after the British Isles. Don't ask me why. And finally, if you go on a crusade, be prepared for a jihad to be called against the city that you take. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. Deal with the Portugese and control the northern sea and your motherland should remain secure. You seem to be spread pretty thin so early in the game.
    James the First, King of uh...uh...

  22. #142

    Default Re: England

    one thing about crusades and that is if you have a priest/bishop/cardinal your men are less likely to desert (the higher priest/bishop/cardinal even less likely to desert), I had two crusading armies on with a priest/bishop/cardinal and one without, the army with out the priest/bishop/cardinal deserted, and the one with a cardinal didn't

  23. #143

    Wink Re: England

    A little about early game.
    Send a spy to Edinburgh, the Scots keep sending an army by sea to camp outside of York.
    I recently started a new game and the rebels sunk the Scottish fleet.
    I went straight to Edingburgh with Rufus, militia Spear and an archer unit.
    Took it as they only had the faction leader in.
    Must have taken me about 7 or 8 turns.

  24. #144
    Senior Member Senior Member Quintus.JC's Avatar
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    Smile Re: England

    Early English expansion should be in two directions, one in mainland Europe while one in Britain, York and Caernarfon should be left alone, and they’re in your pocket anyways, head for Edinburgh as early as possible, Scotland needs to be destroyed no matter what, after that you can tour the country, Inverness, York then Caernarfon, after that Dublin. In mainland go for Brussels first then Rennes. Try to capture Antwerp if you can, this will bring bags of revenue but will likely to bring you into war with another major faction. After these conquest your purse will be filled with treasure and could look to expand elsewhere.

  25. #145

    Default Re: England

    Strangely, I left Scotland last to avoid exommunication. I advanced my armies early on and conquered the rebel territories, stretching to Dublin. I had a very hard time dealing with the French as they kept attacking fiercely and, despite the damage I've been causing them, they still attack with large armies that I had a hard time with. I pushed them back to their final province near northern Italy and finally eliminated them.

    I had Acre and Antioch at my disposal and my relations with the pope were unmatched, so I attacked Scotland's capital and ended the game without having to be excommunicated.

  26. #146

    Default Re: England

    My observations after 80 turns on M/M on my English campaign:

    Focus on maintaining and building two armies, one for the British Isles and one for France. If possible, keep a General in charge of both. Don't invest in mail knights because you can easily get -4- of them from a number of mission rewards, once you get them put in a set of hobilars to do your cavalry flanking and archer rundowns. They are even faster then mail knights so it makes the above activities all the more easier. Longbowmen will be your first godsend as you'll be able to hit city walls without being in range of their archers (not to mention that extra time and distance for an attacking enemy on field). Billmen will be your second because you'll have something in heavy infantry finally. You'll own once you get up to Dismounted Feudal Knights and Armored Swordmen. Alot of archers do make the difference for English armies, I won one battle down to all my (very tired) archers and 2 enemy units left and I won by skirmishing then meleeing, rinse and repeat.

    Specific units for specific usages. Spear Milita shouldn't be used as your heavy offensive force once you have later units, I kept them as movable defense for my archers, for assaulting cavalry and for reserves for my heavy infantry. Billmen are the other side of the coin with spear milita, they are your offensive chargers but they are not quite as good with defense. Hobilars do just as well for most things then mail knights do, however mail knights can be used against other cavalry (and against more infantry units) more effectively in my experience. Having merc xbows, peasant archers and longbowmen makes for having three different ranges of archer attack. Longbowmen are the point of playing the English, having alot of them will decimate attackers and defenders. Infantry kind of sucks until you get Dismounted Feudal Knights followed by Armored Swordsmen (Swordsmen are the better option however, so use them if you get the choice). At that point, you can crush almost any infantry thats thrown your direction and you don't have to worry about using them just as offense or just as defense since they outshine Spear Miltia and Billmen in both departments. Always keep some spear milita around to act out as reserves, archer protection and anti cavalry. Your spear options will always suck, so you just have to be creative when dealing with enemy cavalry charges.

    Use the castle in Nottingham to build your British army, use the castle in Caen to build your French army. Convert everything to cities, you will need the income to keep your two armies, especially for the more expensive buildings.

    York is easy, use archers to give them heavy losses and lure their archers out and run them over. Don't make it a solid rush and you can keep your losses under 50 (or less!). Rennes is the first town with a wall, but easy enough. Soften with archers and just ram on in.

    Caernarven is easiest if you wait out the siege because the Welsh forces will sally forth and you can outflank the longbowmen with anything with hooves. Having an intact army means you'll be setup for your next target all the more sooner.

    Don't walk into Dublin expecting as easy a fight as York, the heavy infantry will eat you up if you're used to sending in your spear milita directly into a fight. If you can thin them out with your archers, it helps alot. Having Billmen and Longbowmen by this point will make a massacre of the Irish heavy infantry, as long as you use them offensively. If you have a ballista by now (which I didn't), taking out some of the nearby arrow towers means you can get in much closer before taking down the wall.

    Burges can be a tough fight, but your French army by now should be a pretty heavy stack. Don't feel bad if you bring along a full stack.

    At that point I stopped in my first wave of conquest, having the Rennes-Caen-Burges combination means I have firm control over the English channel. As long as either the French, or whoever controls Antwerp eventually, isn't hostile to you it won't be a stretched front. I kept both as allies initially so that when the French eventually attacked me I was more or less ready for it.

    Apparently Inverness can stay as a rebel settlement for a while, I saw Scotland fail in several attempts to take it. After you have cleaned up from Dublin, if Iverness is still a rebel settlement then take it and you'll make your eventual Scottish conquest far more easier. Make sure everything but Caen and Nottingham are converted to cities and build up your economy, use assassins and spies on the Scottish once you're ready for a possible war and then move on Edinburgh. If you have catapults and ballistas by that point, you can have the Scottish conquered in one turn. Remaining Scottish forces will turn rebel and are even easier targets at that point. Once Scotland is toast, you can stop worrying about any problems in Britain.

    In terms of economy, get trade rights with everyone and pick up a number of alliances. I took alliances with all my neighbors initially (including a royal one to the French in the beginning) since it stays to keep them at bay for a while. However always keep your French forces full and ready, else the French will take advantage of your lack of defenses.

    In terms of religion, bribe the Pope from time to time and try and keep in that 7-10 range so you can avoid the threat of excommunication. Send your first Cardinal and some priests to foreign lands (southern Spain) to spread the faith and build their pieties up. Have some local priests to make sure all of Britain is firmly Catholic (90%+).

    Keep building up those naval forces, having 1-2 stacks of 3-4 of your best ships is effective against pirates. If you run into war with another faction, make one of them a bit bigger as a surefire fleet against theirs. First move in a major war should be to eliminate as many of the enemy fleets as possible, if you are lucky you can even destroy one of their entire enroute armies that way.

    After you have all of Britain and the triple-three in France, you should have more then enough resources for a major war with France, Spain, whoever. You can move your British army to France at that point.

    Having two full stacks ready for conquest means either France or Spain is ready for a spanking. By this point one of them probably will be ready to attack you, I fought two small wars with Spain but they were stupid enough to send their family members as Generals which meant they lost their fleets to me, followed by some rather unguarded Generals including two faction heirs. They were begging for a cease fire soon after and I netted more then 10,000 florins in tribunes after each. The French will eventually attack, I got them excommunicated. At that point I actually had 3 armies, since one General with a few mercs had just joined the Crusade and was in Southern France when war broke out. Crusader units are amazing, even the Pilgrims are great. I took Marsielles, their biggest port, with relatively few losses giving me a foothold in France. I quickly took Angers and Paris in the span of 2-3 turns then eventually Rheims. At that point the original triple of Rennes-Caen-Brugges is no longer my frontline but by then they have amazingly solid defenses (I think I had ballista towers on Rennes by the time I took Rheims).

    As it stands now, I am poised to hit Dijon then Bern (in my game, the French took Bern) on my one side. Bordeaux and Toulose on the other. I have blocked Corsica, which is French and will be simply destroying any French naval forces that spawn there and my eastern army, once it has taken out Bern, will go down and take it for the coup de grace.

    Diplomatically, Spain is forever a pain in my ass but my military forces both naval and land are far superior so they are simply on my targets list after France. Portugal keeps getting excommunicated so they'll be an easy target. The Danish are pretty powerful and cocky, so they'll probably pick a fight with me before long. I am bribing them for the moment. Milan is getting very aggressive without actuallly declaring war. They want Marsielles the worst in the world, and even assassinated my General there. In truth I assassinated two of their family members and half a dozen of their spies and assassins in the area. I am banking on keeping my royal alliance with HRE intact, it is still fairly recent so it should hold out. I figure once I have all of France, I may even have the resources for a 3rd permenant army so Spain and Portugal will be feudal stampedes, which should give me enough resources for a 4th permenant army at that point. At some point after that, I will start sending Crusades to take Jerusalem and the Middle East (How do you say East England in Arabic anybody??). My plans of course hold out on being long term friends with HRE, if that breaks down my plans will be a-changing.

  27. #147

    Default Re: England

    Turn 120 something:

    Spain kept being a pain in my backside, not enough to be a severe pain but enough to keep threatening one city over and over again. However things were still pretty good as I sliced through France, eventually having to include Adjacco (I think thats Corsica?) to finish them off. However the second I did, Milan immediately after me and they were basically the rulers of Italy (minus Sicily). I really wasn't expecting them so soon, I had hoped for a few turns worth of building up time so they had Bern from me pretty quickly (I had taken it from the French earlier) and kept threatening Marsielles.

    Once I had a decent army on field in Northern Italy, Portugal (which ruled most of the Iberian pennisula at this point) went after me and allied with Milan so I had two major fronts to contend. I had started to hold my own by making peace with Spain (which they almost immediately broke the cease fire yet again) and keeping Portugal at my borders, I had taken Genoa and almost had taken Milan. I had gotten Bern back and fought off several sieges of Dijon and Marsielles. Unforunately the worst, and unescapable, thing happened to me when my chief ally, HRE, declared war on me and frankly I can't fight that kind of war.

    So that ends my first English campaign.

    Some final observations:

    Genose Crossbowmen are a pain in my backside, they seem to have the range and damage of longbowmen while having the strength of good light infantry, they are more then fast enough to run away from anything that isn't on horseback and they'll easily fight to the last man. Unforunately its all Milan seems to field, and I really need some tactics to combat more effectively in my next campaign.

    Crusade armies are awesome in combat, I used one against the French and even the Pilgrims seem far better then town milita (which I guess supposed to be about their equal?). They do mostly desert after a while, but thats no big deal if I need an army for a few battles.

    Ideally, if it wasn't for the economy I'd forget France and even abandon Caen and focus on the British Isles and then hit the Iberian pennisula, then Scandavia but unforunately it seems the money making cities are in France and without the Rennes-Caen-Burges triple I can't seem to have enough to support my military, especially early in the game.

  28. #148
    Warrior on the edge of time Member kitbogha's Avatar
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    Nov 2007
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    Aque Sulis, England.
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    82

    Default Re: England

    Quote Originally Posted by GC1CEO

    So that ends my first English campaign.

    Some final observations:

    Genose Crossbowmen are a pain in my backside, they seem to have the range and damage of longbowmen while having the strength of good light infantry, they are more then fast enough to run away from anything that isn't on horseback and they'll easily fight to the last man. Unforunately its all Milan seems to field, and I really need some tactics to combat more effectively in my next campaign.

    Crusade armies are awesome in combat, I used one against the French and even the Pilgrims seem far better then town milita (which I guess supposed to be about their equal?). They do mostly desert after a while, but thats no big deal if I need an army for a few battles.

    Ideally, if it wasn't for the economy I'd forget France and even abandon Caen and focus on the British Isles and then hit the Iberian pennisula, then Scandavia but unforunately it seems the money making cities are in France and without the Rennes-Caen-Burges triple I can't seem to have enough to support my military, especially early in the game.
    1) A combination of good artillery, placed facing their flanks on each side is absolutely devastating, support them with heavy infantry or spearmen, a company or two of archers to oppose them and give them a reason not turn their flanks round and for a final flourish a squad of light cavalry to finish off any routers.

    2) Crusade armies are great and pretty much the only benefit of taking up the cross. A sneaky but useful tactic-use your crusading general to recruit an army of crusader knights etc, then accompany him on crusade with another general, when you get in sight of your objective seperate the spare general off from the main body and fill his army stack with crusading recruits from the first stack. Use the original crusading general to continue recruiting crusader troops and you end up with a great, cheap second (or third, or fourth) army. You can retain these after you have used your initial stack to complete your crusade objective. This is particularly handy when you want to consolidate the whole area around the original target.

    3)What fun is it being England if you don't get the chance to wipe the French from the board. To me, the rest of the game is a bit of an anticlimax....


    I played this faction first, and found it to be really entertaining and fun. You get a really good selection of troops, and fight all the old traditional European enemies, as well as some new ones.
    "I like a man who grins when he fights"
    Winston Churchill.
    "It is not sufficient that I suceed - all others must fail.”
    Genghis Khan

  29. #149

    Default Re: England

    My second campaign:

    - I was more ready, least early, on to deal with Scotland then France. I avoided a few mistakes this time, my tactic also had me taking Antwerp because I was having so much luck with my continental army with Rennes and Brugges. However it also meant I had to deal with assassins and the like from the Danish trying to screw over Antwerp.

    - My Scottish campaign was the same, take everything but Edinburgh then take out Scotland in a single action.

    - This time around I readied myself for hitting France and attacked first with two armies, interestingly enough they begged for a cease fire after I took two of their cities. This gave me time to rebuild my armies and such for the second wave, dealing with France was so much easier in my second campaign. I used a rather unorthodox tactic, I used assassins constantly to take down their entire family line.

    - Milan was even more aggressive this time around, they had cities as far north as Dijon by the time they first attacked me. Likewise they were more popular with other factions so they had plenty of allies.

    - I found a great tactic for assassins is to make sure you get a master assassins guild, always put it France-side. Build assassins from there, I call this Stage 1. Stage 2, move them to a city half-way between that city and where ever you really want to use them constantly. Around that city, assassinate a variety of smaller targets (rebels, captains, diplomats, other assassins/spies, etc) until they are Rating 7-8 then once you have 3-4 like that move to target. I wiped out the French family tree in a couple of trees, they went through as many as 2 kings a turn.

    - I'm still having trouble with the Genovese Crossbowmen in the Milanese armies, they seem more accurate, greater defense and more luck then my longbowmen. I have a few Yeoman Archers but unforunately they aren't in mass in my armies yet, they seem to have a -little- difference.

    - The Pope is too weak militarily which works against me, since it doesn't matter if I'm in his good graces since those he excommunicates are too powerful to be opposed to anybody anyways.

    - Something that might end my campaign is HRE is now my enemy, once France was done for. Unforunately they are pretty powerful and I got taken by surprise, I had been trying to keep Milan out of France and it took all of my armies to do so which left Northern France and the Netherlands too unguarded.

    - I am continuing the campaign until I get a third enemy, I can handle Milan and I might be able to handle HRE. Unforunately nobody will talk peace, apparently once the AI decides to attack you first they won't even consider a ceasefire proposal no matter what you offer. I had tried to make France a vassal, and several ceasefire attempts, even when they were down to 2 cities but they wouldn't hear me even though I offered to essentially rebuild their treasury.

    - Blocking passes and bridges seems to be just as effective as in RTW, which is what has kept Milan from running me over in Southern France.

    - I need serious work on improving my battlefield skills, the AI handles it far better for me.

  30. #150

    Default Re: England

    The reason NOT to angry the pope is not his army, but the crusades. With them you can make a mockery out of anyone. Give him 10-15K and he will call a crusade against just about anybody ho has the stupidity to be exomonished. Then all you need is seven units of any type, and a few generals (3 unleased). Get them in one stack, join the crusade, then get the all the generals but one out of the main army. Recruit crusade merks all the way to Milan.There is enough of them in France and Italy for 3 full army's. They are cheap and have no upceap as long as they are in a crusade. And they stay with you after it is ended, altoug they are quite expencive to maintain then.You have to move fast, in order to outrun the rest of the crusading army's, but this is not a problem. The only problem is how many times do you want to do this. I mean check the Pizzacuy posts, you can conquer Western Europe for less than 30 turns. Just crusade against the infidels, use the army's left after the crusade against the good catoliks, bribe the pope, crusade again, and again and have fun. It is all up to you.

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