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Thread: England

  1. #211
    Member Member Schiltrom's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Make use of your starting favour with the Pope. Begin a Crusade against Jerusalem. Try to get there first. Take Jerusalem (along with the Pope's reward) and expand across Africa. From this point onwards, try to maintain alliances, don't bribe, and only attack if attacked and/or betrayed (for trustworthyness, it really makes diplomatic deals easier). Take part in any crusades that are called, and try to get to the target first. This way, although slow, allows military build up, and is the easy way to victory.

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  2. #212
    Knight of Fable... Member Mek Simmur al Ragaski's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    I have gone back to my badly going English campaign, in which I had been invaded by literally all of my allies except the HRE. I managed to recapture all of my cities and bribed the Pope lots of money to get my favour up. When my previous allies attacked me, they were almost instantly excommunicated, even the Danes and there was a Danish Pope.

    After my previous humiliation, I launched an offensive into Danish territory in central Europe. I took Bern, which they had taken from HRE, and the settlement north of it. Im going to recapture Metz soon, which has a full stack garrisoning it, and a citadel. I also took Paris, which had been splitting my different cities, and was well worth it.

    I also managed to call a crusade on Milan, the backstabbing runts. I took Genoa and Milan within 3 turns from the start of the crusade. I then crushed the Danes crusaders with help from the HRE. I left my empire in Egypt, I'm not ready to fight the Mongols yet. When I have eliminated the Danes and Milan, I plan to take the war to the Moors and possibly Portugal because i am planning on taking complete control of France, and they have taken Bordeux, and another settlement in southern France. Spain has proved to be reliable, I dont plan to break my alliance with them yet.
    'It is not anger that drives me to destroy the Egyptian empire, but the promise of gold, a throne, and of all the ruling Pharaoh's concubines in a single night'
    -Me sacking the Egyptian cities...

  3. #213
    Knight of Fable... Member Mek Simmur al Ragaski's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Another update on my campaign, here is an image:



    As you can see from this, my empire is very small given the time period. This because i prefur to have economic stability, and I prefur to be able to support my armys and still make profit. I also like to turtle, and just see what is going on at different places on the map.

    My treasury is very low because i recently bought huge walls, farms and ports for every settlement.
    'It is not anger that drives me to destroy the Egyptian empire, but the promise of gold, a throne, and of all the ruling Pharaoh's concubines in a single night'
    -Me sacking the Egyptian cities...

  4. #214
    Barbarian of the north Member Magraev's Avatar
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    Smile Re: England

    Looks like you have it under control.

    Nice empire.
    Nope - no sig what so ever.

  5. #215
    Knight of Fable... Member Mek Simmur al Ragaski's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Thanks, i've been slowly expanding and putting fairly large garrisons in cities too keep them under control. I have also set Paris as my new capital, so that when certain things get 'distance from capital' as a downside on public order, it isnt there anymore.

    I didn't play very much last night, but recently the Spanish cancelled our alliance, and enraged, I rushed down to kick them out of Bordeux. The English are not too be messed with....
    'It is not anger that drives me to destroy the Egyptian empire, but the promise of gold, a throne, and of all the ruling Pharaoh's concubines in a single night'
    -Me sacking the Egyptian cities...

  6. #216

    Default Re: England

    I'm pursuring a somewhat different goal in my campaign. While my army of longbowmen and Mailed Knights teach the Danish why it's not a good idea to mess with me,my Crusader King and his army are over in Egypt,busy seiging their cities one by one. As I capture them I sack them for money to feed my war machine,hold them long enough to get a few priests out,then sell everything in the city,let it go rebel,then move on to the next target. Strangely enough,since I concluded a marriage alliance with the french they have been somewhat less aggressive against me than usual, I suspect they are fully engaged against the spanish/milanese,but the HRE has been sending small stack to attempt to take Bruges,only to be mowed down to the last man by the 10 units of longbowmen/yeomen archers I have stationed in caen,just in case anyone tries anything stupid.

  7. #217

    Default Re: England

    My first game in MTW II was with the English and it didn't quite go according to plan. It was played a few weeks after release, so forgive any vauge details in here as that was quite some time ago.

    My aim throughout the game was to serve the papacy, as i feel it adds more dimenson to the game. War with France and Scotland were unavoidable and so i accepted that i would have to endure the wrath of the pope for these, but hopefully i could get this over with quickly.

    I started off with annihilating the french early on (i think i had Paris before i had finished off the Scots). Unfortunatley then the the Danes prevented me from finishing them off, forcing my hand after they hit normandy.

    Me being at war with 2 christian factions (and after killing the Scots) had put me in the popes bad books. So i accepted his mission to cease hostilities with the French. The war with the Danes essentially drew me towards the Baltics, which is not the direction i wanted to head. Never the less i figured it would be intriguing to see what the long term effects would be of a prolonged campaign through the baltics and then into Russian territory. If succesful i could avoid a lot of the Catholic factions and still hold a large amount of territory.

    In order to improve logistics i wanted a sea and land route to Russia, so turned on the Polish, despite them being Catholic i decided it was worth it. This actually took longer than i had initially anticipated with the remenant Danish and Poles proving quite a tough challenge, forcing me back on several occastions. There was a point i almost decided to abandon the campaign entirely, especially after a ressurgent France made an attempt with the Spanish to take back some of their lands. Initial success in Bordeaux left me slightly worried but my counter attack proved succesful, leaving me with more territory than before, after the Spanish were unable to reinforce their frontiers before the pope intervened once again. The French were down to one city (Marseille), and i begrudginly accepted the pope's orders to cease hosilities with them before i could finish them off. I wasn't really looking to finish the game at any point so didn't mind leave the French alive in the long run as this was my first game and i was to immersed to care about winning it in any real sense.

    After my success i turned towards Russia once again, fighting off the temptation to ignore the papacy and deviate from my initial strategy to go after Spain and then finally the Moors.

    I finished off Poland and Denmark and decided to prepare for a Medeivla rendition of operation Barbarossa. This involved building a defensive perimeter of castles along my border.

    The border was with Hungary, HRE and Venice in central europe and a border with Spain in Southern France (and the french themselves). I was constantly attacked from most of these, having to maintain standing armies to deal with incursions until the pope would intervene and request a truce.

    It was after realizing just how bloody big Russia was, that i decided perhaps this wasn't the most inspirational decision i had ever made, but i soldiered on (heh) regardless. I created 3 huge armies and began my march east. The conquest itself was rather easy, with my main worries being closer to home, and within 40 turns i had what i thought was most of Russia.

    Seeing as this was my first game, i hadn't quite figured out all of the city locations, and much to my horror my spies were discovering more and more Russian cities and towns to the east. I figured it would only be a handful of them given the amount if uninhabbited land Russia holds, but this wasn't the case.

    I was then presented with the issue of distance from capital effecting morale in the newly conquered lands (even some of the Polish towns and Cities were a pain). Constant attacks from central europe weren't helping either. With much of my resources going on securing the borders i held there. There was even an instance when Spain, HRE and France attacked in the same turn on three seperate cities, leaving me heavily stretched afterwards and worried that any further assaults would break my lines. Thankfully i was given plenty of time to recouperate by the AI.

    Anyways i had finally finished off Russia but was paying through my nose on upkeep and much of the loot money that had kept my campaign going was starting to run out and the infrastructure of the East wasn't able to maintain the army that had been raised to conqueror it.

    I then thought 'to hell with it' and invaded the last remaining French Castle to win the game.

    I was truly gutted that i didn't get to take on the Turks (and the Mongols), but at the same time it was a nice change to go after the Russians, but found it highly annoying that the one thing from preventing me ensuring a catholic conquest of the world was the bloody catholics themselves, especially as it would seem that the pope was angry because i was at war with so many Catholic factions, ignoring entirely the fact that i hadn't started any of them.

    Was fun none the less and i really enjoyed the game, makes for a refreshing change as opposed to the usual English strategy.

  8. #218
    Knight of Fable... Member Mek Simmur al Ragaski's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Nice campaign, Neeceh, you've taken a different approach to the English campaign than most people, you seem to have conquered the north, when many people try to take Italy and Spain. I never really saw much that was worth anything in the north, but attacking a non-catholic nation would be good, as change from the Pope giving you grief.
    'It is not anger that drives me to destroy the Egyptian empire, but the promise of gold, a throne, and of all the ruling Pharaoh's concubines in a single night'
    -Me sacking the Egyptian cities...

  9. #219

    Default Re: England

    I think I'm playing on M/M at the moment and it seems to be going quite well for me. I'm not that far in but I think I'm at the point where the plan is starting to take shape ;). I like to use the English for two reasons: 1) I like their playing style on the battlefield (lots of hard infantry and archers with a bit of cavalry for flexibility) and 2) the British Isles themselves are fairly well isolated from attack, so IMO compared to most other factions you get a decent amount of time to build up and a bit more choice of who you want to go to war with. To be fair I'm only playing the short campaign for the moment in order to unlock the other factions, but I will probably carry on playing afterwards.

    At the beginning I was cautious not to overstretch myself because most English starting troops are just a few crappy militia units, and although the Scots only had one province their armies were quite concentrated IIRC and highlanders are decent anti-spearmen/militia troops at this point. So I allied myself with them, with the Danes (because the HRE are potential enemies, being near my mainland European provinces), and also with the Pope, which I supplemented by making sure every province had some kind of church and a priest; my papal reputation was soon "perfect". At the same time I built at least basic farms everywhere and set about taking the rebel provinces of Dublin, Rennes, York, Caernarvon and Bruges.

    Once I felt ready to attack Scotland I moved a fairly large army up to besiege Edinburgh. The Pope told me to cease hostilities, so I moved my army back down into York without any actual fighting. It wasn't long before they came down and besieged York with a fairly large army. The ensuing fight was pretty brutal but I defeated the Scots by bottlenecking them as they came through the battered gate, and killed two of their family members in the process. The Scots were excommunicated for attacking me so I got the Pope to call a crusade against them, which I obviously joined. By this point I had shipped my first few regiments of longbowmen up from Nottingham to join the force besieging Edinburgh, and when the Scots counter-attacked they got thoroughly spanked, losing their King, his heir and Edinburgh, which I sacked for adbout 8000 florins. Their only remaining territory is a small garrison in Inverness.

    My continental territories of Bruges and Caen soon came under siege from the HRE and the French respectively, and they are allied. I wasn't bothered by this because the besieging armies were fairly small, and I successfully defended both pretty easily, though the French keep throwing small, pathetic armies at Caen (I think they must be at war with someone else). Furthermore, I knew my reputation with the Pope was much better than theirs so I wanted to bide my time until one of them got excommunicated; the HRE seem to have backed off for now, and the French have been excommunicated.

    The next step will be to finish off the Scots once and for all and send the rest of my army to France, preferably with the help of a crusade from my mate the Pope :p. IIRC Inverness is a castle so once I've taken it I'll turn it into a city for extra income, as it's too far away from the continent to be really useful for producing troops. I will focus my military efforts on the French and try to sue for peace with the HRE, which I'm hoping will come more easily if I spank the French well enough. If they attack I'll just try to hold them off for now as they're actually providing a buffer zone to protect me from the Danes (who will, of course, eventually attack me if I have territory next to their borders.) In the long term, however, I will probably look to attack Denmark, possibly by sea, in order to reduce my front (as others have said) and give me access to the Baltic with all of its trade and anti-Russian crusade opportunies. Spain is also a possibility, as taking the Iberian peninsular will prevent me from being attacked from both sides.

  10. #220

    Default Re: England

    I've owned the game since it's release but didn't start playing it until a few days ago. I have been playing as england on M/M. I tend to take it slower, building up a very strong economy, but I don't really start branching out to the mainland until around turn 150 or so... This may be my problem as I don't like to fight without general's and usually wait for generals that are 3star or better. But my main problem, in every game I've played so far, the papal states end up running me over and upon the last crusade called against me I am wiped off the planet.

    No amount of payments seems to change my standing with the papal states (I usually make 20k+ a turn from taxes and trade). But it has been this way through 6 different games now, at some point after turn 135 the papal states turns to neutral, then you see 7 full armies head for different towns and it's pretty much over from that point.


    *is there a desc file you can change to increase the life of family or decrease the chance of death?

  11. #221

    Default Re: England

    So no suggestions for me?

  12. #222

    Default Re: England

    You could try this

    For papal politics:
    1.Build Churches of all sizes when you can
    2.Recruit priests, send most of them to areas with low Catholic populations so they can convert people.
    3.If Hertics/Witches appear, send the priests in the denounce them. You will lose some to heresy but between converting people and denouncing heretics you make them earn piety.
    4. Crusade when called upon with one small army at least to keep the pope happy. Try to call crusades for closer targets if you have enough papal favor as well. Easier for you to succeed.

    Eventually you may get more votes in the College of Cardnals to vote for new popes. Voting correctly means you gain more favor with the pope quickly. You may even have enough votes to vote your cardinals in without any chance of someone else getting it.

    Send a diplomet to Rome to sit there and Gift money every so often to boost your relations with the pope. 1000 is ussually enough to boost relations 1 level.

    Be sure to eliminate Scotland early and take all of England and also Ireland.

    Waiting til turn 135-150 is to late to start expanding at this point, unless your an expert, or modified the game to give you more turns, will just be frustating.

    You could try this strategy

    Take any rebel settlements you can that are nearby. If the French are excom, take as many cities as you can from them at that point.

    Normally, when I play Britain, I will take all of Britain and Ireland first. Secure the rebel Provinces on the coast of France, Take out Denmark and take control of Sweeden and Norway. Be sure to keep your front line provinces supplied with good garrisons. At this point, I will concentrate more on economic development and defense for about 50 turns before I start conquering again and steamroll my way through the mid to late game.

    It is important to get rid of castles you dont need, make them cities to give you extra money. I ussually keep only one castle in Notingham, and one in France and that one just beneath modern denmark. Everything else can be cities to maximize $$ before you start conquering. Leaving poor garrisons tends to make the AI attack you. Ussually, going to war with France is the next step when you are satisfied with your situation and want to expand more, Milan can be guaranteed to stab you in the back sometime during the French Campaign. When to attack France also depends on there papal status vs yours. If they lose status it can be good to take a few territories out.

    Just remember when you start your conquering campaigns to convert castles you dont need, try to have at least 3 cities to every castle. I generally prefer a more cities than this. Some areas of the map have to many castles, so pick and chose the place places to convert based on geography and your next potential enemies.

    Turn 1-25 England, French rebels and buildup 25-50, Denmark, Sweeden, Norway and buildup
    50-100, Empire development
    100+ Plan your attacks, take about 10 turns to secure and build in what you take, then wash and repeat.
    Last edited by Don Jacopo Caldora; 02-01-2009 at 08:09.
    Don Jacopo Caldora
    Lord of Pacentro

    I have played the following in the Total War Series.
    1. Medieval Total War & Viking Invasion
    2. Rome Total War & Barbarian Invasion
    3. Medieval 2 & Kingdoms

  13. #223
    Senior Member Senior Member Quintus.JC's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Quote Originally Posted by Flak View Post
    So no suggestions for me?
    Send your diplomat straight off to Rome ASAP and make alliance with them, offer them alliance, trade right and map info, on medium difficulty the Papal won't refuse (Probably will only work if you restart your campaign). Constantly station a diplomat in Italy and when your Papal favour start dropping below 6 start dashing out bribes, as England money should never be a problem. over 10K should probably get you a perfect relation straight away. Call Crusades to nearby excomunicated factions; France and Denmark are perfect targets, France is your natural enemy while Denmark will make war with you sooner or later if you take either Bruges or Atwerp.

    Concentrate at least one settlement for the recuritment of priests, unlike Spain or Hungary you won't get much piety over converting the locals since they're mostly Catholics anyway. Once you get a Theologian guild try to get its upgrades and eventually with a headquarter you'll be pumping our 6+ piety priests in no time.
    Last edited by Quintus.JC; 02-01-2009 at 18:28.

  14. #224
    Praefectus Fabrum Senior Member Anime BlackJack Champion, Flash Poker Champion, Word Up Champion, Shape Game Champion, Snake Shooter Champion, Fishwater Challenge Champion, Rocket Racer MX Champion, Jukebox Hero Champion, My House Is Bigger Than Your House Champion, Funky Pong Champion, Cutie Quake Champion, Fling The Cow Champion, Tiger Punch Champion, Virus Champion, Solitaire Champion, Worm Race Champion, Rope Walker Champion, Penguin Pass Champion, Skate Park Champion, Watch Out Champion, Lawn Pac Champion, Weapons Of Mass Destruction Champion, Skate Boarder Champion, Lane Bowling Champion, Bugz Champion, Makai Grand Prix 2 Champion, White Van Man Champion, Parachute Panic Champion, BlackJack Champion, Stans Ski Jumping Champion, Smaugs Treasure Champion, Sofa Longjump Champion Seamus Fermanagh's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Some good suggestions above.

    I'd add:

    Take a province you don't really want or need, sack it, strip it, then give it to the Holy Father.

    I often do this at the time of the first crusade. I'll take Gaza and/or Acre and keep them but give Jerusalem to the Holy Father shortly after its conquest. Eventually, the Mongols take it from the Holy Father, die in droves on my stake-reinforced gates at Acre and Gaza, and then I take Jerusalem for myself.

    Nothing makes the Pope happier than having a more powerful and better-landed faction -- just be sure that it isn't land YOU need for your empire unless someone like the Mongols will come along to give you another chance at it.
    "The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman

    "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken

  15. #225

    Default Re: England

    On m/m

    The first move I did as England was to take my army out of Caen and bring back to england (Always keep a big navy around your seas both for transport and thwarting disembarkements) to aid the invasion of scotland. I managed to get an alliance and trade rights off the french and it's still lasting around turn 30 (though i had to cancel a few times) along with my castle-now-city, Caen). Anyway, I took York immediatly and started making a few units in nottingham. I then took most of my units in london (just left William there) and headed for wales. dont worry too much if you get bankrupt as I soon paid off my debts by bringing in 10k a turn thanks to some heavy taxation in london .

    Anyway I took Caernarvon (appologies for spelling) and converted it into a city. Taxed it. rebelled. took it again thanks to some mercs and the army from france. managed to get alliances with milan,venice (they declared war on each other at one point. choose milan. they'll help you against the french by taking half of their settlements) and the papal states.

    After taking Caenarvon for myself, the scottish decided that it was there turn to expand. they took all their garrison of edinbrough and attacked york. took the troops i had been training in nottingham and destroyed their army. Pope wanted a ceasefire. This is why you must respect the pope during early period : the penalty was only "your relations will be seriously deminished" instead of "your going to get slaughtered by a crusading army and i'm going to enjoy it". I know its painful having to lick his butt constantly but its worth it once you get to assasinate him every turn and in the end "exterminate" the papal states (hopefully).

    Anyway i took my Caernarvon heroes and trashed the scots. With a high garrison, i decided to tax edinbrough big time to make a compensation for all those units (i disbanded alot of them once the people loved me). Then I turned towards Dublin and Iverness with my other armies. Once i had all of GB, i only left Nottingham as a castle. The rest are making big money. I also have so many alliances the UN would be shivering. Caen has (despite myself not really caring about it) become a money-making city and is being untouched. I suggest you focus on getting big alliances with spain, HRE and milan as they will probably aid you against the french if your not as lucky as i was. But definatly enforce power in UK first IMO, you will lose far too many valuable soldiers, alliances and crosses with the pope and France generally tend to expand but then wither away as Spain and Milan take arms against them


    But now I've basically got UK and one settlement outside it at turn 30 and making enough money to build up a suitable but not invincibile army so i have a choice:

    Either head for Iberia : the portuguese have been fairly annoying. they've been blockading ports, attacking my ally, spain, and took rennes (that settlement west of Caen) under my noses when i was about to attack it. (the french and spanish didnt like this so they both seiged it despite being at war with each other ( a glitch that doesnt happen too often). the spanish got it in the end).
    Though taking on Iberia might mean war with spain, a close ally of mine whowill help someday against the french

    OR Head for the french? I dont think my armies are ready yet. The french have too many expanded territories and I want their wars with Spain, Milan and suprisingly, Venice to end so i can take them out swiftly and silently.

    OR go west and get at the danish. this might seem the most "logical" solution. the danish are hated by everyone (including the pope) and are doing exactly the same thing as portugal (replace rennes by amsterdam and Spain by HRE it is exactly the same thing). Also, (I might be wrong here) I find the english army quite effective against the danish heavy troops who are slow and easy to pick out wth missile units.


    Its a dilemma i need sorting so can anyone convince me which is the best? thanks in advance.

    PS: for the crusades problem, either just ignore the pope and give him a grand or the finger (depending if you like him or not). Or just build up an army in advance and get it as close to the holy land or wherever the crusade is as possible. It shouldnt be you main priority unless its a territory near by or a excommunicated faction's capital. I joined a crusade against Granada (moorish castle) and basically took it and sold it to the papal states for a few grand. Although the portuguese (who were excomunicated because of their vile yet cowardice blockading of my ports) decided on attacking it (probably thought i was still there and took it, great peice of business)
    I'm saving Private Ryan...money on his car insurance

  16. #226
    War Story Recorder Senior Member Maltz's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Just had my first VH/VH campaign with the easiest faction (England ). I control 44 regions at turn 58 and I should be able to capture Jeruselum from a sea invasion in 3-4 more turns or so. So the campaign is pretty much done.

    Here are some inputs for VH/VH:

    (1) Use tons of assassins (in my game I have about 15), if you are not against Save/Load. Concentrate on your primary enemies and kill all of their family members. The worst chance you have is 6% - not that bad. You can do it in a few minutes. The good things about them is:

    a. Slow down your enemy's insane growth. You can eliminate a faction and just take down the rebels. Rebels don't upgrade cities nor hire new units.

    b. Stay in good terms with the Pope. I bet everyone is tired of the cease-fire-or-excom order. Attacking rebels does not anger the Pope.

    c. Assassinate the current Pope whenever his rating drops to about 4 cross from the top, and vote the next one in. Free upgrade of crosses.

    tip: If you fail an assassination attempt, load the game, save the game again, then try again. You get a new random number this way.

    (2) Do not leave a weak border. The AI ally ALWAYS betray you as long as you have a weakly defended border region. It is very hardly done if you have a lot of borders - so assassinate your neighbors before expansion! It is very important to have "buffer zones" - neutral, rebel cities between the AI and you. They come at you slower this way. (They will have to summon an army to conquer that city first, taking at least a few turns if they are even interested.)

    Also the AI ally loves to attack your weak stacks, in your territory or in a neutral territory, just for fun I guess. (But they declare war on you by doing so!)

    tip: You can also lure them to declare war on you this way, but you will have enough enemies already, don't make new ones.

    (3) If you do not wish to be betrayed by an AI ally, just before they siege you, give (actually you can sell) that settlement to another faction. They will go to war, but you stay friendly with the AI ally (to maintain trade, etc). This usually happens if you over-expand - as you don't have enough garrison and the AI takes advantage of you.

    So basically you aim for the Inn line and start pumping out loads of assassins non-stop. You can then take out the rebel cities one by one.

    Don't think the game will be boring this way - I just fought a battle of 1000 vs. 3000 rebels. (And left a famous-battle mark on the map, hehe.) The AI grows very fast, so by the time they turn rebels, they are still pretty good rebels.

    (4) Exterminate every single city unless it is already a very small town. You do not have the money to keep the garrisons and build all the fancy buildings that do not further increase your income. For example, a city of 30000 can generate an income of 2200, 5000 can generate an income of 2000; a city of 2000 generate 1800. The difference is really little but the difference in upkeep is big.

    (5) Money is tight. A good balance of army I find is to match it to your army upkeep to raw taxes. So trade, merchant etc. will be your hiring and building fund.

  17. #227

    Default Re: England

    Thanks for all the tips in the thread, has made life in my English realm much easier.

    One thing I've noticed though is that EVERYONE hates the English. I'm serious, every damn faction keeps attacking me constantly. I did make a grave mistake in my planing and it's costing me greatly. The froggies had decided to try to back-stab me but I swiftly moved in one of my stacks and smashed two of theirs in a bridge-battle (oh how I LOVE defending a bridge ). The following round I sent in a diplomat and offered a ceasefire in exchange for a hefty sum of money. They decided to change the deal and offered and smaller sum of money and Metz. Like a fool I accepted, BIG mistake.

    I seems that every European faction thinks Metz is the best thing since sliced bread and I consequently had stacks from HRE, Denmark, Milan, and Venice (go figure) all hotfooting it towards my newly acquired castle

    After beating off both the Danes and Milanese in some very heavy battles I came under siege from a 1k+ HRE army. I had a grand total of about 320 troops, none of them very hardcore to say the least. There were 3 peasants, 2 peasant archers, and a unit of cavalry militia. As the battle started they rolled up 4 sets of ballistas. To my luck they had their army placed way back in the middle of the forest so the ballistas had to move up quite a bit away from the rest of the army. I decided to go gungho and raced my cav out to as a welcoming-party. I managed to catch the arty without any backup and proceeded to slaughter them swiftly. By the time the rest of the army had gotten to my cav I raced back towards the castle. This is where the fun really began.

    They used one tower, one ram, and only one set of ladders. This would be my saving grace as the tower and the ladders both decided to try to sneak off to my right side. I dispatched two of my peasants over there while the remaining one sat inside my gate and my archers let their fire-arrows fly against the mass of infantry trailing the ram. They managed to get the ladders to the wall but for some strange reason, not that I'm complaining, they had manned them with a set of archers. These were no match ever for my poor peasants and sure enough they routed within minutes. By another grace of luck I managed to set the siege-tower ablaze and that left them focusing on only the ram. As the ram was knocking on my front door they had placed some of their archers a bit behind the rest of the army. They just sat there for some reason and I manged to take my cav (that had just been moved out of the way of the incoming army after their arty-smash) and crush in to them from the rear.

    Just as both their archers broke down and ran home to mommy their ram broke through my gates and they started pouring in. My three peasants fought like there was no tomorrow (which was actually the fact for all of them) but were slowly wittered down by the onslaught. By the time the peasants were routed the HRE decided to send two of it's spear-units up on my walls to deal with my archers. This is where the archers really hunkered down and actually managed to rout both spear-units while only losing about 30% strength. The rest of the battle I used my last firearrows and the remnants of my cavalry to try to just score as many kills as possible before losing the battle. They had placed two units of cav in my square and won by holding it.

    It was one helluva battle to say the least and even though I did end up losing the battle in the end I managed to kill 700+ of his units which made it much easier the next round when my stack of longbows, spears, and heavy cav showed up and cleaned house.

    Now it's time to teach the Danes a lesson

  18. #228
    Magistrate of Pirkka Member Sebastian Seth's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    I pretty much whent like this:

    - Secure alliance with the french. (Marry Princess Constance to your heir.)
    - Secure alliance with the polish. (Marry Princess Cecilia to their heir.)
    - Get trade rights with spain and portugal. Trade maps with Moors. (Diplomat 1)
    - Get trade rights with HRE, Milan, Venice and Sicily. Make alliance with papacy (Diplomat 2)
    1. Take rebel settlements form brittain and north european coast.
    - York, Caernavon, Dublin (Army 1)
    - Rennes, Brugges, Antwerp (Army 2)
    2. Exterminate Scottish and keep french and papacy happy with coin.
    - Go straight for Edinburgh and their heirs. (Army 1)
    3. Exterminate Danish and keep french and papacy happy with coin.
    - Go straight to Aarhus and their heirs. (Army 1 and 2)
    4. Participate on the 1st Crusade. (Army 3)
    - On the way to there take the two islands west of italy and the african castle (carthago).
    - If you manage to get to Jerusalem, burn it to the ground and give it to papacy.
    - After that take the island west of antioch. (Bysantines)
    5. If Florence, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki or Vilna is still rebel, take em. (Army 1 and 2)

    ---
    At this point you have:
    Brittain with two major cities, two smaller cities and 3 castles.
    North coast of europe with 2 major cities, 1 smaller city and 1 castle.
    Scandinavia with 1 major city, 1 small city and 1 castle.
    Mediterrain with 3 small island cities. (They are castles at first but change them).
    One castle in the middle of african coast.

    - So basicly you have secure income by farming alone and quite a lot of trade income. On top of that you have possibility of naval dominance in brittain and scandinavia, naval presence in mediterraen, lauchpoint to attack russians with allies, lauchpoint to attack HRE with 2 allies, lauchpoint to attack moors weak spots, lauchpoint to attack italian pennisula.
    ---

    At this point I quitted playing but after quick calculations I think I would have attacked Moors, then HRE, then papacy and the italian states... And get ready for the mongol brawl in constanttinopole.

    Mayby I start a new one to try it :)
    Humans very easy to make and very hard to understand. - SS

  19. #229
    Member Member HolyGateKeeper's Avatar
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    Talking Re: England

    I should practice more with merry England, they are of course one of the most best countries in the world, either by the Britannia Campaign, or just the whole map, it's sea power was increasingly awesome, and no one, I mean NO ONE, would dick around with them Normans.
    Robert, Comte de Geneva



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  20. #230
    Totalwar Pest Member coalition's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    I love playing the English, reckon they are my favourite Faction for Medieval II. Has anyone found a use for Sherwood archers? Their stats look great but they only have half unit size which really limits their usefullness in the open field.

  21. #231
    Member Member Ashfire's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    1. Send Your Diplomat to marry the French Princess" Constance, or if you don't like France try and find either Portugal or Denmark (Maria of Ingrid).
    2. In the same turn move Rufus' army up to York and take the settlement.
    3. Put Robert in the Army in France and attack Rennes or Bruges (I prefer Rennes).
    4. Move Princess Cecilia to France and try to get her Charm up, then try to marry her to Guillemot de Lyon (Usually in Angers).
    5. As fast as possible take the rest of the British Isles (Caernarfon,Dublin and try Inverness). Don't wage war with the Scotts for some time as they can proove good Trade Partners in the beginning Finacial Struggle.

    Hope This Helps!
    Lady Sackville of Sevenoaks, Knole.

  22. #232

    Default Re: England

    I've played a lot of campaigns and finished the game as almost all of them. But I never understood the point of a Faction Leader. In real life he was, obviously, the most important character of a faction. But does a faction leader with good skills actually do something for the entire faction? Any bonuses at all or is he just a normal governor/general with an extra title?

  23. #233
    Strategist and Storyteller Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    My experience thus far (I have played and still play RTW, but i enjoy Medieveal 2 because it's more refined).

    To anyone switching from Rome: TW and/or it's expansions, this game will be better when comparing vanilla vs vanilla (no mods). In RTW as the Brutii for example, i can get 8 or so provinces and from then on i can't seem to spend my gold, even with bribing. Here you will be presesd to find a good balance between gold producing buildings/farms/unit producing buidldings in castles.

    Anyway, I am a fand of England as it historically hasn't been conquered since 1066 and their island makes the country very hard to take over If they keep a strong navy (which is recommended). How my campaing has been going so far (playing on my roommate's PC when he isn't home so it will take a good while to finish the game)

    I play on VH/VH, latest patch, vanilla game.

    I restarted once or twice, once i think because i read some idiot's guide of how "you must build farms ASAP". Yeah that might work in the lower difficulty settings but on VH/VH you need the trade buildings first! I am an agressive player so the first thing i did is (after taking York obviously), vanquishing Scotland. I couldn't take them out in one turn (I had managed to do that during the previous restart) and so i got excomunnicated, which didn't hurt that much.

    Scotland had it's faction leader with a very large stack just sit there while i took Edinburgh, and they later turned to an immobile rebel stack. In my first start i had managed to crus them completely, but i had gotten lucky with councin missions and had received 6 units of Mailed Knights and 2 units of Hobilars as rewards, which really helped me overwhelm the other nation's early armies.

    Anyway, after securing the whole of the British isles, I set out to continue conquering France. I had taken the two rebel setllements in South-Western France (one is a city, the one below is a Castle, Bordeaux i think). By this point the French and Danish had set their eys on my territories. Too bad for them!

    Longbowmen and spear stacks is all i built. Yes, yes i know about cavalry, hammer and anvil and chasing fleeing stacks BUT Mailed Knights are too bloody expensive. I boomed my towns in England, getting ports, roads, markets, farms and merchants on top of those mines and sheep pastures. *note: You can trade from every mine on the campaing map. The one in Ireland is silver, and even if you have not developed it, a decent merchant will make 100+ profit at it.

    So with Longbowmen+Spears i started splattering France. Portugal and Denmark debarked with some pitiful stacks that got repelled, but as a note: always keep units in Notthingham. It should be your only castle on England and it is Denmark's prime target of invasion.

    Keeping Bordeaux is easy with peasant archers + merc crossbowmen + some spear stacks. It serves as a buffer vs Portugal, Spain and even the Milanese.

    Meanwhile, Paris and the other major French cities have been conquered, Paris even had a Thief's Guild built, which was a nice surprise. The Pope had forgiven me, but due to my low standing with him and virutally no missions to build chirches, everyone and their grandma came at me. The Holy Roman Empire, the Milanese, the Spanish, Portugese, Denmark, etc. etc.

    The only real threat was the French king with 9 stars and a large French stack near sothern France. Fortunately for me, my own general was 6 or 7 stars at the time, and the enemy attacked before combining the king with the army. The result was them charging uphill at two rows of Longbowmen and spears in the middle and at the flanks. Heroic Victory and then a subsequent chasing down of the lone general unit that is king Philip and his swift execution. So much for France.

    The Pope has been getting moody lately and has been slapping me, the Germans and the Danish across the wrists for not palying nice with each other. There have been requests to cease hostilites (to which i oblige. Although Portugal went and attacked me anyway and got themselves excommunicated), but strangely none that would plead for the last two French towns. Inquisitors started chasing princessess around, which was funnny to me. I had married my own princess long ago to a good French general. (turn 3 or so).

    The Milanese attacked, a large army lead by their Duke. It took 3 reloads to win the fight with a battered down stack of Longbowmen (2 gold chevrons) and some raggedy spears, but i succeeded! Milanese Crossbowmen are a big pain in the arse with these pavises on their backs, and when they are supported with cav/spers it's really hard to win. Tip for early Longbowmen placement:

    IIIII IIIII IIII IIII IIII IIII
    xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx
    xxx xxx xxx xxxx

    x - Longbowmen, IIII - spearmen. Put spikes down obviously and don't use flaming arrows if it's misty, windy or rainy. Only on a clear day, for the first two shots. And remove skirmish mode. If the enemy does not get past your spears he will lose, cav charging at spears and spikes dies eastily, and a sufficiently strong general will keep your stacks from routing. Once his general comes to fight, surround with spears and kill him. That is your chance at winning with an inferior force.

    Meanwhile i've been getting very decent family members both as adoptees and as sons. Good governors and good generals all around, and stacks of billment and Longobwmen have been produced to continue with the expansion. Currently the Holy Roman Empire and a second Milanese stack attackd Metz and another border settlement, but they will be easily repelled. I'm thinging i'll consolidate my power first, maybe have my diplomats marry an enemy princess (didn't know i can do that), and stack some crucial cities with missiles/spears before i head on.
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
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  24. #234
    Praefectus Fabrum Senior Member Anime BlackJack Champion, Flash Poker Champion, Word Up Champion, Shape Game Champion, Snake Shooter Champion, Fishwater Challenge Champion, Rocket Racer MX Champion, Jukebox Hero Champion, My House Is Bigger Than Your House Champion, Funky Pong Champion, Cutie Quake Champion, Fling The Cow Champion, Tiger Punch Champion, Virus Champion, Solitaire Champion, Worm Race Champion, Rope Walker Champion, Penguin Pass Champion, Skate Park Champion, Watch Out Champion, Lawn Pac Champion, Weapons Of Mass Destruction Champion, Skate Boarder Champion, Lane Bowling Champion, Bugz Champion, Makai Grand Prix 2 Champion, White Van Man Champion, Parachute Panic Champion, BlackJack Champion, Stans Ski Jumping Champion, Smaugs Treasure Champion, Sofa Longjump Champion Seamus Fermanagh's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Nilgard and Myth:

    Welcome to the .org!


    Stake archers almost seem like a cheat after a while. With correctly placed stakes, you can pretty well murder any cavalry attack on any fortified area -- since you know the routes they'll take and can set up an easy reception.

    I'd only add that a couple of Hobilars are cheap to add to your basic mix and get a lot of value for you.

    First, they're horses so the enemy will key on them and you can use them as bait to draw them onto your spears while your bows pincushion them.

    Second, eliminating routers -- which Hobbies do well -- is a great way to minimize blockades/devestation and other annoying crud that the broken remnants generate.
    "The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman

    "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken

  25. #235
    Strategist and Storyteller Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Thanks! You are right of course, in RTW i always had stacks of cav, it's just that i find MTW2 to be much less of a goldfest and so i get what's necessary first. No doubt now that i have consolidated some very good provinces and start racking up the incomne i'll get cavalry to mop up retreating armies. But even at the very worst possible scenario, where you can only chase down with your General, you can still have the enemy army disbanded, provided their morale held long enough for them to get heavy casualties when fightings spears/bows. I haven't gotten to a point where i can invest in siege engines and don't know how well they work in regular battles vs units, my Roman heavy onagers helped treamendeaously when i jumped down south and started battling a very well developed Egypt.

    I'd assume that medieval balistae and trebuchets will work nicely. On a side note, what is the relation between my papal standing and the catholic nations all ganging up on me? I'm not excommunicated yet nobody wants peace, even the cruddy French who are down to their last one or two provinces.
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
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  26. #236

    Default Re: England

    English are tooooooo easy.... :)

    And i don't know why... their units ar not OP, but they do have good starting position and after some turns good income.
    Trainig a lot of Billmen and Swordsmen will allow you to make Swordsmiths Guild quickly in Caen or Training longows will give you the "Sherwood archers' Guild. I prefer the swordsmiths.

    You lack good spears, billmen are next to useless (trashed them with border horse army :/), cavalry is mediocre, artillery is nothing special, longbowmen are not the greatest archers in game, armored swordsmen are like any other DCK clone... and still you take out the competition with ease... why?

    well i think, it's all about unit availability... at the time your enemy has some unit you have already a better counter, at least i noticed it....

  27. #237
    Strategist and Storyteller Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    It seems to me that the longbowmen line of archers are in fact, the best in the game.
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
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  28. #238

    Default Re: England

    With respect England does so well (H/M) because:

    1) you have a secure financial powerbase once the British Isles are secured
    2) you can expand across the coast from Caen without immediately going to war as the neighbouring settlements are rebel
    3) simultaneous expansion into Scandinavia is possible - the Danes can be delayed by placing a ship on one of the land bridges from Denmark
    4) longbows are fantastic - easily obtained, reasonably cheap, long range, armour piercing, can fight in a pinch and lay stakes. What more do you want? With Yoeman and Retinue Archers to come it just gets better and better.

  29. #239

    Default Re: England

    I don't say English Longbows are bad... just that there are better

  30. #240
    Strategist and Storyteller Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: England

    Quote Originally Posted by dzidek View Post
    I don't say English Longbows are bad... just that there are better
    Examples and justification, please?
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
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