Scotland

[Callahan9119]

i dont leave the island till i have siege equipment, i like to have a siege force follow my main fighting stacks around to quickly take lesser defended towns plus they make up for what i think is a bad missle army, and i like missle troop army... catapults are invaluable defending bridges also

[BharatRakshak]

So I'm playing Scotland on M/M after reading all the posts. First things first of course, secure the British Isles. I actually waited for a while holding everything on the two islands except London and Nottingham. I teched up for about 10-15 turns, and then I went after Nottingham. And after that, came London. There is still a full stack of English troops in the south-western part of England just chillin, not on a road or anything, so I'm not bothering them. I have trade rights with them, and no point in initiating war and invoking the Pope's wrath without taking over settlements.

Meanwhile, my diplomats have gotten trading agreements and alliances with everyone from the French to the Byzantines. I teched up the British isles for a good 30 turns I think, making an income of 10 grand each turn. I sent a spy towards Scandinavia, and I saw Oslo was still rebel. Stockholm was lightly defended and making a good 3k per turn, so I set my eyes on that. While I was sending my army and fleet out of Nottingham, this thing came up saying Denmark excommunicated. I tried to pull a crusade on Stockholm but the Pope didn't agree.

Anyway, Stockholm is mine. I sent a diplomat towards Oslo and bought the place. I made peace with the Danes, but for some reason my income was going low now, so I figured I should take Arhus (Denmark) because that place had an income of 4000+. I got excommunicated in the process (because the Pope had reconciled them by then), but the Pope is 60 years old, so I'm not expecting any crusade or anything now. I already made a ceasefire with the Danes, and am pretty much Lord of the North, making some good dough.


I'm not sure which way to expand now. Towards Russia there will be lots of provinces I'm sure, but not enough income I think. Maybe I should hit Iberia or even start out of Marrakesh maybe.

I don't want to get involved in the mess in continental Europe. Too many frontier provinces, drains out the economy fast.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

When i started the long campaign with Scotland, the first thing i did was take york, then i decided to build an economy. This went badly and pretty soon i was bankrupt, i tried to capture towns unsuccesfully, but this went badly. Then a crusade was called, and thinking of this as a big break, i joined and went to Acre (the target was Jerusalem, but Venice had that covered) i sacked it, aswell as every Egyptian city in my path, letting the revolt, i ended up making 50,000 gold, aswell as almost wiping out the entire Egytpian empire (i think they have a few peasants hiding somewhere, but i cant be bothered to find them)

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

Here my opinion on what to do in the first few turns of the Scottish Campaign

Expansion
Gather a small army and attack york immediately, leaving inverness and dublin well alone. One you have done this attack Inverness, and then Dublin. By now the English will have taken Caenervon, which is good as the majority of there soldiers will be there. Next attack Nottingham, dont release or ransom any of the captured men, no matter how much england are willing to pay, execute them all so there is even less resistance. Then you should attack london as quickly as possible, as caenervon will be a small castle, not producing anything good yet. Once you have london, attack caenervon as quickly as possible, kicking england out of england for good. Then you should probably take oslo, and fight the danes, or take rennes before england can get it and destroy england.

Trade and Economy
As Scotland is not joined to the rest of Europe, you should either get a diplomat over there as soon as possible, or begin to make your villages produce high income.

Navies
Compared to England, the Scottish Navies are bad. Either build them up, or use them only rarely and keep them in secluded areas where the english cannot get to them.

Units
Compared to other factions, Scotland field the largest variety of heavy infantry in the game, which can make it incredibly easy towards the start of the game, where the AI only use spearmen and light infantry. Later on, the Scottish nobles are decent, aswell as dismounted feudal knights if you can get them earlier on.

Well thats what i think i would do if i as Scotland

[kitbogha]

This is the only faction I had not yet played, so last night out of boredom I started a grand campaign...
It has been challenging so far but also the most gripping of games. I am at turn 20 and command 5 provinces, having to stop briefly to consolidate while the Popes decree against destroying the English times out. I am poised outside London with a full stack army, hoping that the English will save me disobeying the Holy Father and attack me.
Starting with the poor resources available to the Scots is taxing but not insurmountable at all. I have found that a Blitzkrieg approach is indicated to carry your momentum through and the extra monies are definately best spent quickly before being eaten up by the Scot's ravenous economy. While I wait 5 turns for the Pope to forget England I will invest in my infrastructure then it's back to the action!
I can't wait to play another session.
PS I'm English but from the murdered MacDonalds on my mothers side so I can happily square away the genocide of my own nation....

[boudica]

Background:

New to the Total War series, I've quickly played the English short campaign to unlock the rest and got stuck into the Scots Long Campaign. I've tended to let the computer resolve more than half the battles as it always seems to do better with my stack than I do! - not sure that this bodes well for multi-player :P ANyway, I've played a couple of hundred years of my Campaign so far, and thought it might be fun to write it up, so I'll edit this post as I go/ can be bothered ;P

I began perhaps more cautiously than most who have posted. Taking Inverness and sending only just enough to take Dublin, my plan was to strengthen my position before facing the English. Establishing trade with them instead of sending my Rabble straight in. After sweeping back from Eire, I beat the English to Canaervon and my spies watched with glee as Prince Rufus was sent packing by Yorkshire rebels :)

The English struck back though and finally took York from the rebels. At this point I began to concentrate my forces - for the most part levied spears, bolstered by my reformed units of highlanders - into English lands, although I confess I was a little wary of angering the Pope. My worries soon passed, as a large English army - without noble leadership soon decided they could not stand Scots presence on their soil and attacked.

tbc. :)

[kitbogha]

I just started a Scott game, and my intention is to respect the English for as long as possible to make for an interesting game. Has anybody tried this approach before?

Ha ha ha!!!
I doubt that approach has been tried before. Certainly not in real life. I have just started a Scotland campaign. The problem with your novel approach is that the English are right in your path to glory and must be swept away before going on the rampage in continental Europe. I suppose you could expand Eastwards to Scandinavia or bypass England entirely but that leaves you with very vulnerable lines of supply and the entirely plausible (at least historically) scenario that England will stab you in the back.
My plan is dog simple. I have taken the surrounding 4 rebel provinces and am allied with England. I have an army moving past Nottingham (I can take that later) and arrowing in on London. I have a spy in place and a 24% chance that the gates will beopened at my attack next turn. London, purely for the money making advantage-the Scots are, at least at the beginning chronically short of money. Once I take London I am expecting the Holy Father to demand I stop and desist, but by then I will have plundered the English capital and be able to use that money wisely (ie to build up my economy and army).

[Bacchon]

I'm almost through my first campaign with Scotland, and I'm most certainly not going to win, as I've got forty turns left and only thirteen provinces. D: I conquered the Isles fairly quickly, but I let the English reestablish themselves on the Continent and once I'd taken Toulouse, Rennes, Caen and Bruges I got dragged into a more or less permanent three-front war with Spain, Denmark and France that's kept from being able to make big offensives. I'm trying to get a couple stacks across the Atlantic before the campaign ends so I can see what the Americas are like, but victory is not looking likely.

I did manage to avoid Excommunication for the entire campaign, though, which is cool, and I think I've got a good chance at having the next Pope.

To those bemoan the lack of powerful ranged units: charge! ;) Actually, I got cannons before anyone else in Western Europe so I typically spend the first half of my battles blowing the crap out of the enemy at extreme range with explosive shells. I also keep at least three mortars in all of my frontier cities.


Next time I will almost certainly go for Scandinavia as quickly as possible, since Western Europe is an ungodly quagmire.

[AchubaNanoiaBR]

I've finished a long game with Scotland yesterday, and I thought I could give some advice. I've tried to play the game keeping a high reputation and was very successful until end game, when I need to wrap up my conquests.

1- Expansion

First of all I've conquered all the rebel provinces in Britania, easy enough. Then I massed my troops and moved to conquer the north of the map: Oslo, Stockolm (spellcheck?), Higa, Helsink... . Then I noticed Bruges was still rebel, so I went back and got that too. After that, I called a crusade against Cordoba, and pretty much wipped out the Moors, except for Timbuku (spellcheck?). The Franks and the the HRE attacked me, so I conquered some of their provinces, got some money for ceasefires and proceeded to conquer North Africa, crusading my way to Antioch and basically wiping the Egypt. After that, just made a few retalliation wars against the Turks and Byzantines, evaded the Mongols and went to war with England (finally!) and Portugal. End game basically, just had to conquer a few more provinces and ended by 1400's or so. Good game

2- Diplomacy

Nothing special here: Just get alliances and trade rights as soon as you can. I found out that it's great to have a good reputation, the Ai helped me against the enemy a few times, and being friends with the Pope is awesome! Also, if you want to attack an enemy, but don't want to fight an attrition war, just keep your borders undefended (but keep one or two stacks ready nearby). The Ai will declare war, then you can attack him, conquer a few cities and bring a diplomate to offer a ceasefire for a nice amount of cash! Be sure to keep your army nearby the diplomat!

3- Economy

I made Edimburg into a castle after I had all of the rebel provinces in Britannia (everything else became a city), and for the most part, had one or two castles every other 5 cities. I keep taxes on low to grow as fast as I can, and the cash never stopped coming! For this to work, it's nice to have a good navy: 1 big, killer fleet, with at least 8 ships, and 1 ship for every 2 coastal cities in separate fleets, to move those Highland Nobles and Catapults around ;). I felt like the Vikings some time!
I also made 3 merchants and went to Constantinople to get the 3 silk there. Each trader eventually ended up making 600 Florins per turn! Also, keep a few roaming traders and spies so you can track enemy movement and buy traders for the extra cash.

4- Military

Highland Nobles are awesome! Being city-heavy, I usually made my armies like this:
1 General - to chase the routers
2 Border Horse - to chase routers, siege weapons and archers
5 Spear Militia - to hold the center of the line (you can change to Pikemen if you want, but I like to save the money. I expect these troops to hold the line just long enough so my Nobles and flank the enemy. Since these units will probably suffer heavy casulties, they are also easier to replace)
4 Archer Units - for the most part I used mercenaries, since my few castles were more melee infantry based
2 Ballistas or Catapults - to speed up sieges, but only if can transport by sea. Otherwise I'd rather wait one turn for sieges and keep my army mobile
4 Highland Nobles - to flank the enemy. AKA: Meat grinders!
Wathever slot I have left I'll usually fill with milita units to keep the order.

Hope it helps, and have fun with the Scots, had a great game with them!

[sbroadbent]

I haven't been around in a while, and only recently reinstalled M2TW. I decided to play the Scots for the first campaign, and am using the Vanilla Mod (in the hosted mods forum). As far as I know the Vanilla mod cleans fixes some things, but otherwise is as Vanilla as Vanilla is. Otherwise I decided to do a long campaign, and my recap below won't go into much detail, just a general what did I do when.

I started with the obligatory strike into York. I followed up with Inverness. Once Inverness was done, I took Caernarvon. I decided to seige the enemy into submission, but found York was the only settlement willing to submit without a fight. I decided (and this would factor into my many other battles) that spies would be the way to go. I promptly made plans to develop my covert ops hit squad, comprised of 3-4 Spies (enough to ensure the gates would be opened for my assault), and a couple saboteurs. My primary battle plan fell under Plan A or Plan B.

Plan A: Invade City, Sabotage every happiness building. Hope that Public Order drops enough for city to rebel. Once city has rebelled, send in forces to steal city from the original owner, and avoid threat of Excommunication or War with the original owner. Unfortunately the only city to fall in this manner was Antwerp which had been in the hands of the Holy Roman Empire.

Plan B (When Plan A failed or you're attacking a castle): Invade City, open gates, send in forces. Claim Victory.

I am currently in the year 1396 (turn 159 with 67 turns remaining). I have 15 cities and 8 castles. Won 159 battles, lost 2. York is currently my highest revenue region with 6282. London comes up around 5556. Antwerp and Rennes round off the 3rd and 4th spots with revenues of 4644 and 4638 respectively.

Once I completed my unity of the Isles (left Dublin last as the English decided to attack), I had several options. I could go to Scandinavia or to the continent. I had started to put together a strike force and land on Oslo. I arrived there to find Oslo under siege. Due to the distance to send reinforcements, and unsure of the Danish forces, I choose to veto that plan. I believe the Danish forces were larger than my own strikeforce, so I opted for the continent. At the time the Pope called a Crusade against the excomm'd French, and Toulouse was the target. Planning to land off the coast of Bordeaux and then cross across to the target, I recruited some crusade units and I set sail. It wasn't long before the HRE took Toulouse and ended the crusade. Sitting off the coast I had two options. Return home to finish off the English still on the mainland, or find better pickings. I decided the better pickings was (and I had atleast two separate crusade forces) the French in Rennes and Bordeaux. These fell easily (with the French whittled down by the crusade and all).

My path of destruction generally followed: Angers, Caen (surprise attack on the English finishing them off), and then into Paris. Rheims and Bruges fell next, and then Metz, and Dijon. I believe I went after Antwerp next and solidified power there. I finally claimed Staufen and Bern (from I believe the French). One note, on the subject of Rheims, I ended up buying Rheims from the French. It started with one of their diplomats threatening to attack unless I paid them 265 florins (??????). I was bored and had a bit of money, so I turned this around on them. I offered them 6,000 for Rheims. They refused, but countered with a request of 23,600 (or so). While I could have taken this, that would have eaten most of my financial reserves. I upped my bid to around 10,000, and they refused but returned with a lower counter offer (now that's more like it). I wanted to see how cheaply I could buy it for. Ended up bringing the French down around 17,500, and they took it. Admitedly I'm not sure it was the best financial move, as I was more than prepared to take it by force, but it was something anyway...

At this point the Danes started to get Aggressive. They got themselves excomm'd, and they did try to land a force to take York, but some quick recruiting and troop movements brought their advances to a halt. They also started sending waves of forces between Hamburg and Antwerp. In order to cut them off at the pass, I setup a fort on my side of the bridge between the two, and used it as my front line. To this day, the fort hasn't fallen. The best use of 500 florins. I have done the same thing on the north side of the bridge near Angers as I had a HRE strikeforce travelling north. This stops their advance in their tracks, and gives me time to reinforce for Caen, Rennes, and Angers.

I setup a third fort east of Metz (south of Frankfurt on the west side of the bridge). To deny entrance to the west by the HRE. If I recall, this location is also within one turn troop movement of Metz for easy reinforcement. I utilized this location for a strike on Frankfurt. After taking Frankfurt, but before the HRE had a chance to retaliate. I used a diplomat to negotiate an exchange of Toulouse for the recently captured Frankfurt. Although I didn't expect them to take it, it cost me around 12,000, which gave me access to the mediterranean (but I've been too busy with wars against 4 enemies to do much in the med).

Up to this point the French were all but devastated. They had tried their best, but their forces weren't able to stand up. When they were down to Marseille and Nuremburg, I decided to offer them a ceasefire. I also either offered an immediate payment of a thousand florins or so, or some tribute for 10 turns or so. They gladly took it, and although I figured I'd finish them off some time in the future, I had considered offering an alliance (maybe even try to make them a Vassal (never done that before). At the moment they are now just down to Marseille.

The only thing from the South I got was a small spanish raiding party by sea, but my troops near Anger were able to respond, and I destroyed their ships. They very quickly accepted a ceasefire (the last thing I want is a war against 3 factions as I was fighting the Danes and HRE.

Some time ago the Milanese had an obsession with Dijon. As though it held some special secret power. They started sending assassins which never seemed to do anything (except feed my own assassins there), and then troops which were easily thwarted. The French finally recovered and rebuilt some forces and tried desperately to take Toulouse. I was well prepared, and got reinforcements from Bordeaux.

At this point I have the Danes threatening to come through Antwerp with several stacks. I prepare by draining my treasury to do a mass recruiting blitz, and had my forces ready, and then the Plague hits. Trade (which comprised atleast half my budget) was all but decimated. I was going into the negatives and fast. I couldn't wait for the Danes to attack me, so I did a suicide strike towards Hamburg with everything I could muster from the immediate vicinity. I ripped through a few half stacks and was prepared to seige Hamburg (my covert ops ready to open the door) when the Pope threatened Excomm (wait time 3 years???). Rather than retreat from Danish territory, I sent my troops north into Arhus, and parked them. I had some additional reinforcements (a half stack of elite troops and about 5 family members) coming from the Isles. The Danish didn't attack, but combined their stacks. I decided the best thing to do was to take Arhus and use it as a defensive position. In the interim my troops caused massive devastation (3 stacks can really do some damage) near the port. Once I had claimed Arhus, the Danes had no desire to attack and left the territory immediately. Some went into Scandinavia, and others went east and south. After ensuring I wouldn't get an immediate surprise attack, I struck quickly and took Hamburg.

I finally reclaimed Frankfurt and am deciding my final push. The Danes are not much of a threat now, and I nailed the final blow on the French chances by blockading their only port of Marseille which was getting some decent trade. I am 3rd in Military Strength behind the Russians (1st place) and the Timurids. Far beyond everyone else in territory (my 23 compared to 9 for 2nd place). Russian managed to reach 300,000 in financials, but has recently plummeted to around 80,000.

While I was dealing with the Danes, I had the HRE coming through Metz, Staufen and Bern, the Milanese coming up towards Bern, and the French going after Toulouse. I successfully wiped out stack after stack utilizing and reinforcing stacks from Metz, Staufen, Bern and Dijon. Occassionally I had to reinforce with Militia from Rheims and Paris. At one point I had the fort near Antwerp Seiged, Metz was under seige (both by the HRE), Bern seiged by Milan, and Dijon seiged by the French. I was on a single turn able to lift each seige, and devastate the enemy forces.

During the time the Plague struck, and struck me hard. My treasury was wiped out, and I was in the negatives and not able to recruit any new units. Fortunately the plague ran it's course and trade came back online.

My final strike will be to take out the French, take out the Danes, and while I would like to finish off the HRE, I will probably go after Milan.

I plan to play the Scots again, but this time after uniting the isle, to challenge the Danes for Scandinavia.

[JustJoey]

Haven't played in ages, mostly because I suck at trade in MW2, but read a couple threads here and got a better grasp on it.

So I started with Scotland, I ignored York and took all my units apart from a spear unit I left in Edinburgh went straight for Nottingham took it with ease, one battle and a siege later I had London, made peace with the Brits left on the continent, got a nice payment which I needed since I was 4K in the red. I mopped up the rest of the island of rebels and Dublin all with the same army I had from turn one plus a couple Welsh Spear and Galloglaich.

Then it was on to building my economy and military tech, I have a treasury of about 50k now. So I took my experienced army and a couple of generals and set sail for the Middle east while passing Sardinia I noticed the Moors had it, I set siege and took it left it as a castle, as luck would have it I got the popeage and asked for a crusade on the Moors to keep them busy, couple turns later both Venice and Sicily wanted it and went to war, Venice was excommunicated, my pope died not long later, as it stands now I'm still at war with the Moors, I have taken Sicily for myself and converted it to a city, they begged for mercy so I gave it to them.. I can't remember if I'm stall at war with Venice.

Gonna focus on economy and peace again, build a new army and wait for a crusade. Hope Sicily attack again, I have my eye on Tunisia and they have it, would make a nice economic triangle.

[Ashfire]

I don't normally play as Scotland but I used to quite a lot!

My Strategy is normally is to try and find either Princess Ingrid (Denmark) or Constance (France), This usually means more Generals are on the way. Meanwhile Take York before England and Dublin and Caernarfon as this halts the English Expansion for a while. Send an Army to Bruges and Expand in Continental Europe, Make sure that you remain good friends with France as this can help if when the English Expand into France your Papal Relationship will not be hindered. Try and remain good friends with the HRE at all costs, especially if your army is weak, give them money or marry a princess, but stay allies with the HRE, they will betray but you can regale them with money. Word of Warning I LIKE PEACE! :)

[dzidek]

I like Scotland... in fact there are little factions i don't like (f ex. HRE, France, Spain)

Why i like the Scots? Well their army makes me feel it has courage in what it does.
No fancy knights in shinig armour here, just tough mountain folk fighting for their lands.

Their starting position is weak. Taking the isles is the key and how you do it is not relevant. some start here some there. I usually take hal of army to Iverness
the other half to York, after i have those settlements i combine my troops and go for Caernaveron. I take Dublin at the end, when i defeated the English.

To defeat England is easy at the beginning. Your archers and infantry are far more better, just watch out for their mailed knights and royal guards.
After you united the islands you can sit down and relax for couple of turns. Make a nice stack, punish some rebels, develop the economy. My only caste is at Caernevaron, the rest are cities. I also transfer my capital to London. I don't know why but i get fairly easy the swordsmiths guild in my castle.

After i have my stack i make some decent flet and off we go to Cyprus. Yes cyprus, a castle on an easily defended island near the holy land. Perfect spot for crusade launches. I never hold the cities i crusade for, just sack them for big gold income. Let them rebel and then re-crusade them :) Besides why bother with the HA heavy Mongols. I take Rodos also, and Crete if Venice gets excomunicated. It lets me deploy the troops easily in Europe and Asia/Africa.

Normally my second stack liberates Norway+Sweden if they are still rebel. If they are Danish i usually prepare for a quick war making 2 stacks to crash Hamburg and Arhus at the same time. After that even if they have still Oslo and Stockholm those settlements are to weak to produce a big threat.

Once you get Hamburg you will come in touch with other Catholic factions, some of them will begin to grow impatient and will attack you. But don't worry they have little good troops you can't counter. Noble swordsmen will decimate French and HRE infantry, Poland has equal DPK but they are expensive and the AI does not use them often. You will have trouble with Polish Nobles if you can't out shoot them with Noble Archers. The AI HC is not a problem with such great pike units.

My end army usually consists of: 4x Noble Pikemen, 4x Noble Swordsmen, 2x Highland Nobles, 2x Border Horse, 2-4x Feudal Knights, 2-4x Noble Highland Archers, 2x artillery

For big siege battles i don't take cavalry. I replace them with more artillery and infantry.

In the beginning i use a lot the simple Highlanders infantry, being easy to recruit and with high AP attack they are a little brother of Vikings. They make spearmen look silly. After a while i replace them totally with Noble Archers, these guys rock at decimating spearmen of all kinds. First they shoot them in the face, just to chop them with axes when the get close. A bigger, better version of Highlanders.

[King Flambard I]

I like the Crete idea D-Z, do you find that the castle there comes under attack often from naval invasions?

[dzidek]

Not really. The only threat are the Byzantines and Venice.

[where's yur troosers]

I have just won a campaign as Scotland (H/M) on turn 157. I did not rush, but did find the Scots more difficult than many other nations with which I have experimented. I went the standard way of securing the British Isles, then went into Scandinavia (Danish expansion was slowed by placing a ship on one of the land bridges) and the Low Countries at the same time. That army joined the first crusade and I was able to expand a fair bit at the expense of Egypt and the Turks whilst keeping on the Pope's good side.

I think where I struggled was the Scottish troop mix. Their missile selection is poor (Noble Archers are the "best" on offer) and cities do not produce any. I found myself supplimenting with mercs AND keeping more castles than I would usually.

Their cavalry are poor as well. I ended up with the Templer HQ, but in Antioch, and as the Mongols went for Kiev they never saw action. I know the pikes are meant to be the bees knees, but I struggle to use them properly.

Still it was a lot of fun and I have kept the campaign going to see how well I can match up to the Timurids.

[Visor]

From what I've read, it seems that a lot of people aren't very agressive.

Image:

https://img191.imageshack.us/img191/8426/scotcampaign.png

In my current Scotland campaign, I'm kicking ass. First, straight for Inverness than York (rebel), then sailed around and attacked London with a full stack. London fell and then Nottingham. Didn't waste any time and sent all my men south to Caen. Pushed southwards into France, taking Paris and Rheims quickly while another army went to Oslo, then Arhus. Crushed Denmark after taking Arhus because they had done nothing. I was then at war with HRE and France. I soon brought Spain and Portugal and Milan into it. Eventually crushed France and then moved in to HRE land. Took down Spain and Portugal and then Milan, and finally the HRE.

Currently I am going for Marrakesh, Riga, Budapest and Constantinople.

[Myth]

What difficulty are you playing on? Being uber agressive is nice but when the whole world starts sedning stack after stack at you it becomes harder and harder to keep your borders safe while expanding at the same time.

[Visor]

Hard/Hard. I just tried a Byzantium VH/VH, I'm doing okay, just sacked Budapest, but boy is it hard.

When I see people on about turn 60 - 70 with only the British Isles under their control shocks me. I always play extremely aggressively, even when troop number gets low, I keep pushing and massing armies. Usually I plan an initial invasion and then it all goes to hell. I leave skeletal garrisons ans don't bother improving buildings except for ports and military buildings and roads (mines are good too).

[Myth]

I'm very agressive as well but playing a Catholic nation this way proves tedious if you don't constantly buy off the Pope. Early on it's smarter to let them attack you and get excommunicated in the process. This reduces the number of fronts you fight on greatly. It was very annoying in my England campaign, i had just taken all the French towns, and was now smack-dab in the middle of Portugal and Sapin from the South, Milan and Sicitly from the South-East, the HRE, Poland and Hungary from the East-North and the Danes from the North. All of these bastards started sending stacks and while I could beat any of them with England's superior roster I simply didn't have the patience to lead 5-10 battles per turn. This was on VH/VH of course

Turtling on the British isles alone is not an option IMO. As Scotland I tend to either wipe off the English completely (getting warned by the pope by the time i siege Caen, I'm blitzing with the starting armies), or leave them with Caen alone and keep my papal standing. From then, there's rebel towns and Danish and French idiots who get themselves excommunicated.

But i always boom my towns, building Council chambers and farms with priority to get more population, then getting roads/ports/econ buildings. Castles get the troop buildings naturally.

[Visor]

Besides the Scotalnd and Byz games, the last one I tried was as the HRE.

It was extremely easy, I took all rebel settlements around me, by that time France had become excommunicate and I took over all their lands, followed by a backstabbing Milan and Venice and Denmark. Poland and Hungary both stayed neutral and eventually I destroyed them. I never pay the pope anything. Once I had France under my control, excommunication wasn't an option as Milan, Venice, Denmark and Spain were all excommunicated.

I did a few campaigns on KGCM (Best mod ever in my opinion, for gameplay). There was no ganging up or random stupid diplomacy, which leads to an easier VH/VH campaign as the AI isn't as broken.