Teutonic Campaign: The Teutonic Order

[frogbeastegg]

This topic is for the Teutonic Order faction in Kingdoms expansion's Teutonic campaign.

[nameless]

The Teutons are an interesting faction because they are not a true kingdom in any sense. Thus, they rely on generals with the leader chosen by them and do not have any sons or princesses.

The Teutons rely heavily on heavy infantry and cavalry so war against the eastern factions can be troublesome as the best missile troop they have are the Livonian Auxillaries which come later. Thus you need to rely heavily on Order spearmen, seige weapons, and merc light cavalry to compensate and fight the Lithuanians in siege battles in which their cavalry cannot run away.

The Teutons have a powerful spearmen known as the Order spearmen which make up for this weakeness and should be used as a early backbone. They also do not require any high religion to recruit which is a problem with the Teutons so Priests are needed in order to recruit their best units.



M/VH


The Teutons start off with 4 castles and 4 cities. The two towns to the north do not produce much and will take time to advance thus funds are limited.

The best option would be to refinance the empire by converting some castles into a city. Marienburg and Dunaburg should be left as castles in order to provide some security for the future. Marienburg is your capital and is advanced so it should be left as it is.

You start off at war with the Lithuanians who have only one castle, Palanga, so taking it would cripple the Lithuanian war machine, forcing them to stick with miltia type units until they can get another castle. It is advisable to take your two catapults and Mangonels and available troops from the south to take out Palanga as quickly as possible before moving on. In fact you should wait near the castle until the Lithuanians upgrade it into a stone castle in which you can then take it the next turn.

Visby, an island northwest should also be taken as well as it is a requirement for the Hanseactic League and will provide a good trading outpost.

Later on a crusading Noble will arrive from England and he brings with him levy spearmen, dismounted feudal knights and feudal knights so its best to take him with you on your rampage across Lithuania. He does not need to be the leading general, he simply needs to be a part of your crusading army.



THe more victories you win, the more he'll reward you. THe more lands he captures, he'll reward you even more. If you exterminate all pagans in his way, he'll reward you heavily so its best to use him to capture as many Lithuanian lands as possible. The highest he has rewarded me was 13000 and he had exterminated at least 3-4 settlements.



Poland and Denmark offered an alliance with me so those borders are secured. It's the HRE and Novogords that you should watch out for and so should keep a decent size garrison in Dunaburg to deter them and in Marienburg.

Early in the game, the Hanseactic League will be looking for a headquarters. The cities Riga, Visby, Novogrod, Danzig, and Hamburg are the cities you must capture in order to build the HQ which will increase your trade globally.



You have Riga and Visby is an island northwest of your position and can be taken easily with a reasonable army. If you control the majority of the cities(At least 3/5), the League will offer you the HQ for 4000.

Due to the war against the Pagans; Denmark, Novogrod, and HRE will have advanced and built up into powerful empires which eventually you will be forced to direct your attention to. The Novogrods field powerful cavalry so a similar solution to the Lithuanians will be required. The HRE and Danish field infantry based armies so conventional arms will suffice but by conquering the Pagan lands, you will have ensured yourself a stable and powerful empire to continue expanding.

Due note: In the game I suffered quite heavy casualties in my battles against Lithuania which resulted in pyrrthic (but crippling for the enemy) victories so it is critical to use everything you got to maintain your momentum against them. Nobles will continue to come to your aid to fight against the pagans so look out for them.

[Squints]

It seems that money is as big as a opponent for the Teutonic Order as the Pagans are. You cannot build past "City," although your castles can be built up to "Citadel." Also, be patient in the beginning because the beginning scenairo seems a bit overwhelming at first.

[Gaius Terentius Varro]

My approach was an economic one and since i am a turtle a peacefull one.I disbanded every single unit of prussian archers since they are outranged by just about everything. Instead i built an Archery Range in Marienburg and mass produced crossbowmen. I sent all the units of clergymen together with siege machines and all my good infantry to take visby and used them as cannon fodder while taking the town. I think i got one veteran unit of clergymen left from the 8 that started but hey thay have seen Hell... I blocked a street with them then put onagers behind and fired away.



On turn 3 (one turn before visby fell) poland offered alliance so I asked for danzig in exchange for some shiny beads.Turn 5 I got the Hanseatic league headquarters. I kept one general in northern provinces with all the starting cavalry to take that town that you have to take as a mission and keep an eye on the Pagans. Oh and turned Thorn and Windau into cities. I am torn between sending the army that took Visby north to take Åbo (15000 pop = Taxes) or sending them to northern provinces to secure the area. I am getting ready to defend and grow my army untill the lithuanians the poles the danish and the russkies all come knocking on my door. Then I'll let the good Lord sort out the infidels from his own.
OOPS did I just turtle blitz?

[Squints]

What's nice about the Teutonic campaign is that you don't really have a family. You are just supplemented with some nice generals at random times and there seems to be a high ratio of "Man of the Hour" promotions. You really don't have to worry about sending your faction leader out, especially if he doesn't have high leadership/dread, as he is simply another general.

One of your main sources of money will be Crusaders arriving on your shores. Your job is to help them kill countless Pagans and gain respect back whenever they were from (my first was from England and game with half a stack of heavy English units). When playing as the Pagans you get bonuses for killing these guys. basically, the Teutonic Order wants to keep these generals alive in many battles before they go back home, so they donate a lot of money - think 15K or so.

[IvarrWolfsong]

You have to love the Ritterbrothers and their "cause fear" ability. A good charge can cause a chain route that looks like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.