English Campaign

[Swoosh So]

Has anyone completed this campaign on expert? Im finding it very hard due to my heirs all being pathetic little men from day 1! I have (had) all of france utill the elmos showed up with all their h5 troops! Now im rebuilding my empire from scratch with just the british isles and a fair sized navy, but omg my heirs are just sooo pathetic

[Rosacrux]

English heirs pathetic? No chance, they produce some pretty nifty heirs, not on par with Byzantines or even French and Italian, but pretty decent.

Also, I have completed the English GA campaign with Brits on expert and actually it wasn't all that hard. I even roleplayed there a tad http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

Actually, the only campaign I couldn't complete because of it being difficult (I dropped more because of pure boredom http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif ) was that of the HRE in early. Darn hard to defend all those low-earning scattered provinces.

[Swoosh So]

Hmm i havent a heir over 4 stars and i keep them active winning battles i retreated out of france without a fight as my h1 troops had no way of winning v h5 3 stacks, I cant seem to find a way to turn my heir fortunes around an i hate giving in, were you playing on expert? it may be a difficulty thing


Swoooooooooooooooosh

Fear the wolves

[This message has been edited by Swoosh So (edited 10-16-2002).]

[AgentBif]

Quote Originally posted by Swoosh So:
Hmm i havent a heir over 4 stars and i keep them active winning battles
[/QUOTE]

I don't use my heirs as my primary battle generals because they just die of old age and I lose all that experience. Non-heirs don't age, so I am able to keep them in service for several centuries. (Imagine going up against a general with 200 years of combat experience http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

I'm still on my first campaign (normal difficulty). It's pretty easy, of course.

bif

[MonkeyMan]

most heirs become army generals eventually anyway. I think if you can build up the direct heir with some good stats, his children in turn will be better than if you hadn't so in theory, using them to win battles will improve your royal family overall for generations to come.

[Rosacrux]

a heir with 4 stars and a good battle V&V or two (mighty warrior, expert defender/attacker or any other of the sort) is a bloody killing machine. You just have to build'em up, through proper fighting. Have them attack lots and lots of enemies (the rebels are good for heir-practice http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif ) and just watch him go to 5 or 6 stars in no-time.

If he gets the right virtues too... he'll be unstopabble. Why wait for the 6-8 star heir? Actually, only the Byzantines produce 6-8 star heirs with some frequency. French and Italian produce good ones too (4-6 stars) as do the the Islamic factions, but the latter have always crappy V&Vs to compliment (cowards, inbred, loonies, drunken sobs etc).

I do not consider though a 4-star general "crappy" by any means. Tsk tsk tsk...

[maroule]

swoosh,
indeed don't use heirs up until they become generals.
If they're crap buy some : rebel generals sometimes appear with 5 stars (I bough 2 in my last campaign, one at 5 in Scotland called William Randall, and one 4 in Lithuania with an impossible name) : if you give them a good province title + a 'social' title as master of stables, they can shoot up to 8 without having fought one single battle. Plus I guess you'll have a lot of defending to do, so that's more stars for you. Mary them to princesses as well, but with 2 titles their loyalty should be already very high.

[Swoosh So]

I think the prob im having is not just the heirs but when making units none of them have stars, this hasent happened b4, Btw does a failed crusade affect loyalty? after an unsuccesful crusade to constantinople all units i build have 0! loyalty

[Swoosh So]

i dont find 4 stars crappy either but 1 army cant hold off 3 attacks in 1 turn. Im absolutely able in combat situations but u just cant win h1-2 v h5 its impossible if you are outnumbered i kill gens and they dont seem to drop valor. Usually i build units one pops out with 2* i give him some titles and im ready to roll, but not this time its asif the comp wants my armies to rebel! oh bleh ill try starting a civil war

[This message has been edited by Swoosh So (edited 10-16-2002).]

[MonkeyMan]

I thingk the level of produced generals depends on a number of factors, including your king, governor, type of unit, presence of emissaries, priests and the overall development of the region.

[Magraev]

A failed crusade costs influence in your ruler and that costs loyalty.

[econ21]

Haven't played on expert, but a key point for England on early - and maybe most factions - seems to be getting a large trade network. When I get ships from the Baltic to the Black Sea, the income starts pouring in. Before that, it is a little tight. Building 3 ship producing provinces early seems a good idea, as does taking Sweden.

I tend to avoid much fighting until this point, so my heirs are a little crappy; even mighty Prince Richard was just one star :=(

[Swoosh So]

thanks magraev i thought so

[NinjaKilla]

Funnily enough I stayed up till 4:00 this morning finishing off an English expert campaign. It was on glorious achievement, late period.

I gotta say I did spend pretty much the whole game at war with someone for another. From the start I made an alliance with the Jarmans and went straight for France. I then went for Denmark, although it retrospect this wasn't worth the hassle - the Danish king kept reappearing and Sweden and Norway seem to need a lage garrison to keep em in line. Also I couldn't reinforce them by land because Saxony was Jarman. One thing I ve learnt is not to go for key foreign territories even when they do go rebel - they always seem to come and take em back l8er on.

One thing I do a lot in the game is to make frontiers by conquering provinces and then selling every building including the castle. If you keep doing this to enemy territories you can ultimately force him back quite quickly when the time comes.

------------------
Clan Kenchikuka (http://www.totalwar.org/kenchikuka)

[Swoosh So]

Yep ive heard of peeps doing that ninjakilla, i might try it. Ialso have a good size navy so ill probably hold britain and flank attack their home provinces, Im trying hard not to use spys for once but its getting tempting!

[AgentBif]

Quote Originally posted by NinjaKilla:
Sweden and Norway seem to need a lage garrison to keep em in line[/QUOTE]

Use secret police (spies) to keep those troublesome provinces in line. They don't cost any upkeep and that enables those provinces to turn a profit.

bif

[ToranagaSama]

Again, this is simply a situation where MTW presents you with a different challenge.

How to succeed when you have medicore nobility/generals?

This circumstance reduces the possibility of mowing your way thru the game with your 8 star general. This is good! I mean after doing so once or twice where's the challenge?

Tactics to Try:

I agree w. Maroule, Buying better generals is a good tactic. The flip side to this is you'll need a large treasury; and because of your medicore generals you're probably less likely to "conquer" your way to a large enough treasury. This is good! Presents a challenge. You need to build a good trade network and execercise patience and only attack when the circumstances are right.

Also, building up your Assassin's experience to a level required to take down high level generals. Cant' get up to the level of the AI generals? Bring em down to your level. Inquisitors, are also good for this purpose! Haven't used Cardinals yet, but they'd probably be very good here too. (Good opportunity to explore the upper levels of the tech tree.)

Out Teching the AI is also ideal in this situation. The AI may have better generals, but you can build MUCH better troops to counter the AI's generals. I cannot emphasize this enough. It does take cash and patience to build up tech.

Low level nobility/generals simply requires better STRATEGIC effort on the part of the player. I think this was precisely the Devs intention! The strategic challeges present by STW were fairly limited. MTW presents you with a good variety of strategic alternatives.

[Jaret]

Usualy the General of the first unit of Hobilars, build in Wessex (!!), is Claude de Normandy.

He is a quite good General (4 Stars +1 from Normandy) and besides that his Name (with title) is really kewl ! (Lord de Normandy)

Usualy I make him "Lord Great Chamberlain" , marry one of my Princesses to him and use him as my main General.

(PS: Somebody knows how to get Robin of Locksley ?)

[LittleGrizzly]

apologies double post

[This message has been edited by LittleGrizzly (edited 10-17-2002).]

[LittleGrizzly]

swoosh english expert here yeah my hiers suck as well i just dont bother using them build building such as royal court, baronial court ect. and when u get generals 4 star happens paticularly with chilvaric men at arms and give them the +2 star and a h6 general http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

and one more thing marry princesses off to france straight away and in roughly 38 years (how long it took me) ull be capable of building longbowmen billmen and chilvaric men at arms and 38 turns into the game this will take out almost anyone!

i bribed wales army but no military action bar that and all money was spent building up wales (longbows) mercia (billmen) and wessex (chilvaric men at arms) and its working a treat and yeah almoheads are annoyingly hard to beat my current record when weve gone to war is 1-1

the time i lost i was putting all men to defend vs almoheads and the damn germans attacked me it also happened the time i won but i was better prepared http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

[Jaret]

I really don´t have that prob in my current English Campaign.

I got one 6 star Heir, three 5 star Heirs and another 5 star Gen (Lord Claude de Normandy).

Best thing is ... all those Heirs are brothers of my current King (Edward). Two of his sons are about to reach the age of 15 ... one of them is Prince Richard ... the other Prince John http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif .

(How do I get Robin ?? Guy of Gisborn is np ... hmpf I´m gona make a list of famous ppl and how to get them, ffs)

[Swoosh So]

I think the problem is with the early campaign, I restarted late and ga now my heirs are ok, after 100 years they got poor again so i killed them off and one of my 5* gens took over now its all good!


Swooooooooooooooooooooosheeers

[chunkynut]

My last King (Edward) had two sons (Richard and John!) .....

Very tempting to put Richard in a Crusade and keep John in Wessex and see what civil wars emerge!!