tips you've found

[salemty]

i saw a thread like this on another site and it helped me alot so it makes sense to start one here. post any tips or tricks youvve found out during the game. they can be to do with everyhting from battles to the campain to historical battles

[PBI]

Siege weapons are mostly useless on the battlefield, although having a couple of cannons to bombard an enemy turtling on a hill can be nice. But the trebuchet can be absolutely battle winning, espcially on the defensive, thanks to its "fling cow" ability. Chuck all 6 at the oncoming enemy army, some are bound to fall short and the enemy will have to march over them and take the huge hit to morale. It's about as effective as a lucky shot killing the enemy general just before the armies meet (although much more reliable in that you almost always get most of the enemy army).


My instinct when I first played TW games was to regard heavy sword infantry as the backbone of the army; in fact they are purely anti-infantry units and should be regarded as specialist siege infantry. On the field they lack mobility, range, and combat strength against cavalry; the only task in which they truly shine is taking walls by force, and they are the only unit type which can do this effectively. On the field cavalry reign supreme; only heavy spears can challenge them and vanilla M2TW doesn't have any that are heavy enough (and unmodded pikes are worthless).

[Old Geezer]

If you are assaulting a city or castle and there are 1 to 4 defending units and you don't position your units forward up to the line but leave them as the AI put them and then move a catapult or other artillery up after the battle starts, the AI will usually, if not always, not defend the walls or gate but will sit in the town center. You may freely move the catapult up close and blast the gate in. But don't move up your infantry too soon or the enemy will leave the center and move to the walls and you'll take fire. Just before the gate is about to fall rush men to take the gate. Often the enemy will start to rush out of the center and you can catch them in the street and they will route and be easier to kill. If not you can take missile units in and shoot them while they sit in the center. The AI does not seem to be 100 percent predictable so be sure to keep watching to see if it moves units to defend the gate. Even spear militia are very effective against bodyguard units in city streets.

[G^2]

Money is the key to this game, thus when developing cities, I always develope the port line first followed by the merchant warf line. Ports and sea lanes can subtaintialy raise your income quickly, particulary if you didn't have a port and then build one (first teer). After the ports are built then focus on what you want the city to specialize in (trade, military, religion, ect). The only exception is Crusading (or when you take an area mostly of anouther religion). Then build the church/mosk line first followed by ports.

[glyphz]

Ones mentioned before...
Turning castles to towns/cities can help make you generate more cash. Anything that has access to port can potentially become big money-makers, so recommendable castles are land-locked. (i.e. Angers in France, Innsbruck/Bern for South-Central Europe, Bran, Aleppo, Caesarea; exceptions may include well developed castles, say maybe Palermo, Hamburg, Corinth, Gaza) You'll probably need only 1 castle-type settlement in a region (the British Isles can be turned to all cities, if secured) Make sure to put some thought into it, though. Castles are important around your borders, and you may need a lot og castles in the East if the horde comes a'knocking.

Farm level 1 is always a must

Trebuchets can be back-breakers in bridge defense, more so than flamming ammo. Rotting cows on the bridge will affect all that crosses it, and the effect lasts (lowered morale). After 1 or 2 volleys, you can switch to fire ones. Could be life savers against the Golden Horde, and save you a lot of casualties before the next onslaught, especially if your infantry seem unable to withstand 2 waves without taking too many losses, or if you dont have stakes, or you dont like siege defense. Make sure you have cavalry to chase routers or they can regroup. Elephants tend to regroup and can out of nowhere smash into your bridgehead defense from the flanks. Have a spare cav chase them 'til they're out of the battlefield or gone berserk.

Converting w/ priests/imams, say your invading an area that are mostly not you religion. Spam create, priest in one area before moving on (cities have higher priority). a large city spamming priests/build churches or mosques could turn quickly into a Theologian HQ fast, meaning better priest, less heretics. Priest turned cardinals, bishops, can then start converting a different settlement for a few turns before you move in your massed priests. Dont stop on your own settlements. Religious unrest can cause disorder, and you may have a chance to nab a free city (cities more than castles)

Destroy unneeded guilds in captured settlements. You dont need multiple thieves guilds.
Master/HQ merchant guild may be better off with a coastal settlement

[Old Geezer]

Specialize cities and citadels. Chose one city to spam priests and eventually you can have a newly recruited priest become a cardinal on his first turn. Chose one for spies, some for merchants, one for assassins, etc. As glyphz noted, convert all the castles you can, asap, to make money. (I usually leave one in an area just to get some better troops to fight rebels.) Some make remarkably large sums, such as Metz which can far surpass Paris. I always try to get a Hospitaler guild near Antioch and upgrade a citadel nearby to get a swordsmith guild for preparing for Mongols and Timurids.

Get your men promoted to higher chevrons. Send a newly recruited inexperienced mailed knight unit, for example, out to battle some rebels. Have it smash into as many peasants and archers as possible to get maximum kills and get lowered to 10 or less men if possible. Then merge units from your best mailed knight unit which if it is a level 9 could result in the inexperience unit getting 3 or more chevrons just from the merger. Last night I merged a level 8, IIRC with a level 3 and got a level 9 and a level 7 as a result. Then in each forward retraining settlement I keep a level 9 unit which probably won't see combat until the Mongols arrive.

[locked_thread]

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[ArtistofWarfare]

Money is the key to this game, thus when developing cities, I always develope the port line first followed by the merchant warf line. Ports and sea lanes can subtaintialy raise your income quickly, particulary if you didn't have a port and then build one (first teer). After the ports are built then focus on what you want the city to specialize in (trade, military, religion, ect). The only exception is Crusading (or when you take an area mostly of anouther religion). Then build the church/mosk line first followed by ports.

Mercantilism at sea is what I'm all about...

Although I am going to back off of it just a little bit for this Venice campaign I'm running because I don't want the overwhelming majority of my income to be dependant on the other factions ability to export/import.

But yeah- Naval dominance and sea trade is a fast track to wealth and wealth directly translates into power obviously.