omine-san
11-01-2002, 13:05
Finished a Spanish campaign (my first), early period (start 1087), hard, here are my 2c .
Overview :
Attacked the Almohads first, bribed the rebels in Portugal, got Morocco at 1099 and conquered the Iberian by 1102. Kept forces at the Navarre and Aragon front and travelled south and east. 1110 finished Almohads , 1119 reached Tripoli, 1128 got Rum and Aquitane, 1141 Constantinopol fell, 1158 connected the pincer at Croatia, 1164 reached 60% domination and stopped there.
Tough points : 1133 - big rebellions at Sinai and Cordoba, beat them but close call. Later an Egyptian 'hidden heir' event took Egypt (700+ florin) for 4 years.
1144 - Sicily, Byzantz and Italy all at once invaded my Greece, 2 ran away but Sicily held just enough to beat me.
Const' was a citadel with barbican and catapult towers in the front, ballista towers in the back. I attacked with 2 mangonels, destroyed one of the back corner ballista towers and the 2 walls connecting there, that's enough to gain access to the whole citadel grounds. It's a steep climb on the cliff and narrow, few-men wide entrance but I guess it's better than going in front against the barbican and having to destroy 2 layers of walls.
Some general points :
Don't over-tech. I don't see any need to go beyond workshop level. Spearmen, Feudal sergeants, Chivalric MAA and Spanish Jinettes are quite enough. Use cavalry only to pursue routers, but don't neglect it - they bring good cash in ransom.
In most my battles, plain archers had much more kills than crossbowmen. Arbalesters are nice to have because of their range but not very important.
Siege engines are good in defensive battles, especialy against pesky horse archers, 1-2 units are enough. Only stormed a couple os castles.
Agents :
Assassins : use to kill easy prey on your land, and keep a few 3-4 star thugs in case an inquisitor drops by. Don't send abroad, not worth the effort.
Spies : didn't find them all that useful. Same with Bishops and Inquisitors. Waste of building and training time of well-developed provinces. Does anyone have the numbers on their loyalty effects ?
Emissaries : about 8-10 are quite enough for a big empire, half to depose bad rulers and half to spy a little ahead.
Economical upgrades : the best income source is a conquered province. I don't like the 12-years wait for return on mine investment, not to mention useless trading posts (I didn't go naval at all, only at late stages just for curiosity).
Gov's : Acumen +10% income per point, dread +5% loyalty per point. Scan governors every few years, especially pay attention to happiness and income-affecting v&v. reshuffling may be needed to give high-acumen gov's the richer provinces as you conquer them. It seems that as your empire becomes big, economics-hampering v&v multiply. By the time I owned 50% of the provinces, most my governors were art lovers, publicly generous, deeply devout or plain thieves. No help but hire 4-5 emissaries full time stripping govs.
Mercenaries : half training cost, double upkeep cost. Hire siege engines whenever available, it's cheaper than building and training them as there are few men per unit. Otherwise, hire only ad-hoc. With the Poles, there were 20 cavalry units, mainly horse archers, in Kiev; I hired 6 melee cavalry units, went in, and disbanded the mercs right after the battle.
Fight for your money : let them rebell. 'Confiscated lands' is an important income source. I made way too many peasants. An average province needs ~6 peasant units (some as many as 10) to keep loyalty over 100%, that's 220 florins upkeep. Now playing Poland (much harder) and not making peasants at all, only fighting units. Instead of keeping enough peasant garrison to insure quiet in every province, I place armies in about 1 in 3 provinces, and put down rebellions all the time. That way they pay for their own upkeep with a little spare, commanders get better, units gain valor, I lose 50-80 men out of a full army in a revolt. Seems that loyalty goes up after a rebellion is crushed and slowly goes down if no garrison (which I don't keep except the minimum 100 men to prevent religious uprising), so 1 army in 3 provinces is about right. In remote provinces, provinces that have a border with only one other province or especialy rich ones (manual says no income in a revolt year, the income parchment says the opposite, not sure) it may be a good idea to keep a garrison. If you see the required garisson number goes up, get them all out, induce a revolt, then back to a smaller garrison.
The 'shift' check does not give updated results at the beginning of a turn. You can get green on all your provinces, but when you click them one by one (note to CA guys - NOT fun), some may be on less than 100% loyalty. Then when you check with 'shift' again you'll see them yellow or red. The reverse is less common but happens.
Quirks :
Portugal - required 10 units to keep loyalty, even though close to the king.
Other provinces - over 12 fighting units present, and same loyalty as the next province with 1-2 peasant units.
A few times I invaded catholic neighbors without getting a warning from Pops.
A Caravel can't go into deep sea, in spite of its description in the building screen.
Good game http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
[This message has been edited by omine-san (edited 11-01-2002).]
Overview :
Attacked the Almohads first, bribed the rebels in Portugal, got Morocco at 1099 and conquered the Iberian by 1102. Kept forces at the Navarre and Aragon front and travelled south and east. 1110 finished Almohads , 1119 reached Tripoli, 1128 got Rum and Aquitane, 1141 Constantinopol fell, 1158 connected the pincer at Croatia, 1164 reached 60% domination and stopped there.
Tough points : 1133 - big rebellions at Sinai and Cordoba, beat them but close call. Later an Egyptian 'hidden heir' event took Egypt (700+ florin) for 4 years.
1144 - Sicily, Byzantz and Italy all at once invaded my Greece, 2 ran away but Sicily held just enough to beat me.
Const' was a citadel with barbican and catapult towers in the front, ballista towers in the back. I attacked with 2 mangonels, destroyed one of the back corner ballista towers and the 2 walls connecting there, that's enough to gain access to the whole citadel grounds. It's a steep climb on the cliff and narrow, few-men wide entrance but I guess it's better than going in front against the barbican and having to destroy 2 layers of walls.
Some general points :
Don't over-tech. I don't see any need to go beyond workshop level. Spearmen, Feudal sergeants, Chivalric MAA and Spanish Jinettes are quite enough. Use cavalry only to pursue routers, but don't neglect it - they bring good cash in ransom.
In most my battles, plain archers had much more kills than crossbowmen. Arbalesters are nice to have because of their range but not very important.
Siege engines are good in defensive battles, especialy against pesky horse archers, 1-2 units are enough. Only stormed a couple os castles.
Agents :
Assassins : use to kill easy prey on your land, and keep a few 3-4 star thugs in case an inquisitor drops by. Don't send abroad, not worth the effort.
Spies : didn't find them all that useful. Same with Bishops and Inquisitors. Waste of building and training time of well-developed provinces. Does anyone have the numbers on their loyalty effects ?
Emissaries : about 8-10 are quite enough for a big empire, half to depose bad rulers and half to spy a little ahead.
Economical upgrades : the best income source is a conquered province. I don't like the 12-years wait for return on mine investment, not to mention useless trading posts (I didn't go naval at all, only at late stages just for curiosity).
Gov's : Acumen +10% income per point, dread +5% loyalty per point. Scan governors every few years, especially pay attention to happiness and income-affecting v&v. reshuffling may be needed to give high-acumen gov's the richer provinces as you conquer them. It seems that as your empire becomes big, economics-hampering v&v multiply. By the time I owned 50% of the provinces, most my governors were art lovers, publicly generous, deeply devout or plain thieves. No help but hire 4-5 emissaries full time stripping govs.
Mercenaries : half training cost, double upkeep cost. Hire siege engines whenever available, it's cheaper than building and training them as there are few men per unit. Otherwise, hire only ad-hoc. With the Poles, there were 20 cavalry units, mainly horse archers, in Kiev; I hired 6 melee cavalry units, went in, and disbanded the mercs right after the battle.
Fight for your money : let them rebell. 'Confiscated lands' is an important income source. I made way too many peasants. An average province needs ~6 peasant units (some as many as 10) to keep loyalty over 100%, that's 220 florins upkeep. Now playing Poland (much harder) and not making peasants at all, only fighting units. Instead of keeping enough peasant garrison to insure quiet in every province, I place armies in about 1 in 3 provinces, and put down rebellions all the time. That way they pay for their own upkeep with a little spare, commanders get better, units gain valor, I lose 50-80 men out of a full army in a revolt. Seems that loyalty goes up after a rebellion is crushed and slowly goes down if no garrison (which I don't keep except the minimum 100 men to prevent religious uprising), so 1 army in 3 provinces is about right. In remote provinces, provinces that have a border with only one other province or especialy rich ones (manual says no income in a revolt year, the income parchment says the opposite, not sure) it may be a good idea to keep a garrison. If you see the required garisson number goes up, get them all out, induce a revolt, then back to a smaller garrison.
The 'shift' check does not give updated results at the beginning of a turn. You can get green on all your provinces, but when you click them one by one (note to CA guys - NOT fun), some may be on less than 100% loyalty. Then when you check with 'shift' again you'll see them yellow or red. The reverse is less common but happens.
Quirks :
Portugal - required 10 units to keep loyalty, even though close to the king.
Other provinces - over 12 fighting units present, and same loyalty as the next province with 1-2 peasant units.
A few times I invaded catholic neighbors without getting a warning from Pops.
A Caravel can't go into deep sea, in spite of its description in the building screen.
Good game http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
[This message has been edited by omine-san (edited 11-01-2002).]