Graymane
10-30-2002, 19:24
These are a few of the strategies that I use in my expert difficulty single player games.
1. The militia is your friend. I aim for a goal of around 12 militia units in each territory. Usually 2 cheap maintaince bow types and the rest in Urban Militia or Militia Sergeants. The reason for this is to simply save money and keep territories happy. That many militia can hold out quite well in a good castle until your real army gets there if needed. They also serve as your rebel invasion force described below.
2. Special units are fun. I aim for 2 bishops, 2 spies and 2 assassins in each territory for defensive purposes. I keep a pool of about 20 each in a central territory with a port. This allows me to stir up religious and/or peasant revolts in selected territories. This is a good way to take a territory without pissing off the pope or starting a war. The country you are taking from will get mad, however.
3. Build economy early. I try to take only territories that will give me positive cash flow early on (Sweden and not Norway, for example, if I am Denmark). I get to at least 1 merchant, a militia building (for militia of course), 20% farming and a port ASAP in each territory. After that, I work on a dock in 1-2 territories and start pumping boats. It is a really, really good idea to build that militia building first and start pumping troops if you can afford it to ward off early attacks by other armies.
4. Vultures are nice birds, really. My strategy for early conquest is always to take rebellious territories. You need a far reaching navy for this and a ready force of cheap troops to make it work. Territories that like to rebel are ones like portugal, ireland, wales, scotland, scandanavia and the like. I then invade with 2 bishops, 2 spies, 2 assassins (this is optional early on obiviously) and 6 units each of my militia force from 2-4 territories (depends on how strong the rebels are and what is around them). Sometimes I'll send a field army as well. If there is a particulary tough nut to crack, I'll send in 20 spies or 20 bishops and try to kick off a revolt.
5. Home territories are always building something as long as I have a positive cash flow. I generally aim for even distribution of buildings in tougher games. This means I climb the tech tree very slowly but that the loss of any one or few territories doesn't stop my war machine. This generally means I stop at the 3rd level of the tech tree and max out the build tree for that level in most territories. High cost, high maint units are not required to win the SP game at any level of difficulty. You need nothing more than FMAA, feudal sergeants and the like.
The exceptions to this rule are that I usually try to have 1 territory pumping spies and 1 boats. Assassins and bishops are part of the regular buildings in my normal build.
6. No revolutions. 2 spies, 2 assassins, 2 bishops and 12 militia units are generally all that is required to stop most revolutions from ever happening as long as the ruler is centrally located on a port. There are some territories that need more (some territorities in central turkey and russia, portugal, scotland, etc, but they are usually obvious).
7. It is all about the navy. Well, a lot of the game is, at any rate =) A strong navy means that you can dictate where and when attacks will occur. I aim for 2-3 boats in every water area on the map. You don't need the expensive boats either, numbers are really all that matters. If you own the seas, your enemy cannot attack you except via land, cannot trade and cannot send reinforcements while you still can.
8. You still need a few standing armies. The AI loves to mass 4-5 huge armies in certain places. These will roll over your defenses when the two front war happens (You are Spain, attack the Elmos and the French backstab you, for example). Keep the armies together on a port so you can respond with them as required.
I build my standing armies such that 25-40% of the troops are cheaply replaceable. Militia, for example. That usually means my more expensive troops last a lot longer. So each army is usually something like 1-2 heavy cav, 1-2 light cav, 3-4 or so spear units (usually sergeants), 2-3 shock troops and the rest cheap units (militia, xbow, etc). I then field 4-5 of these armies for each war front, usually in a mass, and follow them with militia armies to hold territorities.
9. Bring it all together in a process of momentum. In other words, once you start a war, finish it completely. Don't give the enemy time to build back up and regroup. Before the war or in the first few years of it, start building replacements for your armies. Have your field armies plow through territories a turn at a time and let the follow up militia armies worry about siege and holding the territories. Ensure you rule the seas so that you can continue to ship troops around. Your field armies should be aiming for the destruction of the enemy's army, so you will be hopping from territory to territory following him. When you get to a spot where you can be attacked by 3 territories at once, stop your field armies there and start to consolidate.
10. Dealing with the pope and excommunication. The strategy above works good for just about any scenario except catholic on catholic. In that case, you generally have 2 turns to finish a war before you get excommunicated. The cheesy way of dealing with this is to take out the pope, sell everything there is to sell in rome and leave the territory to rebel. Most likely, the pope will never again take back rome. The game is far too easy in this case though. (You can also use assassins for the same effect, but I generally don't have time to micromanage to that extend with everything else that is going on).
The other way to deal with this problem is to use your navy and spies to strike quickly. Send spies to start revolutions in their territories and then take them when they go neutral. If that doesn't work, find 2-3 territories that are lightly defended and attack them all, in 1 turn, by sea with overwhelming force (militia is usually enough for this). Do assaults on the next turn to take the castles and you are set. Make sure to kill as many of his boats as possible in two turns. Once you get the warning to stop hostilities. Stop them and build up your territories and start sueing for peace. If you don't think you can hold the territories, sell everything in the territory and hope it rebels.
1. The militia is your friend. I aim for a goal of around 12 militia units in each territory. Usually 2 cheap maintaince bow types and the rest in Urban Militia or Militia Sergeants. The reason for this is to simply save money and keep territories happy. That many militia can hold out quite well in a good castle until your real army gets there if needed. They also serve as your rebel invasion force described below.
2. Special units are fun. I aim for 2 bishops, 2 spies and 2 assassins in each territory for defensive purposes. I keep a pool of about 20 each in a central territory with a port. This allows me to stir up religious and/or peasant revolts in selected territories. This is a good way to take a territory without pissing off the pope or starting a war. The country you are taking from will get mad, however.
3. Build economy early. I try to take only territories that will give me positive cash flow early on (Sweden and not Norway, for example, if I am Denmark). I get to at least 1 merchant, a militia building (for militia of course), 20% farming and a port ASAP in each territory. After that, I work on a dock in 1-2 territories and start pumping boats. It is a really, really good idea to build that militia building first and start pumping troops if you can afford it to ward off early attacks by other armies.
4. Vultures are nice birds, really. My strategy for early conquest is always to take rebellious territories. You need a far reaching navy for this and a ready force of cheap troops to make it work. Territories that like to rebel are ones like portugal, ireland, wales, scotland, scandanavia and the like. I then invade with 2 bishops, 2 spies, 2 assassins (this is optional early on obiviously) and 6 units each of my militia force from 2-4 territories (depends on how strong the rebels are and what is around them). Sometimes I'll send a field army as well. If there is a particulary tough nut to crack, I'll send in 20 spies or 20 bishops and try to kick off a revolt.
5. Home territories are always building something as long as I have a positive cash flow. I generally aim for even distribution of buildings in tougher games. This means I climb the tech tree very slowly but that the loss of any one or few territories doesn't stop my war machine. This generally means I stop at the 3rd level of the tech tree and max out the build tree for that level in most territories. High cost, high maint units are not required to win the SP game at any level of difficulty. You need nothing more than FMAA, feudal sergeants and the like.
The exceptions to this rule are that I usually try to have 1 territory pumping spies and 1 boats. Assassins and bishops are part of the regular buildings in my normal build.
6. No revolutions. 2 spies, 2 assassins, 2 bishops and 12 militia units are generally all that is required to stop most revolutions from ever happening as long as the ruler is centrally located on a port. There are some territories that need more (some territorities in central turkey and russia, portugal, scotland, etc, but they are usually obvious).
7. It is all about the navy. Well, a lot of the game is, at any rate =) A strong navy means that you can dictate where and when attacks will occur. I aim for 2-3 boats in every water area on the map. You don't need the expensive boats either, numbers are really all that matters. If you own the seas, your enemy cannot attack you except via land, cannot trade and cannot send reinforcements while you still can.
8. You still need a few standing armies. The AI loves to mass 4-5 huge armies in certain places. These will roll over your defenses when the two front war happens (You are Spain, attack the Elmos and the French backstab you, for example). Keep the armies together on a port so you can respond with them as required.
I build my standing armies such that 25-40% of the troops are cheaply replaceable. Militia, for example. That usually means my more expensive troops last a lot longer. So each army is usually something like 1-2 heavy cav, 1-2 light cav, 3-4 or so spear units (usually sergeants), 2-3 shock troops and the rest cheap units (militia, xbow, etc). I then field 4-5 of these armies for each war front, usually in a mass, and follow them with militia armies to hold territorities.
9. Bring it all together in a process of momentum. In other words, once you start a war, finish it completely. Don't give the enemy time to build back up and regroup. Before the war or in the first few years of it, start building replacements for your armies. Have your field armies plow through territories a turn at a time and let the follow up militia armies worry about siege and holding the territories. Ensure you rule the seas so that you can continue to ship troops around. Your field armies should be aiming for the destruction of the enemy's army, so you will be hopping from territory to territory following him. When you get to a spot where you can be attacked by 3 territories at once, stop your field armies there and start to consolidate.
10. Dealing with the pope and excommunication. The strategy above works good for just about any scenario except catholic on catholic. In that case, you generally have 2 turns to finish a war before you get excommunicated. The cheesy way of dealing with this is to take out the pope, sell everything there is to sell in rome and leave the territory to rebel. Most likely, the pope will never again take back rome. The game is far too easy in this case though. (You can also use assassins for the same effect, but I generally don't have time to micromanage to that extend with everything else that is going on).
The other way to deal with this problem is to use your navy and spies to strike quickly. Send spies to start revolutions in their territories and then take them when they go neutral. If that doesn't work, find 2-3 territories that are lightly defended and attack them all, in 1 turn, by sea with overwhelming force (militia is usually enough for this). Do assaults on the next turn to take the castles and you are set. Make sure to kill as many of his boats as possible in two turns. Once you get the warning to stop hostilities. Stop them and build up your territories and start sueing for peace. If you don't think you can hold the territories, sell everything in the territory and hope it rebels.