VersusAllOdds
05-25-2010, 01:37
Please excuse me for my bad English. I just finished my dose of MTW for today - it rather made me do it.
Ok, so I started High, conquest, Hard diff with French.
At the very begining I was pretty surprised to see a number of extremely good soon-to-be governors. There were at least 3 of them with 5 acumen and 4 dread, and 2 more with 5 acumen, so I had very good income in the begining. Was getting like 1200 per year in total + occasional Papal child support of 1000. I was also holding (obviously, it was turn 0) Flanders, Tripoli and Antioch which are very rich provinces, and had a caravel in Egyptian sea, so I was automatically trading with Egypt. So the start was pretty good.
My plan was to expand towards English - in more common language to obliterate them - I really needed a safe back and 3-4 provinces I don't need to guard. So, I was quickly training in Ile de France, rushing towards CSergeants and towards FSergeants in Toulouse and Normandy. I was also gettings mercs in Ile de France. I was aware that I, by all means, had to hold Antioch and Tripoli, so I was rushing for the same troops over there. It was quite a money spending spree, but as I said, economy was great. Then it all started.
HRE attacked me at Toulouse and I barely stood my ground there. It pretty messed up my plans, because I knew that if I expand eastward, I will never have my rear safe, but I was in a what-the-hell mood, so I took Burgundy. My king was 5 star, and I had better troops than them so it was easy. But they were amassing troops at neighbouring provinces, and I knew Burgundy would be really hard to defend given the number of boardering regions. So they attacked with full force while I was sieging, and I pulled back, only to come back with 2 full stacks the next turn and retake it.
Next turn, Egyptians attacked Tripoli (I was focusing my defense at Antioch, for no specific reason), and I had to retreat to the Keep, but then I knew it's gonna go downhill, cuz I lost trade with Egyptians, and my important province. Not to mention 3 of my lords were being besieged there. I retaliated from Antioch, and before you know it - Egyptians sent a Jihad for Tripoli. Given the serious lack of troops in the Holy Land, I trained 2-3 light troops in Cyprus and a Barque, and transported them to Antioch to help defend the province. I was still holding both Holy Land provinces, and training in both, but Egyptians had full stacks all over the place...
Once both of my separate realms stabilized, I decided that I was strong enough to quickly neutralize the English, and hold the HRE while doing that, and suddenly, I saw that English were in a civil war. Great news I thought, as they lost Aquitaine and Wessex in it - it was my chance to take Aq and have a bit more time to prepare for all out war. So I sent my already prepared troops in Toulouse to Aq, 1200 men against 200 rebels, and then, something really interesting happened. As I sent those troops, English did the same, and I was thinking of just pressing 3, cuz I didn't want an all out war before 2-3 turns of more preparations. So I pressed 3. In the meantime (in the same AI turn), Aragonese attacked out of nowhere, and I pulled to my stronghold in Toulouse, and therefore lost 1200 men, with one of my Lords to English. I ransomed the entire army for staggering 3300 florins, and lost my entire budget to that (I went to -800 the next turn and didn't go above zero for years to come). Luckily, that didn't put me into war with the English, but that was the only good thing about it.
After 2 turns (which included constant fighting with the Egyptians, a fighting on the defensive), I went for the English, and took all 3 of their French provinces with relative ease. Then I turned to the HRE and Aragon and had some pretty good results with them. I slowly started demobilizing my mercenary armies, that were pretty numerous, basically trying to regain my income (which was the highest, but my military output was immense). I defeated the HRE in Burgundy, Lorraine and Provence, and started consolidating my rule for just a few turns, refreshing my armies before the cash I've just plundered runs down the bellies of my soldiers. HRE too experienced a civil war, about 30-40% of their armies went rebel which was pretty good news for me. Given that Wessex was still rebel, I was no longer in war with English due to lack of any contact. And then, again out of nowhere, Italians strike Toulouse, Provence and Flanders. I defended all but Provence, and engaged a war where they could strike any of my shores. I was now focusing entirely on them and the Aragonese (I pulled back out of Aragon a few turns ago due to Papal warnings).
Of course, I completely forgot Pope's warning to stay out of Aragon for 10 turns, and got excommunicated. You can imagine the already pathetic loyalty (my king just died, btw) at this moment. But I still gave no quarter and was actually winning the 4 wars I was fighting. I got to Venice, and took everything on the way there, but pulled back to Milan eventually. Egyptians now, by my greatest delight, had a civil war of their own, which I used to take Edessa and Syria. I was pretty amazed by my show of skill, to be honest, as I was winning every single war I was fighting, although not easily at all.
On top of all that - Almohads attacked my Flanders, and Aquitaine. I was so totally surprised, and both frustrated and thrilled. I was officially in war with HRE, Egyptians, Italians, Aragonese, Almohads, and was excommunicated the same time.
I just HAD to come here and post this, whether anyone wanted to read or not - I will update soon!
Ok, so I started High, conquest, Hard diff with French.
At the very begining I was pretty surprised to see a number of extremely good soon-to-be governors. There were at least 3 of them with 5 acumen and 4 dread, and 2 more with 5 acumen, so I had very good income in the begining. Was getting like 1200 per year in total + occasional Papal child support of 1000. I was also holding (obviously, it was turn 0) Flanders, Tripoli and Antioch which are very rich provinces, and had a caravel in Egyptian sea, so I was automatically trading with Egypt. So the start was pretty good.
My plan was to expand towards English - in more common language to obliterate them - I really needed a safe back and 3-4 provinces I don't need to guard. So, I was quickly training in Ile de France, rushing towards CSergeants and towards FSergeants in Toulouse and Normandy. I was also gettings mercs in Ile de France. I was aware that I, by all means, had to hold Antioch and Tripoli, so I was rushing for the same troops over there. It was quite a money spending spree, but as I said, economy was great. Then it all started.
HRE attacked me at Toulouse and I barely stood my ground there. It pretty messed up my plans, because I knew that if I expand eastward, I will never have my rear safe, but I was in a what-the-hell mood, so I took Burgundy. My king was 5 star, and I had better troops than them so it was easy. But they were amassing troops at neighbouring provinces, and I knew Burgundy would be really hard to defend given the number of boardering regions. So they attacked with full force while I was sieging, and I pulled back, only to come back with 2 full stacks the next turn and retake it.
Next turn, Egyptians attacked Tripoli (I was focusing my defense at Antioch, for no specific reason), and I had to retreat to the Keep, but then I knew it's gonna go downhill, cuz I lost trade with Egyptians, and my important province. Not to mention 3 of my lords were being besieged there. I retaliated from Antioch, and before you know it - Egyptians sent a Jihad for Tripoli. Given the serious lack of troops in the Holy Land, I trained 2-3 light troops in Cyprus and a Barque, and transported them to Antioch to help defend the province. I was still holding both Holy Land provinces, and training in both, but Egyptians had full stacks all over the place...
Once both of my separate realms stabilized, I decided that I was strong enough to quickly neutralize the English, and hold the HRE while doing that, and suddenly, I saw that English were in a civil war. Great news I thought, as they lost Aquitaine and Wessex in it - it was my chance to take Aq and have a bit more time to prepare for all out war. So I sent my already prepared troops in Toulouse to Aq, 1200 men against 200 rebels, and then, something really interesting happened. As I sent those troops, English did the same, and I was thinking of just pressing 3, cuz I didn't want an all out war before 2-3 turns of more preparations. So I pressed 3. In the meantime (in the same AI turn), Aragonese attacked out of nowhere, and I pulled to my stronghold in Toulouse, and therefore lost 1200 men, with one of my Lords to English. I ransomed the entire army for staggering 3300 florins, and lost my entire budget to that (I went to -800 the next turn and didn't go above zero for years to come). Luckily, that didn't put me into war with the English, but that was the only good thing about it.
After 2 turns (which included constant fighting with the Egyptians, a fighting on the defensive), I went for the English, and took all 3 of their French provinces with relative ease. Then I turned to the HRE and Aragon and had some pretty good results with them. I slowly started demobilizing my mercenary armies, that were pretty numerous, basically trying to regain my income (which was the highest, but my military output was immense). I defeated the HRE in Burgundy, Lorraine and Provence, and started consolidating my rule for just a few turns, refreshing my armies before the cash I've just plundered runs down the bellies of my soldiers. HRE too experienced a civil war, about 30-40% of their armies went rebel which was pretty good news for me. Given that Wessex was still rebel, I was no longer in war with English due to lack of any contact. And then, again out of nowhere, Italians strike Toulouse, Provence and Flanders. I defended all but Provence, and engaged a war where they could strike any of my shores. I was now focusing entirely on them and the Aragonese (I pulled back out of Aragon a few turns ago due to Papal warnings).
Of course, I completely forgot Pope's warning to stay out of Aragon for 10 turns, and got excommunicated. You can imagine the already pathetic loyalty (my king just died, btw) at this moment. But I still gave no quarter and was actually winning the 4 wars I was fighting. I got to Venice, and took everything on the way there, but pulled back to Milan eventually. Egyptians now, by my greatest delight, had a civil war of their own, which I used to take Edessa and Syria. I was pretty amazed by my show of skill, to be honest, as I was winning every single war I was fighting, although not easily at all.
On top of all that - Almohads attacked my Flanders, and Aquitaine. I was so totally surprised, and both frustrated and thrilled. I was officially in war with HRE, Egyptians, Italians, Aragonese, Almohads, and was excommunicated the same time.
I just HAD to come here and post this, whether anyone wanted to read or not - I will update soon!