Two Front War

[Gazza the Lionheart]

Ok. Im playing as the Almohads and I control most of western europe and north africa up to egypt. The Turks control eastern europe and the middle east from egypt with the papacy , hungarians and sicilians on the italian penisula and nearby islands and the danes still control there little part of the world. Now I want to leave the italian "boot" for last so my only real option is to attack the turks but I dont know whether I should hit them from both europe and egypt or just europe. Anyone have any thoughts or experiences from fighting a two front war that could be of some help.

[Brother Derfel]

Well if you have significantly more troops than the turks do, my best advice would be to attack on one front, drain all his troops to that area, then strike his defencless provinces on the other front.

If you dont, then try to garrison one front well and concentrate your attack on the other front. That way you will push him back onto a solid wall on the other side.

Hope that helps

[Dimeola]

Do you have the strength in troops and economy to support two fronts? Plan for longer than you think it`ll take and plan on more troops than you think it`ll take. If you are not convinced then make your main attack on one front but at least harrass the other to draw off troops. If you hold a good advantage in numbers and at least equal in quality....and the startegic situation is sound then go like broke on both fronts. They will crack and fall. Just be sure to bring enough troops to garrison those new provinces.
If one front is left unguarded try sending in a few mixed armies with lots of cav. After taking a province leave enough foot to garrisson and send the cav ahead.
Dimeolas

[hoom]

Like they said, if you have the manpower and the economy to replace losses, go for both fronts.

The more provinces you attack in one turn, the more thinly spread the defenders.
Though, you may find many provinces nearly abandonned and one province heavily reinforced.
If you don't think you can take that mass of troops, at least you get all those lightly defended provinces and if he counterattacks, you have the defense.

[Knight_Yellow]

go through europe alone and whilst ur men are gaining valour and gettin better by the time they get into desert conditions and are attacking they should be beefed up enough to cope with the cons of attacking in the desert.

[Longshanks]

You might want to keep an eye on where his king is hovering about also. You might just want to build up big in the area opposite his king and try to draw him into a decisive engagement. Capturing or killing their king would be a terrible blow, and even if he has heirs it will most likely cause him serious problems. He may even have a rebellion or two break out.

[PoLsKa_HuSaRiA]

I like to spread my forces along the borders of the enemy faction before i invade. That way i try and take several at a time. Even if i dont manage to take each one, i reduce the enemy faction's ability to build new troops and get income. It also prevents the enemy faction from invading you in a counter-attack and gives you an added edge against the enemy that will allow you to attack deep into enemy territory without them being to moblise a huge force. Taking several provinces at once is a good tactic in my opinion.

[Kristaps]

well, if late enough in the campaign: just steamroll the AI... when I start serious expansion, I have armies that attack all along my frontier (i.e., all armies attack at once, regardless how many fronts this situation creates...). usually, im the biggest and baddest bloke on the block by the time I start this though http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif)

[ShadesWolf]

I wouldnt mind seeing a map of the provinces to have a better look.

A number of questions.....

What provinces are the border in each area?
ie You say Egypt, so that is good, you only have one province to defend. What about europe?

Do I take it they own constantinople?

What year is it ? (ie are you close to 1205 and the horde appearing or have the turks conquered the Horde?)

Who's rules the seas

What are your alliances like (who are u allied with)

Who owns the islands by Asia minor.

[Juan Madsen]

If you want a better analisys then the info ShadesWolf is asking for is needed.

I want to clarify a point here Gazza. The term "two fronts war" refers to a war were you are fighting two different enemies, either allied or not between themselves. The worst escenario is when this two enemies are in opposite frontiers. What you are about to do is opening a war in a very wide front (I understand from finland down to Egypt) which will have two main "theaters" (of operations).

Between the EAST EUROPE THEATER and the MIDDLE EAST THEATER you will have naval campaign to fight, and for the escenario you are about to develop I consider the naval element to be of extremenly importante. If you do not own the sea and you do not have good chances to dominate it quickly or at least be able to blockade the main areas of operations then I strongly recomend you to battle on both theaters, be very aggresive and go for those coastal provinces were he has ports and shipbuilding facilities.

Basically, the one who commands the sea will be able to open a third (amphibious) theater between the north and the south at the time and place of his choice. Practising this strategy aggresively will oblige the other to continuously distract badly needed troops from the main theaters of operations.

[Gazza the Lionheart]

Thanks for everyone's replies. I've decided to move a few stacks down into Cyrenicia to stop aay eventual attack from Egypt and take on the Turks in Europe so at the moment im busy cranking out units like there's no tommorow.

[Spino]

Fight a two front war? Why not? The AI does it all the time http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

You can always use your spies as a diversion creating revolts in provinces far from any of the fronts we're your ennemy has few troops.

[NewJeffCT]

I seem to always be fighting two front wars. I am currently the English and at war with the Turks in the Middle East. The huge Spanish empire has been my ally for well over 100 years now. They control all of Spain and north Africa through Egypt, plus, they took out most of the HRE and France (except for Brittany, Flanders, Friesland and Denmark, which I took while the HRE was excommunicated).

So, while battling the Turks, my good allies, the Spanish sink one of my ships, invade my provinces of Arabia and Syria from Tripoli & Palestine, and then also invade Flanders, and some of my nice provinces north of Constantinople that I won in a Crusade... so, they struck me from three fronts (western Europe, the Middle East and Hungary). I struck back on two fronts - Western Europe and the Middle East. I want Tripoli, plus Toulouse to build extra Chivalric Knights with valor bonuses.

[Juan Madsen]

In all my games I always reach a point where all factions are againts me. I don´t know if this is the normal thing but it has been the reason why I have not finished a campaign yet. There are moments where every turn implies two to four "decisive" battles. I enjoy this for a couple of turns but not for 15 or 20 turns, on all fronts and at sea. For me it is frustating because apart from the battles I like to develop the empire.

Do you guys go through the same thing in your games?
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif

[NewJeffCT]

Juan - yes, that has happened with me, too. I hate it when everybody else on board is allied with each other, while I am allied with nobody and at war with 4, 5 or even 7 factions at once. You'd think somebody would want to be the friend of the most powerful guy out there?