Pre-game preparation

[Ueriah]

I'm getting ready for a new single player campaign as the HRE to try my hand at Hard.

One thing that I'm doing differantly now from when I first started MTW is keeping a notebook on my desk to keep track of my provinces. I've put together a little speadsheet for keeping track of which provinces I'm using as military staging grounds and which ones I'm using to get a thriving economy.

One thing I'd love to see addressed in the expansion is a little improvement in terms of the way that you can view the information on your empire. I've noticed a few other people posting similar sentiments-- things like gee, I'd love to be able to see any bonuses my buildings bestow on troops on this province, etc, and I have to agree. A minor detail for a great wargame.

Curious as to the extent of other people's pre-game preparation... does anyone else use pen-n-paper to keep track of stuff?

[Alrowan]

i use pen and paper to write up a family tree, just out of self interest, and to keep track of hiers... im moving onto making lists of proviences, and armies as well now

[Ueriah]

It really seems to help me to have one master list of what provinces produce how many florins worth of agriculture, how many florins of minable ores, and how many florins worth of other income.

Prior to assigning any provincial governers, I assess each province. If the province has a base agricultural output of 140 florins or greater, I consider it worthy of farming upgrades. I do this before assigning governers because the Acumen of a governer will increase the base amount (I think someone told me it's by 10% per acumen point) and I don't want to confuse the modified output with the unmodified and end up wasting my time plowing fields in rocky ground because I have a decent leader in the province.

Any coastal provinces that have tradable resources begin thier construction for the status of Port Cities. I'll try to focus economic growth on those cities, and use them to foster a navy. There are lots of tradable income to be had by establishing a naval network in the northern seas, the Danes and the Brits might make good trading partners for the HRE.

I make mention of any province that builds a higher valor troop type, and make sure that I pursue that particular troop type from that province for my future buildings. What's more, I am going to try to focus the construction of my military to be created of these troop types for the majority of my leigons. For Germany at the start, the Swiss have the capacity for great pikemen, as does Tyrolia.
Bradenburg has the capacity to make great footmen. Saxony can make great knights. And Provence makes great... peasents? Hmm. That's five potential provinces dedicated to building battle-ready units. Add a church and a few advanced upgrade buildings and the HRE can field a pretty effective army.

With five provinces being used this way, it leaves me with the other eight to carry the burden of the German economy.
By focusing on the economy with these eight provinces and shipping in troops from the five military production provinces I'm hoping to be able to have a sound economy (since instead of builing military construction buildings in those provinces I'm building higher economy upgrades)and by focusing my military to five provinces I can also insure all troops get good upgrades.

Argh, wish I didn't have to go to work today...

[Gregoshi]

Interesting and unique suggestion/question Ueriah. I don't do any such thing though I probably should. What would be best is a map to note all this information. That would allow you to take it all in with a glance.

Unfortunately, I play SP and MP rather by the seat of my pants. I build/buy whatever moves me at the moment. This leads to some head scratching later - hmmm, I really didn't need to build that there...

[Exile]

A blank map is a great idea I think. Lately, I've tried keeping notes, but I don't stick with it. I certainly see the advantge to doing so from a resources standpoint. As is I shift focus many times, uh..what was I doing with this province?? and end up wasting money and years building something I don't need.

Good luck with the HRE. Big Empire, few troops initally, many borders. I gave up early on the two campaigns I tried with them after multiple neighbors decided to invade and crippled me early on, but I will try again some day soon. There will be a reckoning

[Dark Prince]

I tried to play as HRE,but I failed it.It is too damn difficult. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/flirt.gif

[Alrowan]

well my first time playing the HRE i won... i had some long struggles, but once you knuckle under you can win these..

mind you the biggest challenge was the alamohads, they were mighty tough, but sheer wieght in numbers at the ned on it for me.. i was at a stalemate with them in france for about 60 years

[Jxrc]

I just write down the name, age and V& V of my king when he gets on the throne.

It seem to be totally useless (I have never found some kind of pattern by doing this) but it gives me the impression to keep track of things.

What I would really like to be changed in the game is the information panel so that I could instantly know what are:

- the applicable bonus for happiness in each province (a bit like in Sid Meier's civilisation where you could know what the effect of temple, cathedrals and wonders of the world was);

- the valour bonus I will get if I produce a particular unit in a given province (so far we only know that as far as natural bonus are concerned, i.e. +1 for long bowmen in Wales, etc.). I, for instance, fail to understand while most feudal sergeants units gets a valour of 1 or 2 (irrespective of the bonus added by the general and without any master spearmaker) while feudal men-at-arms or chivalric men-at-arms always have 0. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/dizzy.gif

[Disco Volante]

Playing as the HRE at either Hard or Expert is a good challenge. You'll undoubtedly get attacked by either the French, Danes, Italians or Hungarians (for me it was the French) within the first 15 years, so at your borders develop large armies.

Sometimes it is also a good tactic to let them take a province and save getting wasted, then attack the provence they attacked from or one of their weaker provinces. The french attacked me and using that tactic with large armies i only ever had to fight them once and that's when i forced their King into his last provence and then I summarily spanked him http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Assign titles to high acumen generals in high paying provinces, etc, etc...and don't overspend too early on.

P.S. Currently playing as HRE on hard and i own all of England, France, Italy, Denmark area, Spain and Poland, ie: half the map...am at war with everyone and still have a 8k a year income http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Cooperman]

As a general rule I only build military units in provinces that have iron or give a valor bonus and I plan my building strategy around those with other provinces producing strategic agents and boats.
I'm too lazy to bother writing stuff down I just right click on the province on the map to see what bonus it gives before building but it works well enough for me.

[Tyrac]

Personally what I do is a specialization approach to keep it simple. I have a certain goal in mind for each provence..Spear, Sword, Heavy Cav, Light Cav, Bow, Ships, Agents, Pure Cash, etc. etc. The list grows as the Empire does.
I simply choose my first A provence (Algeria for example) and put the build page and the province info page up and cycle through them all until I get back to my start.

With the amount of micro management and care you seem to put into your game I HIGHLY reccomend playing on EXPERT. If the game does get the better of you....well SWEET that would be even more fun I think But I am certain you will crush it on Expert even. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Also a tip for the HRE..when you get that darn warning from the Pope 2 years to withdraw and no hitting for 10 years after...you have 12 years to kick catholic ass on all the factions except the one you were warned of. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif The Pope only keeps track of one warning at a time. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif That makes life in the H.R.E. a great deal easier.

Keep us up to date on how challenging playing the H.R.E. is