Cheers to the English King!

[Disco Volante]

Hey all,

I started a new game last night, playing for the first time as the Danish on Expert (do these guys know how to breed or what ). Anyway, I'd already conquered Sweden and Norway nice and early in the game (between 1090 and 1100) and was quite happily meandering along, upgrading my provinces, armies and trading routes. While doing this i was contemplating where to expand, down through Germany towards the fertile trading routes in the Mediterranian, or East towards the Rebel Pagan factions where resistance would be futile After deciding to expand East I amassed large armies of blood-thirsty vikings under the control of my not too shabby King and his first heir to the throne (King was getting old, so I had to prepare my next in line by giving him valuable command experience) then decided to wait a few years before i lead an invasion into Pagan lands.

Well, as luck (or stupidity depending on who's side you were on) would have it, the English King and his large army moved from Wessex to Normandy, leaving only skeleton armies in Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria. After rubbing my eyes to discover that this event had actually happened and it was not just a product of my imagination (because the French had a huge army in Flanders) my King and his heir rallied their armies and launched probably the easiest Viking invasion of the British Isles in history Further rubbing salt into the English King's wounds I destroyed his pathetic fleet of barques in the English Channel leaving him stranded in Normandy to deal with the French who were already at war with him All this and the year was only 1120. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

So, i spose the point of this post was to find out who else out there has been handed not just a province, but a COUNTRY on a silver platter like i was? I'd love to hear others stories of AI assisted conquests. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Korror]

Congratulations on your Viking invasion of England. When I was playing the Danish, I had quite a few countries, which could have put up a stubborn resistance, collapse like a house of cards. When I was fighting the French, (who controlled all of France and a few German/Italian provinces), they had the misfortune to have a civil war the year I invaded, and none of the provinces I attacked were attacked by the rebels. The same thing happened in Spain a few years later. In both cases, their empire collapsed and I picked the rebels off at my leisure.

Korror

[Gaius Julius]

I'm playing as the Biz., early.
The AI helped eliminate 2 factions for me.
The Egyptians took out the Turks. This left me the easy task of dispatching the Egyptians. Handed me Mid.-East, and part of N. Africa. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Disco Volante]

Isn't it nice when the AI lends a hand...however... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

The year is 1124 and after a successful invasion of the British Isles my not too shabby King dies from a yet undiscovered medieval strain of Ebola. The King of the Danes dead at the age of 43. The heir to the kingdom of Denmark subsequently took over, however, instead of paying attention to the command aspects of his glorious father, little Vandenhoogenband spent his childhood trying to beat the Thorpedo in any swimming event he possibly could. However, little Vandenhoogenband suffered terribly at the hands of the Thorpedo and subsequently suffered severe psychological trauma that affected both his character and his command ability, thus making him a terrible King

Furthermore, due to his unstable mental condition, the young King decided to tackle the Rebel forces of Lithuania all by himself. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif As one would expect this turned out to be a disasterous decision that allowed his younger brother (previously 2nd in line to the throne) to ascend to throne. However, both the elder brother, R.I.P fair King, and the younger brother had been dropped on their heads at birth, because the younger brother also suffered from mental instability and decided that to honour his brother he too would take on the Rebel forces of Lithuania all by himself. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif As one would expect, he subsequently was cleansed of his mental illness in the most dramatic way, courtesy of the Rebels of Lithuania...

BOOM Civil War

Now the younger brother of the glorious King who conquered the British Isles and the other younger brother fought out a dramatic version of Family Fued with the elder brother (being the better commander) slaying the ungrateful infidel that had taken over his sibling. Subsequently, the Danish Empire and it's new King were now far stronger than they had been before the invasion of the British Isles.

Funny how the Gods favour certain commanders at times...isn't it? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Cooperman]

The AI really does like to help out the player at every oportunity it seems by doing stupid things.
Whenever I've played as the Danes, the Holy Roman Empire attacks the French and Italians, gets excommunicated and disintegrates in a civil war giving me an easy chance to conquer northern Germany usually before 1120.

[LRossaLordJimi]

Ave
In historic medieval age many time some King enter in a war only for ambition of conquer,sometime he become destroy.AI is not so away from historic reality http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif
Ave

[burma_mtw]

My experience with the Danes (Expert Level) was that they were one of the easiest to win with, quickest to win with, and probably the most boring.

You can bribe Sweeden almost immediately. Sweeden is both a gold mine for Florins and a producer (eventually) of Gold/Gold troops. Shortly thereafter you can add Norway. You don't need to go after any other countries for another two hundred years.

As pointed out, you don't need to build horses for a long time as the aristocracy seems very busy in the bedroom.

You only need enough troops to keep the privinces happy and to keep Germany from attacking Denmark which they never seem to do. Actually, nobody ever seems to attack which means that you can pump out Longboats from your three Provinces and set up a worldwide trade route very quickly.

So, until the Mongels show up (AD 1230) all you need to do is upgrade buildings, build ships, and collect money. No battles necessary. The years go by very quickly. Norway is good for the Special buildings (e.g. Military Academy), Sweeden is good for upgraded troops, and Denmark is good for whatever else you want early like cannons and Gold Armor Pikemen. Norway can produce the first gunpowder ships but no enemy has yet to confront me with the same kind of ship. Plus, I have had a 1/0/4 enemy ship take out my best gunpowder ship (3/3/6) so I am not sure how valuable they are. As long as my Ship Stack is bigger then whatever is being attacked, I seem to win regardless of the ship types.

1230 AD you can take over Livonia, Finland, Norvgood, and start on the British Isles. With all your ships, wiping out the English fleet (or French if they have done a number on the British) only takes a couple of years or so. Because you will have somewhere around a million Florins you can bribe your way into most of those countries without fighting and gain enough units to keep the locals happy and discourage enemy attacks. Also, since you have upgraded buildings so fast, your troops will have better Metalsmith/Armor upgrades then anybody you choos to take on. It is really no contest.

With the British Isles and NE part of the map under control you can go back into sleep mode until about AD 1300. In AD 1270 you get the trading upgrade which gives you even more money.

By AD 1300 you should have so much money and such powerful troops that total conquest is fairly easy. For me, leaving Central Europe to last worked best. Some of those countries can be attacked from so many directions that they can be difficult to hold. Going from the West side of the map to the East worked but there are likely many strategies that will work. Bribing everything in sight both gains you territory and weakens opponents. From about three million Florins I was down to less then five hundred thousand before total victory was achieved. Also, since you are putting the hurt on so many places at once (i.e. cutting income) revolts will start to happen all over the place (to your enemies). Keep your taxes low (you don't need the money) and your troop count high (you get all you need with bribes) and the same won't happen in your provinces.

Anyway, this is just one person's experience and in no way implies that it is better then any other persons choice of strategies. Also, since you spend so many years without a battle it can get tiresome. I don't recommend it. The game is really fun when you have to fight your way to victory. The Special Achievements method of victory gives a little more variety, but if you just focus on total conquest you will win anyway. I lost to the Turks even though I had achieved all the goals and they hadn't. They owned most of the world which earned them lots of points even though conquest was never a stated goal, just a point add-on option.

It is a great game and it is a little scary to think of what it will be like when the AI's get smarter.

[ichi]

As the Danes (early, hard) I conquered Sweden and Norway, then floated over to Ireland. It was full of Rebels, and not an easy fight.

By the time I got to the Irish Sea the French were in Scotland, in force, and the English were gone.

The AI didn't really help nor hurt, but an experienced human Frenchman would have gone into Ireland from England/Scotland and not left it for me.

As it was, I went into Ireland, established a base, then waited for the French to thin out in England as they dealt with the HRE and others. Then went into Scotland, then down to Wessex. Easy, and I felt as though a French human would have made it a lot tougher.

Burma - thanks for the tip on bribig the Swedes at the start.

ichi

[Jazzman]

Ditto on getting Sweden, its good to have no matter who youre playing, playing Eng Early Hard and about year 1160 and bringing in about 1300f a year from sweden despite nothing in med yet. Flanders is great too but harder to get and protect.