Your best stragedy for the English Faction.

[jbmagic]

What is your best stragedy for the englsih faction early years on the MTW single player campaign?



thanks

[Doge Enrico II]

Look here:
England Tips (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=20;t=5892;hl=engl)

[Jabberwock]

It's worth considering bribing the Welsh and Scots, to give you some extra troops (especially the Welsh longbowmen) early on. Take Flanders early then stop and build. Flanders will allow you to protect Wessex and transfer troops around all your provinces without boats.

Good luck http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[theadept]

i once wiped out the french and conquered all of france and then tried to get rid of the pope. dont bother he appears again later

[Richard the Lionheart]

I left the papacy until last, took the rest of europe then moved in on them.

[Theodoret]

(Assuming Early Period start)

First I build up in the continental provinces, sufficient to protect against French aggression. Meanwhile I raise armies to take first Wales, then Scotland, then Navarre. Build a fleet and take Ireland. Then build more ships to trade with Denmark, the Empire, the Almohads/Spanish, and the Italians (if possible). Invade Scandinavia. Also take Lithuania if possible as its one of the best provinces in the game.

You should now have a fairly sizable empire, with opportunity for expansion in a number of areas. At this point I would turn my attention back to France. Prepare to conquer both Ile de France and Brittany in one fell swoop. If you can afford it, raise another army in Wessex and attack Flanders as well. With luck this succesion of hammer blows should prevent any French recovery. Ile de France is a particularly important target as the French usually concentrate all their advanced buildings there.

Once France is taken, you have a number of options. I prefer to secure my borders in France and expand in the Baltic, but the Iberian Peninsula is a tempting target as well. If you build up English naval power you should be able to strike any rebelling province accesible by sea by the High Era. This allows you to set up outposts across Europe from which you can expand should the opportunity present itself. I try to take a Greek island, such as Crete, if I can. From such a base I've sent fleets to block all trade to Byzantium and Egypt before, and expanded into the Middle East and Anatolia.

Once you've done all that, build up your fleets and armies, strangle your enemies' trade and attack them from sea and land. Hit the most powerful nation first and try to cut its domains into separate parcels, using your sea-borne mobility and island outposts to good advantage. Victory will be yours as long as England remains Queen of the Seas.

[NagatsukaShumi]

Your first priority should be to destroy the French, later on they will build in strength and then tun on you, allies or not, wiping them out early is key, so wipe out France quickly.

Then you should seal alliances with the nearest nations, Aragon and the Holy Roman Empire. Sit and build for a while, then I suggest heavily that you take Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Then you can start pumping out good Longbowmen, Highland Clansmen and definately Gallowglasses, making up armies of Gallowglasses and Longbowmen is a good idea if you want to go out conquering as the Longbowmen are the elite archers and Gallowglasses can hold their own very well, I suggest you continue to use both throughout, adding the halberdiers, billmen, Chivilric Knights etc later on when they become available, but I wouldn't sit there waiting til you can, you have got to expand, but first take the British Isles and get your Gallowglasses and Longbowmen.

After that you have two choices, the HRE or Spain/Almohad (Depends which one came out on top during the war that is inevitable down there). I'd suggest Spain, its safe to say this is the ideal one to go for as the HRE are very powerful foes if you decide to tackle them, so go to Spain, if your lucky it'll be the Alomhads down there meaning you won't be excommunicated for attacking them. So go for Spain, and take it.

Now you should expand down into Africa, wipe out the Almohads and Egyptians and then stop, all the time building up your buildings and advancing your units. Now is the time to expand East, this will be EXTREMELY easier considering excommunication is inevitable as there won't be assault from Catholics westwards and east will be all you have to worry about, go into Germany and take it, then make sure the Germans are gone for good, then I STRONGLY suggest you move south and tackle the Italians and bring yourself directly next to the Papacy, but DO NOT attack them just yet. Check what catholic factions remain (Most likely these will be Denmark, Poland, Hungary and Sicily), wipe these out, at some point you'll be excommunicated again simply because the time it takes will have caused the pope to have died and all excommunications to become void. When they are gone, mass your armies next to the border of the Papacy and crush them, the Pope is now a puppet to your will, and no one is left to argue with you about it, only Orthodox and Muslim, and they won't care. Now your the dominant and only catholic, things are easier, but keep HUGE armies in the Papal States and Rome incase the Pope decides to rear his head again, same goes for other regions, keep armies incase of rebeillion or re-appearing factions, but make some armies to expand.

Go North East, take the Russian provinces and then come down and tackle Byzantium and then the Turks, then hopefully if all goes well the English will be the owners of Europe, of coarse this is just one way but in my view its the most effective way.

[The_Emperor]

As the above post says, attack France first. It is a must, then Bribe the Welsh and the Scots to get them on side, I don't like to fight them because they are rebels and fairly easy to get on side with a bribe.

France has a lot of wealth to develop with farmland and trade... and that is what will keep your war machine marching. Flanders and Champagne are the true gems here, so make sure you keep them protected.

If attacking Spain or the HRE is not to your taste, you can do a naval attack on Norway and Sweden, and from there move across into Novgorod and the Steppes, but this is risky and you can overextend yourself, but it does avoid Papal Displeasure for a while longer.

[ichi]

JB: Good responses from the others, but one thing that I concentrate on early is connecting the provinces on the British Isles with those on the continent. Very early on one must either take Flanders from the French OR build fleets and ports in Wessex and Normandy. This is important to increase your lexibility in responding to threats and opportunities.

The apparently easy course is to take Stupid Flanders (as Homer S would say), but this creates tension and I like to build for a while before engaging the French. If I stay at peace with them eventually the HRE and French go at it, and I can pick off the weakened armies.

By building fleets and ports you are somewhat forced to invest in the future, which gives you a big advantage when you wish to take Ireland and start trading.

I make friends with the Spanish (primarily due to the fact that I am a flaming Francophobe); bribe the Welsh, conquer the Scots (again, my Irish heritage makes it fun for me to use force in Scotland).

ichi

[jbmagic]

thanks all


but how do u attack french early, without the pope giving a warning not to attack the catholic faction....

and how u get all of french providence and any catholic providence without the pope getting mad ... i tought the whole point of game is the conquer as many providence u can to win game...


thanks

[The_Emperor]

Quote[/b] (jbmagic @ May 11 2003,16:29)]thanks all


but how do u attack french early, without the pope giving a warning not to attack the catholic faction....

and how u get all of french providence and any catholic providence without the pope getting mad ... i tought the whole point of game is the conquer as many providence u can to win game...


thanks
The key is to strike hard and fast and train spearmen like there's no tomorrow.

If you can occupy the French provinces and put them trapped into a castle, send in your King to assualt alone (keeping his heirs safe) and get him inside the fort walls (sometimes they open the gates to rush out at you and you can run in and they will close the gate behind you, effectively trapping your king so he will be sure to die or be captured&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

The other thing is to assault a gatehouse in a Keep and let the Boiling Oil do its work... Killing off your king is the best early way to get your Excommunication dissolved.

Besides only the Spanish have the ability to launch crusades early on, so excommunication isn't that bad.

[Popeye]

I have to agree that there is absolutely no escaping war with the French.

However, you don't have to attack them.

Current campaign, early/hard/english, I decided to put off war as much as possible. I married daughters to France and Spain, then married daughters of Aragorn, and Married still more daughters to France and Germany. I started building boats in Wessex asap, and built up farmland everywhere else. My first new troops were bribed Welsh Longbowmen, followed years later by bribed Scots. After getting the farms of Normandy and Anjou to 60%, I started working up to being able to recruit feudal sergeants. I spread the bribed forces into the French provinces along with good leaders, and made very thin garrisons of peasantry in the unexposed provinces of England.

France attacked. Now, I knew it was coming, because he turned away my daughter, so I was suspicious that something was up. I managed to have a little time to increase the garrisons with a few Hobilars and spearmen, but I was dreadfully outnumbered.

Hooray for the Longbowmen Without them, I'd have surely lost both Normandy and Anjou, but after three successive attacks, France was left weak enough in both Toulouse and Brittany that they were mine without the need for a castle siege or assault, which is fortunate because the Pope took France's side.

You can build up your army and maybe forestall the attack, but war is coming. Even if you beat France, you may be left weak enough to invite other neighbors to come at you.

My theory is, go for income early, and then develop the better units. Trash troops don't help against the French.

[MalibuMan]

I've played England several times (national pride and all that) and I've settled on a quite weird strategy as being my favourite.

England's trouble at first is that it is, to put it frankly, piss-poor. The British Isles have mediocre farming incomes, only one province with more than one trade item, and little in the way of resources. My first priority is to get my hands on a really profitable province. So the first move of the game is perhaps the weirdest: I send my emissary to bribe Sweden. He takes a while to get there so you have to do it first before the Danes take it. Meanwhile marry a princess off to the Danes to prevent any war.

Why take Sweden? It's an incredibly profitable province: good farming, some resources and three trade goods.

The next move is to bribe Wales to get copper and Longbowmen. Bribing these two provinces means no troop losses, but more importantly it gets you their troops. The Swedish Vikings are always good to have early in the game, and the Welsh Longbowmen are like gold dust. It'll be ages till you can build your own and these guys have valour 3 Protect them at all costs

As a general policy, since the starting position is so poor, I concentrate on keeping peace with France for as long as possible (marry off a princess here, but keep one in reserve for when Tancred de Normandie appears because he kicks ass but is disloyal). Building the navy is priority number one, to achieve trade income (exploiting Sweden's real value) and link up with your continental provinces.

From there on you can do what you like. A strategy I've found successful is to take most or all of the provinces around the Baltic, as their trade goods rake in the cash. With an empire built on trade income you can easily be the richest, but need a huge navy to safeguard it in times of war.