single player camapign help

[jbmagic]

when u guys play single player campaign game on mtw or viking...any basic stragedy? like should i build the same things in all providence, if not which providence should have all the building made. just on boarders?

its kinda of confusing when u have alot of providence and not sure if you should build what building , etc..

any tips will help me thanks


thanks

[Doug-Thompson]

Kill somebody.

I am not an experienced player, but my impression is that MTW players should attempt to eliminate or mortally wound another faction ASAP, at least in the Early Period.

Of course, this is not always possible. The Danes can hardly wipe out the Holy Roman Empire in the opening moves. However, Danes can conquer the rest of Scandinavia in the opening decade. The general principle applies.

What building or economic upgrade has as much effect as destroying your closest rival and grabbing his land?

So, for the sake of discussion, I'd propose that you start in the early era by building forts in your starting provinces that don't have any, and inns in the provinces that do have forts. A little "deficit spending" is tolerable if you get a couple of high-quality mercenary units to help you destroy your chosen enemy quickly.

[Satyr]

You should build a fort and border forts in all your provinces. After that, if a province has Iron as a resource, it is good to build that city up for producing troops. Don't build all provinces the same. If they have good starting revenue, build farms. If they have trading goods, build ports and merchants. Concentrate on building high quality troops from a few provinces and then as you take more area, start upgrading the most advanced province to produce more troops closer to the front. Also some provinces will have a valor bonus for building a certain type of troop, if you can take advantage of these bonus', so much the better.

[Swisspike]

If I may share my humble inputs.

War is economic in nature.

I prefer to keep a low profile, while building up my economic infrastructure.

Half (or more) of all my incoming monies go to increasing my incoming monies.

The rest is used to (selectively) enhance my ability to rapidly generate high quality forces.

I do not like to maintain a large standing army. Armies are expensive.

At 50 per turn, a full stack of 16 = 800 gold per turn. This will build a port, or help develop a farm.....each and every single turn.

Keep enough for defense, develop your infrastructure, enhance your military buildings.

This is my strategy, and it works well for me. YMMV.

[Doug-Thompson]

"A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week." Gen. George S. Patton Sr.

[Daevyll]

I tend to spcialize my provinces, ie make one churn out agents, one cavalry, two infantry, one artillery etc.

Also maximize your moneymakers, provinces with high agricultural output, trade goods or mines. Trade is potentially the biggest moneymaker for most factions, but you'll have to invest in harbours and ships.

If you're succesful in the strategic part, the tactical battles should pose no major problem.

[Asmodeus]

It depends what type of campaign you are playing, GA campaigns have different priorities (and I find them more interesting to play than pure Domination games). Depending which faction you play you should find out right at the start what your GA objectives are and start to plan for them - some of them are very challenging. Also keep a check on them as new objectives become active throughout the different eras.

In general though, rapid expansion can be hazardous. It increases the risk of rebelions, and can make you a target for other factions. At times it can also give you a big advantage over other factions who arent prepared to counter it. So you'll have to learn that through experience.

Develop your economic and religeous buildings as well as military, apart from the obvious financial gain they will increase the loyalty and stability in your empire, and the morale of your troops. For most factions, Sea Trade is vital for survival and gives your coastal provinces protection from raiding or invasion.

Specialize your troop production in provinces that are otherwise poor for farming or trade. Take advantage of Valour or Iron bonus provinces as this makes a big difference in combat. Upgrade armies with the latest available armour/weapon/morale/valour bonuses, or if they are obsolete or disloyal disband them and build newer units. Keep an eye on their support costs, some of the newer units may actually be cheaper to maintain in the long run. Try to have a balanced army that can be either offencive or defencive and experiment with the different units as some of the seemingly less powerful units (like humble Spearmen) can be very effective if used in the right way. Lots of more info on this in the Table of Contents thread.

Remember Security Your rivals will rip your empire to shreds if you give them the opportunity so guard your borders well. Use spies and assassins as well as watch towers and border forts to guard your realm.

Lastly, protect your Dynasty. Your emersaries should make sure that each heir has a suitable foreign bride and this is not easily accomplished later in the game. Failure to do so could mean you end up with no heirs at all. Beware disloyalty Any general or prince suspected of Treason should suffer an approriate death as an example to others http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[The_Emperor]

Always try to get the technological edge of superior armour, weapons and morale from bonus structures.

I like to expand quickly and make sure I get hold of the high income provinces early on. Then I dig in and build up to get a lot of money...

Develop each province into a specialist province (one training cavalry, another Spearmen, Another doing Archers, another with men at arms, etc) this will enable you to develop a big army quickly. Develop your rich lands into income generating/strategic agent training areas.

[HopAlongBunny]

Specializing provinces can help. If you decide on one province for spears then build only spearmakers and armour there; in addition to "happiness buildings" like border forts, taverns, inns, eventually a church and so on. You get better troops with the higher level buildings of a class, and a valour upgrade for a master.

All provinces should get 80% farms eventually. Maximize the richest ones first. You need no building upgrades to do this so it can be accomplished (relatively) quickly.

Prioritizing is complicated. You need money to make war...or even mount a reasonable defence. You just have to make a plan and see if you can carry it out http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Doug-Thompson]

It is difficult to expand your economy and develop specialized provinces until you have some provinces to work with.

I'm not advocating going off on a tear to conquer the world from the start. My argument is that if you are the Almohads, for instance, you should quickly destroy the Spanish. Also, my opinion only refers to starting in th Early Age.

That sort of attack can get you excommunicated when you play a Catholic faction. This is one reason I haven't played Catholic factions much, unless they border Muslim or Orthodox territories that can be attacked.

It is very hard to develop a good economy, even in peace, if you are hemmed in by a rival faction that wants the same "development" areas you do.

[HopAlongBunny]

Quote[/b] (Doug-Thompson @ May 21 2003,09:57)]It is difficult to expand your economy and develop specialized provinces until you have some provinces to work with.
Good point.

I just think the game is easier if you start with some long/mid-term objectives clearly defined.

[KyodaiSteeleye]

I would submit to a lot of the strategies already given. Specialise troop production in those provinces that have troop advantages. Specialise economic output in those that have economic advantages (eg: farming or port with trade goods and merchants). I generally will try and grab neutral provinces first, as these generally don't have much in the way of backup, and you're not going to have the pope/allies doing you in over them. Then build up your border forces and wait for someone to attack you - when they do (and they will soon enough), teach them to be nice by wiping them out.

In terms of strategic thinking - always try and expand so that you have the smallest border area possible - this means less defensive armies needed, and so more cash for your improvement projects.

[HindSight2020]

1. Choose an easier faction first -- as a learning exercise.
2. Learn the map. Once you have your faction chosen, look at how they are situated in relation to the surrounding factions. You may notice that a certain province is easy pickings. After you play a few campaigns as the same faction (you probably won't finish them all), you'll get a feel for what province needs to be taken next. Another point about the map is that there are certain key choke points (Morocco, Constantinople, Georgia, maybe Cordoba) that are important to hold.
3. Build a Fort and Border Fort in each province. Keep at least 100 men in each province. Both of these are the initial requirements for avoiding rebellions. There are others, but those are the minimum.
4. Choose the type of battle you like to wage. Do you like to use archers a lot? Or do you like spearmen? or cavalry? That will help determine, to a certain extent, what provinces you conquer and what structure you build. I prefer spearmen. If I'm playing as a Muslim faction, I will work to get Saracen spearmen. You'll need a Castle (the next level up from Fort) and the Spearmaker's Workshop. There is a corresponding Catholic unit that is just as effective.
5. Begin building a navy as early as possible.
6. If a coastal province gives you the opportunity of building a Merchant structure, do it. Then build a Port if you haven't already. The Merchant structure and the navy go hand in hand. They are the keys to trade routes.
7. Remember to build structures that will keep the populace happy: farm improvements, churches/mosques, etc.
8. If you like to play the Catholic factions, read everything you can about strategies related to the pope and excommunication.

There's more, but I can't think of anything right now. These tips may not be something everyone agrees on, since everyone develops a style they find successful. But they work for me. Hope they help. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[NewJeffCT]

First off, build your watch tower and then your border fort. From there, build a fort, then improved farmland 20%, then a port. From there, build a keep and then a shipwright and start cranking out ships.

I would recommend looking at your provinces and starting working towards any specialty troops there –That means, if you build a certain type of troop in that province, you get a valour bonus. If you are the English, work towards getting building billmen in Mercia (spearmaker’s guild, is it?) – if you are the Turks, Rum is the place to build Ottoman Infantry – if you are the Byzantines, build your Kataprhraktois in Constantinople.

I would also recommend building up your trade ability in the beginning. A few ports and trading posts will really add to your income. Also, upgrade farmland as much as reasonably possible – if the upgrade increases your yearly income by at least 50, do it. At an increase of 50 per year, a 2,500 florin investment in farmland now will pay for itself in 50 years (or less than one seventh of the total game time)

From there, I would upgrade your buildings as quickly as possible. Fort to keep to castle to citadel to fortress. From there, you can upgrade how you want – master armourers, master metalsmith, master foundry.

If you are a small faction to start, you need to be aggressive early to get more profitable land. As the large Egyptian faction, I just built up my money and did little else for a good 200 years until I had a bunch of fortresses and was cranking out siege cannons, kwahirizm cavalry, nizari and hashishin. But, when I was the Spanish, I launched several crusades against the Almos very quickly to retake one province of Spain at a time. When I was the Turks, I went all out against Egypt in 1089 and had them wiped out very quickly (much to my surprise…)

My early goals with every faction, however, is normally to get a ship in every sea province and to get a alim/bishop in every province.

[Nelson]

Specializing is a good idea. As you do so, remember that a unit can be retrained in a different region to gain armor, weapon, valor and morale bonuses that the original building region may not possess. Retraining/reinforcing can be done even if the unit is at full strength and takes only one turn even if you play with huge units, which take two turns to initially raise. This involves developing infrastructure for each unit in more than one place but yields very good troops when time allows.

Trade early and often but put ships everywhere for mobility if nothing else because most regions can be reached by sea. You never know when the odd rebellion will offer the chance to obtain a far away province rich in resources or strategically placed. Ships let you move armies quickly and thus reduce the need for large garrisons everywhere.

[NewJeffCT]

Yes, it is a big help to snag a rebel province like Sweden as early as possible - it is an iron province, has very good farmland and 2 or 3 trade goods, if I recall.