Hail the Aragonese!

[Drucius]

...had a bash at the SP Campaign as the Aragonese? It's a *very* difficult start point, but I've managed to get myself into a very decent position by 1254 (expert mode), and I was wondering if anybody else has had a go.

[el_slapper]

Commentaire[/b] (Drucius @ Aout 04 2003,13:22)]...had a bash at the SP Campaign as the Aragonese? It's a *very* difficult start point, but I've managed to get myself into a very decent position by 1254 (expert mode), and I was wondering if anybody else has had a go.
They're winnable if you manage to expand successfully & quickly. I did a nice game with them. Hard, not expert. I'm not good enough for expert.

[Monk]

Quote[/b] (Drucius @ Aug. 04 2003,08:22)]...had a bash at the SP Campaign as the Aragonese? It's a *very* difficult start point, but I've managed to get myself into a very decent position by 1254 (expert mode), and I was wondering if anybody else has had a go.
yes i have, if you can hold onto Aragon while taking Valencia and Navarer (sp?) then you can estaplish a strong foothold in spain. eliminating the spanish first then onto the Almohads one can easily dominate the south weast part of the map.

[jones21]

i have one as the aragonese. i conuqured the french first though and left spain alone

[invalidopcode]

Playing on expert/early with the Argonese, one strategy that I found helpful was to send some crusades down thru Spain against the Almohads. The Spanish forces get weakened and you get the Almohads territories pretty easily. Then, with the Spanish so weak, it easy to conquer the whole Iberian(?) pennisula plus some of north africa.

From that point, build some ships and spread eastward and then start going north into french/english regions...

And don't forget to take advantage of the iron deposits to get some kickass troops.

Also, as was mentioned before on this forum, if you use the Jinettes from the Spanish regions, make sure you take them off skirmish. If you don't they will hardly ever throw their spears - making them useless. And using auto-resolve with them seems to be a losing proposition for some reason. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

HTH

[Prince Lom]

At one point, I used to think that the only good thing about the Aragonese was that they have little chance of having to fight the Mongols. ;)I've gotten better since then though.

I was also put off by their appalling colours Are these the actual colours of the Aragonese historically? Because if so, may God have mercy on their terrible taste in heraldry. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif


I used the same Crusade tactic as 'Invalidopcode' to take all of Spain and North Africa. Once you have Spain, you can set up a navy and start the money pouring in from trade in Cordoba and Portugal.

But the problem is that this takes time to do - and the other Factions don't just sit around doing nothing. Often, by the time you've got a decent little empire, either France, HRE or England have become a very powerful mega-Faction. And of course attacking them runs the risk of excommunication...

I think perhaps the best thing to do is keep strong border armies at the Pyrenees bottleneck (Aragon and Navarre), and meanwhile roll your armies up North Africa, taking Egypt, and continue on up to at least Antioch. You'll make a lot of cash from trade with these provinces, enough to build up a navy to keep the trade routes open and to make mighty armies to crush all enemies with.

[motorhead]

Just at the tail-end of my first Aragonese campaign. Start was tough as the Spanish rolled up the Almohads and I only held Navarre, Aragon and Valencia for the first 100 yrs or so. French also became very strong early and were on my northern borders with multi-stacks. My best general was my first king (3-star) and his heirs went quickly downhill after that. What to do? I went the special agent route and used inquisitors extensively (2 6-star, 4 5-star) and eventually arranged the downfall of the Spanish into total rebellion. Gobbled up the rest of the peninsula (liberal bribing) and pushed quickly into North Africa and finished off the last of the Almohads. Turned north and joined in the fun by attacking the French who had been at war with just about anyone they came in contact with. Finally in late 1300's and about 6 provinces from a minor victory and ready to take it as much of the fun goes out of the game at this point for me.