How do you wage war?

[ChaosLord]

While playing today as the Sicilians I decided to conquer Hungary. Spent a little while planning then launched my assault, had them down in 10 years or so. I usually don't do that though, more often I go for quick land grabs with slow buildups. So that got me thinking, how does everyone else wage war?

Campaigns: You plan out the assault and conquest of entire nations/regions.

Battles: You go for quick land grabs or specific targets, building up your nation slowly.

Raids: You just like to kill, and the cash that comes with it.

[Shahed]

Campaigns. I plan everything in detail, armies, what I am going to build where, province specialisation..battles and raids if the opporutunity arises in the campaign. For those nations who I care not to conquer but they attack me, then I raid till they have nothing left, and let them rebuild.

[bighairyman]

i usually do campaigns, plan on it at least for 2 turns.if the enemy have more than 1 border county w/ me. i usually attack the richest. and if the war drags on and i'm losing troops . i usually use the punder money to hire mercanries.

sometimes, i carry out raids when i'm bored. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Oaty]

I use 2 of the tactics and have never resulted to raiding. I do conquests though in the game where the comp that I am at war with is producing ships there and is doing nothing but annoying me. Usually I can't get there by sea because it is such a problem so I quit reinforcing all my other fronts and all reinfoercements go to making a land route to that province. Its kinda funny that that A.I.'s advantage is its downfall for me as I conquer that territory with such brute force that what would have taken me 10 or 15 years to conquer is gone in 3 years and all in its path is lost too. It is very aggravating that 1 4 star ship can reak so much havoc on a huge navy. I hope they fix that problem where 1 ship can stalk your navy and all you can do is to make sure your ships stay out of reach of it

[gaelic cowboy]

I generally just take two or three enemy provinces making sure to keep my border as intact as possible leaving a bottle neck for the enemy.

[The_678]

I always go full-out campaign till the entire enemy country is destroyed http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif . I don't like being at war with people and find that just taking Egypt for example, can be annoying because after that the Egyptians keep attacking you. I find it better and easier to destroy the faction completly so I can build up more provinces instead of just one before my next campaign.

[Mount Suribachi]

Campaigns carefully planned to try and strike at weak spots or key strategic locations as much as possible

[Lunael]

Definitely campaigns most of the time. Set a goal, build up sufficient forces to achieve the goal, launch campaign, stabilize your position after goal is achieved. Repeat. It´s just somewhat easier for me to keep the game in control when I have clear goals in mind. Same with pretty much every game I play, from Combat Mission to Master of Magic.

One has to be ready to adapt though. If your neighbour just happens to be excommunicated and you have enough forces nearby, why not grab a few provinces from the godless heretic? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Raids for cash probably comes to play only with Vikings in their campaign, as the cash benefit it signifigant. But I´ve seen many using a strategy where you run your huge stack through enemy areas just to destroy buildings and weaken them, with no permanent holding of the provinces in mind. This is a sort of raiding too.

All in all, one probably wages war in all three ways mentioned in the poll, different ways for different times.

-Juha

[magnatz]

I only do battles if I need to occupy and keep a strategic location, otherwise I prefer to stack up troops and launch a full scale campaign against whoever attacks me first (or attack any nearby rebels).

Raids doesn't seem cost effective to me, but sometimes I raid a emerging or declining faction to make sure it stays that way.

[Miltiades]

I tend to go for campaigns. Taking a cerain group of provinces till I reach a short border with only one or two provinces (eg current campaign as the English, moved down through Spain as far as Cordoba, meaning a one province border to fortify against the remaining Almohads in Africa, giving a solid base to finish them from, or fall back to as needed)

Did make one supreme screw up when I first started playing Medieval. Playing as the Danes, launched a raid into Finland, but destroyed the port in the process Since i couldnt get the army home I decided to just keep raiding till it was lost, strengthening it if he chance came up. I ended up in control of most of Eastern Europe and worked back round the land to Denmark All's well that ends well, as they say http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[The_Emperor]

Campaigns all the way... I plan my advance through enemy provinces and sometimes the plan changes to reflect the change in situation, but ultimately a plan is much better than going at it in all directions.

I only do raids if I am desperate for cash, and that seldom happens.

So to sum up, I plan the demise of one faction and I stomp them into the ground and when i am done I move on to the next one...

Not all factions get eliminated by me, The Papacy for instance is very dangerous to wipe out because it always comes back, so I raid them and corner them in.

[Cebei]

None of them. I strike where it hurts most. For example, when playing with Turks I strike Egypt via sea route and raze everything I got then withdraw my troops and pile up armies on the Egyptian fronter for defence against next turn counter attack. Better yet; if Egyptians have foot soldiers-only in a province, I invade there with a group of horse archer skirmishers and I withdraw them when their ammo depletes, decimating many foot soldiers which can be used in counterstrike on the next turn. I would suggest mixing up all of these means; not using one of them.

[flyd]

Campaign is the only way to wage a war. You may say that you sometimes conduct warfare using raids and battles. However, this is all part of a campaign. There must be a reason why you want to invade or raid a certain province. And a series of battles/raids with similar reasons make up a campaign. Every detail may not be planned out at first, but it's still a campaign.

[Si GeeNa]

Depends on the faction you play...

Playing the traditional Medieval powers, you tend towards Campaign level wars. As the small time Aragon and Hungary, you tend towards Raiding and Land-grab where available. The lack of initiative might suggest the difference in Strategic capability.

In terms of preference, i tend towards the Campaign types. But recently, i've tried Hungary and its inevitable that Campaigns cannot be planned sufficiently with their limited resources.

Having proper garrisons for my provinces means i can only go with a stripped-down version of 10 units for a Striking Force. Hardly a strongly-mustered force to go head-to-head against the Byz. But it suffices if i look out for Targets of Opportunities.

[katar]

campaigns with limited objectives.

i usually select a nation, build up all the units that i require and launch a simultaneous attack on all of their countries within reach (some of the attacks are diversionary only, just to tie down enemy units for a turn).

once my forces have eliminated or forced the enemy to retreat to the castle or another province i bring in wholely defenceive formations (usually made up of six catapults, four archers, and four infantry plus a unit of knights and swordsmen) to hold off any counter attacks and withdraw my offencive units for R&R.

[Dhepee]

I use a combination of all three. I usually open with a battle or series of battles to take out the enemy's biggest army stacks. I prep for the battle with assasins/inquisitors.
Once I have destroyed their strongest army, I begin raiding. Depending on the size of the enemy I have 2 or 3 moderately sized armies with a lot of large units and a strong cav arm, and a couple of small defensive units as followers to lay siege if need be. As soon as I get control of a province I destroy everything and move on. At the end of a series of raids I consolidate all of my small armies into one or two big ones for border defense and disband all the stragglers.
It seriously destabilizes the enemy and gives you some quick cash. I don't hang on to a province/leave it intact, unless I plan to use it as a buffer or as in the case of Switzerland as a source of high value units.
My overall tendency in game play, and this makes the strategy make more sense, is to play for glorious achievement and to go from early through late, building a strong, centralized state, so it helps if none of my neighbors can build more than a castle without being romped all over.

[Sjakihata]

a combo of campaign and battles. Small campaigns and big battles, this prevent rebellion and other such things.

[o_loompah_the_delayer]

Almost certainly campaigns. Even if the AI attacks me, I would rather wait and build up armies so that I can overrun the AI in one swoop (also it seems to me if you take four-six provinces at one go, the enemy faction usually collapses into civil war http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif).

Raid also if I am muslim, take out chapter houses. If christian take out Rome from the sea.

[Hikarr]

Depends on which faction and my goal for that week/decade.
The proud moorish warriors might have a campaign to conquor
the entire Iberian peninsula, but another country might
be more interested in trade and only grabbing the occasional
rebel province. (Enemies don't like trading with you)

Keeping a few campaigns alive, you can either jump between
the warriors and the merchants, or have a game where you
combine this, taking advantage where you can but building
up an army with your wealth for more focused conquest.

[LestaT]

depending on which faction i played usually the first thing i do in the early years is to gather the rebel provinces nearby (bribery or conquered) when i had sufficient provinces to survive the first 50 years the i slowly built economics and military (concentrated on farming insted of trade) and try to be alied with many factions without any war unless attacked. built a strong defensive armies as long as i can support them especially the borders so no neighbours dare to attack. during that time i send my agents all over the map especially imams or priests (these guys usually not a target for asasins compared to emmisaries)

after 50 years the i started my expansion. my target is usually neighbours who already engaged in a war with another faction. if i'm playing as catholics then i usually choose the one who's already been excommunicated (save me from my own excommunication) no need to do a crusade. just palin attack with armies you get. attack as many teritories you can. usually no faction can stand wars on two fronts (ask hitler or napoleon) very soon their armies are weak and their lands are up for grabs. if you already palced agents like inquisitors or cardinals earlier and you have a strong army present the province is unlikely to rebel. then i keep on going til the faction is eliminated, moving reserved to recent conquered province and using the main armies to attack another. when i finish eliminating the faction then i spend the next few years to retrain my soldiers and upgrading the building. economic n military. usually this time i started to trade using sea route.

well, i suppose that summons up. the cycle keep repeating on and on until i had total domination. one other trick is to wage war with the strongest first even though they're your ally because if you let the evolve to large the they'll war upon you one day. better have lots of weak enemies then one strong ally.

adios.

[mystic brew]

(1st post&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

well, hate to be awkward, but all 3 have their place
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

though I suppose I should set out my gameplay mode to explain why.

After a couple of games, my next couple have been in this vein, and I've found it a lot more fun.

I play expert, early, glorious achievements. Most recently as the english.
As a result I don't have a particularly expantionist agenda. I don't like keeping a large standing army, and I use mercs to leaven my forces when it is necessary - then disband them when they've served their purpose. I 'donate' any second line or obselete units to crusades whenever I can, or I disband them. It seems more ... real to life, if you like.

Likewise I don't like using peasants as garrisons, it smacks to me of gamesmanship. I'll only award titles to knights, or a unit particularly appropriate to the province. eg. ok to have the duke of wales as a bowman.

So whenever they aren't away fighting, I'll have a small standing army from each province, based on the provinces income. so Flanders will be able to support a decent sized force, while Northumbria will be scrapings...

My style, so anything I say has to be viewed through this.

Glorious achievements seems to me to be twofold. One is doing your thing - I like the crusading options personally... Two is keeping the balance of power.

For me 'battles' are unplanned, usually defensive. uprisings, when others attack you.

Campaigns are the main way of achieving your objectives, but can be many staged. These are for the glorious achievements, and are specifically for your benefit. Set an objective, put the pieces in place, make it happen.

for example, as a crusading country you need to establish a base on the mediterannian, and quick. so as the english I launched a lightning two year campaign almost immediately against the Franch, siezing Flanders, Brittany and (most importanly) Toulouse, then storming the castles in the seond year to avoid excommunication (so some gamesmanship is ok&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif. This is an operation with a long term objective. The Aragonese made the mistake of attacking me at that point, so I did the same to them, then married off my daughters to the HR Emperor and the Spanish King to help secure my borders. So I had Aragon and Toulouse build up my mediteranean fleet, while Mercia and Northumbria built the north sea fleet. I'd regard this as all campaign based, aiming to enable my coming crusades to go straight to Outremer.

the second part of GA games is keeping the balance of power. i try to keep factions alive if at all possible, and anyhow you need to keep some factions in line - especially in eastern europe. This is where 'raids' come in. They are historically quite accurate.

As the English, or indeed any 'edge' country, you need to be able to strike out at anyone if they are getting too big for their boots, so I have established bases in far flung corners of the world. Malta, Cyprus, Sweden, all good. Build a port and an inn, and that's more or less it. When it becomes necessary i recruit all the mercs i can get my sweaty little paws on, pick a particularly nasty general (with nice high dread) to command them, and send them off to wreck havoc on the factions homelands. give the enemy the runaround, and raze everything as i go... Raids are quite good fun, and if a country is in full on war, it's amazing how much money you can raise (or raze http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif). Enough for the mercs to pay for themselves. Then you have a general who raises a few stars, disband the blood soaked mercs, and leave Byzantium (to pick a particularly satisfying example) a smoking wreckage behind. Admittedly, this will lead to big rebellions in your wake, but once you've torn up infrastructure you can set a faction back 50 years, more than enough to stop a war.

phew. that was a long one.

Hi to all...

[Gregoshi]

A whopping, big hello and welcome to FLYdude, Hikarr, LestaT (again http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif ) and mystic brew http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

Everyone has lots to say on this topic. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[dessa14]

I do a mix of options one and two normally ill pick a fight with a nation and bring it down to one terratory in 5 years at most then my forces are overstreached and the enemies allies flank me and it comes down to lots of little skirmishes
thanks dessa

[Tiwaz]

I guess my style would be campaign battles. When someone starts war with me (one way or another) I will wipe them out if they don't offer peace while I'm in the good mood.

Slow progress since I try to make sure there are no gaps between my armies for enemy to use.