Dhepee
09-30-2003, 18:22
I think that the king of Spain would hate me more if I let him live longer, but that's putting the cart before the horse.
I am once again playing as my favorite faction, later period and hard, the English. I've given them gothic and teutonic knights, because I really like them and don't like playing as other factions. I know I know, I'm such an anglophile. But being an anglophile justifies stomping all over the French, so it evens out. I also like games that go on and on and on and on. I've modded the game to end in 1800.
I try to stay out of the middle east and eastern europe until I want to win the game. I prefer to build huge armies, and using Doc's chart, let the AI create huge armies and fight monsterous wars from time to time. For this I use the Spanish. They are conveniently located just south of my acquisitions in France and every so often they feel like they should invade Navarre or sink my ships. So I respond in kind. Well, okay I provoke them. I put an inquisitor in every province and every so often get the nice little message to the effect "Inquisition in Valencia Spins out of Control, 3800 Dead". So they attack me. Immediately my armies roll into action.
I have my three main invadin' armies. Two are an even mix of SAP, Gothic Foot Knights, Longbowmen, Late Royal Knights, and Gothic Knights. They are used to invade a province, and sweep the enemy before them. Usually the enemy declines battle and runs. The third army is used for the express purpose of holding down provinces during a siege, lots of pikes, and bowmen, with a few gothic foot and gothic knights.
I rush one army into a province the Spaniards flee to the castle or the neighboring province. I just move my main army out and keep pushing them back, while my defensive army waits out the siege, usually 1 or two years. As soon as the castle falls I destroy everything in the province. I don't want to keep Spain, I just want to make it suffer a little bit, rebuild and then fight it again. That's the beauty of unnanturally long games. Since I didn't build it, I'm not taking a loss on the destruction. It's all pure profit. By this time there is another siege to hold down and I move on. Oh sure the Spanish reappear in the province, but it's usually a Jinnette and some militia.
I chase the Spanish around the map for awhile, merrily creating havoc as I go. Eventually the King runs into a problem around Egypt, the Egyptians. He has no place else to go and must fight. That's okay. I have two stacks of very happy soldiers, and a third that is busily destroying the last developed bit of the Spanish Empire. We fight the glorious battle, the king escapes, or he dies and one of his sons takes over. There is this annoying tendency for the Princes of Spain to pop up out of nowhere in provinces that I have already leveled. Either that or the king escapes to one of them.
I could send my armies back, but that takes too much work, and my brothels and stewes have been busy. Time for the assasins. "Assasins?" you say, "They're bloody useless." Not true my friend. They are only useless in provinces that have border forts, watch towers, spys, local asssins, and emissaries. Spain is a wreck, they are lucky to have a fort. I kill the king. The parchment shows him face down in his lunch, a knife in his back. I feign shock and surprise, as the parchment suggests. I repeat. Ahh to live a world with no border forts or enemy agents. Soon the Spanish die out. My armies march home to rebuild. And as if by magic 50 turns later I get to do it again.
I am once again playing as my favorite faction, later period and hard, the English. I've given them gothic and teutonic knights, because I really like them and don't like playing as other factions. I know I know, I'm such an anglophile. But being an anglophile justifies stomping all over the French, so it evens out. I also like games that go on and on and on and on. I've modded the game to end in 1800.
I try to stay out of the middle east and eastern europe until I want to win the game. I prefer to build huge armies, and using Doc's chart, let the AI create huge armies and fight monsterous wars from time to time. For this I use the Spanish. They are conveniently located just south of my acquisitions in France and every so often they feel like they should invade Navarre or sink my ships. So I respond in kind. Well, okay I provoke them. I put an inquisitor in every province and every so often get the nice little message to the effect "Inquisition in Valencia Spins out of Control, 3800 Dead". So they attack me. Immediately my armies roll into action.
I have my three main invadin' armies. Two are an even mix of SAP, Gothic Foot Knights, Longbowmen, Late Royal Knights, and Gothic Knights. They are used to invade a province, and sweep the enemy before them. Usually the enemy declines battle and runs. The third army is used for the express purpose of holding down provinces during a siege, lots of pikes, and bowmen, with a few gothic foot and gothic knights.
I rush one army into a province the Spaniards flee to the castle or the neighboring province. I just move my main army out and keep pushing them back, while my defensive army waits out the siege, usually 1 or two years. As soon as the castle falls I destroy everything in the province. I don't want to keep Spain, I just want to make it suffer a little bit, rebuild and then fight it again. That's the beauty of unnanturally long games. Since I didn't build it, I'm not taking a loss on the destruction. It's all pure profit. By this time there is another siege to hold down and I move on. Oh sure the Spanish reappear in the province, but it's usually a Jinnette and some militia.
I chase the Spanish around the map for awhile, merrily creating havoc as I go. Eventually the King runs into a problem around Egypt, the Egyptians. He has no place else to go and must fight. That's okay. I have two stacks of very happy soldiers, and a third that is busily destroying the last developed bit of the Spanish Empire. We fight the glorious battle, the king escapes, or he dies and one of his sons takes over. There is this annoying tendency for the Princes of Spain to pop up out of nowhere in provinces that I have already leveled. Either that or the king escapes to one of them.
I could send my armies back, but that takes too much work, and my brothels and stewes have been busy. Time for the assasins. "Assasins?" you say, "They're bloody useless." Not true my friend. They are only useless in provinces that have border forts, watch towers, spys, local asssins, and emissaries. Spain is a wreck, they are lucky to have a fort. I kill the king. The parchment shows him face down in his lunch, a knife in his back. I feign shock and surprise, as the parchment suggests. I repeat. Ahh to live a world with no border forts or enemy agents. Soon the Spanish die out. My armies march home to rebuild. And as if by magic 50 turns later I get to do it again.