Some advice for a stagnant campaign

[Idaho]

I have a campaign going with the English and it's about 1215 or something. I have taken Scotland and much of northwestern europe.

My issues

I can't figure out how to get into Ireland The waters around Britain are full of Italian ships. I don't have any sea power at all
The Spanish surround me and are tough. My troops are starting to look a little old fashioned and although I can produce Billmen and Longbow - I seem to lack decent cav. Are Chiv Men-at-arms any good?
I have large armies (of mediocre troops - feudal MAA, Spear, Highlanders, Archers, Hob and Mounted Sarg) but top generals on my borders - 6 full armies. These are kind of stagnant, but not powerful enough to take on the Spanish. However the support costs are crippling. I don't have any money to build ships and better armies
[/list]

Any advice?

[King John II]

In another campeign I suggest you work towards building a powerful fleet from an early point. For myself, up to now, I have always headed my most developed initial province towards pumping out ships and designated two more provinces to do so once they became reasonably established.

But it may take you some time to get to that point in your present game.

So what you must do is to start to expand at all costs. Even a losing war is better than stagnating.

And I suspect you will not lose.

See if you can fight and destroy one of your landwad neighbours at a time. Aim to keep your borders defended if you can but, if you can't you will just have to take the risk of stripping away your garrisons so as to concentrate an invading force.

Make sure you have several peasant units ready to cope with disloyalty in each newly taken province.

Expanding will get some of your old troops killed off, get you some immediate cash in pillage and ransom and expand your economic base.

If at all possible do look towards establishing a navy/merchant marine at some stage. Because you can make a lot of moneyy from trade and ships improve your communications a lot. But don't try to d that first. Your first priority is to break out of the stagnation.

Or at least to die trying. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Brutal DLX]

So I take it you are at war with the Italians? In that case building ships while all your coastal provinces are blocked is not a good idea. If you have one uncontested region, then build some ships there, stack them and then try cleansing out the Italian vessels.
It is always important to guard your coastal waters as soon as your position on the land borders is relatively secure.
If you need more cash, I would consider disbanding a stack or two of your troops. Chivaric Men-At-Arms are better than feudal ones for sure, but if you have well trained loyal feudal ones, then you don't need to replace them for the moment. But build Chivalrics once you lose units due to fights.
Billmen should work fine versus the heavy enemy cavalry, but try to build to get some Feudal Knights and Chivalric Knights of your own. They are worth it. Your main problem is lack of naval force, I'd say.

[Idaho]

I don't know how to use navy at all. the manual is a bit sparing on detail. If I have a boat in the irish sea does that mean I can move troops from Wales to Ireland?

Actually I am allied to Italy - which is luck cos they have stacks of boats in the sea and Britain itself is largely undefended.

Both Italy and Spain are excommunicated - they are both powerful and both neighbour each other. I am kind of hoping they will kill each other.

I haven't used spies, crusades or inquisitors... are they useful to me?

[Brutal DLX]

Hm.
There are two things you can do with ships, one is forming a trade route and two is using them to attack other ships.

In order to form a trade route, you need at least one ship in each sea region from the starting to the target land province, so that they link up. Furthermore, you can only trade with foreign provinces that have a port. You, on the other hand, have to additionally construct trade posts (only possible in provinces that offer trade goods) in your port province, so you can't trade without having at least one port province with trade post and a shipping link to at least another foreign controlled province with a port.
Having multiple trade-ports as well as a world spanning shipping network will give you a lot of additional income.

Now to the second part:
Along a trade route you can also transport your armies, IF the sea zones on the route from origin to destination have either no foreign ships at all, or only ones from neutral/allied countries. A single enemy ship in a single sea zone along the way disrupts your trade link as well the possibility to transport troops You can check the state of sea zones by pressing and holding the v key on the stratmap.

Naval attacks are done by drag and drop, but note that depending on luck and speed of the ships, the enemy ships may evade you and no combat takes place. It is also worthwhile to look at the rank of the ship commander before attacking and using stacked ships or multiple single ships atatcking a target ship for improved success rate.
So, in your case, to get to Ireland, you need to have a port somewhere (lets say wales) and then have a ship in the Irish Sea. Once that is done, any unit located in Wales can be dropped on Ireland and move there on the next turn (unless there are hostile ships in the Irish sea, in which case you'd have to sink them first). Note that you can move troops to any province whose coastline borders on the seazone that you have a ship in, no matter if that province has a port or not, but you cannot go back from an invaded province until you've built a port there, so in your case your army will be stuck in Ireland for at least 4 years if it doesn't have a port already.

Spies are useful to guard your own provinces and improve loyalty, inquisitors are mostly used to burn hostile enemy generals. Try those units and see if you like them or not.
Crusades can be powerful but need careful planning. Consult your manual for some pointers.

[Drucius]

Spies increase loyalty in whichever province they are in, thus freeing up troops, also they detect other spies, which is why they gain experience without seeming to do anything. If you have a good number of spies (say 13 or so) you can dump them in an enemy preovince which is on the verge of rebellion and push it over the edge.

Successful crusades grant influence to your king, and are the only way some units can be obtained (Knights Templar, etc). I often use a crusade when I have targetted a muslim province simply for the kudos and the extra men it brings. Often I invade the province after declaring the crusade, fight the battle and pop the crusade in during the siege.

Inquisitors are fantastic, grand inquisitors are better still. Basically, one uses them as assassins.

[Idaho]

What's the advantage of one's king having influence?

Does being a part of a crusade make the troops more powerful? Can you move the crusade token around and pick up enemy troops?

[Dhepee]

I play as the English much of the time and I sympathize with your difficulty. It sounds like you don't have any provinces on the continent. Here is what I would do. There are two ways to go

Option One

-Don't put any ships in the same sea as the Italians or get into any fights with them for a little while. After a few turns of peace they will be much more likely to go for a ceasefire.

-Ask for the ceasefire with a high valor bishop or cardinal, they seem to work better than emissaries, but if you have a high valor emissary he'll do.

-Once you have peace build up a commercial navy, try to get to as many provinces in the Baltic and along the Atlantic coast. Once you get too powerful in the waters around Gibralter or Italy either the Spanish or Italians will attack you again.

-Start a crusade for three reasons. One, influence, the higher your king's influence the better the chance of marrying off a princess making an alliance. Also if you have a high influence your allies won't break treaties so often and its harder to get excommunicated. Two, it's a productive way to get rid of older units. You built them and paid upkeep on them so disbanding them is a waste. As your crusade moves through the map it gains units and you make money off of looting. Three, it gets you a province easily. Crusades fight well, if you pick a good province like Rhodes, Malta, or Constantinople you can develop it into a ship producing center and you will have eastern and western ship producers making it much easier to dominate trade. Crusading against islands is better because once you have a ship in the water you can't be invaded.

-Now that you are a little more powerful, you need to secure Flanders. Flanders has a land bridge into Wessex, which means that no matter how many ships you have blockading the channel an army can still invade England as if it were going over land.

-A note about ships, if an enemy ship is in a sea that sea is blockaded no trade or troops can flow through it until you destroy the enemy. A land bridge negates all shipping rules, making it imperative to control both sides of a land bridge. Once you establish a trade route, reinforce it with at least 3 or 4 ships, this if a war starts you can maintain your troop lines and your trade lines.

Option 2

-If peace isn't your thing try this. The Chevauchee, cross the land bridge to Flanders with as many men as you can spare. Take Flanders and garrison it. Begin moving through provinces and destroy everything, if you face a siege leave a holding force, and wait it out. I will take an army back and forth through enemy territory until it falls apart completely. You will make money from the destruction, you will get income from the provinces for a couple of turns, and once the rebellions start it will distract factions that were previously attacking you and then you can sue for peace and build your navy. Those factions will fight the rebels, losing men in the process, have to put in garrisons and build from the ground up,taking money. While they are burning resources making rebuilding your mess you are building up wealth and a good army. When they have finished building things up for you, invade and take a well developed province for yourself.

-If I have a large empire and I am still stagnating I will abandon a few provinces that aren't doing much for me. I'll destroy everything and leave. It is sometimes easier to grow strong in a smaller area made up of high producing provinces than in a large area that needs constant defense but offers little in the way of income or unit bonuses.

[King John II]

Your King's influence affects things like your ambassador's chance to forge an alliance and which ally will be dropped by an A1 king when two allies go to war.

Like the loyalty of your units it is not a bad barometer of how your game is going.

If you have a ship in the Irish sea you can transport units to Ireland from any province which has a prt which debouches into the Irish sea (and from any other province which has a port and which is linked to the Irish sea by an unbroken chain of ships.

When you pick a unit up all the provinces to which it can be moved appear highlighted. Without ships the choice will be limited. If you have ships in all the seas you can move any unit in a coastal province with a port to any other coastal province.

There is a pont to note. You can enter a coastal province like that whether it has a port or not. But you can't leave again without either building a port or moving by land to a province that does have a port. In the case of Ireland you can't move anywhere by land so you must be ready foir the units that go to be unavailable until you have conquered the country and then spent four years building a port - longer if you have to build a fort first.

When you invade there is a very high chance of any existing port being destroyed.

Don't invade Ireland with your king. Another effect of ships and ports is to allow your King's influence to be felt more widely. If you put him in Ireland without it having a port expect to take a drop in loyalty throughout the realm.

As to crusades, no there is no incease in power but yes, as you move it through Catholic provinces so troops are sucked into it. The higher the zeal in the province the more troops are sucked in.

But you tend to get pretty crappy troops so the received wisdom is to stock it up with good troops yourself.

Also troops start to disappear if the crusade takes a while to get to its destination. Apparently they get fed up and desert.

There are quite a few threads about on crusades. They look tricky to me and I have not yet attempted one. But that is because I have so far played on domination.

Going back to ships there is a danger in having Italian ships aroung your ungarrisoned shores. Because they can transport troops in the same way you can. So if you started to do wel - or if the perfidious Italians felt like it one day, you might find an Italian army dumped in undefended Wessex or Mercia or wherever. And, with slow communications yourself, by the time you could rcall one of your border armies you may find not much left.

The presence of ships from two warring contries in one sea creates a blockade. Neither can now move troops through that sea and the blockade breaks any chain of ships for trade purposes.

[Idaho]

Quote[/b] (King John II @ Oct. 28 2003,09:35)]Going back to ships there is a danger in having Italian ships aroung your ungarrisoned shores. Because they can transport troops in the same way you can. So if you started to do wel - or if the perfidious Italians felt like it one day, you might find an Italian army dumped in undefended Wessex or Mercia or wherever. And, with slow communications yourself, by the time you could rcall one of your border armies you may find not much left.
Thanks everyone.

Yeah I thought that might happen and it disturbed me greatly. However the damn Iti's have tons of ships now in the channel and north sea. It'll take me an age to build a navy able to clear them.... all the while I need to spending money on renewing my armies and improving the land.

Aww It's a good game this one

Dheppee - I have Flanders, Britainny, Normandy, Ill de France, Champaigne and a couple of others on the continent - however I have no direction to break out - and far too many borders to defend cheaply...

[Dhepee]

Quote[/b] (Idaho @ Oct. 28 2003,12:14)]Dheppee - I have Flanders, Britainny, Normandy, Ill de France, Champaigne and a couple of others on the continent - however I have no direction to break out - and far too many borders to defend cheaply...
In that case you might try strategic contraction, as I mentioned earlier it sometimes it is easier to break out if you have only a few high performing provinces rather than many low performing provinces. I might destroy everything that I have in France except for Flanders, jack up the taxes and pull the garrisons out. Let the enemy build them back up for you. Use the money to put ships around your coast and make peace with the Italians. Now you are only defending Flanders on the continent, which you have to do anyway and your navy keeps your island borders safe while generating income for you. Use a period of peace as an opportunity to build towards war, like the 1920's and 30's.

[Doug-Thompson]

Wales is the only English province that has a port location on the Irish Sea, I think.

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Disband lousy troops. They don't do anything but prop up province loyalty and drain your treasury. They can't stop good troops. Three less peasant units saves 100 florins a turn. it adds up.

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Generally speaking, the solution to a lack of money is trade. Are there trade ports available in Denmark, for instance?

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The Spanish will have a civil war or have a king die without a heir, evenutually. Take care to find wives for all your princes, or the same thing will happen to you.

Keep your empire intact, and wait for your enemy to come unglued.

[Vanya]

GAH

Vanya sez... Just hold on tight and don't go anywhere. Use the time to tech up and build ships. All youz need to do is WAIT. WAIT. WAIT.

Eventually... whether it be next year or 150 years later, your neighbors will get smacked by somebody else on the verge or burgeoning into a superpower. But don't sweat their apparent strength. In their arrogance, they will ostracize their nobles and will suffer a cripling rebellion Half the map will go rebel You will pretty much be alone to clean up Sure the occasional peep will respawn, but look at those upstarts as "new trading partners" instead of foes

And evetually, when you DO want to go on a rampage, you will be fielding chiv kinigits, pikes, etc all maxed out and fighting peasants and militia and archers Basically, a perfect head collection scenario

GAH

[DeadRunner]

i agree with vanya in the gam that i am playing now the spainish were a super power but now there are just a tale to put childreen a sleep.but was long way(i am with sicilians) me and my allied(french ,italy)i have been with war with spain lot of time( i was losing bady i lose almost my lands in africa i have got to a civil war http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif )but i have luck in time spain was invaided in castille by italian forces and in granada too,spain in same time was a civil war http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif , french atack to recover their lands taken by spaini my forces atack the peninsula iberica (i dont atack with full strenght because i was 2 front war one with spain the other with egyptian [allied of spain] ,my main forces where atacking egyptian with backup of crusades that i made.

wait make tech and ships sapin will enter in civil war our a king with no heirs

[DojoRat]

A few small, hopefully nonrepetitve, points.

Wessex gets a bonus producing Cogs, I think, and they're useful against the Italians who are limited to coastal type galley's. As you're teching up don't overlook ship upgrades as you can eventually outclass the Meditterranean powers.

England has the edge in special units, I think, at least in the high era. Billmen from Mercia and Longbows from Wales are great with their bonus's. Throw in a couple of Feudal knights, some CMAA's and Hobby horses and you have an army second to none. Ohh and get Ireland too, Gallowglasses are a great bang for the buck esp if you can upgrade their armor.

Crusades are a nice one two punch. They're a good way of gaining territory and earning GA points. ANY non catholic province is up for grabs which includes excomunicatees as well. They also drain troops from your neighbors. It all depends on the Zeal of the Province. The higher the zeal the more men your crusade will attract. So send some spy types out ahead to help you choose the best path, though often your options are limted. You can also add troops from your forces into the crusade but can't withdraw them till the province is yours. One thing I always try to add are seige weapons, you don't often pick them up but you'll need 'em when you get there.

[Brutal DLX]

One more thing. A King's influence is very important as it directly affects the loyalty of your troops and of the newly produced troops in particular. So, if you have a King with weak influence and start pumping troops galore you might find yourself in the midst of a civil war all of a sudden, because part of your army rebels. Hence it is always important to increase your influence, which is mostly done by winning battles, holdigng fast or gaining land. Spies in your provinces soemtimes report and inform you of an imminent rebellion by disloyal generals, if that happens, stop producing troops at once and purge the disloyal one within your army.
If you plan on crusading, make sure the crusade is successful, as a failed crusade can decrease your influence.
I've seen lots of AI empires crusading themselves right into a civil war..

[Idaho]

All interesting advice. It is now 1275 and I managed to break out east and take some of the north east european territories - Poland etc.. However I am still over burdened with troops. I am starting to run a deficit budget However my new armies of Bill, Longbow, CMAA and Mounted Sargents are ripping through the opposition. I almost felt sorry for the German king as my Billmen dragged him from his horse and ripped the dog to shreds

I can't bear the idea of destroying stuff I've built and retreating It's just not cricket damn it

[Idaho]

Don't I have to pay a fortune to the Pope to crusade?

[Brutal DLX]

Depends on who's the target. If the Pope publicly demand a crusade vs. faction X, then that crusade can be established without paying anyhting.
Get out of having a negative budget unless you have 20k plus in the bank. Deficit spending is a quick way of losing.

[DeadRunner]

when you have the change take over sicily and build a trade route in the mediterrânio in there you will gain some money http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Idaho]

I did the burning outlying territorries and retreating to secure borders. I disbanded much of the old army and restocked with new. My fiscal affairs have been turned round and have allowed me to build up my tech level at home... however it is now 1325 I'm almost in sight of having a couple of fortresses and a few other goodies...

[Nelson]

Stout ships and plenty of trade,
Keep the kingdom rich and the army paid

A map girdling trade route is the path to glory for any faction. Once the florins are flowing fast, I improve the best farmlands to ensure income during the late game stage when most surviving factions are hostile.

[Dhepee]

If you really want to do well get some out of the way provinces like, Norway, Sweden, or Sicily. They are easy to defend and people tend to leave you alone in Scandanavia, and as long as you have ships in Sicily you are safe.

[The Storyteller]

One thing you can do with useless troops is to invade the weakest power with them. If you have a stack of them, the enemy usually just decides it can't win the battle and retreats. Lay waste to all the lands you conquer... Your army will lose troops via sieges and occasional battles (auto resolve if you get bored), and will earn money from plunder and selling buildings.

Ships are a must... because if you have no fleet, you may find yourself at war with a naval power that lands armies on your territory. because they get there by sea, you have no way of striking back because the overland route may be blocked by an ally.