oldnewb
11-03-2003, 07:31
Hi guys. I've been trawling these forums for a couple of days, and call me wierd but I've enjoyed reading other peoples stories of their particular campaigns - so I thought I'd share mine http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
This is my last MTW campaign ever. To my secret shame - I've never actually finished a MTW campaign. It's been the same since STW; I'd get to say, conquer half the map, and then be plagued with rebellions or re-emergences, as well as coming up against another superpower with 9 stacks of 900 peasants in every provence. Alternatively, I'd be doing well enough that the rest would seem just to be mopping up work, but it'd be too slow for my liking because of loyalty problems and sheer scale.
So, this time I'm determined to finish the campaign (ie. own every single provence) and then uninstall the bastard. Don't get me wrong, I really fanatically love the game, it just takes way more of my diminishing free time than I can spare these days http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
My parameters - Spanish/early/normal (yah Im a wuss - I go higher it takes too much time fighting insanely equipped rebellions). Playing GA just cause I like it.
My starting plan - crush the Almohads and the Aragonese, kick the Egyptians right back up to my crusade destinations in the Levant (Tripoli, Antioch, Edessa, on
e other?). Meanwhile try and keep my Catholic neighbours on side (and hopefully fighting each other). If I don't kill all the Aragonese in one turn this could prove difficult.
I started aggressive, attacking and taking Aragon in turn 2 (phew - any longer a
nd that fertile Aragonese Queen would start popping out Royal Knights, horses and all). The Portugese came on side for a bit of monetary compensation, and I declared war on the Almos just after they'd expended a fair amount of troops killin
g the rebels in Valencia. A couple of tense battles followed, including 2 units
of Archers, 2 units of Spearman and Prince Ferdinand holding off a 600 strong force in Granada. Sadly young Ferdy was killed by an unlucky rally of enemy spearmen.
Anyway, after that the Almos went down fairly easy (I employed a whole bunch of mercs to help out) and their King was killed heirless in Tunisia. The bulk of th
e Egyptian army was crushed in Egypt by a late charge by my first unit of sparkl
ing new Royal Knights (and also by the AI's decision to postition most of its troop in a deep bowl between two dunes .. ? ) and I advanced just short of my southernmost crusade destination.
I thought it would be strangely amusing to setup Egypt as the spiritual centre of Catholic Spain, so I went stagnant for a while until I had a Church and Chapte
r House there.
Meanwhile, I'd backed the English against the French (from my own experiences the French have a quite difficult early starting position) and married all my Princesses and Princes to English spouses. Unfortunately the French appear to kick the English all over the shop and soon the English 'are no longer a threat'. I didn't trust those slimy French http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif so I started reinforcing Aragon and Navarre. Soon enough the dirty renegade Catholics attacked, but the 7 units of archers camped on a mountain drove them off again and again, it was quite amusing. I did however lose two entire units of Knights who I forgot are apt to charge whenever they damn well feel like it. The French attack every couple of years but Im starting to get some pretty decent troops by now and the terrain from France -> Spain vastly favours the defender, so my northern borders are pretty secure.
Meanwhile Leon and Cordoba have started pumping out ships for quick troop movement to and from North Africa.
By the time the first Egyption crusade is built 12 or so years later, I have seven (!http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif heirs, a decent troop base and fair income. Unfortunately I didn't have enough agents to spare to properly scout out the Levant (they were flat out keeping the French from assassinating my super-defenders in Navarre & Aragon, and trying to find wives for all the heirs), but when my first crusade arrived (I simultaneously took Arabia) I found a tiny Turkish kingdom, the remains of the Egyptians and a couple of rebel provinces. Obviously the Byzants have done all my work for me.
About now my original king died. I left the new king just camping in Castille for minimal loyalty problems (the old one was always first to charge a fleeing peasant unit - can't have that kind of foolhardiness with this new king!http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif. Also meant I had 6 ex-princes all with 7+ acumen, builder & steward, who make great governers.
By the time the last of the four crusades is seigeing the heathen rebels in
Edessa (strangely the hardest battle of the four), I've got some serious
income coming in as I've got trade routes to all the Catholic nations - if I
remember rightly I had like 100000+ florins. Castille is starting to pump out
+2/+3 Feudal Knights, and the 'Egyptian Inquisition' (hehe - yah I know I should have used Inquisitors from Castille but it was cooler this way) is in full swing in France.
However, the Byzants are looking pretty tough and are starting to amass troops along my borders. After a couple of years building up after the last crusade I hit em with everything I've got (including 4 crusades-worth of Holy Feet & Knights of Santiago). I grabbed 5 provinces from them by force and two by bribe in the first year of the war and suddenly I wasn't as worried http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif I pushed them back as far as Constantinople and Kazar quite quickly. The only weak point was they overpowered my Mediterranean navy so reinforcements where few and far between.
With my empire getting kind of big I was starting to worry about rebellions.
While I was consolodating my Byzantinian holdings I churned out stupid amounts
of peasants, aiming for at least 200 peasants in every province. I only had
one Brothel - at that time most of my spies where concentrating on trying to get
England to rebel. Anyway, with four successful crusades under my belt I think
2 units of peasants should keep everyone happy for the time being. I also
flooded out some Egyption Catholic Priests... by 1180 I had a Priest in every
single province that wasn't mine. Some have since been assasinated though -
word to my man in Finland Don Pedro, who is some kind of ninja Priest (4
stars) after surving nearly 10 assassination attempts.
Things went from bad to worse for the Byzants - just after I started to push
into their remaining provences, the Novgorodians re-emerged and took it to
them in the North. My spies and my eventual naval victory saw all their island
holding rebel, and by 1175 I stormed the castle that the Byzant Emperor and
his vicious bodyguard (3 -1 valor peasants) where holed up in. The bastard had
'Great Warrior' and some other combat virtue - even with a mangonel and 8
catapults taking out every arrow tower in reach, I lost 320 cavalry and
infantry trying to kill him
I quickly followed up by trouncing the spread-to-thin Novgorodians - and thats
how it stands at 1187. I own everything except east Europe/Britain/Denmark
basically, France is having trouble with rebellions and heretics (4x5 star
Inquisitors are having a great time), I think I'll kill them last. The HRE is
looking pretty strong, and Im kinda worried about attacking Catholics - a
rebellion due to excommunication could be devestating at this point. I might
try baiting the Polish first.
Anyway, Ill update as I get closer to victory - Im guessing no-one actually
cares but me http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif but as its my final game I figured I might as well pay some
homage.
This is my last MTW campaign ever. To my secret shame - I've never actually finished a MTW campaign. It's been the same since STW; I'd get to say, conquer half the map, and then be plagued with rebellions or re-emergences, as well as coming up against another superpower with 9 stacks of 900 peasants in every provence. Alternatively, I'd be doing well enough that the rest would seem just to be mopping up work, but it'd be too slow for my liking because of loyalty problems and sheer scale.
So, this time I'm determined to finish the campaign (ie. own every single provence) and then uninstall the bastard. Don't get me wrong, I really fanatically love the game, it just takes way more of my diminishing free time than I can spare these days http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
My parameters - Spanish/early/normal (yah Im a wuss - I go higher it takes too much time fighting insanely equipped rebellions). Playing GA just cause I like it.
My starting plan - crush the Almohads and the Aragonese, kick the Egyptians right back up to my crusade destinations in the Levant (Tripoli, Antioch, Edessa, on
e other?). Meanwhile try and keep my Catholic neighbours on side (and hopefully fighting each other). If I don't kill all the Aragonese in one turn this could prove difficult.
I started aggressive, attacking and taking Aragon in turn 2 (phew - any longer a
nd that fertile Aragonese Queen would start popping out Royal Knights, horses and all). The Portugese came on side for a bit of monetary compensation, and I declared war on the Almos just after they'd expended a fair amount of troops killin
g the rebels in Valencia. A couple of tense battles followed, including 2 units
of Archers, 2 units of Spearman and Prince Ferdinand holding off a 600 strong force in Granada. Sadly young Ferdy was killed by an unlucky rally of enemy spearmen.
Anyway, after that the Almos went down fairly easy (I employed a whole bunch of mercs to help out) and their King was killed heirless in Tunisia. The bulk of th
e Egyptian army was crushed in Egypt by a late charge by my first unit of sparkl
ing new Royal Knights (and also by the AI's decision to postition most of its troop in a deep bowl between two dunes .. ? ) and I advanced just short of my southernmost crusade destination.
I thought it would be strangely amusing to setup Egypt as the spiritual centre of Catholic Spain, so I went stagnant for a while until I had a Church and Chapte
r House there.
Meanwhile, I'd backed the English against the French (from my own experiences the French have a quite difficult early starting position) and married all my Princesses and Princes to English spouses. Unfortunately the French appear to kick the English all over the shop and soon the English 'are no longer a threat'. I didn't trust those slimy French http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif so I started reinforcing Aragon and Navarre. Soon enough the dirty renegade Catholics attacked, but the 7 units of archers camped on a mountain drove them off again and again, it was quite amusing. I did however lose two entire units of Knights who I forgot are apt to charge whenever they damn well feel like it. The French attack every couple of years but Im starting to get some pretty decent troops by now and the terrain from France -> Spain vastly favours the defender, so my northern borders are pretty secure.
Meanwhile Leon and Cordoba have started pumping out ships for quick troop movement to and from North Africa.
By the time the first Egyption crusade is built 12 or so years later, I have seven (!http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif heirs, a decent troop base and fair income. Unfortunately I didn't have enough agents to spare to properly scout out the Levant (they were flat out keeping the French from assassinating my super-defenders in Navarre & Aragon, and trying to find wives for all the heirs), but when my first crusade arrived (I simultaneously took Arabia) I found a tiny Turkish kingdom, the remains of the Egyptians and a couple of rebel provinces. Obviously the Byzants have done all my work for me.
About now my original king died. I left the new king just camping in Castille for minimal loyalty problems (the old one was always first to charge a fleeing peasant unit - can't have that kind of foolhardiness with this new king!http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif. Also meant I had 6 ex-princes all with 7+ acumen, builder & steward, who make great governers.
By the time the last of the four crusades is seigeing the heathen rebels in
Edessa (strangely the hardest battle of the four), I've got some serious
income coming in as I've got trade routes to all the Catholic nations - if I
remember rightly I had like 100000+ florins. Castille is starting to pump out
+2/+3 Feudal Knights, and the 'Egyptian Inquisition' (hehe - yah I know I should have used Inquisitors from Castille but it was cooler this way) is in full swing in France.
However, the Byzants are looking pretty tough and are starting to amass troops along my borders. After a couple of years building up after the last crusade I hit em with everything I've got (including 4 crusades-worth of Holy Feet & Knights of Santiago). I grabbed 5 provinces from them by force and two by bribe in the first year of the war and suddenly I wasn't as worried http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif I pushed them back as far as Constantinople and Kazar quite quickly. The only weak point was they overpowered my Mediterranean navy so reinforcements where few and far between.
With my empire getting kind of big I was starting to worry about rebellions.
While I was consolodating my Byzantinian holdings I churned out stupid amounts
of peasants, aiming for at least 200 peasants in every province. I only had
one Brothel - at that time most of my spies where concentrating on trying to get
England to rebel. Anyway, with four successful crusades under my belt I think
2 units of peasants should keep everyone happy for the time being. I also
flooded out some Egyption Catholic Priests... by 1180 I had a Priest in every
single province that wasn't mine. Some have since been assasinated though -
word to my man in Finland Don Pedro, who is some kind of ninja Priest (4
stars) after surving nearly 10 assassination attempts.
Things went from bad to worse for the Byzants - just after I started to push
into their remaining provences, the Novgorodians re-emerged and took it to
them in the North. My spies and my eventual naval victory saw all their island
holding rebel, and by 1175 I stormed the castle that the Byzant Emperor and
his vicious bodyguard (3 -1 valor peasants) where holed up in. The bastard had
'Great Warrior' and some other combat virtue - even with a mangonel and 8
catapults taking out every arrow tower in reach, I lost 320 cavalry and
infantry trying to kill him
I quickly followed up by trouncing the spread-to-thin Novgorodians - and thats
how it stands at 1187. I own everything except east Europe/Britain/Denmark
basically, France is having trouble with rebellions and heretics (4x5 star
Inquisitors are having a great time), I think I'll kill them last. The HRE is
looking pretty strong, and Im kinda worried about attacking Catholics - a
rebellion due to excommunication could be devestating at this point. I might
try baiting the Polish first.
Anyway, Ill update as I get closer to victory - Im guessing no-one actually
cares but me http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif but as its my final game I figured I might as well pay some
homage.