Aspirational Rate of expansion advice please

[Strategos]

As a newbie to MTW, many thanks for your helpful Basics Guides.

One query which I haven't yet seen posted or answered {and apologies if I have carelessly overlooked something already discussed in depth or ad nauseum}:

What rate of Expansion should a Faction try to achieve?
There appears to be a fairly obvious balance between building up Provinces already occupied and branching out into fresh lands, with attendant Costs of War and initial Occupation. Is there any guidance to be had?

This would presumably depend upon the Difficulty setting and upon which Campaign one is playing.

If this has already been covered, a simple redirection to the appropriate Forum or Thread will suffice.

Many thanks.

[econ21]

I think it's a matter of taste. In terms of raw power, rushing the AI probably is best. On early, you can often get good quality troops while it is still fielding peasants. But that's a little lame. With some factions (Almo, Biz) have unique unit advantages which decline over time that reinforce that. Poland and maybe other small factions also needs to get going quickly or it will stall.

For normal factions, I tend to wait for a nice European sea trade network before I make big moves, but that is also rather exploiting a weakness of the game.

For a fun role-playing game, I take it slow - only fighting those who attack me or hinder my GAs.

[R'as al Ghul]

Welcome to the Org Strategos http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

Well, I guess that's one thing you have to find out yourself. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
There're guides for playing specific cultures.
Just search for example strategy Aragonese.
Basically you should evaluate what you want to achieve by attacking a province and expanding(narrowing borders, expanding income etc).
Some cultures need to expand really early, others have to build up their homelands/ armies first.
I don't hink that someone has formulated a rate as you put it of provinces in years or something like that.
I'd suggest to look into the diverse strat guides.
Cheers

[ichi]

Welcome to The Org Strategos
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It Depends. On who you are.

For example, I think that early in game the Sicilians should capture Naples then expand slowly, focusing instead on building up a navy and upgrading the few provinces they control. On the other hand, if you are Egypt or the Almohads the first order of business might be to wipe out the other faction.

On where you are.

As the Spanish I like to expand rapidly to control all of Spain, including Portugal, and develop a chokepoint in Morocco, then build up a wall in Navarre and Aragon. This allows me to keep a minimum army in my interior provinces and a strong force on my relatively small border, which allows me to focus on building up my provinces and trade. So I expand rapidly to a strong position then hold, sometimes for a long while. A similar situation exists for the Turks, where you can expand out to Khazar, Constantinople and Egypt, then hold and build.

On the Pope.

If you are Catholic you will get excommunicated by the Pope for your agression towards your fellow Chirstians. Usually he wants me to wait ten years, so . . . I attack a fellow Christian on a broad front, trying to take several provinces. Then when the Pope askes me to behave, I use the time to build up and regroup, get those newly acquired lands under control. Of course, many folks will tell you to $cr#w the Pope, not to worry about being excommed. And that's OK, sometimes I get excommed and then assassinate the ol' Popester.

On the Budget.

Sometimes you find that your army payroll is keeping your empire from prospering - maybe its too many mercs or whatever - sometimes you need to start a war just to bleed off some personnel (pretty good pun, eh?).

On all kinds of stuff.

Late in the game you may be one of two superpowers - and the race is on to pick up the last of the little powers to keep them out of the enemies hands. When moving through a region populated by people who practice a religion other than yours, you might need to slow down a little to build up loyalty and happiness before moving on.

So the bottom line - take a province when it is in your best interest to do so. When you can keep it, when it won't break your bank keeping it, when you see a strategic value.

Don't worry if you are not expanding at any given time. If you are improving your infrastructure to get more money per turn or build better killers, then that's progress also.

ichi

[katank]

pick your own pace. I personally like to have quick rushes. I use a combination of my starting troops and mercs in order to make the attacks successful.

I can usually assemble an overwhelming force to wipe out a neighboring faction.

Early aggression will enable you to have a very good warchest. Once you conquer though, as long as you can keep the loyalty up, disband as many mercs as you can.

In my current sicilian early/expert game, by 1112, I had all of the italian territories, naples, and serbia in addition to my starting provinces. That's 10 provinces compared to my initial two.

For exmaple, I chose to wipe out the italians since they would be a competing mediterranean naval power and better to kill em early than deal with them later. Also, their lands are particularly rich esp. Venice.

As was mentioned by ichi, trading gives you loads of cash. Venice, Constantinople, and Antioch are great for this and can fetch in several thousand a year. In any case, try to build a nvay. You need a port, keep and then build a shipyard. Ships take 3 years so I would dedicate several provinces to thumping out ships. If in an early game, grabe scandanavia (norway and sweden) and the steppes in east (kiev, khazar, crimea, lithuania, and livonia). ALl these are great trade provinces that are rebel held. Bribe freely.

Rush your neighbors and your historical enemies/likely rivals is good but for a more challenging and fun game, perhaps sit back and develop.

[gaijinalways]

It of course will depend on the level, faction (which determines your starting position), and whether you selected a GA or total domination game.

I am currently playing the Italians on expert, GA, and for the first 200 years I didn't take any new territory and simply buiilt up troops and buildings with trade later giving me a good bank account of 100K (I don't know how some people manage to get a million). Now in around 1340, I have a good chunk of Europe and Africa and am one of the 2 largest factions ( the BYZ, Norg are the other 2 main competitors). The Alomonds are gone (wiped out by the Spanish and the French)the French are gone (wiped out by me) and the Spanish are down to one territory. I have been excommed, but of course I eventually expect to see trade come back as the rebels will trade( I didn't take a few provinces), but at the moment I need to jettison my mercs soon, as my war chest is down to 5K plus

So how quick you expand depends on neccessity and your playing style. Sometimes just attacking provinces for plunder and/or ransom, and leaving them to revolt or be re-taken after they have been stripped is a fun strategy. I ahve done that to some extent in this campaign. Also, causing revolts with spys can be a way to get rebels to help you take over factions, let them do the fighting and hopefully they (or the faction victor in that province) are weak enough to crush or bribe.