sicilians

[DeadRunner]

well i am playing now medieval (i have a new disk weeeeeeeee,old one was destroyed http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-party2.gif )
i still dont have a new pc but i dont have now to many breakes in fights.
Like i said i am with sicilians and normal i am ultra rusty
and i am pretty in .............. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif.
the pope is warlord i dont dare to take out my man in sicilly,malta is now my shipard,and sicilly make man non stop.
when i was to get tunisia guess what............. the spanish control almost the iberian peninsula and have all the old almoadh lands and i dont dare to atack the spanish they have a very large army.


http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-help.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-help.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-help.gif need ideas

[Mouzafphaerre]

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In my Sicilian campaign, I never crossed fellow Catholics until late, and no real powers until...well, later.

Started building up Sicily and Malta wisely, formed the migtiest navy on the wor...map, hehe, and picked up strategic rebel provinces (with money, not war).

That said, Tunusia was waiting for me with open arms even before Spain customarily ate up the Almos in a couple decades. Holding her worked for holding a key strategical position (not to mention the gold mines) as well as being a stack between Egypt and Spain that neither dared to cross and prevented Spain from dominating the whole map in no longer than a century. (It happens always in my games as a rule without exception, no matter I play easy or hard.)

I extended my offshore empire via bribery or seaborne invasions and paid atention to keep trade florins coming, not engaging with overpowerful factions unless I can eliminate them in a few turns.

Hth
_

[mercian billman]

When I played a Sicilian GA campaign I never attacked a catholic faction until the late period. The Poles. They were on the verge of dominating the map and I had to get rid of them because they were ahead of me in GA points. I started rebellions in some of their provinces and bribed or invaded the rebels, I also bought a few Polish armies. After a while I managed to assassinate their kings and heirs they disintegrated and I just picked up the pieces until they reappeared 7 years later. By that time there was only 10-15 years left in the game and I won.

Try launching crusades to Antioch, Palestine, and Tripoli they will raise the influence of your king and you'll be raking in loads of cash. Muslim factions almost never seem to build as many ships as their catholic counterparts so a seaborne crusade should not be to difficult. If you go overland you will cross through a few high zeal provinces.

I would recommend you launch your first crusade to the Sinai (seaborne) this will allow you to split the Egyptians from Egypt. Then Go to Palestine use troops from the Sinai crusade to assist after that continue northward to Tripoli and Antioch. Remember to support crusades with your own troops.

[nick_maxell]

Quote[/b] (Mouzafphaerre @ Mar. 16 2004,16:37)]-
In my Sicilian campaign, I never crossed fellow Catholics until late, and no real powers until...well, later.

Started building up Sicily and Malta wisely, formed the migtiest navy on the wor...map, hehe, and picked up strategic rebel provinces (with money, not war).

That said, Tunusia was waiting for me with open arms even before Spain customarily ate up the Almos in a couple decades. Holding her worked for holding a key strategical position (not to mention the gold mines) as well as being a stack between Egypt and Spain that neither dared to cross and prevented Spain from dominating the whole map in no longer than a century. (It happens always in my games as a rule without exception, no matter I play easy or hard.)

I extended my offshore empire via bribery or seaborne invasions and paid atention to keep trade florins coming, not engaging with overpowerful factions unless I can eliminate them in a few turns.

Hth
_
long post warning

Haven t tried sicilly yet, but I m currently testing an opportunistic stategy with the italians and it worked well so far. I basically concentrate on economy (easy with venice http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif ) and tech up the homelands and build just enough units to deter attack. I keep small so the pope loves me and only grab rebel provinces and these by bribery so I m everybodies buddy. The idea is that you usually get an overextention of AI factions which result in civil war and you gobble up whats left. It s not even high yet but the spanish, after mobbing the almos were in a pitched battle against the egyptians (france was busy with the byz - all others minor or wiped out) - when their crusade failed - they owned todays spain, portugal and all of north africa including egypt in one turn - the next they were left with egypt (crusade and king) and portugal - everything else rebel territory - so I got to my piggybank and "bought" spain and north africa - leaving the spanish portugal (where they were kicked to by the egyptians) and cyreneica (rebel) as a buffer to the egyptians. The same turn denmark rebelled and I got that too. Its now 1198 and I own half of the map while fighting only three landbattles (ireland, an attempt of the sicillians to get neaples back and scicilly itself) and had one extended seabattle against the sicillians until I ruled the waves - neat that you can dominate the game without actually fighting - remembers me of what they said about the Habsburgs : alii belli gerunt - tu felix austria nube (Others are waging war, you lucky austria (then HRE) - weds

btw - I m "cheating" with testing the "austrian way" by playing easy - but if it works I ll try other settings too - kind of fun just using diplomacy instead of "hack and slay" ;)

nick

[Mouzafphaerre]

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We have similar minds nick_maxell

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

I completed my Sicilian campaign with no more than a dozen battles, all fought at the close of the game. Some more babbling about it can be found here (http://www.thelib.com/yabbse/index.php?action=display;board=15;threadid=2084;start=0#msg24988).
_

[katank]

I don't tend to play the same way. There is no way that I would be content to stick with just Sicily and Malta.

Taking Naples ASAP is good strategy.

I then tend to sink the entire Italian fleet and then invade Tuscany, Venice in that order and Genoa and Milan simultaneously.

This way, they get stuck on the islands and have to pay you ransom while having their power significantly destroyed.

I would then build loads of peasants to deter the HRE, popesta, and the Hungarians.

I have also tried grabbing islands off the byz to kill their naval power.

I believe in preemptive naval action to ensure that only I dominate the Med.

The almos almost always rebelled in Tunisia and enabled me to buy the army without even breaking my alliance with them many times and even in time for the first homeland GA count for Tunisia

[DeadRunner]

thx by the ideas ppl.
i can say that i have a great economy .
naval force only spain have caravels , i already have flame boats.
bad notice the spanish control almost the europe and ,the steppes are controled by them and egytians.
my great hope is that this two get so weak in there wars,the aragon kindom join the party against the spanish empire.
the holy roman empire have a non stop war against the italians,the byzintyne only have the 3 islands.french and england are dead and so the danes.
the map is almost yellow.my great hope is the the arrival of the golden horde

[Nowake]

"the spanish control almost the iberian peninsula and have all the old almoadh lands and i dont dare to atack the spanish they have a very large army"


If you like to assume the risk of excom, attack the spanish. It doesn't matter the size of the army, the sicilians have pretty big valour because of their generals. With some cav and arbalests you can handle anything, and as long as you have the fleet up and running, they can't touch you.

[son of spam]

Scilians have pretty good gens?

They start with 2 or 3 star princes and I'm happy for a 4 star gen http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif .

Now of course I may attract bad gens somehow. When I played an english game my princes were 4 or 5 stars. When my friend played an english game his princes were 8 or 9 stars. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

lol the spanish horde...reminds me of the French PBEM thread, where there were 17 full spanish stacks in finland http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wacko.gif

[katank]

well, the sicilians have an average royal line IMO. I usually get around 4* or better for the heirs.

they aren't great though and my best sicilian heir ever was a 6*.

Don't be scare to attack the spanish. you likely wouldn't risk excomm if they are so big but you might get them excommed.

As well, attacking say Morocco would split up their empire nicely and further raiding might touch off rebellions and civil wars as the spanihs heirs aren't too loyal.

good luck with the yellow horde http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif