I need help as argonese

[PantsDaddy]

Well I've been playing a GA game as aragon for a while now. I Spend most of the earlier part of the game fighting spanish and almohads. after a brief but fatal war for france my empire was all of spain, france, and 2 provences in africa. After I defeated the french, I put alot of effort towards organizing my army, building up my land, and other such things, and i was always in first by points and i stopped paying attention. my navy was by far the strongest. anyways, now egypt's army is stronger than mine (which costs a good 23k a year to maintain.)Egypt is so huge and so strong, we have been allies for most of the game but i know that war with them is inevitable. I am the only strong faction left. Poland comes after me, while france and germany war with each other, each only occupies 2 lands right next to each other.

to give you an idea: my borders in europe are flanders, lorraine, burgundy and provence. I have about 6 full armies (with decent generals) in each of those lands. my border in africa is algeria which has 2 full armies but borders a rebel land. as far as i can tell egypt is everything else. I also control Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Livonia. Egypt has everything else, including england. Poland has managed to survive in its original form and about 7 lands in N. Europe.

I need a way to dea with egypt. I know i could win a full out war, but only by spending my large bank account (400k florins)right away and just spend money i dont have to maintain my huge armies. I don't feel like ruining that nor do i feel like having my high tech armies destoryed (lancers, halbibers, very impressive to me atleast)

I've thought about using assasins and spies to kill of his ruling family and promote civil war. But, it seems that i would need ALOT of assasins and spies to do that and i cant even find his hiers. Please Help.

[BalkanTourist]

I'd not attack them first, unles I am sure I can win this quick. To do that you need to have the best sea force, concentrate on that. Also, forget about the heavy knights and infantry. You'll need something light and mobile in the desert. Bribe the army in the rebelous Tunis, I bet it is a Muslim rebel state. Those units might be helpful. You'll need to strike Egypt's hinterland first. Don't worry about the colonies they have. Also, what year is it? if the Horde hasn't come yet (1230),they'll give the Egyptians a good fight. That might even throw them in a civil war. If that happens, bribe the rebelous armies and use them to fight, but only when Egypt is weak enough. If Egypt and the Horde reach a stalemate, use a lot of assasins to kill the Khan and bribe his armies. May be it's just me, but I love them Mongols Also, concentrate on your economy. I usually don't attack unles I am attacked or it'd be an easy win. Instead I save money. If you are not going to expand anymore. Keep just armies for self-defence. 23k per year for maintainence costs is to high if you just sit there. By the time it is basically 1v1 like in your case, the other faction is pretty stron and big, so you need a lot of cash to sustain a prolonged war. 1 mln would be nice. Last total domination I had was with the Italians. I had over 1,300,000 in the bank http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif . Assasined the Khan when he came in 1230 and bought almost all of his armies - 11k troops. Sent them to finish Spain that was the only strong country left. It was fun : )
Hope that helped a bit, but I am no expert, I need help often myself.

[PantsDaddy]

Well thanks for your help, its the year 1320 and the mongols are still alive, but i can't pinpoint thier location and judging from the points chart, they have one maybe 2 lands. naval superiority is not a problem becuase my ships are very good (mostly cogs and some carvels) and i have a whole lot of them. Poland is actually stronger than i thought and im curently allied with them. I've been sending alot of spies and assians and actually did manage to assasinate the head of state in egypt. He has been replaced and I am going to try to kill him, and after that until he is gone or civil war breaks out. im not looking to conquer all of europe, or even expand that much at all, i just would like to get to most points and avoid defeat. thank you for your help

[katank]

yeah go after his homelands.

raze em to da ground and create mucho rebels for him to kill. occupying his homelands would kill his points too.

raid his homelands every 25 years or so just before the point count.

this would devastate him and give u the GA game.

BTW, you have enough money to bribe a few faction armies you could even bribe a few armies he sends to take care of the rebels

Also, mass arbs and missiles in general. If you can protect them, most cost effective units around with plenty of killing power.

[PseRamesses]

You have the strongest fleet - keep it that way. Rule the sea and you´ll rule the game.
I´d prefer to take the Eggys holdings in England first since it´s on your own backyard and raid his homelands secondly wreaking havoc in his midst. Take this advice from an old battle hardned viking - wreak havoc Katank´s advice is solid. Rob him of his GA-points. Don´t play the sissy-assasin style, head on

[Gregoshi]

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif Welcome to the Org PantsDaddy - love the name. Is there a good story behind it?

You said you are playing for the GA, so play for the GA. As some others said, work on achieving your goals and work on thwarting Egypt's. If you are worried about his armies, then also work at destroying his ability to make war. Put together a good raiding army and use your navy to land it where his bread & butter provinces are. The sole goal of this raiding army is to destroy his florin and troop producing capability. You don't hold anything. Attack, capture the province, raze everything in it and then move on to the next - Total War baby http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-baby.gif This army should get pretty far before Egypt can counter it (they must go overland) or it gradually gets whittled down to nothing. If you pull it off, the Egyptian economy is hurting, they can't produce as many troop and/or quality troop due to the lack of florin and facilities, and there may even be some rebellions popping up. Of course this is what the theory says. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-book2.gif