Whine about my German Game

[son of spam]

My german (early/medmod/hard/GA) game isn't going as well. It went ok at first as I've taken over all of the original french provinces except for brittany (english) and anjou and toulouse(french).

However, in 1092 I invaded Italy, hoping to destroy them, but they hop their goddamn army all over the place. It's now 2 years later, and Tankerville is dead (yay) and their king is now a one star good runner, but they still have 2.5 stax in venice http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif. To make matters worse the Aragonese decided to backstab me, sending practically their entire army into Provence.

So now I'm at war with the French, Italians, and Aragonese, and have no allies. Oh yeah, I'm also excommed. Anyone have any advice for me? (the Polish and the Hungarians are massing on my eastern fronteir too.)

[katank]

allies are for suckers. burn kill pillage

Can you afford to fight all of them? Maybe just kill the French and blaze a path through to Aragonese.
fight rearguard action against the Italians as I doubt you could really wipe out his 2.5 stacks.

If the Huns and Poles attack though, you are likely done for.

[son of spam]

Yes... I could afford to fight the french, Italians, Aragonese with me on the offense, and still fight a defensive battle against one of the eastern powers. However, if the danes and swedes or the english decide to join in on the fun (and they always do) then I'm done for. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif

on the bright side, the french are now reduced to 1.5 stax, after a recent civil war.

on the brighter side, venice and serbia are now the only mainland provinces the italians have left http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

Sigh...everyone hates me...

[Bhruic]

Personally, I find that eliminating the Danes is always a good move as the HRE. You get the advantage of a secure northern front (the only front you're likely to get secure in any hurry), and you get some great provinces to set up a trade network. Plus it's one less faction to worry about attacking you.

Bh

[spmetla]

I say it's all about taking out those poles early on. You are then able to curb Russian expasion, secure the East province for the "Drag Nach Osten" goal and have a a lot of provinces with no land borders to anyone. After that either take on Hungary or Italy, they'll be a big threat to you later anyhow so you might as well. Also with Italy you get the "Holy Roman Empire" goal and their beautiful trade provinces. Then of course France after that. The trick is in the early game to not build up technology but troops because you'll be facing primarily peasant armies anyhow.

[Ellesthyan]

Watch out people. He's playing medmod. He wont be fighting peasants, he's fighting feudal knights, feudal men at arms, arab infantry. HE will be the one using the inferior troops.

Take out the Italians immediately DOn't be afraid to lose a province or two. Make units, units, units. Preferably a load of cavalry, as your heerban will run for it without cavalry support. Mercenaries are your friends. Beat of the French. Using Dienstleute in combination with some spears should do it... Aye, Spanish armies aren't at all fun. Defend the south only, if you have no navy to face the Danish/English, if you can keep them of make a suicide attack against Aragon. You need INFLUENCE Civil war is your greatest enemy. If you are running low on money (I hope you've got a big treasury), try some raiding.

Italians are EVIL Your forces are so fastly inferior you can't match them. Take them out ASAP.
French cavalry is dangerous, but if you can use your heerban well in combination with dienstleute they may not be a problem.
Polish are weak. Try to kill their cavalry first, as they have virtually no infantry. If you can beat their horses they'll be paralyzed for a few years.
Hungarians are bad. If they're going well they'll have some good cavalry, that you actually cannot match. If they're doing bad (IE, not enough cavalry) you can use some of your inferior troops with archers to defend against them.
Almohads aren't good. Get your crack troops (swabians, knechte, etc.) against them. If you can lure their army inland, and taking it wholly, they may be too crippled to battle you, and will probably be able to distract the Spanish/Aragonese.
Spanish are dangerous. Their units are good (especially spanish jinets), and they get a load of them too. They may become your greatest threat. Try to distract them.

Well I hope this'll help you a bit. I don't know how your army, and more importantly your treasury, is going, but just remember that your troops SUCK. The only thing nice about them is that you can recruit valour 1 knechte. Crossbowhorses are great if you can use them, dienstleute are the units I find myself mostly relying on. Heerban don't have the morale, and swabians don't have the numbers.

Good luck

[SwordsMaster]

Quote[/b] ]Sigh...everyone hates me...

Dont give up.Hate them back. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif




Geee, i surprised of the sharpness of my jokes.... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-jester.gif

[katank]

exactly, medmod HRE is quite tough. Even to survive the first 50 years is an achievement.

I congratulate him on not losing any homelands (yet). Dude, you don't get many good mercernaries and you actually have to build mercs in medmod.

Good thing he's taking care of the Italians as the Contadina stuff is deadly so is all their unique infantry.

now if heerbans aren't total crap, stuff might work out.

the destriders are tough but hopefully he will have them under control.

now bring on english longbows, crazed vikings, hungarian nobles+swarms of woodsmen in addition to the italians, french, and asturian troops from aragonese, he's goona be in trouble.

I hope him luck anyhow and hopefully it will work out. Civil war at this stage would really suck. That's what destroyed my MedMod HRE game a while back http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-angry.gif

[son of spam]

I think the english aren't a problem at this stage, I have 3+ ships in the north sea and 3 ships in the channel, far outnumbering the english. What I'm worried about are the poles and the hungarians. I have perhaps only 2(~2000 spears,heerban,archers) stacks in bradenburg, bohemia and austria combined. Unfortunately, both the hungarians and the Polish have those kickass calvary armies of hungarian nobles and retainers you rightly warned against, elleysthan.

I make around 400/year, but that's after I hired tons of mercs to crush the italians. Before, I was making ~2500/year. I only have a 1000 florin treasury, which is rapidly decreasing http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

My question is, should I attack hungarians and the poles in the east after I crush the Italians, and continue to endure those annoying hit and run attacks by the Aragonese, or should I got west and destroy france and England first?

Thanks for the tip about diensluetes, Elleysthan, I actually never used them, figuring that +1 valor Knechtes are much better. Though it was really funny when I built a knechte from bavaria that had 0 valor...because the dude was fat as a pig http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-jester.gif

[Ellesthyan]

Well that's not too bad, but still a quite difficult situation http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif I misread the Aragonese invasion in the Provence as an Almohad one, so it's not half as dangerous as I thought. (Almohads are EVIL)

As I said, try to lure the main Polish/hungarian cavalry armies out and destroy them, whatever it takes. After that they are no threat, as basicly their cavalry is all they have. Dienstleute and Mounted Crossbows are fast and the first have a cavalry bonus that might help. Attack at least from 2 sides Mobility is a must.

The Polish and Hungarians can be dealed with fast, so start there. You may need to weaken your west border. Make sure you keep harassing the Aragonese in the Provence.
After taking care of the eastern cavalry head on to the French, and crush them decisively. You'll need influence Ensure your border on Aquitaine/Toulouse. The Aragonese are annoying, I think you could use your mercenaries to weaken the Provence. Ensure you can ward of the English invasions An all out attack on the French sea provinces is a common tactic of these men, and a civil war will start after it for sure.
Keep your eye on influence. You may need to abandon provinces and you will probably lose a few battles against the Aragonese, but make sure you don't overdo it. Many are the campaigns I lost as the HRE in a civil war http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-blush.gif...