Fastest Victory (100%)

[The Emperor of Rome]

Whats the fastest you have ever reached 100% domination.

[katank]

1160 as english.

would be far faster if I keep up rushing. likely TD is doable around 1130-1140

[octavian]

1140 is quite possible, however, i prefer a bit of a slower paced game so mid 1200's is when i usually finish.

[Ragss]

you guys are crazy...I finished my turk campaign in the 1350's and my byz campaing looks like it will last a long time too. How do you keep troops on the front lines? Lots of mercs? Lots of peasants?

[son of spam]

English/early/normal- 70 years
and in VI
Scots/expert-35+ years
Welsh/expert-40+ years
Saxons/expert-32+ years

[son of spam]

@Ragss

I do use lots of mercs to merc rush early on. Early blitzing is critical, both to gain influence (and thus better heirs) and also to well...get good lands http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif However, to sustain the fight, use lots of peasents to garrison the provinces and use perhaps 4 armies/ front. Don't ever use anything other than peasents to garrison, unless you absolutely have to.

Also, build up in only a select few provinces. Leave the rest undeveloped. Don't try to build something in every province just because you can.

If you have a troop problem, I suggest you use spear/archer hordes instead of hightech troops. In reality, high-tech troops are probably not much better.

[katank]

yep, I do exactly what SoS does.

well, early on, have a front line inn built.

the starting units are going to be led by your king and not do that much combat while your best geenral takes an all merc force.

keep attacking and assaulting with merc spearhead, supplementing and replenishing with more mercs when necessary while the national force does sieging and pacification of territories.

Just use peasants for garrisons although slav warriors are better if you can access them.

Then pump slavs, spears, archers. Use 8+ archers and protect with staggered spear wall.

observe the slaughter.

just crank out watch tower and border fort in each province would help maintain loyalty.

if I don't stop, disband mercs to build econ, you can keep doing this forever and overrun the entire map before long.

BTW, when hitting a faction, try splitting the faction's lands and then hitting where the king is for a good ransom.

this can make you far richer than turtling and keep up your merc rush.

[Ragss]

I could never do that...all my armies are well thought out and elite. I feel...guilty...sending a few thousand relectant mercs and peasntry to their deaths.

[Lord Armbandit]

I only play English so far (but looking forward to trying Byz soon), and I tend to finish around 1240/1250 from early. I think I'd get a bit bored of rushing all the time, but that's because I don't want it to finish sometimes

Katank finishing by 1160 deserves some serious praise though What level is that on Katank?

[katank]

that's on hard. it was quite a while ago so I was still peeved at the expert mode AI.

it's definitely doable as expert.

BTW, I didn't keep up momentum of the rush. expert mode might require more careful microing of picking scaring govs and more peasant garrisons.

I hit the French and finsihed them off by around 1092 or so. I got excommed http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/angry.gif

then I decided that I might as well knock out the HRE when I'm excommed so I did so.

I settled back and built up a navy to trade and crusade. I warred with any faction that attacked me and wiped them out.

before I knew it, I was conquering the pope and the danes, the last two factions on the board

This was a passive approach afterwards though.

If you tech straight in each province. watch tower, border fort, fort, town watch, spearmaker or bowyer for military production.

don't bother going to keep level even for military. militia seargents and FMAA may be worth getting but feudal seargents aren't really.

dedicate 6+ provinces to ships though and get naval dominance.

you conquer faster that way.

In that game, simultaneous naval invasions took out the Spanish who owned all of Iberia in two turns. Attack+storm.

2 years later, the almos shared their fate as north affrica fell in the blitz attack.

simply save the money and keep building more bread and butter units and kill your enemies by pure attrition.

the byz went out of that game with at least 4-5:1 kill ratio vs. my hordes but I swear my troops were cheaper

I still think 1140 is doable.

still, it's a bit repetitive when you steam roll one faction after another and shuffle units along when you don't even have ships.

[TheSilverKnight]

I've reached TD in 50 years, so usually 1130-1140 I finish (if I decide to do TD, I might just build up my state)

[SpencerH]

Quote[/b] (katank @ April 25 2004,15:37)]that's on hard. it was quite a while ago so I was still peeved at the expert mode AI.
Might I ask what the problem is/was? I'm playing my first expert game. My bias from civ play is not to bother with the highest levels cos of the AI cheats, but people here were saying there are no cheats for VI.

The only odd thing I've noticed so far is that the Lithoanian/Livonian troops seemed to have ungodly morale. I thought I was facing a 7 star general or something. I had better troops, a better general, and a slight manpower advantage but I couldnt keep my troops from routing despite having a 2-3 kill advantage.