I've Been Spread Far To Thin

[shakaka36]

just as i was loading a new game (early, the French) i came up with an idea, i wanted to see how much land i could grab as quickly as possible

so after spending 25 years or so of bankrupting myself and building up my military as much as possible, i set off on a conquest campaign, marching clear through germany suffering little strong oppostions, i kept going east bulldozing poland and hungary and occuping bulgaria, i thne went on to take the steppe lands, northern spain.

the problem? well most of these new lands are garrisoned by single peasant units, or units of more advanced troops of less than 100 men (therefore bandits are a problem) im excommunicated (who wouldve guessed the pope would actually follow through on his promises) and i just lost southern germany and a good deal of my hold in the balkans to a civil war (and i may have a new civil war by the looks fo my generals loyalty) im having uprisings everywhere, im bankrupt, german polish and novgorod loyalist forces are a constant threat and the almohads and english are both attacking me, i am to put it simply, spread far to thin. im pretty sure that i'll have to forgo some territory and concentrate on one area, but which area? what should i do to survive this?

[Lord Dazed & Confused]

Sounds like fun
Maybe first you should try and prevent another civil war
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[Game Over!!!]

You've made the mistake every other defeated general in recent history have made...don't fight a two front war. Napoleon and Hitler come to mind regarding this. Should've taken out the English first then turned east. [I]Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
When I play the French first thing I do is 'nuke' the English. Take the two bottleneck provinces between France and Spain then turn east, take out the Danes...then go for Germany.
All I can say is try and hold the provinces that make the most income AND are strategically located. DO YOUR BEST...That's what makes this game so great.
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[shakaka36]

well the AI seems to have made my decisions for me, the almohads and the english divided up france, and a second civil war took my last provinces in the balkans and germany.

now im left with just the steppes, but luckily my economy has stabilised somewhat, and i have concluded peace with all my enemies, save the almohads (who cant exactly reach me at the moment) and the pope died ending my excommunication. ive built up my garrisons but several areas are still causing me trouble, im preparing for a campaign against the danes (who have occupied norway sweden and finland) and hopefully this will give me a better position from which to regain my old lands (ill be damned if southern france goes muslim) im also well positioned for crusades, since i can pass them straight through byzantine georgia, and then on to the holy lands.

ill keep you guys updated on whether im able to regain my old lands

[katank]

if you rush, hit one faction with everythign you got on the very first turn.

your initial troops can go quite far and mercs can follow up for a killer blow.

once you take out say the english, then you can stabilize loyalty and move onto the HRE.

note: taking out the English is important. As others said, not takign the British Isles is Napoleon and Hitler's greatest mistake.

so avoid it and sake em all.

getting constant war going from turn 1 means attrition on unit to reduce support, ransoms and pillage will fund your war efforts nicely.

[shakaka36]

i have taken the british isles http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

i took over the lands of the danes as i said i would, then i took rebel scotland and rebel ireland, using them as platforms to attack england, and enlgihs conmtrolled wales, ive occupied flanders, and im raising some new troops for the conquest of English Northern France, ive also reconquered poland, whose king died with no heirs. and me and the resurgent HRE divided it between us.

however my attempts to take over the middle east ended in failure. while a crusade i sent to antioch was successfull initially, it's numbers were wittled down and eventually overrun by the turks.

things are looking up, i hoep to have all my lands back and some extra ones, in about 20 game years

[Lord DeVeau]

Hey Shakaka (Pet Detective?),

I started the same way (but with the English) bull dozing south and east. I defeated France, Danish, Spain, Portugal, the Germans are gone. There are 7 left but up came the rebellions and the Golden Horde of about a million men. I am in the process of retreating gracfully (falling back) too as the Horde has nothing but like 20,000 well armed knights all on horse back.

I also have to deal with the Turks, Hungarians and Egyptians, and of course the Pope just X-commuicated me.

I lost all of my allies but I still have hope. I am in trouble though.

Regarding rebellions I started building churches, taverns and spies and bishops. It has seemed to slow the rebellions and I am building up my forces.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
- Sir Winston Churchill

So carry on,
Lord DeVeau

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[shakaka36]

Hey Shakaka (Pet Detective?),


FINALLY i've been using this name for 4 years on various websites, and you are the first person to make that connection


im glad to see im not the only one who enjoys insane conquest sprees. i wish you success.

my reconquest of france (both the english north and the almoahd south) is complete, i have pushed the almohas back across the straights of Gibraltar, and thereafter i sought and received a ceasfire. i then proceeded to invade germany and german poland (Game Over told me to avoid two front wars. so i figured a two front war would be disastrous for germany as it was for me earlier on), now all that i need to rebuild my conquests is the balkans.

[katank]

you should always tech provinces by watch tower, borderfort, fort, town watch, spear or bowyer

the first two gives +30 loyalty then pump peasants to make that province really happy and always have a moving wall of peasants following your conquering armies.

town watch will boost loyalty by another +10 and spears/bowyers will turn that province into a military production province.

it's quite possibel to beat the game using vanilla spear, archers, militia, and BG units.

[Powermonger]

I know what it's like to spread yourself a little too thin. In my current Danish campaign my empire spans from eastern to western Europe, causing me to have too many fronts and too many enemies. The Mongols are harrassing my eastern empire, the Byzantines my central and the Spanish have now decided they want a piece of my western empire. Lucky I can pump out armies fairly quickly but I have run out of good or even mediocre generals to lead them. 2 star generals aren't much chop again 7/8 star enemy generals.

[katank]

this is precisely why to keep a minimum of borders no matter where you are.

take only valuable provinces and nothing else unless it reduces borders.

for example, Iberia is awesome due to haivng only 3 borders and even if you extends it to include all of North Africa to Sinai and north to Aquitaine and Toulouse, you still don't increase the border number.

similarly nice to hold is Egypt, Const., Georgia/Khazar triangle which can also be extended all the way to Cordoba with no additional borders.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

You could have taken the British Iles and the Iberian Penninsula first, garrison Granada with at least 1 full stack of FMAA and Knights, then moved on to Germany and Italy. Then move south east, take constantinople and turkey, take africa (with you troops fron Granda too), then take out poland and Russia and your done
-Capo

[katank]

I suggest Brits first and then holding off the HRE in defense, then sweeping through Iberia and Nort Africa to the Holy Lands for Crusade GAs, take out Byz, hit the steppes, and then work on Sicilians at the same time as the Poles and Hungarians.

the central area occupied by the HRE is the most difficult to hold with many vulnerable borders and attackable form many locations.

Take them out last along with the Papacy.

far easier to eat away form the corners of the map and you shouldn't have too many borders.

[Powermonger]

The only reason I got spread thin is because while I was initially concentrating on Eastern Europe, the mighty French empire self-destructed after a minor-skirmish with the Spanish. A French civil war broke out and I quickly launched several sea attacks to grab England and some of the old Frenchlands such as Flanders and Freisland. The French went from the dominating faction occupying about 35 provinces to extinction in less then five years.

In hindsight, I probably should of left Flanders and Freisland alone and just kept England. Oh well, there is always next campaign. :)

[katank]

don't lose flanders at any cost

fortress britannica might be tempting but flanders means more IMHO.

it's the crown jewl of the french empire.

[son of spam]

Agreed keep flanders. It can easily make 2000+/year if you've got a good trade network, and Mercia + Wessex combined make less than that.

Suggestion is to retreat to your French homelands, and build up to more advanced troops. Keep the rich provinces, ditch the poor ones.

[katank]

2k is only for a small network.

with proper trade and upgraded merchants, flanders can rival the trade from Venice, Const., Antioch.

It can easily make 4-5k from trade alone.

haivng 80% farms is also very good and yields 1200 at least with a decent gov.

it's as good as almost the isles in terms of income and it's the only land bridge to the isles.

whoever controls flanders usually controls the isles or can do so easily.

just blast your way into wessex and you should be able to conquer the isles.