What's your world conquest strategy?

[Pyrodingo]

When I start the game i normally almost immediately attack a neighbour and expand my territory (get most homelands in Medmod). After that, when I have enough land to work with, I tend to tech up and go crazy on ships and trade, keeping a decent army to defend myself in case someone declares war on me. When I have clear domination on the seas I will usually attack my biggest trade rival(s) to secure my position as the overlord of trade. Once this is done, I carve out the rest of my empire with a dagger and a big wallet http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif. Assassinate heirs, then king, then laugh at them a little as their faction is destroyed, and invade or preferably bribe the generals in their land to gain their territory. I used these tactics in a a recent game as the lakedemonians using the HTW mod. Within a decade I owned all the former territory of the Athenians and the Corinthians without having fought a single battle http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif. In fact, I didn't even need to declare war on either of them.

Anyways, that's what I do. Unless of course one of my neighbours has the balls to attack me. Then I just proceed with an invasion of my own to teach them a lesson. But enough about me, what plans do you guys have when you start a new campaign?

[Blodrast]

uhm, welcome, i guess http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/medievalcheers.gif

depending on which faction I start with, I go for a small rush to secure a decent economic base; this may not be necessary if, for example, I start with Egyptians, who are stinking rich to begin with, but most other factions require you to secure a few other provinces in order to have a decent economic base for development (as well as trade), and you might need to do that anyway in just to get a reduced number of border provinces.

After that is accomplished (possibly including wiping out a faction, or at least crippling it beyond recovery), I usually try to sit back and tech up, develop trade. One reason for this is that you'll need the money from trade anyway, unless you wanna finish the campaign with an army of 100k peasants and such (which might make for an interesting game, albeit probably a short one ;P).

During this period, I tend to try to maximize the benefits of trade, by not attacking anyone, trying not to tempt the AI into attacking me (by having too many or too few troops in border provs), etc.

However, unfortunately I have the tendency to overdo this.
Most of the time I just become a huge economical power, loads of cash in the bank, very secure provinces (i.e. build most of the happiness buildings), i've got lots of assassins and spies (inqs if available), which i train constantly (not on my own units, i myself find that too cheap), and usually a fleet to be reckoned with.
I also don't build a huge military force, but I do build my provinces such that I can come up with one in a very short time, if need be. What I do do is upgrade all my units like crazy: each time I get some wep/armour upgrades, I start sending non-upgraded units to that province...

This is all because for some reason I am a paranoid perfectionist: I feel the urge to have perfect armies, always up to date with the latest upgrades, and preferably always the latest type of armies (i.e., I will even begin disbanding UM and spearmen when I can build FS/CS).
I also tend to prefer having a smaller but more upgraded army than superiority in numbers - and I do get that, at least at the beginning of the conflict.
(eh, I guess that would tell a lot to a shrink about inferiority complexes and such... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-jester.gif ).

Anyway, at some point the AI is dumb enough to attack me, and after that it's just a chain reaction: I retaliate and wipe out that faction, at least one of the others butts in or I get excommed or what not, so I wipe the others out, and so on, until I find myself ruler of the world - a world drenched in blood *evil grin*

I think I somehow enjoy having half a mil in the bank and knowing that I can crush any faction in a few turns if I feel like it. sheesh, how sick is that... *goes back to the straitjacket*

[Accounting Troll]

If I am playing the English, I conquer the British Isles which I decree to be my homeland. I conquer Flanders and I put a large army there under the command of a good general to prevent a land invasion.

I then tech up my homeland and establish trade routes, while letting my territory in France stagnate. During this era, my wars are designed to prevent any of my neighbours from developing a strong navy and I regularly sack coastal provinces.

When the late era comes along, I use my high-tech units to expand across Europe.

[katank]

I always blitz adjacent factions to establish nice economic base and secure borders.

then, sit back, build economy and trade.

be opportunistic and let no transgression go unpunished.

in no time flat, i own the map. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[The_678]

I start by getting secure borders somehow (different for different factions) and a decent army. Then I invade/bribe scandinavia for their huscarls (if catholic). After that i get a huge navy and economy.
Once i have boats in all/nearly all the seas in the i usually have a big enough army to attack things. I always start by conquering Egypt and north africa for the cash. If spain is small enough i take them for their iron. After that i slowly creep up through the byzantine lands, through russia and circle back to take europe and win. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/medievalcheers.gif

[English assassin]

Slightly depends if I'm a sea power or not.

Basically my approach is that its a war game, and you win the war by destroying the enemy's army. Taking and holding land is not the main objective. So if I've got sea mobility, after getting the homelands secure as described above, I pick someone I don't like the look of and arrive uninvited in their richest acessible province. Smash it up and set up home. Usually you get to take out a fair sized army doing this, and the turns after they throw a lot more at you trying to retake the province, which is only sensible. This saves chasing round their empire trying to get them to fight. (I really hate the X has decided they cannot win the battle message as you can imagine. that just means you've got to chase down and fight those troops some other place) Sooner or later, you have to take the next few richest of their provinces which ought to provoke battles with most of the rest of their armies.

Once they are down to unproductive provinces and green troops I generally ignore them because they aren't a threat any more, and pick a fight with someone else. The only exception might be a faction with a lot of ships where a total wipe out is worth it to save chasing ships all over the map.

If I'm a land power obviously it doesn't work quite like this but the idea of targeting the armies is the same.

I don't know if this is the best strategy to conquer the map because I enjoy playing the game for the battles really so I tend to play in a way that will give me good battles rather than anything that would make any sense in the real world.

[KukriKhan]

In Shogun TW, I, like English assassin made moves on the campaign map designed to produce epic battles.

In Medieval TW, however, I found the campaign map much more engrossing in its own right. For me the most fascinating aspect is the What if? factor: what if the vikings stayed land-based, never taking to the sea? Could they dominate Europe within 400 years? Answer: yes, but they're millions in debt and eating gruel every day.

For standard play, my mantra is: location, location, location. I play nice with my neighbors until I can get to Lithuania and Kiev, making a land-bridge between seas, then cherry-pick rich provinces as they come available. No real need for overt aggression until I own half the map and the other factions turn sour on me. Then go for the coastals, land-locking the enemy. I usually end up with 2-3 single-province enemy factions stuck in mid-central Europe, waiting for my decision on when they die.

Then I start over; its not the winning, its the trip there, for me.

[Tricky Lady]

I usually try to stretch my games over a long time-frame as possible. So turtling, building up economony and teching up provinces, and counter-attacking when backstabbed.
Most often I degrade some factions to a single province and take them out when I decide that their only province actually belongs to my mighty empire http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-grin2.gif

[huntn]

I found this resource excellent for beginners.

http://www.freewebs.com/blackprince/medievalstrategyguides.htm

-Hunt'n

[Doug-Thompson]

Quote[/b] (katank @ June 09 2004,18:56)]I always blitz adjacent factions to establish nice economic base and secure borders.

then, sit back, build economy and trade.

be opportunistic and let no transgression go unpunished.

in no time flat, i own the map. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Katank and I were separated at birth.

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

Also, I play Muslims. That helps overrun a Christian world where the Empires become weak and divided because the Pope won't let anybody win, and because Crusades fail.

[katank]

lol, Doug

I love the muslim factions too.

desert warfare against knights is really funny.

besides, I love the unique unit selection.

HAs rule

also, I hit Rome the first time a crusade is launched to kick off the Holy War and raze it to the ground before leaving.

Then, every time that a crusade comes, I sack Rome again with a jihad.

it's quite funny actually. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif as my brave jihad forces can usually arrive back in time to crush the infidel pigs trying to take my lands. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-jester.gif

[afrit]

Haven't played much (working 70 hours a week http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-furious3.gif) but I finished three campaigns on normal early with Byz, English and HRE.

In all cases, my strategy was to rush one enemy faction early and eliminate it(Turks for Byz, French for English and Danes for HRE). Then consolidate victory and then choose one geographic area to expand into at a time, pausing between each to consolidate and garrison other borders to avoid a 2-front war. I also tech up on trade when posssible.

IIRC, with Byz I took out Turks first, Egypt next, Russia third, Iberia next , then was invading Italy when I encountered the 66% conquered alert and stopped.

With HRE, it was counter-clockwise strategy: Danes, Baltic provinces, Poles, Byz in MOldavia & Kiev, then Hungary picked a fight and went next, then Italy, France, England after each attacked me. After that it was the Germanic Hordes versus the rest of the world http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

All campaigns were finished before the high era, so I used mostly large quantities of plain units. Swarms of Byz infantry and Trebizonds are simply irresistible http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/ceasaryes.gif .

I haven't paid much attention to the intrigue aspect of the game yet (I use auto-taxes, auto-titles etc.). Have never suceeded in a marriage proposal. In fact I am surprised I don't get many rebellions http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif since I never build churches or watch generals' loyalty. (But I do build a watchtower in every province to see the enemy).


IN hindsight, I guess I play with a boring style. IN future campaigns I will try to change my style to have more fun.

Unless I uninstall MTW so I can go on with the rest of my life http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-jester.gif .

[Bezalel]

Within the first 10 turns, I start a war w/ one of the surrounding countries (prefferably w/ the best agricultural regions), then build up my economy. All along the way, I'll play off alliances ie I let others start wars, and chip in to take out the stronger one, all the while, making myself the strong one. When Everyone starts attacking you, you have to just go into crazy mode, and spend the excess 200k florins you have by then. Batta-bing, batta-boom; the map is yours.

[king steven]

all out blitkieg(currently playing the germans).

https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-oops.gif game keeps frezzing while egypt takings a kicking.
maybe 2 many game saves. https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-help.gif https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-help.gif https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-help.gif

[SirGonkSevenT3]

My plan for world conquest is simple...re-elect Bush https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-stunned.gif

Hehehe, sorry I couldn't resist. https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-gossip.gif

[The_Emperor]

I tend to blitz one faction (such as the French) and then go on a steady phase of building up and being opportunistic by taking rebel provinces, and fighting back against attackers.

When playing as Catholic I like to tech up more as a lot of their best units arrive later on... I also try to avoid excommunications and take factions out by other means.

Massed packs of Grand Inquisitors going after and heir or a King are a common sight on my map, then when the faction goes rebel I advance across their former territory.

Also the Pope tend to love you for doing that strategy, in my current English campaign I have more money than I can spend... And the Pope has been giving me cash for helping the Church (must be all those Bishops in every province keeping an eye on my rivals for me and those packs of Inquisitors raising zeal)

[katank]

I love to bltiz 2-3 factions for secure strategic position and also wealth and resources like iron.

then, I turtle and make sure I have a fleet that spans every sea zone and crusade and/or play with agents.

I also do massed inquisitor rushes before. I've wiped out factions multiple times using burning and made sure that except for me, all of catholic europe had no generals with stars

this made the wars rather long and indecisive.

I also use small, elite commando armies to make surgical strikes like targeting chapterhouses and ribats as well as destroying enemy armies and facilities to maintain the balance of power.