Goofball
01-22-2007, 18:28
I read the HRE guide and took Braedonnal's idea to engage in a little Völkerwanderung. I training one batch of units in turn 1, basically spending all my money, training whatever I could in every settlement. In turn two I left a unit of peasants (or spearmen militia) in every city, then moved every other unit I had south and east. I destroyed every non-financial building in my existing settlements as I left.
I got a diplomat to the Pope right away and had him stand by. Whenever it looked like one of my undefended original settlements was about to be sieged or turn rebel, I gifted it to the Pope. Surprisingly, I held on to my last central European settlement until about turn 30.
Along the way south and east, I consolidated my armies into two task forces. The first was aimed at Corinth, and the second was aimed at Sophia. I took Corinth easily, and parked a few units there. Sophia was a little more difficult, as the Huns had already taken it and sent a reinforcing army from the north to try to break my siege. It was a near-fought thing, but I managed to take it. By then, my finances were deeply red, but sacking the city allowed me to at least retrain a few of my units and hire a couple of mercs. Two turns later, I was in the red again.
To make matters worse, Venice sent a large army to siege Corinth. Luckily, my butt-kissing of the Pope paid off. He warned the Venitians off of me, and they broke the siege and went away (for the time being).
I sent a good chunk of my Sophia army south to Constantinople and laid siege to it, even though I was badly outnumbered. This caused the Byz to empty Thessolonica (sp?) of its garrison and send it to the rescue of Const. I took advantage of this situation to send 3 units (all I could afford to have leave and still maintain public order) from Corinth to take Thessolonica.
This is the point where I almost lost everything. I had only a half stack sieging Constantinople. There was a half stack inside, and about a quarter stack that came from Thessolonica to try to break the siege. I won that battle by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin. Then, instead of the "would you like to sack, occupy, or exterminate" screen I was ecpecting, I get the "faction destroyed" message, telling me that the Byz are no more. Then, back on the campaign map, there is a full rebel stack that has spawned in Constantinople. Weirdest thing I have ever seen.
They sallied next turn. I have no idea how, but I won that battle even though I thought I was done for.
At this point, my finances were still negative. After Constantinople, I remained in a break even situation, so at least I wasn't going further into the red. I took a few precious units across the channel and took Nicaea. With the $$ from sacking that city, I built ports/markets wherever I could (the first buildings I had been able to construct all game). Eventually, as the cities grew, I started creeping back into the black financially.
I fought off a few Hungarian attempts at Sophia, and many (they got themselves ex-commed) Venitian attacks, then was in a position to try some further expansion.
I'll write a bit more later, if anybody is interested.
I got a diplomat to the Pope right away and had him stand by. Whenever it looked like one of my undefended original settlements was about to be sieged or turn rebel, I gifted it to the Pope. Surprisingly, I held on to my last central European settlement until about turn 30.
Along the way south and east, I consolidated my armies into two task forces. The first was aimed at Corinth, and the second was aimed at Sophia. I took Corinth easily, and parked a few units there. Sophia was a little more difficult, as the Huns had already taken it and sent a reinforcing army from the north to try to break my siege. It was a near-fought thing, but I managed to take it. By then, my finances were deeply red, but sacking the city allowed me to at least retrain a few of my units and hire a couple of mercs. Two turns later, I was in the red again.
To make matters worse, Venice sent a large army to siege Corinth. Luckily, my butt-kissing of the Pope paid off. He warned the Venitians off of me, and they broke the siege and went away (for the time being).
I sent a good chunk of my Sophia army south to Constantinople and laid siege to it, even though I was badly outnumbered. This caused the Byz to empty Thessolonica (sp?) of its garrison and send it to the rescue of Const. I took advantage of this situation to send 3 units (all I could afford to have leave and still maintain public order) from Corinth to take Thessolonica.
This is the point where I almost lost everything. I had only a half stack sieging Constantinople. There was a half stack inside, and about a quarter stack that came from Thessolonica to try to break the siege. I won that battle by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin. Then, instead of the "would you like to sack, occupy, or exterminate" screen I was ecpecting, I get the "faction destroyed" message, telling me that the Byz are no more. Then, back on the campaign map, there is a full rebel stack that has spawned in Constantinople. Weirdest thing I have ever seen.
They sallied next turn. I have no idea how, but I won that battle even though I thought I was done for.
At this point, my finances were still negative. After Constantinople, I remained in a break even situation, so at least I wasn't going further into the red. I took a few precious units across the channel and took Nicaea. With the $$ from sacking that city, I built ports/markets wherever I could (the first buildings I had been able to construct all game). Eventually, as the cities grew, I started creeping back into the black financially.
I fought off a few Hungarian attempts at Sophia, and many (they got themselves ex-commed) Venitian attacks, then was in a position to try some further expansion.
I'll write a bit more later, if anybody is interested.