New way to conqure the world! Bribe them!

[Don Megel]

My second game since buying it, I was Italy and suronded on all sides by powerful foes, war wasnt an option. So I sent out my Emissaries to Scottland and Sweden. A few hundred Florin later I have northern lands. My problem now is that Ive run out of rebels to bribe and my "Friends" on the boarders are killing my Emissaries and Generals. Im gona have to move but I lake the strength to do so....any ideas?



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Praise the Lord for He is mighty and great!

[Nick Marcus]

War IS an option. Check the alliance screen regularly. Chances are one of you neighbours start the medieval thing with one of the others. Time to pick a side and invade. Dont keep the province but rob it blind. If you can get the baddies away in one turn, sell everything and retreat (if you can hold it, please do, judge the situation). This tactic should get you around 3000 florins wich should be enough to start a decent naval power with rich trade and unsuspecting sea provinces ripe for the picking.

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Love us with money or we will hate you with hammers

[Don Megel]

But it seams when ever I invade it says "4 Buildings destroyed" or something like that. How can I invade wiht out blowing stuff up?

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Praise the Lord for He is mighty and great!

[Nick Marcus]

Yes,but in the meantime you'r earning pillage money. I think the pillage value is the same like the sell value, but i'm not sure. If your army is small like you said, you can't hold the province anyway so those buildings are only usefull to the baddies. Something you want to avoid.
Anyway, the building destroying thingie will prolly be fixed by the patch. Check our other treads for that.

[ToranagaSama]

Money, Money, Money!!!

Trade, Trade, Trade!!!

You can try that Raid, Rape and Pillage technique described above, but I think it rather cheesy, unless your a Viking by blood. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

Go slow, but be deliberate. Develop a Trade network first, using your ships. As your money grows, keep Teching up. Make Strategic alliances that will protect your borders (use alliances and marriages to shore up the alliances). Protect Venice at ALL costs!! It's your money factory.

Once you have a good network of ships, a nice war chest and good income, build a nice armoured army. Invade for WEALTH not for conquest.

WITHOUT sinking your income build a high tech reserve army. Use it to take the money making provinces, such as Scility, Constantinople, North Umbria, Flanders, etc. Usually, this means coastal provinces with "Tradeable Goods" (and mines). This army will NEED to survive on its own w/o help until you build a port in the new proivince.

Take your time, tech up the newly won province(s) into money makers and armouries. With a nice *Existing* network of ships, these turn into gold mines VERY quickly. Keep an eye on your income and loyalty. There is NO reason to have rebellions, nor negative balances.

Once you get an income of a 1000 florins, try to not let it drop below this level. 500 florins is a danger zone. At this point, you either have more troops than you actually need; or your expanding faster than your income; and/or you need to develop (and/or locate) income quickly. "Raiding" is a short term solution; and IMHO should be used Tactically rather than strategically, or maybe that s/b the opposite.

You see if you build troops with money from Raids or money taken from conquest then your troops are living on borrowed time. Eventually, that money will run out. Your income/cash flow will NOT have increased enough to support the new troops. Better to sink these types of funds into Technology Upgrades!!!

Use your Agents liberally to keep an eye on what your opponents are up to. Especially, behind the front lines. Know where his reserves are. [Manipulate their movements.]

Realize that it makes little sense to take a province that'll require a "standing" army for a numbers of years to quell rebellions (in order to NOT experience rebellions, keep loyalty at 200 for approx. 10 turns.). Unless income from that province can pay the maintenance for that Army!!! If not, that army will just eat your bankroll while providing NO income.

Also, little sense to use that army to put down rebellion conquered provinces. It's a waste of florins! Especially, when if you take care and *plan* you don't need to experience rebellion at all.

Oh, almost forgot! Before you attack the money provinces, check the seas. You DON'T want to be barricaded. This would shut down your trade network of ships and lead you to Negative income. It'll also isolate your far flung troops and provinces.

For example, you intend to take Scilily and Scilily has several ships in the Med already. You will need to build a Navy capable of taking out ALL those ships before you can invade. In other words, if you build an a trade network based on ships, you will NEED to be able to defend that network.

Very challenging to play the Italians. I've played them on Normal. Now, I'm trying the Danes on Hard, which is even more challenging as the Danes have less to start with than the Italians.

Good luck, have fun!!!

[This message has been edited by ToranagaSama (edited 09-22-2002).]

[Don Megel]

Well Ive been trying to establish that net work but Im havin trouble finding good places to trade with. Also, if I build Markets at each of my ports will this increase income?

Ive been letting the computer build my buildings...should I make this stop?

Thanks by the way

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Praise the Lord for He is mighty and great!