Minimum buildings for border provinces?

[Pragmatic]

Okay, what are the minimum buildings for your border provinces?

At a minimum, I think I'd go with Fort, +20% Farming, Town Watch, Spearmaker, Bowyer, Horse Farmer, Watch Towers and Border Fort. Thus, I can produce Peasants, Urban Militia, Spearmen, Archers, and light cavalry (Hobilars for French & English, Horse Archers for Byzantines). In addition, I have a little revenue coming in.

Now, is this too much for a border province? I'm not planning on making this a core province. I don't see myself as adding much more. If need be, I can build a Keep. Then I can go for one level of Armorer. Maybe a Church. Maybe even a Shipwright.

Or I can try to build up the economic portions of the province. Toss in a Port, Trading Post, or a Mine.

So, am I wasting money? I plan on having most every non-major province producing the not-so-great units. Then I can have a core of great units.

So, what are your building strategies? And, given what faction you prefer, what provinces do you consider to be core?

As English, I consider Wessex, Wales, Flanders and Mercia to be core. Maybe Northumbria. Scotland and Ireland I'd probably consider border provinces--the units are available early, and not much use upgrading beyond building one or two levels of Armorer. I'd concentrate on Billmen in Mercia. Longbowmen in Wales. Shipping (eventually to Cogs), light cavalry (mounted sergeants), and light infantry (feudal sergeants) in Wessex. Heavier knights, I'd go for Ile de France and Toulouse. (Though I don't know what a foot knight is...)

For Byzantines, I'd count Constantinople (Kataphractoi), Nicaea (Pros. Allaghoi), and Trebizond (Trebizond Archers) as core. I'd probably snatch and build up Khazar enough to get Steppe Cavalry, plus one level of Armorer. Aside from that, I'd wing it.

So, answers eagerly awaited. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Jaret]

ATM my core provinces are : Kastillien, Leon, Navarre and Aragon. (playing Spanish btw.)

I produce my elite units there ... Gold Shield, Gold Sword http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif !! (Pikemen, Arbalesters, Jinettes & Lancers)

The rest I consider border Provinces http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif).

I use Granada for the unique Buildings. The other provinces are to generate ... MONEY, ships and strategic Units. I always construct Buildings till the very end. There is nothing like a border Province with a nice Fortress with Culverine Towers ... with one of those most enemies will think twice before invading your territory.

[andrewt]

I build up all core provinces with building a specific unit in mind. I have around 2 ship building provinces at the start expanding it to around 3-4 eventually. I also have one specializing in office titles. In my English game, Navarre and Aragon to a lesser degree became core while all iron producing provinces in the Iberian peninsula became core in my Almohad game since I rely on them to produce most of my troops.

I rarely use low-tech units late in the game except as garrisons. I just continuously build up units at high tech provinces which I have a few of. Provinces conquered earlier in the game get to build assassins, spies and priests/alims. I build a trading post whenever a province has a certain amount of trade goods, whether it is inland or port. An ROI of around 20 years is ok to me. I build farm upgrades continuously.

I don't bother with troop producing facilities unless the province conquered has enough tech to be useful quite a bit before the game is over. I build happiness increasing buildings while upgrading income. I usually go watch tower and border fort first unless I want to use that province for agents then maybe churches and brothel might go before the watch tower or border fort depending on the happiness. A town watch also increses happiness so that comes somewhere in there.

A port is always a priority in every port province.

[pdoan8]

If "not core province" means that I won't produce my core troop here, I would not build any of the troop making building except townwatch. I'd use the money for those buildings on economic buildings. One thing that I must consider when I have coastal provinces is I should think about protecting my provinces from naval amphibious attack. Go one step further when I already have ships to protect my coast, I'd invest a little more in trade. Trade provide supporting cost for ship. Each province I trade with (one trade goods) will pay for 1 or 2 ships. If I have more trade goods and trade with more provinces, I can collect a little extra to pay for the cost of making those ships.

[Grifman]

I think you are limiting yourself too much with the Byzantines. With them, I want to produce Kats, Pro Allagion, Byzantine Cavalry, Byzantine Infantry, Trebizond Archers, Varangian Guards, and Steppe Cavalry (I'm assuming that you bribe Khazaria early on here), Arbalests, and Siege Artillery. So you need at least one province for each of these - though the same province can produce archers and arbalests. Also, since you automatically get alot of Kats from heirs, Constantinople can produce another unit, probably Byzantine Cavalry (as I try to upgrade to get that unit ASAP in the game). So you end up needing about 7 unit producing provinces (excluding ships) at the beginning. The islands (Crete, Cyprus, Malta) always become my naval bases and do nothing but produce ships.

Grifman

[Pragmatic]

Grifman, I was naming off provinces that get bonuses, for Byzantines. If I were to build Katas, I'd build them in Constantinople. If I were to build Pro. Allagion, I'd build them in Nicaea. If I were to build Treb. Archers, I'd build them in Trebizond. Might as well get the +1 valor upgrade, eh?

I'd say that, as soon as I got a province that had Iron, that would get every building needed to make the core units. Sure, it's only function would be to upgrade units, not build them. But a +4 to attack, after having built a unit in a province with morale improvements, +4 to defense, and so on, will make those units darn hard to beat.

[Cyricist]

I generally only build farm upgrades if it's worth the effort (which is not the case when you earn less than 100 florins in a province). If not.. I go for trade developement. As for Units, I usually develope a few core area around specific units. Works for me.