View Full Version : Need help with playing England.
I am playing on Easy In the Early pearod and I am still dooing bad and loosing. I am in the process of reading the Help book to so I am trying to learn the game. I mean I know how to play I am guist not good at it yet. Can some of you give me help on what to build up. So far my plain is to take out France first then Scotland.
GAH!
Vanya sez... make war, fall out with the Pope. Then, youz will have a parade of good christians flocking to your lands to show you the errors of your ways.
Vanya sez... build big castle! Build houses of ill repute! Flood France with all the ugly, skanky womenz you can find! The French won't know what hit them!
Vanya played English campaign until He got to that inevitable point whereby no matter what youz do, the game just crashes... Vanya was allied with the French the entire time! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
Vanya hope He can continue that game when the patch comes out. Vanya wonders if its because there are too many units visible to Him on the map...?
GAH!
EuroLord
09-30-2002, 23:45
Hi,
I suggest you get one of your princesses to marry into the french Royal Family and have a good alliance. They wont attack you for quite a while, but dont let that stop you attacking them when you need to. They wont attack you for quite a long time.
I suggest building a port in Normandy and wessex, so your troops can come directly to France. Also some ships quite quickly just in case the French decide to attack England.
The alliance with the French is very important, as is one with the Papal States. Just dont invade a christian province for more than the time limit the Pope gives you.
hope this helps.
EuroLord
I usually abandon Anjou and Aquitaine and take Flanders (good farming, very great trading and the connection with Wessex) and hold on to Normandy.
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BTW, Danish Crusades are true to history.
You may not care about war, but war cares about you!
Gringoleader
09-30-2002, 23:50
In my experience the best way to start out with the English is take down the Welsh and the Scottish for starters. There should be a good chance in the early period that you can have a pop at the Aragonese too, but it might be best to wait for somebody else to soften them up first.
Before tackling France, particularly if you are new at it, I would advise building ships and taking on first the Irish and then the Danes and the rest of Scandanavia. The trick to fighting the Danes is to use lots of spearmen as they tend to deploy half a dozen or more units of Royal Knights on their home turf, and spearmen will have them away.
Once you get a foothold in Scandanavia you can move your ships further along to place you in strike range of some Russian territory. Getting stuck into a war using Scandanavia as a starting off point is good because it minimises the area that can be counter attacked.
While fighting in Scandanavia continue to build fleets and loop them around the coast of Spain as far as Italy. This way should the Spanish kick off you can nail their trade routes instantly and also have the capability to strike anywhere along their shores, which is always handy if you need to quickly nick a load of cash.
Spies are great for unsettling enemy provinces, and if you use large groups at once you can incite rebellions at a rate of one per turn. Be careful though, as I have found this tactic can often lead to the enemy units and generals being trained to very high level just from butchering proles.
Well that's my two cents on the issue...
Pachinko
09-30-2002, 23:55
OK.. It worked for me anyway.. it is a Hard mode..So, it should work.ALL the florin is your food. ie 80% food and the ships and use a trading post. THEN you have alot of florins.
I hope you understand..My english is bad...sorry
P.
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Crush your enemies, see them driven before you on the field of battle, and hear the lamentation of their women.
Dev quote>>Sigh, ye of little faith. Don't assume everything is a bug.
Bribe the Welsh and Scottish rebels! Then make allience with the French. Build a port in Wessex and start to build ships. Build a port in Aquitane too. Upgrade your farmlands but only in your rich provinces. Build mines. Build an Inn in Aqitane. Wait till the pope excommunicates a catholic faction, then hire all the good mercenaries you can (that is why you need the Inn) and then attack this faction with all your military might http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
Wolfgrin
10-01-2002, 01:25
I agree with Kraxis and Gringoleader. Befriend France, kill Scandinavia, expand into Lithuania/Novogorod AND BUILD TRADE ROUTES! I'm playing Expert mode and have so much cash it's unbelievable (over 500,000 florins) and that's with the Byzantines harrying my trade every 20 years. Unless you're playing Glorious Achievement mode, don't fall in love with Aquitaine and Anjou. Let them go when France attacks, but bunker into Normandy and Flanders. Those will be good bases of attack when you're ready to exterminate the Froggies. Also, maximize your English assets, namely Billmen and Longbowmen. Together, they can kill just about anything (of course, throw in a few units of your own cavalry on the flanks for good measure).
Hope this helps and have fun.
Cardinal
10-01-2002, 02:41
I am still pretty new witht his game, and have still to finish my England Campain. Still I have done as they mentioned above, and made sure I am dragging in loads off cash, with alomst every province at "very high" tax level. This has not made my morale drop either (lucky me), although I keep a tab on it. I was attacked by the French, but beat them off, and conquered Flanders before the pope started medling. The I waited 12 years an attacked 2 provinces simultaneously, and won (I had spent 12 years planning for this), and killed the French King. The French by that stage had only one porvince left which went rebel (no heirs). The pope was at me again, but as the French were now elliminated it came to nothing.
I played on "Normal".
My advice is: If you want to take out the French, hit hard and spread out your attack. I also had Keeps and Castles in all my French provinces, and they were reluctant attacking them without siege engines (this was about 1100-1130).
PS: Keep ypur Hoblars in reserve. The are excellent in pursuing a routed enemy.
Gringoleader
10-01-2002, 02:58
A good little tactic for breaking the French is to build an army so vast that it simply cannot be faced and just rape and pillage through the enemy provinces without hanging around to capture them properly.
You'll rake in a lot of money, reduce the quality of the enemy troops, and make it difficult for the enemy to mobilise a counter strike.
When going on this kind of raiding spree I normally find it's best to take your best native general, possibly even a prince, and then tool him up with mercenaries. It helps to steady their morale and your army looks cooler with loads of weird units in.
I have played two campaigns as the English. I usually bribe the Welsh to get their longbowmen and bribe the Scottish as well if possible. Make an alliance with the French and snap up Navarre if you can do it before the Spanish. In both my campaigns I was able to take Navarre, Aragon, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Norway and Sweden before war with France. Usually France and the HRE are going at it and it is good to make an alliance with the HRE then stab the French in the back. Attack France immediately if they are excommunicated. In one campaign the king died without an heir and France just fell apart.
Jo_Beare
10-01-2002, 05:26
Don't forget about Ireland. Kerns are kind of fun if used corectly and gallowglasses are excellent shock troops that can slice through spear units like a hot knife though butter.
JoBeare
Cardinal
10-01-2002, 05:59
Just out of interrest, what is the correct way to use Kerns?
Jo_Beare
10-01-2002, 06:45
The best way to use kerns is to flank with them. Once the enemy unit is engaged move the kerns in close and deliver a healthy dose of flying spears and then plunge into their rear. Just watch out for cavalry units and other units that try to engage the kerns before they are out of spears. They can decimate heavily armored units like knights and AUM. Another way is to tuck them in up as close as possible behind your sergeants or billman so that the kerns can throw the spears through the unit in front of them to the unit they are engaged with. There was a thread about kerns a few weeks ago with some more good ideas.
JoBeare
I thank you all for you help. I guess that best way is to Try and Try agin. If you are new to a game like that You can not expect to concor the world in 1 try.
Good luck to you all.
The Green Knight
10-01-2002, 19:36
I decided to [play as english - easy- on glorious achievement and without trying too hard seem to have conqured all of france, and destroyed the hre plus spain and the wole of n africa to egypt. i have had almohads reappear and once the germans did. i have given the pope back his lands and tyhje italianss hold only sardinia and corsica. but i have little money and a nmighty army, tired of war and it is 1230 ad. this is strange cause i have another game going which is judged byc onquest and |I have hardly taken anything - jusdt too chicken.
So perhaps you shopuld be really aggressive.I got theose pesky frogs seen too almost immediately. the scots gave me some trouble but now they are gentle as lambs - tho i guess they will rebel when willy wallace appears.
next strike will be to take egypt -- Ha
LittleGrizzly
10-01-2002, 19:58
english expert mode what i did was bribe wales and scotland leave anjou and the other one ? to take flanders i put tax on very high and keep 600 peasents in each province this means i can get excommunicated without problems.
i have given english the greatest navy in the world with trade booming so ive decided to take sicily and tripoli (4 goods!!!) i got excommunicated taking sicily but worth it for trade.
i never use any agents bar the occasional emmisary and i use armys packed with chilvaric knights billmen and longbowmen with helped me expand my french holdings http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif (il de france and champagne)
im currently gearing up for war with the spanish they have he biggest empire 2nd novorgood 3rd me but spain and novorgood my allys are at war so im using tripoli as a base to expand i have the largest army but need to expand my navy as they could inflict bad finacial damage small navy but sqaushed together!
right better get back so me and novorgood can finally finish em spanish idiots !
final note argonese took rest of french holdings but they're also at war with novorgood so i might take em out but they're fighting spanish so they are all helping me by killing each other http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif
Joe Smithe
10-02-2002, 00:12
I am playing on NORMAL.
I took wales immediately. Then I tried for scotland. Those bastards pissed me off. I would take it, they would rebel, repeat for 5 years. Finally, I just let them be for a little while. My main goal was taking the french because I don't like having my provinces seperated like that. I built up a few large armies and started with an attack on 3 bordering provinces. I ended up taking 2 of them. The third I took on the next turn. Of course the Pope excommunicated me, but I perservered through a couple rebellions. I had all of France(with no loyalist rebellions, etc) by 1115.
This is a good move in my opinion because I was able to take a lot of land with reletively minor troops. All of us were using primarily peasants at the time, so when I rolled in with my spearmen, they would break and run. Like I said, I got a lot of land and that meant a lot of money to be made. Flanders is still my best province financially.
Next I took scotland and installed a permanent army there with a 6 star general to keep them settled. Then I built up for around 20 years. I tried to take the spanish, but got my ass handed to me pretty bad until the Almoheds came in from the south. All in all I made out with 3 spanish provinces, which I am stocking up for the probable invasion by the Almoheds. Now I am currently going after germany.
Just a hint: Spies are the best units in the game. I have taken two thirds of Germany without fighting a battle yet. Also, build border forts, since Byzantine is trying this same tactic on me.
[This message has been edited for paragraph breaks by Joe Smithe (edited 10-01-2002).]
[This message has been edited by Joe Smithe (edited 10-01-2002).]
Ally with the worthless French !?!?
NO ! Make the HRE your best friends and allies to keep your eastern flank safe. Build up armies in Wessex and Aquitaine quickly, make sure you use Spearmen as the french will have many peasants http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif (I like to start building Keeps in Wessex/Aquitaine in the first turn which in turn leads to early armouries, and early access to toughened troops.
Attack 2 or 3 French provinces at once. Use your Hobilars to slaughter any retreating foes and slaughter any prisoners.
Using this method I took Ile De France, Brittany and Flanders in one year, and used the other year to wrap up the castle sieges.
In the next 12 years of Papal restraint you can mop up Wales and Scotland if you haven't done so, and you can build up your troop building facilities before moving on to destroy any French stragglers that may be in Toulouse, Lorriane or Provence.
My English (NORMAL) empire now covers Northern and Central Spain, what was France, Denmark, the UK, Sweden, and the western half of the HRE. The Germans at least are putting up a bit of a fight in their river provinces.
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