Bob the Insane
10-07-2002, 20:07
I just had to share because I am so proud of my little computer guys...
This is the story of my early/hard campaign as the Danish (using large units)..[edit...oops, I mean huge units]
Well from the beginning I wanted to try for a GA victory, so I concentrated on developing Denmark and capturing Sweden and Norway. One of the early problem with the Danish is lack of funds, quite quick you get a stream of Heirs appearing, and while they make for instant troops, for cost a fortune to maintain and aren't that much use in Sweden and Norway.. Especially in Sweden where all the defending Vikings tend to hide in the woods on top of a hill... So the first 10 years is an attempt to make a profit, and somewhat forces you to expand... I was allied with most Catholic nations at this point so I wasn't too worried about life.. I concentrated on acquiring the Rebel nations around the Baltic and finally succeeding some years later when the Novoglod nation fell to massive revolts.. I held all the provinces touching the Baltic and that was all... From here I started my trade domination.. I built masses of long boats and sent them around the seas. I ended up with a long boat in every sea region (except the deep sea ones of course..). This is when the money started to roll in and I developed the ports and traders in all regions. While this was happening the world moved on, the Spanish had apparently gone nuts and couldn't care less about being repeatedly excommunicated as they rampaged over Europe and wiped out the Almohads... The HRE disappeared under Spanish feet.. and English and French were tearing each other to pieces and Sicilians were rampaging over the med, and the Byzantines nailed the Turks... The only effect on my happy empire was the loss of ports it provinces at war meant a loss of trade income.. But we survived and our first taste of action came from the French. The where the loners of Europe, no-one want to ally with them and the effect continued. The tried attacking one of our provinces but were easily repelled.
They came the time for a big decision. The Spanish where really coming into their own, this was their time and they knew it. They had the largest and most advance military in history and were making it work. I dropped alliance after alliance to maintain my alliance with the Spanish, an alliance I constantly reinforced through marriages. Though when the change allowed I re-allied with those I could.
The Egyptians then really started to appear. They took the Iberian Peninsula from the Spanish, but were then bogged down fighting revolts and Spanish counter attacks. The English had only the mainland of Britain (they never got to Ireland) and Aquitian and were defending themselves from the Spanish. The Polish and Hungarians were fighting each other in central Europe and the Byzantines were fighting the Egyptians in the East. And lastly the Novoglods had re-emerged and were living peaceful in the corner..
In this world of war the Golden Horde arrived and actually did pretty well for a while as the other nations had been weakened by years of fighting. Until the attacked Lithuania, the hub of my trading empire, my most profitable province. Well we had about 120,000 Florin's in the bank, so we raised a mercenary army (which was luckily readily available at an Inn in Novoglod. ) and added a few of the more disposable Heirs... Then we chased the Horde from Province to Province defeating all in our path until we finally destroyed them on the Volga... Now we had a string of new territories running to the South East and the Black Sea, which we reinforced and started to develop.
In the mean time we also took advantage of a couple of other events. Genoa and Egypt revolted and we promptly bribed the resultant armies. We bribed the Irish and the English had a civil war, which we took advantage of by bribing rebels in Northumbria and Wales. Later Corsica revolted and was left with no army at all, so we just stepped in from Genoa. We started developing spies at this point and using the 'Spy Hit Squad' tactic to spread some more chaos. We even manage to incite a revolt in Scotland lead by none other than William Walays (a Pike unit, the leader had 6 stars and Great Leader Virtue). He ended up the King of Scotland..
The Spanish finished of the English but they are persistent and have re-emerged (and been wiped out) at least 5 times since. The Novoglods then attacked after years of peace. I had left them alone because of a policy of non-aggression and that they produced useful Princesses (for marrying my heirs) and I couldn't be bothered. Well I took the attack personally, so it was a repeat of the mercenary army and wiping their faction from the face of the earth as punishment...
Next on the list was the Egyptians. As before it started with a 'unprovoked' attack.. (Well I was ruling in Egypt and had converted the population to Catholic.). This was the worst yet. It took years and wiped out carefully saved 200,000 florins... But Egyptians were left with only Arabia and Northern Africa west of Egypt and some of Spain and they sued for peace. This meant the return of trade and the refurbishment of our fleet with more modern boats (the Egyptians are the only one to challenge our fleets and the long serving Longboats suffered greatly in the conflict).. After a few years the trade returned stronger than before and we had soon refilled out coffers.
So now it is the 1310 and we, the Danish stand at the brink of ruling Europe. We are the richest, the strongest and the most advance faction in Europe. Only the Spanish stand a chance against use and we have been firm allies for over 200 years. Life is good.
Thanks for listening..... http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif
[This message has been edited by Bob the Insane (edited 10-07-2002).]
This is the story of my early/hard campaign as the Danish (using large units)..[edit...oops, I mean huge units]
Well from the beginning I wanted to try for a GA victory, so I concentrated on developing Denmark and capturing Sweden and Norway. One of the early problem with the Danish is lack of funds, quite quick you get a stream of Heirs appearing, and while they make for instant troops, for cost a fortune to maintain and aren't that much use in Sweden and Norway.. Especially in Sweden where all the defending Vikings tend to hide in the woods on top of a hill... So the first 10 years is an attempt to make a profit, and somewhat forces you to expand... I was allied with most Catholic nations at this point so I wasn't too worried about life.. I concentrated on acquiring the Rebel nations around the Baltic and finally succeeding some years later when the Novoglod nation fell to massive revolts.. I held all the provinces touching the Baltic and that was all... From here I started my trade domination.. I built masses of long boats and sent them around the seas. I ended up with a long boat in every sea region (except the deep sea ones of course..). This is when the money started to roll in and I developed the ports and traders in all regions. While this was happening the world moved on, the Spanish had apparently gone nuts and couldn't care less about being repeatedly excommunicated as they rampaged over Europe and wiped out the Almohads... The HRE disappeared under Spanish feet.. and English and French were tearing each other to pieces and Sicilians were rampaging over the med, and the Byzantines nailed the Turks... The only effect on my happy empire was the loss of ports it provinces at war meant a loss of trade income.. But we survived and our first taste of action came from the French. The where the loners of Europe, no-one want to ally with them and the effect continued. The tried attacking one of our provinces but were easily repelled.
They came the time for a big decision. The Spanish where really coming into their own, this was their time and they knew it. They had the largest and most advance military in history and were making it work. I dropped alliance after alliance to maintain my alliance with the Spanish, an alliance I constantly reinforced through marriages. Though when the change allowed I re-allied with those I could.
The Egyptians then really started to appear. They took the Iberian Peninsula from the Spanish, but were then bogged down fighting revolts and Spanish counter attacks. The English had only the mainland of Britain (they never got to Ireland) and Aquitian and were defending themselves from the Spanish. The Polish and Hungarians were fighting each other in central Europe and the Byzantines were fighting the Egyptians in the East. And lastly the Novoglods had re-emerged and were living peaceful in the corner..
In this world of war the Golden Horde arrived and actually did pretty well for a while as the other nations had been weakened by years of fighting. Until the attacked Lithuania, the hub of my trading empire, my most profitable province. Well we had about 120,000 Florin's in the bank, so we raised a mercenary army (which was luckily readily available at an Inn in Novoglod. ) and added a few of the more disposable Heirs... Then we chased the Horde from Province to Province defeating all in our path until we finally destroyed them on the Volga... Now we had a string of new territories running to the South East and the Black Sea, which we reinforced and started to develop.
In the mean time we also took advantage of a couple of other events. Genoa and Egypt revolted and we promptly bribed the resultant armies. We bribed the Irish and the English had a civil war, which we took advantage of by bribing rebels in Northumbria and Wales. Later Corsica revolted and was left with no army at all, so we just stepped in from Genoa. We started developing spies at this point and using the 'Spy Hit Squad' tactic to spread some more chaos. We even manage to incite a revolt in Scotland lead by none other than William Walays (a Pike unit, the leader had 6 stars and Great Leader Virtue). He ended up the King of Scotland..
The Spanish finished of the English but they are persistent and have re-emerged (and been wiped out) at least 5 times since. The Novoglods then attacked after years of peace. I had left them alone because of a policy of non-aggression and that they produced useful Princesses (for marrying my heirs) and I couldn't be bothered. Well I took the attack personally, so it was a repeat of the mercenary army and wiping their faction from the face of the earth as punishment...
Next on the list was the Egyptians. As before it started with a 'unprovoked' attack.. (Well I was ruling in Egypt and had converted the population to Catholic.). This was the worst yet. It took years and wiped out carefully saved 200,000 florins... But Egyptians were left with only Arabia and Northern Africa west of Egypt and some of Spain and they sued for peace. This meant the return of trade and the refurbishment of our fleet with more modern boats (the Egyptians are the only one to challenge our fleets and the long serving Longboats suffered greatly in the conflict).. After a few years the trade returned stronger than before and we had soon refilled out coffers.
So now it is the 1310 and we, the Danish stand at the brink of ruling Europe. We are the richest, the strongest and the most advance faction in Europe. Only the Spanish stand a chance against use and we have been firm allies for over 200 years. Life is good.
Thanks for listening..... http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif
[This message has been edited by Bob the Insane (edited 10-07-2002).]