XL English - Early (Tyberius 2.2)

Outrageous!

I thought my eyes were deceiving me! I thought to myself, 'Glenn, you must carry yourself off to bed s'ah! If you can't find an English guide in the XL sub-forum then you must have overdone the good work somewhat!'

Well!

Have a look for yourself, there are no English guides here! Outrageous! This is an English forum after all!

That will all change, because after this thread has been posted, everyone will be posting their own English guides and bragging of their triumphs!

Let me describe the situation of the English in XL 3.0 on Early, Hard. (Tyberius 2.2 was also used.)



Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex and Normandie are the starting provinces.
In each of these is a substantial initial garrison, and Wessex is home to the King William II.

Who in the english speaking world has not been mentally branded with the figure:

'1066'?

That's right!
King William II has at the least, very large garments to fill.
And one will find it not particularly challenging to fill them entirely with florins and deeds, given the immediate wealth of old mother England. On with the description.

No! No the English are not challenging for the experienced player, but they are interesting! And who would choose Lesser Armenia over mother England for the sake of a challenge? Eh?! Why do you suppose they named it 'Lesser' Armenia?
One doesn't choose to play England for a challenge, one chooses to play England because it feels right to do so.
One chooses England, because one's previous campaign as the Holy Roman Empire led them to experience a deep hatred for everything Frankish.
One chooses England, because nothing is more entertaining and stirring than watching that gallant red banner adorned with Richard's lions rolling over Palestine and flying over Nancy castle.
(Nancy castle! If ever a fortification was doomed to failure in the moment of it's christening..)

Now we know why England is the best choice, let us see what we would do with our choice.

Diplomacy influences the first choices of the game.
(Which one of these foreign dogs wants to attack me first?)

Well, you have a selection of enemies as the English right from the commencement.
Dislike vikings and all things scandinavian? A gruelling and seaborne campaign awaits you in the east, where you may swiftly invade the Danish and follow up with attacks on the Swedish and Norse.
The Danish themselves are known to take liberties in the North sea and conquer Mercia in the early game, so do be careful.

Have you seen the movie, 'Braveheart'?
And did you weep when those most respectable rows of horse were wiped out by a group of bludgers with sowing needles? When they simply went about cutting the heads from English lords?
I never liked Mel Gibson anyway! That movie is completely inaccurate!
And you have the chance to prove it here!
Don't wait until the 14th century, see that the Scots are subdued before the introduction of chivalry!
Indeed, it is most simple to gather an army capable of destroying what heavy infantry they keep, and this is truly a case of cleaning out that spare room before it's filth starts spreading over the rest of your domain! Once you have achieved that victory, nothing prevents you from dominating those limerick speaking drunkards in the west.

But suppose you did not want to nip Copenhagen in the bud, and suppose then that you were a benevolent superpower in Britannia, and deluded yourself with the thoughts that Scotland, England and Ireland can co-exist. (Wales! I won't hear of it! Conquer them immediately!)

To the south, bordering all around Normandie is a power so evil, so mindlessly bent on the conquest of all that is noble and pious in Europe, that the Pope himself, blessed in his patience and understanding, cannot bear the thought of them for more than a decade.

The French, my protegee, the French must be destroyed.
You may divert your attentions to the North, or the East, and taff about in the West.
But eventually you must move something south of Normandie that isn't for diplomacy or subterfuge.


Now it is late and I never promised this to be a comprehensive guide - in fact - I never promised anything.
So I will conclude with a description of what I have done so far.



I was swift to use the initial 6000 florins for these things: 400 more men to bolster Normandie; 400 men to help form an army to take Scotland; basic spear and sword manufacturing infrastructure in Mercia and Northumbria.
Scotland would be conquered before they could produce another annoying heir with 33 royal knights to destroy.
Luckily, a very large amount of initial units are available and I had 1200 men under William II to send within five turns.
Scotland fell very quickly and I lost only 300 of the Sussex scum to the highlanders.
Now Wales fell by a bribery supported by cheap archers from Mercia, and for a reason which seems now to escape my recognition, I accepted an alliance with Ireland.
(They should have been nipped in the bud too...)
Nevertheless, I was more interested in France, which in one decade managed to take half of the Holy Roman Empire and find itself excommunicated.
Well, thought I, Ireland can wait, England will crusade against Ile de France.

Of course, this was only a one province leap, but this was all that was affordable.
For the Scottish army had attacked the only available HRE province of Friesland, and was now honour-bound hold defend it in the event of a war with the thousands of Frenchmen milling about in Franconia.
This meant that England was completely drained financially in providing enough men for the crusade.
By 1107 the holy war was launched, England was safe, but in deficit due to two large armies defending Normandie and Friesland and an extensive naval force.

The battle for Ile de France was most congenial to English interests.
French spears and archers, perfect for defense against our lesser men, instead chose to flee the province and return in greater numbers.
Yet despite the numbers, the disadvantage of leading defensive units in an unsupported attack was too great, and the majority of the French military was massacred on a small wooded ridge near Paris.

I take this moment to recommend the immediate conquest of Scotland, if only for the wonderfully powerful shock troops which the provinces yields to an invader. (Especially in Tyberius).

So I now had the French capital but also a very large deficit and it was only the large ransoms and ransacking that allowed a small army to be produced capable of taking Flanders.

The general composition of troops is:

Five feudal-men-at-arms
Two Highland warriors
One Hebredian Warriors (Heavy infantry Tyberius)
Two royal knights (including general)
Four Mounted Sergeants
Two Hobilars

This army can be used very easily on both defense and offense.

Only in my current situation however, and reforms will soon be required.

The unmatched strength of Feudal men-at-arms make them the legionaries of the early period, and supported by the Scottish shock troops, there is no unit they cannot defeat utterly.
I use cavalry extensively as any faction in the game, as I am rather fond of it, and it means that very few units ever escape imprisonment.
The terrain of northern France is the other major factor.
On offense, the infantry slowly sweeps everything before it, and the cavalry constantly batter and rout the confused Frenchmen in the open fields.
On defense, a small cluster of forestry becomes an impenetrable fort, walled by men-at-arms, bolstered by shock troops.
The French spears and swords charge expecting an even fight, and are routed instantly by the barbarity of the highlanders, who then give way to the 350 cavalrymen galloping out to collect prisoners.

Due to this invulnerability in the French terrain, I found myself capable of fielding five armies on a small income due to the fantastic ransoms paid by the French, and after thirty years of war I now have taken in this order, Flanders, Champagne, Anjou, Brittany, Aquitaine, Tolouse and Lorraine.

There are some difficulties with Lorraine, as I have a battered army of 900 holding out against 3000 veterans of the Franco-German war, but they shall be resolved.

A very basic explanation of all of this would be:


My chosen path of success of the English was to immediately unite Britannia, build basic military infrastructure simultaneously with a defensive navy, take advantage of the Franco-German war early, invade weakly defending provinces with overwhelming troops and wait for the solely defensive French units to attack in hordes and sell the 2000 prisoners taken for a new army to throw at the next province.

Ultimately winning the continental border of Aquitaine, Tolouse, Burgundy, Lorraine, Friesland, and then holding the power to do anything at all.

The only important change would be to take Ireland very early also, before she fills to the brim with valour 5 knights...



Good luck and all that...