Italian are too many

I am playing the Danes with the Medmod and I know this will probably work better in a different secton but I will post here anyways.

I am playing as the Danes and have all of France, Britian, and most of the Argonese empires under my rule. THen, the Italians came out of nowhere and attacked me with a huge force. Being severly outnumbered, my FULLY UPGRADED Hursles or something like that wooped them time and time again in Poland. My questions are.

1. How do you take on an empire where you can't slash and burn, its a straight road from me to them with neutrals blocking the path from all but one way. THey took over poland and thats the only way I can see them. I cheated just to see how big they are.

2. Because there's a glitch (If you know how to fix it, please tell me.) in the mod where some of the water can't be crossed by either types of boats toward the bottom of Spain. I know they are getting a huge income for having a massive fleet of ships just like I have on my side of the map but how can I take on their income if I can't get a ship in the water on that side without it being sunk. If I could fix the glitch so I can move my ships to their side, I could massive stack my ships and take on theirs one sea at a time.

3. I know this doesn't belong here but the mod section but one question about the mod, why is it that I can only build so few units? I can only build my Hurclesls or whatever in the Danish starting providences, which severely cripples my building army speed? Any feedback here?

4. Any other ideas?

It's been a long time since I played the Medmod, but #3 and #4 are intentional parts of the mod and you can't change them without modding AFAIK.

As for #1 you can always go on the defensive and use assasins against their princes and king.

#2 is intentional as well, its to limit the player from building huge fleets and ruling the seas while not a traditional mediteraenen power or at least having access to it. As for how to take them on i'd try building up two armies. Have one a defense army to lure the AI into your linked province, one you know you can beat whatever attacking force they send at you. Then an attack army nearby you can move up once you beat off an attack, since there will be a period where they're troops in the area are depleted. You can keep doing this, leapfroging slowly towards their provinces.

You might also try getting alliances from other mediteraenen powers with good fleets(if any besides the Italians are left) to try and establish yourself there. Failing that, you could press onto one of the black sea ports and build up there. But besides for those ideas, its just a matter of beating them back on the battlefield. I think the Italians use alot of armored troops in MedMod if my memory is right. So i'd suggest hiring mercs or building your best spear type unit, use them to pin their armored units and build mass vikings and the like with the armour-piercing ability to swing around their flanks. Thats all I can think of for now, I hope it helps.

By the way, the MedMod works with a system of homelands. While in your homeland you have access to faction specific troops, while outside you only get basic types. This is another balancing factor, plus it is pretty bizarre to be recruiting Vikings from the Spanish pennisula or something like that.

It might be useful for you to start over and play in a style that makes best use of the changes Medmod offers. There is a file that details what provinces each faction can build troops in and it is imperative to capture and hold these provinces early in the game so that you can start building them up to produce top level troops in as many provinces as possible. Most factions get about 9 provinces to build troops in, although there are a couple (like Malta) that let you build crusader type troops as any faction. If you plan this way you can usually have enough of an army to counter other large factions. And a Medmod game usually ends up with 2 or 3 other large factions to make the end game more interesting. I am not sure what Wes and his crew did, but factions seem less prone to rebellion in Medmod and that is a good thing.

Personnally, I think Medmod is the best mod out there if what you want is a tougher game. Try playing as the HRE in any era for the ultimate challenge.

GL, HF.