Oops, did something stupid.

I let the Itallians build up their Navy.

I started a game as the English and engaged in War with the French and later the Spanish after an unfair attack merrited the destruction of their faction. The year is 1305 or so and the Italians are the second bigest power after me and the biggest naval power. Not to mention that because I'm sharing Europe with them I have a huge border and about eight border armies all beefed up to repel an invasion.

Oh well, I gues I'll have to build up my ships.

As a final point, these guys are almost up to building Chiv knights, if they start pumping them out it'll be the first time I've ever had to fight them!

I once let Italy build up its navy while I was playing as the Egyptians. Thankfully its armies were pathetic, so when it came to war I quickly conquered all their provinces, so knocking out their navies before they could do too much damage. ~:)

Of course, the economic damage caused by the naval blockade on my trade routes was considerable, but thankfully did not last too long, and I had enough money in my treasury to absorb the economic damage.

Playing a game as the English. Pope controls all of Italy and has a fleet that circles the world. Glad the Pope still builds junk for an army ~:)

Well I tried attacking Italy and the result was mass revolts in the Holy Land. Not pretty. They actually have a really good trading fleet and are producing some good units. The problem is that they're all choked up with peasants. I wish there was some way to get the AI to disband. :(

Originally Posted by Wigferth Ironwall:
Well I tried attacking Italy and the result was mass revolts in the Holy Land. Not pretty. They actually have a really good trading fleet and are producing some good units. The problem is that they're all choked up with peasants. I wish there was some way to get the AI to disband. :(

That's an easy one, mod your prod files or grab one of the mods already made, almost all of them removes the peasants.

Originally Posted by Wigferth Ironwall:
... I wish there was some way to get the AI to disband. :(

You can disband for the ai by starting the game with the -ian switch, changing to the other faction, disbanding the units, change back to your faction, and continue playing. Won't stop them from doing it again, though.

It's not very satisfying, but I'll occasionally do something like that when the ai has done something really dumb with one of the other factions.

That's a lot of work, it's better to erase the peasants through the prod files, personally I modded them to appear only in rebellions and crusades...

I like peasants, they are cheap and can be used to frontally engage the enemy while my real army flanks him. Not to mention province loyalty keeping.. UMs are stonger, but more expensive and 40 men shorter..

I use the spearmen for that task, they make a cheap garrison and are able to stand long enough to let my flanks carry the battle, something that peasants often fail...

Originally Posted by Wigferth Ironwall:
I let the Itallians build up their Navy.

I started a game as the English and engaged in War with the French and later the Spanish after an unfair attack merrited the destruction of their faction. The year is 1305 or so and the Italians are the second bigest power after me and the biggest naval power. Not to mention that because I'm sharing Europe with them I have a huge border and about eight border armies all beefed up to repel an invasion.

Oh well, I gues I'll have to build up my ships.

As a final point, these guys are almost up to building Chiv knights, if they start pumping them out it'll be the first time I've ever had to fight them!

the first thing u should do when playin as the English is build up a strong navy.

Try importing the Muster Field from VI, peasants become much rarer. The only province that often produces them is Provence and that's because of that valour bonus.

Actually, the first thing I do as the English is take over the Danes. But I know I need a few ships to do so.

I did build up a very strong navy, the Italian navy is just so much stronger.