Using natural Borders, e.g. France (Turtle Paradise)

I was playing France and trying to minimize my standing army and at the same time to be relatively safe from the AI.

I had already "united" what I defined as my homelands (modern day France including Metz and Benelux) and both Corcega and Sardina (the southern islands).

Now beeing a person who enjoys turtling a lot and also having strong enemies (hence I don't want to raze the factions next to me) I decided for a Maginot line approach taking advantage of the natural barriers...

https://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b...rtleFrance.jpg
(Notice the location of rivers and mountains which blocks the passage of enemy armies)

Having 1 peasant or 1 militia in every fort gave me 2 extra turns before the AI could make any significant progress into my homelands. This allowed me to have a relatively small standing army for a lot of safety...

... which ment 15k in profits before buildings and trainings (I call it the marginal contribution)... Now beeing 11XX but before 1150 (I play 1 turn per year) this will allow me to have 80% of my settlments fully developed before 1200 (I have 3 castles, the rest cities and no merchants).

This approach could be done with other regions such as Spain and Italy and serves as a detractor to the AI which will think twice before attacking you (and usually takes 2 or 3 turns before assaulting a fort).


Note that:
- This is really helpful with version 1.0 were the AI was not crazy about relocating via naval invasions
- The trebuchets were not really part of the army as they would delay it, I had 3 of them next to every border for a swift counterattack
- Although there is unprotected territory, all the cities and castles are behind the forts wall (except the port at Antwerp but the city is protected). This means that my income and troop production facilites are relatively safe.
- If the AI attacks with siege equipment, this means that their armies move at a slower pace, so it should gave the player some breathing time to react.
- I was playing in M/M

Very nice.

I'm doing something similar in Turkey, except with cavalry. Only problem is WAITING for the MOngols to finally arrive.

Dont forget about watchtowers!

This is something that the new recruiting system really plays into.

Being able to muster a decent army if combining a few city/castles output in a single turn really does add an additional layer to play styles.

Strategic city development really plays into that as well.

Myself, instead of going with my RTW mindset of having a best cav, and a best foot and a best ranged city per empire to constantly churn out standing armies, I tend to think in Area of Operations and have a good enough cav, good enough foot and good enough ranged per "front" for rapid delployments of single turn recruited armies.

Also, since each AO will have differences in what's available to use as troops, due to different build levels, each front's army has unique characteristics and often require different troop formulations specific to that front.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Grimmy

This is something that the new recruiting system really plays into.

Being able to muster a decent army if combining a few city/castles output in a single turn really does add an additional layer to play styles.

Strategic city development really plays into that as well.

Myself, instead of going with my RTW mindset of having a best cav, and a best foot and a best ranged city per empire to constantly churn out standing armies, I tend to think in Area of Operations and have a good enough cav, good enough foot and good enough ranged per "front" for rapid delployments of single turn recruited armies.

Also, since each AO will have differences in what's available to use as troops, due to different build levels, each front's army has unique characteristics and often require different troop formulations specific to that front.

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I agree.

I had 3 citadels fully developed with one general,3 units of dismounted nobles and ballista towers next to each "area" (Metz, Touluse and Angiers).



@ holybandit
I have an average of 5 watchtowers per province...

This is the single most important thing about the 3D campaign map, is you can use the terrain strategically. Bridge crossings, fords, and mountain passes become major defensive points. Fortress Italia can be held almost completely from the city of Milan. Sofia controls the only two north/south passages across the Danube in that entire region. The narrows in various places can be blocked with a fleet, preventing anyone else from crossing until they drive your fleet away.

Also notice that, if you choose this approach, although watchtower are useful, I think it is more important to build a defensive perimeter first as you can't build watchtowers and forts too close for each other.

I didn't forsee that and had to build some extraforts at a higher distance from my borders.

I haven't tested how but building them in AI held territory could have diplomatic implications.

Nice strategy !

Watchtowers are good for general recon, but don't forget speis for spotting more enemy agents.

I love this about the 3D map, you can actually choose where to fight. It makes certain areas far more prone to battles. It's a fantastic feature.

I find it stupid that you can't build a watchtower and fort on the same tile.

Building watchtower networks is pretty much what half my royal line does full time :]

If you have natural borders like deep forests or mountain paths it's even easier because you just need one watchtower in the middle and voila, any spy crossing into your lands is revealed as he goes through. But even then, I tend to build plenty of them along all roads, about 5-6 squares apart (3-4 on flat borders). I find that most spies/assassins use roads to move about faster so this lets me see them easily all the time when they manage to slip through the border forts.

Besides, brigands and rebels always "hop" between watchtowers in their movement range, so if the net is dense enough they'll spend their whole life hopping and never sit on a tile and slowly destroy the whole province (may be just a visual thing though, I'm not sure they don't cause actual destruction, but I've never seen a tile slowly becoming "burnt up" when the rebels moved all the time)

This seems to happen a lot, but reading this thread has convinced me to play a defensive game as france next

Congratulations, you've discovered what the Romans and French already knew...

I think it is more easy with the Iberian Peninsula. Block Gibraltar, and 4 forts are enough for the Pirenees. (i don't know how to spell that mountains:-) And you could leave a bigger army behind 2-2 of the forts. That will do the job.:-) But the best tactic is to capture Tolouse, no one ever will attack anythin else than that. :-)

I did something similar in my Spanish campaign.

I just conquered Egypt and and the Mongols wiped up the remains and headed into Gaza and into Spanish Egypt. So I decided that an offensive would kill me, and did the right thing: Built forts and watchtowers on the borders of Cairo/Alexandria and Gaza. The line of fortifications were known as the Gaza Line. Every line had a stack of knights and dismounted knights (I was rich enough for them, anyway). The Mongols had to assault the forts to get into Egypt. At first, 2 forts fell and the Mongols hit Alexandria and Cairo. They were beaten back across Gaza. After 3 historic battles, I counter attacked and beat them all the way to Turkey.

Sorry I'm just here because I saw 'turtling' - does any other nation (I'm English) have 'to turtle' as a small nugget of pooh hanging out of your backside (think about it like a .... turtles head ... you get the idea)?