English: Victory in 6 turns!

So I've been playing around with English lately and reading on the forums and I saw someone write that they had almost beat the short campaign in 20 turns or so. I thought that was a little long so I thought I'd give it a try.

The following is an English Short Campaign on VH/VH.

I destroyed both Scotts and France and held 15 territories.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Turn 1:
1. I start by moving Rufus to take York on turn one.
2. Send emmissary to Angers and make deal with French. I offer alliance, trade rights, map, and 4200 florins for 3 turns. I get Angers, and Toulouse! Examine troops received in both castles to determine disposition and next move. May have to build troops if wrong units do not spawn. (rare)
3. Move stack of troops to the west of Caen to beseige Renne. At same time take heavy mail cavalry out of Angers and merge with stack. Also send 1 peasant towards Bordeaux.
4. Move Robert and all troops out of Caen towards Bruges. Move HMC from Angers to Caen dock. To be loaded next turn and pick up 1 spear militia from London to rendevue with Robert at Bruges.
5. Move 2 archers and heavy mail cavalry out of toulouse towards Bordeaux. Also move 1 peasant or archer extra to Bordeaux.
6. Load princess and Cardinal on nearest boat and send to Denmark. (just above their port)
7. Send second ship to Dublin.
8. Move William toward Caernavon with 2 spear militia. Move peasants out of London toward Nottingham.
9. Build heavy mail and peasant in Nottingham.
10. Build Spear Militia and Town Militia in London.
11. Build peasant and boat in Caen. (possibly heavy mail cavalry if none spawned in Angers) Also build Ballista Range in Caen.
12. Move Spy toward London Port and emissary towards Portugal.
13. Build roads and farms etc.,

Note: Watch Prince Louis at Toulouse and make sure you can see him always. He usually sticks around but if not you will need to try to block him to prevent him from leaving the area. It helps to not build roads in Angers.

End turn 1.
During processing of AI turn Rennes sallies and Heroic Victory is achieved. Income received from Rennes. Scotts make deal for trade rights and map. 600/700 florins respectively.

Turn 2:
1. Move Rufus toward Edinburg. Move HMC out of Nottingham into York. Bring up peasants behind.
2. Move the rest of the troops in Nottingham towards Caernavon. Merge William with troops.
3. Move Robert to Bruges and lay seige. Merge previously mentioned troops.
4. Move stack from Toulouse to seige, but only the HMC and the 2 archers.
5. Block river at Bordeaux with peasant from Angers. (otherwise French garrison blocks your emissary on the river)
6. Leave peasant from Toulouse out of seige of Bordeaux.
7. Move all troops except peasants out of Rennes and move them south towards Toulous. As long as Prince Louis is there head south. If he moves east then move east instead. Also split HMC from stack to try to block Louis.
8. Merchant should be on wine just south of Angers. It's the farthest spot from all the other Merchants that will be coming for him soon. He needs that time to get another acumen.

End Turn 2.

AI Processing: Bordeaux sallies--easy Heroic Victory. Bruges Sallies--easy Heroic Victory. (if you don't engage your infantry with theirs!) Income received from Bruges and Bordeaux.

Turn 3:
1. Move Town Militia from London and garrison Bruges. Send Robert to seige Antwerp. If infantry is depleted stack them and go with only 2. (less heavy cav at Antwerp)
2. Bring up HMC from York to Rufus. Move peasant into York.
3. Seige Caernavon with William. (may consider merc here)
4. Move troops from Bordeaux towards Toulouse if Louis is still there. If not move them east and split cavalry to block Louis.
5. (your broke now but good news) Send princess to Denmark and sell Alliance and map. Move Cecilia south towards Italy.

End turn 3.

AI Processing: Antwerp sallies and Robert gets another heroic victory.

Turn 4.
1. Move boat at Dublin to block Scotts from crossing to take Ireland.
2. Take Caernavon with William. Build HMC.
3. Move emmisary south to rendevue with Spanish Prince. Sell marriage and maps. If necessary sell barracks in Caen and Nottingham. (I always convert those to cities anyway)
4. Build Ballista in Caen.
5. Move Robert and healthy troops towards Caen. Move rest to London to reinforce. (should have left boat next to Antwerp last turn.
6. Build Emissary in London.
7. Continue to move troops towards Louis.
8. Edinburgh should be lightly garrisoned so beseige it. Do this after you get marriage deal from Spain.

End turn 4.

AI Processing: Scotts move away from Edinburgh! Works for me.

Turn 5:

1. Move ballista towards Paris but not into France. Rendevue Robert to Ballista. Bring over troops and emissary from London.
2. Take Edinburgh and Scotts destroyed. If Scotts have taken Inverness then move all troops towards Inverness. May consider a merc if troops too busted up, but don't increase total number of troops.
3. Move William, HMC, and archer across to Ireland. Beseige Dublin and wait for sally.
4. Continue to move troops towards Louis. Make Hoblars in Bordeaux for upcoming attack.
5. First emissary should be in range of Portugal. Sell maps, alliance and trade rights.

End turn.

AI Processing:
Dublin sallies and William get's Heroic Victory.
Scotts move to attack Rufus at Inverness. You must win and kill the garrison general.

Turn 6:
1. Attack and kill or capture Louis. Hoblars can catch him if he runs. Execute him!
2. Send Robert and veteran troops to Paris. Kill or capture French King. Execute him!
3. If you successfully fought Scotts and cleared the garrison you can now move into Inverness.

VICTORY!

Try how fast you can do without buying provinces :yes:
In my opinion buying provinces for gold per turn is an exploit if you declare war on the faction you bought them from afterwards.
Buying with a straight sum or not declaring war is allright though.

Edit: Nonetheless, quite impressive ~;)

WIthout pics this is essentially an empty boast...

20 turns was in a long campaign (with HRE)

OK I'll do it again with pics and I didn't declare war until after I paid all the money. Give me an hour or so.

EDIT: OK I've got the first two screens. Will check my save files and see if I can get screens from them.

Here you can see that the French think giving up their castles is a balanced proposal--if barely!

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g..._Diplomacy.jpg

This is end of turn 1: You can see that two fifths of France is now in my possession and I haven't even fired a shot!

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g...e/endturn1.jpg

That French king should have a revolution on his hands if he really gave away two provinces like that lol. Go to bed French, wake up the next morning English.

Nice work.

First of al congrats ! and thanksfor the writeup. I believed you anyway, but the screens are COOL!!!.. and they will convince others. Thanks for posting them !

LMAO !! Those guys must be crazy. They just got utterly ripped off. Imagine they just gave away their only castles.

Here are the rest of the pics:

Turn 4: Scotland is in trouble and pass to Ireland is blocked.

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g...nd_Blocked.jpg

Scotland is in Really Big trouble:

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g...garrisoned.jpg

Turn 5: Prince Louis is on the move. My Cavalry rushes forward to block him at the river. The trap is set.

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g..._Louis_off.jpg

Turn 5: Cleanup on Aisle 5. Notice the disparity of troops at Dublin.

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g..._in_Aisle5.jpg

William's cavalry attack routes all missile troops (4) in one fell swoop during sally.

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g...LL_Missile.jpg

Turn 6: Louis dies at the river.

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g..._riverpass.jpg

Robert resting in Paris. Notice the gold chevron?
https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g...rt_inParis.jpg

Turn 6: Humble Victory end credit.

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g..._EndCredit.jpg

Nice. Well done !

So what do you think of the game after you've had this experience ?

How do I feel? I feel pretty good. I've learned a few things in the last day or so about the game and I feel that winning these sally battles has opened up a new avenue of strategy for the future. Sending troops that attack enemy weaknesses while seeming to be weak themselves is what happened at Rennes, Bordeaux, Bruges, Antwerp, and Ireland. All those were sally battles that ended with Heroic Victories.

That's pretty cool. I like to play my own short campaigns veeeery slowly, but I like reading about prowess like this! :applause:

Me too, I play very slowly. I love empire building, I love the combat too, but I like to always have that "Most Advanced Nation" message, and be the most teched faction. And I specially love Heroic Victories. I like to be outnumbered, outgunned but not outclassed.


https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/image...c/applause.gif

I like them slow too, but I saw a challenge in completing it as fast as possible with troops that weren't very good against forces superior in size and quality.

I don't think I can play England for a while now. I tried to start a new campaign but I got too frustrated trying to match or beat my previous accomplishments.

Wow, very nice work for the quick victory. I do not think I could pull that off. ^^

Tschüß!
Erich

nice job i like the the others here dont like to rush. i barely even try to get the victory conditions. my goals are in my head and they change from faction to faction and by the day as well lol.

wasnt it here that some guy finshed a long campaign in 20 turns or soemthing? or was that at .com. well theres a new target for u ;)

Now ya gone and did it. The gauntlet's been thrown down. :wall:

That's gotta be impossible. It takes 10 plus turns just to move down and take Timbuktu and Arguin...

Ohh, wait, you don't hafta conquer the whole map like in the original MTW. Oops. :D