This topic is for the English faction in Kingdoms expansion's Britannia campaign.
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This topic is for the English faction in Kingdoms expansion's Britannia campaign.
Hi everyone ~:wave:
Well seeing as we don't have a strategy guide for the English yet I thought I would play a long campaign and give you my views. I played the campaign on M/M just as a taster.
England long campaign is to hold 46 regions (the whole map) and eliminate the Welsh. The English start off at war with both the Irish and Welsh.
England start off with 22 settlements comprising 7 castles and 15 cities. 2 of the castles and 2 of the cities are in Ireland. The 4 settlements in Ireland suffer from very low public order and are prone to rebellion.
Strategy
Turn 1
From my experience from other Total War games I tend to fight on as few fronts as possible. Realising that most of my Irish settlements would rebel I decided to combine my best troops under Maurice Fitzgerald and move them to the east coast ready to sail to Wales. I left free militia units in the Irish cities and lowered their taxes. In the Irish castles and forts I left low level units. I destroyed excess buildings in the Irish settlements for cash aside from religious and happiness buildings. Throughout England I started building low level money buildings such as roads, land clearance etc as cash is tight.
Turns 2 - 10
The army under Maurice Fitzgerald landed in Wales and sieged Caernarvon whilst the Welsh sieged Cardiff. On the next turn Maurice Fitzgerald and his army took Caernarvon killing King Dafydd and the Welsh faction was destroyed. The other 2 Welsh settlements went rebel. The Scottish accepted trade rights and map information and shortly afterwards they went to war with Norway. The Irish accepted a ceasefire and trade rights.
Turns 11 - 20
Norway accept trade rights. The 2 rebel Welsh settlements are easily taken. William Wallace arrives for the Scottish. Prince Edward joins the Crusades.
Turns 21 - 40
The western settlements are strengthened in case of attack from Ireland and the northern settlements are strengthened in case of attack from Scotland or Norway. Norway accept an alliance. Once the northern border is secure the invasion of Scotland begins. Prince Edward returns from the Crusades with an army of formidable Templars.
Turns 41 - 80
Prince Edward invades Ireland with his army of Templars. Norway start a war by blockading an English port. The last Irish settlement is taken and the faction is destroyed. There is a Baron's Alliance which is contained in Arran mostly made up of militia and it is quickly put down.
Turns 81 - 91
As our forces move northward firstly Scotland is destroyed and then Norway quickly receives the same fate.
https://img513.imageshack.us/img513/6479/0003hz7.th.jpg
My impressions
Taking my army from Ireland and assaulting Caernarvon straight away seemed a key strategy. The Welsh were destroyed by assaulting 1 settlement on turn 4. I could then concentrate on slowly building up my settlements in England until I was ready to go to war again.
The AI made no real inroads into my realm. Even though I was playing on M/M I would have expected the Irish to land on the west coast or the Scottish or Norway to push from the north. In addition to this I threatened many settlements with an army just for the AI to move a large army that could reinforce further away from the settlement.
William Wallace did not rampage through England as expected. I assume he died in the war with Norway.
I did expect half my lands to rebel after reading about the Baron's Alliance. Even though I didn't nurture the loyalty of my generals I only lost Arran to the Baron's Alliance. Also the size and quality of the army left a lot to be desired but I expect this was due to the low tech-level of Arran.
Well as I say I played on M/M just for a taster. I do prefer starting off small and building up my realm so will maybe have a look at the Welsh (love those archers) or Norway (raid, raid, raid) next.
I hope this has been of help.
:charge:
I'm assuming the roster has not changed at all?
I just want to second the strategy of pulling out of Ireland at the start of the game. I actually took it a little further and pulled out entirely, removing all troops and selling all possible buildings in the irish settlements. I did leave a few units in forts as they slow the progress of the irish and give you some eyes in Ireland for a few turns.
Everything else I pulled over to dublin and loaded onto the ships ready for an assault on Caernarvon. Whilst doing this, troops were re-shuffled around the mainland English territory, the majority of them to reinforcing the Welsh border, with a couple of detachments going north to fortify the Scottish border region.
I recommend spending money on improvements/fortifications for the settlements near enemy territory (Welsh an Scottish borders) and NOT on the more highly developed cities of the south east - these can be built up later once any threats have been nullified. The exception to this is to build roads in any settlement not possessing them as England has a large land area, meaning that moving troops from developed settlements to the front line can take time.
Anyway, back to the military strategy. As you land the troops from Ireland and take Caernarvon, simultaneously use the troops you have moved across from england to attack the Welsh capital, Montgomerey. Then, once both have fallen, push down and take their remaning castle to eliminate the faction.
By this time you'll probably have lost you holdings in Ireland to rebellion (which imho is not too bad as the Irish will now have to waste time and men taking these settlements). My next step was to move more troops up to the Scottish border to make sure they stayed focussed on the norweigans, whilst loading up the boats with troops from the sucessful Welsh campaign, along with new recruits from Caernarvon and sailed across the Irish sea to retake first Dublin, and eventually the whole of Ireland. during that time I also captured Castle Town (the Isle of Man) to ensure naval dominance in the area.
From then on it was a cakewalk, just build up troops and push up through Scotland to victory! :D
How does baron's alliance work - is it a fixed settlement and army in baron's faction popping up or does it have any independent variable?
have you noticed a kind of agricultural tendency among the English commoner troops? longbowmen plant hedges of stakes and the almost-halberd billhook is essentially a hedgelaying tool. is it fair to send hedge-layers into battle? is the king desperate?
I think any army can form the Barons Alliance under the right conditins. I had the Alliance form twice in a campaign, once in Ireland under a general with low loyality and a city in England with a govener with low loyality. I was fighting both the Irish and Welsh so it took a while to get them back. Later I had the Alliance form in England. I had moved Prince Edward into a settlement away from the remnants of his Templar army and the army joined the alliance again along with a local govener. the Templars wer efairly weak by then and Ireland and wales were under my control so it didn't take long to put them down this time.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheLastPrivate
Is it possible to get Knights Templar going in the campaign WITHOUT sending edward on the crusade? I accidently turned it down :(
hello kind of new to kingdoms I was just wandering if you are able to recruit sherwood archers? because i found them valuable in the regular version but cant find them here:wall:
Looking at the .txt files it seems like the foresters guild is a bit odd in Kingdoms. Only the English can build it (as in vanilla), but it doesnt provide sherwood foresters. It does provide Saethwyr (sp?) for the Welsh though.
VH/VH, no patches beyond Kingdoms.
I'm finding England to be perhaps the most challenging of the Britannia factions... apart from Norway, of course. I'm finding the AI factions to be aggressive and tough, and I feel like I'm almost always under threat -- a refreshing change of pace from most factions in M2TW.
I'm not good at giving highly efficient, turn-by-turn suggestions, as I prefer to take my time and play things out "historically". Essentially I do some turtling and don't rush the map.
I've found that in this game I've been able to hold 3 out of my 4 initial Irish settlements. I took most of the garrison out of Trim and moved them to Dublin, and did what I could in the other Irish settlements to increase garrisons and build happiness buildings. Training spies for defense is always a help. The Irish King Brian took Trim within the first few turns, but it's well into the game (turn 50 or so) and the Irish haven't moved to siege Dublin (it's well built-up and garrisoned). They *have* constantly attempted to take Derry and the western castle, Athenry I think.
My policy in Ireland has been to try to hold my settlements there but not to really build up or expand -- I've been saving my cash for the mainland and wars with the Welsh, Scots, and Norwegians. Athenry and Derry have been able to see off Irish assaults every other turn; for some reason the Irish AI likes to make armies of mostly cav and only 3 or 4 infantry units. My garrisons can handle these armies pretty easily.
Despite low loyalty -- even loyalty below 70 for several turns in my Irish settlements -- I haven't seen the Baron's Alliance emerge. Maybe they tend to emerge in England, and I've been keeping loyalty high in my English tows.
So, with the Irish banging their heads against my walls, I could get trade rights with Scotland and Norway and focus on the Welsh, who really came out swinging. At various points in the early game I lost Cardiff, Chester, and a couple of those forts along the Welsh border. Had I been more aggressive I probably could have dealt with the Welsh sooner, but as it was I enjoyed having to scramble a bit. John de Warrenne turned out to be the Hammer of the Welsh, as he and Edward roamed through the hills and tried to thin out the Welsh armies.
Send Edward on Crusade, obviously. When he came back, I moved him and his new Templar army over to Wales and he and John continued where they had left off. I also brought in a third army under a younger general and sent him to run interference in the north. John took Montgomery, Edward took Pembroke, and the other general took Caer..... well, Gwynedd, anyway.
With the Welsh destroyed, I figured I'd turn my attention to repairing relations with the Scots. They were allied with the Welsh and didn't look kindly on my trouncing of their allies. Since Norway was at war with both me and the Scots, I figured I could get back into Scotland's good graces by taking on Norway next.
Obviously, on VH/VH everybody hates you anyway. I relieved Norway of Castle Town in an easy little siege, sent an army up to steal the Isle of Islay from rebels (Noble Council mission), and moved Edward up toward the northern border in anticipation of an attack from the as-yet neutral Scots.
Happily, the Scots attacked, took the fort north of Newcastle, and sieged Newcastle. In a hairy siege defense I was able to just hold onto Newcastle, and Edward moved up to protect Carlisle from a threatening Scottish stack -- lots of high exp. highlanders, probably the army Wallace starts off with.
The northern border is now secure, and Edward is preparing for the push toward Edinburgh. Of course Norway and Scotland cease-fired, so Scotland can focus entirely on me. But I'm very much enjoying the challenge this poses.
After taking Islay, I'll move that army over to Ireland to start asserting my rights there. I've got a garrison in Castle Town (Man) that will head over to Carlisle and push north into Scotland, paralleling Edward's route along the east coast. I'm playing the short campaign, which requires 35 provinces, so once I take a good chunk of Ireland and all the mainland Scottish towns as far as Perth I should be done. Of course there will be lots of big battles along the way, as the Irish and Scots have had time to build up.
Economy as England is a little tight, but it gets rolling after a while, especially after Wales is taken care of. Since you can't build/train everywhere, I tried to limit my building to settlements that had a governor, or settlements where a general was nearby (chasing rebels, for example). I can't train English Knights anywhere yet, but I've been avoiding training in Nottingham so the pop can grow.
So far it's been a lot of fun, with lots of attacks and near-losses. Looking at the map, you'd think it would be easy to just steamroll as England, but it's a pleasant challenge.
I'll post more as I near the endgame.
My settlement number creeps steadily towards 35, and I seem to be within reach of the inevitable victory.
The Baron's Alliance finally emerged. After Edward relieved the Scots of Edinburgh, his army left the place, not wanting to get trapped in the town. Of course, that left Edinburgh with a red face, and next turn I lost not only Edinburgh to the BA, but Newcastle and Carlisle as well. Funny, since I was sure those 2 towns were at least above 85 loyalty.
Even with the loss of 3 towns, my plans weren't really slowed. Once you control all England and Wales, and have a good hold on half of Ireland, you'll be within shooting distance of victory anyway. My plans from here consist of conquering Ireland except Cork, and taking all mainland Scottish settlements south of Aberdeen. Dumfries and Glasgow are already taken, and Stirling is under siege, so it's a matter of time.
Some final observations:
Perhaps the most versatile unit from the beginning of the game right through the end has been the mercenary Welsh Spearmen. They're almost always available, and they're great for all kinds of jobs: manning rams in an assault, bogging down and killing enemy generals, protecting siege equipment or archers, holding down the populace in a recently-captured town (good unit size!), or just as a quick bit of "filler" to round out your army. Welsh Skirmishers are nice, too, but a bit harder to micromanage.
I was a bit disappointed with the Crusader army Edward returns with. They came back with no experience for some reason, and they didn't seem to perform especially well, considering they're apparently battle-hardened veterans. The Templar Crossbowmen are very nice, however.
The AI loves to build siege equipment. It will build ridiculous percentages of catapults and trebuchets to make up its armies -- armies with more than 60% siege equipment have been common in my game, especially among the Scots. The Norse didn't seem to build as much. Obviously, fighting siege-heavy armies can be a pain, so you'll want to build your own to counter theirs, or have good amounts of cav and rush the enemy before they get too many shots off. I've never been one to build much artillery in TW games, but it is definitely recommended for the Britannia campaign.
On the plus side, the AI also seems to do a decent job of teching up. Fighting the Welsh, I faced plenty of Meirionydd Spearmen and Morgannwg Spearmen, and lots of Saethwyr. A good amount of Rhyfelwyr showed up as well. The Irish have been fielding Ulster Swordsmen, Muire, and Cliathiari (however you spell it -- the spearmen), along with the very tough Deisi Javelinmen. The Scots train lots of Highland Nobles, and the plate-armored pikemen. I haven't fought the Norse much, but they seem to field the usual axe-wielding infantry. AI-trained units will also tend to have good experience and armor, along with occasional weapon upgrades. You'll still win the battles, but it's good to see you're not simply fighting spear militia through the whole game. Plan accordingly!
The Baron's Alliance is almost crushed, and I'm closing in on the last few towns I need for victory. I'm around turn 60. Edward is 47; it would be nice to win before he dies. At any rate, the English have provided an interestingly-paced campaign and seen me face off against some varied units and strategies. One of the more enjoyable Kingdoms experiences, in my opinion.
CountMRVHS
I guess it is easier to play England on unpatched Kingdoms because those Welsh reinforcements never arrive and considering Wales's starting position it shouldn't be such a problem beating them fast. :charge:
After I finish my Scotland campain I'm going to play England just to see if it is any harder on 1.5 patch. :surrender:
After a long hiatus I succumbed and reinstalled MTW2 + Kingdoms once and started with England on H/H. What everyone said, abandon Ireland to relieve economic issues. Of course, if you love challenge, don't. Disband everyone from the Irish contingent except for one full stack of the best units you then use to attack Wales. They actually put up a pretty hard fight and trounced me around a bit (maybe I'm just rusty though). Instead of disbanding my expensive cavalry, I used them to attack Wales immediately as well to good effect, doubly so since I made sure quite a bit of them died in the process. My attack consisted of one stack from Ireland to threaten the capital and two stacks coming in from the east in a pincer move, supported by mercs as units died and finally boosted by some late arrivals in the form of new generals and elite cavalry. Along the way I further diluted my expensive heavy cavalry pool by attacking rebel strongholds, thus gaining experience for generals and cutting military budget.
It's turn 10 and I'm sieging the Welsh capital, having wiped them out otherwise. Having built land clearances, roads and ports everywhere I can the economy is finding it's feet. Upgrading to Merchant's Wards and Shipmakers along the coast by turns 9 and 10. I have one stack, including some of the expensive starting cavalry, sitting on the Scottish border, draining money and looking menacing but I don't want the clans to get ideas too soon. Some of the veterans from Wales are already heading for retraining but I'm having a hard time deciding who to attack next, or if I'll stay put until turn 20 or so while I build infrastructure for a serious economic boost and advanced units.
Gloucester, Lancaster and Nottingham were chosen for further castle development, I turned the rest into towns during turns 8-10 (should have done that sooner I guess). This is another move I would suggest early on, given the size of the campaign map I honestly think three well developed castles should be enough (if not too much!) to produce the troops you need: add one or two smartly located larger towns that constantly upgrade blacksmiths, if you don't have the time to do that in your castles, and you are set to produce and retrain elite armies with speed.
A nice bonus are the tin resources in the SW near Launceston, two traders both rake 300+ worth of income each turn. Now that I have money to build I'm planning to send two other traders to Lincoln with the nice sheep resources, they'll pay themselves back in about three rounds and from then on it's profit only.
All in all doing pretty good in my estimation.
By turn 23 I'm not sure where to waste the money on. I'm invading Ireland with three stacks and a good fleet and have a few stacks just checking the Scots out (instead of one) but we're drowning on money.
edit:
Ok I take it back! Doesn't matter if the economy jumped and leaped forwards, and I was also wrong about 3 castles being enough after all, the logistics and range between England and Ireland make it more difficult then I thought.
By turn 33 I'm not sure whether I thought I'd get off easy, or too easy. The Irish put up a tremendous fight in this game. They have built an enormous force of different cavalry, heavy and horseboys (projectile weapons and extremely fast ponies), and lurk in forests to boot, unwilling to meet on flat ground. The horseboys, while not very effective in the thick of it, reduce my heavy troops with their projectiles and then evade contact expertly, while the rest make me run after them in thick forests. It's sheer hell. Horseboys, while they can't dish it out against heavy cav, they don't really need to, as they dart in and out, bleeding your forces battle after battle after battle. Even if the Irish armies almost never win it does not matter, it takes long enough to ship reinforcements to replace the depleted formations to make any casualties matter. Interesting, it's going to take at least twice as long as I thought. Good campaign.
ATPG's preview of his England AAR:
Turn 1: Moved all expensive forces to occupy the nearest forts to take advantage of the free upkeep. This creates a huge and expense-free standing army.
Did not allow even a single province to rebel. I beefed up my garrisons in ireland and moved my capital to Nottingham, then Oxford next turn. Recruited all forces I could afford.
Turn 2:
Moved all free-upkeep forces in a generally western direction, hopping from fort to fort, making sure I didn't break my budget.
Moved new recruits into the forts for more free upkeep.
Moved spies and other agents towards wales. Beefed up Ireland again, built churches and so on.
Turn 3:
Around about this time, a large army is forming in the fort next to Wales' capital. My armies in Ireland take on King Brian and succeed.
Turns 4-7:
Huge amounts of forces arrive near the Welsh capital, as well as catapults. Irish settlements begin to fall. An alliance forms between England and Scotland.
Turns 8-10:
Wales' capital falls, Caernarvon falls, only one Welsh settlement left. Scottish still busy with Norway. Ireland reduced to two provinces... Ireland's public order problems are gone.
----------------
Future turns:
Ireland should be dead or all but dead by turn 15, and then England invades Scotland, betraying the only other major power.
Game over, English victory. Difficulty: Vh/Vh
when i start this campieng i usually focuse to trian yeoman archers dismounted english knights and heavy billman
Is there another link for this downloadable guide, or can someone email it to me please? When I click the link provided it just takes me to the start page of the website, which just refreshes itself if I click to enter!
Hahahaha! Ever since I knew, the only way to get rid of the Baron's Alliance is to just kill them off, and keep your towns to a maximum mediation. Hopefully Simon de Montfort is in Hell now, talking to Satan why he'd even rebel against the King knowing full well that he'd be unsuccessful. Well Simon you tried, don't blame yourself but your shrewd, arrogant, and ruthless French-side.
Do the billmen receive a special bonus against cavalry in Medieval II like they did in I? I know billmen and later halberdiers were absolutely amazing fighting cavalry in I, but the billmen I'm using in II don't seem to do as well against cavalry.
I'm pretty sure they don't. The English get Armoured Sergeants to compensateQuote:
Originally Posted by Tai-Pan