Changing the course of history

Hi everyone,

I've finally decided to take the plunge and attempt the 'big one', the WRE. However, reading the guides it seems that success comes at a price that I don't want to pay.

Essentially, everyone seems to start off in the same broad fashion, a variation of 'destroy everything you can, retreat to the homelands and live to fight another day.' However, this doesn't sit easily with me as it breaks my cardinal House Rule of 'only doing things that onceuponatime would/could have happened.' Since there are no recorded examples of the Romans leaving a province with the intention to one day return, therefore neither can I.

Is there another way to win as the WRE? I assume there are otherwise it wouldn't have been included. Has anyone done this? ie. won as the WRE playing as it is, not attempting to revert to year zero first, which is the gist of most of the guides?

NB: I'd rather not know how you did it (it ruins the fun for me if I *know* the next step), merely that it can be done. I don't get much Total War at the moment, I don't want to waste it on an impossible challenge.

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Originally Posted by CrazyGuy

Has anyone done this? ie. won as the WRE playing as it is, not attempting to revert to year zero first, which is the gist of most of the guides?

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I did it with the Campaign Difficulty set to Hard and didn't find it too difficult.

Hint: Cavalry are nothing up against a wall

CrazyGuy- Yes, it CAN be done and without all that trashing and slaughtering of your own empire to succeed.

Roughly, here's how it's done.

Money- You need more than you get to provide for your various military units. So, get rid of the entire fleet. They're not needed for a LONG time anyway.

Examine your ground units. There are some very costly, not very good, types. Virtually all of a SPECIFIC type can be disbanded and save a lot of cash, while still maintaining control of your cities. Almost all of the cav are worthless, too, as well as costly. A few of each of these are needed, initially, for garrison duty, but, they can be disbanded later, when you have better control, and replaced with less costly, and better, troops/cav.

Examine your general's vices. Several should be moved out of cities immediately because they actually ADD to discontent.

Having disbanded the costly troops and moved the bad generals out, you start with about 8 cities with high discontent. Adjust taxes and move around a few units, as needed, to bring these under control. A few churches of the appropriate types can be built in troubled areas and help with bringing the last unhappy provinces back to the fold. Squeeze as much tax as you can from the more complacent provinces. And, is Rome the best place for a capitol in such a large empire?

In truth, you can be in the black on turn two, with half of the red faces now converted to pacified cities. By turn five, none of your cities should be facing revolt and you'll be able to build the better units and more buildings because you're getting lots of gold in the coffers every turn. If you're unlucky, some will revolt almost immediately. Don't be unlucky. :laugh4:

There's a fairly long period, early on, without any real threats, so, you don't have to worry too much about having huge armies in the field. Just control the bridges initially and build up those armies after you've settled with the provinces.

By the time any hordes arrive you should be well off for income and should have adequate field armies at critical points for defense. I would not advise advancing anywhere but in Britain until you've got things well in hand.