Buffer States/Campaign Plausability

Hi guys,

Long-term strategy has never been my strong point, I tend to think short-term and rely on a strong army to get me out of scrapes. However, for reasons that I will expain below, I need a plan but would appreciate some advice. But first some background:

I'm playing VI as the Welsh (Hard). The aim was initially to play as long as I could, maintaining my borders without dominating. The plan was working fine,
I'd taken Defet and teched-up Clywd(?) and the other non-Poius territory with +1 valour archers to produce celtic warriors and archers with +2 armour and weapons. I used this to form three defensive armies down my spine consisting of 4 warriors, 3 archers, 1 horsemen and a royal knights. The plan was to Welsh bandits on-line use these to strengthen these armies and sit and wait.

The plan was working well. I stole Pec Seaten when it rebelled and using judicious title giving I manged to give two ex-heirs 7 and 8 command and a princess each to keep them loyal. Things were looking good.

Then, war (finally) broke out between Northumbria and Mercia. Since I was strong allies with the Northumbrians and also wanted to keep Mercia weak I joined in. I moved my two main armies into Wrocen Seaten and Hwicce, caused the garrison to fall back and fought a defensive battle in Wrocen Seaton that left 1800 Mercians dead and 800 captured. This seemed to break the back of the Mercian army and encouraged the Saxons to join in.

I sense this will be the hammer blow to the Mercians. The question is, what do I do now? I have a plan, but I'd appreciate an expert opinion.

I currently hold a line of the two Seatens and Hwicce, and if attacked i'll abandon these and withdraw to the hills of Wales. I plan to take Mercie (where the Mercian king is sitting and almost defenceless) raze all non-military buildings, set taxes to v.high and initiate a scary Huscarle-based rebellion. Hopefully this province will be a buffer state and a pain for the Northumbrians and Saxons as they fight over the Mercians tattered remains. I will withdraw to my 'natural' line and let them fight for the time being.

I know someone will shout that now's the time I should be advancing, take Middle England for myself before the Huscarles really get going, but this won't be in keeping with the attitude I took when I started.

The question is, is this plausible/sensible? My biggest fear is that the winner of Northumbrian/Saxon scrap will one day turn on me with a Jedi-general and super Huscarles and just decimate me. Is this likely? Could they be stopped? What should I do? Stick or twist? My instinct is to stick, but if the other guy will one day hold '21', i'll be doomed.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

I think your idea is pretty cool, and very imaginative, but I don't know that you can count on the rebels being comprised of super-troops.

Additionally, won't the Saxons still be able to come after you anyway?

Faced with the choice of a Huscarle-heavy rebel province and your possibly-more-tender army, they'd stab you in a second.

My humble advice is to keep Mierce for its income, hire some Kern mercs, and go after the Saxons with your royal family before they inevitably start spamming Huscarles.

Don't forget that the Saxons get 2 super-general Huscarles automatically after a while. It's just a matter of time...

For what it is worth I would be inclined to hold the captured territories as well. Use the income to help you to tech up...well armed and equipped Celtic Warriors can be an awesome force (as I discovered in my Pictish campaign). Yeah, they will often suffer some losses (running around bare chested may win over the celtic maidens, but it makes one susceptible to regular doses of "arrow poisoning") but boy they can do some damage!

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Yeah, they will often suffer some losses (running around bare chested may win over the celtic maidens, but it makes one susceptible to regular doses of "arrow poisoning") but boy they can do some damage!

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Tha's funny!

Seriously though, try teching up. I mean, buffer states are good and all, but aren't you in danger of attack once your foes take care of the buffers?

Roark, in answer to your semi-question, I can't 'guarantee' a super rebel force, but i've noticed a correlation between military buildings and rebels spawned. For example, if there is no bowyer there is very rarely archers. Logically, if I can keep the Royal Palace(?) intact, then the rebels could be Huscarles which would make life interesting for whoever passes my door.

I've also taken onboard your advice and have an abridged strategy. I will continue the initial plan of defending the Seaten/Hwicce line. But, when/if conflict breaks out between the Saxons and the Northumbrians I will attack whoever passes my door. So if the Saxons take Mierce I will keep the balance-of-power by declaring war against them and vice-versa. In this way hopefully the game will be stable enough to allow me to finish without getting bored and steamrollering everything, I've done that and it gets dull after a while. I sense if I feast on the Mercians remains the game will be 'as good as won' which would be a shame at this stage.

My response was under the assumption that you weren't allied with the Saxons? Is this the case?

...and yeah, you're right about the emergence/buildings relationship... So maybe it'll work!! Give it a crack and let us know how it goes!

I guess my natural instinct/inclination is to eliminate the Saxons wherever and whenever it is possible, as their Huscarles have been the source of much pain for me over the years, haha...