The current state of your faction

I was wondering about how other people's factions were doing compared to mine.

Here's mine:

As France, I was prospering nicely. I had a really good and happy empire, and each ctiy was giving me a lot of income, thanks to me investing in economic buildings and defences. But, I was thinking of expanding north, towards England,and finally destroying England altogether. I got my armies prepared, and sent them to England. I love archers in this game, so I got thousands of merc crossbow (I loved using mercs, mainly due to the fact that I had thousands of money at my disposal, and I could buy thousands of mercs with it.) I suffered heavy losses, but I finally got London out of their reach, until I destroy England finally. I allied with Scotland, and sent my armies away for more ambitious expanding, hoping that the Scotland would not betray me. My trust was broken, as Scotland betrayed me and captured Nottingham and England. Now the pope was on the verge of excommnicating both Scotland and me (Actually, I think Scotland attacked me because I made them be hated by the pope.) and so I sent my retrained armies to Scotland to attack them. Then Milan betrayed me (Probably because the Pope ordered them to.) and then all the european countries were invading. I stared as they sent full stacks of units, and the pope even ordered a crusade against me. I had finished my conquest for Sctland, finally capturing Dublin, and sent my armies as a relief force. I was grateful for the fact that my walls held the soldiers back. I then realized that the full stacks were just militia. I origionally thought they were full fledged, elite forces, but they were awful soldiers. Now that I knew this, I commanded my armies to exapnd into european territory, recalimed my lost cities along the way. My armies were mainly archers and atrilley, with some infantry. Thankfully, the elements were at my side and sometimes I even got my archers to fire from cliffs, which had totally slaughtered their poorly armoured militia, and for now, I'm building up my defences and preparing armies for the blitzkrieg that I about to send to my foes. :duel:

Woo.

I started as Spain, all was well, conquered the Portuguese, got the Moors out of the iberian peninsula and then I was attacked by the French. I attacked them back, rightfully defending what was mine and the pope said I shouldn't. I thought it was proposterous that he could attack me but I just sit there and watch the French come time and time again. So I got excommunicated, soon after Milan declared war on me, the Moors tried to come back again, the French are still at large and even England betrayed me. The Pope regularly sends armies and even Hungary has sent a crusade army my way. They will all pay for what they are doing. First I will fight off the crusade, then I will conquer France. I think every christian nation hates me now! I love it.

I started my first game as Byzantium (had to mod the descr_strat.txt file). I'd originally intended on expanding equally on both sides of the Aegean Sea, but the initial Byzantine military didn't allow for this. I combined the spare starting forces into one army under the Autokrator, and moved on the rebel castle of Sofia, where I beat the Hungarians to it by two turns. Venice took the rebel village down on the Adriatic coast south of Raguzza, so after garrisoning Sofia I moved across and took Smyrna from the rebels, then Rhodes. Princess Anna Komnena and diplomats went out, selling maps and securing trade rights, and I settled an alliance with Hungary (though not by marriage).

Venice attacked right after I took Rhodes. I destroyed the invading army with a defending force of mounted archers, but was unable to secure peace, so I moved from Rhodes and took Crete away from the Venetians, and was able to make peace then. Bucharest was still rebel, so I took it after retraining troops, and things stagnated there for a bit while I built some economic structures to straighten out financial difficulties.

Two more minor wars were fought with Venice, with no change in territory, and one "war" with the Turks (no armies fought at all, was purely a naval skirmish settled after blockading Ikonium for a few turns) when Hungary decided to betray our alliance. I took Bran from them (fortress) and moved off to deal with a Venetian invader (4th war with them), when the Hungarian king appeared at the head of a huge army to beseige Bucharest while another large army moved on Bran. I rushed back and had to choose which to relieve, and relieved Bran, losing Bucharest to the Hungarians but killing more than 1/3 of them in the process. The horse archers moved over and besieged Bucharest, and proceeded to starve them out. I retook Bucharest when I defeated a last-ditch sally attempt and moved on Iasa (or whatever that town is where Campus Sarmatae is located in RTW) where I defeated the defenders and captured the Hungarian King.

I was moving on Budapest to eliminate the Hungarians when the muslims declared a jihad against Constantinople. I had a small force of horse archers in Smyrna which started reinforcing, and my large army of horse archers started racing towards Constantinople while the mixed force stayed in the north to defend against Hungarian or Venetian incursions. That's where I am now, it's about 1155 AD (playing 1 year per turn), a full stack Turk army is on the eastern side of the Aegean and can cross to the western side this turn. I have an army behind them with a general, 6 Byzantine cavalry and 3 Vardariatoi. I have an army ahead of them with the Emperor, 5 Byzantine cavalry, 4 Vardariatoi, and 2 Skythikons. Constantinople is a huge city with Ballista towers, currently defended by about 16 units in a mix. I haven't seen Egyptian or Moorish armies yet, but they're coming.

I play as Scotland. I captured Highland Scotland and Irland when Pope ordered Crusade against Jerusalem.
My king (and his son) joined the crusade 2 turns later and sailed to the north shores of Spain.
I left the ships there and crossed continent near Tollose to get to the Mediterranean see. On my way i recruited about 500 French crusaders.
When i was on the other side i bought ships and continue my travel.
When i was south of Sicily, Venice captured Jerusalem ending crusade.
I was in big trouble. Far from home loosing 2500 florins a turn.
I looked around and decided to capture Palermo so i can pay my troops.
I continue to fight Sicilians and was excommunicated. I basically conquered whole It ally (up to Pad) 4 province in total. Payed Pope some money and was reconsolidated after his death. In the mean time both Characters that where leeding crusade died so i had to ship new using the same rout.
I allied to Venice and was betrayed by them (really powerfull faction).
Now i am allied with Milan and i defended north Italy from Venice incursion (great Sige battle :) ).
Now its a payback time. Afther a lot of trouble i was able to retrain what was left from my crusade army (i have catle in Sicily so its a long way) and move the m north. It took very long as i was fighting fearce see battle that my initial fleet lost and i had to recreate my navy.
But in the last turn i crossed Pad and now the fight is on the Venice soil.

Just started a new campaign as Venice, my old one was my testing campaign.

Venice is expanding quickly. Durazzo, Zagreb and Florence have already been taken, and Rhodes soon will. Venice already has an Explorers Guild in it. I am going out of my way to make the other catholic factions in Italy like me so there is less chance of me being attacked. Im doing this as my plan is to build up my forces then go attack Byzantium, taking Corinth, Thessalonica and Constantinople, then i'll try and get a peace of of them.

First of all I unlocked all the factions in the .txt and then started with Egypt.

I got a mission to capture Jerusalem and lost the siege twice, I had only captured it when I had 3 turns left to do it so I got lucky there. My luck ran out very quick when a crusade was called on Jerusalem the turn after. I sent diplomats across the sea to Venice, North to the Turks and West to the Moors. I acquired trade rights with all 3 but the Turks were the only ones who wanted to ally. I got a mission to capture Acre and did that with ease (very small rebel army) and then made an army and called a Jihad on Antioch. I hired 6 units of Ghazis and 4 Arab Mercs with big wooden clubs (Can't spell their name and I won't even attempt it). Antioch fell quickly and by the next turn a Polish Crusade army parked right beside Antioch. Needless to say I had an awesome Jihad vs Crusade battle and successfully drove the infidels out.

That's as far as I am right now (30 turns in). I haven't played my campaign for a bit because I've been trying out custom battles a ton and testing all the factions.

At my first campaign i quickly took all rebels in England killed off the scots. Afterwards i was defensive with france while they backstabbed me after an alliance. On the following 100 turns i expanded my empire over the french while the french slowly conquered Milan's lands and went further back. They finally got a huge army at the former Milan's capital with the king and the 3 princes, i made an attack and took the king out with bombards while killing the princes with my own cavalry. Even though i didnt take the settlement i still won because there were no royalty left.

My second campaign as venice i took 3-4 rebel settlements and i only have 2 castles and about 4 towns. My economy is strong but i cant act defensively if byzantine decides to attack me. Im on great terms with the papacy and other italian factions and im not worried about HRE backstabbing me because the sicilians just attacked them. Im basically going to get an army going on the east to get some byzantine lands while taking probably a HRE or sicilian settlement and turn it into a castle and act defensive on the western front. All in all im just turtling until i can muster up some gun troops.:skull:

Yes! While I was doing my campaign as France, I sent a army with only archers and trebuchets (They was only two trebuchets.) and a giant Milan army tried to attack me. I thought I was done for, until by a stroke of luck, one of the arrows burnt Milan's only king to the ground! Milan was out of the game! Milan was now rebels, And I decided that I wouldn't bother with them. I'm moving into the Papal States (I've destroyed Florence and destroyed their armies, so I don't have a lot to do before Italy is mine! I creating a army full of Dismounted and Mounted Fuedal Knights, and Armoured Sergeants at the west of my empire, which is bordering Spain. I'm going to move my elite army into Spain and capture the cities. :juggle2:

HRE, currently have removed Milan and France. On the Western front England is almost off the mainland, and 'Sealion' is shortly to take place. The Eastern front is more troublesome, with the Poles, Hungarians and Venetians arrayed against me. Not a problem - except that I'm only using militia over there, and the Pope continually threatens to excommunicate me (he is Venetian after all). In the south, bypassing the Papal states, Naples has been taken, and my Prince is regrouping before continuing his assault on the Sicilians. The Danes are allies, for now.

Blitzkrieg tactics seem to work quite well. Several half stack armies of mailed knights sweeping opposition aside, trapping the remnants in settlements whilst the slower infantry move up to conduct the assault.

Not quite sure what the year is, (I have modified the game to progress in 6-month turns). However, the highest tech unit I can currently get are Feudal knights (Teutonic knights are also available).

Alright. I'm (mostly) focused on my Denmark-campaign right now. I started off dividing my forces into two small armies - one going north, one going south. The plan was to only capture Hamburg, Stockholm and Oslo, but when I noticed both Frankfurt and Stettin were lightly defended and that the Holy Roman Empire were nowhere in sight, I captured those as well. Arhus, Stockholm and Oslo are now towns, giving me a strong economic base, while Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stettin are my triumvirate of castles, churning out brave, axe-wielding maniacs ready to go a-viking.

Hoping to succeed where my viking ancestors had failed, I prepared for a sea-invasion of the Brittish Isles, wiping Scottland and England from the board. I had built a large army of dismounted huscarles, archers and raider cavalry, and a fleet of longboats, and had just set out with Inverness as my target. Then the damn HRE appeared out of nowhere, laying siege to Frankfurt. The vikings, eager for pillage, rape and plunder, must have roared in dissapointment as the longboats turned for a boring defensive war. The returning army struck a harsh blow on the besieging HRE army, killing most of it and crippling the HRE forces for a while.

I was just on my way to resume the sea-voyage, when the pope called a crusade against Jerusalem. Hoping to boost my pitiful standing with the pope, I sent the former invasion-force to the Holy Land instead. I picked up lots of crusader units, and captured not only Jerusalem, but Acre as well, while building up a new force up North and fighting the occasional skirmish against the HRE.

(A word of advice - when you go on a crusade, don't just take Jerusalem and let your armies sit there while you focus on your homefront. Always take Acre as well, to build advanced units and defend against muslim attacks - maybe even take some of those juicy egyptian cities as well... Gaza and Alexandria are both really high-income. Crusader States FTW.)

Recently Poland, allied with the HRE, just attacked Stettin. I saw that coming, and beat them back. Now I'm at war with HRE in the south, Poland in the east, and I just had my first defeat against Egypt in the Holy Land (although at great cost to their army), and I have no real allies. Fun times. I'm STILL hell-bent on having that invasion of England. :)

YES! I've got it! While I managed to take most of Italy, and I'm moving through the HRE. I've also managed to wear down the Papal States, and have taken Rome and Florence. I'm also going to wear down Sicily. I've managed to destroy their giant armies with a lot of archers and cav. I managed to kill the pope(:angel:), and because I love to sack cities (:hanged: ), my own cities are prospering, and most of them have huge stone walls and ballista towers (I like the fact that instead of having it free with the huge stone wall, like RTW, you actually need to pay big bucks for it. Much more realistic.) I have brilliant generals, and I've got a great grip on the seas. And now, my assasins are going to slaughter the pope. :rifle:

WOOT! :jester:

Update on my Venetian campaign. I have now taken Thessalonica from the Byzantines as the first move in my campaign to secure Constantinople and Greece. The Byzantines are tough as they get some decent horse archers which the ai actually uses well. The Milanese attacked Florence, i let them assault the city and beat them back. Turn later i offered them a ceasfire and they accepted. I have one of my ex-Cardinals as Pope, and i've maintained perfect standing with him for almost all the game, leaving me nearly immune to inqusitors and other catholic factions.

Which ones, Lusted? Vardariatoi, Byzantine cavalry, or Skythikons? Byzantium has a lot of horse archers, and I love all of them. :laugh4:

My Byzantine campaign has now fought off 3 attacks on Constantinople from the declared jihad. I'd completed the ballista towers in the city shortly before it was declared, and OMFG what an improvement that is! Seriously, they aren't showing as ballista towers on the map. They're shooting cannon balls. I'm not certain if that's a bug or due to a mod, as I'm running 1 year per turn instead of 2. It's 1168 now, so I've done 88 turns so far, which might have moved a normal campaign into the development of gunpowder. Regardless, those towers have killed 3 generals and untold numbers of catapults/trebuchets so far. The initial turkish force lost its general in the sally, retreated, and vanished when it couldn't get a new leader. The second force was Egyptian; it lost both its generals to the towers and many troops to the sally plus reinforcements, and that army routed out of existence after the battle. The third force - also turkish - stalled near Nicaea, and I hit it with an army plus the city garrison from the rear. That killed off all but about 50 men, but the general got away. I hit it again 2 turns later and wiped it out. Now the Moors (who offered me a ceasefire a few turns earlier and I accepted) have a jihad army on the doorstep.

I think if I wipe this one out and there are no more jihad armies, the jihad will end. In the meantime, I beefed up the army I had in Smyrna and have been taking back territory lost to the Turks after Manzikert. I have snatched both Iconium and Caesarea by sneaking a good spy in who opened the gate. The army, which is all cavalry, just runs through and overpowers the 1-2 unit garrison to take the settlement. That even worked on Caesarea, which was a fortress. Next stop is Tarsus, or whatever the city is called in this game. It's also a fortress, and only has a general plus one archer unit garrisoning it.

I just started a new campaign as Denmark. I am enjoying them more than Egypt so far. Got Scandinavia off the bat of course and the outlining rebel provinces. Made alliances and broke them quickly because Poland was pissing me off so I gave them a good beating. My relationship was good enough with the pope to not get excommunicated. The entire time Milan was going insane and got excommunicated so I requested a crusade on Milan and successfully got it and then took it from them. It's starting to get really interesting and I promise I will finish this campaign.

Well, my second campaign just turned around year 1200 so i might give a recap then:

I chose the English for my second try att the campaign, took York, got a whole lot of mailed knights from my council of nobles and prepared an attack against the welsh too try too see what a unit of many longbows can do too an knight army+ heir...suffice too say the welsh now listen too me, atleast for the moment:smash:

My second Council mission consisted of taking Ireland for the english crown, that said, i trained a bunch of spear militia, some longbows and took my king with me but i soon realized that the sea if shock full of all kinds of pirates so it seemed that the royal navy had too be built now instead of...well later:laugh4:

That took its sweet time and under the time of my naval building the danes! (of all people) decided that York would look good with an funny name on it, sadly the army didnt live soon enough too see the city of York get renamed too Yorkhamn, my longbow easily brushed them aside, atleast the few units of infantry they had with em, the cavalry was a whole different story but my rewards for those council missions really was right on time so in around 5 turns the danish invasion of England ended in a (sortof) farce, but atleast they got too see my soon built soccer fields, just really up close:juggle2:

Next of the order of business were the toads, oh sorry, the french. I stole the city of Rennes from them then i had a LONG period of peace and prosperity but then something happened that i didnt really had put into my calculations, the people of the funny hats wanted my son burned att the stake!, swell i thought, they couldnt possibl-...crap, apparently my son had at some point in time loved with his donkey, i know the days in Caen can be lonley but come on!

Just as this little embarrassing episode happened i had planned too attack the city of Paris too try too pry the control of good chocolate frogs from the french but alas...my son was burned so my army had too leave without him, clicked the end turn button and saw a small miracle happen before me, the french attack me!

Yippie, now im not the aggressor so the Man with the biggest funny hat should like me more...wait..he´s french...turd.
Now 20 years after the kingdom of france has lost two city´s and should soon beg for mercy IF the ai has any sense of self-preservence and the evil dude in the funny hat? Too my knowledge he is still working :smash:

Thanks for reading :book:

If about 25 turns into my HRE campaign.

I'm practically surrounded by Enemies. At the moment I'm Fighting Venice, Milan and Sicily, whilst trying to hold off Denmark at Hamburg. I think i'm losing

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stolpmeister

Alright. I'm (mostly) focused on my Denmark-campaign right now. I started off dividing my forces into two small armies - one going north, one going south. The plan was to only capture Hamburg, Stockholm and Oslo, but when I noticed both Frankfurt and Stettin were lightly defended and that the Holy Roman Empire were nowhere in sight, I captured those as well. Arhus, Stockholm and Oslo are now towns, giving me a strong economic base, while Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stettin are my triumvirate of castles, churning out brave, axe-wielding maniacs ready to go a-viking.

Hoping to succeed where my viking ancestors had failed, I prepared for a sea-invasion of the Brittish Isles, wiping Scottland and England from the board. I had built a large army of dismounted huscarles, archers and raider cavalry, and a fleet of longboats, and had just set out with Inverness as my target. Then the damn HRE appeared out of nowhere, laying siege to Frankfurt. The vikings, eager for pillage, rape and plunder, must have roared in dissapointment as the longboats turned for a boring defensive war. The returning army struck a harsh blow on the besieging HRE army, killing most of it and crippling the HRE forces for a while.

I was just on my way to resume the sea-voyage, when the pope called a crusade against Jerusalem. Hoping to boost my pitiful standing with the pope, I sent the former invasion-force to the Holy Land instead. I picked up lots of crusader units, and captured not only Jerusalem, but Acre as well, while building up a new force up North and fighting the occasional skirmish against the HRE.

(A word of advice - when you go on a crusade, don't just take Jerusalem and let your armies sit there while you focus on your homefront. Always take Acre as well, to build advanced units and defend against muslim attacks - maybe even take some of those juicy egyptian cities as well... Gaza and Alexandria are both really high-income. Crusader States FTW.)

Recently Poland, allied with the HRE, just attacked Stettin. I saw that coming, and beat them back. Now I'm at war with HRE in the south, Poland in the east, and I just had my first defeat against Egypt in the Holy Land (although at great cost to their army), and I have no real allies. Fun times. I'm STILL hell-bent on having that invasion of England. :)

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Sounds like a great campaign so far. I'm a real fan of those Danes! I'm headed out to get my new graphics card so I can join the fun. Good luck with your invasion of England.

Current state of my faction? Sleep-deprived, can't concentrate at work, wife's annoyed but still an angel about it.

I need a vacation to play this game.

Could you grant us non-owners of the game with some nice screenies pretty please?:bow:

Playing a Venetian campaign VH/VH,

I quickly took Zagreb, and got into the first of what would be many wars with the Hungarians. The Milanese meanwhile opened a second front. A long defensive war began, with the notable features being, I lose a full stack army attacking Budapest, I lose another full stack army to pirates, trying to ship it across the adriatic to relieve Venice, Venice falls, the Doge being killed in the city square.

After retaking Venice and arranging peace with my assorted foes (ceasefire with Milan, Vassalised by Hungary I sent the new doge off to the Holy Land to take Antioch (Crusade). This worked a treat (My religious fanatics crept over the walls late one night - y'know for the glory of christ), but my "Kingdom of Heaven" suffered a lot of neglect in favour of my homelands, and the populace never liked my rule. After the doge died retaking Antioch during one of its incessant rebellions the bedraggled survivors set off for home, but were cornered and butchered by the Egyptians in the wastes of anatolia.

Meanwhile back around the Adriatic the Sicilians came boiling up out of the Italian peninsula and re-introduced Venice to fire (and the sword). The relief force (going by land this time) was driven off but not destroyed, whilst another defensive war was going on with Hungary. Venice fell to th Sicilians but the doge had a cunning plan. My fleet would sail to Sicily where my 3rd Doge would capture the island (aided by my new bombards!) and then march up the Italian peninsula and retake Venice from the South. Although I captured Sicily the plan was woefully optimistic - the majority of the army had to come racing back when the Muslims stopped Jihad'ing against Constantinople (A hungarian possession by now).

At Ragusa (My main troop producing location) the Hungarians laid siege to my Doge's army and a heroic last stand ensued. At the end of the battle I only had 30 men left standing and my Doge was dead (The 3rd in a row to die in battle) but I still held the fort.

Things are now looking up. In Italy a 10 star 22 year old general (Trianado Dolfin) has just killed his second Sicilian king in his short career and has taken Naples, whilst the Hungarians are too busy being horribly butchered by the Mongols to worry about me any more. All I need to do now is retake Venice....

I started my first campaign today with the Papal states. Currently I've established trade with the Holy Roman Empire, Siclly and Milian I think, I'm about to establish trade with Venice as well. I've taken over Florence with my general, Pope something lol....I'll provide a screenie of the pope in armor later.

I'm trying to build up some decent income then focus on building a strong army to take over Sicilly and seize the Italian peninsulla.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ciddler

I started as Spain, all was well, conquered the Portuguese, got the Moors out of the iberian peninsula and then I was attacked by the French. I attacked them back, rightfully defending what was mine and the pope said I shouldn't. I thought it was proposterous that he could attack me but I just sit there and watch the French come time and time again. So I got excommunicated, soon after Milan declared war on me, the Moors tried to come back again, the French are still at large and even England betrayed me. The Pope regularly sends armies and even Hungary has sent a crusade army my way. They will all pay for what they are doing. First I will fight off the crusade, then I will conquer France. I think every christian nation hates me now! I love it.

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Me again, I'm almost at the end of my campaign. I will provide screenshots later, I wish they would be saved, rather than having to make one, paste it in photoshop, make a new one. I should use fraps...

Anyway, the Moors are still at war with me but after I invaded their capital in Africa they haven't attacked me, they only block a harbour once in a while. I fought back the crusade on Toulouse which even the Danes joined! I managed to sign a peace treaty with the Danes, Hungary and even Milan after the crusade. England is going to pay dearly for their betrayal!

After conquering Rennes I will throw England back onto their Island. I'm pretty sure I won't win this campaign, I'm on turn 182 or so and I only have ~15 Provinces but that doesn't matter, I'm having fun! :D

I just wish the Pope would die so I am no longer excommunicated. It would really help my cities, the people are going crazy because I of it and I potential money is being wasted! :/

turn 28 with HRE.

the pope hates my guts, and crusades are being called against me.

Milan crushed, venetians on their heels( though they managed to take Venice back in a surprise assault) french in tatters, hungarians decimated. war of attrition in scandinavia with the danes. sicilians are coming on strong, and a mighty poland is probably just waiting to jump me.

economy is a complete shambles due to having five different field armies on four different fronts, I have to sack cities to keep up.

Have naval control between italy and the balkans. apart from that, I dont feel in control of anything.

Year is now 1113, my Holy Roman Empire owns all of France, England, Germany, Italy (the Pope is now a plaything of mine... no more excommunications for me, methinks).

Factions no longer extant: Milan, France, England, Sicily. And the Papacy has no lands.

Scots are on the run, as are the Poles. The Russians thought it would be a good idea to attack me, and lost a city for their troubles.

VH/M by the way.

I finished my first campaign last night. Playing as England in the short campaign.

Started off as normal taking the rebel cities in the British isles and down the french coast. Initial attempts at taking Scotland were foiled by the pope. I didn't fancy my chances at repelling a large continental force as most of my armies were tied up subduing the rebels at home. Once the Scots were the only region in the BI left untouched I waited for them to move the bulk of their armies out into the open and I struck! Edinburgh taken and the scots wiped out before the Pope could notice....

Sent a crusader army across land to Jerusalem but it got blocked going through the HRE and all the units deserted.

With the homeland firmly under control and slowly developing its infrastructure I turned my sights to the French. I picked up the rest of the rebel towns around the french and certainly didn't discourage the milanese from attacking them. However, the Milanese used their french conquests as a springboard to attack me. A few bloody battles ensued, ending with my capture of Metz. Their armies battered and broken, the Milanese gladly handed over Toulouse in exchange for a ceasefire. That was the last I heard from them.

At this point I was working with minimal defensive armies as the french didn't seem to bothered about attacking me, and I had 3 full stacks in the field. 1 stack with infantry and seige weapons for taking cities, a more balanced army for fighting in the open and my third army which was intended as a Middle Eastern expeditionary force. While I was loading it onto my navy for transport to the med, the pope called a crusade against hungarian controlled Riga. I set sail with my third army immediately but was beaten to it by the Poles.

With the Mongols ravaging the middle east I decided to finish France and finish the game. 3 Full stack armies made short work of the remaining 3 french provinces and there the game ended.

Constantinople, 1171 anno Domini. The Autokrator Isaac Komnenos has sent word that the Turkish fortress of Adana has fallen to our forces. If the scribes are correct, this occurred on the 100th anniversary of the battle of Manzikert. In the northwest, Budapest has been taken, and the kingdom of Hungary wiped out. War continues with the Venetians, though things are static at the moment. The Moorish jihad was eliminated on the walls of the city a short time ago, and no reports from spies and sentries throughout the empire have reported any sign of new Islamic forces responding to the call, but those Muslims within our lands have not reported a rescinding of the jihad. Advance scouts from the Autokrator's army report that the city of Antioch, taken by the Poles in the first crusade, has just fallen to the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt. A few more Turkish forces in the Adana/Antioch/Aleppo region have been destroyed, and the Autokrator is now considering either moving on Trebizone, or sweeping into the Turkish heartlands. If the defenses there are as bare as those in Caesarea and Adana, then the way to Aleppo and Mosul lies open.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ciddler

Me again, I'm almost at the end of my campaign. I will provide screenshots later, I wish they would be saved, rather than having to make one, paste it in photoshop, make a new one. I should use fraps...

Anyway, the Moors are still at war with me but after I invaded their capital in Africa they haven't attacked me, they only block a harbour once in a while. I fought back the crusade on Toulouse which even the Danes joined! I managed to sign a peace treaty with the Danes, Hungary and even Milan after the crusade. England is going to pay dearly for their betrayal!

After conquering Rennes I will throw England back onto their Island. I'm pretty sure I won't win this campaign, I'm on turn 182 or so and I only have ~15 Provinces but that doesn't matter, I'm having fun! :D

I just wish the Pope would die so I am no longer excommunicated. It would really help my cities, the people are going crazy because I of it and I potential money is being wasted! :/

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https://img176.imageshack.us/img176/...6184007et6.jpg

This is my nation at the moment, I enlargened the map so you can see where I am. I didn't uncover the fog of war. I am struggling thanks to the fact that I am excommunicated. The Pope won't accept any of my offers :/

And here some pics of a battle against the papal states:

https://img356.imageshack.us/img356/...6182022oe8.jpg

Guess where he is!

https://img177.imageshack.us/img177/...6182224bl3.jpg

Here the unmounted knights are, later on they will walk past the crossbowmen and crush the papal troops once they leave the woods.

https://img102.imageshack.us/img102/...6182536zu0.jpg

here they are charging towards the papal guards after they left the woods.

https://img422.imageshack.us/img422/...6182558il9.jpg

And these are the knights that were hidden in the forests getting intercepted by the enemy cavalry

https://img144.imageshack.us/img144/...6182703gd7.jpg

The heat of the battle

https://img243.imageshack.us/img243/...6182947ap2.jpg

Aftermath

https://img296.imageshack.us/img296/...875copypz4.jpg

The numbers

Now I am still at war with England, France and the Papal States, but my priority would have to be peace with the Pope so my people can relax and I can make some money. Hope you like the pics :>

Playing as England...

Started off by taking York and getting a gift of cavalry from the Noble Council...

Planned to take (that settlement west of Caen) and Wales. My plans were seriously set back by the betrayals of a couple of armies... A half stack of spear militia I sent to besiege the rebel town in France rebeled (resulting in this town now have a very substantual defensive force). Then even more worryingly a large large force of mailed knights, merc spearman and merc crossbows was marching north to join a militia army lead by Prince Rufus for the assault on Wales. This army revolted right in the center of the country! Only the intervention of the King and all his sons plus the heroic efforts of a small miltia force saved the day there.

Then as I reorganised for my assault on Wales the Pope annouced a Crusade. My advisors gave dire warnings about not ignoring the Pope so I put off the Welsh campaign and sent King William back to London and embarked Rufus and Henry toward the Holy Land.

My home front actions where based entirely around building up the infrastructure and making money. I sent my diplomat on a grand tour and made nice with France, HRE and the Italian states (during which time he actually survived an encounter with an inquisitor)...

My Crusader army was sent across the channel and then across land to Venice where we hired mercenary boats for a sea journey to the Holy Land.

Back in Caen Robert was ruling and following a request from our Noble Council to capture Antwerp he started building an army. This army of Knights, Militia Spearman and Militia Archers was bolstered with mercenary spearman and dispatched to lay siege. I decided to assasult with nothing but ladders and courage. It did not go well... The ladders went up but the walls were defended with great determination by the Flemish rebels and in the end the morale of the English troops was destroyed with men retreating back down the ladders as soon as they where sent up... (nice feature that, no more fighting to the death on city walls, the routing unit will flee the walls in the appropriate direction...)

The Noble Council was not pleased...

The King William died and Rufus was named King of the English while still on route to the Holy Land.

Rufus and his brother landed to find the area around Jerusalem poorly defended and it took little time to see off the defenders and take the city. Obviously the Egyptians are not best pleased...

As things stand now, Robert has rebuit his army and is eyeing up the surrounding rebel settlement for a likely (and achievable) target. The adminstration of London has fallen upon a lifelong friend of Prince Henry who has inturn been adopted in the ruling family. And Jerusalem is underseige by a rather large and annoyed looking Egyptian army!

Hey guys, I don't have this game yet, but I'm hoping to get it tomorrow. I've read each of your campaigns and they're giving me all kinds of ideas. Keep up these great battles. And to Stolpmeister, good luck with your eventual invasion of Britain!

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Originally Posted by Mailman653

I started my first campaign today with the Papal states. Currently I've established trade with the Holy Roman Empire, Siclly and Milian I think, I'm about to establish trade with Venice as well. I've taken over Florence with my general, Pope something lol....I'll provide a screenie of the pope in armor later.

I'm trying to build up some decent income then focus on building a strong army to take over Sicilly and seize the Italian peninsulla.

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https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b...0-18-22-00.jpg
My faction leader, Pope....some guy (I've gone through at least 5 popes already)

An update to my campaign, I don't remember what year I am in but gun powder is relatively new. I control Corsica, Sardina, and most of Italy except for Naples and some other town near Florence. My greatest threat is from Millian, they are very untrustworthy and declare war on me every so offten curtailing my ambitions.

Some advantages of being the Papal States:

1)Whenever the pope dies, I just elect a new one from the cardinals.
2)Inqusition......need I say more?
3)Declare crusades on a whim
4)Extra leverage in diplomacy using the reconciliation option

Disavantages:

1)Serious lack of faction leaders, I have at least 2 or 3 left alive and ageing quick with no replacements in sight.
2)The Council still retains some power, when a crusade is made, where etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maxfu

Sounds like a great campaign so far. I'm a real fan of those Danes! I'm headed out to get my new graphics card so I can join the fun. Good luck with your invasion of England.

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Originally Posted by Goatbuster3000

And to Stolpmeister, good luck with your eventual invasion of Britain!

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Thank you for your encouragement. At roughly 100 turns into the game, the invasion of Britian is however STILL on my to-do list. Of course I wasn't satisfied with just keeping the Holy Roman Empire and Poland at bay, so I set about taking cities. Poland turned out to be complete pushovers - I had some problems with their missile cavalry, but I manage to quickly forge an alliance with the polish enemies Hungary, and made some easy captures. Of course, that opened my eastern flank to RUSSIA - they attacked Thorn three turns after I took it from Poland. I thought I caught a lucky break when the pope declared a crusade on Russian-held Riga, but just as my crusading army arrived and laid siege, I was backstabbed by Hungary. Yeah, the alliance with Hungary couldn't have held more than 10-15 turns... I guess I was a bit TOO successful in beating Poland into the ground. There's a nice, handy bridge near Prague that's proven to be very useful at keeping the Hungarians at bay.

Then there's the HRE. Oh my god. They've been really aggressive.I sent out some spies, only to discover THREE FULL-STACK ARMIES hanging around, and two of them closing every turn. The resulting warfare is too complex to write about, really (I doubt I can remember all the details), but suffice to say that both sides have lost many brave generals, strong warlords have been forged in battle only to be struck down by assassins daggers, cities have changed hands more often than camp-whores, and the corpses of thousands upon thousands of men are rotting in the dark German forests. I've been mostly successful, though - the HRE are coming at me mostly with spear militia, who are no match for danish infantry with axes and swords.

I think I've broken the economic backbone of the HRE by taking most of their cities, but now MILAN is starting to rear its ugly head. They're strong from fighting a successful war against the French, allied with the HRE, and although they haven't attacked yet, their armies are testing the borders. Also, the Mongols just arrived in the Holy Land. For now my turkish allies are holding them off, but it won't be long before they arrive to test my defenses at Acre.

So I'm at war with Russia, Hungary, Poland, the HRE and Egypt, and soon Milan and the Mongols. I guess I've learned that if you play Denmark and want to take England don't expand further south than Hamburg, since you WILL get involved in continental politics.

My campaign as the English is encountering a few minor hurdles at the moment. I'm at war with the Scots, The Danes and the French none of whom are prepared to accept a ceasefire and continuously send armies to harass my holdings in York and near Caen. I've managed to keep naval superiority with an excellent admiral in control of a group of highly experienced ships.
Due to poor relations with the Pope, i decided to build a crusader army and take Antioch as requested.

My humble crusaders marched east, picking up mercenaries along the way and suffering some minor desertion near Constantinople. On arrival i was surprised to find Antioch in rebel hands. Wasting no time, i built siege towers and assaulted the city, as a Danish crusader army, of superior numbers, was approaching rapidly from the north, and i wanted to have the settlement on my side if I had to fight them.
Easily overcoming the rebels, my crusaders peacefully settled in Antioch, but were faced with massive Islamic riots, who were obviously not too happy to see these Catholic "liberators". My crusaders were thrown out of Antioch by the rebels, but wasting no time, immediately retook the Holy city, only this time, committing great slaughter amongst the rebellious population, which eventually bowed to its new overlords.
I had also experienced problems with the Scots, who seemed intent to take York at any cost and had already paid for it with the lives of many men. So i raised an army and marched it towards Edinburgh. Just outside the city, i was set upon by three Scottish armies, each one led by a Scottish prince. My English army, on top of a large hill, massively outnumbered and surrounded on all sides, would sell themselves dearly. Scores of the enemy fell to my longbowmen as they tried to ascend the hill to engage in close combat. My foot soldiers charged, scattering on of the three armies back down the hill, doing the same to the second as it approached from another side, killing the generals.
By the time my men reassembled at the top of the hill to meet the third host, they were tired and their numbers were thinned, my longbowmen having run out of ammo long ago and joining their comrades in hand to hand combat.
Still fighting on against the oncoming enemy, they were finally routed by enemy knights. But not before killing the final enemy general.
So now i am stuck in a stalemate...

Well, I'm just getting into my third game.

Game no 1.

England, M/M. Romped to victory in the Grand Campaign after success followed by success. Managed to grab Rennes, Antwerp and Bruges early on, along with the rest of the Birtish Isles, and after that a policy of relentless aggression saw me steamroller France, Spain and Denmark for a disappointingly quick and easy win.

Game no 2.

Sicily, VH/VH. Oh dear. Started off well, with the swift capture of Albania, Corsica and Sardinia. However, I sound myself under attack from Venice on land and HRE at sea. My flesgling navy was sunk, and despite some epic and heroic victories against Venice in the Balkans (one road was littered with crossed swords denoting famous battles) my economy couldn't cope. As my garrisons shrank and HRE took full control of the Italian coast, the Byzantines decided to join in the fun and promptly invaded. I reluctantly quit.. with no allies, no money, and facing unstoppable invasion from three different directions.

Game no 3.

Denmark, H/VH. I seem to have found the right balance for enjoyable gameplay with this game. Early days yet, but I hold Scandanavia and Hamburg, although crucially Poland and HRE have beaten me to the rest of Germany. I'm eyeing up a viking raid on Antwerp, but the Germans have just declared war after they botched an assassination on one of my generals. I have a strong defensive position, though, and good relations with my other neighbours... confident I can beat them back, and then use the wealth of Antwerp and my capital to fund an epic crusade.

I'm about 20 turns in to my first campaign as the Danes. My first victim was Hamburg which I have it set as a castle in preparation for my attack on the HRE or vice versa. I have sacked Stockholm and have two merchants in the province trading iron which is good for about 60 florins a turn, not great but every bit counts. I have also sacked Stettin as ordered by my council. I received 4 units of troops for this. ( I don't remember the troop type as I am at work and can not refer back to the game at the moment). I have trade rights with the HRE and Poland. I have my kingdom's heir on a crusade to take Antioch. I am about 2 turns away from the province but had a mass desertion on the last turn. I plan to hire a good number of mercenaries as I approach Antioch however I fear my heir is doomed to wander through to mid-east causing me some diplomatic issues to deal with. My fleet is growing at a decent rate wich I have found is absolutely necessary with all of the pirates in the north sea. I can't wait to get home and continue my conquest.

Stolp, I think that if you want to defend on a frontier, you either have to just "keep them at bay" as you put it, or advance all the way to the edge of the world. If you play as England or the Moors, then perhaps you'll have two directions where you don't have to worry about enemies, but otherwise every border is hostile. The only thing that seems to work, at least somewhat, is to leave a 1-region buffer state between you and the people on the far side of your enemy. Hopefully you'll have gutted them well enough that they can't afford huge armies.

In my Byzantine campaign, I've stopped eastern expansion at Adana. I could zip over and take Aleppo, but the Egyptians have a large army at Antioch and they could get behind me if I did. Besides, it's getting close to Mongol time, so if they show up down here I'd like someone else to take the brunt of the initial assault. I've spent the last few turns systematically destroying the Venetian military and economy. Any army I find in the field, I destroy. I've got two spies in Zagreb and 4 assassins around it, sabotaging every turn. At the moment, every building in Zagreb that can be sabotaged is damaged. I don't think Venice has the money to repair them. Zagreb has a full garrison, because one army retreated there, but the citadel of Raguzza only has a two unit garrison. I'm trying to move an assault army there while screening it from Venetian forces with another army of all horse archers. I'll take Raguzza, replentish casualties there, and then siege/take Zagreb. While returning from a tour of the English Isles, one of my fleets discovered that Corsica and Sardinia are still in rebel hands, so I'll probably build a new army and ship it over there, making both of them into cities.

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Originally Posted by Quillan

Stolp, I think that if you want to defend on a frontier, you either have to just "keep them at bay" as you put it, or advance all the way to the edge of the world. If you play as England or the Moors, then perhaps you'll have two directions where you don't have to worry about enemies, but otherwise every border is hostile. The only thing that seems to work, at least somewhat, is to leave a 1-region buffer state between you and the people on the far side of your enemy. Hopefully you'll have gutted them well enough that they can't afford huge armies.

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Yeah, I'm starting to realize that. It takes some adjustment to realize that you're never going to have a friendly neighbour... but that's Total War, I guess.

It's not so much of having a "friendly" neighbor as it is that there doesn't seem to be such a thing as a TRUSTWORTHY neighbor. They all seem prone to betrayal. Conquering the betrayer simply places you bordering someone new who can betray you next.

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Originally Posted by Quillan

It's not so much of having a "friendly" neighbor as it is that there doesn't seem to be such a thing as a TRUSTWORTHY neighbor. They all seem prone to betrayal. Conquering the betrayer simply places you bordering someone new who can betray you next.

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Lol thats so true. In my campaign either Millian or Siclliy stabs me in the back when ever they are in the mood to march an army against my cities.:inquisitive:

Hungary, ~1113 or so. My mighty (well, if I were a mouse it would be pretty big) kingdom includes the city of Budapest, the town of Bucharest, and the castles at Bran, Sofia, and whatever the one SW of Kiev is called.

Things were looking OK. Naturally, this was deceptive. The Crown Prince and his brother were each preparing an army at Bran, the main military stronghold, to serve God in the great Crusade to take Antioch.

The King sat in Budapest, with the city's small garrison, planning how to gain more wealth to support his sons' mission.

The peace vanished. An army of ~1,000 from Venice appeared, and laid siege to Budapest. Word has been recieved from a religious mission West of Sofia, that another Venitian army approaches. 200 men in Budapest, and the King, man the ramparts, and wait.

Will his sons arrive from Bran in time? Will Sofia's defences have time to prepare for the onslaught? Will the Pope Excomunicate that tight wearing panty waste that sits on the throne of Venice for attacking his second favorite ruler?

:help:

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Originally Posted by Stolpmeister

but that's Total War, I guess.

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Well, they don't call it Total Peace, do they? :)

My campaign as the French is going very, very well.
After war broke out with the English in the 2nd turn of the game, I fell into bad relations with the Pope, but I took Caen. This resulted in my lands being flooded with inquisitors, which, as I described in the Inquisitor Thread, I countered with a bagillion priests. With all of the priest training going on in Paris, I was able to build a Master Theologians Guild, which basically pumped out Cardinals. This, coupled with giving the Pope massive gifts of money, pretty much put him in my back pocket.
During my tribulations with the inquisitors, I took the rebellious French provences, and built up my infrastructure until a war broke out with Milan. The Milanese took Marseille and executed all of my men, including my son, which was a bit of a downer. Obviously this could not go unpunished, so I rallied my forces and had a huge battle outside Bern which resulted in the capture (and execution) of their king, and the massacre of close to 4,500 men. Soon afterwards, Marseille fell to my men, the Milanese were decisively defeated, and I took Bern, Genoa, Zaragosa and Milan.

Soon after this, the Pope died, but sadly, none of my 6 cardinals in the college were of high enough piety to be preferati, so a Hungarian was appointed as the new Pope. This didn't sit well with me, so I sent an assassin to deal with the new Pope. The year before I murdered the Pope, one of my bishops was appointed 1st preferati, and when the Pope kicked it, was elected as the new Pope. Huzzah!

Right now the Spanish apparently took offense to my ownership of Zaragoza, and besieged it, getting excommunicated in the process :2thumbsup: . Zaragoza fell to their assault, but was quickly bribed back, and three stacks of my men moved into Leon and Castile. Castile fell to my forces, and I captured the Spanish king, but Leon still holds out.

This is by far the best Total War of the series. The day I got it, I was playing it on and off during the day, and then around 11 I sat down to play, and the next thing I knew, it was 5:30! I've never had a time lapse like that before.:embarassed:

As byzantine, everything started well. I snapped up a rebel province or two, secured an alliance with hungary and the turks and was looking at Venice when the worst happened - hungary ended our alliance (probably by order of the pope) and moved armies to the border.

This started a long war of conquest (which has only just ended) resulting in the utter destruction of hungary as a nation. Midway through this war i was betrayed by the turks, but at the moment i have no men spare to combat this threat and so must slowly bulid up a navy (when i have slots spare) and take out venice before moving eastwards once more.

This major conflict with the christians has only been compounded by the fact that my navy has been repeatadly wiped out by pirates (once with my faction heir and hundreds of troops on board) and as such i have very little moblility and unpredictable trade :(

I've had to run very close to the bottom line economically after some stunning defeats to the christians, and my emperor died at the most inconveniant time, leaving my main problem at the moment the lack of a strong ruler and adequate generals. I can only hope that no one will challenge me in a civil war :( If they do, my lot's with whoever holds constantinople (currently ungoverned thanks to my severe family member shortage)