XL Bohemians

I'd been wanting to play as the Bohemians since i first installed the XL mod but the fact that they were landlocked, don't border any rebel provinces, and i couldn't find a guide for them had me kind of intimidated. since there isn't anything else on the Bohemians on here, i thought that i'd post how my game's going so far. I'm playing in GA mode on normal(because their starting position intimidates the crap out of me).

I built an emissary on the first turn, since they don't start out with one(or a princess) and i decided to try to bribe Franconia, since it was only 2000 florins or so and it would give me access to a couple of rebel provinces. after they accepted the bribe(and HRE retaliated), I attacked Friesland and then bribed Flanders. HRE attacked me again and the pope excommunicated them. while they were excommunicated, i had a 2 star heir and then a 5 star heir mature, so i went ahead and took Saxony and Brandenburg. The HRE took Venice and Milan from the Venetians while all of this was going on(but they re-emerged in Venice about 20 years later) but i stopped to regroup because the Danes also got excommunicated and i was thinking about trying for Scandinavia(or at least getting one viking producing province on my border.

About 10-12 years later, the HRE got excommunicated again and France took Swabia from them, so i went for Switzerland before they could take it and ended up taking the province below it and above Venice(starts with a T but i'm drawing a blank. i was going to try for Venice but they re-emerged right before i got there and i was still kinda thinking about going for Scandinavia. it's 1155 now and i've been turtling for the last 20-25 years. other than Sweden attacking a few of my ships and the pope and France sending 1-2 assassins every year, nobody's really tried to attack me but i'm hoping that France will soon(or that they'll go to war with England). i'm building dromans in Flanders, Friesland, and Saxony and i have around 37,000 florins but my trade route only runs from the Black Sea to Sicily because Sweden sank 4-5 of my ships and i started doubling them up every other port.

what i'm loving about the Bohemians is the fact that they seem to produce really good heirs. so far my heirs have been a 2 star, then a 5, then a 6, then a 4, then another 6, then another 4, then another 5. the only thing that had me kinda worried was that my first King lived to be around 70 but it ended up working out really well because the 2 star heir only lived another 4-5 years and right now i have a 31 year old 5 star king and a 4, 5, and 2 6 star generals and he has a couple of underage heirs on the way.

i also love their unit roster. as far as i can tell, it's basically the same as the HRE or Italian factions(subbing Bohemian Archers for Italian Infantry). i love the Bohemian Archers. i haven't had to use them that much yet but they seem like they have a lot better range than regular archers, they also carry swords, and they come 60 to a unit for the same maintenance cost as regular archers. they seem like they're a lot better than Genoese Sailors but i don't know if the stats support this.

that's all that i have so far but i'm really enjoying playing as Bohemia and i hope other people have played as them and will post their experiences with them. oh yeah, another plus to bribing or taking Franconia as your first province is that it will give you a second iron producing province. if you can grab it fast enough to make a beeline for Flanders before anyone else gets there, you're set financially. i didn't post much about military tactics or which units to build when because it really hasn't mattered in my game. if you have the same luck that i had, you'll have 2-3 5 and 6 star generals before 1100(along with your 4 star king).

it's around year 1270 now and France, the HRE, Spain, England, the Byzantines, and Genoa are long gone. Spain conquered most of Iberia early and worked their way into France before they went at it with England. England came out on top and now owns all of Great Britain(except Ireland) all of Iberia, Western France, and most of the African provinces. i'm holding everything from Eastern France to Kiev in the East and to Lesser Armenia south. the Golden Horde seems to own most of the provinces in the Steppes but their troops seem to be spread pretty thin. i've been trying to turtle because i've never really been able to use the Gothic units in a game before and when i noticed that they were part of Bohemia's unit roster before i started my game, i made a point to try turtle enough in this game to be able to put them to use but with Spain and England growing so agressively in the early game, i had to jump in here and there to keep them from dominating.

i'll add more details to my game if anyone's still playing and reading these guides but long story short, if you're looking for a solid unit roster, great generals, and a very strong economy, i'd give Bohemia a look.

oh yeah, i've never played a full game as the HRE before( i like starting with one or two provinces) but has anyone else noticed how much income you can get out of Saxony? i've never seen them listed as one of the better provinces to acquire but it's been outearning Flanders most of the time for me. it seems like i was getting 3400 florins a turn out of there about 20-30 turns into the game.

i meant to say that the Venetians have been eliminated, not England. England controls about 1/3 of the map right now.

Add whatever advice/info you think may be useful, chris34au. I would do so myself, except that given my prior experience with the Bohemians, I'm spectacularly unqualified to make any sort of recommendations. :embarassed: :laugh4:

i think that i might've just gotten lucky getting so many 7 and 8 star generals as heirs and the HRE not coming after me with all that they had for taking a couple of their provinces early on. as far as i can tell, taking Saxony and/or Flanders early on will really help your economy and also give you a couple of coastal provinces. if you don't want to go to war with the HRE in the first couple of games, i'd definitely go after Poland.

i got bored with this game because i was basically splitting the map with England before the late period even got underway. what kind of shocked me in this game was Armenia. they basically took the entire Byzantine empire and most of the Turkish empire before they started a war with me. i'm kinda curious about checking them out.

i think i'm going to start another game with them tonight and see if i have the same luck that i had last time.

Historically, Bohemia was quite friendly and largely autonomous with the HRE, and even allied with them on many occasions to fight slavic peoples and poles to the south and east.

Strangely, in XL, Bohemia is left with little option than overthrowing the HRE. Interesting, that.

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Originally Posted by Matrim

Historically, Bohemia was quite friendly and largely autonomous with the HRE, and even allied with them on many occasions to fight slavic peoples and poles to the south and east.

Strangely, in XL, Bohemia is left with little option than overthrowing the HRE. Interesting, that.

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yeah, it seems like it's really tough to align with the HRE on XL. in the couple of games that i was going to try playing as Bohemia before this one, they usually attacked me pretty early for no apparent reason. i think that they're the best option of the three(HRE, Poland, and Hungary) to start an early war with though. getting Franconia early gives you a second iron resource and Saxony really boosts your economy.

the biggest negative that i can think of with Bohemia is that, even if you strike early and get a couple of coastal provinces, it's still going to take awhile to get the buildings in place to get your navy going. other than that, i can't think of too many negatives with them.

My personal experience with the Bohemians is pretty ambiguous, in many games I am forced to turtle and lose due to having 1 province only.
But on my last campaign I started off conquering the Polish in my third turn. As they are relatively weak early, except for the retainers, their masses of slav warriors won't be too much of a problem for your greatly superior Bohemian Bowmen :2thumbsup:
So, I dropped by in Silesia, after that trying to fortify my kingdom and proposing a ceasefire, but the Polish were to brave, trying to counterstrike by going for Bohemia itself, but failing impressively.
After that, taking the rest of Poland was a mere formality.
A few years later the French started to get extraordinarily strong, conquering most of Western Europe, mostly the HRE countries, going for Iberia and also fighting off the English.
Unfortunately, the Almoravids were far too much for them to take and the wrath of the Christian world descended upon the French as well (including Bohemia :beam: )
So I expanded by taking Brandenburg and Bavaria from them and shortly after that the French fell apart, eaten up by the Danes and the Almoravids. Meanwhile, my neighboring allies, the Hungarians, are locked between a strong Christian north and the Byzantines, who are eager to expand into Central Europe. As a trustworthy ally, I seized the opportunity when the Byzantines besieged Hungary and rode in with Feudal Knights, Bohemian Bowmen, Avar Nobles (recruitable in Moldavia :2thumbsup: ) and lots of Spearmen and drove them off the holy soil of Christian Europe.
Having a considerable military force themselves, the Hungarians had to strike back, but not being able to take Bulgaria, I took it myself a year later.

Here I am now, at war with the Byzantines, having 3-5 star heirs, a few quite strong provinces and a large military force to defend my lands. The only thing worrying me is the expansion of the Almos, they have taken everything of Western Europe to Milan, Switzerland, Swabia and Saxony. Sometimes I wish the Bohemians could crusade, the only major drawback of this faction :thumbsdown:

Anyhow, I'll be sure to keep on posting on my advance, so far I've experienced the Bohemians as a strong early force, only lacking land and crusades, yet with superb early missile units and a later option on strong cavalry and infantry as well.

Bohemians rule (soon) :duel:

i love playing as the Bohemians but their biggest drawback for me is not having coastal provinces. i'm usually obsessed with getting Saxony asap and wait on the HRE to either get excommunicated or at least at war with someone like Venice or France before i attack Franconia and work my way towards Saxony and Friesland.

once you can get a solid trade network laid out with Bohemia, they're as good as any faction in the game,imo. but the starting position is definitely pretty intimidating.