Disrupting Trade

[KyodaiSteeleye]

Hi,

Sorry if this has been covered before a lot. I was wondering whether anyone uses economic warfare much?

By this, I mean the usual thing of blockading ports and taking merchants over. However, I'm also wondering about putting in harrying cavalry units into enemy territories to block roads, and so trade (does this work?).

I'm playing as Byzantium and the Poles are one of the 3 major powers i'm competing with. I have no real desire to take their lands, so i'm really confined to the above, and the odd foray into some of their outlying provinces, sacking and letting them rebel.

I was thinking that by recruiting a bunch of single low-cost horse archer units, I could sit them on enemy roads, and if they are attacked, they can just retreat out of harms way. Hopefully they'll also contribute some desolation their way, to return to a different stretch of road later. I think this approach conforms to what i've read of medieval wars, which were mainly more about harrying the opponents lands and burning their crops, rather than taking their castles.

Anyone else used this tactic (and does it work?)

[seireikhaan]

Methinks you've got the wrong forum. You seem to be looking for the citadel.

[Youngie]

Economic warfare is a must when playing the byzants, if you dont do it then turkey or egypt will. i think it all depends in where your going and who your fighting if your to consider blockading ports. Sometimes its a waste of resources.

This is going to sound stupid but i didnt think there were roads in MTW, i thought that only started in RTW. OR do you just generally mean blocking their path

[Martok]

This is going to sound stupid but i didnt think there were roads in MTW, i thought that only started in RTW. OR do you just generally mean blocking their path

KyodaiSteeleye is referring to Medieval 2. Moved to the Citadel.

[Old Geezer]

If you are at war, then putting a unit on a road will block the trade and cause devastation which apparently from what I have seen in the last year does damage the AI. Blockading ports with ships or by sitting on the road from the settlemant to the port works very well, as does destroying warehouses and markets, and then anything else available. Also eliminating the AI merchants will cripple them and eliminating their priests will help slightly. You will know when the tactic has worked because they will stop rebuilding because they are out of money and by seeing they are bankrupt on the Diplomacy screen. The AI is so unable to counter such tactics that this might be considered an exploit, but it sure does work well until the faction gets down to 3 provinces (from what I have heard) at which time it gets extra cash and seems to be able to still maintain existing large armies.

[Genaral Julis]

I use Economic Warfare where brute force fails. I blockade Ports and seal off trade routes and kill enemy Merchents. When the enemy is bled white...I strike swiftly.

[PBI]

I use a form of economic warfare when attacking enemies, in that I try to target their most wealthy cities first in order to cut of their cash flow and thus their supply of reinforcements. I find this works very well against the HRE, taking vienna essentially stops them building any decent sized armies.

Though it's an interesting idea to use assassins to destroy their economic buildings, I've tried this in the form of "psychological warfare" before to make cities rebel, but I guess it could work very well to knock out an important port or mine on the eve of war.