Sicily Campaing

[JohnVault]

Now i am in a point in my Sicily campaign in which i an conquering north Africa. Have war with HRE, Moors, Egypt and Milan, destroyed Venice. Spanish are at war with me too. I am thinking of sending a crusade to Dijon and capture it. But i am tired of waging wars in many places at the same time. I would like to create a decent army and fight one front at a time. I made the mistake of not wiping out Milan but i am not sure to take Dijon because i think i would put me into more wars. I only have two castles that can put decent soldiers out. One in north Africa that got a jihad called to it. I am waiting happily for them to come to my Muslim archers and Nobles. I want HRE and Milan stop attacking me from the north and my North African front in the west looks very weak. The other cities Timbuktu and the other i am still looking for it in the map are in Moor control. And the Other city that is in the very west of the Africa too. That is all that is left of the Moors. I would like to wipe them out but moving across that desert is taking a lot of time. I have cities but don't have any towers to see whats really going on in North Africa. Only in the ones i control i got watchtowers in the borders. Cordoba and Granada are being hit by the Spanish and they are driving me nuts. Milan and HRE are pounding em from the North. Pope told me to stop aggression towards Spain and HRE(They started). I am still waiting to finish the mission. Milan is Excom so i think i will take their new capital Dijon. Maybe call a crusade into it but i am not sure of holding it up because of the wars. Gifting it to the Pope wold be a good move? I am currently lost in this point in my campaign my cities at north Italy are revolting and waging too many wars at once its taking its toll on me.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

I guess i'll post first, welcome to the .org by the way

Ok, so your playing Sicily as you have said, I don't have much experience with them but i'll take a shot at it. If you want to reduce your fighting fronts, you might want to call a ceasefire with other factions. You might have to gift them something, or just attack them visciously so they are economically unsecure and are willing to have a ceasefire just because they cannot continue to fight.

Calling a crusade on Milan in my opinion is a good idea. The thing about crusades is that it gives you experience, all of the units taking part are given free upkeep, and you can buy crusading units from the mercenary tab for very little money. Also, you could do what I do, conquer everything between you and your crusading target, this way you can keep buying crusaders on the way, and you can make loads of money from the cities and castles you capture.

Also, when you declare a crusade on another faction, the free upkeep your units get could also help you on different fronts, your not paying for you soldiers in a certain region, so you could buy more soldiers in Spain and launch attacks on the Spanish. Its really up to you what you want to do, im just giving you the things that I would probably do.

Also, you can still defend if you have been given a mission by the Pope to stop agression with other factions, so I would just build up militarily on my borders and when the mission finishes rush into the enemys territory and kill everything that moves.

Hope this helps.

[JohnVault]

Thx for response. Well tried the ceasefire but they just reject it. Only one faction (Turks) that only blockaded me offer me cease fire i got from them map info and was able to take 1000 florins fro 5 turns. I wanted to call a crusade in Milan but pope rejects it. I don't have many papal points too. i taught of giving him a city but all the ones I have I don't want to give them away. So my options i think are to get Paris and gift it to pope. And the crusade Milan. But a crusade may be call while i do that. I just finished a battle against Milan were i wiped out their main force while i suffered some casualties. Here is the the army i got left. I am thinking my next move now.
To see if i can finally get a breath in the European front. Maybe gift the Milan cities to the pope??

[Lancome]

I say you keeping moving to West Africa.... Take Marrakesh, Timbuktu, and that other place under Marrakesh... They are $ makers and will be able to fund your Campaigns.

[JohnVault]

thx Lancome i was in the process of doing that. I just wiped away the moors. Spain is being the problem now. HRE keeps attacking but i am able to repeal them. Milan Stopped attacking me for some reason. Even though we are at war. Turks tried to sneak a ship full of crusade soldiers that i am repelling with a fleet i got waiting for him. Instead of taking Milan (now they are strong but not attacking me) I took Bern Castle. And have the army stating there. What other strategic point I can take close Bern or Venice that is constantly hit by HRE i can take to fortify my front there and wage war with Spain and take them out for good. (They being a constant trouble for me in Cordoba and Granada with strong attacks). I want to secure the Iberian Peninsula before expanding via Egypt. Will i have the constant attacks in northern Italy. As said i would like to fight in one front should i conquer northern Italy before going to middle east to spread Christianity? I am tired of fighting my other fellow factions. If I have no option then i would need to wipe them out before going to the east.

What advice you give me veterans since i am new and am starting to get a good idea of the game

here my knights before battle...

[Lancome]

Once you have west Africa... You said you have Granada correct? I would next take Valencia, then Toledo, & Pamplona. Now that all their castles are gone... you can easily take down their cities with superior troops. My 1st target would be Leon, finish off the rest of the western part of Iberia and then move east and pincer move them from Italy & Spain.

[JohnVault]

Yes i have Granada. It has been peaceful since i capture Bern and the castle to the east both of the garrisoned to the max. Now i have a small team building watchtowers around the front that i hope would be in tranquility fro some time even i am at war with two factions there. Thx for advice in Spain now i know in what order to take them. What i am confused is how to raise the charm of princess they are useless in my hands. Assassins are great i started killing any easy people first then work my way(is that how i should do it?) Egypt send a crusade team in to Algiers but they just wandered around and didn't hit. I hope they don't travel west to take my poorly defended towns. I just found out the difference between castles and cities in terms of military production. I used to have castle units in my cities but wasn't able to retrain and i found if i moved them to castles I could and vice versa. So now i am moving all my soldiers around to have a decent defense and go full attack to portugal and spain to secure the Iberian peninsula.

[oz_wwjd]

Send your princess out to sell map info/trade rights to friendly countries or that's how I got mine up.

[JohnVault]

I am a a difficult position now. Lost control on Milan, Marseille and Marrakesh is in the border of demise. MY cities are revolting like crazy and kicking my soldiers out. Now they have strong rebel armies. I cant put a good front in Spain since i am in red (-7000 florins). The big plague arrived. How i can control my cities. I cant build anything since i am broke and can get soldiers to put wars. I notice squalor and unrest are very high in my cities. They had a decent garrison and eve spies. What is happening to my cities????

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

You might need to keep a higher garrison in them, or if you havent all ready, build walls if they are available. This is most likely the cause of your unrest. If you aren't willing to put the time into keeping the bunch of misfits in line, I would suggest letting a settlement rebel then exterminating its population when you reconquer it. Other problems you might have are things such as religion, if Moorish Imams are crossing into Catholic lands.

[Ashen]

If you're badly in the red, first step is to get rid of all your surplus military units - disband anything in enemy territory thats likely to just end up getting destroyed on their way home for a start. Make sure once you get your money back to have plenty of merchants (as many as you can make) on resources. Always have a good fallback position, italian peninsula is probably a good idea with sicily and make sure you have it well-defended if the worst happens.

Personally with Sicily (who are my favorite faction in MTW and MTW2), I always make a point of taking every island and controlling the seas for income, so if you can do that (if you haven't already) it might help stabilise things.

Glad to see another Sicilian player! They're tough but they're interesting and very deadly even with the lack of "chacter" type unique units. Norman knights are tough as nails.

Edit: Like Mek said, the odd extermination here and there on rebeling cities can be quite a bit of help. It does harm your income somewhat at first but does help in the long run - By the time populations are back up, you'll be well sorted for order keeping buildings.

[JohnVault]

Thx for response at the moment i have lost Milan and Marrakesh due to civil revolts. I eliminated Spain but now my new problem is Portugal and England it seems the dumb AI gets in war of anything close to their borders. I and trying to defend my cities in the Iberian peninsula already lost Cordoba to Portugal and they are a difficult opponent but i am trying to think my next step.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

I'd eliminate Portugal first, they can become real pains and if you can kill them earlier on it can save you lots of hassle. For England, my advice would be just to try and take them off continental Europe, launch a huge offensive and hope it will cripple them enough to prevent future attacks.

[JohnVault]

was able to take out portugal, now working with england. What is the best defense setup i can have for a city. (how many soldiers of what class) like how many archers, calvary militia, etc. and for a citadel too

[Ratwar]

was able to take out portugal, now working with england. What is the best defense setup i can have for a city. (how many soldiers of what class) like how many archers, calvary militia, etc. and for a citadel too

Well, that's an extremely complicated question. Personally, I'd say that the best defensive set ups are usually the number of free upkeep units in a city and a single unit of peasants in a castle. From there, just recruit more troops when an enemy army is approaching. For this, I recommend a 2:1 Infantry to Archers ratio. Calvary is usually a waste in siege battles.

This means that your garrisons will be weak, but it gives you more cash to raise field armies that can either be used to attack the enemy or quickly counter attack if the enemy attacks on of your cities/castles. In the long run, retaking a captured city will be far less expensive than keeping it garrisoned with enough me to defend it. The best defense is a good offense in this situation.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

I just started a Sicily campaign last night, and apart from the few turns of having absolutely no money, it has gone fairly well for me. I took Tunis, Durazzo and Cagliari, and I'm going to work on getting rid of Venice.

As for your question, my personal garrisons are usually like what Ratwar said, but when the enemy approaches have an equal number of archers to infantry. The archers can kill them while they move up to the wall, and then the infantry can hold the breach while the archers continue to pepper then with arrows, it ususally works for me.