England or Scotland?

[chris34au]

i was thinking about starting my next campaign with one of the two but i've never used either in a campaign and i was hoping for some advice from those that have.

on England, is it possible to avoid a major war with France before the high period hits? what i'd like to do is avoid taking any new provinces for the first 100 years or so(other than Wales and maybe Scotland). if so, will that result in a lot of 0 and 1 star heirs with horrible traits? and does it matter? i mean, does England get any decent Generals before the High era starts that could lead your armies?

if i go with Scotland, can i still train Longbowmen in Wales when the High era starts?

i'm kinda leaning towards going with Scotland, since they only start with one province but i kinda hate the idea of not even being able to train mounted sergeants and i'm kinda curious to see what Billmen are like.

btw, if anyone wants to recommend Ireland over either of the other two, i'm open to trying a campaign with them also.

one last question(it's probably a stupid one). i've read a few older threads where people were talking about Sherwood Foresters being able to hide anywhere on the battlefield. do you have to do anything to hide them or are they just naturally camouflaged?

TIA

[HopAlongBunny]

In MTW/VI (w/o mods) Longbowmen/Billmen are English only; Sherwood Foresters are Welsh only(VI).
Mods may change that line up; I assume you are playing a modded campaign if you are concerned about the French and are looking at playing the Scots.

The French are almost assured of attacking you. If you let them take Flanders_Wessex is too tempting a target; if you take Flanders it is too rich for them to ignore. If you remain strong enough, you may get a sort of "armed neutrality" for a good long time, with minor transgressions here and there. If the French get tied up in a war with the HRE, you may even get an alliance, A friendly Pope might keep the peace by threatening excomm.

A strong fleet may also keep anyone from attacking you. I know some mods remove the "land bridge" between Flanders/Wessex; if this is the case, problem solved

If you've never played the English up to Longbow/Bills do it! The units are simply too good to be true. In a mod they may be more balanced, but I'm willing to bet they still give a good account of themselves.

Enjoy!

[caravel]

I believe chris34au is playing XL or XL/Tyberius so I will add the XL tag to this thread.

[I of the Storm]

Sherwood Forresters hide anywhere (you don't have to do anything) as long as they're stationary IIRC.

If you haven't played England yet, then go for England first. Mighty fun, especially in the high era.

[chris34au]

my bad. i'm playing XL with the Tyberius patch. the only province that i have on continental Europe is Normandy. i think i'll just try to make sure that Normandy's well defended and hope that discourages France from trying to start a war for awhile, or maybe they'll get hung up in a war with Germany and be too preoccupied with them to worry about me. i just don't want to get bored with the campaign before the high era starts and it seems like it'd be pretty boring if France is eliminated early.

[Roark]

Sherwood Foresters are Welsh only(VI).

I think you're thinking of Welsh Bandits, dude... (VI campaign)

Sherwood Foresters are trainable by multiple factions in Mercia in the various Medieval campaigns.