Tactics for when you are too big

[HopAlongBunny]

Unless you are very careful the endgame becomes an enforced "rush" of the remaining provinces.

Expansion eventually all but eliminates trade income; you do not trade with yourself or enemies. Farm income from your empire will partially offset this if you have upgraded farms as you expand. You can trade with Rebel ports if you are not at war with the Rebel faction.

As income declines you need to be more efficient in allocating forces. You might want to disband anything not needed. If your treasury is really hurting it would be worthwhile to simply examine the map and devise a plan for the quickest wind-up of the game...invade/sack/stabilize/next.

Good Luck! :)

[Fagar]

Unfortunately this is generally the case GA.

If your treasury is not large enough to support your ongoing costs once your trade has dried up you are basically limited to maximising any farm income you have and rushing to the end game.

I have always found this very unsatisfying as it seems to cheapen my total victory.

So I always spend a lot of time mid-game building a large and secure treasury through trade and farm land that will last me through to the finish.
Trimming my armies to only what I need to win and only building in key areas, build good quality troops not necessarily huge numbers.
When I finish the game this way I always feel a lot more satisfied with the end result so the extra effort in the middle game is worth it.

[gaijinalways]

It is a real balancing act. A few factions and the rebels are not at war with me at the moment, though there are a few sea areas I don't control right now as the Hungarian fleets control those 3-4 areas. Trade dollars are there, but I have been trying to invest in farming where practical. I am considering retiring some units who are not well armored or teched up and slowly replacing them with my better trained units. Though it's interesting thsat sheer numbers do ward off some attacks, though inviting an attack is sometiems a good way to weaken your enemies (assuming you get a good ratio of casualities in your favor) and well as reduce your costs as units are knocked off (sorry lads, no retirement benefits for you)

I now have to carefully budget between troops and new fleet additions, so the Hungarian navy blockade may remain in the short term. Unless of course I go on another merc raid and strip a lot of the Hungarian economy to support my loyal subjects.

I hope to put off the rush for now and try to make do. I might only need to whack the Italians later, but we'll see.

Thanx for the advice,

GA

[HopAlongBunny]

(sorry lads, no retirement benefits for you)
GA

I notice you did not do the customary Spain/N.Africa expansion loop. Good for you!
Had an English campaign that went much the same way; Elmo's were my best buddies for the entire game Giving up all that rich trade and farmland in Spain makes the game much more challenging

[gaijinalways]

Actually, I cruised through there earlier, the Alomonds didn't like me that much, and my razing tactics didn't make me popular with the locals. Slash, cash out, and run. Or sometimes just whack and move on, couldn't always be bothered to stay and storm the castle.

Another question; is it better to retrain/reequip a unit, or to build a new one? Just wondering as I have some units that were produced earlier, but I'm wondering which would be better to use in coming battles againist the Hungarians.

[HopAlongBunny]

Re-train re-group.

You do it all, but regrouping/retraining allows you to preserve and build valour quickly.

Say you have 5 jinettes that all went to valour 3; each has 2 str points_merge to a 10sp unit of val3 and retrain for the rest. If you do this consistently, your units will become better faster.

Re-read the post and think I missed the point :p

If you have time re-equipping old units is cheaper _ no increase in maintenance cost.

[Fagar]

I myself find it very hard to actually finish a campaign.
When it comes down to 2 or 3 superpowers, constant fighting of the fleets and 20 mins to conduct a turn without the battles I get frustrated and tend to start a new campaign.