HRE campaign focus points

[Jxrc]

Some early advice proffered doesn't seem to hold water all the time. Jxrc mentioned that one spearmen and 2 archer units will keep provinces at a high enough loyalty, but I find it depends on the province and what number of rebels or other faction soldiers are lurking nearby.

I had mentioned two units of peasants as being enough in most cases. One spearmen and two archers unts are fine too since that gives 20 extra men but I find that archers are not really suitable for garrison purpose since their maintenance cost is rather high (it exceeds the cost of an unit of X-bows and on a man for man basis spearmen and peasants).

I also pointed out that some provinces were more likely to go rebel. I would say if you want to set the tax rate to very high, you need (in addition to border forts):
- Portugal: 800 men;
- Livonia: 600 men;
- Lithuania: 600 men;
- Scotland: 400 men.

If you loose the connection with your king, you will probably not need any extra troop and can just diminish the tax rate until the connection is restored.

I also always keep 400 men on any island I have since there is always the risk that you will lose the connection between an island and your king (enemy ship, tempest).

Bear in mind that the province religion also has an impact on the loyalty of your provinces. Before invading an unruly province, it's always a good idea to send a bishop spend a few turns there if you have the opportunty. The piety of your governor can also cause unrest if nhis religion is not the same as the one of the locals (for those provinces 0 peity with high dread gives the best results).

Finally, remeber that a drop in loyalty can be triggered by the presence of an enemy spy and that you need border forts, spies and assassins to get rid of them (but I have never experienced any spy-rush by the AI).

Hope it helps,

[gaijinalways]

I had mentioned two units of peasants as being enough in most cases. One spearmen and two archers unts are fine too since that gives 20 extra men but I find that archers are not really suitable for garrison purpose since their maintenance cost is rather high (it exceeds the cost of an unit of X-bows and on a man for man basis spearmen and peasants).

My apologies Jxrc, didn't mean to misquote you. I was lazy and went on what I remembered. Yes, the cost of men guarding the area is an issue, though sometimes it is good for garrison purposes to have other people than peasants. For example, your border provinces are breached and you suddenly have only peasant rushes to swing into action, rather than some possible useful troops that can slow the invasion down until you can get more seasoned troops onto the battelfield.

I also pointed out that some provinces were more likely to go rebel. I would say if you want to set the tax rate to very high, you need (in addition to border forts):
- Portugal: 800 men;
- Livonia: 600 men;
- Lithuania: 600 men;
- Scotland: 400 men.

Maybe another thread, but definately agree. I have the first three as border provinces, so I need to keep a higher number of troops. I think I may have been 'gifted' Portugal again, as it was one of the spy dominated provinces I had after I demolished the Spanish.

I also always keep 400 men on any island I have since there is always the risk that you will lose the connection between an island and your king (enemy ship, tempest).

I have more on Sardinia, though some were added later, as the Italians have come back into Corsica in force. They seem to keep reemerging there, which is fine as it is easier to contain them there than on the mainland. I agree, losing the connection to the king can be a large factor. I'm fortunate that I am the only naval power now.

Bear in mind that the province religion also has an impact on the loyalty of your provinces. Before invading an unruly province, it's always a good idea to send a bishop spend a few turns there if you have the opportunty.

I have done this with everyone that is at war with me and provinces that I razed and spy dropped. I am also converting Byz, Argonese, Spanish, Turkish and Golden horde provinces as it makes them more likely to rebel and/or sometimes rebel and revert back to me ( I just took back more areas in the Iberian pennisula (Portugal, Cordoba) as well as Algeria, and also Nicea, Anatolia, and Lesser Armenia).

Finally, remeber that a drop in loyalty can be triggered by the presence of an enemy spy and that you need border forts, spies and assassins to get rid of them (but I have never experienced any spy-rush by the AI).

On that now, as I have spies already deployed, am in the process of dropping more into all my provinces (doubling up on the normal ones, checking the others). I haven't seen spy rushes, though I have seen strong AI activity with provinces that they are interested in.


Update

I forget what year it is now, perhaps early to mid 1230s. The pope has come and gone a few more times, though this time he's still here, finally in the Papal lands! He won a battle in Rome briefly when I autocalced (I had just one a long battle with the horde, mentally I needed a break), but I swept in the next turn and took it back. He is now in the papal lands, but we'll have to see if he tries to start trouble or not. I have an emissary waiting to make peace next turn.

The horde are still knocking, but they are bleeding bad. They occupy Georgia, Trebizond, and Rum. They have been whittled down, so they are mostly cav now. The fights in Constantinople drained their coffers and soldiers, and left me with a nicely valored up general (a viking, no less. I need to find him some additional men, if I can).

I am building some more farms and trading buildings. Still some trade money coming in, but my neighbors who dislike me don't help. I really wish we could all get along.

I am debating whether to hang onto the 'rebel' lands that were gifted back to me. I could simply move the troops out of those areas and use them for whittling down my border enemies or beefing up my own troops, though I can't say that the troops that emerged in those provinces are always quality troops (though axemen aganist cav is interesting, good use of resources). I just simply don't feel like I need the extra provinces, feel abit bloated, empire-wise.

Still putting out some replacement troops as I lost a few in the papal and horde wars. The horde were the toughest as I expected a shorter siege after the Khan died, but a son emerged and the battles continued. The golden warrior showers were the biggest nuisance, with the cav invasions coming later. Of course, some of that has to do with positioning. On the first battle map, I couldn't get any woods as cover. so I lost a lot more men due to arrow showers than I would have liked. On the second map, I took advantage of some woods even though the hill position wasn't the best. I felt the advantage gained in keeping arrows off and making it easier to deal with the cavs made the battle easier, my kill ratio was doubled 'from about 2.7 to 1 in the first to 5 to 1 in the second battle).

Regardless, as I mentioned before, the horde are slowly dying. I am not sure if the rebels, myself, or even another faction will finish them off first. Death is certain, that I'm sure of.

Thinking also if I need to build a few more ships or not. ahve a few caravels in action, and not all the oceans covered in pairs yet. But, I feel the troop coverage is more important now. The Novogod, the Polish, and the Egyptians are still at peace with me, everyone else is never happy to see my 'bloddy' axes! Some of my troops have had restful stays, but the ones on border duty have sometimes had very short vacations indeed. I suppose that is the life of a soldier.

Oh, one last battle tale from Navarre. I had a lot of extra older troops holed up there as the Argonese had not been much of a threat for quite some time. I think they felt squeezed by the rebels and my remerging self and attacked. I had 2/3 of my troops as xbowmen and archers, no lie.

Luckily as a defender, I was able to choose a very steep mountain. The AI came up the hill, and I kept potshotting his larger units of footsoldiers as well as later trying to kill his general, a unit of RKs. The AI units of cav and infantry did finally engage, but the hill advantage helped, though some of my archers had depleted their quivers by the time the AI grappled with my few front line infantry! With no replacements coming, I threw some of the archers in as a last resort when my front lines were almost breaking, finally driving off lancers and even some enemy halbs (though the halbs needed to be driven off 3 times, though by the last time they were down to 10 men in their unit). If you can imagine, the halbs were being chased by speedy scots at the end, the same unit who knocked off the lancers!

Great victory, with even a few of xbowmen depleting their xbows by battle's end (I haven't seen that very often except in some bridge or huge numbers per side battles). I forget the count on the casualities, as I was outnumbered maybe almost 2 to 1, but it was okay and I have now moved in some additional back up troops now. I'm not sure how long a vacation my general will get, the Italians are licking their wounds now, but like an injured cat, they won't forget any time soon who inflicted the wounds on them.

[gaijinalways]

Further update

I have moved along to 1280 something. Haven't started developing gunners yet, to be truthful, I have never found them that useful. They seem to fight poorly, and their short range means they often get into trouble.

Have finished off the horde, pesky bunch. The battles went downhill for them after they decided to attack Constaninople one more time in desperation. After losing that battle and two other battles simultaneously, the remainder of their troops were stranded in Volga-Bulgaria. After toying with the Spanish and rolling up the Turks (Accidentally knocked off the Turks too, should have let them stew by themselves in Syria, but oh well.), I later brought back my extra troops, and knocked the horde off.

I also killed off the Italians again, but I'm sure they'll be back in no time, to roost in Corsica again. The Spanish are now down to only Cyrenacia again, as well as the Byz being holed up on the island of Cyprus (their other islands rebelled). the English and the Argonese are also still in Northumbria and Aragon respectively. They were whittled down a bit, keeps them from causing trouble.

The pope just keeps going and going. Had to knock him off again after he started trouble, for perhaps the 13th time. I don't think I have ever before killed the pope that many times in a single campaign.

I am still at peace with the Polish and the Novgorod. For a number of years, I have never attacked either one of them in this campaign that I can remember.

I have some 90 k in the bank, been doing well, some 6k a turn recently, as well as some extra 'razing' income. Knocking out a few vessels with caravels slowing starting to fill up my ranks, and my trade has actually seen an uptick.

My spies have been very busy, with some dying off here and there as friendly rebels discover them up to no good. They keep the peace in neighboring areas that I haven't bothered to take over as I want to focus on keeping my borders intact and teching up. Building up Tyrolia and Switzerland for those pikemen, hope to actually use them this campaign.

Still need to do some more farming as well, now that I have cash in the bank again. Before I got to that 90k, I was actually in the red two turns as I had some mercs initially help out until the horde was under control. Relieved all the mercs of duty one way or another, with some getting killed in the line of duty to their pay check, others being let go in this time of peace now. Some units were pretty depleted, a few were full, but I feel like I have enough higher tech troops in reserve so that if the pope and/or the Italians show up again, I'll be ready., So I let the mercs go, hope they can collect medieval unemployment．

Have been combining partial units, had quite a few. Kept myself busy doing that, and using some of them when I roared through Africa's desert areas. They sometimes are good in holding the line and attacking cav that show up here and there, though most of the time they just do garrison duty here and there. But it's a job and someone has to do it!

[I of the Storm]

Good job, gaijinalways. Sounds like it's smooth sailing from there on. You have to deal with emergent Swiss and Burgundians in Late IIRC, but that shouldn't be a problem since you've had plenty of practice with the reemergent pope.
Are there any noteworthy competitors left at all? How about a map screenie?

[gaijinalways]

As an emerging Luddite operating with a Japanese OS, screen shots seem to be 'difficult'.

But yes, there really is no one of size for a rival. The Novogorod and the Polish each control a mere 3-4 provinces each, so whether time and tedium will defeat me in finishing it as GA campaign, time will tell.

I do remember finishing one other GA campaign, but that wasn't recently. MTW comes and goes with me, as it depends on my stress levels and free time not devoted to do other things of more importance. Then again, what could be more important than MTW!

[Jxrc]

Nicely done gaijinalways. I am quite impressed that you found the necessary stamina to beat the GH and the many re-emerging faction you met. Must have made quite a lot of very long battle.

You got me in the mood for another HRE campaign (I have 4 days away from my office as from Thursday !!!! YES YES YES !!!)

My guess is that I try to start in the High period to actually use gothic units. I only used them once or twice in a campaign that had started in the early period and there is no genuine challenge using those against peasants and vanilla spearmen. It can be a lot of fun if you are vastly outnumbered and defending but after witnessing a few times how 5 units of gothic foot knights can butcher anything entering the forest, it kind of wears off....

[gaijinalways]

The pope to be honest has been the biggest pain, but he certainly is beatable.

As to the other factions, they can be troublesome, but often if you leave them stranded in 1 province and on ocasion go and whack them down to size, then they can be very mangeable. My favorite trick is to allow them to live on an island, like the Italians and the Byz are doing in my current campaign. Neither can expand easily, and a raid now and then keeps them from building ships.

I like long campaigns, and sometimes I don't mind staying small. In this campaign, my growth just kind of happened, when a few factions irked me!