My English campaign

[rabcarl]

So I've been playing as the English on my latest campaign. I have most of western Europe and a few colonies in the east. I'm just wondering if you guys had any advice for me at this point. I'm just starting to get to the point in the campaign where the early fervor begins to wear off and it gets more mundane, do you know what I mean? I feel as if my empire is teetering on the brink of chaos because I'm at war with the Germans, don't have much money, and I'm getting that cursed loyalty sapping that comes with a bigger empire. I'm just gonna throw a screenie out there and ask if any of you have some advice as to which route I should take?

[Roark]

Nice frontiers, dude. I would watch out for Toulouse and Flanders, though. Both are big money-makers, and those Spanish emissaries aren't hanging around because they dig your local cuisine.

If it was my campaign, I'd consolidate and try to build up my frontiers, and develop Switzerland and Mercia to get some nice specialists like Swiss Halbs and Sherwood Forresters. Then I'd take one big elite army with siege engines and see how far East I could get.

[I of the Storm]

You should eliminate that northern german pocket ASAP (Friesland and Saxony). The germans won't make any trouble, they look quite weak.
Then reorganize and get your southern borders safe! Both Spain and Sicily look hungry. I think I spotted the top flag end of two spanish fullstacks in Aragon? Take care. You're so weak down there they might eat you alive. You look generally weak in Europe. Do you have many troops in the Levant and Con?

[Knight of the Rose]

You don't have much money, but surely - unless you field 4-5 full stacks in both Constantinople and Tripoli - you must be making a lot of money.

You need to consolidate at this point. The Spanish and Scilians will try to atttack at one point or another. I'd leave the germans were they are. You don't need those poor provinces, you need more troops on your southern border.

And you've got 14 turns to high where you get the longbows and the billmen... Do you have the buildings ready?

Good camp, though. In my early camps I always set up a couple of colonies here and there, as it adds a little urgency to the defensive battles. You lose - you die.



/KotR

[gaijinalways]

The longbows and billmen are quite essential for the English. You then have killing power from a distance until the arbs come and great cav killing presence. As to Saxony and Friesland, they're not that valuable, but at least Friesland gives you another choke point to keep Flanders safe. Saxony is next to Denmark and Sweden, which are true money makers, so that is something to think about for a longer term conquest or if and when you have more free troops. One idea is to give up Switzerland, Swabia, and Franconia right away and use the freed up troops, to take Friesland and Saxony, with Denmark and Sweden right next door. I'm always looking for good swaps if you can get better income producing provinces (generally speaking, coastal ones). I'd only keep Tyrolia itself because of reasons outlined farther below.

As noted, Flanders (more than Toulouse) is a money maker both farm and trade-wise. As to your distant colonies, they are helpful for trade, but, and this is a big but, the loyalty ratings for those provinces can sink or swim depending on how well you can control the seas (and hence trade as well). I personally don't usually take far flung trading colonies unless I feel I can close the land gap soon and be able to consistently reinforce those places.

How is your economy doing? As noted, you don't have much money, but knowing your cash flow per turn would give us an idea of how well set up you are to do building (for teching up and farming/trade building) as well as reinforcing your borders.

As to loyalty issues, where is your king? Keeping him central in a seaport is important I think. You might also want to pump out some more peasants or UM just to keep the peace in some provinces bordering on insurgency.

As to Switzerland and Tyrolia, they're nice to have as noted for the future units, but the problem is, it takes a long time to get those units (and by the time you get them you may be done with the game like I was in my last campaign)and the provinces themselves are poor income producers. I guess one main advantage to having them now is no one else can use them while you're holding them. They are are also fairly easy to defend, being mountainous, and that makes for some one sided battles as long as you keep high ground (I did use them to produce units I reinforced Venice with, so they could be useful for that).

It would be almost worth it to take Venice (another great income producer), but it would be cut off fom your other provinces if you give up Tyrolia and Switzerland to get it (assuming you have enough troops). Burgandy behind them has a major disadvantage also of having many provinces bordering on it, so that can be a much worse choke point to hold.

It is possible if you surge (merc-wise) you could probably quickly reach Costaninople via the coast as there are only 3 provinces between Venice and there. If you were able to keep Switzerland and Tyroli, you are now very close to Tripoli and have a nice land bridge going east. Depending on your cash flow, you need to be able to quickly bring reinforcments to hold those provinces in between or build units locally, while the mercs continue on disrupting 'traffic' and raking in some hard cash. If you have any usable units left, they could vacation in Tripoli or simply be disbanded if your coffers are weak by then from the high salaries the mercs command.

Beyond that, you may wish to sit tight a bit and bulk up your sothern borders depending on how strong the Spanish are. They can be a niusance if the Alomonds are not harassing them much.

Good luck

[Martok]

Well if Sweden is still in "rebel" hands, I would definitely try and take that over if possible. It's too valuable a province to not own if you can get your hands on it.

Other than that, I would merely second those who've cautioned you to watch your southern borders. Aquitaine and (especially) Tolouse appear to be rather lightly defended, and it's only a matter of time before the Spanish try to take advantage of that.

[rabcarl]

Thanks for the help guys! I loaded a saved game just a few years prior to that screenshot, because I felt that it had better opprotunities. I gave up Constantinople, because it was just draining my coffers too much. My eventual goal is to take the three rich provences in the Middle East (tripoli, Antioch, and Palestine) but I'm just too afraid of a massive counterattack if I let my armies spread too thin. I am concentrating on pushing my Eatsern borders to encompass the least amount of border provinces possible. This would also help me hem in the Italians and the Sicilians which may allow me to capture Venice hopefully without excommunication, but the Pope excommunicated me for the Germans anyways so I decided to go for it. I still have problems with my borders concerning Spain, however. Any ideas of what units I could construct a good, defensive army with that won't break the bank?

Edit: It's now a few years down the line and I have gotten back into favor with the Pope. I got lucky as both the Italians and the Sicilians got excommunicated, and then the Italians thought it would be wise to start a war with me I'll soon have the rich Italian peninsula firmly under my grasp!

I'm also sending some bishops to the Middle East to ease the transition of the rich trio of Tripoli, Antioch, and Palestine into my hands.

[HopAlongBunny]

You have a good looking campaign.

I would push the HRE out of Freisland just to tidy up the corner.

If you have a chance to sweep Italy do it! Genoa, Milan, Tuscany and Venice: too rich to ignore and too easy to defend once they are yours. A good stack in Milan can be used to defend the whole area. If Sicily is excomm. declare a crusade on Venice and just sweep the heretics away. It would also remove some maintenance costs.

The South is scary. It is almost unheard of for Spain to "keep the peace" along that border. I would bet that a sweep in Italy would be met with a Spanish push for those empty provinces of yours.

That could be good news. If you lock up Italy quickly, the Spanish would be a logical next target anyhow.

[gaijinalways]

Sounds like you're doing okay. Holding colonies can be a real bank drainer and you'll most certainly be unable to do it or find it difficult to do earlier on beofre you have larger standing armies.

If you can take the Italian pennisula, it's a real plus and will join your borders with Toulouse landwise.
Denmark and Sweden (and even Norway) are great if you can get them, as they allow you large trade incomes pretty quickly.

You probably need a mixture of troops, and the odd merc now and then doesn't hurt, especially if it's a unit that is unavailable now or not available to your faction. You probably want feudal seargents and some FMAAs as much as spossible, as spears tend to fold pretty easily in the heat, and archers (xbows and arbs when you get them) as well as some cavs, both xbow and hobs (and the few RKs you sire). You do have to watch your support costs though, so sometimes UMs and peasants can be cheaper 'fillers', but they are not very reliable in many instances.

[rabcarl]

I've brought pretty much all of western Europe under my control at this point. I'm currently in a war with the Hungarians, but I have them sealed off. I don't wish to rush them at this point because the GH will be invading in the future and I'd like to have a buffer zone. I think that trying to conquer the whole map before then would be pushing it. I'm building religious buildings where I can to boost loyalty for the future. I forgot how good the English arsenal gets in the High period. I've brought England on-line as my production center and currently am cranking out Feudal (soon to be Chivalric) knights, Billmen, and Longbowmen. These troops give a much-needed boost to my armies. My next priority will be Iberia I think. I'll conquer that, and in the meantime fortify my defenses in the East for the inevitable golden horde. Then my plan is to let the Hungarians/Poles act as a buffer and mop up the (hopefully) much-weaked units after and conquer the east, and then take North Africa and the Middle East from both the east and the west with my left-over units from the conquests of Spain and Eastern Europe.

I'm trying to take it easier and plan things out more now, and I'm really enjoying this campaign a lot more.

[Roark]

Just a tip to hopefully prolong your enjoyment of your (rather large) empire:

For any provinces that aren't really part of your troop production machine, just queue up heaps of buildings that will provide better trade, farms, or happiness. This will mean that each turn will take less time to administrate, as you won't have to make decisions about what to build next. A lot of people grow weary of large empires, mainly because they feel like they have to micromanage them.

(Obviously, this doesn't apply to provinces where you've got specific goals, like you're aiming to build a Rookery, or a titular building like the Marshal's Palace or whatever).

You probably already knew to do this, but I just thought I'd emphasise it. Administrative boredom kills campaigns!

[dragula42]

Wow, you turned that around fast!

[gaijinalways]

Woo hoo, you did take Venice (and a few extras). Hang tight, you seem to be making all the right moves. You do seem very ripe to expand on the Iberian pennisula, or you could simply wait and get ready for the horde.

MTW is nice that way, you have a lot of flexibility in playing the game, it really depends on how stressful you want things to be. Bulldozing can be fun sometimes, other times I just sit and wait. You have a lot of good provinces now, I might sit and wait and build up your trade and farming as well as tech up in provinces where you can. It never hurts to have better troops, unless they are too expensive (but that is what wars are for).