Yo, brothers in arms, where are you? Nobody writes to the colonel as Gabriel Garcia Marquez put it once. I'm not a colonel, but I have the same feeling visiting the Forum.
So, I decided to solicit for an advice and stir up this sleepy hollow at the same time.
Next campaign I have in mind is HRE in high (expert, of course). My initial plan is to tech up Switzerland to get exclusively Swiss units and crush Italians asap not to let them produce too much Italian infantry. Then I'll watch the English-French bickerings and, choosing a propitious moment, interfere with a maximum profit. No "Drang nach Osten" for me - let the Slavic factions bear the brunt of the Horde's fury.
Any tips or corrections of my designs?

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Hi @Gilrandir,

...pity you don´t start in early - you could get those fine Swabian Swordsmen, but only available in early....

for those ItalianInf I mainly used Archers and Crossbows - no need to end on the tip of their weapons.

Head North, get Pomerania, Denmark, Sweden and Norway for the riches of trade (and iron in Sweden) - as HRE you´ll need every Florin you can get for teching up.

I´d choose the English to pick at - if you get the islands there is chance for naval domination. Teched up, the french shouldn´t be a problem after that.

Never having started in "High" I don´t know if the slavs will be able to break the Horde´s onslaught - having started in "Early", they never were.

I wish you happy fighting along,

greetings daigaku

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I love the Swiss units, so taking Switzerland is always good. My personal preference would be to secure the northern border first by taking out the Danes, you will just need to do it in a way that avoids the excomm. When the Horde drops, you should be able to pick up the shattered pieces of some eastern factions. Try to shorten your borders.

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When I start in early I usually lose interest in the game (through my almost complete domination) around 1330-1350. To keep the pot of interest boiling longer I prefer to start in high. Besides, some factions are more challenging in high - the Eastern ones (Turks, Russians, Poland as they are under the imminent threat of the Horde), the Byz (because of the crippled initial position), the French (you have both to look after European affairs and keep a grip on the Outremer provinces which are constantly attacked by the muslim factions). Try one of them and you may find some headache to last you quite a time.
Usually, they aren't. But the Horde has to man the provinces it conquers, so by the time the nomads get as far west as Poland, Volynia, Moldova (sometimes Carpathia) their attacking impetus is normally spent and they can't throw in all of their forces in one concerted offensive. Then one can handle them more easily.

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Hi @Gilrandir,

loosing interest happens to me sometimes, too - if everything I wanted is built, my income roaring, my armies on the highest available level, the fleet controls all sea regions and no strong enemy is left (this can happen about the time you lose interest, so 1350-1380). But sometimes I am controlling myself, as Danish only taking Lithuania/Livonia, Ireland and maybe the "english" island as well. I get sometimes empires owning 3/4th of the map and then going for me - and at this moment boredom is far away, the last Huscarles are mobilized with all the others to save my small Kingdom, fighting it out with odds from 1:3 up to 1:10. It can take some time to show those guys that "small" doesn´t mean "weak" - and, lo and behold, it´s 1453 - game over ;-))

The Horde: I know, they often behave completely stupid - never saw them using their horrendous numbers (they use to pop up with 20.000-30.000 men in my games) the way they´d get the most out of it - but sitting around in Khazar with 10.000men, not doing anything, attacking Kiev with a mere 2.500 men getting slaughtered.....don´t know why...on the other side, I saw them coming as far as Swabia/Franconia, all the east conquered till down Croatia, half the map their colour, and only the combined efforts of all remaining factions were able to stop them! That´s what I love with M:TW - there´s a probability of what will happen but there are SURPRISES!!!

Happy greetings daigaku

ps sorry for late reply......

pps how far are you with your campaign?!?

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Greetings, daigaku!
Unfortunately (or fortunately - depends on which you prefer), the Horde in my game is always quite predictable. They appear in Khazar and Volgo-Bulgaria with 10-12 full stacks and invariably attack the Russians both westward and northward. Then they (with a part of their full strenth since some of them garrison the conquered provinces) either move on to polish the Polish, forgive my pun; or go south to deal with whoever holds Georgia, Armenia, and Trebizond. Being aware of this pattern you can plan your actions correspondingly (in my game).
My campaign is still a wishful thinking. Don't want to start it until this Euro-2012 thing is over - will not be able to concentrate on the game having 2 football matches to watch daily.

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Hi @Gilrandir,

Wow - only that few? On expert level? I must make a mistake playing only on hard (no stupid jokes from AI, and no ridiculous +5morale for every AI-unit), those guys turn up with about 20-35 stacks, sometimes taking Georgia or, more often, Armenia as well as Khazar and Volga-Bulgaria. Naturally they go for the Russians, but in my games as well for the Byz/Turks depending on who has got the Black Sea Region (Trebizond, Rum, sometimes even Syria, Edessa, Lesser Armenia).
With 12 stacks, sure they will be exhausted taking all Novgorod from Moscow to Kiev to Georgia. Other story with more than 25 stacks - and for this situation my description was meant....

Euro-2012 thing?!? Never heard of that. Or do you mean this event where every day on TV there are exposed 22 cr€tlns chasing some rubber whilst two trying to catch it?!? Never understood the hype about that, sorry ;-))

Happily playing along greetings from

daigaku

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