Playing as the Polish

[invalidopcode]

Ok, here is the game setup - Expert, Early Age, Glorious Achievements.

Playing as the Polish is really tough. They have a weak economy and their leaders are really disloyal and not fit for command. At first I was having a hard time wrestling with both of these issues. Now I finally figured out some helpful things that I am sure the experts already know. But for the newbies like me, here they are:

For the disloyalty, try a few of your generals for treason. I have never used this feature before because I never needed it but it made a *huge* difference - especially after the 5th or 6th general that was executed Loyalty skyrocketed in the lands

For the economy, concentrate on moving north and getting access to the water. This will allow you to scrape together, and I do mean scrape together, a small trade route that will slowly but surely invigorate your economy. The best bet is to try to take Sweden and make that a stronghold and center of trade.

These two small things have made it almost bearable to play to the Polish. Now if only the Turks, Almohads, and Mongols would stop attacking Poland I would be ok...

Other new things that I have had to take advantage of - spies. I had them in the provinces surrounding Poland and for the *first time ever*, I saw the screen that pops up that says what the enemy is going to do in the next couple of years

On top of all this, the software driver downgrades (nVidia drivers to 30.82) have made the battles smooth and enjoyable. It is almost like I have a totally new game...

[LadyAnn]

The thing that pop-up and says such and such is about to attack someone: forget about it. 9/10 of the time, it is false alarm. You pay your spy by the number of reports and they file as many as they could.

Annie

[All_the_Sultan's_horses]

hmmm. how do u try yr generals for treason? or did u mean heresy instead?

[Vlad The Impaler]

playin polish is really hard in any era but u have an + in early cause u have just rebel provinces around ( 4 ) except Hungaria.gettin commerce is vital where u can ( Moldavia or northern provices like Prussia- i preffer north ).just build units wise and get Lithuania as fast as u finished some commerce facilities in north ;than is easy to preserve until the powerful neighbous get some lousy yrs and u can storm the bastard and grab his land

[FesterShinetop]

Just go north and try to take sweden asap and after that Norway. then you can build up a very good trade route and Sweden also has Iron.

[Silianat]

Th polich are the best army ever. Im practically become invincible. So i figure all start over and try it with a different force. any recemmendations.

[Silianat]

yea once you get them goin the polish kick butt.

[Eastside Character]

For me it seems that after extensive playing, you can turn even the weakest faction into a dominant empire. But after some time this routine becomes really boring.
So I tried out a different approach.
As the Polish kings have rather low starting influence, my main goal was to breed a dynasty of unstopable command-9 killing machines. Suprinsingly it was very simple with the Poles. All I did was that I conquered Prussia, Pomerania, Volhynia and Moldavia, and fought peasant rebellions. I didn't construct any hapiness increasing buildings, just kept fighting rebellions (my king and princes were bussy all the time). My garrisons were very small so the rebellions lasted for some 10 years or something like that.
So I was just slaughtering the humble peasants, then: executing the ringleaders,
getting vices for multiple executions (who cares about that really),
getting stars and also nice virtues (expert defender, skilled defender, and such),
stacking the cash from confiscated lands,
fought another rebellion,
slaughtering peasants again,
geting even more stars,
so getting more money... and all of my royals became 9 star beasts with nice sets of v&v.
And I had only 6 provinces.
So my suggestion is to fighht the rebellions for as long as possible (provided that you can handle it ).
HAPPY KILLING HO HO HO

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

Quote[/b] ]As the Polish kings have rather low starting influence, my main goal was to breed a dynasty of unstopable command-9 killing machines. Suprinsingly it was very simple with the Poles. All I did was that I conquered Prussia, Pomerania, Volhynia and Moldavia, and fought peasant rebellions. I didn't construct any hapiness increasing buildings, just kept fighting rebellions (my king and princes were bussy all the time). My garrisons were very small so the rebellions lasted for some 10 years or something like that.
So I was just slaughtering the humble peasants, then: executing the ringleaders,
getting vices for multiple executions (who cares about that really),
getting stars and also nice virtues (expert defender, skilled defender, and such),
stacking the cash from confiscated lands,
fought another rebellion,
slaughtering peasants again,
geting even more stars,
so getting more money... and all of my royals became 9 star beasts with nice sets of v&v.

OMG, you are a BUTCHER
Poooooor little peasents...

[Kaboom]

Quote[/b] (All_the_Sultan's_horses @ Dec. 20 2002,10:03)]hmmm. how do u try yr generals for treason? or did u mean heresy instead?

you do it with a spy

[Silianat]

Polish army kick butt after you get them going you get those high ecomomic providnces and whoosh you start winnin

[Brutal DLX]

Playing as the Polish, you can make your life real easy if you eliminate the Hungarians first. This is done rather quickly and allows you to carve out profitable realm, the Eastern borders should be Lithuania and Kiev, so that makes those easily defendable, and then you can garrison Poland and Hungary, and make Lithuania and Moldavia your main trade provinces.
Only take the Northern provinces like Pommerania or Prussia if nobody's interested in them to avoid early conflicts.

[Magraev]

I usually go for pomerania and prussia first, after then takuing both Volhynia and Lithuania you have your first secure province - prussia. Too bad you still have 4 borders then (5 if you've taken moldavia too (and you should)).

After that sweden and Livonia beckons but it becomes more a matter of reacting. Is HRE falling apart? then invade. Are the Novgorods bungling around? put them out of their misery. Hungary and Poland can coexist for quite a time in peace in my experience.

You get the picture.

[Brutal DLX]

Yes, lots of options indeed.
Hungarians can co-exist, but their lands are tempting from a financial and resource-wise point of view. Also, Hungary becomes part of your homelands points in High or Late, IIRC, so you could grab it right away to get a headstart, although I normally don't do that. That's why I said it's an easy way.

[magnatz]

I go for the Black Sea shores first, since a) Kiev is a excellent death trap for the Mongols, and b) a single ship in the Black sea brings you a lot of commerce and is rarely attacked.

Then I wait for Novgorod to attack me with vastly inferior forces, (which they always do), and for the HRE to fall apart (ditto), so I can basically walk in and take charge.

Other good places to conquer are the islands in the mediterranean, which allows you to became a badass naval superpower and land your troops everywhere.

At the end I usually have to fight it out with another superpower (France or Spain usually), which may be kinda boring expecially because the AI thinking phase takes forever.
(not that the AI becomes smart enough to surrender when it can't win, which IMO is the only thing it should think about )