England

[ah_dut]

Normal England
In early you are one of the lesser catholic factions. However, you can reap certain advantages. By conquering Ireland and Scotland, you get Gallowglasses, kerns and highlanders. The gallows and highlanders are fast flanking inf. Without too much armour. The kern is a jav man, and well used can wreak some hardcore havoc. One big tip, please remember to bribe Wales, it has 3 units of longbowmen at the start of early. You’ve also got the fyrdman, who only require a spearmaker for feudal sergeant stats, but only in england. oops, forgot hobilars, the old spam flank unit, as in very early, any horse unit is an advantage, u have hobilars.
In high you have the priceless billman and longbow combo. This can be used to spank the knight heavy French a lot. Similar situation in late.

English tactics: as with many people, in early, I advocate a shield wall. This allows your gallows and kerns to shelter in and then flank to cause great damage. You may not have as many cav as the French but always keep a token force to defend your cheaper archers.

In high, I use 3 units, (honest.) bills as the wall, longbows to pepper my enemies and the ever cool CK. Obviously, I use arbalesters from time to time along with a few others but this works fine.
In late a pike wall may be used instead f bills but I still prefer bills, more frontage.
bye for now, i'll write some more later.

[ah_dut]

from servius:
Early, Expert, any version really

This version refers to a somewhat unorthodox tactic I use: forfiet Aquitaine, Anjou, and Normanday; take and hold Flanders. It's economically and strategically beneficial. I also RP a bit by never accepting alliances from Muslim countries. Lastly, I have modded in all the rivers that appear on the map, making Flanders very easily defendable with a few Fyrdmen and Archers.

This walkthrough is designed to quickly provide:
- a very strong economy,
- naval access to the entire map,
- an easily defended home empire,
- low military upkeep costs,
- strong kings and heirs,
- and lots of peacekeeping and crusading opportunities.

First year
- Sell Fort and HOrse Farmer in Aquitaine
- Move all forces from Aquitaine to Anjou
- Move all forces from Anjou to Normandy
- Move archer from Northumbria to Mercia
- Move archer from Mercia to Wessex
- Cue up 3 Emisaries in Wessex
- Build a tower in Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex
- Assign the peasants with the best acumen to be governors
- Jack up tax rates as high as you can while retaining 100%+ loyalty in all provinces
- Send Emisary and 2 princesses from Wessex to Flanders

Second year
- Move Anjou forces to Normandy
- Move Mercian archer to Wessex
- Send Princesses and Emisaries to ally with Germany, Spain first, then Italy, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, and Novgorod if you want
- Never accept alliances with Muslim nations
- Don't accept alliances from nations who don't share borders with France or Germany, at least not until you're a naval power in the Med
- Cue up the 2nd tower, 1st crop upgrade, and Fort in Northumbria and Mercia (done by year 9)
- Cue up the 2nd tower, 1st crop upgrade, and 1st horse farmer in Wessex (done by year 7)
- Continue to raise tax rates where able

Third year
- -Move all forces in Wessex and Normanday to Flanders. The French will abandon it.
- Continue to pursue alliances with nations that border France

Fourth year
- Cue up 2 Peasants in Wessex (7)
- Build 1st tower in Flanders (5)
- Jack up Flanders tax rate
- Move Prince to Flanders

Fifth year
- If you get a Peasant with better Acumen, disband and replace a governor
- Cue up 2nd tower, 1st crop upgrade, and Fort in Flanders (12)
- Begin pursuing princesses for heirs

Sixth year
- If you get a Peasant with better Acumen, disband and replace a governor

Seventh year
- Cue up 2 Hobilars in Wessex (9). These will be 4 (8) and 3 (9) star generals
- Cue up 1st spear (9), Port, and Keep in Wessex (21)

Eigth year
- Move 4-star Hobilar general to Flanders
- Withdraw 3 Royal Guards and 1 Archer from Flanders to Wessex

Nineth year
- Build 1st Town Watch in Northumbria and Mercia (11)
- Cue up 2 Urban Militia in Wessex (11)
- Cue up 3 Peasants in Mercia (12)
- Cue up 4 Peasants in Northumbria (13)

Tenth year
- Move =3 Royal Knights, 1 3-star Hobilar, and 1 Urban Militia From Wessex to Wales
- Move Wessex Archer to Mercia
- Move Mercia Peasant to Wales
- Move Northumbria Pesant to Mercia
- Rout Peasant from battle
- Use the King, 2-star heir, and 3-star Hobilar (in wedge) to bait out and kill 3 Welsh Longbowmen
- Use Urban Militia (in wedge) to engage and pin Welsh Spear
- Use 3-star heir to hit welsh longbowmen units in rear. When they break, use both cav on rear of another longbow, longbow, spear

Eleventh year
- Retrofit 2-star heir with horse from the 3-star heir unit
- Move 3-star heir and 3-star Hobilar to Wessex
- Move Mercia Peasant to Wales
- Make best Welsh Peasant governor
- Move King, 2-star heir, and Urban Militia to Mercia
- Move Wessex Urban Militia to Flanders
- Begin replacing Peasant governors with better ones from Mercia and Northumbria
- Ideal is 4 Acumen Peasants as governors
- Give Flanders governor 1st Royal Court title
- Build 1st archery (13), Port, and Keep in Northumbria (25)
- Build 1st spear (13), Port, and Keep in Mercia (25)
- Build 1st tower in Wales
- Set Welsh tax rate as low as necessary
- Cue up 3 Fyrdmen in Wessex (14)
- Move Mercia Archer to Northumbria

Twelveth year
- Refit Mercian Urban Militia
- Move Royal units from Mercia to Northumbria
- Cue up 2nd tower, 1st crop upgrade, and Fort in Wales (19)
- Continue seaking princesses for heirs
- Continue replacing sub-4 Acumen Peasant governors
- Move Wessex Frydman to Flanders
- Begin disbanding non-governor Peasants in Flanders

From here on out...

- Take Scotland with King, 2-star heir, 1-2 Hobilars, and 2-3 Archers
- Use archers to bait and thin Clansman, quickly withdraw them, smach pursuing Clansman with cavalry in flank or rear
- Make 3-star Hobilar King of Scotland (now 4-star)
- Defend Flanders with 4 Archers, 3 Frydmen, 1 Urban Militia, 1 Clansman, 1 4-star Hobilar, and 1-2 additional Hobilars
- Build Ports, Forts, Docks, ships, and traders ASAP.
- Keep 3 Provinces building ships, rotating, so that 1 ship is built each year
- Extend merchant marine fleet
- Garison at least 2-3 Archers, Hobilars, Fyrdmen, and Clansmen, King, and 1-2 Urban Militia in Northumbria
- Jack Scotland tax rate up. Don't garison it (let it revolt every year)
- Crush Scottish revolt every year with Northumbrian units (builds king's stars and improves heirs)
- Take Ireland ASAP
- Make 4-star Flanders general King of Ireland
- Ignore economic Irish buildings, go straight for swordsmith for Gallowglasses
- Replace Urban Militia with Gallowglasses
- Build Churches in all provices (save Scotland)
- Don't build Town Watch, Church, or towers in Scotland to help keep them revolting)
- Build Chapter House and 3 Crusades in Northumbria
- Take one of the 3 East Med islands and establish shipbuilders there.
- Crusade and Peacekeep to your heart's content.
- Holding and defending Flanders, and having a good fleet around Isles is all you need to do.
- You will soon be very rich.

[ah_dut]

from gr8 master Katank:
I've found that it's best to move Anjou's force into Normandy for the first turn while attacking with Normandy and Wessex into Flanders with everything.

similarly, pile everything from Aquitaine into Toulouse.

the French will retreat from Flanders.

Toulouse is an interesting battle in which you have your archer take potshots at the spear and use your hobilar to maneuver and take out the enemy archer unit and ballista without the spear arriving.

once the archer and ballista are both dead, you should have the whole unit of archers left with the spears hot on their tail and a hobilar at maybe 2 or if you are lucky 3 energy bars with anywhere from 25-30 men left.

then, charge the hobilars in wedge at the rear of the spears but stop short.

this feigned charge forces the spear to turn and face the hobilars, thus stop pursuing your archers making them get more potshots in.

expend all of you ammo if possible and I rarely enage the spears in melle until they have less than 50 men.

in that case, charge the hobilars first in wedge and switch to close.

then charge the archers from behind the spears and force them to melee if necessary.

this charge upon decimated spears should be instant rout and your hobilars can capture all the fleeing spears.

you should lose perhaps 20 hobilars from this encounter.

you shoudl be pumping out a hobilar each turn.

the next turn, have the forces in normandy hold while your king hits champagne and whatever is in wessex moves down into flanders.

they should retreat from champagne.

BTW, pump archers from wessex and bribe longbows form wales.

next turn is to attack Ile-de France with all forces from surrounding territories while trying to maintain loyalty.

this is the final showdown and your hobilars can easily prevail in maneuvering and chasing their archers down while your archers shoot up their pesants and militia.

once the enemy king is engaged, use hobilar to pin and charge fromt he rear with your king's RK unit to decimat their RKs to maybe 3 or 4 and best 1.

at this time, set your hobilars to hold and just have the pin the king while your king goes to do something else like running down peasants.

focus 2 or more archers upon the french king, preferably 4+ and he goes down without too much trouble.

this battle usually spells heavy losses for your hobilar contingents with about casualty rates of 1/2 but they will have 100+ kills/captures apiece.

I never had the french king captured and he usually dies in combat.

next year I assault the rebels in the castle although if I deployed my hobilars really well, I occasionally get to kill/capture everyone ont he field and not have to assault.

thus, French eliminated on third turn and you can try to bribe birttany or just overrun them with hobilars like I do.

ballistas and archers don't handle cav charges well and the UM general will be ripped up by 3 hobilars charging from all sides.

soon, the longbows can come online and post them as a strategic reserve in Aquitaine to guard most of your long borders with HRE and use the companies of fyrdmen as well.

taking navarre is also a priority to prevent the Spanish form doing so and the Aragonese are easier to destroy if they only have 1 province.

they will always attack Toulouse so attack them ASAP before they spawn a billion RK heirs.

having a few merc heavies will wipe out their archer/militia/jav based armies easily.

I always find hobilars to be real battle winners in the first dozen or so years of and english or french campaign.

once this rush is over, you should own all of your starting territories, France, navarre, Aragon, Wales.

taking Scotland is a good idea and you can frequently suicide your first two heirs there who are likely worthless.

having the ability to get clansmen means budget shock inf like swords earlier.

while no substitute for FMAA as toe-to-toe troops, the clans men actually make better flankers.

your fyrdmen are also quite strong and I can't justify building up to feudal sarges while I can just use fyrdmen form spearmaker.

the discounted archers you should stack.

while other factiosn woudl always build archer heavy protected by spear wall for budget conscious early era armies, as the brits you get archers for only 166 and should go even more archer heavy.

if archers get to expend all their arrows, they can kill at least 10 men for every guy who dies in an archer units provided it's well protected and that can easily go to 20.

bumping off the Spanish and establishing a border at Morroco etc. would reduce your borders and also give more valuable farmland, iron province, and inquisitor province but it's difficult to avoid excom and it's hard to time it so that you can finish off the Spanish in Morrocco.

attack too fast and you may have to war with the almos.

attack too late and the almos will be gone, the spanish stronger, and when you finish them, the Eggy who you have to crusade against flush against you.

I prefer an almo buffer.

it's tricky to doge excomm if taking out the Spanish though as the last provinces maybe too hard to get to in about 2 years as you own many provinces and will get warned almost as soon as you attack the Spanish.

[Cheetah]

Valgore

Mercenary

Group: Member
Posts: 4
Joined: Sep. 2002
Posted: Sep. 30 2002,17:21

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I am playing on Easy In the Early pearod and I am still dooing bad and loosing. I am in the process of reading the Help book to so I am trying to learn the game. I mean I know how to play I am guist not good at it yet. Can some of you give me help on what to build up. So far my plain is to take out France first then Scotland.
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Vanya

HOF Award 2003
Group: Senior Member
Posts: 2990
Joined: Nov. 2000
Posted: Sep. 30 2002,17:31

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GAH

Vanya sez... make war, fall out with the Pope. Then, youz will have a parade of good christians flocking to your lands to show you the errors of your ways.

Vanya sez... build big castle Build houses of ill repute Flood France with all the ugly, skanky womenz you can find The French won't know what hit them

Vanya played English campaign until He got to that inevitable point whereby no matter what youz do, the game just crashes... Vanya was allied with the French the entire time

Vanya hope He can continue that game when the patch comes out. Vanya wonders if its because there are too many units visible to Him on the map...?

GAH


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[Sips sake, eats popcorn]
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EuroLord

Man at Arms

Group: Member
Posts: 37
Joined: July 2001
England, Salisbury Posted: Sep. 30 2002,17:45

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Hi,

I suggest you get one of your princesses to marry into the french Royal Family and have a good alliance. They wont attack you for quite a while, but dont let that stop you attacking them when you need to. They wont attack you for quite a long time.

I suggest building a port in Normandy and wessex, so your troops can come directly to France. Also some ships quite quickly just in case the French decide to attack England.

The alliance with the French is very important, as is one with the Papal States. Just dont invade a christian province for more than the time limit the Pope gives you.

hope this helps.

EuroLord


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To the Brave comes Honour and Victory. To the weak comes Defeat and Dishonour.
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Kraxis

Boringly known as Tarrak

HOF Award 2003
Group: Senior Member
Posts: 2507
Joined: Feb. 2002
Lyngby, Denmark Posted: Sep. 30 2002,17:48

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I usually abandon Anjou and Aquitaine and take Flanders (good farming, very great trading and the connection with Wessex) and hold on to Normandy.

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BTW, Danish Crusades are true to history.

You may not care about war, but war cares about you

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You may not care about war, but war cares about you



A proud member of the OOOO
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Gringoleader

Mercenary

Group: Member
Posts: 71
Joined: Aug. 2002
Posted: Sep. 30 2002,17:50

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In my experience the best way to start out with the English is take down the Welsh and the Scottish for starters. There should be a good chance in the early period that you can have a pop at the Aragonese too, but it might be best to wait for somebody else to soften them up first.

Before tackling France, particularly if you are new at it, I would advise building ships and taking on first the Irish and then the Danes and the rest of Scandanavia. The trick to fighting the Danes is to use lots of spearmen as they tend to deploy half a dozen or more units of Royal Knights on their home turf, and spearmen will have them away.

Once you get a foothold in Scandanavia you can move your ships further along to place you in strike range of some Russian territory. Getting stuck into a war using Scandanavia as a starting off point is good because it minimises the area that can be counter attacked.

While fighting in Scandanavia continue to build fleets and loop them around the coast of Spain as far as Italy. This way should the Spanish kick off you can nail their trade routes instantly and also have the capability to strike anywhere along their shores, which is always handy if you need to quickly nick a load of cash.

Spies are great for unsettling enemy provinces, and if you use large groups at once you can incite rebellions at a rate of one per turn. Be careful though, as I have found this tactic can often lead to the enemy units and generals being trained to very high level just from butchering proles.

Well that's my two cents on the issue...
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Pachinko

Count

Group: Member
Posts: 235
Joined: Aug. 2001
Phoneix,AZ Posted: Sep. 30 2002,17:55

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OK.. It worked for me anyway.. it is a Hard mode..So, it should work.ALL the florin is your food. ie 80% food and the ships and use a trading post. THEN you have alot of florins.

I hope you understand..My english is bad...sorry

P.

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Crush your enemies, see them driven before you on the field of battle, and hear the lamentation of their women.

Dev quote>>Sigh, ye of little faith. Don't assume everything is a bug.

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Crush your enemies, see them driven before you on the field of battle, and hear the lamentation of their women.
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Cheetah

The Guilds Archivist

Group: Moderator
Posts: 1269
Joined: Dec. 2001
Hungary Posted: Sep. 30 2002,18:47

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Bribe the Welsh and Scottish rebels Then make allience with the French. Build a port in Wessex and start to build ships. Build a port in Aquitane too. Upgrade your farmlands but only in your rich provinces. Build mines. Build an Inn in Aqitane. Wait till the pope excommunicates a catholic faction, then hire all the good mercenaries you can (that is why you need the Inn) and then attack this faction with all your military might

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If you wish to weaken/ the enemy's sword,/ move first, fly in and cut
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Wolfgrin

Mercenary

Group: Member
Posts: 27
Joined: Sep. 2002
Cincinnati, OH Posted: Sep. 30 2002,19:25

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I agree with Kraxis and Gringoleader. Befriend France, kill Scandinavia, expand into Lithuania/Novogorod AND BUILD TRADE ROUTES I'm playing Expert mode and have so much cash it's unbelievable (over 500,000 florins) and that's with the Byzantines harrying my trade every 20 years. Unless you're playing Glorious Achievement mode, don't fall in love with Aquitaine and Anjou. Let them go when France attacks, but bunker into Normandy and Flanders. Those will be good bases of attack when you're ready to exterminate the Froggies. Also, maximize your English assets, namely Billmen and Longbowmen. Together, they can kill just about anything (of course, throw in a few units of your own cavalry on the flanks for good measure).

Hope this helps and have fun.
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Cardinal

Man at Arms

Group: Member
Posts: 79
Joined: Sep. 2002
Norway Posted: Sep. 30 2002,20:41

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I am still pretty new witht his game, and have still to finish my England Campain. Still I have done as they mentioned above, and made sure I am dragging in loads off cash, with alomst every province at very high tax level. This has not made my morale drop either (lucky me), although I keep a tab on it. I was attacked by the French, but beat them off, and conquered Flanders before the pope started medling. The I waited 12 years an attacked 2 provinces simultaneously, and won (I had spent 12 years planning for this), and killed the French King. The French by that stage had only one porvince left which went rebel (no heirs). The pope was at me again, but as the French were now elliminated it came to nothing.

I played on Normal.

My advice is: If you want to take out the French, hit hard and spread out your attack. I also had Keeps and Castles in all my French provinces, and they were reluctant attacking them without siege engines (this was about 1100-1130).

PS: Keep ypur Hoblars in reserve. The are excellent in pursuing a routed enemy.

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The Cardinal
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Gringoleader

Mercenary

Group: Member
Posts: 71
Joined: Aug. 2002
Posted: Sep. 30 2002,20:58

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A good little tactic for breaking the French is to build an army so vast that it simply cannot be faced and just play Pokemon and pillage through the enemy provinces without hanging around to capture them properly.
You'll rake in a lot of money, reduce the quality of the enemy troops, and make it difficult for the enemy to mobilise a counter strike.

When going on this kind of raiding spree I normally find it's best to take your best native general, possibly even a prince, and then tool him up with mercenaries. It helps to steady their morale and your army looks cooler with loads of weird units in.
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Enigma

Mercenary

Group: Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Sep. 2002
Posted: Sep. 30 2002,21:12

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I have played two campaigns as the English. I usually bribe the Welsh to get their longbowmen and bribe the Scottish as well if possible. Make an alliance with the French and snap up Navarre if you can do it before the Spanish. In both my campaigns I was able to take Navarre, Aragon, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Norway and Sweden before war with France. Usually France and the HRE are going at it and it is good to make an alliance with the HRE then stab the French in the back. Attack France immediately if they are excommunicated. In one campaign the king died without an heir and France just fell apart.
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Jo_Beare

Man at Arms

Group: Member
Posts: 85
Joined: Sep. 2002
Posted: Sep. 30 2002,23:26

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Don't forget about Ireland. Kerns are kind of fun if used corectly and gallowglasses are excellent shock troops that can slice through spear units like a hot knife though butter.

JoBeare
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Cardinal

Man at Arms

Group: Member
Posts: 79
Joined: Sep. 2002
Norway Posted: Sep. 30 2002,23:59

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Just out of interrest, what is the correct way to use Kerns?

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The Cardinal
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Jo_Beare

Man at Arms

Group: Member
Posts: 85
Joined: Sep. 2002
Posted: Oct. 01 2002,00:45

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The best way to use kerns is to flank with them. Once the enemy unit is engaged move the kerns in close and deliver a healthy dose of flying spears and then plunge into their rear. Just watch out for cavalry units and other units that try to engage the kerns before they are out of spears. They can decimate heavily armored units like knights and AUM. Another way is to tuck them in up as close as possible behind your sergeants or billman so that the kerns can throw the spears through the unit in front of them to the unit they are engaged with. There was a thread about kerns a few weeks ago with some more good ideas.

JoBeare
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Valgore

Mercenary

Group: Member
Posts: 4
Joined: Sep. 2002
Posted: Oct. 01 2002,12:59

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I thank you all for you help. I guess that best way is to Try and Try agin. If you are new to a game like that You can not expect to concor the world in 1 try.

Good luck to you all.
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The Green Knight

Man at Arms

Group: Member
Posts: 78
Joined: Sep. 2002
United Kingdom Posted: Oct. 01 2002,13:36

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I decided to [play as english - easy- on glorious achievement and without trying too hard seem to have conqured all of france, and destroyed the hre plus spain and the wole of n africa to egypt. i have had almohads reappear and once the germans did. i have given the pope back his lands and tyhje italianss hold only sardinia and corsica. but i have little money and a nmighty army, tired of war and it is 1230 ad. this is strange cause i have another game going which is judged byc onquest and |I have hardly taken anything - jusdt too chicken.

So perhaps you shopuld be really aggressive.I got theose pesky frogs seen too almost immediately. the scots gave me some trouble but now they are gentle as lambs - tho i guess they will rebel when willy wallace appears.

next strike will be to take egypt -- Ha
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LittleGrizzly

irritating

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Posts: 2729
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Wales Posted: Oct. 01 2002,13:58

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english expert mode what i did was bribe wales and scotland leave anjou and the other one ? to take flanders i put tax on very high and keep 600 peasents in each province this means i can get excommunicated without problems.

i have given english the greatest navy in the world with trade booming so ive decided to take sicily and tripoli (4 goods) i got excommunicated taking sicily but worth it for trade.

i never use any agents bar the occasional emmisary and i use armys packed with chilvaric knights billmen and longbowmen with helped me expand my french holdings (il de france and champagne)

im currently gearing up for war with the spanish they have he biggest empire 2nd novorgood 3rd me but spain and novorgood my allys are at war so im using tripoli as a base to expand i have the largest army but need to expand my navy as they could inflict bad finacial damage small navy but sqaushed together

right better get back so me and novorgood can finally finish em spanish idiots


final note argonese took rest of french holdings but they're also at war with novorgood so i might take em out but they're fighting spanish so they are all helping me by killing each other

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(Idaho) the world is set up for the benefit of an elite group of global capitalists. There is a small sub-group of their butlers and attendants (us) Outside that window 70% of the world are living in poverty

(Gawain) Kerry is doomed to lose the election mark my words.
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Joe Smithe

Mercenary

Group: Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Sep. 2002
Mobile,AL Posted: Oct. 01 2002,18:12

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I am playing on NORMAL.

I took wales immediately. Then I tried for scotland. Those bastards pissed me off. I would take it, they would rebel, repeat for 5 years. Finally, I just let them be for a little while. My main goal was taking the french because I don't like having my provinces seperated like that. I built up a few large armies and started with an attack on 3 bordering provinces. I ended up taking 2 of them. The third I took on the next turn. Of course the Pope excommunicated me, but I perservered through a couple rebellions. I had all of France(with no loyalist rebellions, etc) by 1115.

This is a good move in my opinion because I was able to take a lot of land with reletively minor troops. All of us were using primarily peasants at the time, so when I rolled in with my spearmen, they would break and run. Like I said, I got a lot of land and that meant a lot of money to be made. Flanders is still my best province financially.

Next I took scotland and installed a permanent army there with a 6 star general to keep them settled. Then I built up for around 20 years. I tried to take the spanish, but got my ass handed to me pretty bad until the Almoheds came in from the south. All in all I made out with 3 spanish provinces, which I am stocking up for the probable invasion by the Almoheds. Now I am currently going after germany.

Just a hint: Spies are the best units in the game. I have taken two thirds of Germany without fighting a battle yet. Also, build border forts, since Byzantine is trying this same tactic on me.


[This message has been edited for paragraph breaks by Joe Smithe (edited 10-01-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Joe Smithe (edited 10-01-2002).]
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Cadarn

Man at Arms

Group: Member
Posts: 30
Joined: Oct. 2002
Buckingham, UK Posted: Oct. 02 2002,19:42

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Ally with the worthless French ??

NO Make the HRE your best friends and allies to keep your eastern flank safe. Build up armies in Wessex and Aquitaine quickly, make sure you use Spearmen as the french will have many peasants (I like to start building Keeps in Wessex/Aquitaine in the first turn which in turn leads to early armouries, and early access to toughened troops.

Attack 2 or 3 French provinces at once. Use your Hobilars to slaughter any retreating foes and slaughter any prisoners.

Using this method I took Ile De France, Brittany and Flanders in one year, and used the other year to wrap up the castle sieges.

In the next 12 years of Papal restraint you can mop up Wales and Scotland if you haven't done so, and you can build up your troop building facilities before moving on to destroy any French stragglers that may be in Toulouse, Lorriane or Provence.

My English (NORMAL) empire now covers Northern and Central Spain, what was France, Denmark, the UK, Sweden, and the western half of the HRE. The Germans at least are putting up a bit of a fight in their river provinces.

[mfberg]

England, early, expert

1. Ally with HRE, Spain, Danes, ..., anybody except France, move units to Wessex and Normandy. Build holibars & archers

2. Take Flanders from Wessex (french retreat)

3. Take Ile de France, the French king is there. Kill or capture the king. Get warned by the Pope. (French king may retreat to Champagne.)

4. Slaughter French King & son in Champagne, no survivors

All that remains of france are rebels, you have a few years to buy/conquer them.

After cleaning out the rebels buy the rebels in Wales (2 units of longbows in early are not to be sneezed at) and take Scotland. Build a fort and make cheap, high valor highlanders to conquer with.

Make enough boats/troops to hit and keep Sweden and later Lithuiania, Kiev and Khazar. Trade, become rich, keep on good terms with the pope, rule the known world.

mfberg

[katank]

well, I find it feasible to blitz Flanders, Ile de France, and Toulouse on the starting turn.

then hit champagne and collect fat ransom for the prince/king.

then hit brittany to eliminate them.

if excommed, don't worry as no one has crusade ability yet except maybe the spanish who you should ally with.

welsh longbows should definitely be bribed and can be used against the french if one delays the rush by 2 or 3 turns.

[chunkynut]

England, Early, Normal

Bribe Wales (Longbowmen units) and Navorra (Iron here can build blacksmiths). Then send the diplomat to the French King for either cease fire or an alliance.

Make sure that all territory has +4 acumen govenors or leave it free of a Lord as later on removing titles can annoy your good generals.

Reinforce Wessex with strong troops and perhaps some seige equipment (bottleneck in early game against 'home' territory loss) and build Hobilars (cheap) to reinforce all territories bordering other nations.

Start building an army for taking Scotland put in Northumbria and build ships (Englands lifeline) and improve farm land in rich territories and mines.

Pick up Tolouse (it seems to rebel at least once in the first 20 turns. Now you have a bottleneck to the south halting Spain or the Almohads from advancing from the peninsular. Take Aragon if possible (small nations seem to survive on hiers royal bodyguards and 6 or 7 can be tricky).

France will probably attack or become excom in this time, Italy or Scicly will become excom by one attacking the other and Spain or the Almohads will be dominant over the other.

Pick up Sweden (iron +3 tradable goods) and Norway (2 tradable goods and good ship building prov (only take when your budget is in profit)) and Lithuania (3 tradable goods and with kiev creates a bottleneck). With a trade line of ships into the 2 - 4 port sea lanes in the med will give you a lot of cash.

Use the money to make castles or bigger in key provs (iron/producing 3 trabable goods/bottlenecks).

Take over Europe

[Chimpyang]

When you'vee done that, try sending a couple of Crusades off to easter europe, lithuania's alway's handy and so is taking a few othe litle provinces. This can give a vital advangtage of the ability to build ships of 2 side of the med until the horde appear. Then defend like crazy.

[katank]

just a tip.

pump hobilars like mad from Aquitaine and elsewhere.

any cav that early in the game is good and hobby horses are quite cheap.

if taking navarre, it's not worth bribing.

send a few hobilars and archer or two to take them out.

they have 2 peasants and 1 spear.

they do have steep slope so climb to level with your troops before attacking.

hit the peasant general they have in both flanks with hobilars and use the archers to pepper the spear.

this should result in their forces melting away and this gives you navarre without need to bribe as that money can be better used to fund economy or military.

however, this delays the french rush by a turn or two.

if taking navarre, do so before taking on the french as if you take the french first, the Spanish or Aragonese will have Navarre before long.

Taking the Aragonese out of the game is good as they seem programmed to go for Toulouse which you want and Aragon also has iron, is located on the other side of Gibaltar for building quick navy, and is a nice chokepoint when combined with navarre due to insane slopes on which to park your discounted archers and shoot up any enemies.

[Chimpyang]

France to England is what Spain is to the Almohads, Weak in early but they both grow incredibly strong in the lategame.
TAKE OUT THE FRENCH ASAP, then secure a 2 province border with Spain by taking out Navarre and Aragorn. If playing GA this is a good time to prime up your fleet for the trading goals and if popssible take sweden and norway. Sweden had 3 trade products which help a lot.

if the Byzantines grow paticuarly weak or you are feeling paticuarly strong (either will do) try a crusade to Constantnople or a rebel baltic province. The capture of Constantnople will give you a good trade income to build up farms in France with. Again if playing GA try and nab some provinces next to your target so when the big crusading giant appears you can tie up surrounding provinces with feinged attacks.(You dont have to win these but they are nice to have if you do). If not playing GA then take Egypy and the Holy lands anyway cos you get some pretty good crusade troops and marching a crusade through Germany drains troops from the HRE for later . Also, the holy land has some of the richest and best trading items to offer (2 provinces end up with 4 tradable items each, with Ruby in both).

After this is done regardless of Almohad advances attack the HRE and try and spark a civil war. If one is ignited take the rebel provinces ASAp before someone else does and make peace immediately with the HRE, if not then grow rich or attack the ALmohads. The mongols shuld cause no concern to you unless you have taken the Russian provinces. The rest shuld be easy as you shuld be the bigggest superpower with dominace of the seas.

[katank]

don't forget trying to get the Iberian as jinettes are great light cav and the iron is good for FMAA and kngihts.

[Chimpyang]

The iberian perninsula is quite profitable to grab but it has to be done quickly otherwise the pope will get shrity if the Almohads have been wiped out by Spain and getting excommed at the midgame isn't fun for me at least) anmd sparking a war with the Almohads can cost a lot of money as they have some pretty decent troops.

[katank]

I attack Spanish and HRE only if I get excommed while against the French.

otherwise, I don't but if you are already bad, just keep going all the way.

[Servius]

Early, Expert, any version really

This version refers to a somewhat unorthodox tactic I use: forfiet Aquitaine, Anjou, and Normanday; take and hold Flanders. It's economically and strategically beneficial. I also RP a bit by never accepting alliances from Muslim countries. Lastly, I have modded in all the rivers that appear on the map, making Flanders very easily defendable with a few Fyrdmen and Archers.

This walkthrough is designed to quickly provide:
- a very strong economy,
- naval access to the entire map,
- an easily defended home empire,
- low military upkeep costs,
- strong kings and heirs,
- and lots of peacekeeping and crusading opportunities.

First year
- Sell Fort and HOrse Farmer in Aquitaine
- Move all forces from Aquitaine to Anjou
- Move all forces from Anjou to Normandy
- Move archer from Northumbria to Mercia
- Move archer from Mercia to Wessex
- Cue up 3 Emisaries in Wessex
- Build a tower in Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex
- Assign the peasants with the best acumen to be governors
- Jack up tax rates as high as you can while retaining 100%+ loyalty in all provinces
- Send Emisary and 2 princesses from Wessex to Flanders

Second year
- Move Anjou forces to Normandy
- Move Mercian archer to Wessex
- Send Princesses and Emisaries to ally with Germany, Spain first, then Italy, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, and Novgorod if you want
- Never accept alliances with Muslim nations
- Don't accept alliances from nations who don't share borders with France or Germany, at least not until you're a naval power in the Med
- Cue up the 2nd tower, 1st crop upgrade, and Fort in Northumbria and Mercia (done by year 9)
- Cue up the 2nd tower, 1st crop upgrade, and 1st horse farmer in Wessex (done by year 7)
- Continue to raise tax rates where able

Third year
- -Move all forces in Wessex and Normanday to Flanders. The French will abandon it.
- Continue to pursue alliances with nations that border France

Fourth year
- Cue up 2 Peasants in Wessex (7)
- Build 1st tower in Flanders (5)
- Jack up Flanders tax rate
- Move Prince to Flanders

Fifth year
- If you get a Peasant with better Acumen, disband and replace a governor
- Cue up 2nd tower, 1st crop upgrade, and Fort in Flanders (12)
- Begin pursuing princesses for heirs

Sixth year
- If you get a Peasant with better Acumen, disband and replace a governor

Seventh year
- Cue up 2 Hobilars in Wessex (9). These will be 4 (8) and 3 (9) star generals
- Cue up 1st spear (9), Port, and Keep in Wessex (21)

Eigth year
- Move 4-star Hobilar general to Flanders
- Withdraw 3 Royal Guards and 1 Archer from Flanders to Wessex

Nineth year
- Build 1st Town Watch in Northumbria and Mercia (11)
- Cue up 2 Urban Militia in Wessex (11)
- Cue up 3 Peasants in Mercia (12)
- Cue up 4 Peasants in Northumbria (13)

Tenth year
- Move =3 Royal Knights, 1 3-star Hobilar, and 1 Urban Militia From Wessex to Wales
- Move Wessex Archer to Mercia
- Move Mercia Peasant to Wales
- Move Northumbria Pesant to Mercia
- Rout Peasant from battle
- Use the King, 2-star heir, and 3-star Hobilar (in wedge) to bait out and kill 3 Welsh Longbowmen
- Use Urban Militia (in wedge) to engage and pin Welsh Spear
- Use 3-star heir to hit welsh longbowmen units in rear. When they break, use both cav on rear of another longbow, longbow, spear

Eleventh year
- Retrofit 2-star heir with horse from the 3-star heir unit
- Move 3-star heir and 3-star Hobilar to Wessex
- Move Mercia Peasant to Wales
- Make best Welsh Peasant governor
- Move King, 2-star heir, and Urban Militia to Mercia
- Move Wessex Urban Militia to Flanders
- Begin replacing Peasant governors with better ones from Mercia and Northumbria
- Ideal is 4 Acumen Peasants as governors
- Give Flanders governor 1st Royal Court title
- Build 1st archery (13), Port, and Keep in Northumbria (25)
- Build 1st spear (13), Port, and Keep in Mercia (25)
- Build 1st tower in Wales
- Set Welsh tax rate as low as necessary
- Cue up 3 Fyrdmen in Wessex (14)
- Move Mercia Archer to Northumbria

Twelveth year
- Refit Mercian Urban Militia
- Move Royal units from Mercia to Northumbria
- Cue up 2nd tower, 1st crop upgrade, and Fort in Wales (19)
- Continue seaking princesses for heirs
- Continue replacing sub-4 Acumen Peasant governors
- Move Wessex Frydman to Flanders
- Begin disbanding non-governor Peasants in Flanders

From here on out...

- Take Scotland with King, 2-star heir, 1-2 Hobilars, and 2-3 Archers
- Use archers to bait and thin Clansman, quickly withdraw them, smach pursuing Clansman with cavalry in flank or rear
- Make 3-star Hobilar King of Scotland (now 4-star)
- Defend Flanders with 4 Archers, 3 Frydmen, 1 Urban Militia, 1 Clansman, 1 4-star Hobilar, and 1-2 additional Hobilars
- Build Ports, Forts, Docks, ships, and traders ASAP.
- Keep 3 Provinces building ships, rotating, so that 1 ship is built each year
- Extend merchant marine fleet
- Garison at least 2-3 Archers, Hobilars, Fyrdmen, and Clansmen, King, and 1-2 Urban Militia in Northumbria
- Jack Scotland tax rate up. Don't garison it (let it revolt every year)
- Crush Scottish revolt every year with Northumbrian units (builds king's stars and improves heirs)
- Take Ireland ASAP
- Make 4-star Flanders general King of Ireland
- Ignore economic Irish buildings, go straight for swordsmith for Gallowglasses
- Replace Urban Militia with Gallowglasses
- Build Churches in all provices (save Scotland)
- Don't build Town Watch, Church, or towers in Scotland to help keep them revolting)
- Build Chapter House and 3 Crusades in Northumbria
- Take one of the 3 East Med islands and establish shipbuilders there.
- Crusade and Peacekeep to your heart's content.
- Holding and defending Flanders, and having a good fleet around Isles is all you need to do.
- You will soon be very rich.

[katank]

I've found that it's best to move Anjou's force into Normandy for the first turn while attacking with Normandy and Wessex into Flanders with everything.

similarly, pile everything from Aquitaine into Toulouse.

the French will retreat from Flanders.

Toulouse is an interesting battle in which you have your archer take potshots at the spear and use your hobilar to maneuver and take out the enemy archer unit and ballista without the spear arriving.

once the archer and ballista are both dead, you should have the whole unit of archers left with the spears hot on their tail and a hobilar at maybe 2 or if you are lucky 3 energy bars with anywhere from 25-30 men left.

then, charge the hobilars in wedge at the rear of the spears but stop short.

this feigned charge forces the spear to turn and face the hobilars, thus stop pursuing your archers making them get more potshots in.

expend all of you ammo if possible and I rarely enage the spears in melle until they have less than 50 men.

in that case, charge the hobilars first in wedge and switch to close.

then charge the archers from behind the spears and force them to melee if necessary.

this charge upon decimated spears should be instant rout and your hobilars can capture all the fleeing spears.

you should lose perhaps 20 hobilars from this encounter.

you shoudl be pumping out a hobilar each turn.

the next turn, have the forces in normandy hold while your king hits champagne and whatever is in wessex moves down into flanders.

they should retreat from champagne.

BTW, pump archers from wessex and bribe longbows form wales.

next turn is to attack Ile-de France with all forces from surrounding territories while trying to maintain loyalty.

this is the final showdown and your hobilars can easily prevail in maneuvering and chasing their archers down while your archers shoot up their pesants and militia.

once the enemy king is engaged, use hobilar to pin and charge fromt he rear with your king's RK unit to decimat their RKs to maybe 3 or 4 and best 1.

at this time, set your hobilars to hold and just have the pin the king while your king goes to do something else like running down peasants.

focus 2 or more archers upon the french king, preferably 4+ and he goes down without too much trouble.

this battle usually spells heavy losses for your hobilar contingents with about casualty rates of 1/2 but they will have 100+ kills/captures apiece.

I never had the french king captured and he usually dies in combat.

next year I assault the rebels in the castle although if I deployed my hobilars really well, I occasionally get to kill/capture everyone ont he field and not have to assault.

thus, French eliminated on third turn and you can try to bribe birttany or just overrun them with hobilars like I do.

ballistas and archers don't handle cav charges well and the UM general will be ripped up by 3 hobilars charging from all sides.

soon, the longbows can come online and post them as a strategic reserve in Aquitaine to guard most of your long borders with HRE and use the companies of fyrdmen as well.

taking navarre is also a priority to prevent the Spanish form doing so and the Aragonese are easier to destroy if they only have 1 province.

they will always attack Toulouse so attack them ASAP before they spawn a billion RK heirs.

having a few merc heavies will wipe out their archer/militia/jav based armies easily.

I always find hobilars to be real battle winners in the first dozen or so years of and english or french campaign.

once this rush is over, you should own all of your starting territories, France, navarre, Aragon, Wales.

taking Scotland is a good idea and you can frequently suicide your first two heirs there who are likely worthless.

having the ability to get clansmen means budget shock inf like swords earlier.

while no substitute for FMAA as toe-to-toe troops, the clans men actually make better flankers.

your fyrdmen are also quite strong and I can't justify building up to feudal sarges while I can just use fyrdmen form spearmaker.

the discounted archers you should stack.

while other factiosn woudl always build archer heavy protected by spear wall for budget conscious early era armies, as the brits you get archers for only 166 and should go even more archer heavy.

if archers get to expend all their arrows, they can kill at least 10 men for every guy who dies in an archer units provided it's well protected and that can easily go to 20.

bumping off the Spanish and establishing a border at Morroco etc. would reduce your borders and also give more valuable farmland, iron province, and inquisitor province but it's difficult to avoid excom and it's hard to time it so that you can finish off the Spanish in Morrocco.

attack too fast and you may have to war with the almos.

attack too late and the almos will be gone, the spanish stronger, and when you finish them, the Eggy who you have to crusade against flush against you.

I prefer an almo buffer.

it's tricky to doge excomm if taking out the Spanish though as the last provinces maybe too hard to get to in about 2 years as you own many provinces and will get warned almost as soon as you attack the Spanish.

[Zortanius]

Hi All,

Playing the English is fun altho it is a bit tricky as you can easily get carried away and apread yourself too thin. Here's what I usually do:

(I am gonna desist from my usual one-big-chunk posts and try and spread things out)

The German Connection:
First of all I ally with the Germans - They will soon go to war with the French and that keeps them off your back.. initially.

A question of national defence:
Keep training hobilars in Aquitaine. Build watch towers in every province and focus on building up Mercia, Aquitaine and Wessex.

The man who would be king:
Once your first heir comes through attack and take Wales. Once you have atleast 5 hobilars attack and take Navarre -
Don't let the Spanish get it.

Building an empire:
Bribe Ireland, attack and take Scotland. So by about 1110 you should have Ireland, Navarre, Scotland and Wales.

Keeping the good folks happy:
You should also build up all your farming upgrades in the rich provinces and stack lots peasants and UM everywhere.

Rule Brittania:
Start Shipbuilding from Mercia and Northumbria and pump out spearmen, FS, CS and billmen from Wessex. Keep training HC in Scotland and get some spearmen and archers into Aquitaine. Wait for the Aragonese to attack you - they will soon enough. When they do take out Aragon and if the Aragonese had it - Toulouse as well.

Horatio Hornblower:
Next try to get some fleets out and take Norway and Sweden. Trade from Sweden and tray to have a ship in every sea square from the Baltic Sea to the Gulf off Leon. Sweden is very lucrative - Also the woodsmen and HC make more than adequate rebellion crushing garrisons.

Robroy and Wallace would be proud:
Keep some HC in your border provinces as they are very good against most Catholic factions. Now, you can attack France and or Spain but if the pope warns you then just wait. They will attack you soon enough. The HC will come in very handy.

Battle of Bannockburn again and again and again:
Keep atleast 6-7 spearmen in the Navarre and Aragon for the Spanish, Sweden for the Danish and Anjou and Normandy for the French.

Spanish bufferista:
The Spanish provide a good buffer against the Almohads but they tend to get very tricky themselves. They will always tend to attack Aragon - keep lots of good units there.

Aragon:
Also usually Aragon is pretty well developed when you take it so you could get out FMAA and CMAA from there to complement your spearmen from Wessex, hobilars from Aquitaine and crossbowmen.

A Crossbow is easy to master:
As always, once you get to crossbowmen get as many of them as possible and disband your archers. Crossbowmen are better and cheaper.

The importance of being Ireland
If you have not neglected Ireland you should have a decent farming and trading province setup there. You can also try to get kerns anf Gallowglasses as well. I personally do not like Kerns too much but they can and are very useful if deployed correctly.

Foreign Flava:
Build an Inn in Normandy and Navarre - get the Billmen and Longbowmen on offer as you can always nationalise them later by merging them with your own troops. Also get all the vikings you can get - they are good units to have.

Branching out:
At this stage I may either blitz the spanish by suddenly landing in Leon or Portugal and razing everything to the ground while waiting for the port to rebuild so that I can evacuate - but this tricky and needs one to completely surround Iberia and remove all other spanish ships - or I may decide to send a crusade or just land in Antioch or Lesser Armenia - If my shipping lines stretch that far.

An empire on which the sun never set:
If I am successful I use that foot-in-the door to wipeout/restrict the turks and cripple the egyptians while building a second wing of my empire - but do watch out for disloyalty. If you can get all the turkish provinces you could land up with most if not all of Asia Minor and Constantinople

The Far Pavillions:
Build churches and atleast one keep to keep the those far off generals loyal - also keep a few spies and priests nearby. After this attack either the French and move into the continent, North Africa or The Italians.

Conflict makes us rich, combat makes us strong
It is quite lucrative to have multiple fronts against multiple enemies as you can always ransom back prisoners for a lot of money - sometimes this moeny is as much as your farming income.

The issue of ransom:
Also sometimes If I can capture some good units early - I kill them before I capture the other lesser troops - this way I have fewer troops for he enemy to ransom - no matter how much money they have, they rarely ransom back more than 600 prisoners and gets rid of some of their best troops to give you less of a headache. Of course sometimes they only want to ransom back their best troops but then you'll have to let the rest of their army rout and hold back your troops after capturing their cream of the crop.

Decline of the (Eastern) Roman Empire:
The world is now at your finger tips. It is a bit tricky to get to Khazar before the GH arrive especially if you are not concentrating on the Steppe regions initially - like I don't but using my approach you could get into Khazar via Georgia or across the Black sea but you might have to attack the Byzantines - which I try to avoid. Of course usually the Byzantines attack me after a while in hopes of regaining their lost provinces (which I got from the Turks). Their attempts usually fail. Billmen are really solid against Kats... and against GH heavy cavalry.

A sound history lesson:
A good English army always has atleast 3 crossbowmen or if possible arbalesters - perhaps one longbowmen - whom I withdraw once their ammo is out, 3-4 units of billmen, 3-4 units of FS, 2 units of CMAA and the balance in knights and hobilars. I almost never train Knights as the English but instead train lots of hobilars and MS if necessary. If you are in outremer or Asia minor by 1190 you should be able to take on Saleh ad din (Saladin) as Prince Richard.

Cheers

[ah_dut]

on your last point, 1 unit of longbowmen? in a history lesson? yes crossbowmen are good and arbs very good, longbows rock , also you should have a more like 50-50 balance or more longbows. The longbowmen get waaaaaaaaay more shots in. just my 2 cents

[katank]

dude, merc longbwos/bills aren't available in early.

you should rush the French and still have more than enough to take Navarre.

you also know that Ireland isn't bribable, right? it doens't have a port.

also, waiting for ships to go to sweden is usually too late and you risk warring on the Danes which will almost invariably lead to excomm.

I always bribe my way into Scandanavia and the steppes but usually only a toehold.

BTW, the 4 viks in Norway is a very good bargain.

shuffling them back and forth, I managed to hold both Sweden and Norway as well as killing the Danish royals when they warred on me and ended up getting a nice stack of viking troops in Denmark with developed keep level infrastructure for little more than 1k.

[ah_dut]

Quote[/b] (Zortanius @ June 28 2004,18:59)]A sound history lesson:
A good English army always has atleast 3 crossbowmen or if possible arbalesters - perhaps one longbowmen - whom I withdraw once their ammo is out, 3-4 units of billmen, 3-4 units of FS, 2 units of CMAA and the balance in knights and hobilars. I almost never train Knights as the English but instead train lots of hobilars and MS if necessary. If you are in outremer or Asia minor by 1190 you should be able to take on Saleh ad din (Saladin) as Prince Richard.

Cheers

there are bills there and longbows, Katank, i just prefer longbows to arbalesters

[katank]

I do too. I would sometimes bring all bill/longbow armies.

volleys from 10 longbows is enough to ensure that nothing except for maybe some heavy cav woudl be able to walk up and fight my bills for long.

longbows can just shoot so much faster than arbs.

I remember that before they fixed it, longbows shot faster than vanilla archers. Damn I love the Brits, gotta play as them and mass some longbows again.

[Spartiate]

Have to agree with you on the longbows.I modded one of my campaigns to allow me to train Sherwood Foresters in units of 60 but making them visible at all times in stead of only while they are moving.They are also armed with longbows and have the added advantage of being able to handle whatever makes it as far as them.
Long time ago................was too easy.

[Zortanius]

Hi everyone,

Katank, you're right Ireland is not bribable - I meant to say that take Ireland as soon as possible even if it means to bribe it - although I had never bribed Ireland myself I just tried it and you're right.

I have never had that problem of getting to scandinavia too late (even on expert) - altho I rarely bribe the vikings there (done it once i think) - but I see the inherent danger in trying to use ships to invade.

My bad.

As for using longbowmen - I tend not to use them depsite their many advantages (excellent range, frequent volleys) because far too often they have started firing way too early - used up most of their bodkin arrows on lesser units (UM, etc) and caused less damage then I expected. Also since they are more expensive than arbalesters I tend to use a shield wall and use arbies more often than longbowmen.

I guess that's just my taste.

Umm.. I dunno about this but several times in, my inns in both navarre and normandy, right off the bat have had billmen and longbowmen merc units among others (trebuchets, bulgarian brigands) - I am thinking that is a bug - I don't play VI just the basic MTW.

And I usually hire them.

About the history lesson - well I know that crossbowmen were used to great effect by many english armies both in the holyland under richard lionheart and on the continent earlier on. I just finished reading a book about the crusades. However I am aware that longbowmen featured with great notoriety and (in)famy in english armies during the 100 years wars later on. The reputation of longbowmen led to the 2 fingered 'salute' (still in use) as an insult then.

That and the fact that I tend to use only one fast firing unit (longbowmen, bulgarian brigands) - I included just one of them in my model army.

As for not rushing the French - well my style is to make the game a bit longer and more interesting - I like to defend, suck enemy factions in and wait for them to attack me. Hence in all my 'walkthroughs' I always advocate taking the neutral provinces and waiting for your neighbours to try and attack you. Once someone does attack me - I fight a few defensive battles - let the enemy become locally exhausted and then move in to take over half their provinces. That's just my style. I find it more fun.

Sorry for the confusion and errors.

A humble knight's honest opinion.

Cheers

PS - guys how do you quote someone ?

[katank]

mercs should be restricted to their respective eras.

I enjoy using fast shooters since they do better in a missile duel

also, the morale penalty for under fire doesn't kick in during reload so the faster shooters inflict more penalty and the faster shooting also kills more in case of longbows.

[Kristaps]

French, HRE - out by 1102.

the English start with a super-high dread king: this can be used to English advantage to take provinces and move on quickly not worrying about rebellions.

1087: start pumping hobilars in aquitanie, archers in wessex; move archers from northumbria to mercia; move your force (except a peasant unit) from normandie into anjou; build inns in normandie and anjou; send your princesses and emisary into flanders.

1088. move your archers (2 units) from mercia into wessex, continue pumping archers in wessex, hobilars in acquitanie; send one princess into champagne, the other one into ilde de france to have a better view of what frenchies are doing; send you emissary to ally with aragon.

1089. move everything from wessex into flanders; move the forces from anjou and aquitanie into brittany. continue pumping hobilars in aquitanie and archers in wessex; french retreat from flanders. kill the high star french general in brittany: the won't have a fort yet so they'll have nowhere to retreat to.

1090. move the force from britanny into anjou; by this time, mercenaries lured by the conflict will hopefully have flocked to your inns. hire some. khwarazmian cavalry and like are welcome; leave a peasant unit in britanny as garrison; since french had nowhere to retreat in flanders and britanny the pope hasn't even noticed anything happened...

1091. move your prince (he must have just matured) into champagne (give him some support if needed: but he should be able to take out the peasant unit and/or archers there on his own); move your forces from flandes and anjou into ile de france: it's a bridge battle... lur the french king and their prince onto the bridge using a peasant unit or two as bait. on the bridge the french royals turn into pin-cushions for your archers: the french are gone...

1092. move a minimal force into anjou (the goal is to take the rebel province of toulouse); see if you can harvest anything good from your inns in anjou, normandy and flanders (the french, invariably build one there); storm the paris fort using your king and his support units.

1093. strike from anjou and aquitanie into toulouse: if you are lucky, the aragones willhelp you; meanwhile, prepare your armies in flanders, ile de france and champagne for a strike against the unsuspecting HRE;

1094. Storm Toulouse castle (unfortunately, the French rebels have one there already); scout the inns for more mercs in flanders; you'll need them; attack from flanders into friesland and lorraine joined by the force in champagne; strike from ile de france straight into bourgundy; in the case of my game: the germans retreat from friesland, the germans retreat from lorraine; the germans put up a fight in bourgundy and get beaten; the toulouse castle falls... pople seems indifferent to the troubles of his northern neighbors: no warning...

1095. a civil war in germany... storm the fort in friesland; in my game, the germans had built nothing in lorraine so i just took it; storm the keep (or fort) in bourgundy; gather the force in toulouse and attack provence.

1096. storm the fort in provence; build up (guard towers and inns first) in lorraine, friesland, bourgundy. start moving some lower rank general towards wessex with the goal of taking wales and subsequently scotland; pump out some support troops for him along his path towards england; beat the rebellion in champagne (if you get one) using part of the force in lorraine;

1097. ally with italians if they have not allied with you earlier; move the force from champagne back into lorraine. don't forget to check those inns.

1098. attack blitz from friesland into saxony and franconia; assist from lorraine, if needed; strike into swabia from lorraine and bourgoundy; part of your force into switzerland; and the army from provence into tyrolia: HRE retrets from most of the provinces: another civil war in HRE: the pope has developed an indifference syndrome.

1099. storm any german garrisons, beat off their sallying forces and watch the remains of hre being taken over by rebels;

1100, 1001 - cleanup, build up, etc.; take bavaria at your leisure.

1102. attack strike from saxony into pomerania (in my case, prince alfred's army); from franconia into brandenburg (prince william's army); from bavaria (king william) into bohemia; and from tyrolia into austria: the HRE is history after successful completion of the last maneuver: i bet, the pope is still silent. from here, it's your choice: eliminate the polish - which was my choice since they were still an easy pick at this time; regroup your armies to attack the italians; send a force into denmark or start moving towards aragon: they might attack you soon since your princes and the king are far away in germany.

:)

[Mightypeon]

Well, I think that everyone can agree that blitzing and killing the French easens a lot of your problems.
At some time, the HRE will always start to fall. Use this and get your part.
I would advise against a to deep psu into the HRE, Friesland Lorraine Burgundy and Provnece ok, but the rest of thier lands is not to diserable and quite far from the see.
Saxony is propbly Danish by this time, if not, take it too.
Now its time to kill of your single possible trade rival the Danes.
Ammas your ships so that you are able to wipe out their fleet in one turn.
Storm Denemark from Saxony if you have it, storm Sweden with bribed rebels from Norway.
The goal is to destroy Denemark in 2 turns.
This nets you a 6 privnce realm, several super rich lands, acces to the mediterran (nice for Crusades) and almost unmolested control other the Nordic seas.

[Kristaps]

Quote[/b] (Mightypeon @ July 04 2004,05:36)]I would advise against a to deep psu into the HRE, Friesland Lorraine Burgundy and Provnece ok, but the rest of thier lands is not to diserable and quite far from the see.

well, you are in for a total domination, aren't u? :) why stop on friesland, lorraine, burgundy, provence line if you can take also everything beyond and not stop there either :)

[katank]

I personally like GA games now.

I think that taking Lorraine is very sensible as it reduces the border to four but I rather push into Iberia than deal with crazy amount of borders and mess that is the HRE.

Opportunism is good but dont' go too far. My only justification for taking internal HRE provinces is the existence of Switzerland which gives nice swiss pikes, swiss halbs, and the all mighty SAPs. Tyrolia also yields valor bonused regular pikers.

[Kristaps]

Quote[/b] (katank @ July 05 2004,09:42)]I personally like GA games now.

I think that taking Lorraine is very sensible as it reduces the border to four but I rather push into Iberia than deal with crazy amount of borders and mess that is the HRE.

Opportunism is good but dont' go too far. My only justification for taking internal HRE provinces is the existence of Switzerland which gives nice swiss pikes, swiss halbs, and the all mighty SAPs. Tyrolia also yields valor bonused regular pikers.

yes, a ga game should be played very differently. in that case, i'd try to survive with the existing english provinces + ireland, scottland, wales and the crusader targets: it's fun.

as to todal domination: you don't need switzerland for pikemen if you start early... a total domination started in the early should be finished in the early ;) - so, no pikes :) leave those to a TD game started in the late :) however, you need switzerland (and any other province) asap to finish before the 1205 strikes. :)

[MadKow]

I'm playing an English campaign right now. I rushed the french in the 3 turn fashion described by Katank. Works wonders.
Conquered Navarre and Aragon too. Bribed Scandinavia, Scotland and Wales.
This was the status by 1110.

Then i was prepared to turtle, developing trade and preparing for HIgh. But the (allied...) HRE thought differently and attacked Flanders. Well... i couldn´t leave it like that and now i own Lorraine Burgundy and Provence too. I don't like landlocked empires so now i'm hesitant to go east.

I have made some crusades to the Continental Baltic not really intent on owning the land there as much as in gaining political influence.

In the mean time my spanish allies have already pushed the Almohads to Tunisia. They will become powerfull soon enough. I would like to take the Iberian peninsula, but now i'm sure i cannot do it without ex-comm.

My conclusions after this first fase:
The combination of Fyrdmen, Clansmen, Cheap Archers and Hobilars gives the English a very flexible and powerfull early army, probably unequaled in the fact that they are all available at Fort level.

[katank]

crusade a bit through the HRE lands and you can weaken them.

crippling the Spanish without excomm can be tough before navies.

be content with a chokepoint of two provinces in the Pyrennes for now.