French

[Blodrast]

France High:

seems really tough to me; why ? can really only produce troops in Ile-de-France, with other 2 provinces that cannot produce _any_ troops. Your first priority should be to build some inns in these (Normandy, Champagne).
Tough also because you'll inevitably be attacked by the English (very very soon), Germans, and possibly, depending on your luck and strategy, Italians and Aragonese.
You will also have to fight the Egyptians if you want to hold onto Antioch and Tripoli.

General ideas for Antioch and Tripoli: personally, I found that being too greedy and trying to get Edessa (which is also very rich) proved to be too much of a stretch, eventually leading to my being overwhelmed and losing both Antioch and Tripoli. However, when I pumped troops like crazy in both of them, I managed to keep them for over 40 years, without ever being in any serious danger even though the Egpytians would attack me every 2-3 years. A good thing is that if you hold on until about 1233, you're pretty much off the hook, because the Mongols will give them enough trouble and they won't have as many troops to send against you.
However, the hardest part will be well before 1230.
My suggestion is to immediately start pumping units in them, even UM's. This will most likely delay the Egyptians' attacks on you, and this, combined with the fact that your crusade troops that you start with are pretty good (at least compared to what the Egyptians throw at you), should last you long enough for you until you can produce at least Feudal Sergeants (FS), FMAA, and Xbows. that's really all you need, plus a few hobilars.
You should use each of the 3 provinces (Cyprus, Antioch, Tripoli) for building Hobbies, Xbows and UM's in the beginning. Then FS, FMAA.
Also keep in mind when defending that you will get excellent defensive positions both in Antioch and Tripoli. Make them walk all they way to your steep hill, and shatter them with concentrated fire from your archers. At least a few of their units will rout before engaging in melee, and you'll have minimum losses.
Following these lines I caused them huge casualties on Expert.


General ideas for the European part:
this is really tough. Obviously there are several tactics, and I will only give you one suggestion.
Q: What should your objectives be ?
A: Start with what you have. Look at your own situation, and at that of your neighbours. The English and the Germans will attack you rather sooner than later (esp. HRE).
Except for Ile-de-France, your other provinces are crap. Flanders is good because, well, it is Flanders, and it's gonna make you loads of money, but in the beginning it can't build any troops. You have to hold on to these two, no matter what.
That being said, this pretty much excludes a possible strategy aiming towards the rich and iron-offering provinces of Spain and Aragon. Why ? Because you would stretch into a line, practically having borders in each of your provinces, which requires lots of troops in each province, which you simply won't be able to afford.

Instead, look at the good provinces around you:
HRE: Burgundy is very well developed (esp. in terms of troops, which is all you'll need in the beginning; money you should get enoough from Antioch, Tripoli, Flanders and Ile-de-France), so it should be an objective. None of the other provinces that HRE owns is worth the effort of getting (and trying to keep) in the beginning, from several reasons:
- they are poor/undeveloped, right now your position does not allow you for long-term development, you need troops NOW to consolidate your position.
- they are small (Swiss, Tyrolia, Friesland, etc), this means more provinces that require defensive garrisons.

The English: their main province is Wessex. Only Aquitaine is capable to produce some troops, all their other provinces are crap. Moreover, if you struggle to kick them from mainland, you'll have a very hard time, since they will keep bringing reinforcements from Britain, where they produce them unhindered by anything. It will take you many good years and troops to chase them away, and when you have, that will leave you with their 3 continental provinces in shreds (consider yourself lucky if in the process of conquering them (and possibly losing them occasionally to the English back and forth) they can still build any troops in the end), and the English with a smaller army, but with the capability of building a larger one faster than you can in their home provinces, where they had all the time to develop in peace.
Keep in mind that you will at the same time be at war with the HRE, so you will be hard pressed for troops.
Yet another factor that should make your objective even more obvious is the fact that they can't get back troops _from_ mainland to their islands.
So your objective is Wessex. Let them flex their muscles in their 3 continental provinces, get many troops in Flanders from the inn(s) in Normandy and Champagne and from production in Ile-de-France and possibly Flanders itself, and invade Wessex first chance you have. They will have few if any troops (they reinforce their continental positions every chance they get). A few FK will get the job done, with a couple of FMAA. You can of course afterwards get Mercia one or two turns after Wessex, they will most likely retreat further north. That will leave them with practically no production capabilities in Britain, while you have secured a great province (Wessex) which will give you money and quality troops (instantly, minus what got destroyed when you conquered it, ofc), while at the same time cutting their reinforcements lines.

Some of their island provinces may also rebel, being cut from their King, who is on the mainland. This only helps you, of course.
Do not waste your time trying to get Wales, Northumbria or Scotland; Wales has a relatively strong army of rebels, and you don't have troops to spare. Scotland will require you to station a good number of your troops in there for a few years, and you don't have troops to spare.
Also, your situation is already stable and safe in Britain, and you should direct all efforts to make it the same on the continent now.

You will be very stretched for troops (and money, since you'll be using lots of mercs). You should make no economical dev, except for troop buildings.

At this time, if money allows you, you can start pumping out some ships to get some trade income in the North Sea. Most likely you won't afford it though.

Now that Britain is quite secured, your next objective should be acquiring Burgundy. You will have already been attacked by HRE, so you don't risk anything by attacking Burgundy. They won't dare attack IdF or Flanders (you're keeping them well defended, remember ? you lose either of them, and you lost the game in Europe).
Have no fear in letting the HRE get Champagne and Toulouse from you. This will only stretch their already overstretched forces even more, and leave fewer units in each province to defend it, making it easier for you to take it. At the same time, their number of unit-producing provinces will stay constant, but the number of provinces they need to defend will increase, because neither of those 2 provinces is any good at this stage (Toulouse can produce some troops, but not good enough). Anyway, their attacking and taking either or both these provinces will allow you to easily take Burgundy. Once you got it, hold on to it, because it's quite rich and you can produce good troops in it (CS, CMAA, xbows, etc).
This will also allow you to better defend your really important provinces, since if you have a lot of units in there, even if the AI does attack you, it will instantly retreat (decide that they can't win...)

Once you got Burgundy, the HRE's attacks will be quite feeble. Yes, they still have lots of troops, but they need them to defend their provinces, otherwise greedy hyenas like the Aragonese or Italians will steal them. And mostly their troops will not be too good quality, lots of UM and peasant troops.
Even if they do attack you, you should not have any problems fending off their attacks.

Therefore, the obvious next step is to get rid of the English pest, in order to not have to fight on several fronts anymore, and consolidate your strategic position.
You can take your time, most likely however they will attack you, but with the influx of troops coming from Normandy's inn, Flanders and Wessex which is now supplying you with troops, you should be able to defend until you build a large enough force to overwhelm them.

In the meantime, if you want it and can afford it, you can take back Champagne and also get Lorraine. Why ? It reduces your border (the number of border provinces): you'll only have to defend on Flanders, Lorraine, Burgundy and (later on) Toulouse or Provence.

Watch out for the Aragonese, they have stabbed me in the back and broken their alliance all the time...

You might get excommunicated when bashing the last remnants of the English. Ignore it, or deflect it by attacking the insidious Aragonese, who are likely to have less than half your number of provinces, and who will attack you eventually anyway.

By this time you're already a force to be reckoned with; don't overstretch by getting the HRE/Italian provinces in a rush, you won't be able to defend them. Many small provinces is bad, few big provinces is good ;)

well, this should help some, i reckon. good luck.

blodrast

[Lanemerkel1]

I did better than charlemagne and napoleon combined when I played the french on late first I started training all the best troops I could as quick as I could while building fortifications towers and building up my economy then when I felt safe enough to do so I BLITZKREIGED the english slamming Aquitane with my best troops then once the english were off the mainland I bribed the scots started training highland clansmen there while making temporary peace with england by the time my highlanders got up to a 1000 strong I had a good fleet so i sent an army into ireland taking it without a problem then I started training kerns and gallowglasses there once i had 1000 kerns 1000 gallowglasses and 1000 highlanders I swooped northumbria with highlanders wales with kerns and wessex with gallowglasses took those 3 provinces without a problem I sent a new army of 500 newly trained highlanders from scotland sent them to northumbria while i still had 500 gallowglasses and 500 kerns in ireland i sent the gallowglasses to wessex and the kerns to wales then sent the initial invasion force of what was left of those 3000 men and CRUSHED mercia with NO PROBLEMO all the while of this making chivalric sergeants in ile de france,champagne and lorraine then I used the germans own tactics against them blitzing into germany it took a while to finish that up (17 years) then i had enough men in england that the main force of gallowglasses,kerns and highlanders and i sent them to crush denmark a viola it worked soon i had them down in swiss territory crushin the swiss however they had taken heavy losses by then so i backed them up with CMAAs from burgundy i drove the swiss out of switzerland but they had the province north of it so i blitzed it then i renforced the gallowglasses,kerns and highlanders back up to 3000 strength by bringin in newly trained ones from the ireland and scotland then they marched full strength into italian territory runnin them off the main land i then with an army of CMAAs from aquitaine and provence i blitzed the argonese soon they were done for just after i finished the war with argon my king died and my excomm for invading the HRE was over so i launched a crusade to antioch using my fleets line from toulhouse to the holy lands i enforced it with a army of 5500 strong CMAAs then i was in antioch immedietly and the eggys holding it had no chance then launched another crusade with some 3000 Chivalric Knights to tripoli captured it no problem then i sent one for edessa with some 3000 strong gallowglasses,kerns, and highlanders mixed with some knights templar and hobilars edessa was mine 2 years later once that was done i launched one of seismeic proportions to palistine a total of some 7000 strong roman gladiators (i created that unit myself) also some 1000 order foot soldiers and 500 knights templar ended up in the holy lands once my forces in france were rebuilt and for some reason the spanish excommed i invadied spain but this one was hard a 45 year long war with some 12000 casulties against me however i conquered spain and started rebuilding my forces and getting my funds up then i waited a few years until both sides of the golden horde-russian war had been decimated then i blitzed both pleasing the pope so from my holy stronghold in the mid east i built up my forces by training every type of unit i could and hiring turcopole mercenarys then i finished off the eggys and then looked north and crusaded constaninople which had been taken by the turks from there i used the old sayings SURROUND and conquer and DIVIDE and conquer as by taking constaninople i divided the turks holdings in europe from their ones in turkey and i had them surrounded by having a succesful crusade launched to moldavia which they had then i blitzed into a 32 year long war the turks fought hard but i beat them next on the menu BYZANTIUM i gobbled them up in 2 years i just finished a "world war" the catholics ME,the PAPACY,and what was left of ITALY, vs. the excommed HUNGARY,POLAND,and the ARAGONESE in sicily that was the only 6 nations on the map then and thatwar lasted 67 years with me and the italy sunk the argonese and huns at sea while me and the pope split their land masses then me alone crushed the poles i took what was left of that century to rebuild my shattered economy once it was back up and my forces reconstructed turned on rebel provinces everywhere got them and then smashed the italians off the map crushing them with gusto then i wope out the popesta my arquebusiers making him "HOLY" (in other words full of holes) and that ended my campaign in a big VICTORY

[Spartakus]

Lanemerkel1: You know, your post really needs more than 8 commas to be readable, and then some punctuation, before you divide it nice and orderly into several paragraphs.

In the present condition your text is near impossible to read through. I would like to learn about your campaign as the French, they're one of the more interesting factions with such a dramatic starting location, but I don't think anyone can keep at pace with what you're trying to tell us in that veritable waterfall of words.

[Lanemerkel1]

SPARKATUS is this better? i wrote that in a hury so i didn't take the time to make it readable (for some reason i thought no one would read it)

I did better than charlemagne and napoleon combined when I played the french on late, first I started training all the best troops I could as quick as I could while building fortifications towers and building up my economy then when I felt safe enough to do so I BLITZKREIGED the english, slamming Aquitane with my best troops then once the english were off the mainland I bribed the scots started training highland clansmen there while making temporary peace with england, by the time my highlanders got up to a 1000 strong I had a good fleet so i sent an army into ireland taking it without a problem, then I started training kerns and gallowglasses there once i had 1000 kerns 1000 gallowglasses and 1000 highlanders I swooped northumbria with highlanders wales with kerns and wessex with gallowglasses took those 3 provinces without a problem, I sent a new army of 500 newly trained highlanders from scotland sent them to northumbria while i still had 500 gallowglasses and 500 kerns in ireland i sent the gallowglasses to wessex and the kerns to wales, then sent the initial invasion force of what was left of those 3000 men and CRUSHED mercia with NO PROBLEMO, all the while of this making chivalric sergeants in ile de france,champagne and lorraine, then I used the germans own tactics against them blitzing into germany it took a while to finish that up (17 years) then i had enough men in england that the main force of gallowglasses,kerns and highlanders and i sent them to crush denmark a viola it worked! soon i had them down in swiss territory crushin the swiss, however they had taken heavy losses, by then so i backed them up with CMAAs from burgundy, i drove the swiss out of switzerland but they had the province north of it so i blitzed it then i renforced the gallowglasses,kerns and highlanders back up to 3000 strength by bringin in newly trained ones from ireland and scotland, then they marched full strength into italian territory runnin them off the main land i then with an army of CMAAs from aquitaine and provence, i blitzed the argonese soon they were done for just after i finished the war with argon my king died and my excomm for invading the HRE was over, so i launched a crusade to antioch using my fleets line from toulhouse to the holy lands i enforced it with a army of 5500 strong CMAAs, then i was in antioch immedietly and the eggys holding it had no chance then launched another crusade with some 3000 Chivalric Knights, to tripoli captured it no problem, then i sent one for edessa with some 3000 strong gallowglasses,kerns, and highlanders mixed with some knights templar and hobilars, edessa was mine 2 years later once that was done i launched one of seismeic proportions to palistine a total of some 7000 strong roman gladiators, (i created that unit myself) also some 1000 order foot soldiers and 500 knights templar ended up in the holy lands, once my forces in france were rebuilt and for some reason the spanish got excommed, i invaded spain but this one was hard a 45 year long war with some 12000 casulties against me however i conquered spain and started rebuilding my forces, and getting my funds up then i waited a few years until both sides of the golden horde-russian war had been decimated, then i blitzed both pleasing the pope so from my holy stronghold in the mid east i built up my forces by training every type of unit i could and hiring turcopole mercenarys, then i finished off the eggys and then looked north and crusaded constaninople, which had been taken by the turks from there i used the old sayings SURROUND and conquer and DIVIDE and conquer as by taking constaninople i divided the turks holdings in europe from their ones in turkey and i had them surrounded by having a succesful crusade launched to moldavia which they had then i blitzed into a 32 year long war the turks fought hard but i beat them, next on the menu BYZANTIUM i gobbled them up in 2 years. i just finished a "world war" the catholics ME,the PAPACY,and what was left of ITALY, vs. the excommed HUNGARY,POLAND,and the ARAGONESE in sicily, that was the only 6 nations on the map then and that war lasted 67 years with me and the italy sunk the argonese and huns at sea, while me and the pope split their land masses then me alone crushed the poles, i took what was left of that century to rebuild my shattered economy, once it was back up and my forces reconstructed, turned on rebel provinces everywhere got them and then smashed the italians off the map, crushing them with gusto. then i wope out the popesta my arquebusiers making him "HOLY" (in other words full of holes) and that ended my campaign in a big V for VICTORY!!!!

[Don Corleone]

I've been trying to play as the French: Early, Hard, GA lately. I never realized how challenging the French GA were, quite possibly the most fascinating part of the game I've faced so far.

Beyond the normal homelands, conquest and crusades, you've got to: 1) build a citadel in Tripoli by 1200 2) build a cathedral in Ile de France somewhere between 1150 and 1250.

The 2nd one isn't that big a deal, I'd quit playing if I couldn't do that, but still, I like the historically accurate aspect of building Notre Dame to make France the religious capital of Christendom.

The 1st, however, is a bitch. Think about it for a sec. Assume the Eggys (or the Turks for that matter) don't tech up beyond fort in Tripoli (very likely). That means when you conquer it, you'll knock the fort out. In order to build a citadel, you have to spend 4(fort) + 8(keep) + 12(castle) + 16(citadel) = 40 years!!! prior to 1200. That means you must take Tripoli by 1160, preferably with a crusade.

Now, I don't know about all of you, but personally, I never march my crusades across Europe. I've had one too many go kaplooey on the way, and that is disastrous for morale and influence. So I wait until I build a chain of ships from where I want the crusade to start until I've reached where I intend to drop it. This also doesn't give the target faction 15 years to beef the province up while you're slowly chugging along. You've already declared to them where you're headed, and you might have to fight through all sorts of border territories that weaken your crusade to futility on the way. This takes a LONG time and a lot of cash to build all these ships.

It can be done, but even so, you must keep Italy, Byzantium and Sicily happy. If you tick off one of them, you're toast, because they'll start sinking your ships, possibly putting you past that critical 1159 date.

All in all, very, very interesting. I've taken to roleplaying and quit trying to wipe everyone out, just taking what I need. Makes it harder, but more realistic and more fun.

[Boris of Bohemia]

If you ever finish the krak, I'd like to hear how. Seems like you'd need a chain of luck as long as the chain of ships. You'd need there to be a war between Egypt and somebody else, and you'd need the war to go just so... Once, playing Aragon, Antioch revolted fairly early so I bought it. Might have built a citadel, but couldn't hold the place.

[TwinMfg]

EARLY, GA, NORMAL

I hadn't played the Froggies before, and from reading this thread it seems that building the Krak is rather difficult. Therefore, I decided to give it a shot. I know, I'm playing on normal difficulty, but I'm still relatively new to the game.

I did not want to conquer the world, but rather focus on all the GAs. But I felt it necessary to have a strong starting position in Europe. Therefore, I followed Katank's advice and attacked England on turn one. Normandy, Anjou, and Aquitane fell quickly. Wessex was not much tougher. I bribed the Welsh longbowmen soonest, which were ready to attack Mercia along with my forces in Wessex. The pope gave the stop command when I invaded Wessex. Since I'm playing the good catholic, I stormed the fort in Wessex and stopped there. Ah, but Mercia rebelled and the Brits retreated, so I walked into Mercia. The Brits were down to just Northumbria.

While waiting for the 10 yrs to expire, I build defensive armies consisting of 4 spears, 2 UM, 2 archers, and a 1-2 cav (RKs or Hobs). Toulouse, Brittany, and Wessex build toward ships. Flanders is my cash cow. Other provinces build units, and 40% agriculture.

After the 10 yrs are up, Northumbria and Scotland are mine. Still building ships and pushing them directly to Tripoli so I can crusade. Once Toulouse is pumping boats, it builds a chapter house.

A small delay occurred when HRE attacked Flanders- and only Flanders, the fools! I knew I couldn't win the battle and I didn't have enough room in my fort for all my units. So, I fought a retreating battle, raining arrows from 360 archers into their advancing units. I defeated the first wave, but retreated while their reinforcements were deploying. Next turn, I retook Flanders and invaded Freisland, Lorraine, Bugandy, Prov(whatever is next to Toulouse). I now have a nice 4-province eastern border, and never suffered a slowdown in my ship building.

I had ships in the eastern Med just after 1130 AD. I built a crusade in Toulouse and launched it to Tripoli. The Eggys had a keep there, which I suspected would be reduced to a fort once I secured the province. Well, surprise, surprise! They finished a castle the turn I invade. It is reduced to a keep by the time I'm done fighting (in a very tight battle. See the Praise to the camels thread), but that still saves me 12 yrs, and its only around 1137 AD. I immediately launched another crusade at antioch and will soon do the same to Palestine and Edessa, followed by every other Eggy province. Then the only other GA goal is conquest, so the Turks will be next.