What to build in 'iron' provinces?

[Ironside]

OK, I play as the Hungarians and I have a few provinces that contain iron. What should be built in them? I assume the iron bonus would add the most to sword and pike infantry? Am I right? And I shouldn' t bother with archers and cavalry in them...

What are your thoughts?

IMO flankers need them the most, so cav and flanking inf needs it the most.

Spears are usually mostly there to keep the enemy at bay until flankers can come so killing speed is less relevant for them.
I never give the regular archer line (crossbows, arbs) a weapon bonus (they aren't supposed to be in melee), but I can give it to hybrids.

But I like to give it to all troops if I can (take Spain, take Spain ).

[YAKOBU]

Hi bretwalda

I'm with Ironside on this. I've been on RTW for a while now but remember a few things about MTW still. Iron boosts attack values so use on your swordsmen, knights etc who are offensive. Your spearmen need better defensive values and armour and will not be used on the offensive too often. Likewise you missile units may only need armour as they will not be involved in hand-to-hand fighting. This is a general rule as some missile and spear units can be considered offensive and thereby qualify for iron weapon upgrades.

[Procrustes]

My priority for weapons upgrades is:

Knights / cavalry
Halbediers / axemen
Swordsmen/melee infantry
Spears
Missile units

I give my mounted units weapons upgrades because they’re best bet in a fight is to kill enough enemy on the charge that they route – once they get caught in a melee they just start to die. I upgrade my halb’s, axemen, etc. for similar reasons – they have poor moral and need to kill a lot of men quickly before they route or before the enemy knights can break off for another charge. You can get a lot of use out of cheap armor-piercing units like urban militia, vikings and woodsmen with just a few upgrades that you only have to pay for once. Swordsmen need the upgrades, but I make them wait as they can generally already hold their own against most other melee and sword units.

[bretwalda]

Thanks for the ideas I will stick to them ;) Oh by the way: do you ever do an uber-province that has all the building upgrades?

[Procrustes]

Thanks for the ideas I will stick to them ;) Oh by the way: do you ever do an uber-province that has all the building upgrades?

Sometimes. A couple of the factions have GA goals that include having very teched provinces - Spain and Russia come to mind. When I play as the Danes then Denmark tends to end up with almost everything just because it is the only province that starts with much. IDF always ends up very teched when I play as the French.

I do tend to give my provinces a mix of economic and military upgrades, which means I'm often late on reaching the most current technology. But it is rare that the AI isn't a little late, too - so it tends to help game play.

[Marquis de Said]

Thanks for the ideas I will stick to them ;) Oh by the way: do you ever do an uber-province that has all the building upgrades?

Well, it would be ideal to have an uber-province with all the upgrades, but that can realistically happen only late in the game (and by then you'll be kicking ass anyway).

Usually though, I designate separate provinces for different troop types, so I have mixtures of missile+agent, spear+cavalry, sword+cavalry, halbs/pikemen and navy etc. and one or two provinces for the administrative (title-giving) buildings.

Marquis

[Ironside]

Thanks for the ideas I will stick to them ;) Oh by the way: do you ever do an uber-province that has all the building upgrades?

Yes I do it, but my starting aim is to get all the upgrades for one unit type, but when I'm complete with that I'm starting to get into the other lines.

It takes alot of time though, you begin in early and get this position in late. But getting golden weapon and armour for your entire army is fun though.
16 fully upgraded lancers wreak enourmous havock.

[el_slapper]

(.../...)
16 fully upgraded lancers wreak enourmous havock.

Just try them in the desert..... They're so monstruous that even exhausted they rather hold the line. But even with a 2 for 1 killing ration, this is a waste of talent. OTOH, Golden Clansmen absolutely rule in the desert - as long as you have light cav to purchase those ***** archers.

[Ironside]

Just try them in the desert..... They're so monstruous that even exhausted they rather hold the line. But even with a 2 for 1 killing ration, this is a waste of talent. OTOH, Golden Clansmen absolutely rule in the desert - as long as you have light cav to purchase those ***** archers.

Well I was thinking of a 1 to 95 ratio for my lances (they wasn't even a full stack, and only a four-star general) when putting down a faction re-apearence.

My desert corps usually lacks any extra armour and is planned to lose the first wave and win the rest. The first wave isn't normally exhausted so it's quite strong.

[metatron]

My priority for weapons upgrades is:

Knights / cavalry
Halbediers / axemen
Swordsmen/melee infantry
Spears
Missile units

Archers? Why?

[Procrustes]

Archers? Why?

That's why they're last. (There's a few missiles that aren't too bad in a melee - hand-gunners come to mind. May be worth it with them but I wouldn't make a point out of it.)

[Tribesman]

When I play as the Danes then Denmark tends to end up with almost everything
Procrustes , wouldn't you concentrate on Sweden instead as it has Iron and more better income ?

[Procrustes]

When I play as the Danes then Denmark tends to end up with almost everything
Procrustes , wouldn't you concentrate on Sweden instead as it has Iron and more better income ?

I pretty much set Sweden to build all the economic upgrades first, then go back and build the troop ones. Sweden is a real money-maker.

I give Sweden the highest acumen governor I can find and set it building farms, mines, a port, ship builder, and each successive level of merchant. As soon as I finish everything economic I build the next level castle there and build the next merchant. I may throw an agent building in there along the way, and I use Sweden to build cheap ships and agents while I'm building it's economy. Norway I use to crank out Vikings which become the bulwark of my army - it also gets a port, shipbuilder and merchant. Denmark is my only starting province, and no matter what era you start in it has more stuff at baseline than Sweden or Norway. It just naturally ends up with the troop stuff I can't get to yet in Sweden. (Frustrating not being able to use that Swedish iron, though. Sooner or later I start nibbling at rebel provinces around the Baltic, or picking at the edges of the HRE. Franconia and Bohemia both have iron, you know....)