Danish Campaign

[Zarax]

It depends on what and how much you built, plus if you've conquered enough land to support your army.

[weegee]

Just to keep you guys updated to the state of my world in 1246. Wow! What an incredible half dozen turns or so.

I decided to play it super aggressive and maintained my long border, except that I gave up Pereyaslavl because income was minimal and it required diversion of some much needed troops. Horde came in and pushed Byz out of Khazar. I had two - three stacks of troops on each of Volga, Ryazan, Chernigov, Kiev, Lithuania, and Volhynia.

Horde came after Kiev with about 6 stacks. I put up a good fight and then ended up being seiged. They tried breaking in twice, and succeeded on the second, with great cost. They then stormed into Volyhynia, which I gave up without a fight in order to reset defenses along the border.

So now, on the surface, things are looking bad for me. I'm in a back and forth fight with the English for Franconia. They harass me from time to time in Genoa and Denmark. Even the Papacy tries to backdoor me from Tuscany into Genoa. And to rub salt in the wound, Spain starts sinking my ships. Yikes

I took about 15 minutes to look at the map and realized that slowly but surely I was going to start losing my armies by playing this back and forth game. Problem is that no one else was at war with each other, but pretty much everyone was at war with me. IOW, I was making no money and had gone into red, meanwhile the others could continue to pump out units. So, it was either a massive campaign to try and shorten some of the border lines and cause havoc, or pull back and concentrate.

I went with the first option. In one turn, I struck 1) Poland from Pomerania and Prussia (2 stacks vs 1.5 stacks for them), 2) Volhynia (Horde) from Lithuania (3 stacks vs 3 stacks), 3) Khazar from Volga and Ryazan (3 stacks vs 2), and 4) Pereyaslavl (Rebel) from Chernigov (3 stacks vs. .5 stack).

1) Poland withdrew without a fight to their castle. Pussies!!!
2) Horde withdrew completely to Kiev
3) Huge fight with the Horde on a bridge. Loses were about even, miraculously, 950 me, 850 them, but my troops kept routing. I had more success using swords against thier cavalry, then spears, believe it or not. Maybe the better attack rating. I finally broke through after about 1.5 hours. Then they retreated to castle. Believe it or not, they guarded both bridges.
4) Crushed rebels and set up a good base.

So, on the next turn I consolidated the gains and played out the seiges. Poland tried to sally and send in reinforcements. I got the warning from the Papacy, but good thing is that I killed Polish king in battle and his other 2 provinces turned rebel. Good news here is that I cut border from 2 zones to 1, and eliminated a long time enemy.

Horde from Kiev tried to come to aide of Khazar. Wow, what a battle. This time bridge battle for me. Surprisingly again, the casualties were very even, about 1200 them and 950 me, except their King was killed. So guess what. Rebel factions pop up in their 2 or 3 remaining provinces and no more Horde.

The best news is that England tried one last attempt to take Franconia and were soundly beaten. 1200 casulaties to about 250. I've killed about 3 or 4 English kings over 6 years in the fight for this land. Well, this last one must have brought on much discouragement, because about 4 or 5 of the English 10 provinces turned into Rebel lands.

England, Papacy, and Byz sent either ceasefire or alliance emissaries right away. So, in summary, 2 enemies are now withered to rebels. 1 enemy has been seriously weakened. My income has been improved by rich lands of Khazar and Poland. I will take Kiev in the next turn or two to further shrink my border lines. And then I can focus on Spain and kill them

Problem is going to be making money and getting out of red. The heavy hitters are me about 20% of map, Spain 20%, Hungary 15%, English 10%, Byz 10%, Italy and Sicily 10%, and the rest rebel. Very good and balanced game so far.

[BAD]

Hehe good idea going for the offensive way out (reduces your pay slips ^^). And anyway that makes your borders smaller is a good option. Just be wary because if the Polish and/or Mongols had any heirs that were below 16 years of age when you slaughtered their ruler they may re-emerge when they get to 16. And they will re-emerge with alot of troops. Just one thing to keep in mind .

PS - Yas slaughter the Spanish . . . oh how I dislike them. -_-