Fastest you've conquered the world

[weegee]

I'm trying to gauge my progress in my Italian and Danish campaigns. Starting in early for non GA games, what's the earliest year you've hit the 60%, and 100% conquest marks?

[BalkanTourist]

I conquered 100% in 1166 with the Byzantines and I wasn't even really rushing.

[weegee]

wow. I thought I was doing good with about 22 provinces in 1220

[BalkanTourist]

wow. I thought I was doing good with about 22 provinces in 1220

If you want an easy game try the Byzantines. They are really good in Early. Read the Guides about the opening moves with the Byz. Katank has invented some great moves where you capture the Egyptian King for ransom. In my campaign I ransomed him like 4 times for at least 10k, that would effectively put the Egyptians out of the game. Rush the Turks from turn one. Pay attention to the loyalty. Go to Egypt without stopping. Hold Naples and capture Sicily. That would take the Sicilians out (only holding Malta). Sicily is a great place where you can make Byz infantry wich rocks in Early. Take the varangian guard unit in Constantinople and take Serbia, Wallachia, Moldova all the way to the Baltic. Prussia and Pomerania must be yours.That would prevent the Poles from expanding East. Go to Scandinavia. Then turn east and take the steppes. With the viking units from the North, Avar Nobles from Moldova, Bulgarian Brigands from Bulgaria, Varangian guards, Byz. Infantry and the various cavalry Byz gets, you cannot lose. You have to have a system. Assign provinces for certain units i.e. Moldova - Avar Nobles etc. Pay attention to religion.Governors must have at least 4 accumen. First building anywhere you conquer must be the loyalty buildings - watchtowers, border forts, religion buildings, happiness buildings - taverns. Have a spy, a priest and an assasin in every province. Then build the economy - farms, trade and mines. Have something building everywhere every turn. Pump those ships from at least 3 provinces strategically located on the map - east, west Med. Sea, Baltic, Atlantic. It never fails. Good Luck!

[Ironside]

I'm usually quite slow to expand after the first phase, but I do have one game with a quick expand. 17 provinces by 1238 with the Aragonese, starting in high. So 16 provinces conquered in 33 years, when starting from 1 province. Maybe I should finish that game.

[sir_schwick]

Wow, Complete domination by 1166. In a Turk game(Early, Hard) I was playing(HD crashed) I might have gotten that by 1205. If you can pull off a really good Turk rush, then you are set up for some amazing moves.

I ransomed Eggie kind twice, then managed to ransom Byz king once. Kept Egyptians in Egypt so no resurgance. Took Constantinople, Khazar regions with all of ANatolia by 1100. Built navy while sending troops and Jihads up through to Lithuania, having really weakened Poland/Hungary. The Spanish were winning aginast the Almohads, so I sent a decent contingent that got beaten back. But then 10 Jihads allowed me to conquere Iberia as well. Then I used my boats to conquer England. My next move was going to be taking out the Italian peninsula, but then my HD crashed. This was in the 1140s. MOney was starting to get tight, even with full merchant upgrades on Mediterranean property. Hopefully the English provinces would add something.

[CherryDanish]

Nasty. Sounds too busy for my tastes. My best is the Byz 100% on early hard by 1295. In my current Turk campaign I have 4 factions in 11 provinces left and I predict complete domination by 1280, maybe earlier.

[Sardo]

I have never, not once during the 2.5 years that I've been playing this game, reached the 100% mark in Total Domination. When I get big, it gets boring, and I start a new game. Which is why I now play in GA mode only.

Anyway, I've never seen the fun of rushing things and trying to get as much land as possible, as soon as possible. Why the hurry? All the big worries of taking the right provinces in time and using the correct techniques to get as much ransom money as you can would only hurt my head.

I'm slow. I take things easy, I like to build up my own country before burning another. I make it up as I go along, so to speak (though not necessarily without any idea of which way I want to go).

It is around 1220 in my Early/GA/Hard Aragonese campaign, and the recent bribes given out in Norway and Sweden have brought the total count of provinces under my rule up to 9.

[sir_schwick]

The fun part about rushes is that the truly great ones mean fighting some really challenging campaigns and battles. Of course I try to roleplay once I have a base and go after specific landmasses to change their religion or get rid of bad apples within my own.

[Togakure]

I recently managed total domination on an Expert campaign as the Byzantines by 1225. At endgame I had 2 full stacks of Varangian guard and 2 stacks of Kataphraktoi sitting unused as reserves in Constantinople (as well as stacks of Pronoiai, Lancers, Byz Cav, Treb Archers, Byz Inf, and Spearmen), so I imagine I could have accelerated my time if I'd focused on it. My goal was to dominate before the Horde arrived, which I achieved. I get a kick out of building up infrastructures, so I tend to focus on that more than racing to victory. It's fun to have a buttload of really nice troops just kickin' it in the capital, partying and waiting for the call to battle. I get a kick out of seeing them all there. 1166 is damn fast though ... I'll have to see how hard it is to match that.

My standard Byz army stack tends to be something like this (which would not be the case if I were to play MP ...):

40 Kat or Pronoiai (Command)
80 Lancers or Pronoiai
80 Byz Cav or Steppe Heavy Cav (Horse Archers early on)
180 V.Guards
200 Byz Inf
200 Spearmen
180 Treb Archers

When I can I'll hire Italian Light Inf, Feud/Chiv Sergeants, or Order Foot to replace spearmen. Pronoiai are built in Nicacea, Treb Archers in Trebizond, Kats in Constantinople, exclusively for the most part, for +1 valor. I try to have two provinces constantly producing VG, as soon as possible. Simply put, they ROCK.

[_Aetius_]

I dont really like rushing for conquest, I took my time with the Byzantines on expert from early and conquered the map with a year to spare, depends who well the AI does really.

The best thing ive ever done though was with the byzantines late period expert, by 1453 i had reconquered all the territory that had been lost since the early period except georgia and lesser armenia, but had added, Serbia, Crimea, Rum, Wallachia, Moldavia, Hungary, and Rome. That was my absolute favourite experience in MTW VI.

[Zarax]

I don't really like to rush but often i reached 60% with the byzantines before 1205.
After that the game gets boring very fast so i put myself on modding and now i really focus on conquest by crusade which is slower but a lot of fun...

[andy447722]

I reckon you should easily be able to complete from early with any faction well before gunpowder is invented / discovered. So thats by about 1250ish. But where's the fun in missing out on all the high tech units and battles?

[sir_schwick]

I started playing a GA game with the English(first game in a while). Just took all of Western Europe not including Iberia and I stopped eastward at Freisland-Lorraine-Burgundy. I really should wipe out the HRE, but it is more fun to roleplay. Prince Alfred, the only heir, is not very pious and we are excommunicated. His mission will be to cover up his own religious apathy by being the crusader king.

[Patron]

I won at viking invasion by 860 A.D. as the Welsh. I won as the Picts earlier, but I forgot how long it took and I probably took longer. I always play on expert mode, because it's just boring when the AI turns all their spearmen around and puts them in dispersed formation in some moronic attempt to get me to charge into a trap.

I was playing as the english and I got a 66% victory at 1220 or so, but my computer crashed so I had to reinstall and play from the beginning again. I wasn't putting any effort into it though, I decided to waste loads of resources into Aragon so I could get a master metalsmith and I didn't even bother training units with the bonus as the province developped.

I've started again though and I'm going to do everything smart and organised from from the beginning. I'm going to create an elite chivalric knight training factory. 2 provinces producing chivalric knights with the minimum requirements, the knights will be retrained in toulouse which will have a fortress and master metalsmith and toulouse's +1 valour bonus, then they will be sent to aragon to get a +4 weapon bonus. I'll rush conquer the French and Aragonese at the very beginning, by just being a military genius and building loads of hobilars and fyrdmen and the provinces i put loads of florins into will produce royal then feudal knights as they improve, using the same production line to give them armour and weapon bonuses.

[EvilNed]

1207 as the Byzantines. Their campaign is really dull. :/

[Kralizec]

At the 60% mark I usually quit. After that it turns into a game of micromanaging your provinces to prevent 2-5 factions from re-emerging and the like.

Long before that, I usually concentrate on attacking and crippling a few factions, then pull out. This better allows for the factions I leave alone to grow into super powers and build good units (this is my experience at least). I do this just so that I can stage some really great battles with the AI.

[kalifah of watton]

Ive never conquered the world but have had 2 60% victories with the almohads in 1378 and 1321 (on easy conquest).I like the muslim factions best beacause of the mix of troops with a dual purpose,ie ottoman infantry that get their axes out when they run out of ammo.have been playing the game since nov 2004 and find it endlessly facininating in the way a different parallel universe emerges each time.the creators of the game must have done their homework as ive read up on the period as much as possible and i really cant fault the historical accuracy.the org is a great site and have found it very usefull.also nice to see other people have had some of the same problems in the game as me.vaya con dios,
the kalifah of watton.

[Ayachuco]

I never conquered the world, because of the mass rebellions, but i have reached 2/3 by 1148 with the Italians. I came close to 100%, about 98% estimated, with the Byzantines but I never finished it. I am usually slow to conquer, I prefer bribing.