Pics & History of your Empire

**PittBull260** · 05-11-2005, 19:40

so dgb hows your war with the spanish going?

**Productivity** · 05-12-2005, 02:50

Originally Posted by PittBull260

so dgb hows your war with the spanish going?

It is on hold unti my war with a calculus assignment is over.

**Patron** · 05-12-2005, 07:55

You can just make it out.

Forgive me if I sound nerdy, but I've been playing this for months. I haven't played it much since I last posted here though.

hmm...

Economic situation.

All Iberian provinces except Valencia and portugal are getting a lot of money for development. The spanish steel provinces are my balls, I train troops in France and England, send them to specialist provinces which build armourers, master weaponmakers and valour bonuses, then send them to spain to get their attack bonus. Currently my specialist provinces are upgrading to fortress and my training grounds are preparing for when I reach the high medieval period, in 1205. I am training feudal seargants and archers with a +1 valour bonus from master spear and bow makers, they also get a +3 armour bonus and just recently a +2 attack bonus. So my feudal seargants are the equivalent of men at arms -1 defense and +1 armour, I think.

I'm sufferring a lot from corruption due to my very high tax level in all subjugated provinces. Some of my high acumen generals have been corrupt and I've had to strip them of their titles send them off as auxillaries into my war zones. I used to only give titles to generals with an acumen of 4, but I've reduced that to 3 because you still get more money. I have a lot of money, but I intend to spend it all as money unspent is money wasted. My navy just about covers every coastal square there is, except around Ireland and Greece with about 1 ship on every square, so if one is destroyed by a storm I could face a lot of trouble. I don't waste time building economic buildings in provinces I use to build military technological buildings.

Political situation.

I'm at peace with the Sicilians, Papacy and Men of Novgorod. I'm at war with everyone else. The super powers are the Byzantines and myself and a distant 3rd and 4th the Poles and Hungarians with strong regional powers. The pope has threatenned to excommunicate me if I attack the Hungarians and the Hungarians are allied with the Byzantines. The Germans will be wiped out in 5 years at most.

Religious situation.

Catholicism is winning out due to my efforts. A combination of invasions spearheaded by crusades and supported by my navy and conventional forces has allowed me to conquer the Baltic, north Africa and the middle east. I upgrade to keep and build a church in provinces which are not catholic, if I have money to spare.

Social situation.

There are many small peasant revolts in landlocked portions of europe. A few have occurred in Anjou and Scotland, Anjou being a province I am developping to train chivalric knights in. Unrest is curiously low in the remains of the Egyptian and Almohad empires, I sometimes leave them empty, there were a few revolts there and an Almohad revival a few years ago, but they consisted entirely of archers, napalm throwers and peasants.

Military situation.

I train all of the 4 basic early medieval units to the most advanced degree my country can allow. Archers, Feudal Seargants, Men at Arms and Knights. I am also training Viking Huscarles in Scandinavia and Denmark and Catapults in Ile de France. When desperate I put some of my annual income into training auxillaries, especially spearmen, slav warriors and steppe cavalry.

The navy is paramount to my military, which explains why there is a gaping hole in central europe and why I've managed to conquer the middle east. I spy on enemy forces using diplomats and bishops and mix and match my newly trained elite troops to counter enemy forces, then send them in. Around 50% of my battles and around 80% of my attacks take place along the coast. My navy has recently destroyed the Byzantine navy in the Black sea and there is no longer a risk of the Byzantines forcing me to spread my troops across the entire coast of the black sea to prevent some large army splitting my territory up.

My Macro strategies consist of my blitzing into easily defended clinch points, such as Greece and Constantinople, or Cordoba or Navarre. This is not happenning in Eastern Europe. I have had to donate a large amount of my forces to defending the long borders in Europe as there is usually no point in raiding provinces I can't keep as I will eventually conquer the provinces and utilise the building there.

For battles I mix and match and I never fight a battle I cannot win and I aim to reduce casualties. I often deal with rebels by placing a unit of Feudal Seargants and Archers on top of a hill, mowing them down and winning the battle with 0 casualties. My larger battles are based around a line of Feudal Seargants with archers in front which move forward to pin enemy forces whilst my knights surround the melee and charge into the enemy's vital troops and generals. I gain the most casualties when assaulting castles I am considerring massing together auxillaries and laying siege to castles instead of assaulting them as I usually do. During an Assault I just knock down the stone walls with my catapults and run my infantry over in a dispersed formation, then close formation and watch the hell for a minute or 2 until there is one enemy lieutenant left who takes another 60 seconds to kill whilst the rest of my troops are cut down by archer fire. I take the keep first of course so less of them get mowed down.

**Patron** · 05-12-2005, 19:04

Sorry about my grammar.. I was just slapping down key points like I do before an essay and didn't bother with eloquence.

**BAD** · 05-13-2005, 21:51

Well I decided to finally give the Byzantines a go in Glorius Acheivement mode. Things started off swimmingly well in Early with all the points for Homelands I could get but they tailed off in High when they all dissapear bar three. That's when I noticed the French and Polish were becoming close competitors in the points.The only way I could solve it was to push north past my northern border of Greece and Constantinople. . . At first I just went on a pillage and raid mission but I evenually ended up keeping the lands and have now pushed up as far as Greater Poland, Austria and Bohemia.

I accidently put the Poles into dissolution through killing off their heirs. . . but then I had the dreaded re-emergence which got swiftly put down and now they survive in Estonia and Livonia. I also annihillated the Pope in the hope that when he comes back he would reappear in the French provinces (after I had given them up), but nooooooooo they reappear in Naples, which I have held for the entire game!

I think his time die again will be soon. . .

But the main reason I posted was because I had the most insane battle last night (well this morning really

), led by my heir no less who I have been trying to school up since he was born with a paltry 2 Dread and 0 Stars.

I will let the screens speak for themselves. 3 Hours Long, and they still hadn't finished bringing on the troops by the end!!!

The pre-battle info

"Ummm. . . Constantinople, we have a problem. . . "

The final scenes

Mwahahahahaha!!!

Prince Manuel, heir to the throne

I couldn't believe it. . . 10,000 men in a regular battle, not a re-emergence or the Horde!!!

I nearly lost it in the first wave aswell I stayed back and held my ground with the basic infantry line and firepower support. Not a good idea, The Chivalric seargeants took all I had and I only managed to wangle it by getting the Hors Archers (of all the troops

) to do some rear charges. For the next waves I took the battle to them with my Cavalry reinforcements, as you can see alot of fertiliser for Polish lands. ^^

Oh yeah I am playing on the XL mod atm. Loving it too.