England

[Dalrogad]

Hi guys - What is H/H?

I had 3 awesome battles last night where I won when significantly outnumbered, 2 of them were siege battles, where they came out of the castle - one of those, I ran a company of cavalry to the square after they had all emptied out, and held it for the 3 mins. Awesome.


I have not had any luck with getting those kind of concessions from other factions in diplomacy... Do you guys keep a diplomat with your army?

Also, I have my spies up to 6-7th level, but my diplomats, who I use just as much, or 1-3rd level. WHat can I do to level my diplomats?

[Flavius Gonzo]

H/H means Hard campaign, Hard battle difficulty settings. So H/VH would mean Hard Campaign, Very Hard Battles. The default is M/M I believe. Very useful info because a strategy dominates on E/E might be useless on H/H, etc.

I've gotten tons of mileage out of my diplomats so far. I sent a handful out in different directions so far. My diplo strategy has been to try for the following:

1) Get trade rights with everyone
2) Get alliances with key factions (In particular, the Catholic ones I don't share a border with, and especially the Papal states, to get the Pope-o-meter bonus.)
3) Earn money. On my campaign (H/H) I've found it pretty easy to make money by offering Trade Rights, Alliance & Map Info, in exchange for regular tributes, some times even large ones over several turns. It looks like the AI bases its decisions on how much it will pay based on your relative strength, so if your faction strength is much higher, it looks like the enemy will be willing to pay large amounts to form an alliance. I can't remember specifics, but I think there was more than one faction willing to pay 1000+ for several turns for the privelege of an alliance. I play aggresively though and maintain large armies, so this might not work as well with a builder strategy. I'm also not sure if it's better to go with a big bang negotiation or sell each component (trade, alliance, map) one at a time.

I haven't paid too much attention to how my Diplos are leveling, it seems to me that by the time I march a Diplo all the way to Novgorad or Caesarea, I am going to negotiate with that Diplomat whether or not they are good negotiators.

Also, I don't see much of a point in having a Diplomat travel with an army. It might have an effect on preventing your general from being assassinated, but it's not much else good since your army is a useless large expense unless it is attacking and conquering. A Diplomat can't negotiate for much with a faction you're at war with.

So, my opinion is that the best way to deal with Diplomats is to send several out over the map to shore up trade rights & alliances. It's also handy to keep 1 or 2 at home so they can be used as emissaries for dealing with any foreign diplomats, armies, or princesses that enter your lands. It also comes in handy if you are getting beat badly and need to sue for peace.

[Decker]

Hey guys Im playing on m/m right now and I need some advice on what to do.
*How do you spot a full stack army?
My faction is currently holding Dublin,York, Wales, and Rennes. I have 3 huge armies, one in Caen, one in York, and my 3rd in Dublin(my faction leaders army). I have 2 cardinals spreading the word supported by at least 3-4 priests. I have one diplomat(lvl4) who is stuck in England while my navy is licking its wounds in Caen after 2 bad defeats against rebel fleets. Im still at peace with the Scots and after 40 turns of peace with France they declared war and I have thuroughly thrashed 2 of their armies. I also have peace with Milan and am thinking of making peace with the HRE since they are fighting France too. I have 500 florins (I was bankrupt until I razed Dublin ) in my bank. I have also takin care of 2 rebel armies that just "popped" out of no where in York and Nottingham provinces, has anyone else had this happen to them?

1) Im around turn 45-47(can't remeber) I had just voted for the wrong cardinal(an ally) and the new one Inquidated my best general in Caen . The guy just walked up and just burned him with his army cheering for him to burn. Now my biggest army and best army is leaderless with the French eyeing Caen and my council friends pressing my to take Antwerp.

2) Also I can call to join the first crusade and get back on(hopefully) on the good side with the Pope and I was wondering if this would allow me to "walk" thru Scotland with my 2nd best army lead by my faction leader. Would this be possible? And would it get that Inquisitor off of my back who has set up camp waiting for something that will never come?

3) I was thinking of taking Bordeaux with half of my army from Caen, and then offering it to the Papacy if possible? I am most curious about this one since that Inquisitor probably will not move until something happens.

Thanks for your help, and its a fun game. Plus how many turns/long is the game usually?

[Dalrogad]

Spot full army? - with a spy.

Inquisitor go away because you join crusade? Not sure, but I would be much more concerned about getting from England to where the crusade is. If you don't make progress in the right direction every turn, goodbye army. Also, not that this will help in your current situation, keep in mind that more piety for the inquisitor's target = less chance of him getting burned.

Do whatever you an to get on pope's good side. I have been trying to give gifts to papal states, so far to no effect. Successful crusading gives huge boost to pope o meter.

I am on M/M also, and doing much better now sicnce I restarted campaign and took some advice from here. But I am struggling very badly now to hold my regions (currently largets and most powerful faction on about turn 25). Can't imagine what VH would look like.

[Andrew of Newcastle]

Im a newbie on here but not to the Total war series, as I have owned and played the whole series, like a large majority here I expect. However, im no uber General and actually consider myself pretty pants and just manage to bumble through lol

Im on turn 125 playing the English and again, seem to have a completely different approach to others.

From day one I was put under pressure by the French in Caen. They would come and have a sniff, siege me for a turn or two before backing off and disappearing into the fog of war. I used this time to build up a decent stack of the mixed troops that are available at the beginning. My main concentration was the worrying fact that the majority of the british isles was owned by either rebels or the scots so turned all attentions in this direction. After being told to clear off by the rebel cities using diplomatic means, it was either force or nothing. Something had to be done as those damn heritics were worrying my townsfolk.

I bumbled an army together made up from troops from across the 3 towns owned leaving a minimal guard in each until I knew which, if any, would be seen as easy meat for a wandering band of rebel scum. Fortunatly after a good few turns, the rebels didn’t seem interested and more importantly my townsfolk seemed quite happy with little security and supervision. This enabled me to send my ramshackle army northwards to claim York. Taken within 2 turns the army turned west with wales in the sights. Slightly tougher but still no real challenge for my now confident general.

Diplomacy with the scots didn’t seem to work, they wouldn’t even be friends for a while as I figured a temporary alliance would stay and southward intentions they may have had and bide me time to build up my newly aquired towns. Fortunately they seemed content with trading so I sent my weary army over the irish sea to take Dublin. Again, easy pickings.

By this time my council of nobles and merchants guild had started to get a taste for continental life and asked me to take rebel towns of bordeau and one other (I forget which). Sounds simple but when the fog of war extends all the way up to my caen boundary, the first job was actually finding the towns!!!

After sending my diplomat in completely the wrong direction, I failed to meet the deadline imposed. This happened a few times until I decided that my council didn’t really understand the pressure they were putting my men under so chose to ignore them and concentrated on my campaign of taking the british isles.

This actually included moving all my armies out of Caen and Rhiens and shipping them over to back to Britain. France, as expected took the opportunity from this and marched on my two fortresses, easily suppressing the few units of militia I callously left barrackaded in. With my continental links now severed, I was able to finish off my British isles campaign.

As my towns were developing well (I find it suprisngsly easy to make money compared to previous versions) I took the fight to the dormant scots. A few guys in skirts couldn’t be too hard could it? After all, my all conquering army is now extremely battle hardened and confident. Well…. My complancy was my downfall. Those Scottish guys sure know how to look after their turf. Although they didn’t massacre me, I was sent home with my tail between my legs and a few broken bones. Oh and ¼ of my army left. Time to rethink. After a half a dozen turns sat mulling things over in York, I marched forward with a ¾ stack of fresh lambs to the slaughter. And slaughter it was. Now aware of my impending attacks the scots had hardened themselves, done a few extra push ups and were ready and waiting outside their door. In actual fact, they brought the fight to me as soon as stepped on Scottish soil and we had a decent battle in open ground. Embarrassed once again I returned back to york empty handed and bloodied.

Time to leave them alone for a while I think, so sent a faithful diplomat to Edinburgh to try and restore a few things to bide me some time for a rethink as my forces were now fairly depleted. Fortunatly my diplomat must have appeared arrogant enough to fool them into thinking I was still a threat and they agreed to a ceasefire and reintroduction of trade rights.

I left my Scottish neighbours alone to munch on their haggis, while I licked my wounds and concentrated on building up what resources I did have. If anything, it would shut the whinging pope up for a while who wasn’t overly impressed with my taste for catholic blood. He never really threatened to excommunicate me as I had quite a number of priests and cardinals by this point who were doing the lords work in the cities I did control.

This was actually a move that paid dividends as the relaxed scots, secure in their false impression I would leave them alone, marched northwards and took the rebel town of Inverness. This left them very overstretched and spread thinly. I seized the opportunity and within a few turns, I had a fresh army banging on the gate of Edinburgh. With a hastily recoiling pile of Scottish stacks heading back south to counter my offensive on Edinburgh, it was under my control before they even had the city on the horizon. Taking Inverness after this was a walk in the park and the deflated and broken scots fell easily before dispearing into the highlands and any official trace of the once mighty haggis eaters now in the past. The British isles was mine. And it felt good.

After the parties had died down, I was actually rewarded not long after with one of my cardinals being voted in as Pope. However, this little upstart soon forget who put him their in the first place and showed little regard for his English heritage as he condemned my march over the English channel to give the French some pay back for exploiting my poorly defended French cities. As enough time had passed that gunpowder had been invented, my generals seemed to get a little overexcited by the new technology and went a little overboard on recruiting bomdards and cannons. In hindsight, it wasn’t a bad thing as my show of flamboyance with the gunpowder arts was enough to scare the French into handing over both Caen and Angers with only the threat of offensive action.

A shrewd move to stay any reprisals by asking them to be friends again (my diplomat assured me he had his fingers crossed at the time) has given me a little time to strengthen these citadels into my main battle HQ of the mainland. Little do the French know of my future plans. I think the Spanish do though as they has sent an eager messenger to offer friendship and an alliance, which I accepted.

That’s where I am at the moment. Ive no doubt there will a be a few blooded noses on the horizon and I know my progress is slow, but im definitely enjoying myself.

[Glacierise]

Hi guys,

I am playing England too, already got through the short campaign

My approach: The begining is clear - conquer the isles. Then I faced south, and waged war with France. The pope didn't like it, and I got quite beaten by the damn inquisitors - they kill my best generals, even a king! And the funny thing is, almost all the popes have been elected from my cardinals! I start off well with them, but it turns out bad afterwards. To get your men elected pope - place priests in places with lower catholic poppulation, so the priest converts, and burn heretics!

I also accepted crusades - this was the coolest portion of my game - the battles were awesome, this is a whole another story. But the crusader units are brutal! As soon as I conquered Antioch, I got into war with Turkey, and won a fortress. From there, I built an army, and spreaded into the rest of their lands - they have nothing to put against my knights! I keep an alliance with Egypt, and crushed France relatively late (had reduced them to a single town for a long time). Of course, when I became very powerfull, The danes, milanese and sicilians declared war. I succeeded in thwarting their attacks, but now the HRE is probing me too... From another crusade, I won Tunisia, so now I am having a base of operations against Sicily too...

The game is turning great! Fighting both muslim and catholics, very diverse and tense. Difficulty is H/H.

Have a great time!

[nameless]

Something interesting I found when doing an experiment as england on M/VH
before waiting for the patch but it shouldn't matter when it comes out.

The council of nobles will provide you with missions that usually provides you with mailed knights and I found that early in the game, mailed knights are very very useful, especially against the scottish and rebels. Ratio in my armies were at least 10:10 with levy spearmen and archers which are easy to get. You can quickly build up armies this way.

Priority first is to take control of the English isles ASAP. That means conquering all nearby rebel settlements as quickly as possible including Dublin. Another good idea is to send your princess down to France and marry to solidfy an alliance with them.

At the same time, have your continental army take control of all of the surrounding rebel towns. Once your alliance is made with France, you should be okay for the time being so long as you maintain decent garrisons. Which I should also add the rebel towns are quite strong so you'll need to either starve them out or increase the army's strength.

I decided to turn the continental settlements into fortresses since their the most vulnerable. I gathered whatever remaining troops I had in England and launched an assault as quickly as possible on the Scottish main captial. The Scots had been passive for the first 14 turns by building up their forces and readying to attack the other rebel town up north so the captial was weakly guarded by two generals and spearmen. I had a spy open the gates and quickly attacked the first turn. I sent militia spearmen to wear down the generals before sending in the levy spearmen followed by 10 mailed knights.

As a result I wiped out the Scottish without angering the Papacy since it was quick and short. Eventually the last rebel town will be taken in the next few turns. At this point, I made sure that all settlements in the English isles were turned into cities since they are the most safest. By Turn 15 I had control over England with cities pumping out money and the 3-4 continental settlements acting as fortresses and the Pope loves me the most.

I quitted the game as this was an experiment but I found that due to the speed, the HRE was keeping the Danish busy which left the two rebel towns up north of it open for the taking. If you can take these towns quickly, you'll add onto more, you'll receive greater control over the northern sea and areas remote enough to keep it safe. Plus, you can wipe out the Danish which should be weak by pulling the same strategy, either with siege weapons or a spy to open the gates. If you can wipe them out in one turn, the Pope won't mind.

This allows you to assert dominance in the north western section of the map which is a good position to start out from.

[Kekvit Irae]

All posts must contribute some useful information, ideas or strategy to the topic in hand. Any posts which do not run the risk of being deleted in order to keep the theads on topic. This is not the place to chat about your campaigns, or to cheer on other players; you may do that to your heart's content in main M2TW forum. Strictly no spamming allowed.

AKA, this is not a board for discussion. This is a board for tactics and strategy. Discussions on billmen and their usefulness can be directed toward the main M2TW board.

[kvbrock82]

EDIT.... ive just read that this is probably not of any real tactical benefit to members so my apologies and please move it to the general section if needs be

actually i found it quite an entertaining read as im going through the same ups and downs heh