England

[Grimmy]

England is in a fantastic position with its multiple secure island provinces. You can sit and build up your infrastructure for as long as you wish without fear of invasion.

For income, England is trade dependant to a large degree. Much of England's trade will be sea-born with the north Europe coastal provinces. This poses a problem when it comes time to expand off the island home territories, for those who like to hold back and build up before expanding.

To counter this problem, it can be useful to plan a 3 step, phased expansion.

Step 1: Take the Danish homeland and the 2 provinces north of that first. You don't have to worry about wiping out the Danish faction at this phase, just take those 3 provinces, soldier them up well enough to ensure their defense and then pause to rebuild your trade infrastructure. Once the trade cash if flowing well enough again, then...

Step 2: have at least 100k in the bank and begin building enough of an army to be able to seize all the northern European coastal provinces from Antwerp to Rennes in one amphibious push. If you can manage it, one full stack of good quality troops for each province. If not then as much of a full stack per province as you can.

Your eastern flank is secure and trade will continue there. The euro coast is your next target so that you can reestablish your trade there, free of blockade and piracy. If you spend the time and loot to build the larger armies, even though the garrisons on the coast will be light, then you'll have enough troops on the continent to react and respond to counter attacks as well as maintain momentum by seizing desired inland provinces or seeking out and destroying enemy force concentrations without having to build crap troops to fill the ranks.

By taking all the coast at once, you minimize the amount of time that trade is disrupted and will begin to recover the costs of the invasion quicker.

Also, you should have nearly enough troops of good quality already on the continent to at least double the number of your provinces without having to rush in building and transporting new troop replacements.

If you plan on using the forces you land with as your main core all the way to finish, you also maximize experience gains along the way.

Anyhoo, this is the method that has worked for me, and given me less headaches in having to pick and choose when to build, what to build, etc as there tends to be sufficient income to just keep building.

Step 3: which I forgot to add earlier is, of course, the continued fight to secure the rest of the continent and battle on to victory. The only thing I'd caution here is to watch out for over expansion and remember to pause in territory acquisitions on occasion to allow for financial infrastructure building to catch up to army maintenance costs.

[Grimmy]

The demi lances that come with the Military Academy in cities make a good replacement for hobilars. They've got better armor than hobs and are still faster than knights so can chase down fleeing generals.

[Rosacrux redux]

Grimmy, I don't think this is a viable strategy. Playing England in my current campaign (H/H) I think the Angles are way too easy and can overcome any difficulty with little or no hassle. Just try to keep a good buddy relationship with the Pope, and you are going to own the continent in no time. My initial expansion was two rebel provinces on the isle, next the three coastal rebel provinces around Caen (Renes, Antwerp and the other Icantremember) and then I wiped out the Scots and secured the isles for good. By that time Germans and Milanese were after me. They both got excommed soon enough and a well-placed crusade got me Hamburg, while I took a couple Milanese cities and gave them... to the pope.

Right now I am in turn 130 or so, I have wiped out the Danes and got their lands, got almost all of the HRE, got half france from the milanese (they took it from the French, who have just three provinces in the south) and the only serious threat appears to be the Mongols - they sacked Byzantium, Egypt and Turks and have now three provinces in Europe, including Constantinople (and a rather impressive Crusade is on its way to the Big City).

I am wondering what a SO STRONG Mongol faction will do against the Timurids...

[Grimmy]

It is viable in as much as those that dont rush to expand will run into financial problems once they start.

Personally, I like to hold off expansion once I've got the islands secure until I have armor factories and the swordmakers guild so that what I produce as troops are what will be there to the end of the game. I dont like messing about with trying to upgrade units in the field or disbanding experienced troops because a better type is now needed.

So, for those that do like to hold off until they're building the best that can be built by England, taking the Danelands first and then rebuilding trade, then taking the French coast and holding until trade is rebuilt again, helps alot in avoiding going bankrupt with the more expensive armies.

For those that like to jump out and expand at the beginning...yeah, this wouldnt help them much at all.

I've never been one to play the TW games as a speed drill. Since I've no one to beat but the AI, I like to take my time and then break out with "best of breed" forces and that gets real expensive, real fast.

[past caring]

Well, I did as I suggested I'd do in my previous post - started a new game and went for a land-grab on the continental rebel provinces first. Basically, this involved taking Rennes with the army in Caen, shipping an army from England to take Antwerp and building another army in Caen to move on Bruges all in the same go.

It worked well, giving me a decent continental base (and trade) early on. I used the army in Nottingham to take York (which has the bonus of limiting Scotland's options to Inverness and Ireland) but otherwise didn't worry about the rest of Britain until I'd secured the continental provinces. When it came to it, Scotland still hadn't moved on Inverness or Ireland, so I took Inverness first then snuffed them out in a pincer move.

Admittedly, this was on M/M and the AI might be a little more aggressive on harder settings. That said, my first campaign was also on M/M and in that game the Danes had taken both Antwerp and Bruges by the time I'd secured Britain.

You'll need to use your king and all available generals to pull it off, as you'll not be able to take Antwerp in the first couple of turns without hiring almost all the available mercenaries - but these can be disbanded as soon as the job is done.

[Skott]

I did a bit of both strategies. I grabbed all I could along the English channel and also grabbed as much of the rebel towns in the British isles. I failed to get Dublin before the Scots did though. Then I sat and built up. I went for Scotland first. I made the mistake of taking too long though and the pope excommunicated me. The best strategy as to take Scotland with two armies all at once before the Pope realizes what you are doing.

Then I turned my attention south. Franze got excommunicated so I concentrated on them. I had an alliance with the Danes and THE HRE. The HRE stayed allied with me till the end. The Danes however attacked me after a while even though I married my princess off to them. Ingrats. No matter. I held Antwerp and they couldnt take it from me even though they tried a few times. The HRE and I worked together on taking out France. Once that happened game was over. I met all my victory conditions for the short game.

England is a good faction to start out learning with. Even if you make mistakes (I made quite a few trying to figure out some tatctics)you are in a good safe position to work from. Especially once you take out the Scots. Basically the strategy is Blitzkrieg, build up, Blitzkrieg, build up, Blitzkrieg. During build ups you build up your economy and troops meanwhile waiting for the Pope to excommunicate someone and then you push your armies forward as fast as possible. Dont fight open field armies. Go straight for the towns and castles. Thats the quick method anyway. If you want to fight open armies you can. It just slows you down though.

I'll come back to England again after a while when I'm ready to do a full campaign but right now I want to try some other short campaign factions first. I'm craving some variety right now.

[hotingzilla]

My strategy on campaign H/ battle VH was very simple. Tech up on cities to gain the most income. If you cannot maintain trade rights with a foreign coastal settlement, just take it otherwise it's no use. I didn't really bother with diplomacy or many other micro stuff. I focused 100% on military and a strong economy. Raised the best longbowmen, some armoured swordsmen and a few knights. I am at around 120 turns with over 60 regions (just not taking Jerusalem in order to play on).

Every turn I was sieging at least 4 settlements so it ended up sweeping up the map quickly. I sack almost every settlement and that almost always bring you 20k florins per settlement ( some can even reach up to 60k). I always try to engage an enemy before they come to besiege me. it's much easier to fight on open plains than behind walls.

For middle-late game I would suggest the following types of troops (listed in decreasing importance):

1. Retinue Longbowmen (+2 exp) (use archers effectively - keeping them alive; shooting the best target and on the best terrain and angle)
2. Armoured Swordsmen (these are cheap to maintain and well round good infantry)
3. Merc Xbow w/ Pavise (excellent meat shield)
4. Sherwood Archers
5. Demi Lancers (great flankers, just don't prolong melee)
6. Culverins, bombards, mortars (the AI taught me the importance of these units)

I personally wouldn't bother with Billmen and English knights (foot or mounted) simply because that they are weak and expensive to maintain respectively.

I got excommunicated soon after I had a strong income and force when I began conquering territory like crazy. The Pope doesn't stand a chance... buried their godly papal forces under arrows and cannon fodder..

[Grimmy]

If, for what ever reason, you are late in expanding (either got held up by a defeat and loss of forces or turtled) then a way to get established on the mainland without getting Pope problems is to target towns and take them in one turn.

Hit the coast with large enough invasion force and the arms necessary to break down a city wall and take it the same turn you set foot on their lands.

It also helps if you have a good diplomat sitting outside Rome to grease some palms with alms and buy your way back up the respect meter.

The same can be done with castles, land and seize in the same turn but those tend to be bloodier and potentially messy so it might be better to take the towns first and the castles in a follow on wave.

But, so far, if I manage to take a town or castle too quickly for the Popes messenger boy to reach me with the "back off or else" letter, then I get no grief for it.