England

**Myth** · 04-30-2010, 14:11

My experience thus far (I have played and still play RTW, but i enjoy Medieveal 2 because it's more refined).

To anyone switching from Rome: TW and/or it's expansions, this game will be better when comparing vanilla vs vanilla (no mods). In RTW as the Brutii for example, i can get 8 or so provinces and from then on i can't seem to spend my gold, even with bribing. Here you will be presesd to find a good balance between gold producing buildings/farms/unit producing buidldings in castles.

Anyway, I am a fand of England as it historically hasn't been conquered since 1066 and their island makes the country very hard to take over If they keep a strong navy (which is recommended). How my campaing has been going so far (playing on my roommate's PC when he isn't home so it will take a good while to finish the game)

I play on VH/VH, latest patch, vanilla game.

I restarted once or twice, once i think because i read some idiot's guide of how "you must build farms ASAP". Yeah that might work in the lower difficulty settings but on VH/VH you need the trade buildings first! I am an agressive player so the first thing i did is (after taking York obviously), vanquishing Scotland. I couldn't take them out in one turn (I had managed to do that during the previous restart) and so i got excomunnicated, which didn't hurt that much.

Scotland had it's faction leader with a very large stack just sit there while i took Edinburgh, and they later turned to an immobile rebel stack. In my first start i had managed to crus them completely, but i had gotten lucky with councin missions and had received 6 units of Mailed Knights and 2 units of Hobilars as rewards, which really helped me overwhelm the other nation's early armies.

Anyway, after securing the whole of the British isles, I set out to continue conquering France. I had taken the two rebel setllements in South-Western France (one is a city, the one below is a Castle, Bordeaux i think). By this point the French and Danish had set their eys on my territories. Too bad for them!

Longbowmen and spear stacks is all i built. Yes, yes i know about cavalry, hammer and anvil and chasing fleeing stacks BUT Mailed Knights are too bloody expensive. I boomed my towns in England, getting ports, roads, markets, farms and merchants on top of those mines and sheep pastures. *note: You can trade from every mine on the campaing map. The one in Ireland is silver, and even if you have not developed it, a decent merchant will make 100+ profit at it.

So with Longbowmen+Spears i started splattering France. Portugal and Denmark debarked with some pitiful stacks that got repelled, but as a note: always keep units in Notthingham. It should be your only castle on England and it is Denmark's prime target of invasion.

Keeping Bordeaux is easy with peasant archers + merc crossbowmen + some spear stacks. It serves as a buffer vs Portugal, Spain and even the Milanese.

Meanwhile, Paris and the other major French cities have been conquered, Paris even had a Thief's Guild built, which was a nice surprise. The Pope had forgiven me, but due to my low standing with him and virutally no missions to build chirches, everyone and their grandma came at me. The Holy Roman Empire, the Milanese, the Spanish, Portugese, Denmark, etc. etc.

The only real threat was the French king with 9 stars and a large French stack near sothern France. Fortunately for me, my own general was 6 or 7 stars at the time, and the enemy attacked before combining the king with the army. The result was them charging uphill at two rows of Longbowmen and spears in the middle and at the flanks. Heroic Victory and then a subsequent chasing down of the lone general unit that is king Philip and his swift execution. So much for France.

The Pope has been getting moody lately and has been slapping me, the Germans and the Danish across the wrists for not palying nice with each other. There have been requests to cease hostilites (to which i oblige. Although Portugal went and attacked me anyway and got themselves excommunicated), but strangely none that would plead for the last two French towns. Inquisitors started chasing princessess around, which was funnny to me. I had married my own princess long ago to a good French general. (turn 3 or so).

The Milanese attacked, a large army lead by their Duke. It took 3 reloads to win the fight with a battered down stack of Longbowmen (2 gold chevrons) and some raggedy spears, but i succeeded! Milanese Crossbowmen are a big pain in the arse with these pavises on their backs, and when they are supported with cav/spers it's really hard to win. Tip for early Longbowmen placement:

IIIII IIIII IIII IIII IIII IIII
xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx
xxx xxx xxx xxxx

x - Longbowmen, IIII - spearmen. Put spikes down obviously and don't use flaming arrows if it's misty, windy or rainy. Only on a clear day, for the first two shots. And remove skirmish mode. If the enemy does not get past your spears he will lose, cav charging at spears and spikes dies eastily, and a sufficiently strong general will keep your stacks from routing. Once his general comes to fight, surround with spears and kill him. That is your chance at winning with an inferior force.

Meanwhile i've been getting very decent family members both as adoptees and as sons. Good governors and good generals all around, and stacks of billment and Longobwmen have been produced to continue with the expansion. Currently the Holy Roman Empire and a second Milanese stack attackd Metz and another border settlement, but they will be easily repelled. I'm thinging i'll consolidate my power first, maybe have my diplomats marry an enemy princess (didn't know i can do that), and stack some crucial cities with missiles/spears before i head on.

**Seamus Fermanagh** · 05-05-2010, 20:02

Nilgard and Myth:

Welcome to the .org!

Stake archers almost seem like a cheat after a while. With correctly placed stakes, you can pretty well murder any cavalry attack on any fortified area -- since you know the routes they'll take and can set up an easy reception.

I'd only add that a couple of Hobilars are cheap to add to your basic mix and get a lot of value for you.

First, they're horses so the enemy will key on them and you can use them as bait to draw them onto your spears while your bows pincushion them.

Second, eliminating routers -- which Hobbies do well -- is a great way to minimize blockades/devestation and other annoying crud that the broken remnants generate.

**Myth** · 05-10-2010, 10:29

Thanks! You are right of course, in RTW i always had stacks of cav, it's just that i find MTW2 to be much less of a goldfest and so i get what's necessary first. No doubt now that i have consolidated some very good provinces and start racking up the incomne i'll get cavalry to mop up retreating armies. But even at the very worst possible scenario, where you can only chase down with your General, you can still have the enemy army disbanded, provided their morale held long enough for them to get heavy casualties when fightings spears/bows. I haven't gotten to a point where i can invest in siege engines and don't know how well they work in regular battles vs units, my Roman heavy onagers helped treamendeaously when i jumped down south and started battling a very well developed Egypt.

I'd assume that medieval balistae and trebuchets will work nicely. On a side note, what is the relation between my papal standing and the catholic nations all ganging up on me? I'm not excommunicated yet nobody wants peace, even the cruddy French who are down to their last one or two provinces.

**dzidek** · 05-13-2010, 12:31

English are tooooooo easy.... :)

And i don't know why... their units ar not OP, but they do have good starting position and after some turns good income.
Trainig a lot of Billmen and Swordsmen will allow you to make Swordsmiths Guild quickly in Caen or Training longows will give you the "Sherwood archers' Guild. I prefer the swordsmiths.

You lack good spears, billmen are next to useless (trashed them with border horse army :/), cavalry is mediocre, artillery is nothing special, longbowmen are not the greatest archers in game, armored swordsmen are like any other DCK clone... and still you take out the competition with ease... why?

well i think, it's all about unit availability... at the time your enemy has some unit you have already a better counter, at least i noticed it....

**Myth** · 05-14-2010, 09:07

It seems to me that the longbowmen line of archers are in fact, the best in the game.

**where's yur troosers** · 05-14-2010, 09:12

With respect England does so well (H/M) because:

1) you have a secure financial powerbase once the British Isles are secured
2) you can expand across the coast from Caen without immediately going to war as the neighbouring settlements are rebel
3) simultaneous expansion into Scandinavia is possible - the Danes can be delayed by placing a ship on one of the land bridges from Denmark
4) longbows are fantastic - easily obtained, reasonably cheap, long range, armour piercing, can fight in a pinch and lay stakes. What more do you want? With Yoeman and Retinue Archers to come it just gets better and better.