Spain

[TeutonicKnight]

I don't know yet. I started a new game with Spain last night after dowloading the leaked 1.02 beta patch. I'll know in a few days time I guess.

[Quillan]

They can have two armor upgrades, and it's been found that the stats shown on the display are deceiving. The armor upgrades work correctly, Tercio with both upgrades are shown wearing half plate, and even though the game says they have an armor rating of 2 (or whatever it is) they get comparable protection to partial plate. The Tercios are not the best pikemen in the game; Swiss Mercenary Pike are better, Flemish Mercenary Pike are arguably better, and Portuguese Aventuros are better. However, all of the above are impetuous, while the Tercio pike are not. Spain also gets musketeers, one of the few factions that get musketeers in the unmodified game.

[gigabites]

Guys,You might not going to believe this. But the first region i took is... The one and only, Valencia
First time I played the game, I siege it for 1 turn and then assault it in the next turn... Which turned out to be a bad idea...

This is how I did it in my next attempt. Gather up several Mailed Knights, Archers and Spearmen and then siege Valencia...
Keep on sieging it until it ran out of resource... I noticed that the longer I sieged Valencia, their army size decreases. While you're at it, keep on reinforcing your sieging army. I managed to gather 3 spearmen, 2 archers, 2 Jinetes, 5 Mailed Knights, and 2 Generals (I got 1 from marrying a princess).

One turn before it fell, The besieged army attacks my sieging army, I choose to fight it on the battle map.
Luckily, the computer deployed my forces in a very good order (when a besieged army attacks a sieging army,the computer dont give the besieging army time to deploy their forces). From left to right: Generals, Jinete, Mailed Knights, Spearmen, Archers, Jinete, Mailed Knights.
I quickly positioned my Archers behind my Spearmen and told them to fire at will with flaming arrows.

The battle is somewhat short... The first unit that came out of the gate was Javelinmen and Jinetes. They quickly attacked both of my flanks. I charged them with 1 of My Mailed Knights and showered them with My Jinetes on each flank. When the rest of their troops got out, I just charged them on the side with the rest of My Mailed Knights.
El Cid, stupidly, trying to get a piece of my archers (I think), charged on my stationary Spearmen. (no patch installed hehe... ) I sent the rest of my Spearmen to attack El Cid & his bodyguard from all sides. Seeing My Generals bored doing nothing, I send them to attack El Cid as well...
After El Cid is history, I sent My Generals & Spearmen to charge the rest of his forces, which decided to rout after a short fight.

Thats how I got Valencia. After that, Zaragoza is just like a walk in the park... Oh, and in my game, Portugal didnt beat me to Zaragoza. They do have a half stack army, but it's just running around in circles next to their port...

Now i'm in the sixty-something turn... Mongols starts to invade... and i'm now the largest faction with highest population.
Regions I owned:
*Iberian peninsula except Lisabon (I allied with Portugal just to evade war on 2 fronts) and Granada (next target);
*a few French Cities (Tolouse & Marseile-do I spell it correctly? ,i think i have another 1, but I forgot what it is... )
*Cairo & Alexandria (Crusader forces that never get to Jerusalem because Crusade is already over, already captured by Holy Roman Empire)
*Tunis... Another Crusader force, that was meant to go to Antioch

Cheers...

[Zim]

I just started a Spanish campaign on VH/VH today and I just conquered all of Iberia except the Portuguese starting settlements and Zaragosa. I have only two cities and three castles(Toledo, Valencia, and Grenada). I'm thinking that I should turn at least one of them into a city. Toledo is my best castle by far, and doesn't border the sea(no port ), but Valencia and Grenada don't seem to have much in the way of resources. Does anyone know if either of them produces much more in trade as a city?

[MStumm]

Toledo is my best castle by far, and doesn't border the sea(no port ), but Valencia and Grenada don't seem to have much in the way of resources.

Toledo does have a port. Its on the northern Iberian coast to the left of Leon.

In my campaign I turned both Grenada and Valencia into cities and used Toledo and Pampalona as castles. Later (after taking over France and Italy) I converted all Iberian settlements into cities. To answer your question Valencia and Grenada were much poorer than other cities. Now they bring about 2000f each without governor compared to 3000+f from other Iberian cities.

[MStumm]

to the left of Leon.

I am referring to the "other left" here. Also known as "right" in some circles.

[CMcMahon]

I'm at turn... 87, I think, in my Spanish campaign right now. Thus far, I've knocked the Moops (No, it clearly says "The Moops!"), Portugal, and France out of the game, in that order, and am working on taking out Sicily and Milan, which should be semi-easy, if I hadn't taken over half of Egypt early in the game in a crusade, and (to save cash) razed all the buildings in the cities I took before gifting them to Milan. Anyway...

I could go through how I went about it, but all I really have to say is this: every army should be half jinetes, at least until you can start getting KOT and chivalric knights.I have a tactic that pretty much works without fail, as long as you don't choose a wooded area, and the armies are closely enough matched that the enemy will march on you:

1) Set up your infantry in a straight line, general dead center in the back, with any mailed/feudal knights or missile infantry on the flanks. You want them as far back as the map will allow, in order to tire out the enemy as much as possible. These units will NOT move until the enemy general(s) are dead, and half their units are routed.

2) Set up your jinetes in single file formation, off to whatever side the enemy won't be coming from, preferably behind a hill or a stand of trees.

3) Start battle.

4) Walk your jinetes around the enemy, and pull in straight from behind. Turn off skirmish mode, auto-fire, and cantabrian circle. Individually have each unit attack the general unit. Since you're nailing them from behind, they usually won't turn around at all, and usually will be dead before they even have a chance to rout (and, even if they did, they'd have to run through all of your jinetes to begin with). Now start pounding away at whatever units look the strongest with your jinetes, since they're all going for your "heavy" units (the infantry and mailed knights and general), they usually won't turn around.

5.1) If they turn around, charge right into them, as long as they dont have spears. Go two on one if possible, and have one group swing around from the side.

5.2) If they don't turn around, keep killing until you run out of javelins. Then pull your units back a bit, and charge. But don't aim at units... just set all of your jinetes to run straight back at your general, through the the enemy units (who should be fairly close to your infantry line now). Now have your heavy cavalry swoop oin from the sides, while your infantry marches headon.

Works every time, at least for me.

[lar]

I dont have much of an early strategy, portugal kicked the moors out of iberia for me and then i took out all of portugal and kept iberia for myself, i think the pope may have excommunicated them instead of me allowing me to get it easy enough.

then i didnt expand anywhere too afraid to go into europe and africa didnt really seem worth it so i built some forces and waited till i got to the new world. but when i pretty much got there i was using all my finance to keep my armys there so i could take it all and use the gold to fund me back in europe then go on a rampage, but the french germans and english all attacked me and made a big alliance so i had to hold them off i managed ok since it was only the french who really attacked me much and i then acquired a ceasefire with england and i took most of france but the inner most provinces.

i now have all america but the aztec part and the alliance against me isnt going anywhere so im gonna take rest of america get some cash and take out the rest of them, all 3 of them got excommunicated lol.


my armys consist of musketeers, tercio pikemen and cannons. there great to use in field battles and i usualy wait out sieges so i can take them out when they run out the gates.

[Malkut]

I started a new campaign as Holy Spain, and have almost won the short game by turn 40. This game has shown me that a good start is an aggressive one, don't attack rebel settlements when there are developed faction settlements you could have, and that sometimes, it worth it to tell the Pope to shove it.

Corboda is the most advanced city in Iberia, and is lightly guarded. Gather everything you can on the first turn, infiltrate it with your spy, add a few Jinetes if you aren’t feeling lucky, and go sack it first thing. Doing so with throw the Moors into disarray.

While you’re doing that, tell your diplomat to head towards Rome as fast as his feet will carry him. Begin building up a fleet in Leon, and get a few ships down to the Strait of Gibraltar to block off the Moorish reinforcements. Keep your fleet in good shape, and put a spy on the African side of the strait to monitor enemy troop movements.

The very second after you've blockaded the crossing point near Gibralter, immediately attack Portugal. They are worthless as allies and must die in order for you to with the short campaign. Ignore any excommunication warnings. If you get lucky, you’ll drive them right out of existence. If not, at least they’ll be off your peninsula. If you don't get a "faction destroyed" message, than they're either in Rennes or Wales.

Rush all the forces you can spare to the Pyrenees, and block off all access to the Iberian Peninsula. If you got your forces in place and your diplomat to Rome in time, you can probably buy reconciliation from the Pope before the French get a chance to seriously move on you. Once you’ve bought the Pope’s protection, the French are unlikely to mount a serious invasion. Keep you fleet in Gibralter supplied with regular infusions of fresh ships and repair battle damaged units when you can.

With no way to sneak in or out of your territory, you’ve bought the time you need to consolidate and really get your economy humming. Disband extra troops and build every economy building you get. You’ll be an economic powerhouse in no time.

Once you’re really in the Pope’s good graces, call for a crusade on Marrakesh. You’re sure to beat everyone to the punch, and it’s something you were going to do anyway, so it’s like getting rewarded for free. France and North Africa are both wide open spaces, so use Jinete-heavy armies, and you’ll be unstoppable.

[venex]

I started out by taking out the rebels in the peninsula and making potugal my ally. I got the Portugese to go to war with France, while I myself tried to maintain a status quo between portugal in France: attacking French forces outside of settlements, the portugese never seemed to be capable of making a siege succeed and thus France never got to attack me nor did Portugal grow too powerfull...I never was at a constant state of war with France though:
I would attack moving French armies, and then send an emissary to propose a caesefire, in the beginning this was pretty costly but eventually I cound get away with demanding maney for a caesefire and over time I even got them to give up Marseille and Toulouse :)

The pope never copmlained, because I never remained in a state of war with France for long, in the contrary: he eventually excomunitacted France (for going to war with the English I presume)

meanwhile my relationship with the pope was great because in concentrated the bigger part of my forces on fighting the Moors:
I completely destroyed the faction, all of North africa (Marrakesh - Alexandria) is mine, this enabeld me to have lots of priests converting people and thus becoming cardinals (all of the popes have been mine lately) + I got credit for completing 3 crusades I requested against the Moors (on Cordoba, Marrakesh and Alexandria). All of this took lots of turns though, getting a full stack organized to make the final assault on Alexandria took forever...

With this done I took the two rebel Islands of Corsica and Sardinia. The King of Sicily also died leaving no heirs, thus turning Sicily and Naples into rebel provinces which I took.
I then set my sights on
1) The still excommunicated French.
2) The scottish. The English haven't been very succesfull and merely have 3 provinces left: Wales and 2 provinces on the european mainland. So I sent 2 army's to invade Ireland and England. I took Dublin, London, York and Nottingham; then the pope told me to cease hostilities with the scottish

So now I'm about tu utterly destroy the French, who have only 2 provinces left with pretty weak garrisons in them, when that's done I'll continue my conquest of the Brittish Isles...
After that? Oh I don't know yet, maybe attack the Egytians, though I don't like going further east: I've had no trouble with the Mongols so far, and I'd like to avoid them a bit longer
On the other hand taking Jerusalem IS a campaign objective of mine, so I'll have to go there sooner or later anyway...my forces in Africa are pretty preoccupied with chasing several bands of rebels in the desert anyway.


P.S.: As for my highly succesfull campaign in North-Africa:
jinettes + artillery are absolutely superiour in the open desert

[Mete Han]

If I exterminate the populace of the cristian cities I capture will I be excommunicated? If so how can you prevent revolts in the cities you capture without exterminating?

[venex]

You won't get excommunicated for exterminating the populace of a captured settlement..

And you can keep the people from rebelling by lowering taxes, increasing the number of troops garrisoned in the settlement, constructing buildings that increase public order/happiness/health/etc., keeping religious unrest to a minimum (building churches, or not...), etc. etc.

[sir smudge]

Ok I've been playing on and off for a while and this is where i have gotten up to playing on med/med.

I first started by takeing the rebel citys with the idea of leaving the Portogease alone and forcing the Moors out of Spain. but strangly enouth the Portogease attacked me so fair nuff i says and wipe them out . then befor i get a chance to attack the Moors the French attack me so of i go and take the two citys the other side if the Piranees which i then give to the Pope to make my northern border safe so then i can get around to killing the Moors, Who by the way have been quite happy to sit there while my so called Christian brothers try and kill me.

So anyway I claer out Spain and then start working on north Africa destroying the Moors. meanwhile I sent a crusade to Jerusalum which is held by the Mongles. now these blokes are tough! their the only faction that has given me porse and so far altough my armys win the inital battle it always seems that there are like three other Mongle armys waiting in the wings. Who then come along and kick my butt

so heres my plan I'm building up a number of armys who will then all be sent off to the Holy land at the same time. I'm hopeing this might stand up to the Mongles.then time permiting i'll take England if they get exed again and then on to sunny south America.

One thing I have notice is that the Spanish pikemen and the sword and buckler chaps suck! they die supper quick in a fight any one else notice this?

[Benandorf]

One thing I have notice is that the Spanish pikemen and the sword and buckler chaps suck! they die supper quick in a fight any one else notice this?

I have to disagree about the Pikemen; they seem to be very good at what pikemen are supposed to do. However, unless I'm missing something, Sword and Buckler Men are completely outclassed by units you get before them. Is there something I'm missing, or should I just stay with Chivalric Knights and forget about S&B Men?

On that note, why does everyone say Proffesional Gendarmes are so great? From my experience and the looks of their stats, they're quite mediocre, and outclassed by Chivalric Knights. Same for Knights of Santiago. So what is it that I'm missing?

[sir smudge]

I have to disagree about the Pikemen; they seem to be very good at what pikemen are supposed to do.

I found that up against the mongols they got creamed by their cav so unless thats using them wrong then personally I'm going to stick with earlyer units that seem to fair better in a fight.

[Quillan]

Personally I love the Tercio and the S&B guys. Everything tends to get creamed by Mongol cavalry, so don't use that as a measuring stick of quality. Sword & Buckler men are less armored than dismounted knights, but faster moving (slightly) and cheaper with superb combat capability. As Spain, by the time Gunpower rolls around, I usually start a full transition over. My late armies are a core of Tercio pike with a large element of S&B men and musketeers, a couple of cannons, 1-2 units of heavy cavalry (bodyguards, knights or gendarmes) and 2 heavy cannons (culverins or basilisks). They worked quite well for me, but I never faced the Mongols either.

[Captain Pugwash]

Playing spain for the first time.

How / when do conquistors arrive.

Does the heavy armoury (top level) serve any purpose? as it seems nothing requires what it produces.

whats the best troops to take on the mongols.

ta

[Iavorios]

The conquistadors are available only in the new world (that means after turn 160), from towns, citys and so on. But any way the DCK are way better, so really you don't need them in the old world. As for the armor, you need only master armororer, for upgrades, but if are rasing for the swordsmith HQ you will need the factory. The mongols are problem. In fact the only weakness that Spain has in this game is the lack of heavy spearmen. And you will need spears against the mongols, so most probable use merks or crusader ones, since you don't have any (exept militia but these won't do). Also you can use tercio pikemen. They will die like flies from the arrows, but you have many. Basically use CK, DCK, spears or pikemen and passive crossbowmen. O, or muskets if you can. They rule. There is a lot of topics on how to fight mongols and timurids here, so search.

[ixidor]

I am playing Spain in H/VH. I am in the turn 48 i think and Right now i conquered all the Iberian Peninsula (the portuguese survived though, they still have Bordeaux settlement), destroy the Moors, got Timbuktu (and start getting all the money i can from my merchs) and went right ot Sicily. I decided to close my borders in the Pirineus and use Africa as base instead. Right now i took Tunis, Naples and Palermo, destroying the Sicily. Milan attacked me so i took Cagliari from them. I also bought Bolonha from the HRE for 15k but it worth it since it's one less enemy to fight right now, it was full of spear militias and will very good to make milan's life in hell. The pope is spanish right now and it's very young in fact, 38 years old i think. His nomination was quite funny since he was not even cardinal until the election (even though he had 8 piety for converting moors to good christians), and then, just like that, he was elected cardinal AND pope in the same turn... Anyway, i got Palermo with my spies and with few casualties, and guess what, i got a Citadel, something i had not, in fact i had not even a Fortress yet. I will use the citadel to produce my sword and buckler man, pavise crossbowen and chilvary knights.

Also, my tactics are based in heavy cavalry only. Why? In 2 missions for the nobles' council i got 4 knights of santiago, ah, i forgot to tell, i did a crusade to marakesh and so i got this guild in Leon and Lisbon, and after got Palermo i got more 4 Chilvarics Knights. Also, i bought Tunis from Venice, to avoid fight them since our trade gaves me so much money (and it was quite cheap, 3k from a settlement that is giving me more then 1k per turn...) i got 5 extra mailed knights units, so with all these knights, my tactics are based in 1 deadly charge followed by a massive routing and tons of prisioners, lol.

Now i will hit Milan hard in his heart, i will attack Genoa and Milan in the same turn. The pope will complain about it but without these 2 cities Milan is reduced to Florence and Ajjacio, so hardly an opponent for me after that. The only problem right now is Milan's navy, who is protecting their costs quite well. Without it i would have destroyed them already. Mighty naval battles are happen in the Mediterranean Sea right now, but it's only a matter of time until i break through Genoa (i don't want to risk my king and a full stack until i have destroyed most of his navy).

As soon as a get Milan and Genoa i will start expanding North, from Pirineus. I will give the final blow in Portugal, take Toulose and Marselha. Then, after getting all Italy for me and kicking Venice' ass out of Italy i will attack the HRE and the North of France at the same time. I am not counting to see the Mongols right now since they still have some factions to play against but if they come this way i will just guard my bridges and cities with full stackes and lots of Pavise Crossbowmen and Sword and Bucler Men, avoiding the open field.

[erandur]

Just starting a Spanish campaign after playing through as the Scots my first impressions are thats its actually pretty easy. On H/H went up to Zaragoza, waited a turn for portugal to fail and then took it after. Then using my spy I had a look at Pamplona. General and two militia spearmen. Easy spy opens the gates and take on the same turn.

Then it gets interesting. A large Portugal army shows up at the other side of the bridge leading into Pamplona. Now from experience bridge battles=slaughtered A.I. And I'm right. A semi circle of merc spears + militia spears and Jinettes on the surrounding hills gets me about 60 losses 180 kills and something like 460 prisoners. I ransom them for a laugh and Portugal pays all 4,000 florins

I decide to be adventurous and march to Lisbon. End up on a bridge and decide to park myself there for the time being. I train up another army in Toledo army to stop the French getting any Ideas. What do you know? half a stack comes merrily wandering down through the mountains and gets massacered by Jinettes.

Meanwhile my economy is utterly stagnant and making 79 florins profit so its time for Lisbon. What do you know? His holiness excoms Portugal as well. Then something truly sad happens. My main army is parked on a bridge with the exact same compostition except Jinettes with new javelins and retrained spearmen. The prisoners of last battle attack me on the bridge with reinforcements from Lisbon and the exact same thing happens. Semi circle of spears and Jinettes lobbing javelins. Lisbon is left with a pathetic garrison and I take it with no fuss.

In summation: Hardline on Portugal early, don't let them consolidate and get real armies together. Bridge battles, people say its an A.I exploit as it really has no clue what its doing but I call it tactics. Theyre an easy way to crush armies with no real losses.

Now I reckon I'm set going to sack Corduba to kickstart my eco and block the landbridge to africa. It looks set to be a fun campaign. I'm probably going to get to fight the Mongols now.

[Negator_UK]

Playing Spain, VH/VH - long game.

Game going explosively well due to a few things.

1. Moors leave Corduba unguarded on third-ish turn - Ta very much.

2. Crusade - AWESOME - was forced to put my heir in a crusade by ther pope (god bless the pope !!). Never normally like Crusades, but started anyway just south of Corduba. By progressing eastward slowly the crusading army took Granada, Valencia, Algiers, Tunis, Cagliari, Tripoli, Rhodes Acre and Jerusalem - Yes even after all that Crusade-abuse my heir still managed to be a hero and complete the crusade

3. Built a ballista-maker in one of my towns very early. Now I can attack and take a catholic settlement in one turn which is quite cool early in the game as it stops the pope intervening until AFTER the town is yours. Meanwhile anyone who besieges and takes my towns in two turns often gets excommunicated.

I chose Spain because I want to see the new world portion of the game (never seen it yet) but I am concerned I may complete the game without activating it.

So my question is :- How do I make sure the new world is discovered/unlocked as soon as possible ???

[Monsieur Alphonse]

You have to change the date in descr_events. The date is in years. This will only take effect with a new campaign.

[Negator_UK]

You have to change the date in descr_events. The date is in years. This will only take effect with a new campaign.

I don't want to hack my game - Do you mean that the appearence of the new world is a fixed date ?? - what about all these exploreres guilds I am paying for - don't they have any effect ??

[Quillan]

No effect whatsoever. Events like that occur at fixed dates, rather than at random. If you don't want to "hack" the game, as you put it, and you don't want to win the game before the New World is discovered, then just get to a certain point and turtle up. If you decide to do this, then I recommend the following course of action to you:

1) Give Jerusalem to the Papal States. Holding it will entail a lot of work and expense. Make nice with His Holiness and let him deal with it.

2) Make sure you own the entirety of the Iberian Peninsula, but stop your expansion at the Pyrenees Mountains. This will give you a natural and easily defended border.

3) Take all of Africa. There is an impassable land barrier in Libya in this game (unless you're using a modified map) so only sea invasions would be possible.

This will leave you with a large and fairly profitable empire without putting you so far in the lead that everyone is likely to hate you. You'll need to control bandits in Africa, defend your border with France, and defend your island territories, but you should be safe there.

[Negator_UK]

Too late, I just won the game ;-(

I'm going to carry on and see the new world anyway, it should activate if it really is bound by date (what date is it discovered then, or turn no ?).

I did give jerusalem to the pope, after taking Rome :-))
I'm now his favourite pupil again. The papal states are now Acre and Rome, so The Mongols at Antioch can't touch me without attacking the pope and I don't think the AI does that, even for an Islamic nation, (would be nice if it wasn't that stupid, but I think it is.).

Most of my western European enemies are destroyed, Denmark is the westernmost nation left, apart from 1 regoin of the HRE, So i'm quire safe as long as I keep my eyes open.

If explorer guilds don't bring on the new world, what do they do ?? They better do something because they cost money !!

[Benandorf]

They add to trade I believe, as well as give a universal movement bonus at higher levels of the guild (master and HQ). Probably the best guild, IMHO.

I believe the new world is discovered around turn 160, right around the year 1400. Or it may be 1420. But it's close to there.

[Negator_UK]

If they do that then its probably money well spent ;-)

It seems strange that the game only gives you that extension after turn 160, which is about 75% through the game. It means the discovery of the new world can't really affect the outcome of the european war since by turn 160 you've either broken the back of the game or it's broken you.

Thanks for the info, I'll look forward to turn 160 and have the fleets ready ;-))

[Quillan]

You can't. The event that triggers it (The World is Round) enables the building of a new class of ships, and only those ships can cross the ocean. You can have the military ready to go, but you'll still have to build the ships - and possibly the ports to build the ships as well - when that happens.

[Negator_UK]

Thanks.

That saved a few virtual tree's ;-))

Not to mention running costs for all those white elephants.

Currently enduring the plague, which I guess is necessary for me to be able to pass it onto the aztecs.

[Benandorf]

You're right, the New World doesn't really play in to it. It's just a nice way to flee the Timurids if you can't beat them. You'll lose eventually, but at least you won't be destroyed.