Scotland

[frogbeastegg]

Scotland needs to be unlocked before you can play as them. To do this you can either complete a campaign (on any difficutly, long or short setting) with one of the five starting factions, or you can edit the preferences file. To do this open your Sega/M2TW folder/data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign, find the file called "descr_strat" and open it with wordpad. Now find the section which says

campaign      imperial_campaign
playable
   england
   france
   hre
   spain
   venice
end
unlockable
   sicily
   milan
   scotland
   byzantium
   russia
   moors
   turks
   egypt
   denmark
   portugal
   poland
   hungary
end
nonplayable
   papal_states
   aztecs
   mongols
   timurids
   slave
end

Change it so it reads

campaign      imperial_campaign
playable
   england
   france
   hre
   spain
   venice
   sicily
   milan
   scotland
   byzantium
   russia
   moors
   turks
   egypt
   denmark
   portugal
   poland
   hungary
end
nonplayable
   papal_states
   aztecs
   mongols
   timurids
   slave
end

[Ja'chyra]

I rushed through an English short campign and destroyed the Scots just so I could play them, there must be irony in there somewhere.

So I started my campaign and the first thing I done was rush down and lay siege to York before the English get there. I emptied my capitol, Edinburgh, of all but a couple of militia and formed up a second army under my heir which sent down to Wales for another siege, I picked up a couple of Welsh spearmen merc units to bolster my meagre forces. Back at my capital I was busy constructing any and all buildings to supplement my income, while my one spy headed up to Inverness to check out the garrison my diplomat headed down to the Auld enemy to try and keep the peace.

So that's it for the first few turns, it's easy to beat the English to both York and Wales, York surrenders without a fight but Wales will sally forth, if you let them. My spy had reported that Inverness is a Castle with a not insignificant garrison for my few forces to deal with and they seem typically stubborn in accepting a bribe, damn cheuchters . Meanwhile with both Wales and York now in your control it gives you 2 cities and a castle which a more than adequate base considering you only start with one region.

Once I had my 3 regions I had my capitol producing militia and my other 2 building militia support buildings for the free upkeep which freed up my better troops to defend my borders. Trade rights were relatively easy to obtain from the English and my diplomat moved on to the mainland to try and secure some more. If you're lucky you'll get some easy mission, like build a church or blockade some rebel ports, I got 3 ship units from one of these missions which helped immensely in clearing my coasts of pirate fleets as I kept on losing 1v1.

The next choice I had was to try for the English lands or the rebel ones of Dublin and Inverness, I decided on the more lucrative, and risky, English lands.

Leaving a minimal garrison at York and Wales I merged my troops and marched on Nottingham, which only had 1 unit in it. Surprise surprise, as soon as I laid my sige 2 things happened, 1. I got a message from the Pope telling me toddle off and leave the English alone 2. I was attacked by a full stack of English troops Being a big brave Scotsman I decided to ignore the Pope and fight the English who had emptied all of the garrisons to from this army which outnumbered me 2-1 but was formed mostly of militia.

I formed up in a standard infantry first, archers to the rear and cavalry flanks and waited for them to come to me. In my front row I had 2 units of Highlanders, 3 of welsh spearman followed by 2 Highland Archers with 2 barder cavalry on one flank and my heir on the other, the terrain was me in a small clearing sorrounded by forests. The AI rushed his archers out in front and only had 1 cav unit so I was able to rout their archer units with my cav before they had cleared the trees. I then stretched my infantry front to match theirs and waited for then to engage, which they did without letting my archers get more than one volley off, good for them but bad for me. Earlier I had sneaked one of my Border Cav into the trees and this saved my life as they English had enough units to engage along my whole infantry front as well as my other 2 cav units. I charged my remaining Border Cav unit out of the trees and into their Captain Hobilar unit from the rear whcih stood no chance, I then wheeled my cav unit and charged then into the rear of the right flank of the enemywho immediately routed with about 70% losses, this then freed up some infantry units to roll along the line into what developed into a mass rout. As I was unable to chase all the units a good proprotion of them gathered themselves enough to return to the fight but eventually I won.

I now had another Castle in Nottingham, but was promptly excommunicated by His Popiness, damn killjoy, so I made the most of it and promptly marched on London, which fell without too much bother. I now had 3 cities and 2 castles .

I then decided it was past time to answer my Council of Nobles and take Dublin which again wasn't too hard, and then spent quite a while building up my settlements and improving my forces and generally consolidating my hold on the British Isles, except for pesky Inverness whcih is where I'll leave it for today.

[McDoogle]

Well being a true blue scot at heart i couldnt wait!

10 turns as the english made me hate them so i altered the file and got the scots :) i took york and wales first with my full stack armies (merged my two at the start together) and left a small garrison of troops at my conquered citties. i then went to irveneness then to dublin as the cuoncil asked, i set up trade and map info and alliance with the English on the thrid turn...around the 16th turn the english marched on york..ha ha! my three scottish highlanders destoryed twice their number and sent them licking their wounds!

Then on to nottingham...now get this! the pope was happier with the english then with me! when they attcked me! so i converted endinburgh, york and wales to castles and built me a big stack of mailed knights...marched on nottingham with one infantry unit included and sacked the bloody thing...as i turned on london i got a warning of excummincation now being me whos a none christian the threat is empty.

now if i were closer, i would simply march down and kill him, atm i am training my assianians and am planning on removing him, seeing as my priests dnt have a chance on the cardinal college theres no hectics or witchs in my releams to cause me any dramas! i would welcome them to increase my pirests piety

so when i have them trained enuogh i am taking london...then normandy and waiting for french to attack then going all out and detroying them as quickly as i can. or prehaps i should just ignore them all and be the excumincated power, no one cared abotu scotland anyway!

the building controls are way different as well as recrutment but u get used to it. u gotta love the videos of the assianians and feel sorry for them!


anyone got advise about these cardnials and how to increase ur piety? or any factions that are pagans!!! he he...

i do hope they repeat the viking invasion as well, would love a detailed map of england

[Ja'chyra]

Some more info.

The short campaign for the Scots is to hold 15 regions and destroy the English, which is more of a pleasure than a chore

You start off with just one region, Edinburgh, which is a large town. You also have your leader (+1 val)stationed here along with 1 Border Cav, 1 Highland Archer(+1 val), 2 town militia and 1 spear militia(+1 val). As well as these units you have 2 other stacks.

Stack 1 - Faction heir (+1 val)and 1 each of spear militia(+1 val), highland archers, highlanders(+1 val) and border Cav(+1 val)

Stack 2 - Family member (+1 val), 2 highland archers, 1 highlander (+1 val), 1 border cav (+1 val) and 1 spear militia

Highland archers (Att7,5,1 Def 4,0,1,3,1)- not too bad and a definate inprovement on peasants but nowhere near Longbow leetness.

Highlanders (Att 12,3 Def 5,0,2,3,1)- These are going to be your staple light infantry, and make up the bulk of your armies in the early stages, they chew through militia units but you will take losses.

Border Cavalry (Att 10,4 Def 10,4,6,0,1)- These units have won a few fights for me, they are quick and pack a better punch then Hobilars.

Stats being Att Attack/Melee, missile, charge & Def total, Armour, Defence skill, shield, hit points

[Kekvit Irae]

Scotland, in the short campaign is actually one of the easiest to do. Reasons for this is because you are in the very corner of the world, and only have one enemy to defeat.

The main weaknesses of Scotland are the apparent lack of any decent horse units, and the fact that they live so far away from the Holy Land that it's not worth while to call a crusade unless you have units nearby. However, their weakness in both of these areas can be overcome by exploiting the Pope's willingness to allow you to call crusades. Build up a fairly good army and then call a crusade (I usually pick a region, such as Antioch, that is rebel). Choose that army as your crusading army and park it on the border of England. Hire crusading mercenaries to boost the power of your army. All the units in the army will be free from upkeep, allowing you to park them on the border of your enemy without any cost to your finances. Once the crusade target has been taken (usually by Venice, as they are closer), steamroll all over England with your knights. Dont worry about being excommunicated if you are playing a short campaign, you'll only need 15 regions to win once you destroy the English.

[turnip]

I got a bit bored of waiting for the English to attack me, so when the Pope called a crusade on Jerusalem, I thought I'd join in. I'm not entirely sure what happened to all the other factions, since only Poland joined it with me. God only knows where they got to.


The English attacked when I was halfway there. Recruiting the armies to fend them off almost bankrupted me, not to mention the Holy City's rebelliousness being a huge pain in the rear. Still, I think it was worth it.

[Brusilov]

Build up a fairly good army and then call a crusade (I usually pick a region, such as Antioch, that is rebel). Choose that army as your crusading army and park it on the border of England. Hire crusading mercenaries to boost the power of your army. All the units in the army will be free from upkeep, allowing you to park them on the border of your enemy without any cost to your finances. Once the crusade target has been taken (usually by Venice, as they are closer), steamroll all over England with your knights.

If you build a crusading army it needs to keep moving towards the target of the crusade. If you don't then the units will start to desert.

I have found that the AI regularly marches armies all over the place and does not appear to be affected by this. I've been playing M2:TW 1.02.

[Lobosolitario]

A quick tip for those playing Scotland - get a few merchants across the water to the Danish territories. There's at least three sets of amber there, which are worth 60+ florins a turn for a one coin merchant, and therefore much much more for a decent one. It's a quick two turn hop from Edinburgh on the boat.

Cons: Expect to meet pirates on the way, and expect competition from foreign merchants - an Imperial merchant took both of my merchant scouts out in two turns, and is now happily camping the amber himself

[haggis monster]

i started off the way everyone does, taking york, wales etc. then inverness, and a turn or two later dublin, all the while turning wales + inverness into cities and building up trade. allied with england and then lept over the channel to take flanders with various militia/mercs. allied with french, trade rights with loads more people. having taken out flanders (i think) and bruges, i decided to take control of england. takes a few turns to build up army, then i took nottingham, taking out huge english army just sitting around nearby. got warning from pope just after taking it, then convert it etc and waited for pope mission to go away, plus sent diplomat to give money from my rather large treausry to his holiness. then with max favour i take london, and then caen.
victory is mine!

[Sheogorath]

I decided to try something new as the Scots.
I've adopted an...overseas policy.

Of course, I had to delete the English first, so I have Caen on the mainland, but since I have great relations with France (after helping them against the Milanese and Spanish, as well as giving them some cities to keep them strong), I also gave the Papal States the Netherlands to keep the Danes away.
(On a side note:
The Papal States is an EXCELLENT shield against aggression, since the AI seems rather unwilling to attack them. Plus, giving them cities keeps you in the Popes good graces.)

So, once I secured the British Isles (not a huge challenge, I snagged trade deals with EVERYBODY so I had enough cash to start getting pikes pretty early. Once the Scotts have pikes, the Englosh dont stand a chance, since a pinning unit combined with a certain claymore wielding unit = death), I called for a crusade on the Holy City, which the Pope was only too happy to accept.
Of course, I didnt know this would end up with me locked in a 200 year long war with Egypt, but hey, its not like IM the one who lost the entire Middle East south of Turkey ;)

Scottish strategy is fairly simple:
Build pikes. Lots of pikes. Also build various nobles.
Use the Pikes to pin the enemy units, flank with your highland nobles/swordsmen, and boom. Dead natives.
I should mention the Noble Swordsmen. These guys a great. They have about the same stats as knights, but only cost 125 upkeep. Excellent deal.
Scottish archers arent GREAT, but theyre okay, since they have OK-ish mellee stats. You can use them to flank if you HAVE to.

Anyway, I also made an alliance with the Turks, which has proven quite useful since the Byzantines (allied to me for 50 turns or so at that point) suddenly decided they wanted my land.
However, due to the heavy reliance of most Middle Easterners on cavy, Im doing pretty well against them. Cavy archers are something of an issue, but massed foot archers deal with them just fine.

I cant wait to establish the Scottish New World ;)

[Fisherking]

Scotland, the Early Years

In the first turn send your southern general (the heir) and the cavalry to York and besiege it. Before attacking pick up a couple of Merc Spears and assault. It should be yours on turn one.

With the northern stack go after Inverness, you shouldn't need additional help but if you want it send some of the garrison from Edinburgh north separately after you start the siege.

With the remains of the southern stack you can either send out the king and head off for Dublin or send them back to Edinburgh. (the noble counsel will give you the taking of Dublin as your first mission almost every time)

The fleet off the west coast should head north as a rebel fleet will spawn and attack in a turn or two if you don't move it. Don't think you can take the rebels, their fleets are better than yours, especially post patch.

Send your three agents south. The religion is lower in Wales, the spy can be trained up and the diplomat will be closer to the continent…but don't send him to treat with the English. In a turn or so the English Princess will be along and if you would rather be in a much stronger position when war comes you might just choose to marry her to your heir.

The English have a couple of stacks hidden in the woods to the west. If you go for a quick kill on the English you may be in for a bit of a mess.

Build for a strong economy with your now two cities.

End turn one!

Now you may assault Inverness and have your first castle. Move your other generals out of settlements or you are likely to pick up bad traits. Having a priest with them may lower the chance of picking up those pagan magicians. With what is available and the general of your choice start moving on Dublin. It will take several turns so a cavalry stack will be faster and you can pick up Mercenaries when you get there. You may be able to repair some units and you should but a large building project for troops can wait a few turns.

Keep moving your agents south and training up that spy. There is a chance that you may be able to use your fleet to move your troops to Ireland but only just a chance so if you want to keep it safe send it around to Edinburgh.

This should be about the end for turn two.

Now to the Princess; she will have 3 charm. When she has a successful negotiation this will go up by one. If she has two in a turn she will go up two. If you marry her this means that the heir will likely get 'Wife is Charming' or along those lines. If she doesn't go up you will get wife is a wretch…not good of course. So, if you except trade rights come back and ask for Alliance, Marry Princess, & offer map information and request map information. It should be accepted. If not it is no great loss as you will kill them all in the end at any rate.

Your priorities are to take Dublin and Wales, Build troops to go to the continent and build a fleet to carry them. England will give you fore warning of any attack by moving agents toward York and later follow it with troops.

Taking the rebel provinces on either side of the English in France should be your objective. Don't concern your self too much about who decides to go to war with you but make all the alliances you can and get a diplomat to Rome as soon as you can…Play the pope game and look out for Inquisitors. You are going to need a strong navy as Scotland but navies are expensive and it is better to build up your ports quickly and build stronger ships before committing large sums into your ships. A couple will do until then but you will be dodging pirates.

I find crusades and breaking alliances with excommunicated allies a waste of time and harmful in the end. One crusade is enough and then take Acer and gift whatever the city was to someone else. If you are chased out it is no big deal. Unless you move your capital there it is much too far away to be of much value.

I find that once you are on the continent you are going to fight the French before the English. Just something to remember. Also the French when asking for a ceasefire are usually willing to part with a castle province so don't be afraid to ask.

This should put you into the middle game so enjoy the fight!

[Gray Beard]

I went York and then Ireland and Inverness then marched of the way down the British isles to London then Wales. I married off a princess to the French heir and convinced them into attacking the English on the mainland.

I found the Scots to be almost insanely easy. I was in Vienna 50 years later

[Benandorf]

Started a Scottish campaign a few nights ago, and so far I've been loving them. Had no real problems with the English, and now I control all of great Britan and am about to start taking English settlements in France at turn 45.

I've found that it's best to quickly take the two southern rebel settlements before moving north, simply so you'll be able to get those southern settlements. Once you have those (and those to the north, including Dublin), fill up those two stacks you started with and march on Nottingham and London at once. With some luck you can take them both in a turn or two, and the Pope won't be too angry. At that point it's fairly simple to move on down into France and push into mainland Europe.

Another big help is to send a few diplomats into Europe immidietly with the goal of getting trade rights with everyone, and alliances with all you can. After doing this, I've had no problems with money at all, and hopefully this will protect from any multi-front wars.

One problem I've had is sieges. I just can't seem to win them without taking huge casualties. So I have a question: Is this just how it should be for Scotland early on, am I simply too used to Spain's way of fighting, or what's the deal? Am I just awful at sieges?

[Callahan9119]

i dont leave the island till i have siege equipment, i like to have a siege force follow my main fighting stacks around to quickly take lesser defended towns plus they make up for what i think is a bad missle army, and i like missle troop army... catapults are invaluable defending bridges also

[BharatRakshak]

So I'm playing Scotland on M/M after reading all the posts. First things first of course, secure the British Isles. I actually waited for a while holding everything on the two islands except London and Nottingham. I teched up for about 10-15 turns, and then I went after Nottingham. And after that, came London. There is still a full stack of English troops in the south-western part of England just chillin, not on a road or anything, so I'm not bothering them. I have trade rights with them, and no point in initiating war and invoking the Pope's wrath without taking over settlements.

Meanwhile, my diplomats have gotten trading agreements and alliances with everyone from the French to the Byzantines. I teched up the British isles for a good 30 turns I think, making an income of 10 grand each turn. I sent a spy towards Scandinavia, and I saw Oslo was still rebel. Stockholm was lightly defended and making a good 3k per turn, so I set my eyes on that. While I was sending my army and fleet out of Nottingham, this thing came up saying Denmark excommunicated. I tried to pull a crusade on Stockholm but the Pope didn't agree.

Anyway, Stockholm is mine. I sent a diplomat towards Oslo and bought the place. I made peace with the Danes, but for some reason my income was going low now, so I figured I should take Arhus (Denmark) because that place had an income of 4000+. I got excommunicated in the process (because the Pope had reconciled them by then), but the Pope is 60 years old, so I'm not expecting any crusade or anything now. I already made a ceasefire with the Danes, and am pretty much Lord of the North, making some good dough.


I'm not sure which way to expand now. Towards Russia there will be lots of provinces I'm sure, but not enough income I think. Maybe I should hit Iberia or even start out of Marrakesh maybe.

I don't want to get involved in the mess in continental Europe. Too many frontier provinces, drains out the economy fast.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

When i started the long campaign with Scotland, the first thing i did was take york, then i decided to build an economy. This went badly and pretty soon i was bankrupt, i tried to capture towns unsuccesfully, but this went badly. Then a crusade was called, and thinking of this as a big break, i joined and went to Acre (the target was Jerusalem, but Venice had that covered) i sacked it, aswell as every Egyptian city in my path, letting the revolt, i ended up making 50,000 gold, aswell as almost wiping out the entire Egytpian empire (i think they have a few peasants hiding somewhere, but i cant be bothered to find them)

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

Here my opinion on what to do in the first few turns of the Scottish Campaign

Expansion
Gather a small army and attack york immediately, leaving inverness and dublin well alone. One you have done this attack Inverness, and then Dublin. By now the English will have taken Caenervon, which is good as the majority of there soldiers will be there. Next attack Nottingham, dont release or ransom any of the captured men, no matter how much england are willing to pay, execute them all so there is even less resistance. Then you should attack london as quickly as possible, as caenervon will be a small castle, not producing anything good yet. Once you have london, attack caenervon as quickly as possible, kicking england out of england for good. Then you should probably take oslo, and fight the danes, or take rennes before england can get it and destroy england.

Trade and Economy
As Scotland is not joined to the rest of Europe, you should either get a diplomat over there as soon as possible, or begin to make your villages produce high income.

Navies
Compared to England, the Scottish Navies are bad. Either build them up, or use them only rarely and keep them in secluded areas where the english cannot get to them.

Units
Compared to other factions, Scotland field the largest variety of heavy infantry in the game, which can make it incredibly easy towards the start of the game, where the AI only use spearmen and light infantry. Later on, the Scottish nobles are decent, aswell as dismounted feudal knights if you can get them earlier on.

Well thats what i think i would do if i as Scotland

[kitbogha]

This is the only faction I had not yet played, so last night out of boredom I started a grand campaign...
It has been challenging so far but also the most gripping of games. I am at turn 20 and command 5 provinces, having to stop briefly to consolidate while the Popes decree against destroying the English times out. I am poised outside London with a full stack army, hoping that the English will save me disobeying the Holy Father and attack me.
Starting with the poor resources available to the Scots is taxing but not insurmountable at all. I have found that a Blitzkrieg approach is indicated to carry your momentum through and the extra monies are definately best spent quickly before being eaten up by the Scot's ravenous economy. While I wait 5 turns for the Pope to forget England I will invest in my infrastructure then it's back to the action!
I can't wait to play another session.
PS I'm English but from the murdered MacDonalds on my mothers side so I can happily square away the genocide of my own nation....

[boudica]

Background:

New to the Total War series, I've quickly played the English short campaign to unlock the rest and got stuck into the Scots Long Campaign. I've tended to let the computer resolve more than half the battles as it always seems to do better with my stack than I do! - not sure that this bodes well for multi-player :P ANyway, I've played a couple of hundred years of my Campaign so far, and thought it might be fun to write it up, so I'll edit this post as I go/ can be bothered ;P

I began perhaps more cautiously than most who have posted. Taking Inverness and sending only just enough to take Dublin, my plan was to strengthen my position before facing the English. Establishing trade with them instead of sending my Rabble straight in. After sweeping back from Eire, I beat the English to Canaervon and my spies watched with glee as Prince Rufus was sent packing by Yorkshire rebels :)

The English struck back though and finally took York from the rebels. At this point I began to concentrate my forces - for the most part levied spears, bolstered by my reformed units of highlanders - into English lands, although I confess I was a little wary of angering the Pope. My worries soon passed, as a large English army - without noble leadership soon decided they could not stand Scots presence on their soil and attacked.

tbc. :)