The current state of your faction

[cambrax]

Well, I'm just getting into my third game.

Game no 1.

England, M/M. Romped to victory in the Grand Campaign after success followed by success. Managed to grab Rennes, Antwerp and Bruges early on, along with the rest of the Birtish Isles, and after that a policy of relentless aggression saw me steamroller France, Spain and Denmark for a disappointingly quick and easy win.

Game no 2.

Sicily, VH/VH. Oh dear. Started off well, with the swift capture of Albania, Corsica and Sardinia. However, I sound myself under attack from Venice on land and HRE at sea. My flesgling navy was sunk, and despite some epic and heroic victories against Venice in the Balkans (one road was littered with crossed swords denoting famous battles) my economy couldn't cope. As my garrisons shrank and HRE took full control of the Italian coast, the Byzantines decided to join in the fun and promptly invaded. I reluctantly quit.. with no allies, no money, and facing unstoppable invasion from three different directions.

Game no 3.

Denmark, H/VH. I seem to have found the right balance for enjoyable gameplay with this game. Early days yet, but I hold Scandanavia and Hamburg, although crucially Poland and HRE have beaten me to the rest of Germany. I'm eyeing up a viking raid on Antwerp, but the Germans have just declared war after they botched an assassination on one of my generals. I have a strong defensive position, though, and good relations with my other neighbours... confident I can beat them back, and then use the wealth of Antwerp and my capital to fund an epic crusade.

[Maxfu]

I'm about 20 turns in to my first campaign as the Danes. My first victim was Hamburg which I have it set as a castle in preparation for my attack on the HRE or vice versa. I have sacked Stockholm and have two merchants in the province trading iron which is good for about 60 florins a turn, not great but every bit counts. I have also sacked Stettin as ordered by my council. I received 4 units of troops for this. ( I don't remember the troop type as I am at work and can not refer back to the game at the moment). I have trade rights with the HRE and Poland. I have my kingdom's heir on a crusade to take Antioch. I am about 2 turns away from the province but had a mass desertion on the last turn. I plan to hire a good number of mercenaries as I approach Antioch however I fear my heir is doomed to wander through to mid-east causing me some diplomatic issues to deal with. My fleet is growing at a decent rate wich I have found is absolutely necessary with all of the pirates in the north sea. I can't wait to get home and continue my conquest.

[Quillan]

Stolp, I think that if you want to defend on a frontier, you either have to just "keep them at bay" as you put it, or advance all the way to the edge of the world. If you play as England or the Moors, then perhaps you'll have two directions where you don't have to worry about enemies, but otherwise every border is hostile. The only thing that seems to work, at least somewhat, is to leave a 1-region buffer state between you and the people on the far side of your enemy. Hopefully you'll have gutted them well enough that they can't afford huge armies.

In my Byzantine campaign, I've stopped eastern expansion at Adana. I could zip over and take Aleppo, but the Egyptians have a large army at Antioch and they could get behind me if I did. Besides, it's getting close to Mongol time, so if they show up down here I'd like someone else to take the brunt of the initial assault. I've spent the last few turns systematically destroying the Venetian military and economy. Any army I find in the field, I destroy. I've got two spies in Zagreb and 4 assassins around it, sabotaging every turn. At the moment, every building in Zagreb that can be sabotaged is damaged. I don't think Venice has the money to repair them. Zagreb has a full garrison, because one army retreated there, but the citadel of Raguzza only has a two unit garrison. I'm trying to move an assault army there while screening it from Venetian forces with another army of all horse archers. I'll take Raguzza, replentish casualties there, and then siege/take Zagreb. While returning from a tour of the English Isles, one of my fleets discovered that Corsica and Sardinia are still in rebel hands, so I'll probably build a new army and ship it over there, making both of them into cities.

[Stolpmeister]

Stolp, I think that if you want to defend on a frontier, you either have to just "keep them at bay" as you put it, or advance all the way to the edge of the world. If you play as England or the Moors, then perhaps you'll have two directions where you don't have to worry about enemies, but otherwise every border is hostile. The only thing that seems to work, at least somewhat, is to leave a 1-region buffer state between you and the people on the far side of your enemy. Hopefully you'll have gutted them well enough that they can't afford huge armies.

Yeah, I'm starting to realize that. It takes some adjustment to realize that you're never going to have a friendly neighbour... but that's Total War, I guess.

[Quillan]

It's not so much of having a "friendly" neighbor as it is that there doesn't seem to be such a thing as a TRUSTWORTHY neighbor. They all seem prone to betrayal. Conquering the betrayer simply places you bordering someone new who can betray you next.

[Mailman653]

It's not so much of having a "friendly" neighbor as it is that there doesn't seem to be such a thing as a TRUSTWORTHY neighbor. They all seem prone to betrayal. Conquering the betrayer simply places you bordering someone new who can betray you next.

Lol thats so true. In my campaign either Millian or Siclliy stabs me in the back when ever they are in the mood to march an army against my cities.

[Baron von Beer]

Hungary, ~1113 or so. My mighty (well, if I were a mouse it would be pretty big) kingdom includes the city of Budapest, the town of Bucharest, and the castles at Bran, Sofia, and whatever the one SW of Kiev is called.

Things were looking OK. Naturally, this was deceptive. The Crown Prince and his brother were each preparing an army at Bran, the main military stronghold, to serve God in the great Crusade to take Antioch.

The King sat in Budapest, with the city's small garrison, planning how to gain more wealth to support his sons' mission.

The peace vanished. An army of ~1,000 from Venice appeared, and laid siege to Budapest. Word has been recieved from a religious mission West of Sofia, that another Venitian army approaches. 200 men in Budapest, and the King, man the ramparts, and wait.

Will his sons arrive from Bran in time? Will Sofia's defences have time to prepare for the onslaught? Will the Pope Excomunicate that tight wearing panty waste that sits on the throne of Venice for attacking his second favorite ruler?

[Zanderpants]

My campaign as the French is going very, very well.
After war broke out with the English in the 2nd turn of the game, I fell into bad relations with the Pope, but I took Caen. This resulted in my lands being flooded with inquisitors, which, as I described in the Inquisitor Thread, I countered with a bagillion priests. With all of the priest training going on in Paris, I was able to build a Master Theologians Guild, which basically pumped out Cardinals. This, coupled with giving the Pope massive gifts of money, pretty much put him in my back pocket.
During my tribulations with the inquisitors, I took the rebellious French provences, and built up my infrastructure until a war broke out with Milan. The Milanese took Marseille and executed all of my men, including my son, which was a bit of a downer. Obviously this could not go unpunished, so I rallied my forces and had a huge battle outside Bern which resulted in the capture (and execution) of their king, and the massacre of close to 4,500 men. Soon afterwards, Marseille fell to my men, the Milanese were decisively defeated, and I took Bern, Genoa, Zaragosa and Milan.

Soon after this, the Pope died, but sadly, none of my 6 cardinals in the college were of high enough piety to be preferati, so a Hungarian was appointed as the new Pope. This didn't sit well with me, so I sent an assassin to deal with the new Pope. The year before I murdered the Pope, one of my bishops was appointed 1st preferati, and when the Pope kicked it, was elected as the new Pope. Huzzah!

Right now the Spanish apparently took offense to my ownership of Zaragoza, and besieged it, getting excommunicated in the process . Zaragoza fell to their assault, but was quickly bribed back, and three stacks of my men moved into Leon and Castile. Castile fell to my forces, and I captured the Spanish king, but Leon still holds out.

This is by far the best Total War of the series. The day I got it, I was playing it on and off during the day, and then around 11 I sat down to play, and the next thing I knew, it was 5:30! I've never had a time lapse like that before.

[sapi]

As byzantine, everything started well. I snapped up a rebel province or two, secured an alliance with hungary and the turks and was looking at Venice when the worst happened - hungary ended our alliance (probably by order of the pope) and moved armies to the border.

This started a long war of conquest (which has only just ended) resulting in the utter destruction of hungary as a nation. Midway through this war i was betrayed by the turks, but at the moment i have no men spare to combat this threat and so must slowly bulid up a navy (when i have slots spare) and take out venice before moving eastwards once more.

This major conflict with the christians has only been compounded by the fact that my navy has been repeatadly wiped out by pirates (once with my faction heir and hundreds of troops on board) and as such i have very little moblility and unpredictable trade :(

I've had to run very close to the bottom line economically after some stunning defeats to the christians, and my emperor died at the most inconveniant time, leaving my main problem at the moment the lack of a strong ruler and adequate generals. I can only hope that no one will challenge me in a civil war :( If they do, my lot's with whoever holds constantinople (currently ungoverned thanks to my severe family member shortage)

[Grifman]

but that's Total War, I guess.

Well, they don't call it Total Peace, do they? :)