First short campaign done :)

[Grimmy]

I just played England on my first completed short campaign. I played m/m since I'm not all that good and I'm still learning the differences in the game from RTW.

I went a bit beyond "turtle" to a form of recluse. I abandoned Caen but didnt destroy it. I left one peasant as a care taker which kept the town alive for a good 10 turns. When the French sieged it, I destroyed the buildings, disbanded the peasant and let them have the fort.

I had secured a trade deal with France, traded maps and got a "handshake and a smile" type alliance but there was no French Princess to marry for an alliance that I could find. My Princess ran off with a French general so that whole thing was a bust.

Anyway, with the additional troopage from Caen it was a quick job to secure the island provinces. I went fairly liberal with guard towers to give me a good view around my coasts and inland areas.

This let me focus exclusively on building and "teching up" my towns and forts.

I kept each as what it was when I captured it. I didnt convert any to the other form.

I reduced all troopage to just enough peasants or town militia to keep the peace and one small force to deal with any rebels that popped up.

The rebel issue was very mild and it was easy to forget to check for them. I'd usually notice I had a rebel problem only after spending a turn or few with reduced cash from interrupted inland trade routes.

I had initial probs with heretics and witches. I countered this with building religious buildings and keeping at least one priest in the field as a "social worker" in each province.

The only thing I "rushed" was the second level shipyard at London. This gave me Huk boats. I scrapped the cogs and built 3 huk. Those 3 huk in a fleet would easily defeat any pirates and the occasional attempt by the euros to land forces or spies. Once I got Ireland up to building huks I added another fleet of 3 ships based there to watch the western coasts, kept my original 3 in London to patrol the channel and then once the powers that be remembered I also had an east coast, I based one more fleet of 2 huk at Nottingham port.

From there on I just built. I didnt follow any particular goal, I just built what looked interesting as the option came up. I ended up building everything that can be built in a fort complex at Nottingham.

I was having some issue with overcrowding and squalor until the plague came. During the plague there was a pretty serious dip in income due to lowered taxes to counter unrest but once it cleared the happiness and income, both, went up like rockets.

I was, more or less, able to build at will with only rare empty build ques.

After I built my first caravel ship I decided to finish up the game. I built 2 full stacks of troopage, cannon, longbows, heavy billmen, armored swordsmen and English knights. With those two stacks as "seed" forces I was able to take the area in europe roughly equivalent to modern France in about 10 turns and get my total of provinces up to the 15 necessary to win the game.

I still had 50 or so turns left on the clock so I dont know if this would work for the longer game but I had provinces from the channel to the mediterranean with a port open for business at Marcellies (sp?) so the araby lands were within stabbing distance when I stopped.

I noticed that the enemy did not have a single cheap or low end troop in an army I fought while in my region grab. So, it looks like they may have fixed that issue from RTW where the enemy would keep making armies out of cheapest troops available. The armies also appeared to be well mixed with ranged, melee and cav.

I had a small fleet of ships heading to the "new world" at game end but I was too burned out to bother with holding on to getting all the way there. I'm leaving that for the next session :)

Anyway, if you really like to spend some quality time with building your infrastructure and dont want to have to mess about with constant headaches or outside interferences while you are in the build up phase, then England is the choice to make.

Also, dont assume that your best quality troops are going to be going up against the other side's trash, you'll most likely meet the same quality of soldiers as yours in the enemy force.

Also, if you dont want to hide behind your coastlines for as long as I did, then it is still a nice option to be able to take some time to plan an expeditionary army of whatever size and quality you feel appropriate. Once you have the huk boats you can feel relatively safe in mounting longer ranged amphibious attacks to establish your outposts, or you can safely support a cross channel invasion with reinforcements from your home towns and forts without much fear of losing troops to interdiction on the sea.

[Grimmy]

Forgot to add:

I did send out a mass of priests to load up the college of cards and get my own pope in my pocket but I did that way too early in the game.

The time to start that is around 10 to 15 turns before you want to start your offensive. That will give you some starting leverage with the pope and with some luck, you can have your own pope on the throne before those pesky "stop fighting now or be excommunicated" writs start interrupting your flow.

Also, at about the same time or just after you send out your last priest, load your planned invasion area with assassins, spies and a couple of diplomats. Let your assassins get some levels on the rebs and have your spies popping in and out of towns to get some skills.

Being able to know where your enemy is building the big guns, and being able to reach in and break their factories is a huge help in getting your new provinces as well as helping you to hold them once you get them. The diplomats will be there to help you keep the neighbors calm, or at least out of the fight, until you have the time and resources to deal with them.

Dont forget, even with the safe "home islands" to pull troops from, you're still working a pretty shallow bench until you have a good solid foothold with your initial expedition.

You should plan on at least 3 quick provences to establish your beachhead but dont try to extend the initial rush to more than 5 new provences without stopping to consolidate and rearm. You can count on a few full stacks of best quality enemy being in the area and ready to siege your new towns or ambush you on the way to a barn burner, so dont let yourself go "all out" in the initial breakout or you're liable to get rolled up and sent home early.

[Sir SillyDuck]

..My Princess ran off with a French general so that whole thing was a bust..

Ah, yes.. To be in Paris and in love eh?

nice recon report on the mechanics.

[Dayve]

Well you've obviously been lucky. I'm 80+ turns into my long English campaign and although my armies have evolved from peasant archer and town militia to yeomen and armoured swordsmen, the AI still throws out army after army comprised of 10 catapults, 6 town militia and a mixture of peasants and peasant archers and hobilars...

[Grimmy]

Dayve:

The only thing I can think that might have made any difference is that I did not attack anyone anywhere once I got the islands secure up until I went for my end game land grab. Maybe that gives the AI time to work itself out?

Or, maybe it was just dumb luck. Anyway, I was much impressed by the change from my days of fighting endless waves of peasants and warbands or low end spear units and light cav hords from RTW.

The AI armies I ran into seemed pretty well put together and had troops at the same tech level as my own.

[Dayve]

I've been playing peacefully though... 80 turns and all i have on the continent in Caen, which i have defended from 2 full stacks of French rabble in the last 5 years... Apart from that i've just been building up and defending what i started with and conquering rebels on Britain itself, until the Scots declared war on me 10 years ago, i've had to invade them, but all they can throw at me are highland archers and highland rabble...

[Grimmy]

Going off memory (which aint that strong anymore) but the only time I remember running into siege gear heavy enemy stacks was when they were approaching my cities/forts to attack.

The enemy that engaged me in ambush or at bridges was usually a bit heavier in ranged then I would be in my army, but didnt strike me as silly in numbers. There was always plenty horse and foot with those enemy stacks when they initiated the assault or were defending chokepoints such as bridges.

I do hope I just didnt get lucky. Seeing decent enemy field armies was really enjoyable.