Get rich quick as the English!

[ScrapTower]

(This is on m/vh)

TURN ONE:
1) Send merchant on one ship to gold in Timbuktu.
2) Send Emissary to France – Get 1900 florins for trade rights and an alliance.
3) Set all settlements to build land clearance.
4) Send King to take Wales and Prince to take York
5) Send southern army in Cain on ship to help King.

OTHER TURNS
1) Build all settlements up to communal farming first, then build ports and roads.
2) Don’t build any more units. You should be able to take all of the British Isles by turn 12 with the units you have, a few mercs, and the 4 mailed knights you will probably get for taking York.
3) After taking the Isles, build a stack and put in Cain to protect your lands.
4) Send whats left of your northern army and your generals on a crusade to the Holy Lands.
5) Preferably take Acre to use as a staging point for multiple raids and priest production.
6) Periodically sack Jerusalem and surrounding Egyptian settlements for a massive cash injection. Let them revolt, repeat.
7) Send priests from acre to surrounding settlements. Start converting them so you can keep them later.
8) Let Egypt pay you for a ceicefire, but continue sacking their settlements.
9) Send a merchant from Acre to the silk in the East.

If you do all this stuff you should have 100,000 florins around turn 40.

Comments and suggestions welcome…

[Hamelus]

And France is just gonna sit there and do nothing?

[ScrapTower]

Every time :)

[Quillan]

The French go to war with the Spanish.

[ScrapTower]

And France is just gonna sit there and do nothing?

Remember all your armies will be free to smash the french on turn 12 so they dont really have time. If you see them start collect an army in Cain, a couple more mailed knights in the garrison keep them from atticking till turn 12...

This works every time, I have tested this openening many time, so there is no question that this works.

[Darkmoor_Dragon]

Well the scots, welsh and Irish just sit there doing nothing....

[ScrapTower]

Dude the welsh and irish are rebel. Yeah. you should be fighting the scots on turn 11. they never atack before then, In fact they always ask for trade. Sometimes they take Iverness.

[Xaziv]

Just be the moors and put like 12 merchants on your 3 gold mines and you will be crazy rich

[ScrapTower]

I should add that taking the Isles by turn 12 will make you rich fast but you have to move your units smartly. ie to siege Wales as fast as possible, send your king alone with his troops tagging behind. He is the only one on a horse so he can seige Wales in two turns if not slowed by his troops. Hire some mercs when he gets there so they wont sally before his troops arrive. You will also need a ship waiting to take him and the prince to Irelend after that...

[CaptainSolo]

Hey i have no doubt this method works at all mate but it's all a little too fast paced for me.I like to sit back with a nice cup of Earl Grey and a cigarette and relax over a slow build up.The calm before the storm as it were.
Anyway i could never adopt this tactic as someone other than me has come up with it
A big thumbs up from me though as it certainly seems a sound strategy to get things started

[ScrapTower]

Yeah, this will put you at the top of the charts quickly. This is my total domination strat :P... I've yet to play it thru because I was perfecting my opening. It looks like the game is in the bag tho. Anybody else wanna share some cool strats?

[nameless]

This should be in the MTW2 guides I think.

I usually do similar within 16 turns but I'm also taking some pieces of the rebel towns on the continental.

Scotland usually starts off slow so if your fast, they won't be able to mount an effective defense. I've seen parts in the later game where they actually become a strong nation but that's only because the English AI didn't bum rush them. In fact, at the start start leveling up your spy. If you do it right, you can take out scotland in one turn and the pope wouldn't give a crap. Since the spy opens the gates for you and the scottish army usually stays outside monitoring the area.

France is pretty good in honoring their alliances, especially if their marriage alliances. Just keep a strong garrison in the area and they'll be good boys.

If I might add, you should also try and capture the towns north of Denmark, if your lucky, the Danish might not have captured them yet.

This effectively takes out an opponent that could seriously challenge you later on.

[KARTLOS]

it seems a bit long winded - the aim of the game is conquest not collecting florins, i would say you could probably complete the game asthe english by around turn 50, rather than collecting 100 000 florins