Just lost my first game - boo hoo...

[Parmenion]

Playing as England (yeah, I know, but I wanted to see what the fuss with Sherwood Foresters was all about) on h/h, long game, set to two turns per year.

I was doing great in the first twenty years of the game. King Rufus (William II) had all of England and Wales under his boot, whilst his younger brother Robert had taken Brittany and Flanders. The King was married to the French King's daughter, whilst Robert had married Anna Comnena - what a cool wife!
Almost every nation was allied to me, including the Scots, French and Danes.
All was looking rosy as I was gently building up my forces to get ready for the inevitable betrayal. I would be ready for them! Or so I thought...

Then in 1102 AD, I had three ports blockaded by the Scots and French. A massive stack of clansmen began it's march towards York, whilst a second stack came across from Ireland and beseiged Canaerfon castle. The French laid siege to Caen whilst they sent a small stack across the channel (from God alone knows where) to land just outside London.
Oh dear, I thought.

The next turn, I hurriedly tried to get Prince Robert to march West to relieve Caen, but I fell just short of being able to attack. Then the Danes attacked Bruge from the East and blockaded London with an Uber-fleet of longships. Robert turned back to help Bruge but his army was totally annihilated (and he was killed) by the Danish Huscarles.
Canaerfon fell to the Scots, who also laid siege to York that same turn. The King himself led his army out of London to attack the nearby French stack and defeated them, but then I noticed the full rebel stack near Nottingham - bah!

The next turn, Bruge and Caen fell to the Danes and French respectively, leaving me with just an under-manned city in Brittany on the continent. The King marched North and attacked the rebels, but they were composed of longbows, armoured swordsmen and English knights and totally slaughtered me. I couldn't even train English knights or armoured swordsmen at that point.
The King was slain and young Prince Henry in York was the new King, despite being a total gimp!
I have three cities in England, with a couple of spear militia in each, and my King in one of them. The Scots have two almost-full stacks on their way to attack them now. My continental possessions consist of a city that will be under attack from the nearby French stack of knights and spearmen in the next turn, and I have no chance of surviving.

I'm not normally a quitter, but after this relentless assault from the AI, I quietly turned the game off and went to bed. I may play again in a few weeks or so.... :(

Parmenion.

[trickydicky]

Bad luck mate, sounds like you got hounded pretty good.

Since the patch I have found that playing England isn't quite what it was, the sea invasions make it much more interesting, that's for sure.

The only advice I can give you, is to secure the Isles before you expand on the continent, that way you have a semi-secure base at your back to work from. Aim at getting york and the castle in Wales within the first 4-5 turns, and that will help.
Then turn your attention to the Scots, and put them to the sword.

Also good to see someone else from Sherwood country on here.

[nameless]

You have to move fast and quickly as the English. Especially in 1.1 you have to tread slowly and carefully but at the same time pounce quickly.

The scots are your main priority. What I usually do is send in my spy and level him up enough so he has a +40% chance of opening the gates. Usually the scots main forces will be campaining elsewhere so if your fast, you can take out the captial and destroy or cripple the faction.

Mail Knights are your trump cards so use them wisely. At your main fortress in France, tier up to get longbowmen and start pumping them out too.

As the English, I have found it to be advantageous to have at least 3 fortresses in France, Rennes and those other two settlements. I found it to be a bad idea to expand into France or Denmark because I would be overextending myself. I think it's best to join a Crusade "late" like as in the last turn in which you can join, then by the time you get there someone should've already conquered the target so you redirect your crusade to Alexandria and conquer the Egyptian lands there which are relatively secured and you don't have to worry about desertion.

[dismal]

Last ditch strategy is to try to get the Scots to take you as a vassal.

[Parmenion]

Thanks for the advice guys.
I may just write this one off to experience and start again on m/m.

I always take York and Brittany in the first couple of turns, then turn to Wales before heading up to Scotland. For some reason I left the Scots alone thinking they would be their usual apathetic selves, but I was shocked when a stack of screaming clansmen turned up outside of York - oh dear.

Next time I'll be ruthless whilst William I is still alive, and take the fight to the Scots. His gentler sons can concentrate on securing rebel lands and going on crusades.

[Satyr]

Don't forget that your billmen can't fight cav even after the patch. By the same token I can't remember if the danish infantry with axes can either. If they can't you can always play slightly unfair and use that bug to your advantage.

[sapi]

That sounds fantastic!

I wish my games were like that ;(

[Hosakawa Tito]

Sounds like the AI Scots are no longer pushovers.
Before you're next English Campaign don't forget to do a KILT CHECK!

[cassiusdio]

obviously they had been eating their weetabix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oozGotV-Xcs

[Pirate20]

Parm whats this you developing into a pushover , as the other guys say m8 secure the brit mainland even if you have to surrender your provinces to the french you get it back with interest later when you build up your forces

btw we'll need to get some games going in multi m8 see if I can even up the score a bit

[Daveybaby]

I dont understand why anyone would quit from a situation like that. You HAVE to play it through and see if you can hang on by the skin of your teeth - what do you have left to lose? Seems like it would be great fun to me.

Abandon the continent - give brittany away in exchange for a ceasefire with one of your enemies (ideally the scots, so that you will have time to rebuild your forces) - hopefully removing your presence from the continent will help the franch and the danes to lose interest in you. Dont bother with the rebels until youve secured your position. Hope that your enemies become excommunicated. Fight defensively using hordes of longbows to whittle down your attackers, then rebuild your army and concentrate on taking full control of britain and ireland from the scots.

It isnt over till its over.

[Quin]

I'm just curious...Why did you attacked those rebells? You should leave them where they were, those Scots would eventualy have to attack them if they wanted to reach London...

[sapi]

To get the territory, of course....

[Naefen]

Id have to agree with some of the other posters here.
The most interesting times in Med2 can be when your lying faced down in the gutter.

Play it through, maybe a hero will emerge and save the day hehehe

[Quin]

To get the territory, of course....

rebel stack was near Notthingamn, not holding the city of Nottingham. So he wouldn't get any territory, even if he'd defeated them

[KARTLOS]

a couple of points - why dod you attack the rebels? they are muich less agressive than faction armies and i have only seen a rebel armyt lay seige once in over a month of solid playng and that was in a modded game.

secondly - are you actually fighting the seiges or autoresolving them? it is possible successfully defend a seige against massive odds. do thew obvious things -

line the walls facing the attacker with archers.

if they bring ladders or seige towers place some infantry units on the wall in the section the are going to hit. cheapest ind will be fine - you can nearlly always successfully repel a wall attack.

place ~ 4 units of spearmen by the gate. if and when they breach the gate with a ram rush forward and plug the gap with your spears. create a bottlekneck here and you will achieve mass slaughter - and often kill the enemy general as he charges into your spears.

if they smash holes in the wall with seige equipment plug them with spears. they rarely seem to use the ram and seige equipment at the same time. so some of the spearmen guarding the gate can be used for this.

[Brighdaasa]

if you still have a save game, why not try and upload it, so the .org veterans here can show their skills and salvage the campaign?

[Hosakawa Tito]

Id have to agree with some of the other posters here.
The most interesting times in Med2 can be when your lying faced down in the gutter.

Play it through, maybe a hero will emerge and save the day hehehe

I agree, think how satisfying it would be if you soldiered on and did manage to pull your chestnuts from the fire. Daveybabys' suggestion to attempt to placate the Scots to buy time by giving up Brittany is a brilliant idea. It's worth a try. If you lose at least you go down swinging.

[shootfast]

Scotland should be dead by turn 5, you start of with a lot of spear militia and archers in England, just send them all north with all the mercs you can hire. In open battle you should be able to beat the Scots as long as you don't let their calvary get better of you.

Another way is to send a spy into the capital and open the gates so you can avoid the Pope warning you. But I find that they hardly defend their capital so its not the most chilvarous way to win.

Then with the British isle secure rush for Antwerp before those pesky Danes!

[Lord Magus]

Get a few ships and go find yourself another home :D

[screwtype]

I'm not normally a quitter, but after this relentless assault from the AI, I quietly turned the game off and went to bed. I may play again in a few weeks or so.... :(

LOL. It sucks to get beat, but you want a game that's challenging. If I thought I'd be getting a challenge like that from M2TW on a regular basis, I'd probably go out and buy the game tomorrow