Hello all,
Playing as the Turks, I expanded quickly with horse archers and pushed Egypt and the Byzantines back pretty easily, as well as expanding north and taking out Russia. I'm the kind of player who likes to pick his battles: I like having secure borders and fighting only when I've been able to build the army I want and get it into position. However, the computer is always against me, since the AI tends to attack as soon as your borders touch his, regardless of alliances. Around turn 50 Egypt's military power had been broken and the Byzantines had been dropped from #1 Enemy to Perennial Nuisance.

At this point, I felt secure in my southern border, with a vast desert between me and the Moors once I mopped up Egypt. In the North, Russia was a tiny nation that was already shrinking as two full horse archer armies swept through. However, at Constantinople, the Byzantines sent occasional armies at me and Hungary declared war as well. For me, it was simply unacceptable to have one of my best financial centers under siege most of the time; I also knew that most crusades would need to march through Constantinople to get into my homelands. So I devised a strategy that would bring cash into my economy, weaken my enemies and prevent them from attacking Constantinople, and also give me plenty of battle-map action and experienced units.

It should be noted that this really only works if you have no intentions of expanding in a particular direction. I hate getting tangled up in mainland Europe; far too many different factions with cities in close proximity. On to the strategy:

1. Decide where you want to stop your expansion in a prticular direction.
2. Build 1-2 large armies of capable units. The success or failure of these armies will not decide the fate of your nation, so if you're low on cash, weaker units are okay. For the Turks, I would suggest 19 Sipahis and one general (any horse archer would work, but Sipahis can charge better). This is the army configuration I use.
3. Sack all the cities along your chosen defensive line, destroy all the buildings, and let them revolt. I suggest also converting castles to cities so that it can't start pumping out knights if one of your Christian enemies retakes it, and also to make it easier for you to siege if he does.
4. Continue sacking cities until you have a 2-province-wide dead zone between you and your nearest enemies.

This has worked beautifully for me, as Constantinople hasn't seen a siege since I started this program. My personal dead zone consists of Thessalonica, Durazzo, Sofia, Zagreb, Iasi, Bran, and Bucharest, all controlled by large rebel garrisons. Enemy nations will not march through the dead zone to attack you; instead, they just siege the closest city. I have my original two armies that created the dead zone patrolling it now, attacking smaller stacks and generally beaing a nuisance. Horse archers seem to work best for this, since they can destroy many armies with few losses and move much faster on the campaign map, which allows me to patrol a larger area and use hit-and-run tactics. Minor maintenance is necessary, as your enemies would slowly reabsorb the rebel cities if left alone. However, the rebels do a very decent job of guarding your borders for you, since most of the cities have very large garrisons, and I have yet to see Hungary or Venice retake one of the rebel cities.

I realize that many people would rather occupy the cities they conquer, and won't be interested in this strategy. However, I think it's a very good option for those of us who wish that diplomacy would yield some long-lasting, reliable alliances.


Comments?