My endless Irish campaign...

**Tony Furze** · 12-30-2006, 13:59

Well this must be the tenth attempt.

Irish/Normal in the VI campaign. Uniting the island is OK but getting onto the mainland, thats the problem.

I ve tried several different tacks- using mercs, invading Cantware, the islands of the north, the Mercian territories in the east...

As soon as I get a foothold I get booted out.

Any advice appreciated!

**pevergreen** · 12-30-2006, 14:43

Lots of armies, good units, multiple stacks.

i dont actually own the game...but yeah!

**Innocentius** · 12-30-2006, 16:16

Strange, I had no problem at all establishing myself on the "mainland" during my first attempt (Normal). The Welsh usually get destroyed early on, or they are too weak to claim the rebel provinces of Western Wales, so Wales should be an easy target.
The Irish roster is perhaps the best in VI, except they lack archers, so it shouldn't be overly different to beat the enemy in battles.

**Peasant Phill** · 12-30-2006, 16:30

Originally Posted by Tony Furze

Well this must be the tenth attempt.

Irish/Normal in the VI campaign. Uniting the island is OK but getting onto the mainland, thats the problem.

I ve tried several different tacks- using mercs, invading Cantware, the islands of the north, the Mercian territories in the east...

As soon as I get a foothold I get booted out.

Any advice appreciated!

What is exactly the problem? Why are you losing your footholds every time?

1) Maybe it's because you don't use your troops to there full extent. Ireland are for the main part skirmishers with gallowglasses as excellent flankers. You can't just command the Irish like you would do with the Vikings.

2) Maybe you waited to long. Turtling in a VI campaign is dangerous, as after some time at least one faction will be very big and very rich. There is just no winning against hordes and hordes of Huscarles (although kerns can do a lot of damage against them).

3) Maybe you attack the wrong province/faction. It's far easier to attack a faction that is on the brink of destruction than one that is flourishing. Try to find a faction that can be overrun rather quickly as a prolonged war is undesirable. Isolated islands are also easier to overrun.
You could also weaken your target faction by raiding his provinces first with expendable troops. especially the main troop producing province(s) should be your target. A faction is lost already when it can't outproduce its enemy.

4) Maybe your navy can't support you. If you can't protect your newly conquered shores with your ships or you can't reinforce your newly installed bridgehead, than you'r" living on borrowed time.

**Tony Furze** · 12-30-2006, 17:13

Thanks all.

Peasant Phil: 1) Yes , Im certainly no expert with the troops-maybe the armies Im sending are just too small.In the last attempt I took on the Mercians due to their being a "weak" faction. They bribed my merc general, and split my army in two!(How come mercs can marry your daughters but dont get to hold titles?)

2)Yes, I did turtle (im an overcautious player).

Ill give it another go...then maybe rest a bit and play as someone more aggressive...

**Derfasciti** · 12-30-2006, 21:33

I remember having problems on my first go on VI. I was Irish too and I sent a large army over to a rebel province just south of Scotland, after I beat them I immediately persued a war against the Scots where I was cut off from Ireland and had to fend off for myself. The entire war was a mess. For years we fought eachother back and forth over only two or three provinces, and finally I think i gave up.

It was frustrating, but in a fun way.

**Innocentius** · 12-31-2006, 02:05

Establishing a bridgehead on the main island shouldn't be too hard once you've conquered and pacified all of Ireland (taking Manua helps as well). Use your best provinces (mainly the three more eastern provinces on the island, can't remember their names except from Connaught) to constantly send new troops to the mainland, while the other Irish provinces can create a few peasant units to maintain loyality. The only thing this requires is a strong fleet and you'll be safe from the Vikings (who rarely attack Ireland since the AI handles fleets in a very incompetent way). By the time all of Ireland is garrisoned with peasants, the remaining provinces should at least be teched-up to send Kerns to the real fighting.
It gets even easier since the Irish wont have to balance their armies in the same way as most other factions will have to. With other factions you'll have to balance out your armies to that you spear protects your archers, while you have some good infantry who do the real job (like Huscarles ones you can get them) and then finally some cavalry for killing off enemy archers and router-chasing (pretty much all cavalry in VI s*ck unfortuneately).
With the Irish, you can just mass Kerns and Gallowglasses, throwing in a few units of Horsemen or Mounted Nobles - and once you can get them those Huscarle-like units whose name I've forgotten - and you'll have an highly able army. Then it's just the tricky part of manouvering those javelin-throwing boys and victory'll be yours.

Finally, the Irish aren't a faction to turtle with, as has been mentioned, as their units are easy to reach, but quickly get outdated. By the time other factions can field great numbers of Huscarles you're pretty screwed. Also, going for the south and middle of the main island (ie Saxons and Mercians) is a good idea, as these factions will become the strongest later on, and will have the best units. Scotland is pretty poor and neither the Picts nor the Scots have any real über-units (except Pictish Mounted Crossbowmen).

**Tony Furze** · 12-31-2006, 05:11

Thanks.

Decided to give it (another)rest. But I ll be back, after a bit more experience.

One problem is the Irish dont have high star generals, I think 1 star was the highest I had. Even Rebel provinces had 3+ stars. So I was fielding an army of Newbies then on top of that mercs who have 0 loyalty anyway.

The other thing is if a battle goes bad, then the inevitable "pay for prisoners" message comes up, and damages the economy. This was in spite of the fact that I had ships absolutely everywhere they could be in stacks of 2 and 3.

Maybe im just not good enough...

I want to learn to be a more aggressive/expansionist player in campaign as well as battle-which is the best faction to choose on Normal difficulty,starting Early? (Please don t say the Irish...)