Hi all, been reading this forum since RTW was released and finally got around to registering (I was going to wait until Shogun 2, but I got impatient).
I've done a short and a long as England and a long as French, and am currently doing a long as Sicily.
I read quite a few posts pointing out the advantages of adjusting the time scale to 0.5 and taking time to get their economy on an even keel and let the AI tech up by expanding slowly, rather than the easy blitz in the early game, and so I thought that would be the way I'd play Sicily.
However, strategically I don't see how to do it. They AI nearly owned me on half a dozen occasions in the first 50 turns, and I was hard pressed to defend my core provinces and the surroundings I'd initially taken off rebels (Tunis, the two islands west of Italy and that western greek province across the bay from Naples). Every passing fleet saw my habours and thought, "not mine, not the pope's; I'll have it". Every catholic country has attacked me unprovoked, or made alliances with someone who has. I started out being the pope's felch boy, but he rapidly grew to hate me on principle and I've had to assassinate at least 6 popes now, to reconcile myself after being excommunicated (which I couldn't at the time afford, since I was so poor from constant sea blockades that my cities were several turns behind in upgrades with poor public order and more spies than legitimate population).
I'm at turn 155 now and things are smooth, but only because, lacking the money to defend myself by military and naval strength, my only economically viable defense was to deal a few solid smites to my enemy, crippling their economy and thinning out their armies. In short, I'm in about the same position as if I'd just set out to kick the tripe out of everybody from word go, rather than trying to be the nice guy.
So, strategically, how the hell do you hold everyone off your arse while you try and play the slow game?
Oh, great board guys, it's given me years of fun advice and FBE's amazing RTW guide.
Bookmarks