Need help with middle to end game!

**TevashSzat** · 02-01-2007, 03:54

Remember to properly develop all of your cities and turn any castles that are not necessary into cities for the economy. Try to not enter war with everyone at once since your trade will just plummet. Also, try to garrison all of your cities with the free upkeep units. Disband any mercenaries that are not being used due to their high upkeep, and in general try to sack every city you conquer since relatively little population is killed while you get a large chunk of money

**The Spartan (Returns)** · 02-01-2007, 03:58

develop, trade, conquer neighboring rebel states as fast as you can disband unneeded troops, sack, btw, im sure you can manage with 2 armies and the third 1/2. and what faction are you having trouble with?

**Henry the Fifth** · 02-01-2007, 05:00

For the most part I'm following this advice all though I may be able to tweak it better. As to factions I have tried them all and have tried to plat to completeion at least six of them, including France, Poland, Milan, Egypt and the Moors!

**sapi** · 02-01-2007, 08:25

You could also use my strategy of building up huge armies at the start and allowing yourself to go into debt.

Sack cities and immediately use the proceeds to start critical building projects and recruit mercs.

It doesn't matter if you go into the red if you're the strongest nation militariarly, as you'll eventually turn a profit.

**kublikhan3** · 02-01-2007, 09:09

Sack every city you come across. Empty your garrisons and turn them into sacking machines. No sense having valuable income generators sitting around in your castles waiting to get attacked. Stop building those 4k-10k buildings unless you REALLY need them. Your money troubles soon turn into a gold bonanza.

**HoreTore** · 02-01-2007, 13:10

Don't have bigger garrisons than you actually need. And make sure that they are the cheapest units you can recruit. F.eks. a standard garrison for one of your cities far from the border, would be it's full allowance of militia units, and then as many peasants/woodsmen as needed to keep the order.

Always remember to disband or use units!

Oh, and make sure that you don't have complete idiots as governors of your biggest cities, and a genius sitting in a wooden castle...

**Empirate** · 02-01-2007, 15:09

The thing about the trade rights can't be stated enough. Send out diplomats, secure trade rights with everybody. Don't go to war with more than one or two factions at once, so your trade doesn't get hit too hard.
Remember to clear rebels away from your roads once in a while, too: These block trade flowing on that road. Attacking with a superior stack drives them from the roads; let them sit in the forest and rot, as long as they're not hurting your money.
Also, don't underestimate merchants. Level them up by monopolizing some simple resource close by, then send them abroad. Depending on where you are, try to find the following: sugar in southern Spain; amber in Norway; gold and ivory near Timbuktu; silks near Constantinople. I had typical exp eight merchants rake in more than 150 a turn, sometimes far more than this, up to 300. That way, merchants pay for their rather high starting cost and provide upkeep for one elite unit. Granted, you'd need a lot of merchants to pay for your armies, but every little helps.
Keep your ports unblockaded by maintaining a good fleet. This can then also be used to blockade enemy's ports to reduce the armies available to them a little.

I have to restate one point over all the others, because it's so important: Sack cities and castles when you take them! This nets you a five-digit sum typically, enough to keep you going for a long time. Even a full stack of elite units costs only around 3000 fl / turn in upkeep, so the 15000 or so you can get out of sacked settlements really help you take off.