Danish campaign 1301 looking for advice

[gaijinalways]

Well, I have been turtling along, but no longer. The Alomonds decided to call a jihad aganist Portugal and started a naval battle (which I should win ), but now I have to decide how to go aganist one of the two big brothers (the Byz are still sitting on the sidelines).

I have just taken some mercs on, and am pushing men out like mad. Getting ready to hit the Alomonds where their rich provinces are. Of course, I can not hit too many areas too fast until I clear the seas .

Any good ideas? Remember, I have a small rich empire (13 provinces), w 120k (minus the merc money) , but now set to lose 11k a turn until I wipe out the Alomond navy. I am thinking some razing income would offset the merc funds, and also piss the alomonds off so they attack, where hopefully my great defensive skills come into play

I have some spies, but not a lot, none extra at the moment, though I could pump some out of 3 provinces if needed.

[caravel]

Consider replacing your mercenary units (except perhaps artillery) with your own standing army, to reduce costs, before making your next move. I'm not that clear on your position or whom it is you want to attack apart from the Almohads, perhaps put up a screenshot?

[gunslinger]

As a general rule, I only purchase mercenaries as a temporary "quick fix." My favorite use for mercs is to buy all of them I can find in one or two turns and send them directly into an attack. I make sure the mercs are in the first wave of said attack, and I leave my general (maybe backed up by one spear unit and one archer) near the place where reinforcements will enter the map. That way, the mercs, with their expensive upkeep, take the brunt of the casualties while the enemy army gets exhausted and disorganized. As reinforcements come on, I join them up in a formation with my general, and go mop up. This leaves my own units intact to form the garrison for my new province or move on to the next conquest. As far as those shattered merc units go, I save them all for the castle assault. Just group up four or five of those 10 man units and send them toward the gate, or the hole in the castle wall, and let them do what they can. Again, saves casualties on your own troops. After that, I disband them of course.

To bring this back to your original question: I would definitely get those mercs into battle as soon as possible. Even if you aren't going to win the battle, or you can't hang onto the province after you do win it, just spend their lives as quickly as you can. Ten units of mercs can easily cost 1000 to 1500 florins per year in upkeep, so use them to cause some damage quickly, and then start reaping in those extra florins to either build your own units or hire more mercs to send straight into another battle. After all, the upfront hireing costs are usually pretty reasonable.

[bamff]

I'm with you gunslinger. Mercs are also really handy in seige situations - hire 'em and send 'em straight in. No tears if they get chewed up as the "forlorn hope"...

[Adrian II]

Well, I have been turtling along, but no longer.

I certainly hope so, my dear gaijinalways.
I do not want to discourage you, but shouldn't you own 31 provinces by now, rather than 13?
At this stage maybe you should consider chopping up one of two of your ingrateful Catholic neighbours in order to expand and replenish your purse.

Screenshot Danish 1302



As you can see in this screenshot I have been turtling somewhat more succesfully. In my Danish campaign (Early, Expert, GA) the year is 1302, the one you are planning for right now. I own over 40 countries and have easily fulfilled my GA goals.

My new GA goal is to make loads of trade profit with my Kalmar Union. This would have been a problem if I had allowed the Spanish to stand. They owned the south of Britain and France, all of Spain and Africa, large chunk of the Middle East and some Mediterranean islands. They refused to make peace with me despite three efforts, including a marriage proposal from princess Ingrid, our 'double-barrelled Danish delight' as we call her.

After suffering this affront from the effeminate Sancho I secured my naval supremacy with a mixed fleet of barues and caravels, then cut the Spanish snake in half with two simultaneous invasions in Toulouse and Aquitaine. Sancho came to the rescue of his endangered provinces and walked right into my Valour 5 Chivalric Sergeants. They beat me alright, but it was too late.

Chivalric Sergeants 1 : Sancho 0...

After which his Kingdom fell apart into two score of rebel provinces who are dying to trade with me again.

Think along those lines, gaijiinalways. Think big.

[gaijinalways]

Different approaches for different folks. First time for me to play the Danes as well. Yes, this is the longest I have gone with taking so few provinces (3 battles all game!), but I still feel my position is viable. Have good infrastructure in most provinces, lots of good trading provinces and some decent farmland. I hold Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Livonia, Lithuania, Norsogard, Freisland, Saxony, Mercia, Northumbria, Scotland, Ireland, and Portugal. As noted in the vikings battle help thread, I attempted to bribe other territories, but was rebuffed by loyal generals and had some emissaries assasinated (usually the Alomonds, I believe ).

I need to hurt the Alomonds quickly as I don't think their bank account is so good, certainly not as good as mine. Yes, I took some provinces from the Norsogard, but needed to bring some troops back for defense (the Alomonds have the largest standing army, of course that is all provinces) of Freisland, Saxony, and Mercia. Caravel, as to using my own men for raids, I don't have enough right now. And Adrian II believe it or not, even with weakened Catholic neighbors, an excom right now would just make things worse with loyalty dropping like mad, don't need it at the moment. Also believe it or not, the pope has been giving me a few gifts of 1k a few times .

Gunslinger, yes, I plan to use the mercs for attacking and razing (if possible). I actually held off on hiring the mercs as yet, and here is why. I am currently mopping up the Alomond navy (I outnumber them in almost every sea ) and actually plan to bring the mercs in when I can transport them closer to Portugal in one shot. I have an inn in Portugal, but right now it isn't showing any mercs to hire . I have troops there, but they might not be enough to hold off a major jihad assalt, hence getting an army in closer to help out and distract and maybe attack the jihad force itself. I also wonder if raiding their ports and ship building capability might be a good idea, but I don't know necessarily if those are the richest Alomond provinces. Some of those are close to portugal as well (Leon, etc),　so that would serve a double purpose.


I would post a screenshot, but I am technically challenged and working under the additional burden of a Japanese OS. The Alomonds hold most of Europe except for three Polish provinces (2 west of Saxony) and one in the southeast and most of Africa. The Byz hold all of eastern Europe going into Asia, as well as northeastern Africa. The English have 1 island (Sicily maybe), the Pope has 2 provinces, the Hungarians also have 1 or 2 provinces in Eastern Europe.

Side note: One thing I wish maybe I had done was put a better general in Portugal, but I'm not sure I feel like replaying the buggy naval battle (a few crashes on one save, finally used one version where I made all the naval moves with no extra save) and going that far back (though I could ).

[Adrian II]

And Adrian II believe it or not, even with weakened Catholic neighbors, an excom right now would just make things worse with loyalty dropping like mad, don't need it at the moment.

Alright, I hear you. You are stuck between and a rock and a hard place and because of your Japanese operating system you can't even show us where the rock and the other place are.

Judging by the outlines which you gave us, you have a decent set of buildings in most provinces. Use them to build some megastacks because the Almohads, by the sound of it, will soon be sending myltiple-stack armies across your borders. And as the Danes, you can't even crusade against them! Since the Islamic armies'strength is in their horsies and artillery, you should train more spears than swordsmen and only the sort of cavalry that is suitable for mopping up enemy archers.

Use your spare money to invest in agriculture, not trade, because even with your uberfleet you won't be trading much as long as the Almos control most of the shores.

I am afraid this is about all I can do for you. Let's hear the outcome one of these days, gaijinalways, and good luck!

[gaijinalways]

I hear you, I recently put a freeze on building except for inns (for access to mercs, of course). I might do some more farming in the more profitable areas, will check on how quick the cash is bleeding after I have eliminated the Alomonds fleet (which shouldn't be more than a turn or two except for ships that run away). I don't think a screenshot would show you that much, it's pretty much as I have described it.

As to buildings, Denmark and Sweden are very built up with citadels, Norway as well though it doesn't have as many auxilary buildings (for producing troops). I made wish to armor up some more provinces later, but again, depends on the cash situation. I don't think the rock is that hard, just have to knock the Alomods down a notch or two. When I rock a few of their provinces, they'll probably get some rebellions surfacing I imagine. That and the razing will raise some cash here and there .

It's always a balance in some games between building a trading empire, which often is precarious but can be very profitable until one of your neighbors decides they want a province! Then suddenly all goes to hell.

Right now I am raising also some specialized troops; kerns, clansmen, vikings as they are cheap and fast (good for the desert! ). We'll see what happens and I'll keep you posted on events as they progress.

[Agent Miles]

In my current Danish Campaign, I also deliberately expanded slowly. It’s 1361 now and I only have 20 provinces, although I have the most GA points. My plan is not to blitz until 1400.
Read Meglagnome’s post about using arb’s to defend:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=70948
I think that eight demi-culverin are even better than arb’s, but this should keep the Almo’s in check.
I use FSScreen to take screenshots. It’s a free DL and is very simple to use. A jpeg is worth a KB of text. Good luck!

[Agent Miles]

It's wise to take the rest of the British Isles and Flanders. Then you can hold at choke points like Navarre and Aragon while you conquer North Africa and the Middle East over to Khazar/Serbia/Bulgaria. Then take everything east of Lithuania/Kiev and you'll be giving us advice.

[gunslinger]

I'm pretty sure you can't build longbows unless you are the English, even if you do take Wales.

[Martok]

I'm pretty sure you can't build longbows unless you are the English, even if you do take Wales.

If one is playing vanilla MTW/VI, then no, you can't train longbows unless you're the English. Some of the mods, however, change this. I know that in XL, for example, that anyone who owns Wales can train Longbowmen.

[gunslinger]

Thanks MartoK! I'm playing XL now, and I didn't know that. Based on my past experiences with vanilla, I probably wouldn't have even considered building up Wales for longbows after I conquered it. You may have just helped me re-structure my plans for my current French campaign.

Is this also true for billmen in XL?

[Martok]

You're very welcome, gunslinger. If memory serves correctly (it's been a little while since I last played the English), Billmen are still recruitable only by the English in XL.