Sneakiest Strategic Move

[doctrellor]

I am curious as far as what your sneakiest/boldest strategic move/conquest is...

Example: I am playing the Novos in Early, and after taking out the rest of Russian opposition, except for Kiev (still allied to them... for now)

I decided to conquer the English, which I did...

So 1170

I have Russia/Lituania/Cuman/Volga regions and the UK. My allies are the Danes which took out Scandinavia/HRE. The Kiev took out Hungary/Poland/Bohemia. The Almos took out Spain/France, and the Byz took out the Turks/Eggys...

So I can hit the Almos or take out the Danes

++++++++++

So what is your sneakist or boldest strategic grab?

[seireikhaan]

Well, I'm generally not a big risk taker, but I do have a few exceptions. Probably the boldest move I've ever done was taking on the HRE very first turn of the game as Poland in VI. I ended up carving out a chunk of HRE territory, splitting it up a little bit with France and Italy.

[Roark]

Mine was more tactical I guess...

Serbs/XL/High/Hard 1207 (two years after the commencement of the game!):

I invaded rebel-held Constantinople only to find that my allies, the Byzantines had invaded too. The Byzantines had a larger force, far superior to mine. Rich bastards.

The Byz sent their Kats, Klibs and Varangian guard (basically, the cream of their army) to fight the rebels. I sat on a hill and watched the battle, while the Byzantine infantry (about 4 units of mixed infantry) camped right behind me. It almost seemed as though the AI was suspiciously keeping an eye on me...

After the Byzantine Elites destroyed the rebels, I turned my army around and assaulted the Byzantine foot soldiers behind me. Total betrayal. With my Carska Garda and Voynuks, it was over pretty quickly.

Then the Byzantine cavalry came back over the horizon for its vengeance, albeit depleted by their battle with the rebels, and forced to meet me on the terrain of my choosing. I killed the Emperor with my Voynuk blades, decimated the Varangians from afar with my Serbian missile cavalry, and came out of it with the greatest city on earth. There was no siege because the Byzantines had annihilated the rebels to a man.

First and last time I've ever betrayed an ally on the battlefield. I just couldn't resist the temptation of Constantinople. I never can.

[General Dazza]

One I was quite proud of involved a crusade and some rebels.

I had taken a province that was proving difficult to keep happy when I noticed that a crusade was heading towards said province on its way towards somewhere else.

So the turn before it landed I evacuated all my forces, and the results went exactly as I planned. A rebellion appeared with lotsa soldiers that turn. At the same time the crusade arrived and asked me if it was OK for them to move through my province. "Most obliged" I smiled.

So they landed that turn, and were promptly met by the rebels (who now owned the province). The two of them duked it out with the rebels winning but taking losses. A turn later I returned and mopped up the leftovers.

2 birds with 1 stone

[Martok]

Brilliant, General Dazza! It's not the first time I've heard of players using rebels to slow down and/or destroy a Crusade/Jihad, but it's always fun to read about nonetheless.


One of the boldest (ableit slightly cheesy) moves I made in MTW/VI was in a French campaign from a couple years ago. I immediately blitzed the English's continental holdings on the first turn with what few troops I could scrape together. Normandy & Anjou both fell after hard-fought battles, with the castle in Acquitaine succumbing to starvation a year after that.

While this gambit had left my troops spread ridiculously thin -- I had to fight off several (fortunately weak) counterattacks and invasions from the English & HRE, respectively -- it was worth the risk in the end. With the English removed from the Continent, I was able to secure my newly-expanded kingdom and develop my lands at a (relatively) leisurely pace.

[seireikhaan]

Oh, speaking of Crusades, there's another little trick I like to pull when playing any mediterrenean catholic faction. Build up a massive navy spanning the entire mediterrenean. Eventually, here comes France/England/HRE crusading for the holy land to fulfill their GA goals. They hop my navy with their crusade straight into the holy land.

Now for the mean part. Once they've landed, I pull out my navy from the area, effectively stranding their crusade in the holy land, with no safe haven to retreat to. The enraged muslim armies inevitibly launch a massive counterattack, taking back the province, and destroying the crusade.

I actually pulled this tactic three times against the HRE as Hungary in a span of 14 years. That's how the HRE went from being a world power occupying much of western Europe to being reduced to a meager three provinces after 2 civil wars in three years.

[Dragon20]

The most unusual move I have made was some months ago when I decided to start a campaign as the Turks in MTW/VI. Since the Danes usually don't do very much I bribed Sweden and Norway from the rebels, and send some alims there. After that I destroyed all my buildings in my original provinces and send my sultan and first heir (he was a crappy one) on a suicide attack against Egypt.

My second heir was crowned sultan in Norway. I took Denmark at the same time I lost my last homelands, and from then on I basically played the Danes being muslim. This "vacation campaign" was fun for a while, but I quit the campaign in 1150.