How to be a merciless conqueror
Welcome friends to yet another post containing my unsolicited opinion. For your edification, here are some tips to being the most brutal conqueror you can be.
1. Landing the first blow
The AI is completely vulnerable at the beginning of the game. If you are intelligent and prepare yourself well, you can bum-rush even the mightiest faction before they know what hit them. As Scotland, you can wipe out half of England before they can muster a defense, as your beginning forces on the Isles are superior to theirs. Sail down past their front line and smash their capital, rape and pillage, then burn their city to the ground and go after Nottingham. If London revolts (it probably won't if you lower taxes), so much the better, as the English would have to recapture a well-defended rebel settlement instead of your poorly defended one. If you destroy their military buildings as you leave, when they recapture the settlement (if they do) they cannot retrain troops or recruit, further crippling their ability to fight. Leave the economic buildings intact if you plan on retaking the city soon.
This tactic of using rebellions to your advantage is outrageously unfair. That's why I like it. I am creating the maximum amount of pain to my enemies with a minimal amount of effort. It is the strongest tactical move. This also works against human opponents, who are more difficult to defeat, and more richly deserve an unfairly crushing blow. Nothing destroys your ability to fight like losing your greatest cities and their military and economic support. You must now waste time recapturing them, making your war defensive rather than offensive; a very uncomfortable position to be in, especially fighting against a brutal invader who is only concerned with destroying you quickly, not holding your cities. This tactic is equally good against AI and human opponents.
2. Trapped inside their walls
Depending on the circumstances, walls can be a dream or a nightmare. Notice how the HRE starts with a decent amount of troops inside Bologna. These forces sometimes stay within the city walls because there aren't any reserve or relief forces nearby. Often times they build up their forces before moving them out. Now is the time to strike!
They don't even have any impressive troops yet. So much the easier. Seige the city, and their forces are trapped inside. Now you can wait them out, starve them to death, and you can afford to wait for reinforcements of your own. They cannot recruit and their finances are cut. They are in a tactically weak position. So they have to either wait for relief forces or sally forth. I know what you are thinking; "duh, we already know this".
But consider this: Sallying forces must rush through their gates, making them temporarily get bottlenecked. This also severely limits their mobility. If you have cavalry, rush forward and pin them at the gates, surround them on 3 sides if you can. Get your infantry forward asap, and surround them. They are now in a situation similar to reaching the other side of the bridge and are now surrounded by enemy forces. Even superior forces, in number or in quality, can buckle under this stress. In these situations, the best way to sally is from a different gate. But if they do that, they sometimes leave themselves vulnerable to ladders (this is a seige after all) who can rush and take their walls, open the gate, and allow your forces to take the city. In any case, the added distance and the need to charge the entire way tires them out, and you get to fight defensively. I've also noticed that the AI rarely rushes out the side gates.
3. Be a viking raider
Not typically my playing style as it involves a navy, but hopping from city to city along the coastline looking for soft targets to destroy is an effective way to soften up several enemies when preparing for a real invasion.
Try not to think of your front line as being simply your border. Sometimes the enemy is weakest behind their front line, so the best way to hit them is to avoid their standing armies like the plague and smash their less-defended settlements.
If you hop along the coast, sacking and demolishing cities, you are severely weakening your foes and weakening their ability to fight. You can also make a tidy profit selling off their buildings for cash.
Send a unit of cavalry ahead before making your move through enemy territory. This springs any ambush in your path. Use spies to look for any large stacks of troops that can threaten you. In general, fight like a coward. Avoid serious battles and destroy as much as possible. You could always just send wave after wave of disposable troops towards your enemy and kill as many as possible, and then just spawn more troops, but that takes time and money. I like to get as much destruction from my troops as possible before they die bravely for my empire.
You can supplement this shore-hopping strategy by sending wave after wave of town militia by boat to reinforce your new holdings. This makes it difficult for the enemy to reconquer their territory, and allows you to hold your new coastal acquisitions for as long as possible.
4. Be a better horde of destruction
One stack of troops is generally enough to cause misery all along the countryside, but what of those instances where you have a large, well-garrisoned city in the way and relief forces nearby? Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew this way, and you can trap yourself deep in enemy territory.
Two stacks of troops may be a better idea. But how do you manage two stacks of aggressor forces? Two generals with similarly laid-out armies?
I prefer to manage my two (or more) stacks in complimentary fashion. And I never let the AI control my generals. They are too suicidal.
I let the AI manage my giant stack of infantry and archers. The AI seems to be able to handle that well enough. Make sure these troops are well armed, but cheap and disposable. Such as a big horde of spearmen with light mail armor. Even militia works here.
I personally manage my general's stack. I typically have at least two or more general's units, and I treat them all as my lead general's personal bodyguard. Then I like to have a whole MESS of cavalry with a decent charge, and plenty of melee cavalry to pin the enemy down, and some horse archers or light cavalry to take care of routers, smash up enemy archers, and generally maneuver around the enemy defenses. As a last resort, they can also be used to tip the balance in a close fight with another wave of charging horsemen.
Using the two armies in conjunction, I allow the infantry and archer division to actually lay seige to settlements while my cavalry division takes care of standing armies in quick fashion. (Unless I intend to open the gates and charge directly to the city center with my cavalry while the enemy is on the walls, in which case I use most of my cavalry and a couple infantry units to lay seige.)
I keep the two stacks together, and I send a scouting unit and a spy ahead of me to prevent ambushes and provide recon.
Sending 3 or 4 good spies doesn't hurt either. You can lay seige to a city and take it on the first turn this way, pillage, burn it to the ground, and move on. There's no better way to brutalize the enemy than by taking down half of their empire in a mere 4 or 5 turns.
Safeguard your cavalry while using this tactic. Allow the AI controlled infantry to take most of the damage, and just use the cavalry to break the spine of the enemy and mop up routers (thus gaining experience with the fewest casualties). The infantry are your disposable army, easily replaceable with mercenaries (sometimes mercenaries are your better infantry anyway... do you hear me, Russia?).
Good cavalry is hard to come by. Notice that your general units replenish their strength after a couple turns. I sometimes use them as shock cavalry, to be the first to smash into the enemy line, provided it isn't into a pile of good enemy spears. The general is great at both charge and melee, and as long as you have a couple generals or more, there are enough bodyguards there to hold off the enemy for a long time. Your general becomes the first hammer, and then the anvil, of the cavalry army. Charge and pin with your general's bodyguard and smash with your other good cavalry. Your general gains mucho experience, good traits like brutally scarred, brave, etc, and earns the respect and trust of his men. This can turn your general into a Jedi knight.
If you use the above strategy, your troops will
A) last longer
B) cause more destruction
C) gain more experience
D) provide numerous oppurtunities for your infantry army to promote captains.
Use your cavalry army as backup on auto-resolved battles and send your captain-led all-infantry army into battle against standing armies. You will promote more captains to generals this way. An endless supply of young, experienced, battle-hardened, and largely loyal warriors for your royal family.
I like playing my faction as a meritocracy. Sometimes the royal line gets a little diluted and we need fresh blood, and competent generals.
5. Don't forget to clean up your mess
Keep moving, always. Once you smash the enemy, move on to press your advantage. You can send an all-infantry militia army as the next wave to mop up anything that might be left, such as the occassional rebellion or reconquest by inadequate enemy forces. As long as you destroy the enemy troop-producing structures, you should fare well against any possibility of a counterattack. When you are on the attack and the enemy has no chance of turning back your main assault force, the war is all but won.
Never just sit around using your impressive assault forces as babysitters in freshly conquered territory. These are invaders, pillagers, and conquerors, not town watchmen.
Sacking and demolishing useful enemy structures impairs the ability of the enemy to fight back. Resistance is futile.
6. Using agents
A brutal conqueror with a strong military can overlook the ability of spies, diplomats, and assassins to make your conquest even more destructive. You can sometimes send spies and sabateurs to soften up any large (even superior) enemy empires by causing their loyalty to go in the toilet and smashing thier public order buildings. While they are busy reclaiming their own territory, you have a free hand to conquer your inferiors. (Although I must confess, it is not that often that I am dealing with a superior empire).
Since the AI is going to fall to your superior abilities anyway, why not do it in the most crushingly efficient and overwhelming way possible? Instead of a slow war of attrition, I try to take a sledgehammer and smash my way across an entire continent in the most devastating way possible, demonstrating little regard for human suffering. It's my chance to roleplay as Evil incarnate. The fewer troops I lose in the process, and the faster the enemy falls, the better.
Pillaging and exterminating builds dread anyway. Why not go with it?
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A good companion piece to this brutality thread would be tips on how to be a successful and merciful leader. Everyone knows how far honesty and integrity goes with this game, though. (sarcasm, anyone?)
I am curious as to how much integrity a chivalrous leader would have to sacrifice in order to win wars as quickly and decisively. Obviously using spies as rebellion instigators will allow you to conquer more territory from your rival nations without sacrificing too much reputation. But it seems devious to me.
Unless we count duplicitous machiavellian leaders as chivalrous, this seems to be an incongruity.
On a personal note, I have difficulty enjoying a slow, chivalrous campaign, as I hate sitting still and waiting for the enemy to come after me. It seems way too easy to just build your economy while sucking up to every other nation and repelling the occasional weak-willed invasion, then taking over your rivals piece by piece as they turn on you. Something smells of lost initiative and cowardice there.
Granted, the enemy will put up more of a fight once you finally decide to attack them, but by then you have massive amounts of money, well-armored troops, and better troop types. I suppose it is not without it's charm, but I personally haven't been able to enjoy the long drawn out half-hearted conquest of the map through diplomatic, chivalrous, and merciful means. To play with chivalry almost feels like playing Medieval 2: Total Peace Except For the Occasional Witch Burning Or Riot Suppression.
Blah... I'm too bloodthirsty and obsessed with destruction to play with honor.
The few times I do take the chivalrous path are to lull the enemy into a false sense of security and get them to lower their defenses. Then I become evil on a level never before imagined. I sometimes exterminate giant cities of my former allies just to get the point across. Hmm... maybe I have issues that I need to work out.
I hope you enjoyed the read. I try to make my posts as entertaining and informative as possible.
P.S: Please do not reply with quote unless you plan on isolating the few sentences you are responding to... I notice that sometimes people reply with quote and leave a little blurb like "good post" or "I disagree" after quoting a post that is over a page long. Seems a little silly to me.
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Re: How to be a merciless conqueror
Originally Posted by CMcMahon
This is the only way to demonstrate how insane I am.
. I'm not playing 1.0 (Didn't even buy the game until 1.2 came out) and I've tried out just about every possible style of play.
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