How to have fun with a boring faction

[Budwise]

I love playing the English, although I have played other factions they mostly lose interest but I am sick of starting in England. Well, I packed up EVERYTHING and shipped out to Jerusalem. Well, after cheating just for some starter cash AND NOTHING REALLY EXTRA, I have made the middle east my home and am fighting a two front war. I almost lost my home twice because I gave all of Homeland England to the Papacy and the Turks love to hit me when I'm not ready. Well, I finished off the Egyptians and as soon as I do, the Mongols invade and I am totally screwed unless I pull a rabbit out of my A##. This is the best game that I have ever played and I wouldn't quit for any reason. Also, I pretty much own the Papacy because with my constant Priest making to keep everything on an even level and keeping my alliances to the Western world my relations is always on Reliable. Calling Crusades has been a huge help because when I am about to be attacked, I just ask for one (I always get it because my relations with the pope have always)

Try it, its fun and you won't have to worry about the Papacy too much.

[Sheogorath]

Oh yes, random relocations are fun. I personally found loading the entire Danish faction onto ships and heading for the African coast rather entertaining.
Nobody expects the Viking Raiders!

Other fun combinations include Aztec England, Moorish Russia and Turkish Spain.

[trickydicky]

Upping everything including the kitchen sink is always great fun.

I did that in my last campaign with Sicily, I got bored with the fighting in Italy (Again) and decided that Alexandria would make a nice new home

The variation is definitely worth trying once at least.

[sapi]

Yeah, that's always good for a laugh.

I found Venetian Jerusalem to be different, if a tad easy...

[Monsieur Alphonse]

I did the same as the OP did and relocated England to Alexandria. I took Alexandria and Gaza with my two starting armies and added Cairo and Jerusalem soon after. Jerusalem gives you a permanent public order bonus of 15%. Because the Mongols will always go straight after the human player I hastily conquered the entire Middle East and made sure that Sophia and Sarkel ware my border forts. Because between Cairo and Tripoli there is a lot of sand you only need three full stacks as garrison to defend your newly homeland. Very soon I was stinking rich. I play at a pace of 1 year/turn so I have all the time to prepare my cities for the Mongols. And of course I control the Vatican. Yes this is fun.

[Callahan9119]

omg how funny, i just did this very thing this morning with portugal, i sold a city to the moors, made 2 jinettes, a few militia and bought 2 merc spearmen, then everyone went on the ships, 2 full stack and princesses etc

it was a hairy voyage to alexandria, had a few close calls with pirates, and both armies were on fleets of just 1 ship, 1 stack went to cairo, the other to alexandria, i quickly assaulted both and made up alot of my 32,000 dollar dept via sacking both. alexandria is now my capital, i have both bridges defended, am slowly making money and am about to head for gaza...then on to the holy land

prolly gonna take me 10 more turns to get out of debt, then when i sack gaza i should have a nice chunk of cash to fund my assault on jerusalem

this is on H/VH no cheating, its really fun, and i have the faction with the best units around...i feel sorry for mongols and timurids if they come wandering into my lands. adventuros, portuguese arbs, musketeers, jinettes, portuguese mounted and foot knights, conquistadors, almughavars (monsters on walls)...this is gonna be so great

i love this area of the map, but i always hated the crap armies muslims have, so this is great, cant believe i never did this before, WOOT

[Kraggenmor]

/cue merchant voice:

"Yeeess, there is money in this, lord."

Might have to give this a spin sometime.

Scottish Constantinople?

[Callahan9119]

no, the scots are better off kicking english arse

[WhiskeyGhost]

I've personally done a Scottish relocation to both Timbuktu and Stockholm, with some very fun results

[Rebellious Waffle]

It's finally done! BWAHAHAHAHA!

I donated Constantinople, Thessalonica, Corinth, Nicaea, and Nicosia to the Papal States, completely relocating the Byzantine Empire to Spain.

Valencia, Zaragoza, Cordoba and the fortress just south of Cordoba are all mine. Once the Moors have been completely wiped off the face of the planet, I'll take down the Spanish and Portuguese. From there, France and Sudan. Italy and the Holy Roman Empire. England and Scotland and Denmark and Poland and --


::Cackles maniacally::

[Rebellious Waffle]

(Sorry about double posting, I don't have edit privileges.)

For readers who have never tried mass migration to the other end of the map: a big worry that kept me from trying it earlier was that everyone around me would have built up their cities and I wouldn't have an infrastructure in place, leaving me vulnerable and underbuilt in a hostile land. This is not so much a problem as one would suppose; the whole idea is to take other people's infrastructures. You have way more soldiers free for campaign season; take settlements, merge, and move. You're conquering their territories, and they can't fight back by conquering yours -- they're too far away, if you still have any. Their soldiers are tied up defending settlements; yours aren't. When you take their settlements, you get the buildings they paid for at little or no cost to yourself. You have an overwhelming offensive advantage until precisely the time when they're so weak they can't fight back.

Advantages to migration:

1) It's just fun. History skips a beat, Fate does a double take, and your neighbors are very startled to make your acquaintance.
2) There's a reason to blitz your neighbors that doesn't have anything to do with powergaming. If you don't, you're dead. Get creative!
3) It can be very challenging. You're in a foreign land with next to no resources aside from your army, hedged about by people who don't share your religion and lagging a dozen turns behind everyone else. Survival requires that you make enemies and take risks. The resultant handicaps make the game much more challenging, and have far-reaching consequences.
4) You get to exploit (or be exploited by) the doctrine of asymmetrical warfare. Neighboring factions have similar styles of fighting. Changing regions will require that you adapt old styles to new circumstances, faster and better than your opponent as they do the same. You may have worked out how to get the most mileage out of Vardariotai fighting the Turks, but how are you going to handle those English longbows?

[Syrous_PL]

Well, historically the middle east had been occupied by Christians, so why not... I'm playing Poland and I sent 3 crusades to the Holy Land and now I own most of the Egypt and Jerusalem, plus the whole eastern Europe. Mongols are a bit of a pain, but they are not so good at sieging castles when they don't have their siege equipment, so I was able to withstand their push, except for Antioch which I lost after repeated sieges. I'm trying to make the middle east my cash cow, but it takes some time to convert everyone so that they don't rebel and I can squeeze some taxes from the region...

[NightStar]

Or you could try out one of the mods that helps bringing fun into the same old. That works for me at least

[Hellenic_Hoplite]

I've personally done a Scottish relocation to both Timbuktu and Stockholm, with some very fun results

is it evan possible to take timbuktu?

[Rebellious Waffle]

Sure, it just takes a while. You can build roads from Marrakesh down to the place where it's possible to cross the Sahara, which makes the crossing easier to find. After that it's just a matter of spending lots of turns sending down an invasion force. Spies are helpful, since the Sahara can get pretty trackless.

[ramela]

I find it funny that I just though about this twist myself yesterday and now I find this thread.

My first instinct was starting with the Danes or Scots, (I love those Viking Raiders/Highlanders,) giving most of my (early expansion aquired) lands to the pope to get my pope-o-meter up for a crusade and using the crusade to relocate my empire free of upkeep and with cheap extra unit recruitment. And donate the rest of my homeland to the church after settling in on Jerusalem.

[Zenicetus]

The one I've wanted to try, but haven't got around to yet, is migrating the Turks to Iberia and taking over the west end of the map. The ultimate goal would be seeing how they'd do against the Aztecs in the endgame. I've played a Turkish campaign, but never got far enough to consider the New World, and it would be a lot easier starting from that end of the map. The Moors are easy to beat, and Spain and Portugal shouldn't be too hard when they aren't tech'd up in the early game. I might start this over the weekend.

For those who have done migration games... do you wait until you've built up at least a starting economy before migrating? Or do you just pull up stakes as fast as you can, maybe a quick sacking of nearby rebel towns and then make a run for it?

[alpaca]

The coolest thing I did so far was relocating the Turks to Ireland.
Boy did I laugh when I fought the Highlanders with Sipahi

[Monsieur Alphonse]

I have relocated England twice to the holy land. Both time I have started on turn one. For the Turks you could use a Jihad. The Moors will beat you, but the good thing is that your armies will be on route to Iberia and that you haven't paid upkeep for some turns. Have fun and let us know.

[Rebellious Waffle]

For those who have done migration games... do you wait until you've built up at least a starting economy before migrating? Or do you just pull up stakes as fast as you can, maybe a quick sacking of nearby rebel towns and then make a run for it?

Depends on what you're planning to do. The style that works for me is to pull up stakes and scoot as quickly as I can, developing enough of an economy for a starting cash infusion before I donate the starting provinces to the Papal States for safekeeping whilst I roam about in other quarters.

[ramela]

BTW, does population numbers affect religious conversion? (As it should, no doubt.)

I sacked everything I conquered once I got my Danes on holy ground (took Jerusalem for the public order bonus and Antioch for extra cash) and then expanded painfully slowly due to massive army upkeep + high level of unrest and a slow rate of religious conversion...

In hindsight, I propably should have exterminated. And immideately gone for Cairo instead of Antioch, in order to weaken the Egyptians right of the bat.