You have to be kidding me...

[solid74]

Ok, I am a little late to this game, but I love strategy games. I have only been playing this game for a few days, and I am stuck on something.

I am England, and I am trying to invade Ireland, and I can't seem to figure it out. I searched the forum for answers, and found something that said to simply put a fleet in each sea area surrounding the province you want to invade and thats it. Well, I must be missing something, because even with ships in each sea around Ireland, I am not allowed to invade.

This is highly frustrating. The instructions and the forums both clearly describe how to do this, but when I follow the instructions to the letter, I get nothing. I am about to snap this disk in two. Please help!

Thanks!

[nara shikamaru]

Okay there could be several problems with why you can't take Ireland, I'll try to be as helpful as I can with this Sloid74.

First off, is where your attacking from have a port? If it doesn't then no attacks from sea can be made, from that province, until a port is built there.

Second, are you 100% sure you have at least one boat in each sea region between England and Ireland? More over is there a link between Ireland and the province you want to attack from.

Lastly, does another faction own Ireland? If so do they have any boats in the Irish channel? Even if it belongs to rebels, I've seen boats for them appear, and you can't launch a sea invasion from one province to another if there are enemy ships in the waters around that province.

I hope i was of some help to you Solid74, maybe someone with more knowledge will come by.

[General Dazza]

Welcome to the forum solid74

First of all - do not snap the disk! If you never play the game again you'll never realise how much you would have regretted doing that had you not done it. Er, that made sense when I thought it....

Anyway - I've had the before too. Someonje else will no doubt be able to give you the absolute answer, but I think it's one of two things:

1. Ireland doesn't have a port, and you need a port to land in a province (Note: I could be wrong about that, but I think that's the case).
2. Although you have Ireland surrounded, do you have a port facing Ireland? If not, maybe you don;t have a chain of ships going from one of your ports to the Irish port/province? In which case there's the prob.

Hope one of the above is the answer. If not, as I said, there'll be someone along soon with one that flies...

[Digital]

Bring at least 2 stacks to invade Ireland. Even if you win the first battle and the enemy are holed up in the castle for a siege, an enemy fleet cutting off your shipping lanes from Ireland will cause the loyalty to become very low and a loyalist rebellion. If Ireland has a port, you may insert a spy after the enemy are holed up in the castle if it has a border fort too. If it does not have a border fort, you may insert a spy there anytime.

[solid74]

Hey, thanks for all the responses everyone!

Ok, lemme add to my first post, I guess I left some stuff out. I have a ship in each sea region surrounding Ireland, there are two. Also, I have two ports, but none FACING Ireland... is that a requirement for invasions? There are no ships in the Channel, and Ireland is occupied by rebels. Last and most important, does there really need to be a port in the province you are invading? If so, I guess I'm outta luck.

Why do they make this so confusing?

Lemme know if I'm getting warmer! Thanks again!

[Digital]

The direction the ports faced has nothing to do with whether you can invade, only requirement is a linkage of fleet, without enemy fleets in the same sea in the linkages. You also need a port to invade from a province to another province seperated by sea. The province you invade does not need to have a port. For example, if you are invading Ireland from Wessex, Wessex needs a port while Ireland needs none.

[General Dazza]

Yeah - think of it like stepping stones. You have to have a ship in every sea square between your home port and the province you want to invade.

If an enemy ship is in one of the sea squares then your ships can't pass. That's important to remember cos once you invade a province, its ships become enemy ships, and your army may not be able to return.

[caravel]

You only need a port in the province of embarkation, not in the province of disembarkation. You simply need to place a fleet, that is a minimum of one ship, in every sea between the source and destination. The source province is more important as you will need to place your fleet in a sea that connects to the province's port and not any other sea connected to the province.

In your example, England, supposing your are disembarking from Wessex, you will need a fleet in the channel and another in the Irish sea. You will also need a port in Wessex. Your army stack will then be ably to move directly to Ireland. The only thing that may prevent this would be enemy ships in either of those two seas. Enemy ships blockade each other's trade and movements of armies through the blockaded waters. Allied or neutral ships blockade movement of armies invading their lands. This will stop you launching a surprise invasion against an allied or neutral faction where they have ships defending their coasts.

[drone]

Also, do not attack with your king, or with any generals you might want to use elsewhere. Ireland does not (usually) have a port, so any troops you send there will be stranded on the island until you conquer the province and get a port built.

The Viking faction in the VI expansion campaign is the only faction capable of moving troops by sea from a port-less province.

[macsen rufus]

Hi Solid & welcome to the Org Don't break that disc, believe me once you get into the swing of it you'll be addicted (and if not then sell it on eBay rather than breaking it )

Useful tip for planning sea-borne attacks. Hold down the "V" key and the seas will light up in traffic light colours. If there are enemy ships (ie a faction you're already at war with) they sea will turn red. If there are neutral or allied ships, but none of your own, it will be yellow, and if you do have a ship and no enemies, it will be green.

You have the mechanics of invasion listed above now, but to confirm: your invasion must leave from a port, and the sea region the port is in must be green, along with every other sea region on route to the target province. You can land on a beach, so if any coast region is green you'll be able to land. BUT having sais that, if you are not yet at war with that faction, the seas will still show green, and you may need to sink their ships first. Good luck in Ireland !

[solid74]

You guys are awesome, I think I finally got it! I'm so stupid, I didn't even see that the problem was right in front of me. I had everything covered except one thing that I didn't realize, and that's why I was so frustrated.

I wasn't leaving from a port! OMG! I thought merely having ports somewhere enabled me to invade to any fleet connected area. I think that's why the 'facing port' thing confused me.

Thanks again everyone! Time to invade Ireland! (which is kind of strange considering I'm Irish lol)

[Martok]

Welcome to the Org, solid74, and good luck on your invasion!

[Caerfanan]

Welcome Solid74, beware of the nasty irish javelins, and take some horses with you, those half naked celtic warriors really run fast!

The boats things are one little annoyance when you start with MTW.
The most frustrating I can recall is that usually, when you invade a place, you cannot quit it the next turn, either because it did not have a port, either because your brilliant soldiers decided to plunder and destroy their only way out to their wives: THE PORT!!!

When you're used to it, you take car of several things, like not sending your king and loose instantly a lot of loyalty in a lot of provinces, or send a very big useful army to guarantee your voctory, and have your elite soldiers watch with anger their homeland plundered for 4 turns by an opportunist...

[rockoutloud1213]

Why would one ever make a game in which the naval invasions were that illogical? In Rome, you just plop troops on a ship and they go. Why would you need a ship in every section of sea between where you are and where you're going?

[scowie]

Why would one ever make a game in which the naval invasions were that illogical? In Rome, you just plop troops on a ship and they go. Why would you need a ship in every section of sea between where you are and where you're going?

I guess the system was designed with the building of trade links in mind. Using the same system for invasions may seem awkward but implementing two different methods for trading and invasions would have complicated things too.

[Bregil the Bowman]

Why would one ever make a game in which the naval invasions were that illogical? In Rome, you just plop troops on a ship and they go. Why would you need a ship in every section of sea between where you are and where you're going?

It makes sense that you would only trust your armies to sea areas that were adequately patrolled by your own warships. The danger of interception en route means you cannot launch an invasion until you have cleared the seas of enemies and potential enemies (i.e. people you are about to invade).

Even a jaunt across the chanel was a perilous journey in Medieval times (Henry I's son was lost on the White Ship). Sailing from London or Southampton to Ireland would have been a major undertaking. The quicker route would have been from Wales (Holyhead or Milford Haven) or Scotland.

For my take on why you need a port to send out an expedition but not to invade, see this thread:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=63682

[The Darkhorn]

You have the mechanics of invasion listed above now, but to confirm: your invasion must leave from a port, and the sea region the port is in must be green, along with every other sea region on route to the target province. You can land on a beach, so if any coast region is green you'll be able to land. BUT having sais that, if you are not yet at war with that faction, the seas will still show green, and you may need to sink their ships first. Good luck in Ireland !

What Rufus is saying here is that even though you are currently not at war with them, their ships will still not just let you land on their coast. If there are any ships of the power to be invaded anywhere along the path, while still techinically neutral, it will not allow you to place the stack(s) in the province to be invaded.

Your army may have to hang out a turn or two while you clear the seas. "Have some grog first lads! Then we'll have a go at them Gaels!"

[rockoutloud1213]

Feeling pretty proud of myself for finally figuring ships out, I thought "hm, I'll try playing Sicily. That'll be fun!" And when trying to invade Greece (playing on high, so it's currently owned by rebels), I just got completely lost. I know I'm embarking from a port, I have a ship in every sea region up to it...

The only thing I'm not sure about is the fact that the province of Greece has 2 or more sea regions bordering it. Does it matter which one I have a ship in? I just have one in the closest, but do I need a ship in all of them or a specific one?

Also, in one of the sea regions Italy also has a ship. But they're not my enemies, nor do they own Greece, so that should be fine, right?

I'm very confused. I played a couple days ago but from my memory I think I'm invading from Malta (not sure, but I'm very sure wherever it is it has a port) and I'm three or four sea thingys from Greece. Help please?

[rockoutloud1213]

Haha okay I figured it out. Maybe I'm the only one that didn't assume this but no one told me you couldn't move troops somewhere in the same year you moved a ship in the region in question. Ha! Okay, sorry bout that.

[The Darkhorn]

Ship? What ship sire?

[Bregil the Bowman]

Or as Lord St Vincent said of the threatened French invasion

"I do not say they cannot come, only that they cannot come by sea."

[Martok]

Haha okay I figured it out. Maybe I'm the only one that didn't assume this but no one told me you couldn't move troops somewhere in the same year you moved a ship in the region in question. Ha! Okay, sorry bout that.

Gah! No, that's our fault for failing to point out something the rest of are used to and therefore take for granted. Glad you figured it out, though.