New playing idea, Nomadic Horde

[Budwise]

Spend a few turns building up a good army and destroy all the buildings in all of your territories except for one (Keep that one heavily defended because I think if you don't have any land your done)

The goal is to destroy all the buildings in the game and bankrupt EVERYONE this way. That would mean going to every territory, sack, and then burn to the ground everything. This would mean that you would need mercenaries at some point and everyone will hate you in the end.

Some other rules to add are the following
1. You are NOT allowed to defend or try to keep ANY land until you conquered EVERYTHING. This is not included on your capital.
2. EVERY army has to be controlled by a general. This keeps having lots of stacks of armiest to help out.
3. (Optional) No ceasefires, whatsoever
4. No diplomacy to get any land, better relations, or anything that could be used to achieve a heads up in battle.

Will anyone else try this because I don't want to be the only one and also, I would like to see how it all turns out if people try different factions and what the outcomes are.

[Askthepizzaguy]

There's a problem with the plan. You're going to run out of money and you won't be able to recruit new troops after a while. Then it is only a matter of time before your bankruptcy eliminates your ability to maintain your army.

If you have enough troops to really sustain an offensive against the entire map, then you have way too many troops to support with just your single city. And sacking will only provide temporary relief from your chronic and everlasting poverty. Only when most of your troops are dead will you begin to recover from massive debt.

A better idea might be to maintain the rough borders of your present-day nation and then do the same thing. Such as: England owns England, France owns France, Spain owns Spain, the Italian factions own all of Italy, Byzantium owns Greece (+Istanbul), Russia owns Russia, HRE owns Germany, Moors own West Africa (+ the original Spanish cities they own), Egypt owns Egypt, Turkey owns Turkey, Denmark owns Scandinavia + Denmark, Scotland owns Scotland + Ireland.

If anyone can post proof of making actual headway against the entire map with only one supporting city, I will recant my suggestion that it may be impossible.

Or, you could edit the game files and give yourself for all intents and purposes infinite florins, limit yourself to one city, and limit yourself to one full attacking stack of troops at any given time.

[Budwise]

Are you sure? I know I would be operating at a negative but I figured all the sacking/burning to the ground with each settlement taken would fix that problem.

Anyways, I find my Rebel Campaign a better idea anyways and can't wait to play a few turns in the morning. Its 6:45am here in Oregon and my girlfriend kept me up for quite sometime to "relieve stress"

I think I hurt myself. To describe the night it was like, please follow the inuwindows in order.

[Ramses II CP]

I've taken a run at something somewhat similar (Exterminate the whole continent), though just as a test of the idea, and I think it can work, but it's going to be slow. You won't be able to sustain more than a stack and a half or two. I think the next time I try it out, I'm going to build up my city's economy first, maybe put a few merchants in strategic spots, and then go forward with it. So you're probably looking at 2 towns burned per turn max, and in the neighborhood of about a 60-80 turn game.

I think the balancing act will be the hardest part, just trying to keep your spending on mercs from outstripping your ability to sustain cash flow. In some cases merc availability may be problematic too, so I think I'd want to save the provinces closest to your home base for last so that you can churn out some troops from the base to catch a quick sack every so often.

Good luck.

[Valdincan]

I've done something similar, only I dident exterminate the cities I "took".

I kept the regions I started with, set taxes, and made a few large armies (a few for defense, a few for offense). After I built up a sufficient force, I would invade my neighbors, sack their cities, rebuild my force, and abandon the city, causing it to revolt or get retaken in a few turns. This allowed me to sack that town over and over.

I believe that by the end of the campaign I was extremely rich and had lost none of my starting territory.

Of course, this way of playing only allows for weaker armies, and by the end my raiders were struggling against more advanced and skilled troops.