Home 5 province turtle campaigns !!

[YAKOBU]

Hi everyone

As mentioned in an earlier thread I have completed a few long campaigns on H/H but have got bored of the excessive management and battles required. I thought about turtling with only 10 provinces until the end of the campaign so I could try out all units for each faction.

To make it a little harder I am going to attempt it with only 5 provinces which will also reduce the management and battles further. I will use 1 castle and 4 cities each time. For any faction who starts of with more than 5 provinces I will set it to high taxation and remove any troops from the excess provinces. Failing that I will give them away.

I may decide to do a write-up on each campaign if anyone is interested.

Also what are your thoughts on easy, hard or impossible factions?

I would think England (my favourite faction) are easy. I would use York, Nottingham, London, Caen and Brugge. In my long campaign with them the trade between London and Brugge was great.

All comments are appreciated.

[Per Ole]

I've often done England with Nottingham, London, York, Caernarvon and Dublin. That works great. If you got Caen, France always attacks you. If you hold these 5 settlements, the only ones to attack you are the scots and (occationally) the Danish (naval invasions, build a fleet)

[YAKOBU]

Hi Per Ole

I did want a presence in France otherwise the game could progress with nothing much happening. It may otherwise be not much of a challenge.

[Lacessit]

Portugal? You'd sure have enough enemies by grabbing your five provinces, it could be challenging.

[Guyus Germanicus]

I'll be real interested to know how you make it without money. Because the game requires taking cities to make money. And I've tried to turtle my development in a regular long campaign and I'm always broke, and I don't think I'm recruiting excessively. Frankly I don't see how you can do it, at least, not without cheating with the add_money cheat.

Do keep us posted. You've roused my curiosity. And Good Luck!

[Zenicetus]

Portugal? You'd sure have enough enemies by grabbing your five provinces, it could be challenging.

Yes, either Portugal or Spain should be one of the easiest for this, since you can hold off the Moors indefinitely with a boat blockade of the land bridge at Gibraltar (cheesy but effective). There are good choke points against the rest of Europe to the North, and you have access to the Med for trading. No real threat from the Mongols or Timurid.

I'd be worried about income though, like Guyus said. You might have to bend the home rules to join Crusades and do some city-sacking in the Holy Lands. A merchant empire (supported by spies and assassins) would also be important, and I'd want every province to be coastal if possible, for the port trade.

Hardest factions would be anything in the East that are first in the line of fire from the Mongols and Timurids, if you're playing the full campaign. And double-bad if you also start with poor provinces. I've been playing the Hungarians lately. They're dirt-poor unless they expand, so I can't imagine doing it from that location with just 5 provinces unless they picked up and migrated to a more productive area.... like blitzing Venice or something.

[sapi]

A HRE campaign of this sort would be very interesting

[Per Ole]

I'll be real interested to know how you make it without money. Because the game requires taking cities to make money. And I've tried to turtle my development in a regular long campaign and I'm always broke, and I don't think I'm recruiting excessively. Frankly I don't see how you can do it, at least, not without cheating with the add_money cheat.

Do keep us posted. You've roused my curiosity. And Good Luck!

To be honest, I almost always turtle. It's my play-style.
However, it's not hard to earn alot of cash with a few settlements; Just 2 days ago I did a campaign with Scotland where I held Edinburgh, Dublin and Inverness (castle) for over 100 turns. Nemo problemo, richest country (over 60k avg).

Trick is, always construct economy buildings. I only had Militia armies, so upkeep is free. My castle could produce troops quick enough to defend myself, so if I get attacked (England anybody?) it was no problem.

[icek]

it depends who you play, england can concentrate they cities on economy, churches, admirality, and later on gunpowder development coz their militia is pretty weak or have a better castle clones vol.2.0 :)

[Jasper The Builder]

playing on vh/vh you never get peace for this to happen, I always feel that vh/vh is kinda fake. As france i was attacked by england, then germany, spain, milan and yes the moors had an invasion on my southern coast, Its crazy

I like to create an over-seas empire, I usually take on the mussers with England and not bother with france or europe. Even making Cean into a city and just bleeding the population dry for its gold, When the french attack it and take it, Its fine because its always easy to take back a city rather than a castle, And also the booty is far better

I also love to create revolts so i can butcher the population get back in line, saxon peasants

[Vanya]

GAH!

Vanya sez... Finland!

Abandon all worldly possessions and travel to Finland!



Nobody in the M2TW world cares about that remote, frozen corner of the world. The Russians are next door and never bother with it! Sure, youz will have an economy worth it's weight in air, but with the proper charitable NGOs in place to keep the people fed and occupied, youz won't have to worry about foreign meddling and Papal shenanigans.

If WAR is what whets your appetite, however, just up and relocate to Edessa and sit tight. No ocean means no frivolous trade wars, so any war will be "for real". And, you'll get the pleasure of petting pachyderms!



GAH!

[Gray Beard]

I've tried to do this with the Byzantines and it never works.

The closest I've come is to send a big honking, hairy-legged army up through Europe. I capture a city sack it, demolish everything that can be demolished for the cash and move on and let it revolt. If the captured province is a castle I convert it into a city and then move on. The rebels don't have victory conditions and don't build empires so they don't attack you and you can build your empire of 5, 10 or 15 provinces in peace. I've never been able to take everybody out before the Mongols arrive but I've come close.

[icek]

well, finland was a reason for three wars between danes and russland in my previous campaign so...

[YAKOBU]

Right I've decided on England for my home 5 province turtle campaign.

Following rules:

H/H.
Can only take rebel settlements to get to 5 provinces.
Can only attack armies that are in my provinces.

Turns 1-10

I initially disbanded all peasants and town militia.

Economic buildings (roads, farms, ports etc) were prioritised in each province.

Prince Rufus took both York and Caernarvon after the enemy sallied.

Caernarvon was converted to a town and Caen to a large town.

Alliances and Trade Rights were agreed with France, Denmark, Portugal and Spain. Trade Rights were agreed with Scotland.

Prince Perkin of Pickering who was 25 with a command rating of 3 wed into the family.

Treasury was 10,649.

[YAKOBU]

Turns 11-20

Trade Rights were agreed with the Moors.

A unit each of longbowmen and mailed knights were sent to reinforce York and Caen.

Treasury was £13,047.



Turns 21-30

Alliances and Trade Rights were agreed with Milan, The Papal States and Poland.

Treasury was £30,194.



Turns 31-40

Trade Rights were agreed with the HRE.

A unit each of swordsmen were sent to reinforce York and Caen.

Treasury was £61,154.

[Bob the Insane]

It is interesting though that your treasury can grow a lot but once your cities hit a certain size and the individual improvements are like 10,000 each it is amazing how quickly that spare cash disappears and you are left with your tax rate to determine how quickly you and build further improvements...

[YAKOBU]

Treasury would have been better if I had gone with my original plan of taking Brugge instead of Caernarvon. Unfortunately Brugge gets targeted more than Caernarvon early on so I would have needed a good defense in Caen, York and Brugge. At least this way I only need to keep York and Caen well defended early on.

My original plan is to try and not lose a single province. If I allow myself to lose a single province it would make the game easier as I could just keep one strong army and leave the rest of the provinces with the bare minimum. Then I could retake any lost settlements at will.

That Scottish army has been next to York since the beginning. Luckily I now have enough of a defense in case they attack.

[YAKOBU]

Turns 41-100

Trade Rights were agreed with the Turks and Byzantines.

Aston the Missionary of England was named Pope.

The Danes started a war by blockading Nottingham but accepted a ceasefire costing us 20,000.

Treasury was £275,753



So far 100 turns in and only 1 blockade and no land battles.

[YAKOBU]

Turns 101-120

The Danes siege Nottingham castle and assault with 1308 men against our 966. 1 retinue longbowmen are placed behind each gate with stakes. The 1st 2 gates are also protected by spearmen and the last gate by swordsmen. When the battle starts the retinue longbowmen then take to the walls. Our cavalry harrass the attackers but cannot hold back the assault. After a strong assault the attackers fight their way through the first 2 gates but are beaten without taken the final gate.





After their defeat the Danes accept a ceasefire without cost to us.

Treasury was £268,025

[Guyus Germanicus]

Turns 41-100

Trade Rights were agreed with the Turks and Byzantines.

Aston the Missionary of England was named Pope.

The Danes started a war by blockading Nottingham but accepted a ceasefire costing us 20,000.

Treasury was £275,753



So far 100 turns in and only 1 blockade and no land battles.

Amazing!!

When you finish, you should give us a summary write up as to how you proceeded with your city development, and tell us when your income started to really pile up.

Did you get summoned for a Crusade by the Pope? And how did you respond?

Again, amazing!

[ReiseReise]

Love the thread! I don't think I would have defended the Fortress that way though

[Shahed]

VERY cool.

[YAKOBU]

Hi guys

Guyus Germanicus - Being England all provinces have ports so it wasn't too difficult piling up the money. I initially built all economic structures before anything else and have never had a shortage of money. I have ignored all requests to crusade and am not allowed to advance outside my 5 provinces.

ReiseReise - Are you commending my fortress defending ability or is there a better way I should do it? Being the English is a big advantage as deploying stakes in front of all 3 fortress gates really helps.

I continued another 40 turns last night and will do the write-up later today. I had a nail-biting battle with the French where I only managed to hold on to Caen because the timer run out with me only having about 100 soldiers left.

[YAKOBU]

Turns 121-140

Trade Rights were agreed with Hungary.

The Danes siege Nottingham castle and assault with 812 men against our 1150. Their outnumbered forces do not even make it inside the 1st gate and we lose only 42 men. After their defeat the Danes request a ceasefire which we accept. The Danes then siege Nottingham castle again but request a ceasefire which breaks the siege. Within a few turns of getting the ceasefire they resiege Nottingham castle.

Our fleet is increased to 12 ships split into 2 groups of 6 which patrol the waters in case the Danes try to land further armies.

Each province is reinforced with a unit of arquebusiers.

Treasury was £262,100.

[YAKOBU]

Turns 141-160

The Danes assault Nottingham castle with 1180 men against our 1089. Stakes are placed at the 1st gate and longbowmen are placed along the walls. The Danes only manage to make it inside the 1st gate before being repelled and we lose only 121 men. After their defeat the Danes again request a ceasefire which we accept.

The French break our alliance by sieging Caen and assaulting with 2 armies of 1239 and 685 men against our 1122. The French bring plenty of siege equipment, crossbowmen, cavalry and strong infantry. We decide to defend the town square as the city walls will not stand up to such an assault. Stakes are placed at the main entrances to the town square. On starting the battle the French have an army at opposite ends of the city but bring them together to concentrate their forces. They quickly break through the city walls and start a 2-pronged attack on the town square. Although our spearmen hold them at the stakes their crossbowmen are decimating our defenders. We have to utilise our swordsmen against the crossbowmen but the French bring up their heavy infantry. Our few defenders set up a last ditch defense which appears doomed to failure. The few remaining defenders fearing defeat are relieved when nightfall brings the battle to a close and the city still remains in English hands.




After the battle we quickly recruit more troops in Caen and employ the services of a number of mercenary units in preperation for another French attack.

Treasury was £336,465.

[Shahed]

Nice.

BTW I've played a Danish game holding only Arhus, Oslo, Stockholm. It was really fun as well, and guess what ? NO empire actually was all that strong, even so it was completely feasible to hold only 2 cities and 1 castle and still beat the living daylights out of anyone else.

[d3nn16]

How many of you are playing campaigns in which you don't save and reload at all ?
I am currently playing this kind of campaign with Sicily fighting all battles manually.
Here's one great battle with Milan : 360 vs 1464.



I had the game saved (I do this because of CTDs) before Milan attacked me but when I reloaded to replay the battle it didn't attacked me again.

[YAKOBU]

Hi d3nn16

In my campaigns I don't save and reload apart from when I finish the game for the day and start up for the next day.

I do periodic saves in case I have a CTD but that is the only time I would go back to a save game.

[d3nn16]

Until now I played 2 campaigns with Venice using save/reload and now I just started a campaign with Sicily without saving and reloading (more difficult, had to survive Moors, Milan and Venice invasions since turn 2, and no more spies opening gates for me ).

Yakobu, how fast do you finish your campaigns (without using the save/reload advantage) ? I could use an extra challenge for the game.

[YAKOBU]

My campaigns are not usually finished until close to the victory conditions. I had 1 where things went awry on the last turn and I had to assault the Papacy to clinch victory. That had not been my plan as I wanted to be a good Catholic.

I tend to move slowly in my expansion to get higher level troops and make my borders strong.

Most people seem to win the campaign long before the victory conditions and I assume this is without saving and reloading when things don't work out as planned.