Americas Campaign: Spain

[YAKOBU]

Hi everyone

After a couple of quick goes as New Spain here is my successful strategy on M/M:

My explorer sets off to get alliances and trade with the Tlaxcalans, Tarascans, Chichimec and Apachean. He also got trade with the Aztecs and Mayans.

Hernan immediately sets off east along the coast and takes Coatzalcoalcos (rebel), Potonchan (rebel), Xicallanco (rebel), Compech (mayan), Uxmal (mayan) and Chichen Itza (mayan). Settlements are attacked immediately as he has a culverin and he recruits native mercs for the assaults and to garrison the new settlements.

At the same time Pedro sails southwest and takes Chetumal (rebel), Altun Hon (rebel) and Tikal (mayan). Settlements are attacked after 1 turns siege equipment is built and he recruits native mercs for the assaults and to garrison the new settlements.

This 2-pronged assault nets New Spain 9 new settlements by the end of turn 9 and the Mayans are destroyed.

Whilst these settlements are being developed the surrounding rebel settlements can be taken at leisure. These are Quirigua, Trugillo and Tlacochcalpan to the east and Yaschilan, Xelaju and Tuchtlan to the south.

Now I sat back and built up my settlements for a few turns. Because of their location Vera Cruz, Chichen Itza, Quirigua and Havana were prioritised for military development.

Military forces were moved to the west ready for an assault on the Aztecs whilst additional forces were moved to the east to defend against the English.

Eventually when my military forces were ready I moved against the Aztecs, destroying them on turn 41. To get the required number of settlements I also had to continue on to the Tlaxcalans who were destroyed on turn 45; as well as taking a couple of Tarascan settlements. I also took a settlement from France as requested. The English landed but did not attack due to my defencive forces. Victory was achieved on turn 47.


Useful notes

• Use a lot of watchtowers and guides. My guides went before my main forces especially in the forested mayan area. This stopped a lot of potential ambushes.

• I got more Conquistadors than I could handle and as they are a financial burden do not be afraid to use them.

• I kept Havana as my capital partly because Vera Cruz always gets a plague early on and also because I could ferry units to where they were needed most.

I hope you find this useful and apologies for any spelling errors on settlement names.

[Spajus]

I'm playing on VH/VH. A couple of key things to note:

- plague, wonderfully done here. I haven't seen the plague kill a single soldier, not even a native. Now, I've completed as the Aztecs, and plague was definitely killing my soldiers.

Looks like the coders have made Spanish forces immune to the plague, which makes a lot of sense, given the historical context.

Playing the game: ramblings on the tactical game:
If you're playing on VH/VH, chances are you like to be careful with your units. Thanks to our cheap and cheerful "rent-a-merc" service, this is no longer a problem. An unending horde of cannon-fodder can be yours for the measly price of just 6,000 florins (full stack costs about that - same as 5 units of Conquistadors!)

I tried to avoid battles in heavy jungle, especially where I had a cannon.

You can buy a lot of what you need - cities can be had for 10k florins, without any real negotiating skills.

I was playing at high chivalry - I converted towns unless I was short of money (very rarely). Because the populations are so small, you can usually convert rather than loot, set the taxes to low, and move on.
- because the populations are so small, low taxes are better
- by the time populations become "unruly" you'll have churches coming out of your ears, so pike will still be a sufficient garrison.

This means you don't have to sit ontop of the town for 10 turns while they become accustomed to their new rulers.

Don't forget to keep your "empty" ship running. You should have one ship with reinforcements sailing FROM cuba, and the empty one returing TO cuba for the first 20+ turns.

Ramblings on the battlefield:
I found it great fun to turn up with a stack of lousy native mercs, and just hurl them at the enemy. Works a treat in seiges, where fighting through the town square is normally such a hassle.

Your little 30's of swordsmen can be reasonably effective to hold a large native force in place, so long as you have a couple of units of calvalry to ram into their backs.

Oh, regarding casualties, I found a unit of 15 - 20 conquistadors is still quite effective, and having 6 units of 15 - 20 is better than 3 units of 30. (More maneuverable.)

Crossbowmen are (as has already been pointed out) not very worthwhile. Cannon and musket are much more fun, while hordes of native archers will at least make the enemy leave his town square.

I haven't got the hang of the pike militia, but don't really feel like I have to.

All in all, for vh/vh, this has been a complete doddle, but very fun. :)

[Negator_UK]

Playing Spain on VH/VH.

Early in the game I accepted an alliance from the aztecs - they bashed the tlaxcans while I bashed the mayans.

Tried a clever thing and landed one army in florida - yeah, very clever the french showed up with two !!

However they only took one of my settlements and then went north to the far north-eastern rebel settlement while I looked on nervously from miccosukee. Then another Spanish army appeared in florida (sent by the king. not me) and I used it to retake the two french settlements while their armies were walking towards miccosukee. Then strangely they marched right past my settlement and headed for Indian country. Strange, but good as I was in no shape to defend.

Looks like the french really do exist just to give the apacheans rifles ..

The only other thing to report is money - I mean moneeeeeeeeey - its now turn 52ish, I have 28 settlements and there are 5 aztec settlements left so I'm expecting a win before turn 60 - between trade and loot I have 126000 gold and it will continue to rise rapidly.

European TW was never like this !!

[Nepereta]

ok,
Strategic:

Get your diplomat into an aztec dialog, ally up aztecs , Tlaxacallans and tarrascans. Also offer the aztecs a whole bunch of cash per turn for all their cities. Then simply cancel the per turn aggreement in the same diplomatic session. It makes them upset but they rarely seem to break the allaince.

I take the conquistador east via boat nibbling away at coastal cities. The cannon is gold dust. Defend it at all costs.

I send the all the cuban forces to Mayan area for a fight bar a small garrison.

Switch capital to mainland so you can cash in on the 'conquistadore' bonuses quicker.

Tactical:

To take a native town defended by logs find the raised section near a gate. Knock out the two towers adjacent to the gates. Arrange native archers perpendicular to the ramp facing the lower wall. Arrange crossbows + muskets on the edge of the ramp with the cannon at the highest point. Use the cannon to blast the wall on the between the cannon and the town square.

The enemy should send up blocking melee forces to the new hole. Cancel fire on your ranged units and get an X-Bow unit in a good firing position and tear open the new blocking units with patient close range X-Bow salvos. I don't use time limits.

When the melee blockers are spent use the cannon to open fire on city square use explosive or solid shot as appropiate. Use 'delete' to fix your view to cannon and its shot so you can perform better with cannon.

Switch on fire on all your prepared missle units as their missle units are lured out. Use cannon rounds on explosive as they exit the city square hopefully driving them back before they get a chance to fire.

They will eventually hesitate to leave the square and be reduced to perhaps sub 10% strength.

Use a general or conquistadore to circle up thru the hole you made up to the raised gate. This action curiously brings some of the remnants out to attack. As before devastate them with you missle units.

Eventually you'll end up with a trivial number of troops in the city square which you can finish with your general ( missle ) or a firing squad ( melee).

I suggest full massacres since the above tactic tends to encourage 'winning first' virtues. you should eventually get a full dread general in no time.

[TheSilverKnight]

How exactly do you get promoted? In all of my Spain games in the Americas I've never once been promoted.

Btw it feels good to post at the org again...I've had an absence of SEVERAL months.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

How exactly do you get promoted? In all of my Spain games in the Americas I've never once been promoted.

Complete the missions and capture regions.

[Barbarian]

Promoting is essential, as you get access to new buildings then.

[dark@hunter]

in the start of the game i make allience with the tlaxcalans hire tlaxcalan mercenairys then attack the mayans then the aztecs

[Sir Conor March]

What i did was i made vera cruz my capital and took over the settlements east of it(then most rebel settles in southern map) Next after owning all the rebel settlements between maya and aztecs i make economic buildings and ally with everyone apart from the faction im going to destroy or attack. I attacked the aztecs and as the tlax and taras and maya helped me they quickly fell. I didnt attack the maya because when the english arrived i let them conquer the maya then i moved in to kill the english with the help of the remaining maya(then i killed them too XD) At the same time i went to war with the tarascans and remained allied with the tlaxcalans. By doing this i managed to win and went on to finish off the tarascans then i got rid of alliance and trade rights with tlaxcalans, i send guides in their towns and when i went to war with them they fell quickly. And thats how far ive gotten by now(late 1500s)