How to conquer a territory - quickly

[Musket]

How about this. It will only work if you have a heck of a lot of money to spare. If invading France for instance from England, have more than one army. Have at least four, with one small unit (say 400 men) separate for each castle the enemy have. Those small units are attached to an army (not literally), and they travel with them into provinces.

You send the armies in different directions, forcing the enemy to spread their armies thinly. Once you defeat an army, you move on to the next province, while leaving the 400 man detachment to besiege the enemy fort. That way, your main army hasn't lost any men to stay behind and besiege, allowing your forces to keep the momentum of the invasion up.

Its a bit of a complicated explanation, so i'll try to shorten it down a bit:

Main Army: 2,000 men (example)
Traveling with that army: 2 detachments of 400 men (as separate armies)

Once the main army defeats the other main army, one of those detachments is left behind to continue the siege, while the other armies head off.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Wasn't there an exploit a while back where someone suggested making hordes of peasants to force an enemy to retreat to a single province, and then finish them off with a decent army?

[Musket]

I suppose that could work, but if the AI is intelligent enough, it will know that Order Foot Soldiers and cavalry stand a pretty good chance against peasants. But usually, they run away in the face of large armies. I suppose that is a good way of getting them to retreat multiple times, then when they are blocked in, just attack them with a following army.

[Heidrek]

Yes, you do have to be weary of over extending yourself. I'd really only recommend it to take one territory at a time. dump a huge army into the Kings territory, watch him flee and take the province, then settle in and build up some more forces and infrastructure. With luck, the enemy will attack to try and take the province back you you'll have the benefit of the terrain advantage so you can crush him.

[Musket]

Or you can do the English tactic that we used in the Hundred Years War, chevauchee I believe, I can't remember the exact spelling. Basically, it involved marching an army into a province, pillaging all you can, burn the whole lot to the ground and then retreat. When the enemy moves back in and rebuilds, repeat the tactic.

However, in Total War, a constant stalemate may promote a rebellion back home. I remember my Holy Roman - Almohad War, while the Navy succeeded at blockading Almohad ports and destroying their navy, on land it was a Stalemate. We exchanged the same three ex-French provinces over and over for about 25 years. My attempts at negotiating a peaceful settlement to the war had fallen on deaf ears, as the Almohads were not talking.

Eventually, the people were starting to get a bit pissed off with the prolonged war, the continual yearly recruitment and just sending them to the meat grinder and the re-appearing of Almohad ships and hunting single ship fleets down in the blockade. About eleven provinces on the continent, across France, the Empire's heartland and Hungary defected, as well as four provinces in the British Isles defected in an all-out civil war.

Coupled with the prolonged war against the Almohads, the re-emergence of the French, Hungarians and the English made it a Catholic on Catholic War. The Pope excommunicated me, and the Italians answered the call. This finally brought down the Empire. So be careful when fighting an extended war.

[ArtistofWarfare]

Or you can do the English tactic that we used in the Hundred Years War, chevauchee I believe, I can't remember the exact spelling. Basically, it involved marching an army into a province, pillaging all you can, burn the whole lot to the ground and then retreat. When the enemy moves back in and rebuilds, repeat the tactic.

However, in Total War, a constant stalemate may promote a rebellion back home. I remember my Holy Roman - Almohad War, while the Navy succeeded at blockading Almohad ports and destroying their navy, on land it was a Stalemate. We exchanged the same three ex-French provinces over and over for about 25 years. My attempts at negotiating a peaceful settlement to the war had fallen on deaf ears, as the Almohads were not talking.

Eventually, the people were starting to get a bit pissed off with the prolonged war, the continual yearly recruitment and just sending them to the meat grinder and the re-appearing of Almohad ships and hunting single ship fleets down in the blockade. About eleven provinces on the continent, across France, the Empire's heartland and Hungary defected, as well as four provinces in the British Isles defected in an all-out civil war.

Coupled with the prolonged war against the Almohads, the re-emergence of the French, Hungarians and the English made it a Catholic on Catholic War. The Pope excommunicated me, and the Italians answered the call. This finally brought down the Empire. So be careful when fighting an extended war.

Interesting read...Thanks for the information...

Let me ask you though: What about a prolonged state of war? As in, you are "at war" with another faction however you are not actually engaging in combat...the status of "war" just exists.

How can one expect their populace to react to this sort of situation?

[Peasant Phill]

It's not really being a the state of war that causes civil wars, although role playing it can make the game more interesting. The real reason will be that you've lost 2 or more provinces in 1 year.