Byz, High, Expert

[Gilrandir]

Head for Bulgaria. Once you hold it you will have a river border to the north and north-east so the Huns (and those who hold Moldova) will have to cross bridges to get at you. But beware a stab in the back from the Sicilians in Greece.

[Martok]

^ In fact, just beware of the Sicilians backstabbing you, period!




Overall, though, I'd say you're doing about as well as could be expected or hoped for at this point. Other than seconding Gilrandir's recommendation of grabbing Bulgaria, you're pretty much already doing what I would be, were I in your shoes.

Thanks for the update, and good luck!

[gollum]

Indeed. I gotta get my old guitar out of hock first anyway.

In the mean time i'll follow that AA program.. then we can talk with the roadies and the tour managers ;)

[RRMike]

Head for Bulgaria. Once you hold it you will have a river border to the north and north-east so the Huns (and those who hold Moldova) will have to cross bridges to get at you. But beware a stab in the back from the Sicilians in Greece.

Now you tell me! :) I haven't been having too much trouble with the huns but the rest has gone to hell. That is good to know about Bulgaria though. I guess I don't remember that from my Hun games. I don't think I could support two armies anyway, with the Sic. in Greece, but still good to know.

Update: As soon as I got Egypt, feeling like I had the tiger by the tail, the Germans launch a crusade at Const. They are the big dog in Europe. Owning from Iberia to Northumbria to Austria. Of course, as soon as they do this it gives the Sicilians and horde pretext to drop their alliances with me so the Sicilians promptly sink a few of my boats and launch a crusade at Egypt, while the horde send two stacks into Rum from Armenia. I stoned the German crusade and they're sitting in Bulgaria. Beat the Horde badly in Rum, Arbalast attack on the general and then routed better army when their morale wavered.

I just hate this game right now though. My only ally, the Italians, had a civil war and I was allied with the crappy side so a bunch of the map went rebel. I have nobody left to trade with and no way to get anything out anyway through all the Sicilian ships. I guess I'm just gonna carry on with my original plan with the change that I'm going to now take Kazahr from the horde and make that my NE border. If I ever do get any trade going it will be nice to have.

[Gilrandir]

When I'm up against a faction with a strong naval power I usually try to concentrate my dispersed ships in a few sea zones and make several strong navies. Then I move them up against any stranded enemy's ships. The AI is normally not smart enough to do the same. But your foremost task I see in securing your maritime provinces from the Sicilian landing. So if I were you I would withdraw all my ships to Eastern Mediterranean and evict all enemy's ships from out of there. Once your maritime provinces are safe you can think offensive at sea.

[Trapped in Samsara]

Hi

And even if you can't evict the enemy's fleets, get your fleets into your coastal provinces' sea zones and start doing the seaborne-invasion-prevention rumba.

Regards
Victor

Sapere aude
Horace

[RRMike]

Yes, I have been consolidating my fleets and am now rolling back the Sicilian fleets. I've figured out a good trick to use to avoid the stupid moving blockade stuff that the AI pulls. It's probably something that all you guys already know but I didn't. My theory is:

Fleets move as fast as the slowest ship. So, when you want to give battle break your fleets apart and put all of your fastest boats together and attack the enemy fleet, which won't be able to withdraw unless they have a higher speed than your boats, and also attack with your big slow Wargalleys or whatever. If they are forced to give battle they must fight all the battles that turn. I'm able to crush on the Sicilian boats by using this method. My hunter/killer groups with a 2 Galley stack and a 3-4 wargalley/firegalley stack. They always move together.

Update on the campaign: Things are actually going pretty well. The AI is incredibly stupid and I forgot that when I was getting worried about this campaign. They don't build enough of the units that I have trouble with and bring tons of militia, spears and similar foot, that I can deal with fairly well. Heavy Cav, which I would struggle to deal with has been almost non-existant. The horde have some but they seem to have used the brunt of it up against the Ruskies, Huns and Poles. There are a couple/few when we have a big dust up but not the massive numbers that would kill my armies. I got tired of waiting and building up armies so I went on the offensive against the Horde. The Sicilian crusade against Egypt is sitting in Bulgaria along with a coupld stacks of Huns and Greece had 4 stacks of Sicilians so I didn't dare split my Const. army up by going offensive over there. The Sicilians just attacked and were beaten handily, yet again, suffering 2200 losses to my 900. Const. is safe for a while. It helps that the Sicilians and Hungarians are at war also. Which makes having the Sicilian crusade sitting in Hungarian Bulgaria all the more comical.

In the East I have from Moscow down to Kazhar. The Horde is still attacking into Poland and Hungary, which I'm all for. I'm going to try to keep pushing them West and let them whittle down some of my other enemies (the huns) in the process. Two birds with one stone and all... Down south, the Elmos have all of North Africa up to Egypt. They won't ally with me but haven't attacked so at least I have somebody to trade with when I manage to get my fleets extended again. I have auto-CF with the Germans after their crusade dispersed, the French have re-emerged and I still see English agents from time to time so they are out there somewhere. It is a slower conquest than I would say is normal for me but I'm still making progress. Once I finish off the Sicilian boats I think things will speed up noticeably.

PS. Getting to Switzerland looks like it's going to be neigh on impossible in the near term. I look upon it lovingly, and even sent an agent there to bring back stories of it's beauty, and halberds, but alas, other matters are pressing.

[Gilrandir]

Just an afterthought: if the Sics and the Huns are at war with each other it is likely that one of them is ex-commed. If this is the case (check out the alliance information panel and look for the broken cross near their monarchs' names) it must be the Huns as the Sics still have their crusade anchored in Bulgaria (which is not possible for an ex-commed faction). So the ex-commed Huns must have a very shaky internal situation and a defeat may trigger a civil war or rebellions in their realm. If you can spare some of your troops to deal that blow in Bulgaria (having Const protected enough) you may succeed in overturning the Huns.
On the other hand you will have to fight the crusade as well so it may be worth waiting for the mentioned crusade to dwindle away.

[RRMike]

That is a very good idea! Hopefully the horde will manage it for me though. I am clinging to Constantinople with an iron grip and the thought of moving enough troops away to tackle Bulgaria is anathema. I will soon have a Kiev/Lithuania border and will then begin my expidetionary forays into central Europe. That will get them if the horde doesn't first.