Medieval Total War: England

[Anrhydeddu]

I'm bring this over from the old place just so I can have it here.

[Anrhydeddu]

In Chief Rum’s superb MTW: Poland dynasry, I shared my parallel experiences playing as the English and also asked for advice along the way. I had reached a point close to the end of the Early Period where I accomplished all my goals and then put the game aside. Now I am ready to pick it up again, continuing on as the English into the High Period. To recapture the history of the English to date, I copied and pasted (and some editing) the posts that I made into this separate thread. Enjoy.

1087-1102

I have started with English in the Early Period (on Normal), post-patch. There are six current provinces: three in the UK and three in what is now France. Those three French-related provinces are quite rich and immediately was targeted for farmland improvements. This more than anything else, allowed me to realize about 1500/yr profit in less than 20 years.

In the UK, Wessex (the capital) was targeted for the shipbuilding and strategic agents center, Mercia for its Billmen and Northumbria probably for Feudal Knights. Wales, a rebel province, was high on the conquer list for its Welsh Longbowmen. To the north, are the pesky Scots with their troublesome Clansmen.

With the English, there are two distinct strategies: defend the homeland or attack the French. I didn't think I could be strong enough to go after the French early on (plus I would likely miss out on the Pope gifts), so I proceeded on completing my long-term building projects, as well as getting all of UK under control of the Orangemen.

Seeing that Wales had a force of 240 Longbowmen along with some Spearmen, I thought I would rather have those units on my side than fight against them (plus, it would be a while before I could even build Longbowmen). So for about 2200 fl, they were added to my faction. On the other hand, I really wanted to fight the Clansmen. With a force of 700 men under a 5-star Prince William, they went up against the Scots in the year 1098. William's force contained about 320 Infantry (most Urban Militia), 180 Archers and 120 Longbowmen stolen from the Welsh (plus a smattering of other units). The Scots had 240 Clansmen and 60 Archers. The terrain was very mountainous (with a snow capped peak - Ben Nevis?), no tree cover to speak of, with a narrow valley where I started from. The Clansmen were situated about halfway up a mountain slope and not moving. I sent some units up the mountains to the right, some across the valley from them to the left and few up the valley right at them. Unfortunately, my archers were just too far away to make in impact (no pun intended) and would take a long time before they were able to do so (since the Scots will not come after me). Anyway, some of the infantry units heading up towards them started their movements and while just their front ranks engaged them successfully, the rest of the forces kept moving up higher into the mountains, even further away from my troops.

Since I was only able to attack them piecemeal on a mountain slope, the Clansmen proved to very, very tough. Not only do they attack very well, but do not break upon any type of charges. Plus, they are able to regroup after taking some losses and go back on the offensive. The rest of the battle was just a drawn out affair of getting my archers/longbowmen in place to start firing against a moving target. I could never really be effective with them and so most of my infantry got decimated and had to withdraw. At about the 20 minute mark (this is in real time!), all I had left were about 100 Archers taking on two clusters of about 50 Clansmen. The status bar hovered around 25% Red (that's me) pretty much the entire battle until at about the 25 minute mark (5 minute short of the battle being called a draw in favor of the Scots), I managed to get them worn down and an exhausting victory was declared for the English. In this very long, tough battle, I manage to inflict 90% percent casualties on them while they decimated my forces by about 70%. Next up is a five-year castle siege which should be successful. I felt this was important to do because if I didn't, my northern frontier would have been constantly harassed by the Clansmen (which I will be able to build fairly soon).

Other than that, I go through the tedious process of finding marriages and alliances, mainly rejecting non-Catholic offers. I have to pay more attention to what I can build when because there would be no need to spend money now on thing I cannot build yet. I should be really good economically, esp. after I take over the Irish sometime in the future. I don't plan on taking on the Vikings of Scandanavia or other Catholic nations (except for the !@%#$ Spanish Dons), unless a situation presents itself. Down the Iberian Peninsula and then across North Africa will likely be my long-term military goal, esp. if I can get good armoured swordsmen to go along with the superior Longbowmen to take on the tough Moorish and Islamic horsemen.

[Anrhydeddu]

1103-1121

Where I had left off was finally conquering all of the United Kingdom for the Glory of God (re: English). In each of the provinces, I had set up long-term strategic goals:

Wessex (capital): Shipbuilding Center (esp. with the Cogs in High/Late) and some Strategic Agents, started doing some trading now.
Mercia: Long-term – Billmen in High; short-term – Armoured Feudal Sergeants (fantastic inexpensive Early units).
Northumbria: Not sure long-term, but building ships there now.
Wales: Long-term (High period), Welsh Longbowmen, of course, but just sitting quietly for now.
Scotland: Cheap, good Clansmen when needed, otherwise, building ships there as well.
Normandy: A 750+ fl. province, probably will go the Feudal Knights route there.
Anjou: Another high-production province, probably will go with Mounted Sergeants there.
Aquitaine: The last of the three super high-production provinces, will produce the higher-end strategic agents there, as well as a trading center.

In 1103 (a year after Scotland fell), I was making about 1800 profit (3003 income, 1266 expenses) with alliances with all Catholic factions. The Germans (HRE) and the Danes were esp. close with several prince/princess marriages. The Italians and Papals were playing hard to get. I decided for the next 15 years, I would build up most of my provinces, while building an army or two centered around armoured Feudal Sgts and Clansmen (plus some Hobilars). The target would be Scandanavia.

For most of this build-up period, I still managed to keep a steady 1600 fl. profit each year. When a fairly good size army was built under Prince Alfred (brother of the King) in Wessex and a chain of Barques extending from the English Channel to the Baltic Sea, it was time for the invasion. An emissary there could have bribed Sweden for about 2400 fl. but there’s more to the game than just the campaign map. Besides not only was I wanting to fight, but I needed a large army there anyway to increase loyalty. Little did I know that Prince Alfred’s army would be speaking Swedish and eating lute fish for a long time.

In 1115, the arrival of the Prince Alfred Orangemen scared the so-called vicious Viking warriors from Sweden into Norway. In 1116, with the combined Viking army of 360 warriors had no choice but to face my 880 English troops. The battle took place on a high plateau with some fairly dense forests scattered about. Due to lack of tactical skills, I engaged all of my units enmass when the Vikings split into two. The results were very heavy losses to my Clansmen, as well as with the Hobilars and Spearmen. The Vikings proved to be very tough, esp. in hand-to-hand combat but they were badly outnumbered. The final tally shows 347 Viking losses (96%) and 405 English losses (46%).

Sweden is a very valuable province but Norway is just the opposite. The value of Norway is the ability to build high valorous Vikings (which I still cannot figure how to do so, unless I am not permitted to do so). To get a decent income in Sweden and Norway, with the thought of continuing across the Baltic Sea to Finland, I sent more units in from Wessex into there. The problem was that while I can get the units there (via the ships), they cannot get out (the Roach Motel Syndrome). I guess I needed a port into to move units (troops or even strategic agents) out of Sweden. With no fort, let alone a port, it would be at least 8 years before they can move. This was how Prince Alfred and his army learned to speak Swedish.

In other news, the reason why I didn’t have any success diplomatically with the Italians or Papals was that something bad was going on and the Italians got themselves excommed, even to the point that Pope immediately wanted a Crusade against them. Meanwhile, profits still remained in the 1600-1800 range and ships are being cranked out with the thought of extending down to the Mediterranean Sea.

In 1119, Prince Edmund, heir and my only good general not stuck in Scandanavia, took a decent size army (about 800 feudal sgts, clansmen, hobilars and whatnot) to rebel-controlled Lithuania. Finland was out of the question because the Novgorods conquered them. When I started the invasion into Lithuania, I bribed neighboring Prussia, also along the Baltic Sea, for 3600 fl. (treasury reached 12000 fl.). The thought was to prevent the Prussians from joining with the Lithuanian rebels. It worked, in a way. While the Lithuanians fled my invasion force in 1120, the siege was only going to last one year. Then in 1121, the manure hit the windmill.

What I hadn’t planned on was that the rebels from Chernigov and Smolensk would swarm into Lithuania to lift the siege….2300 of them!!!! I couldn’t run because there was no place for me to go and if I abandoned the province (I did this just to learn what would have happened), my treasury would have been wiped out in getting the heir back. Being outnumbered 3 to 1, I had to fight and what a fight it was!!!!

The terrain was quite flat and all of my units were aligned in a forest that offered some concealment and some not. Not really wanting to bother with figuring out how to set up my 840 men tactically, I just let them be since they were in a long and deep enough formation. And then the massive rebels horde started towards me. They had many horse archers leading the way and I wasn’t about to come out and engage them, so I let them come into the forest. Except they couldn’t very well. They backed off to let about 1200 peasants and other infantry engage my lines head on. This got everyone jumbled together and I just watched since controlling anyone would just add to the confusion. Since their horse archers didn’t do what they supposed to do, their infantry had a tough time in front of the woods and with the units coming out of the woods to face them. It didn’t long for them to break off the battle and fled back across the farmlands on the other side of the map. The problem then was that I had several units chasing them really good until I saw that they were re-forming their lines. Oh, s---.

I immediately got these very tired units all the way back to the rest of the army, just in time to face about 1000 rebels (mostly peasants and horse archers). My tired army held their ground in and about the forest and when the rebels came on frontally again, they couldn’t make much progress. After another re-forming of the lines by the rebels, I decided to put 80 hobilars to the flanks. When about 300 peasants come on again, the flanking hobilars quickly chased them away before they even reached the forest. The results of this incredible battle was 1900 fl, an execution of everyone and 1374 Rebel losses (59%) with 397 English losses (47%).

With Lithuania and Prussia in English hands (or will be in 1122), the foothold along the Baltic coast will be secured. The only other remaining province to bribe (can’t afford to shift my army just yet) will be Livonia. Poland, to the south, will hopefully accept my princess’ marriage. This also puts me right up against the massive holdings of the Novgorods. What the future holds I have no idea yet.

[Anrhydeddu]

1122-1124

Played a few more years last night and made really good progress. After securing Lithuania and then having bribed Prussia in my fold, I then worked on the two now-isolated rebel provinces: Livonia and Pomerania. It had always been my strategic/tactical methodology in strategy/war games to split the enemy, thus creating isolated groups of units and Livonia and Pomerania proved the success of such method. Anyway, in 1123, there were three large rebel armies in Pomerania, each about 650 men. Knowing Chief’s experience with multi-armied rebels, I knew I had to get three emissaries in that province. With each one bribing an army, I successfully obtained Pomerania for about 6000 fl. Meanwhile on the otherside, I finally got the port built in Sweden so now I can move Prince Alfred’s army out to support Lithuania while Prince Edmund moved into the cornered rebels of Livonia. With a mismatch of 826 feudal sergeants, hobilars, armoured spearmen and clansmen against 104 of something, the battle in the flat, open fields was very quick and decisive (74% rebels lost to only less than 3% English lost). Diplomatically, the Novgorods offered a marriage to my Prince Edmund and I accepted. They, unfortunately, sounds like a good target for conquest, seeing how my Catholic allies could respond, but I think I need to wait and scout out the provinces first. By the way, the English are the richest in the game with nearly 5000 fl. in income (year 1124).


1125-1146

Have you ever experienced in a strategy game where you are cruising along very nicely, meeting your goals and then all of a sudden have everything get real complicated on you? Well, that’s what happened last night. Let me explain.

Over the weekend, I played from about 1130 to 1146. After conquering Ireland, I started work on getting the Novgorods into rebellion since I cannot make war directly with them (would be too much fallout diplomatically). At the same time, I also worked on getting the Crusades started (by building Chapter Houses via the Church, and then the actual Crusade Markers themselves). Finally, I managed to get trades from my three trading posts (Wessex, Aquitaine and of course, Sweden) to/from all of the ports along the European coast (including Genoa and Venice) and into the lucrative Eastern Mediterranean ports! By 1146, my trade income alone was 3600 fl with an overall profit of over 4000 fl per year.
With enough spare units to have about three 1000-men armies, I thought that would be enough to hold Novgorod and Smolensk when the time came, as well as to feed an army or two into the first Crusade. To cause rebellion, first in Novgorod, I sent in (over a few year period) 9 Catholic Bishops. That got the Catholic faithful from 11% to 76% in about 12 years. Then I had 6 spies go in and see what trouble they can cause. Problem was, it didn’t work. The Novgorods were able to maintain high loyalty despite the changing of religious preference and they started killing each spy, one by one. The Bishops, meanwhile, all went down to Smolensk but I’m afraid the same thing is going to happen there. With the Novgorods strategy failing, I have to switch gears.

That leaves the Crusades. What I didn’t realize after I had built three Crusade Markers (in Wessex, Lithuania and Prussia – the last for their Teutonic Knights) was that the Pope would only allow me to go one Crusade at a time. In other words, I must complete one before I can even declare another one. The problem I see is that the Eastern Mediterranean are all held by the Egyptians, who, along with me, are the strongest in the game militarily. By adding one of my large armies into the Crusade and through the use of my unopposed string of ships, I can go from my staging area of Lithuania to Tripoli (the province just above the target Palestine) in one move. Once I get there, I see that I would likely be surrounded by very large Egyptian armies coming from all sides. I guess once I make the landing, I need to start feeding all of my spare armies there – but will I be able to hold Palestine for very long? I initially was hoping for more than one Crusading army in that region. Plus, I only have about 60 more years to complete my four Crusades and with each one, I’m going to have to repeat the same process. I initially was hoping for more than one Crusading army in that region. I don’t know, maybe I’ll send a couple of them across Germany and Italy to pick up more units before I hop on over. Any thoughts on this?
Here’s the other thing that is going to complicate my life. Just when I declared the Crusade to Palestine in 1146, the French started to make some noise on the homefront. In 1147, where I just got into, they invaded Aquitaine, one of my most valuable (and weakly defended provinces)!! Those bastards. Why did they do this? The problem is going to be that if I send in any troops to lift the siege, I get ex-commed. Just what I needed. Not only is my Novgorod strategy failing and my Crusades have an iffy chance of succeeding, I have to deal with a limited war across my Western European homefront.


1147-1149

I first got all of my units out of Novgorod and Smolensk, back to the staging province of Lithuania (which turned out to be my most valuable strategic province after Wessex). As far as the French, it was much ado about nothing. Since I needed to build up another army in support of my Middle East incursion, just the presence of building Mounted Sergeants in Anjou and Armoured Spearmen in Normandy, dissuaded the French from any more attacks (for now) and the abandonment of Aquitaine. I do not want to do to war with the French right now so I’ll make sure those three provinces get better defended.

I cobbled enough good units of many types to add to the Lithuanian Crusade to Palestine (via Tripoli). This 1200+ army can now jump from Lithuania all the way to Tripoli through the use of my extremely valuable string of Barques. This has got to be the only way to do a long-distance Crusade because you don’t suffer from attrition. With 1200+ men arriving on the shores of Tripoli (isn’t there a song about that? and why is Tripoli north of Palestine? ), the meager Egyptian defenses fled. I then immediately brought another 600 men under a very capable general to hold Tripoli and then moved the Crusade to Palestine. The next year saw about 400 Egyptians trying to lift the siege in Palestine. The battle was amazing looking. After fighting for decades (of what little I was able to fight) in the woods and grasslands of Northern Europe, the Tripoli landscape was quite hilly but very bare with dirt tracks in the sand. On top of all that, there was a raging sandstorm that reduced visibility considerably. Being the defenders, getting my units on the highest ground was no problem and with the lack of cover, I could easily get my units to engage the enemy in a logical manner. Again, it was the numerical advantage that won the day (plus the use of a good cavalry unit which they had none). However, I saw the Saracens Infantry for the first time and the final stats showed them to be the most devastating force I engaged. Even though I reduced their numbers down to almost nothing, they took a very high toll on me.
With Tripoli reasonable secured and Palestine about ready to fall, I kept another 1000-men army back in Wessex for the time being. Once Palestine fell, the Crusading army now becomes available to me and I used them to fight off Egyptians trying to retake the province (they just feel they can’t win). Meanwhile, I moved all of my spies and bishops into the region. Next up will be a Crusade to Antioch and then to Edessa. Antioch I don’t see will be a problem at all but Edessa I am worried about. Just to north of Edessa and stuck between Byzantine lands is Rum with a force of 2000+ Egyptians.

The reason I will work on these four provinces is not because of the Crusade points (see below) but each of these provinces are extremely rich. Two of them (I think) has three tradable goods and on Normal, they command 400 fl. Just think of what I can get with a good governor, very high taxes and a trade route. I’m thinking the three coastal provinces can bring me 2000 fl alone per year! (By the way, my three trading posts – now merchants – keep going up in value. I’m taking in about 4000 fl in trade income alone!).

[Anrhydeddu]

1150-1156

I just had time to complete year 1150 last night (the one that began with the Tripoli battle) and my treasury in nearing 40,000 fl (if I recall). That shows the benefits of getting a trade route covering the world and if you think you are floored now, wait till you connect into the two Italian ports and even to E. Med or Constantinople. Get a port and a trading post/merchant in each of your coastal provinces that have two or more tradeable goods (if one goods if that province has a high income).

I have to remember back as to how you were able to conquer the Novgorods. I wish I could do so but I would not be as successful as you. On the other side, I really need to take care of the French thorn but at what cost? Right now, if I can get a couple more of my large armies in the region, I think I can take on all of the Egyptians, esp. if I can get the Byz to help me. I already have a secure hold in that region and except for Rum way up in Turkey, I don't see a whole lot of opposition. But then again, one cannot underestimate the ability for the Islamics to build large armies quickly. Right now, there have not been any significant wars going on (just a little one between Germans and Danes), so someone should start kicking up some cow manure soon, I suspect.
Where I had left off in 1150 was an easy defensive battle against the Egyptians in Tripoli. On the other side of the world, the French keep threatening so I have to be very aggressive in getting units to the three French provinces I hold. This will delay sending more troops, or another army, into the Middle East so I’ll keep what’s there to hold off the Egyptians.

In 1151, I had a Barques sunk by storm in the Ionian Sea but luckily, I have a spare ship to push the chain to fill that gap. I am building three more Barques (at least) to double in every four sea regions so the most I will lose is one year’s worth of trade income from the distant ports. I get a message that the French are mobilizing for attacks on me the next year. Great, just as I had feared. What I decided to do was to delay them if I could. I sent in spies to the neighboring French provinces to expose vices and most importantly, I try to bribe the few non-heir generals. I also sent my one spare army with an amazing general from Wessex to Aquitaine to help until I can get enough troops there. I start building the higher quality troops (feudal seargants, armoured spearmen, mounted seargants, and very soon, royal knights) in England and in France. That way, I can get two new units in each of the three French provinces that I hold each year. If I can buy enough time (like about five years), I can have about 1000 men in each of those provinces.

In 1152, something funny happened – a German Crusade got Syria, which is in the interior from my coastal Middle Eastern provinces. Okay, whatever. In Palestine, as I had been expecting, the Egyptians sent in 760 men to face my 1184. It turned out to be an incredibly hard battle to win, I really had to micromanage carefully. Over desert and dirt hills, the Camel Warriors and Saharan Cavalry were better than anything I had – including the fantastic Knights Templars leftover from the Crusade. I had three units of reinforcements available and they weren’t too hard to bring in (just click the reinforcements button, set the flag and then wait). But here what made the battle hard – my general fled before the reinforcements came in! It was only a one-star general that was just the governor. Unfortunately, he was the only one in the province with a command rating (I had wanted to bring in that Wessex general, but he had to go to Aquitaine). When the reinforcement finally arrived, they were the only decent-sized fighting units I had left! The same thing happened to the Egyptians, which was why I was able to hold on this long. The reinforcements were pretty well matched on both sides and what made the difference was that I had a few straggling units of fanatics and spearmen that were rallied. That won the battle for me, but at a cost. I lost 865 out of 1184 (73%) and they lost 681 out of 759 (90%). You should see the bodies all over the grounds. I did save that replay so we have to figure out how we can share them. What was funny was that the fleeing general got promoted but got tagged as a coward, which comes with a –6 morale. Fine, he’ll just have to shuffle papers.

Meanwhile in France, they did not come. One of their Princes got exposed for pride and the bribed general is still thinking. Good, keep thinking. (In a few years, I will have some trained assassins helping them along as well.) Income is over 10,000 and profits run over 5,000. I have about 8,000 men under arms, which takes a toll on the profits and I got many more to build. Without the trade incomes, I would be broke.

You never guess what happened in 1153 – The German Crusade came over from Syria into Palestine and said that they are on a quest for the Glory of God and demanded that I hand over valuable Palestine to them – peacefully. No way, that provinces is worth 961 fl a year to me. So they sent in 756 men against my 832 but the good thing was that they consisted of mostly peasants, archers and spearmen against my high valorous veterans. I placed my units on top of the highest hill which was fairly steep and watched them climb up to attack me. I swooped down in multiple strong waves after the archers did their job brilliantly. Plus it also helped to have Prince Henry, a four-star general coming down from Tripoli to help. The results was that I am now in a war the Germans and it had some diplomatic effects (but not as much as I thought it would).

The French are still holding off, buying me more time.

In 1154, one of my assassins in the Middle East is going wild in killing emissaries. It won’t be long until I start in on Egyptian generals, which are being harassed by spies. I really, really wish I could ignore the French Problem and take over all of the Egyptian provinces. Oh well. With Palestine holding its own and Tripoli in fine shape, I planned the next Crusade from Prussia to Antioch. They should arrive there in two years with that general holding the fort in Aquitaine – assuming the French keeping drinking their wines. Meanwhile, Poland is engaging in a war with the Germans and are still doing quite well, actually. As long as they don’t bother me, I won’t bother them (yet). Remember those bribed four-star generals from the Baltics? They finally got enough loyalty (a couple through royal marriages) that I will send three of them into Normandy, Anjou and Aquitaine to lead the now-large armies in each of those provinces.

And finally, in 1156, the Crusade and the FitzGilbert’s army arrived in Antioch, totalling 1120 men, and promptly, the Egyptians fled. It also helped that my clever assassin killed an Egyptain general, even with only a 34% chance. With Antioch about ready to fall, the three E. Mediterranean provinces will bring in about 2600 fl per year. Speaking of income, I got the trading posts set up in Lithuania, Pomerania and Livonia and I was floored as to how much they are worth. Just those three provinces bring in 2700 fl in trade alone. Just wait until I get Merchants there. My trade income now stands at 7600 per year with a total income of 13,774 (about 7400 in profits). The French are still working on their surrendering speeches and the Germans are not much of a threat, even though they pretend to be.

[Anrhydeddu]

1157-1165

Here’s the current siutation:

I'm sitting in the extremely valuable E. Med. provinces of Antioch, Tripoli and Palestine with about 5000 soldiers. Palestine now has about 3000 men, Antioch and Tripoli 1000 each. I took Syria the previous turn but then promptly moved by army back to Palestine, so there are no Egyptians there. In Edessa, there's a small army of about 350 men. To the north in Rum, there are about 1100 in two armies (one is being bribed). In the province immediately to its right only has a small army. Okay, in Arabia, there is only the Sultan and his small army of 200 or so. But in Sinai, is the bulk of the Egyptian forces of about 1500 that keeps unsuccessfully attacking Palestine. One or two of those three armies are also being bribed (previous attempts have been unsuccessful).

I feel I need to go on the offensive now since there is the chance to pin them in a corner. But I don't know how exactly to accomplish this. One of my fears is the back-door, where Palestine and Tripoli can be reached by port (but not Antioch). How would you split up (or reconfigure) the army to go on the offensive without losing anything and to reduce their threat?

I waited one more turn to see how some of the bribes came out and they just were successful enough for me to engage the Egyptians on all fronts. Plus, since I can easily build new units totally 800 men each turn in my port provinces, another large army was added to the region for support (another advantage to waiting one more year).

In 1164, there was only one army in the Sinai because the rest predictably shuffled up to Syria to retake that, thus allowing me to go behind them. And that one army in Sinai was in the process of converting to English- thus neutralizing that province. In Arabia, there was only a small army under the Sultan. So what I did was to move Prince Edward and his 930 men army into Arabia to face 380. I moved Prince Henry and his 2238 men army into Syria to face 1254. The Crusades and FitzGilbert's army totalling 1233 moved into Edessa to face 380. Antioch and Tripoli were back-filled from Europe with the new units just built there the previous year.

The other successful bribe was more interesting. It was in Armenia, the province to the right of Rum and north of Edessa and Syria. There were two armies there about equal size (around 700 or so). One of them took my bribe for 54,417 so that in effect, stalemated those two armies in coming down to support in Edessa or Syria. The last army in Rum can only go through Armenia. So on to 1165 and the War for Infidalian Conquest.
First up is the battle in Armenia between the bribed army of 700 and the Egyptian army of 890. As expected, I lost a long, hard-fought battle against a superior army that outnumbered me. The terrain was very arid mountains and my approaches were up and over a high mountain and through a narrow valley. But what this did was to effectively eliminate 75% of Egyptian units (most of my army and half of theirs) in that province, but at a cost of the 54,417 bribe.

In the other four provinces (Edessa, Syria, Arabia and Sinai)? ALL fled, with the Sultan being killed in the process. And as hoped for, the large Egytian armies are holed up in Armenia (1520) and Rum (700) and both are quite cornered. There may be some units in Egypt and North Africa, but I'm not worried about that. Now I can combine my forces and bring 4500 men against them. That should be fun!

Economically, I got my trading post in Antioch built and that alone brings in 4,330 per year!!!! All told, my trade income alone totals 17,095 and the rest of the numbers look like this:
Income: 24,582
Expenses: 9,095 (mainly support for about 13,000 units)
Profits: 15,487

I was at 68,000 fl before the bribe (which brought it down to only 11,822 in 1164) but got it back up to 31,637 after getting nearly 7,000 from the captured provinces. As long as there are no suprises, I should have the Egyptians eliminated within three years.


From bad…

In my game last night, I came away very demoralized. Nearly everything that I built up and sought to obtain are now threatened. I'm just too disheartened to know how to deal with it all. In a nutshell, the Egyptians are fighting back (I had a battle that I lost 1600 men); the @%#$! Byzantines (who had the only other naval fleet in the game) declared war on me and started sinking half of my bargues and eliminated 90% of my trade income; the Spanish is planning on invading me in two years; and the Novgorods are amassing a large army against my Eastern Front.

I think my priorities will be to 1) back off from the Egyptians - and do a cease fire so I can get some of those troops out of there, 2) desperately beg the Byz for peace so I can get my 17,000 fl trade routes back in place, and 3) then deal with the Spanish and Novgorods in the best way that I can. I have 21 provinces right now, of which 17 are extremely valuable (450+ fl per year), I just want to keep those plus my trade routes. We'll see if they will let me.


…to worse

Things are bordering on chaotic hell. I have 10,000 men stuck in the Middle East with no way out and everyone, I mean everyone, perceives me as a threat. All I am trying to do now is to defend what I got which means building more units but that increases the threats and the deadly cycle continues.

It seems that my grand strategy is not working. Basically, I wanted to conquer a few rich provinces (okay, more than a few) without pissing off any of my neighbors and allies. I accomplished fairly easily by going after the Baltic rebels and Egyptians in the E. Mediterranean. That provided me with good income and high profits, enough to concentrate on a peaceful building strategy.

But, everyone still sees me as a threat. I'm at the point now where I can easily see EVERYONE being at war with me - despite my constant pleas for peace. It is frustrating that I can only send emissaries to offer a cease fire/alliance without any other negotiating tactics. It seems to view my faction (which is the richest) as much as a threat if I were to go on a conquering spree. Maybe that's the only way to play the game? Bee, you seemed to have done that and now I'm wondering how you specifically accomplished that and see if I can do that as well. I don't mind having to fight a war or two but having to defend against 3-6 factions attacking you on all sides just to hold what I got seems to be a bad situation.



1166-1171

Last night in playing a few more years, I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In studying the map, I came to the same conclusion as you in going the N. Africa route. The Byz is my strongest foe and I could take the 3500 men (leaving 3600 to guard the three MEast provinces and minus the 2500 that I lost earlier in two battles) and do some serious damage in Asia Minor. But I figured that by the time I reach the Italians Seas where my ships are waiting, I may not have any left. N. Africa appears to offer minimal resistance and it's only four provinces to my ships in Algeria. I am building up like mad with high-quality troops and I have stacked Aquitaine very heavily against the Spanish. As long as I can hold off the French and the Novgorods until my African armies arrive to the Continent, I should be okay. I'll let you know tomorrow how it worked out.

[Anrhydeddu]

1172-1179

Made good progress last night up to 1179. By the way, my Crusade points apparently got counted in 1175 (by my calculations) and now I am at 71 points, in 2nd place behind the Byz at 73 and quite ahead of 3rd place Italians at 54.

I am 3 or 4 turns from getting 3200 men into Europe from Algeria. I thought about pushing my fleet more along the coast but the two previous provinces that I plowed through had their fort destroyed, so that would have taken too long. In those two provinces that become utterly abandoned, the Almohads reappeared with about 2500 men. They may bother me in Egypt and Sinai, but I'm not worried.

Things are holding relatively steady in Europe. What helped was that the Spanish, just when they were ready to launch against my 4000 men in Aquitaine, they got themselves in a civil war. They will handle that with ease, I think, but it served to buy me more time - not only to get my African army up, but to keep building feudal ____ (Knights, Sargeants, Men-at-Arms, etc.) everywhere on every turn. I am now approaching 15,000 men I have to support. I see my profits going down but my treasury is still very healthy and as long as the Byz allow me to trade into Venice, I'll be okay financially (they won't let me push into their seas, unfortunately). I'm sure the French and Danes will attack but I'll be ready. Now the thought is, down the road, if you have 7000 men available for an offensive in Europe, what would you do?


1180-1182

I played until 1182 last night and had good success. I said earlier that I was close to getting my armies out but I was wrong. I still needed to get the fort conquered and then I could build the port. I look for 1185 to when that is done.
Interesting events in the Middle East in the meantime. When I conquered Algeria, the Egyptian Sultan died and left no heirs. Therefore, my long-time problem vanished! The three former provinces, Syria, Armenia and Rum converted to Rebels and I was able to take part of my armies from Tripoli and Antioch to take on the main forces in Syria, and then I successfully bribed the two smaller armies in Rum and Armenia. The Byz probably are upset that I am in Asia Minor, but I will show no agression towards them (except at sea where we go back and forth).
In Europe, the Spanish took out all of the rebels in one turn, as expected. This caused about a 1/3 reduction in their forces along my borders so I don't think I will see them for a little while.

In 1181, I did have to fight two defensive battles. A huge one in Normandy when the French finally decided to try their hand and the Danes decided to do the same against Sweden. I let the AI handle the Swedish one and it was an easy victory. In Normandy, even though I was outnumbered 2 to 1 (I still had 4000 men sitting in Aquitaine and only about 800 in Normandy, Wessex and Anjou), my units were quite good and plus, I had the advantage of being on the defense. The battle was very long and drawn out, the French kept coming with their reinforcements and at the end, all I had left to fight with was one 40-man unit of Feudal Knights with my general. Now I know why this is the best unit in the game. This one small force took on 6 units of peasants, urban militia and archers and single-handedly routed their remaining troops. I lost about 650 out of 800, but they lost about 1120 out of 1500. With the Spanish laying low for a little while, I can move part of my Aquitaine forces up to better defend Normandy and Anjou, so I'm good.

By the way, my expenses have now reached 15000 and with the trades in Italy coming and going, the best I can clear each year is about 1800. That's okay, I got about 74000 in the treasury.

As far as what's next. The 3000 men from Algeria will go evenly to Wessex, Normandy and Aquitaine. With 8000 men in those provinces plus Anjou (leaving a 1000 in each for defense), I will eliminate the @!%#$! French in two years. I will be able to attack Ile de France, Brittany, Toulose and Flanders with 2000 men in one turn and then I can combine forces in Champagne to wipe them out. The funny thing is that when they attacked me in Normandy, did the Pope say anything? Noooooo. When the Danes attacked me in Sweden, did the Pope say anything? Noooooo. Want to bet what's going to happen when I attack and destroy the French? Wish me luck.


1183-1190

You asked what I could do with 7000 men? Here's what I did.

Year: 1187
Flanders, French province - sent in 2600 to attack 1430. Results: the French fled (is that redundant?).
Ile de France, French capital - sent in 1700 to attack 840. Results: the French fled (again, is that redundant?).
Brittany, French province - sent in 730 under a 7-star general to attack 440. Results: an overpowering victory for the English. (By the way, I have found this, having a high-star general, to be the most critical thing in a battle. I have lost smaller battles in the Middle East even though I outnumbered them 3 or 4 to 1, all because my general was weak compared to theirs.)
Toulouse, French province - sent in 1800 to attack 912. Results: a victory (I let the AI handle this one, which I have been doing much more of).

Year: 1188
Champagne, French province - combined forces of 2400 to attack the remaining standing French army of 2695. Results: a complete and resounding victory (AI-conducted).

Year: 1189
Toulouse in English hands.

Moved 1500 men to Friesland, a rebels-held coastal province. Results: victory (they fled).
Moved 800 to Lorraine , a rebels-held province. Results: victory (they fled).

Year: 1190
Moved 1500 to Saxony, a rebels-held coastal province (the HRE had been reduced to only one or two provinces since early in the game). Results: victory.

Goals accomplished:

I have now connected my Baltic provinces with the rest of my European provinces.
The French are gone, except for a single garrison in Brittany.

I have been excommunicated. [insert middle-finger smily thingy here]
(Note: I'm thinking the Pope will die before my King will. I have heard that if you have a change of monarchy while excommunicated, that could be bad.)

Most of my trade routes are back up (except for the Black Sea), due to overwhelming numbers going against the Byzantines. I am getting profits anywhere from 2200 to 5800 per year (depending on the sea battles). I have a treasury that is just about 100,000 fl.

The Almohads, as expected, have gotten Egypt and Sinai. The Rebels are appearing in Syria and Arabia. And the Byzantines have moved against Rum and Armenia, with a high cost for victory for them. I will hold the three most valuable provinces, Antioch, Tripoli and Palestine indefinitely.

[Anrhydeddu]

Here's a printscreen from where I had left off in 1193, with a band of English provinces stretching from the Baltic to the Pyrennes.

[Anrhydeddu]

1193-1196

From 1193, as you can see from the map, Friesland is about to fall and Brittany is one year away. Then the English Empire of Europe will truly be consolidated.

The goal now is to figure out what the goal will be. I have quite a number of units scattered throughout Europe, as well as several large armies in the Middle East. Even with nearly 15,000 men to support, I am still making a profit of about 4000-5000 per year but could certainly do better. The problem I see is that nearly every one of my provinces border another faction - including the very valuable Lithuanian province that is bordered by three Byzantine provinces whom I am at war with, as well as two Novgorods provinces. I think I must keep at least several hundred troops in every province because in a game like this, you never know where the next attacks are going to come from (and a couple thousand thousand troops in each of the two provinces bordering the treacherous Dons of Spain). In the Middle East, even though I hold six provinces, three of them are the only ones I care about and they are heavily defended (from the Byzantines in the North and the Elmoheads in the West). In fact, in 1193 and 1194, the Elmoheads try to invade rich Palestine but after seeing 2700 men defending there, they always do the French thing and retreat.

So with that, my first strategy will be to be more agressive with my fleet of Barques. The Byzantines do not want a cease fire so they keep bugging me in the seas around Greece and Turkey, thus preventing me from trading with them in the E. Med, Black Sea and Constantinople. I have about 10-12 extra Barques that I can swarm the seas with and will do that, hopefully giving me some years with full trade income (there are no ports left in North Africa).

The other campaign strategy will be to hold what I have. I really don't have any plans for invasion right now, but I'm sure others do.

With this being close to the end of the Early Period, I will start planning for the following High Period units:

Anything with Chivalry in the title
Anything with Pavaise in the title
Billmen in Mercia
Longbowmen in Wales

In most cases, I am only one building away from being able to build these units once 1205 hits (usually a Guild of some sort). Once I start building these units, I will begin to replace my existing units with better ones, thereby hopefully reducing my expenses.

In 1194, I poured another 1500 men into Lithuania when I see a huge Byzantine threat in neighboring Kiev. But the next year, they went East instead of North. Whew. I imagine this is what I will be doing for a while before I can have several large armies of High Period units to take on someone.

In 1196, I was able to secure a full trade route again and with that, my profits are over 9000 fl with a treasury of 105,493. By the way, my King is 73 years old but there are five, count 'em, five young heirs lined up for the throne. He is still excommed but it seems to have no effect at all and with the Pope being in his 60s, I'm not worried much about it.

In the meantime, new buildings (esp. Keeps) have been started in the newly conquered provinces. Speaking of buildings, remember when the French ran away (is that redundant?) from the capital province of Ile de France? They left 14 buildings there for me to use, including a bunch of Workshops and a few Guilds along with their Citadel. They ain't too smart.



Here is part of a page from my hand-written log that I typed out...






1197-1208

Believe it or not, I can see the English winning this thing soon (barring a major cataclysmic event). By 1208, I have wiped out the Spanish and now hold their 9 provinces with still a few castle sieges to take care of. I came down from Aquitaine and Toulouse with 6000 men and with my high treasury, able to build hundreds of good quality units every turn for replacement and garrisoning. My trade routes are holding (off and on) and my treasury is now stable at 90,000 despite building new armies and some bribings.

I think that is the strategic solution to winning. Get your treasury and trade routes up as high as possible. This will then allow you to build 1200+ men every turn (if you wish - which in my case, about half of them are the good High period units of Caravels, Billmen, Longbowmen, Pavises and Chivalric Men-at-Arms/Sgts). Taking armies of multiple thousands across the board can pay for themselves just on the pillages and maintain themselves on the newly conquered provinces. Even if you run a loss, a high enough treasury will allow you to do that.

I am at 41 provinces now and I think 60 will win. All I have to do is to build 1000 men each turn and then go on to the next set of provinces - rinse and repeat.

Something funny happened during this period. I was excommunicated which really had no effect at all. My popular King died while excommed but still no drastic effect and then the Pope died eliminating the excomms. I then conquered the Spanish, got excommed again, had some loyalty issues but nothing that couldn't easily taken care of. But once I got the Spanish provinces, I was going to kill the Pope with an assassin. And I kid you not, the assassin that I trained in Wessex was a 5-star assassin right from the start! In 1208, I was going to go right at the Pope but wouldn't you know it, the young Pope unexpectedly died and I'm off the hook (as if it meant anything).

[Anrhydeddu]

post by Chief Rum

So where did you go from here, A?
Did you continue the strategy you spelled out here/ I'm disappointed that it appears so easy for you, but I know we have discussed that this might be easier with the English. Also, you said you're on Normal, right? It would be interesting to see you do this on the highest setting or with a more difficult faction.

Still, you can't argue with results. You have really taken care of business there. I would love to see what you do with the Golden Horde.

Very intricate looking log. All of my notes are handwritten. I have a system of sorts, but I'm nto sure all the detail I want to put into it can fit so readily into a spreadsheet (at least not without looking funky). I do think I need to keep better track of things, like when my army units get outdated or when I'm beginning to get a bit aimless in my facility constructions. It's easy to get lost in the details in this game.

One thing I gotta know: how did you get that far away shot of Europe? You know, the map you displayed where you showed most of western Europe and England? My shots seem to be much closer, where I can get maybe a fourth of that shot at best. I still haven't figured out how to get the map posted here, but I have figured out how to do the Print Screen thing right (or at least I did, now I have to remember how i did it ).

Anyway, I hope to hear more from you ont his. It's hard being the only MTW dynasty out there.

Chief Rum



reply

Thanks. I don't know where I will go from there, I haven't thought about it yet. I don't know if I will, though, I just may wait until the Vikings expansion pack.
As far as the GH, they will help me win the game sooner than I could on my own. You see, the only other rival in the game are the Byzantines. They own all of the provinces on the eastern border of the map, except for a handful of Novgorods in the upper corner. The GH will come right up against the Byz and either reduce them down by half and/or distract them for a decade or two. I can either find the weak spots between the Byz/GH or attack any of the other factions who are much smaller and weaker than I. Either way will not be much of a challenge, I don't think.

As far as the map, I can't believe you haven't found that out yet. Use the scroll wheel on the mouse to zoom in and out. Also, I think there are hot keys to do the same thing. Sometimes I have to zoom in really close in order to grab an emissary the hiding behind an enemy unit. It comes in handy, esp. scrolling all the way out to view the sea regions with the 'v' button.




post by Chief Rum

Yup, no dice. I'm not sure what you mean by the scroll wheel, but if you mean the little deal between the buttons on top of the mouse, that didn't work.
Fortunately, I managed to stumble upon the hot keys (PgDn and End, or 1 and 3 on numeric keypad) that did it. Up until now, I always got to "hidden" emmissaries and such by scrolling to the left or right until they came into view. Seemed to work for me.

I'm really excited about the Vikings expansion pack. That looks like great fun. From reading the info on it, it appears we'll be able to play an extra 200 years or so. That would be great.

Good luck in your game.

Chief Rum

[Anthony]

CR,

hold CTRL and scroll up or down to zoom in/out.