How to beat E:TW in 50 turns or less ('long' campaign)

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

Just found this thread here

doesn't really matter which faction you play or what difficulty level, here's how it goes:

1) make sure you have at least 4 schools in your starting provinces, make an alliance with a big faction and form 2-3 trading agreements with major factions

2) build a full army, put it on ships and sail to india. you can even abandon your starting provinces except maybe your capitol which is usually an income-rich province.

3) land on the southern tip, conquer the province. It will be undefended.
Congrats, your income has just doubled (at least).

4) build a couple of religion towns, gather up your army and conquer the rest of the marathas (who should pose no challenge whatsoever even for your 1 army, so long as you keep recruiting from carnaria (or however u spell it).

5) at this point mysore will declare war on you. if not, declare mysore and take it for yourself.
Congrats, your income has just doubled again :>

6) at this point you should have 6-8 schools running and a ton of gentlemen. keep one of them upgraded, fill it with gentlemen and make a rush for the only real tech that matters in E:TW, rank-fire drill while the rest still out-tech all other factions by a marigin of (i)

7) with your new insane income, either continue conquering india (this would be the long haul), or make some treaty with the mughals and use your new insane income in europe, conquering everything you need to win with your vastly superior armies.

voila :>

TIP: if you start with the marathas, the game will be won in 15-30 turns. depending on how fast you want to win, really.

Can someone verify this? :hmmm:

[Hungary Horace]

How can you have 4 schools in you starting provinces, playing as the Dutch and you have one at the start in Utrecht - thats it, As Great Britain you can have 2 Oxford and Cambridge - I may be wrong but pretty sure I'm not. Please correct me if I am.

anyway why would anyone just all play one way just to win in 50 turns. The best thing about total war games is that there are so many ways to win.

P.S - is there a way to change some buildings into schools after destroying them as that what the poster you quoted may mean.

[The_Dude]

first off, victory conditions are different for all nations ...

it would "somehow" work with campaign difficulty on normal i guess.
on hard and very hard the AI just has too many full army stacks for this to work. besides, unless you use money cheat you wont be able to afford a full stack army early in the game. at least not one thats competitive.

i dont see any reason for abandoning starting provinces, first off your gonna loose the research there and second to that, why would i wanna do that since they provide me with a steady income ?

your income will definitely not double by simply conquering one of indias provinces plus you would need a rather large garrison force until the conversion gets on the way.

also, having 6-8 schools will cost you a lot of money since they provide you with no income.

i also dont know how he gets to the conclusion that the southern province in india will be undefended...again, on normal difficulty maybe but on hard your gonna have stacks rushing for your position the second you land ... and unless you did some serious bayonett research that indian melee + camel infantry will have your lines for breakfast.

all in all i would say this is doubtfull for the least to say....

apart from that i dont really see a point in rushing the campaign, its the way to victory thats the interesting part.

[The_Dude]

P.S - is there a way to change some buildings into schools after destroying them as that what the poster you quoted may mean.

yeah, just demolish any existing town and you get a choice of what to build there once its demolished

[Jayzilla]

is there a way to change some buildings into schools after destroying them as that what the poster you quoted may mean.

yes, you destroy the old building with the torch icon and then next turn you can pick from the 4 options, one of which is school.

*edit oops, you beat me to it :p

[Hungary Horace]

Thanks Dude you have been given plus rep!

[Lupu]

You don't beat a game like ETW, you play it, victory conditions are artificial.

[eatme]

the game will be won in 15-30 turns. depending on how fast you want to win, really.

May be it is the way to achieve victory conditions in long campaign but not in less than 30 turns and definitely not for all major factions

[notger]

Hungry Horace, be sure to torch a TOWN! Mines and farms won't work, for obvious reasons. Brothels and their variants do, of course.

[Fiddler]

This will not work for all factions either, for instance Russia does not have easy access to India. Terribly oversimplified, as pointed out by others in the thread.

[Homeros]

What's the fun with blitz tactics anyway. I want to have fun and destroying major factions right at the start kills the game, it will be easy. I enjoyed games when you (the player) is the underdog and you have to defend your homeland against an overwhelming force. This is far more satisfying than just blitz your way through the game if you're not wiped out that is.

[Razor]

What's the fun with blitz tactics anyway. I want to have fun and destroying major factions right at the start kills the game, it will be easy. I enjoyed games when you (the player) is the underdog and you have to defend your homeland against an overwhelming force. This is far more satisfying than just blitz your way through the game if you're not wiped out that is.

Yes it's indeed no fun to destroy big factions in the beginning of a game. What's also no fun is that you're capable of doing just that. Especially the big factions like Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Ottoman Empire should be indestructable in a way that they only keep their core regions in Europe in the worst situation.