English Faction Guides?

[Silius Saurus]

I am trying to play as England, but can't get anywhere - the Scots end up taking Flanders (every time I try I get beaten by the big rebel army with Frankish Knights- the scots always beat them, no problem), my priests always go heretic and my nobles are obsessed with Rennes, which only gives the French and the scots time to build up and double team me. Can't make it much past 40 turns.

Any suggestions?

[Medkirtys]

Turn off BGR if you're playing with it, lower the difficulty, because England is probably the easiest faction

[E.K]

Have you tried getting an alliance with Scotland. Im at turn 123 in my england campaign and i have been allied with scotland and france for about 100 of those turns. Never been at war with them.

[rockman4417]

Depends what AI you're using. With Gracul, and even Savage, Scotland and France will try and form an alliance block against you. Id say forget about Rennes until you've solidified your power base on the main island. That means focusing all your forces onto those rebel settlements in England, and fortifying York with a strong garrison against the Scots. And with the Irish gone, that little island is ripe for the taking. And no French there to contend with.

[agc28]

Full guide:

Always attack your opponents with weaker forces, in order to gain command stars. Always release prisoners to gain chivalry.

Turn 1: Disband all peasants and levy archers. These are useless units. Send your diplomat to make trade agreements with France, HRE, Genoa, Venice, and the Pope. Ally with the pope. You will have to pay roughly 8000-9000 florins for the Pope to accept your alliance offer. Convert Winchester to a city. Choose to ally with Sicily, and Portugal, and probably Hungary and the Crusader States. Make your princess marry your general which begins the campaign in Exeter.

Take Rennes and Dublin by Turn 2, and take Caernarvon by Turn 3, and take Galway by Turn 4. One single general plus 1 unit of spear militia/levy archers is enough to take each of these four settlements. Do NOT send more forces than 1 general + 1 infantry unit. You should win heroic victories with all 4 of these battles. No sweat. Convert Caernarvon and Galway to cities.

Train 1 or 2 extra units of Cog. Wait until Scotland loads his full stack onto a boat near Edinburgh (usually between Turn 5-10). Declare war by sinking his full stack. Lay siege against Edinburgh, and capture it the next turn.

At this point, the Pope will ask you to cease all hostilities. Garrison all your spare troops in Edinburgh. Hire lots of mercenaries, especially macemen and spearmen. Train miles from Nottingham. Cease all attacks against Scotland unless they are inside your border.

Send a few units of spear militia to the border between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, but make sure the spear militias form separate groups led by different captains, and make sure they end their turns in your own border in Edinburgh. Wait until Scotland attacks these spear militias. Repeat this process, and after a few attacks by the Scottish, Scotland will be excommunicated. At this point,
march all of your troops to capture Aberdeen and Inverness. Scotland is destroyed. Your faction leader will receive the ancillary 'Crown of England.'

Keep making priests in Edinburg, and send them to Grenadas or something to level them up. They will eventually become cardinals. Aim to build the theologian guild in Edinburgh, and merchant's guild in all other British cities. Convert Inverness to a city. But keep Nottingham as a castle (you'll need it to build longbowmen later). Keep training units in Nottingham and prepare to invade Scandinavia. All you need are spear militias and miles.

When I have enough money (20000+, usually within the first 10 turns), I buy Angers from French with roughly 15000-20000 florins. France is very eager to part with it. Repeat this for Bordeaux when you have more money. Without the two castles, France can't do very much.

Train your spy repeatedly and eventually send him into Flanders. By turn 5 or so, the rebel army in Bruges will leave the settlement. Capture the settlement at this point with a general plus a few units of spear militias. Do not lay siege. Make sure your spy opens the gate. Capture the settlement. Repeat the process for Antwerp.

Cease attacks. Build up. Train spear militias and miles/hobilars. Garrison all your castles and France will attack soon. Just let them besiege you. Whatever. Defending in a siege is very easy, especially in castles/fortresses. Wooden castles are hard to defend so you need more troops in them. One unit of cavalry and enough spear militias are all you need for siege defenses. Don't build archers since they are useless (until turn 80 or so when you receive Longbowmen). If they don't attack you, just keep building your economy and you can buy most of the French land.

[Silius Saurus]

Thanks very much.

[Medkirtys]

IIRC, Caenarvon almost garrisons a full stack, so how do you take it with just 2 units?

[Gogolometro]

Jokes.Like making Iverness a city. Lol. That is the place were first pike is maded. And England is in a big lack of that kind of units. Again one thing he miss named Wallace with elite units.
Ideea of seeing scotts excom is a joke. Who care if pope excommunicate England. None does care. You manage to make the things well, conquer all and than can be a friend of papacy.
And watch the norwigians, danes and spaniards invading armys.

[E.K]

And with the Irish gone, that little island is ripe for the taking.

To take ireland I had to beat 2 full stacks and I got beaten once. So Ireland wasnt easy to take for me.

[hellexpress]

fight against scot in a smaller army if u are capable
lure the defenders in cities out and u can destroy scot in first several turns
and levy archer got a very low scoring in AI rating, so bring several levy archer units doesn't increase ur army strength accroding to AI, but u can actually destroy scot easily with levy archers

[agc28]

Caernarvon is definitely possible with just two units. I usually use my King (who initially starts with a high command star) as the general. The King usually has 25-ish people as his bodyguards. That is probably enough for Caernarvon. If I'm not mistaken, Caenarvon has a few units of crossbowmen and pikes.

[E.K]

Caernarvon is definitely possible with just two units. I usually use my King (who initially starts with a high command star) as the general. The King usually has 25-ish people as his bodyguards. That is probably enough for Caernarvon. If I'm not mistaken, Caenarvon has a few units of crossbowmen and pikes.

I always take a few units of spearman just in case, especially if there are pikes because they will impale the king and his bodyguard