Your Current Campaign

[Funkyrobbie]

I just played as England and I took british isles I then took out France held borders with hre spain and portuagal ended up taking out moors long story then ended up taking out the danish after a request to take out their king (i forgot about them) I then ended up sending a ship across to Russia and conquered it then i shipped out to Egypt took all of Egypt Jerusalem Acre. Then Mongols came they fought the turks won Antioch and i thought a bit of expansion was need so i just killed their 3 settlements then allied with byzantine empire I also noticed everyone not caring about the pope anymore Sicily and Milan especially they could give 2 s what the papal states tells em and I almost forgot i took Rome gave back to Papal because of request got my popularity with Pope a bit (nearly got excommunicated) then i took the Sicillian city below it Naples i think?. Also I could of wiped all of Europe out if i wanted to but i Wanted to see what would happen Spain then rebelled against papal Venice is very loyal I think its only cause their fighting Byzantine but atm I could pretty much destroy every faction if i wanted to i am way ahead in technology and all the other factions are no were close. P.s. I decided to stay on Popes good side.

Tips with England
Take out Scotland as soon as possible expand into Bruges Rennes and the rebel city beside Bruges take out France (might want to allie with Milan to do that) then you can just go were ever you please i recommend takeing either spain or going the hre root and working your way down all of Italy then venice and attack them in order and don't forget them Danish.(they usually do nothing)

[Funkyrobbie]

pfft don't hate the english im Northern Irish and England is great (good old sterling)

[PrestigeX]

I'm playing the Darth Mod 1.4, and am playing as the Papal States. I had to fix a few files in order to allow recruitment of Papal guard in all the city garrison buildings (you can get them at city-watch level, but afterwards they dissappear so I jsut kept adding them to all the upgrade buildings). It's a bit hard because in the mod you cannot recruit Italian Cav militia, so you have to rely on castles to get mailed or feudal knights.

Being as I'm the pope, I never get excommunicated or warned not to fight against my neighbors. However, I'm basically at war with every neighbor and the byzantines who are nowhere near me. I'm able to dominate most of the battles however, because of the Italian Spear militia backed up with Papal Guard --- all with armor upgrades.

The papal guards are expensive, almost twice as costly as italian spear milita but they are an ultimate infantry unit - highly effective in defense, and against cavalry, and able to match most heavy infantry units one on one. I usually use the Italian Spear Militia as a front line, to absord all the arrows from the enemy, with papal guards behind as reserve to fill in the gaps , flank, and deliver the Killing Blow.

[Diglytron]

i play broken crecent, middle eastern wars, 2.02. Verry Hard, Verry Hard
I play as KOJ (kingdom of Jerusalem,) and ive taken antioch, Holms, Hamo, Allepo, and a lot of under siria.
The bizantine army atackt my friend, the armenians, and almost destroy them, i take Tarsus, and adana back. also i take whole cyprus.
In turn 50 i captured Gaza and i moved up to alexandria.
I dont got a large army, i moved 2 full pack army's across the wholle terrotry, 1 army halfpack with templars, and 1 halfpack with order of sint john.
it goes verry well i think! anny atvice? what to do next?

- REP is always back
click the green +!

[Saint Nicholas]

Playing a Custom Campaign version 2.0 Grand Campaign as the Turks. Using Lusted's campaign and battle AI. Been pretty smooth sailing for me so far, around 35 turns into the game and my part of the world has been pretty quiet. I've turtled for the most part, that is to say I haven't openly attacked another faction. I've focused more on capturing rebels settlements and growing my empire economically and peacefully. That said, I have started a big espionage operation against the Byzantines, sending in quite a few spies and assassins to disrupt their economy and kill off their agents and generals.

I'm currently allied with Venice with whom I made a deal, providing them financial support in exchange for their assistance in attacking the Byzantines. I only recently forged a healthy alliance with the Egyptians, who are currently ranked the top faction in the world overall, their empire rivals my own in wealth and regions, but far outnumbers me in armed forces. A few wars are going on in the world, France and England, France and Milan, the HRE and Milan, Venice and the Byzantines, The Moors and Sicily. Here's a funny thing, I ordered a Jihad on Paris and both the Moors and Egyptians agreed to go, they've both got armies somewhere presumable on their way to sack Paris! Something I've never done before, the results should prove to be interesting.

Here's a few campaign shots.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Faction overview and world ranking (overall) A respectable empire if I do say so myself.



North east corner of the empire. Far removed from any danger of invasion at this point. But the great Mongol hordes will be coming in 70 years or so, I must be prepared to face the onslaught. Hence I'm building up the area.



Pretty much the financial and military district of my empire. Caesarea is my most advanced castle, being a Fortress and not far off a Citadel. Antioch is my wealthiest city, though not the biggest. Mosul is quite advanced as well. Funny story, the King's son (though not the Heir) was laying siege to Aleppo with an army for a few turns. I hit end turn and when my turn comes around again, guess what? The little scoundrel defected and joined the garrison at Aleppo, fortifying its position and making it much harder to storm. Sigh.. annoying and surprising but I'm impressed that the AI managed to do it. Adds some feel of realism and makes you say, damn.. didn't see that coming.



My capital of Iconium, most advanced city and where Sultan Jalal is situated. From here all the decisions are made, wars are financed, trade deals negotiated and hammered out. The borderland protecting our faction's sovereignty.



A shot of the world with fog of war turned off. See how the other factions are doing. No real surprises, notice Venice hasn't conquered Zagreb, but they've taken Rhodes and Cagliari. Most unusual. The AI factions have quite large standing armies, which is what you can expect when playing with Lusted's AI. While this is good sometimes they don't seem to do much except just stand there and waste money on upkeep, though with this mod upkeep costs are lower than normal so the effect on the economy isn't so bad.

It's been a pretty entertaining game so far. A nice break from Stainless Steel, the mod I usually play. Will most likely keep this updated as I progress through the campaign.

Thanks for reading.

[painter]

It is an interesting read. I have a couple of comments.

Unless you have been making liberal use of disabling the fog of war, you really ought to build more watchtowers. 43,000 florins and only one visible watchtower over such a vast land?

And if I may ask, what is your Financial Overview like? I find that more enlightening than most other pages.

[Saint Nicholas]

I think only once or twice I've disabled fog of war to see how the AI have been doing. Only reason I constructed that watchtower was to keep the Byzantines and their capital in sight. That's pretty much the only place any danger is going to come from right now. As the empire expands and years go on I do plan to build some more, forts too. I'll post the financial overview soon, about to play again.

[RoDeX]

Just started one with England. And making a crusade to Jerusalem.

[Scipio Afracanis]

H/H Vanilla, Russia

Turn 67

Killed Poland, At war with HRE and Hungary fighting in Eastern Europe.

Been pretty fun so far, I like the troops Russia fields,a change from the other nations I played recently. Also there is alot of space between citys an castles in my area so thats also another welcomed thing. Prague,Settin and Mageburg are my next targets, might do a raid into Hungarys land to get them off my back abit but I don't want any of there land.

[Chad29]

I actually wish there wasn't so much space between settlements in some areas, and the fact that they're so spread out in Russian lands makes me think less of that corner of the map.

Lately I've been playing as Portugal, which is becoming one of my favorite factions. Good military and navy, as well as one of the easiest places on the map to defend. Plus west Africa is a resource rich area. Between the resources around Timbuktu and Arguin, and the fact I only need three castles to defend a fourteen settlement Empire, I have become quite rich.

[Scipio Afracanis]

I just put up watch towers and have alot of notice if anyone comes my way. I don't keep many troops at home so I need that 2-3 turns warning.

Feels nice and vast as opposed to many congested spots in Europe,millions of bridges,rivers and mountains makes you feel like a mouse in a maze.

[Chad29]

I've been playing Portugal for a while, and I noticed something with the fow off. The Mongols came and gutted the Turks on their way to Constantinople. The interesting thing is that Russia swooped in behind the Mongols and grabbed everything between Sarkel and Baghdad. I don't know how common an occurance this is because I rarely play clear until the Timurids show up before getting bored. The poor Turks used to be one of the tope five, but now the Russians have most of their lands. I don't think they're even at war with each other yet, which is fortunate for Russia.

As for the Mongols, they grabbed Constantinople and Nicaea, as well as Sofia. I started a crusade and grabbed the cities, and now I need to chase them down before they gut Hungary.

The Byzantines still have some settlements nearby, but they've fallen. The three biggest powers now are me, HRE, and Russia. England is pretty strong, mostly due to being left alone and dominating Scotland. In fact they just removed Scotland from the map.

I think the fifth slot is Milan. They've always been a hardy faction, unless I go after them.

[Lennert]

Ah man! That sounds awsome! I would love to fight a strong Russia but they always get their asses kicked before I can even reach them in my campaigns. Try to let them grow strong a little, how awsome would it be to finally see some Dvor and Tsars guard in AI armies! I which I could play that campaign! Keep us posted!

[Chad29]

Alright. I won't be playing for a few days, but in time it's looking like they're going to take the whole middle east. I haven't had any problems with them, and was actually thinking of allying with them, but I'll keep an eye on them.

I notice they sometimes have problems with Hungary and Poland, but right now Poland is being engulfs by the HRE and Hungary hasn't expanded much.

[Ezilkannan]

Playing as the English. Everything seems to be going smooth. Managed to get rid of France and Scotland early on. And the excommunication of Danes gave me an opportunity launch a crusade against Stockholm and eventually capture it. Now the HRE and the Portuguese are the ones showing some signs of hostility at the moment. While I have gone into all out war on HRE and Denmark, the portuguese tried to take Caen. Now im at war with these three factions. I think ill get rid of Danes soon after a few turns. I am currently allied with Spain, so not much of hostility from them.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[King Patrick]

Has anyone noticed it takes so much time to move armies across Russia?

[Scipio Afracanis]

Has anyone noticed it takes so much time to move armies across Russia?

What I end up doing in Russia is moving my cav units separately from the infan ones. That way I have some options where they are needed and can delay the enemy till my other forces catch up.

"Better to have 10 men on hand then 10,000 delayed."

Where have we heard that before?

[Chad29]

I've noticed. That's why I don't like that corner of the map. It's more the area than the faction, as Russia has good troops. I've heard they have some of the bets, actually. Unfortunately their land is sparsely populated.

[King Patrick]

But then that keeps Russian City's from growing to fast and causing unrest

[k_Apollo]

I'm playing as Venice, on H/H.
I don't start wars, unless on a crusade. Turn 34 atm.
Regions:
Venice, Bologna, Florence, Ajaccio, Cagliari, Rhodes, Iraklion, Cordoba, Granada.
0 castles, I intend to buy Valencia and take over Palermo. I can defend myself in Italy with militia

I bought off Bologna, 5x 1500 florins, but the early 2500 florins boost for Durazzo, which I let revolt, idem dito for Ragusa, and the city of Venice itself made is fairly easy to pay that debt off.
I arranged 2 alliances: Pope & HRE, the HRE has just betrayed me, whilst having outstanding/perfect relations & military acces.
Sicily is blockng my ports too and I am planning on an africa assault to keep the moors from converting Cordoba. Next crusade on Tunis. The veterans should serve well for Palermo, later on.

It's strange Milan did not already attack me, but they're picking on france atm, so I should get a militia army ready to steal Genua & Milan from them .