Have you ever defeated England playing as Scotland?

[IZob]

I cant do it. England's armies are of better quality, they have more money, better sliders and England has more soldiers/calavary. You could use a lot of inflation (straight from start of the game) and take out loans to buy more troops, but I imagine this would suck away your money really fast. Not to mention, there isn't enough man power to fight England's usual 15k army defences.

What usually happens early on in the game, is England will attack one of the minors in Ireland. You can: a) Ignore this and watch England slowly get stronger, thus Scotland will be more vulnerable. Or b) Find a strong ally. Proclaim a guarantee of independence on the Irish minors (before England starts a war against them, thats important) and wait. This plan will fail however, as England will probably still have Portugal as an ally and will go on attacking Ireland. England also has that massive navy, and there are no factions with the naval capabilities that can send armies into England, alive. Even France the most likely faction to get an alliance with and is also the strongest, can do nothing against England early on.

I suppose you could wait for France to make a reconquest against England and maybe France will force them to release some nations. But that doesn't happen often and England usually recovers from war with France very quickly.

A French-Scott alliance has to be timed right. If Scotland isn't allied to France, you miss out on the inevitable French reconquest and have to wait for a CB against England (which could take a while). Even worse is, if your not allied to France, who then will help protect Scotland against England?

Yes Scotland has the highlanders event that spawns 15k men. This however isn't a solution to England's armies to face.

One plan I think that could work however, is to wait for England to send half of its army to some far distant land, then coordinate a CB+Alliance and start the attack against them. But If you wait for too long to get a CB, England usually gets a CB of their own against Scotland. So time is of essence.

Whats your view on this? imo Scotland is a lose lose situation. Makes my TA England look like rubbish

[Magicman2051]

It is possible, just takes a bit of work.

I've beaten England, and Scotland technically, as Munster more than once. Really easy to make the jump to the Americas first as well.

[IZob]

But playing as Scotland? A faction from mainland Europe could be easier, with the ammount of time you have to plan and build up.

[Magicman2051]

As Scotland I imagine you'd have to rely on the fact that England will be just as restricted by the shifting politics of mainland Europe to gain a few alliances there and then basically just isolate England enough to win a war of attrition.

I can't say I've personally done it but I have seen it done.

[SLN445]

All it takes is one successful war and a province or two and England will be weakened enough for the next war to be a total victory. Not sure how to win the first war but i geuss if you spammed troops you could manage to beat thier first few stacks then play wack a mole before they can rebuild.

Also if you want a strong ally that can beat england at its own game (navy) Castille is usualy capable of doing so.

[nhytgbvfeco2]

your TA england is rubbish.

scotland can defeat england by using scorched land to its advantage as well as the mountains, especially if you manage to get a good general. france also usually allies scotland aswell and you can hop in during the initial england-france war while england has war exhaustion and focusing at the french, but try make it a separate war

[Poach]

As Nhy said, build up like 15k troops, get your King as a General. Scorch earth on Ayrshire and Lothian, retreat to Fife and Highlands. Scorch Fife, retreat to Aberdeen, scorch Aberdeen, retreat to Highlands, make your stand there.

The English will be extremely weakened by then, and if you've lost a few provinces by the time they build up an army and attack you in the Highlands you might even get the Highlanders appearing.

With your 15k in the Highlands you should beat anything the English are able to march through all that Scottish scorched land. Simply rout their army. Then break your army down into two bands of like 5k men and a few 1k siege stacks. Siege the north of England with your 1k units while roaming about killing off English troops as they're retrained before they can form into large armies.

[nhytgbvfeco2]

or go agressive if you see england is fully engaged with france, which is unlikely to happen

[Musthavename]

It's easy.

I did it in a small multiplayer game several months ago and was astounded by how easy it was. I could only draw the first war, since for some reason my troops decided to retreat into England and get hit by the zero-morale isnta-rout, but the second war was ridiculously easy. England sent something like 10-15k, I had 10k scorch Ediburgh and camp in the hilly province nextdoor. When the English attacked me there, I won by defencive bonus then chased down and destroyed a stack. Highlanders spawned and killed the attrition beaten stack in Lothian. They sent another 10k or so which was easily destroyed. Proceeded to siege all of England.

It's even easier if England is bogged down with France at the same time.

[IZob]

your TA england is rubbish.
...

Your so clever Nhy.... I would have not figured that out without you.


Thanks for the tips guys. I will try scorched earth next time.

[Town Watch]

how to best conquer scotland as england then? Those auto-spwned highlander stacks are nasty, don't they also get like the highlander charge modifier?

[Axeman]

land 12k troops in the highlands immediately with a naval attack force. 12k more to route the regular scotish army usually sitting in Lothian. Split up and siege the country and wait for highlanders to spawn. Keep your navy between the Western Isles and mainland Scotland and then you are golden.

[Town Watch]

I remember trapping the scottish stack once in the western isles with my navy, it was gamey but I've just gotten used to that strat from Vicky2

[I WUB PUGS]

I can't imagine it being that hard considering the AI had nearly done it to a human player in our Sunday game.

[nhytgbvfeco2]

it's really easy.

[Remlap]

The thing to remember is to put the 12k on Highlands, and pray to god it doesn't glitch and spawn highlanders a month apart. This happened to me in the mp game and I was basically screwed.

[IZob]

Its also quite problematic, if the Scott's spawn before you reach the Highlands. Even by boat, and moving right at the start of the war, there isn't a grantee you will get there first before the Scott army. Unless I am wrong.

[SLN445]

How does the highland thing work exactly? (at TAFE so cant look at the wiki)

[IZob]

Well without looking at the files, its triggered only by the English attacking. But the exact timing of the Highland army spawned I'm not sure about. I think it might be spawned when an English army moves into Scotland.

[SLN445]

Do they spawn on the English army or in another province? If i was England id just move back, and abuse my better production and unit capacity to destroy them.