Campaign Strategies

[Soryn Arkayn]

I'm curious what players' campaign strategies are.

There are two basic strategies to Total War, both involving conquest and economics.

The first is Conquest-Economics, which is you mass produce military units, conquer, and generate income from sacking settlements, ransoming prisoners, and conquering a lot of provinces.

The second is Economics-Conquest, which is building up your infrastructure, which boosts your economy so that you can afford large armies to conquer.

The former strategy makes for a quick and bloody campaign, especially if you're a good tactician and win most battles. Whereas the latter is a longer, more meticulous campaign.

I rely on the latter strategy, because I really enjoy the Strategic game. I also find it's much better to adopt the Economics-Conquest strategy to LEARN the game (because even though I'm a devout Total Warrior and have played since the original Medieval, you DO have to re-learn each new game). If you simply conquered, you'd probably miss out on things like Diplomacy and Alliance-making, Papal Elections, Merchants, and Crusades.

[justice7]

I generally play extremely aggressive vs one faction -- and try to make peace with all others until that faction is obliterated.

Once i've stolen their lands and built up a solid defense again, i will move forward to my next target.

Rinse and repeat until you control the map.

[Decimus Equitius]

I also work on my economy a lot more than fighting and conquering. I am in turn 56 with my English campaign and I have only fought 10 or 11 battles(lost once on land and twice at sea.) I'm thinking that once my economy is strong enough in this campaign I should be able to take on the French, the Danes, and whoever else wants a piece of me with little problems.

Plus I like having professional soldiers in my army over levy or peasant troops and I can't have that until my economy is strong enough and my towns are big enough to start recruiting the heavy swords and yeoman archers.

[Crownguard]

How exactly do you go about building a powerful economy? No matter which faction I play I can't seem to generate much income.

I build roads, markets, ports, grain exchange, establish trade with other factions etc... nothing gets the results I want. Doing all this actually ends up loseing me money, eventually I can barely raise an army to defend myself. What am I doing wrong here? Any help would be appreciated.

[Trailerpark Romeo]

How exactly do you go about building a powerful economy? No matter which faction I play I can't seem to generate much income.

try raising your taxes a little bit. get trade rights with everyone you can and send merchants out. always check your little Pot o' Gold (i call it the P&L Statement) and see where all your money is going. you don't want to have huge armies with upkeep costs just sitting there draining your money.

conquer some people and get some more territory if you can.

[Fallout386]

- Always max tax rates in cities as high as possible in cities that happiness will allow

- City trained soldiers are just as good as castle ones or sometimes better. Only build castles in strategic locations, keep the rest as cities for max income.

- Always build the max amount of troops your city garrison will provide free accommodation for and replace them with best available troops when you upgrade. Hire more troops if your population is getting unhappy.

- If you get a princess as charming as a bar wench send her to the nearest neighbour and open diplomatic negotions. Give gift of 100 florin each turn and watch her become a diplomatic predator (and predator of noble knights when you want to grab them)

- Always have a large fleet in one of your ports 7-10 ships.

[Crownguard]

- Always max tax rates in cities as high as possible in cities that happiness will allow

- City trained soldiers are just as good as castle ones or sometimes better. Only build castles in strategic locations, keep the rest as cities for max income.

- Always build the max amount of troops your city garrison will provide free accommodation for and replace them with best available troops when you upgrade. Hire more troops if your population is getting unhappy.

- If you get a princess as charming as a bar wench send her to the nearest neighbour and open diplomatic negotions. Give gift of 100 florin each turn and watch her become a diplomatic predator (and predator of noble knights when you want to grab them)

- Always have a large fleet in one of your ports 7-10 ships.

Thanks for the advice guys, my flow of income is MUCH better now. And just out of curiosity, the fleet is to prevent blockades right?

[MasterAdnin]

And just out of curiosity, the fleet is to prevent blockades right?

No, just for emergencies, such as if you are blockaded is one reason, if a faction across the seas declares war on you, if the Pope calls for a crusade, if you need to quickly transport troops, etc.

Salaam,
Adnan

[Titus Vespasianus]

Avoid conflict with powerful enemies, concentrate on conquering rebel states all over the map (until you have a strong economy anyway)
Make alliances with your neighbours, establish trade routes with as many factions as possible - I married into the French royal family in the first year (playing as the English).
I established a trade monopoly on French wine which in turn increased profits.
Send merchants to Tombouctou to trade in gold.
Keep garrisoned units to a minimum and only build up armies when absolutely needed - i.e invading/defending a province.
I keep taxes low so as to grow my population - only raise taxes when you need some quick cash (eg to raise an army).

[Soryn Arkayn]

I learned a harsh lesson over the weekend.

As I originally stated, I'm an "Economic Conqueror", meaning I build up by faction's infrastructure so I can support armies to conquer provinces. Well, on Friday my English campaign was going perfectly; it was Turn 30, I controlled ~10 provinces, I had 5 Allies including the Papal States, I hadn't been at war with any faction yet, I had a decent army, and I was the number 1 faction financially. My treasury was ~50,000 florins and my income was ~10000 florins per turn even though I was constructing buildings in every settlement every turn. Needess to say, everything was going great.

Then I began a Crusade against the HRE. Initially, things went well. I had my most pious General and his 3/4 stack army join the Crusade and I hired 4 Crusader Mercenaries and 3 Crusader Cavalry for ~1000 florins! (Whatta bargain!) A few turns later I have another pious General and my artillery join the Crusade and I hire more mercs, giving me 2 FULL stacks. Also, two other factions join my crusade and are en route to Frankfurt. I besiege Frankfurt for 2 turns to soften them up and then attack once my artillery has arrived and easily capture the city. Life if good!

Then I notice that HRE's settlements are weakly defended, which surprises me because only 10 turns earlier they were one of the most powerful provinces. I suspect that they over-extended themselves and suffered crushing defeats, which left their provinces ripe for the plucking. So I decide to continue the war with the Pope's blessing. I continue training armies and send them into HRE territory.

Then, all of a sudden I spot an army stack approaching one of my cities in Northern France (can't recall it's name right now). To my shock the stack belongs to the Danes, which were my first ALLY and ever since my relations were great (I gifted them maps and gold several times!). I hoped that the Danes were going to attack the French instead, but I re-direct my forces bound for Germany to intercept the Danes just in case. As I feared, the Danes attacked my town without cause and we're at war. Fortunately, I had a General in the adjacent town, I hired 5 mercenary units, lifted the siege, slaughtered the Danes, and for the first time executed all prisoners without ransoming them. Since my relations with the Pope were perfect (I had max favour after completing the Crusade), I assumed that the Danes would be threatened with excommunication but they never were excomm-ed even though they continued to attack.

About this time I realized that my treasury was nearly gone and I wasn't making a profit anymore. Apparently I couldn't support all of the military units I had trained and hired during the Crusade (I forgot that Crusader armies don't require upkeep costs, which was how I was able to train & hire so many units during my Crusade). I de-queue many of my settlements so I can support my army during the war. At that point I was enduring a financial crunch, but I had the strongest military so I thought I could handle a war on two fronts.

Then the sh!t really hit the fan! Another Danish army, this time a full stack, attacked the same town again, so I sent all of my reinforcements to stop them, including the 4 units of Mailed Knights I kept in Notthingham Castle that I earned for completing the Frankfurt Crusade. The same turn that my reinforcements are at sea bound for my threatened town, Scotland invaded with a full army stack and besieged York! I realized that there was no way I could save York, so I focused on defeating the Danes. I crushed the Danes again, then returned my army to England to deal with the Scots.

Meanwhile, in Germany my war against the HRE was progressing well; I captured 4 more Imperial settlements and still had 2 army stacks, plus my garrisons. I sent one stack to invade Denmark and the other to attack HRE's castle in Switzerland. As I typically do, I sent my army ahead to be besiege the castle while my artillery stack trailed behind. Of course, I escorted my artillery just to be safe, but unfortunately a Danish diplomat bribed the stack and I lost 3 Ballistae and 2 Catapults, plus a few archer units. The Danes only managed to keep 1 unit of Longbowmen, the rest of my archer just disbanded, and I immediately sent a couple of knight units to slaughtered the traitors. I tried to assassinate the Danish diplomat but he was too strong. Without artillery, I called off the assault on HRE's Sweiss fortress and redirected my army to Denmark.

Then, to make matters worse, the French attack the town adjacent to other my town. Since my forces are now en route to York, which the Scots occupied, I let the town fall and swear to exterminate the Frogs after I deal with my misguided Scottish brethren.

As my two army stack approached Denmark, Pope restrained me from attacking the Danes, so occupied two key bridges; one in a Danish province, the other in my province between Frankfurt and the former HRE settlement south of there. That turn THREE more Danish army stacks appeared! One was apparently en route to that same town but was recalled when it saw my first stack approach Denmark, the other came down from Denmark, and the third appeared from Polish territory. The next turn the Danes' two armies attacked my first stack on the bridge; fortunately I had EIGHT Lowbowmen and 6 Cavalry units and I completely slaughtered them (they were good quality units too; Dismounted Knights and Viking Raiders!). The other stack retreated, probably to Hamburg. Since my forces are occupied with the Danes, Scots, and French -- and will continue to be for the forseeable future -- I tried to negotiate peace with the HRE. Unfortunately, even though I'm much, much stronger than they are, they're being stubborn and refuse to agree to peace. I can't blame the AI for this, because they're aware I'm at war with three other factions, so I suspect they hope to re-capture they're former settlements... but I ain't gonna let that happen!

Presently, I have a full stack besieging York and I plan to deplete the Scottish defenders until they sally out, then I'll crush them. That will leave Scotland undefended, and I'll easily conquer it and finally unite the British Isles. Next, my plan is to wait out the Pope's 7-turn restraining order so I can attack the Danes, and then I going to focus on conquering France. And speaking of the Frogs, I PROMISE I'll execute all prisoners and exterminate their settlements, just to set an example to my enemies not to ***** with England!

In sumation, I learned a harsh lesson about over-extending my military beyond what my economy can support. I thought my economy was solid, but when I committed my armies to the Crusade, which relieved their upkeep costs for several turns, I duped myself into thinking I could support a larger military than I could afford, and paid the price. I've suffered setbacks as a result of my over-expansion, but I'm certain I'll soon recover and end up conquering all of my enemies -- as long as the Pope doesn't interfer.

Speaking of which, one bit of good news regarding the Papacy, I now have a SECOND Cardinal in Papal College, which improves my chances of gaining control of the Papacy.

[Soryn Arkayn]

My campaign has improved somewhat since my last post. York fell after a 7-turn siege and I slaughtered the Scots trapped inside. The Pope died and a new one was elected, who soon after excommunicated the treacherous Danes, which permitted me to besiege two of their cities. I liberated the town of Bruges (?) from the French and a few turns later assaulted Paris and captured the Frog capital in ONE TURN!

The great thing was that all of this occurred within 2 turns, and by sacking the settlements I earned ~60,000 florins and got my economy back on track.

The only bad news is that the Polish attacked my frontier settlements (the ones I captured from the HRE) and I lost one settlement to a full stack. I doubt I can move my 2 stacks in Denmark to Germany in time to defend the rest of my captured settlements, so instead I plan to invade Poland and hopefully the Poles will recall their invasion army and spare my settlements.

Without question the best thing that happened was that the new Pope died and one of MY CARDINALS was elected POPE! And I didn't even have to bribe any other faction either! So immediately my relations with the Papal States was PERFECT! Unfortunately, the Pope isn't the perfect puppet because he warned me not continue my aggression against the Scots otherwise our relations would suffer (but I won't be excommunicated), which is an annoyance but not serious because I had already besieged their castle north of York (I think it's Bannockburn), so all I have to do is wait out the garrison (it's nearly a full stack) and capture the city.

I must admit my campaign ISN'T going according to plan, because I'm at war with FIVE FACTIONS at the same time and fighting on THREE fronts (North, East, and South), which would be suicide in IRL but because I have the #1 military in the game I'm still able to dominate.

Unfortunately, the Diplomacy is being as stubborn is ever because I can't negotiate peace terms with HRE without forfeiting their captured cities and giving them an exorbant amount of money. So I'd rather just exterminate them along with the French. I'll have to refrain from conquering the remainder of Danish territory in Scandinavia because I have the Poles to deal with. Instead I'll blockade the Danish ports and the cross-channel routes (the green arrows that permit land units from crossing the water) to prevent the Danish from attacking the mainland. I plan to conduct extermination raids through Poland because I want to pillage and cripple their faction and then bribe them for peace by relinquishing their cities. That way I keep them as a buffer for when the Golden Horde appears and starts to push Westward.