AI too easy playing England

[Bobb4]

Are the English too easy?
Played them on Very Hard. Took my time, conquered whole of England but left the Scots alone. Even took Ireland. So by the time William the Conquer dies, turn 25, I hold all of England (Except Scotland), Bruges, Rennes and Caen. Have launched a crusade against Antioch and won. Gave it to the French when they initially attacked me and I drove them back. They offered a cease-fire, I added Antioch in to get rid of the place. It was costing too much in upkeep, left a priest their doing his bit before sending my King to take Rhodes so I would have a base for further crusades later.
The French attacked Caen in force on two occasions, at no time did the Pope excommunicate them?
Each time I brought a huge stacked army to do battle they retreated.
Eventually left arm stack next to Caen. They attacked a third time. I hit them with an army consisting of feudal dismounted knights, feudal mounted knights, swordsmen and mainly longbow men with one set of Yeomen Longbow men.
The French had two complete stacks, imagine my surprise when both their armies consisted of crossbow men, feudal dismounted knights, peasants and no mounted knights, except for the one general’s bodyguards.
I cut them to pieces, literally. Did not even bother using longbow advantage for too long.
Hit the French with four mounted feudal knight units clustered together on my left flank.
It was awesome, but incredibly easy…
French offered immediate cease-fire. Took it to have time to take out Scotland who have become incredibly rich and are a prime target for sacking as my coffers are getting thin.
Interesting side note - got Henry the Mad as King (don’t ask) tried repeatedly to kill him off against a group of rebels near Nottingham. Just would not die on auto battle so I took him in alone facing 160 plus rebels.
He fought like a man processed wiped out almost the entire rebel army before being killed.
While the campaign is not complete by a long shot, I wonder about the AI sending two full but poorly equipped stacks to take me on…

[Machinator]

While the campaign is not complete by a long shot, I wonder about the AI sending two full but poorly equipped stacks to take me on…

Just wait till later. I have consoldiated all of Eastern Europe, Italy, Spain and North Africa - some 50ish provinces. The only win condition I need is Jerusalem, held by the Mongols, the only faction with a military rated near mine. So I make three armies, mount them in ships and raise the Crusade thanks to a friendly pope. When I arrive, 4 or 5 turns later, Jerusalem is guarded by..

..one unit of militia.

There are a bunch of full stack nasty looking 8+ star generals around, but nothing in the city worth noting. Splitting my ships, I, on the same turn, siege and take Acre, Alexandria and Jerusalem - ending the game.

Anti-climatic? Just a bit. Perhaps the AI should know to garrison targets of a Jihad/Crusade.

[gpolonia]

About the one militia as garrison, sombody posted it in the bug forum. Hopefully it will be fixed in the next patch. If you want some sort of challenge, try the Byzantine. On VH level all your neighbour will start a war against you; also try the Turkish, the Mongols are a worthy opponent.

[Lord Phoenix]

One of the problems with the AI is they don't do ocean crossings unless they are going to Crusade or ferrying generals between their own lands. This makes every island very safe. You will never get attacked in England, at least once you take out the Scots, or Rhodes, nor any of the other islands in game like Cagliari(Corsica) or Salamis (I forget what the name of it is in M2TW, but it was Salamis in RTW).

There is a mod out there that adds a land water crossing, like between Sicily and Italy or Ireland and England, to England and the continent I think, which will make them more likely to attack you at home as it were.

[DreadedCharger]

In my current campaign as England I took all of British Isle before William the Conqueror died and then advanced on to Rennes -> Angers -> Bordeaux -> Toulouse and before turn 50 all these cities/castles were mine.

Then advanced to take all of Spain while using the Rheims and Marsailles as buffers towards HRE(Paris had to be made an example of so I took it after they betrayed me for the second time- they offered peace when I took toulouse).

When I had all of Spain, I took on the Milanese and now possesed Milan and Genova(strangely the papal states have taken the rest of Italy except Venice, which is under Milan control, after a long war with Sicily)

And this wasnt even a difficult task, even when I spent an army on a crusade, my borders still held and the other armies still made progress.
So I agree with you that England is too easy
Maybe CA should make Scotland stronger when the game starts.. :hmmm: