Scottish Strategies?

[F4ust]

Hi ive recently been playing as scotland and i was wondering if you guys can share some strategies? Such as where you would attack first? Plus i think they suck at sieges because their infantry kind of suck. How would you use the highlanders? Thanks

[blake_synel]

Well there are two options. I don't know what you play under, but this is a VH/VH strategy.

The best thing to do as Scotland is move north for Inverness and west for Dublin. In diplomacy you can do one of two options. Move directly for an alliance with France and attack England or ally with both. There are pros and cons to both. IF you ally with England you can move east for Oslo and Stockholm before the Danes.

Personally, I prefer attacking England because I tend to find them untrustworthy. Also, having the entire British island to yourself is good for security. I've had few people carry troops across the channel to attack me.

From there, you're on your own. You can play as a diplomat or a strategist. I personally like Diplomacy. Flaunt your strength after a while and get provinces from people for alliances and trade agreements.

[Snipafist]

Their infantry definitely don't suck. A basic starting strategy is to quickly grab Dublin, York, and Inverness (I think that's what the Northern settlement is called). You'll only need one castle, so pick a spot you think is best and build yourself up until you can field a good infantry force. Wait for England to get into a war with someone else (usually France) and then march on London. Once you've got the whole island, you can do as you please from there.

[blake_synel]

By the way, Scottish infantry does suck right away, but they are good en mass. I've found massing them and attacking all at once scares the enemy. Especially the English.

[Mb Perseus]

I played as Scotland on H/H a bit ago, personally I took York right away to stime England, then took Inverness and Dublin and finally the rebel town west of Nottingham.

Take the entire British Isles asap, maybe Brugdes aswell, and get trade agreements with the Danes, I never really had any trouble with military, I just pumped armies of trebuchets, noble swordsman, a few noble pikeman, and whatever missle unit they use. I never had problems in seiges.....

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

Go for york in the first turn, then take caernavorn if the english didn't take it allready and the sack dublin and inverness. During that phase, I tend to keep trade relations with the English and ally with France. After that, you easily outproduce them and take Nottingham and London. Once the Britsih Isles are yours, build up a force and a strong navy and basically strike were you want to (although I tend to go for English remainders in France and the Danes...).

Worked very well on VH/VH...

[Roman-Byzantium]

I conquered all of England save London with 500 Scottish Rabble basically. Sure, I had 2 units of regular Highlanders, but I basically conquer all of England with the crappiest units I had, and in 2 cases, "Herotic Victories", being heavily outnumbered.

I dunno, the English aren't that threatening when your the scotts for some dumb reason.

[blake_synel]

The English are a major threat if they live long enough to reach the High Period.

Their early troops are bad, but their archers can wipe out alot of Scottish Infantry later.

[Ulazlo the Warmonger]

I recently just did a scottish campaign so i would recommend taking inverness, dublin, then york and if england has not taken it inverness. Then if England is at war with someone else attack them, or if you are strong enough to beat them out, try to see if you can get France to attack Caen because you can't reach out without a navy.

[Cassy]

Not an easy faction to play as that's the sure.

Taking York should always be your first move. This cripples English expansion. If possible you should then take Wales for the exact same reason. Take all the other rebel British settlements and wipe out the English and you will pretty much have all the income you will need to expand elsewhere.

Their armies however are useless compared to other factions. The only tactic they can really be used for is to bog down the enemy with your pikemen and flank with cavalry.

[billydilly]

If you play with a Mod that uses the BigMap then take Dumfries first and then the rest of Scotland, then hurry across to Ireland, there are three provinces there. Dont forget Wales.

The keyword is hurry, when the English get Longbowmen, Armoured Sergants and Knights things will start to get ugly. I usually play as the English, and the A.I Scots don't stand a chance when you have Arm. Sergants, Knights and 6-8 units of Longbowmen.

In my games with BigMap, the Scots usually go for Dumfries, they never go for Ireland before they have Dumfries. And they very often start off really slow, then after several turns they have a full stack. By that time Dumfries-garrison has grown to full strenght and the Scots struggle to capture it, it often takes two attempts, by then the Scots have lost most of their army and have to rebuild it before capturing any of the Irish provinces. While the Scots have been struggling with Dumfries and Aberdeen, I usually have captured Wales, Wexford (Ireland) and sometimes Tara (Ireland).

[Romanos]

Sent to the battle Planning

[Limorr]

I'm playing as Scotland right now as well. Restarted it three times due to changing some mods around and messing up the traits of my genarals.

I right away send my diplomat to the mainland to make contact and alliance with France, HRE, Denmark and the Pope. They will be fighting the english for you especially if they get excommunicated and you managed to have a crusade called against them. Make sure you send a diplomat to the Pope and park him next to Rome to give him gifts every turn to maintian good relationships. He's your friend and will excomm England in no time once they attack you!

Anyway, I take York as the first settlement then move onto Dublin. Both are cities and thus will provide more money than Inverness or Caernarvon. The English will usually go for Caernarvon in the meantime and most likely will fail to take it. So, that's the next settlement I take, then move my army up to Inverness. In short order you have 5 settlements, and England has two on the island. This is the time when he will send a full stack either to take York or Caernarvon. Good chance you will lose whichever settlement he targets. I always did at least. Thats fine though, cuz by doing this he will leave Nottingham and London unprotected (1-3 units including the general). So, now you take your army and quickly take Nottingham (I actually managed to call a crusade on it ), so you have a good castle that can give you highland nobles and knights. There's a good chance that England already got excommunicated by the Pope by this time. Couple turns after you took Nottingham you can take the undefended London too, and take back Caernarvon. Convert Caernarvon to a city, since you don't need 3 castles on the island. Now you own the island and can spend some time consolidating and building up an army to invade the mainland.

The mainland will be a dangerous playground so prepare for it. Take Caen first. It will be a fortress by then, most likely lightly defended as well. Ideal place to establish a foothold. If you played your cards right and made alliences, it will be easy to finish the english. You will be surrounded with allies, so the english will have a very hard time. Once you mop them up, most likely France will declare a war on you too eventually. But from here you can take any number of routes.

Maintain your good relationhsips with gifts and marrying princesses off. Also, make sure to occupy and not sack cities. Release prisoners most of the time to get your reputation up high so your allies love you and don't backstab you the first opportunity they get. My rep is impeccable right now, after killing the english off and marching on the Milanese and taking 4 of their cities. I picked a fight with them because they are excommed, three of my allies are at war with them and their cities are very lightly defended. Easy pickings. Plus you score good points with your allies and the Pope.

[shazam]

i made england and danes my vessels but im at war with germeny wich is way to strong for me and my vessels are not doing so well the 3 of us are holding out but the germens have totten to strong all the factions are at war with them but germeny made vence there vessels and are holding the east and germny looking at franch and me