DLV Hyper-expansion method 1: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (or, thanks for the instant army!)

[Callawyn]

Take rebel provinces as fast as you can, with all the troops at your disposal, leaving 1 weak unit per city as garrison. Spend game start cash on ports for the extra income, any leftover should go to a diplomat and some militia. By turn 10 or so, you'll be 30k+ in debt, but as your empire expands and your army shrinks, by turn 20ish you can be back in the black, with 10-15 new provinces. Even after you start turning a profit, you'll start most turns with almost no cash since you're building queue will be stalled for awhile, but at least you'll be able to get more units built, and most importantly - with bunch of provinces you'll have a substantial income.

Expect your King to get the offends Nobility trait (due to your bankruptcy), and your generals will start to rebel. Properly managed, this isn't a problem. You've got a fresh supply of generals due to your new provinces. Just be sure not to have a (BAD) rebelling general tagged as either governor of a settlement or in charge of a field army, even if he's your faction heir. Pair the rebel generals up with (GOOD) loyal generals, so long as the loyal one is good enough to be the leader of the army or governor of the settlement they're in. Eventually, when your king dies, loyalties can be reset and your rebel generals will be useful again. Once you get out of bankruptcy, park your king in your capital, use him to kill nearby rebels if possible, and he'll eventually lose the offends nobility and gain authority.

Expect DLV generated FULL stacks of rebels to attack your capital every few turns, with a 5 Dread leader. Not a problem, in fact, this is great for accelerating your expansion. Whenever your capital is besieged, you get an instant army of about a dozen fresh troops to help your garrison defend, usually 4 of which are high quality units which will survive the (UGLY) battle which follows in reasonbly good shape. This army costs you 4k, which is overpriced if you could actually build the units, but since you're faction leader is hated anyway, you're already in debt and can't build any units, and you're getting some desperately needed troops, its a small price to pay. Main thing is, starting a few turns after your faction leader starts offending nobility, be sure to keep at least 2 generals in the capital to kill off all the besieging army's archers. Otherwise, you'll have a tough time winning when you sally. Every time you win one of these assaults, you should have 4 excellent late period units at about 2/3 or better strength to send off to help continue your expansion, a few crappy infantry way understrength that can be sent off to garrison your new provinces (remember, you'll be so bankrupt that you can't build anything at all, no buildings, units or agents, so don't combine these units no matter how weak they are - send 1 to each new province as garrison), and some half strength archers that can be left in your capital to help repel the next siege. In these battles, I start with archers on walls targetting enemy missile cav, leave infantry safe inside, and sally generals to charge/withdraw until AI archers mostly dead. Then, bring out your archers and target any remaining enemy cavalry, line up crappy infantry for a frontal assault against enemy infantry line, while sending 2 units of best infantry around each flank of the enemy to attack from the rear. Coordinate the charge so all hit at once, backing up your crappy infantry with your general to blow his morale horn whenever possible. Some of your weak infantry will rout and rally several times, but the enemy infantry will melt away, the real challenge is to hunt down the remaining AI cavalry, esp since your generals will be pretty weak by this point.

My suggestion for DLV: weaken bodyguard units to 1 hitpoint, the general should then have 3 instead of 4. Players won't be able to use a general or three to fight off those nasty armies that besiege their capital. Without these overpowered generals, you'd have to have a substantial garrison + instant army to fend off these assaults, which would pretty much negate this whole strategy. You'd have to wait until you could survive the capital sieges before letting your faction leader become so despised. If possible, have late bodyguard units still have 2 hitpoints. Hopefully the 1.2 patch from CA will improve the battlefield AI for when players sally against a siege.

[Sleepysmoo]

I also find that house rules work too. Try and keep armies around to defend your capital. Or you can give yourself handicaps. Works for me.

[derdrakken]

This is so brilliant, I've got to try it myself! Cheers! dd