English/British - How do i conquer africa

**Marku** · April 27, 2007, 05:55 PM

can someone give me some tips on how i should maintain/use my soldiers in africa, mainly ive been trying again and again to fight Mali tribe but they always win in the end.

After africa, i wish to invade india ^_^

**Legio XX Valeria Victrix** · April 27, 2007, 09:46 PM

Small, mobile cavalry armies. Use a bunch of them. If the Mali fight with large armies, use the small ones independently, and using their speed, you can stack them in the endangered province. If not, use one or two to whoop Mali armies and don't let them bounce back.

**Kanaric** · April 27, 2007, 11:14 PM

A lot of areas are tropical as well, its nice to have a fall back area that isn't tropical to regain troop numbers in.

I personally stay out of tropical areas at first and colonise the southern part of africa first moving north.

**Spart** · April 28, 2007, 03:13 AM

Africa is a pain in the ass.. Attrition kills your troops and those ferocious natives attack you in every province. So in the early game, I think it's not worth it. Since you'll have to use small armies, wait till they get better. I recommend not going there with your latin knights. Anyways, there usually aren't any other europeans for a while.

**Saxon Huscarl** · April 28, 2007, 04:41 AM

When I played as England/Britain I didn't really bother with central Africa (I didn't have enough years), so I just took North Africa and South Africa.

But if I was to conquer it, I'd colonize about 4 or more regions next to each other, send in a 6,000 man army to kill off all the natives and just spam colonists at these colonies until they became provinces (1000+ population), then I'd build at least level 1 forts and regimental camps to allow the provinces to support more armies. Then basically amass my armies in these provinces until I have enough and then blitzkrieg the African nations one at a time, hoping to end the war quickly so attrition doesn't have enough time to decimate my armies.

It's also good to use reserve armies in these high attrition places, basically have armies sitting in these colonised provinces and when any of your attacking armies gets low on numbers, call them back to the colonized provinces and send out the reserve army. This allows your weakened army to regain a certain amount of soldiers every month while your reserve armies do the fighting in the mean time.

**Marku** · April 28, 2007, 05:09 AM

so really its crucical to get south africa bits colonized and made core-ish if possible. i really want mali dead, they've caused me alot of grief in the past, even in peace times they kept sending spys to incite revolts.

im playing it on very easy atm, so ive got 20k something soldiers and my inflation is basicly 0, wars with castilie didnt help me much

was helping to defend portugal.

is there any good COT(centre of trade)'s in africa? is there anyone else worth trying to ally with to aid in africa?

india/australia is what i'd do after africa, then if i got any time try invade japan for fun lol

**Saxon Huscarl** · April 28, 2007, 05:25 AM

Originally Posted by Marku

so really its crucical to get south africa bits colonized and made core-ish if possible. i really want mali dead, they've caused me alot of grief in the past, even in peace times they kept sending spys to incite revolts.

im playing it on very easy atm, so ive got 20k something soldiers and my inflation is basicly 0, wars with castilie didnt help me much

was helping to defend portugal.

is there any good COT(centre of trade)'s in africa? is there anyone else worth trying to ally with to aid in africa?

india/australia is what i'd do after africa, then if i got any time try invade japan for fun lol

If you get the screen up that tells you all the information, (it's one of the two boxes on the right near the middle of the screen, height wise). Scroll through a dozen or so pages and it will list all the COT's, their total value and how much you are earning from each one. In my game the best sub-Saharan African COT is the Swahili one, it also might be good to ally with the Swahili if you want to destroy Mali, another good alliance might be Algiers or the Mamluks.

**Marku** · April 28, 2007, 06:00 AM

could you recomend some "national ideas" my country should have early on and later on when more are available?

**Spart** · April 28, 2007, 06:08 AM

It totally depends on how you're planning to play. Usually national bank is a must, but if you're playing on easy levels, then no. Quest for the new world is usually my first idea, national conscripts with some countries, such as Sweden. If you plan to get money by trading, get shrewd merchant practice and/or merchant adventures, viceroys if you have a lot of overseas provinces. Deus Vult works for beating natives. It really depends on what you plan on doing though, so it's hard to give any good advice.

**Saxon Huscarl** · April 28, 2007, 06:28 AM

Yes like Spart said, it depends on how you want to play the game really. Although I think Deus Vult would be really handy since I don't believe the African factions are Christian? some form of Shamanism or something I believe?. It would stop you getting a stability drop every time you declare war on a non-Christian faction.

**Marku** · April 28, 2007, 06:53 AM

im abit of a mix really, i like technology for improving my provinces but i also like to expand by conquer(im a long time follower of total war series so i guess its in my blood

)

im strictly england/great britain, so military national idea-wise, what would be ideal for me? (Support larger armies, morale and forth)

do you usually use claim throne for your conquering guys?

**Spart** · April 28, 2007, 06:59 AM

Well, there's military drill and national conscripts. Although as England, I like to refrain from fighting European powers, it just gets annoying. if you concentrate on America, Africa and other colonies, it might be smart to try doing it without spending the precious idea slots for military stuff. You could just get some of those naval ideas and build a badass navy to stop anyone from entering your island.

**Saxon Huscarl** · April 28, 2007, 07:22 AM

Originally Posted by Marku

do you usually use claim throne for your conquering guys?

Yes, for Christian nations if I can't vassalise them I'll claim their throne and go to war instead. It's also good to look for a weak link to go to war with who you want to for the lease stability drop possible. For example look to see if you have a casus belli with their ally and if you do, declare war on their ally, the target nation will usually join their ally in a war against you and then you can kick both their arses at the same time

**Legio XX Valeria Victrix** · April 28, 2007, 08:45 PM

Another strategic advantage if you head for West Africa is to first colonize the Cape Verde Islands, or the ones near Cameroon...I forget their name at this time. Having both is even better. EDIT: Fernando Po islands.

You can then hold larger armies on these islands, since they don't have a tropical climate. They make useful areas for recuperating from heavy attrition. You just have to have a decent navy or two in the area to transport troops to and from the continent.

**Marku** · April 29, 2007, 07:59 AM

how am i doing? ^_^

sweden pissed me off so i invaded them and teutonic order helped me out. only took a year or something to get that land.

**Spart** · April 29, 2007, 10:03 AM

Sheesh, GB in 1528, nice job. How is your badboy btw? Anyhow, why on earth don't you go to North/central America? Colonize Cuba and then spread to central America for some of that delicious coffee and sugar.
I mean, whatever you want, but.. Africa is an annoyance.

**Marku** · April 29, 2007, 01:13 PM

hmmm although i should be after america because we british love our tea, i thought i would do something more unorthadox-y and do africa then india/australia and maybe japan, if i got time. feels like a hassle to fight over the america's and it kinda makes the game more linear to go after it every time.

getting GB wasnt too hard this time, i think i claim throned most of them, the rest attacked me in response and it made it eaiser to annex them.