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Thread: [TW Guide] MTW: The Sicilians (Early)

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    Default [TW Guide] MTW: The Sicilians (Early)



    Author: Morble
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    MTW: The Sicilians (Early)The Sicilians (Early)


    The Sicilians are as pure a trade faction as exists in MTW, even more so than the Danes or Italians. In fact, if you have trouble holding on to a florin, the Sicilians are the faction for you, because they will typically generate more money than you can spend for most of the game. There are no trade resources at all on Malta, but Sicily has 3 of them. Just developing trade and agriculture in Sicily, and building dromons out of that province, is enough to give the Sicilians the largest income early in the game. And you can maintain that largest income, because the faction is effectively isolated both geographically and politically until you decide to make your move in the world.

    For such a high-powered province as Sicily, the addition of a single acumen quill on its governor is worth 1000 or more in annual income. So, on the first turn, search through your men and pick the one with the best acumen as governor of Sicily. If this governor has undependable loyalty (less than 4 shields) then stack him with your king on Malta, but still give him the governorship. You can marry a princess to him to add 2 more shields later.

    Don’t forget to switch this governor out, should he develop a nasty vice. By mid-game, Sicily can be generating 8000 florins or more per turn. Even a small vice in the governor of Sicily will be noticeable to your annual profits.

    I build Malta towards buffed FMAA and advanced agriculture. Sicily pumps out dromons for the entire game. After building an inn and a trading post, I switch between upgrading agriculture and trade on Sicily. On the first turn, I move one barque to Malta so that I can transfer units between my two-province kingdom.

    Note that these are the only two barques (2 def) you get. I think this is a mistake in the game, because Sicilians cannot build barques, only dromons and galleys, and firegalleys in High period. I try to keep the barques stationed at Sicily and Malta, since they are my best defensive ships, and losing sea access to Sicily totally destroys my income.

    No other faction seems too interested in the Sicilians at the start, which is not necessarily bad for you, since you do not want to get sucked into any conflicts. Send your princess to the Italian king, who typically will not have any sons left to marry, and will give you an alliance without taking your princess. The French will often ally with you, but the Byz, HRE, and English typically won’t. It’s OK to take Arab alliances, since you will have the opportunity to rescind the treaties later.

    It is during your first few years that you will have your best opportunity to take Naples. Naples is one of your GA homelands if the game lasts past 1205, and is held by the Byzantines. I build urban militia and an inn in Sicily and a fort in Malta. I invade with my king, 2 spears, 3 UM, and a peasant or two. If there are mercs available, so much the better. You will be facing a Byz infantry company and a naptha throwers. If you can supplement your troops with a missiler merc company, the battle will be much easier. However, mercs are rarely available this early.

    If you wait until later in the game to grab Naples, you will be risking a big naval war, and disruption of your substantial trade income, because Italy and Byzantium are the two most likely owners of Naples. The AI typically builds Italy to be a naval power in the Western Mediterranean, while it builds the Byz to be the dominant naval power in the East. By invading Naples before the Byz can connect to it with a line of ships, you can end the war quickly and cleanly (through lack of contact), while gaining a homeland province.

    Once you have Naples, you must continue to be vigilant of its borders throughout the game. The medieval Popes, as we all know, cannot be trusted to stay home in the Vatican and advocate peace. If the Papacy thinks it can win a battle in Naples, it will invade. If you do not win the initial battle, then any counterattack you make will get you excommunicated. So, unless and until you are ready to prosecute a war with the Pope to its conclusion and set up a puppet Pope, keep a large number of troops on Naples. The quality is not as important as the quantity, and you should have more than half the total number of troops the Papacy has in Rome and the Papal States posted in Naples at all times.

    After conquering Naples, for the next twenty to fifty years, I sit quietly and pump out dromons in Sicily. I believe dromons are superior to galleys, which are your other ship choice, for expanding into new areas. Dromons cost 100 more to build, but 5 less to maintain, so they will prove the better investment after 20 years of use. More importantly, galleys are slow and virtually useless as advance warships. With dromons and their speed of 4, you at least have the opportunity to escape an attack. Galleys just get sunk. Later on, I do try to construct defensive flotillas of 3-4 galleys to protect my trade lanes. But for initiating contact, I prefer dromons.

    You should have an inn in Sicily, which you built prior to the Naples invasion. In any event, an inn somewhere in your lands is absolutely necessary before you expand further. You need mercs to flesh out your armies. Unlike other factions, you will be well able to afford substantial merc armies because of your now-burgeoning trade income. In the meantime, I build only enough troops to secure provincial loyalty above 120% and to protect Naples. There is no need during this time to stress your budget with a huge army and its maintenance.

    On the diplomacy front, after spurning your advances initially, the Byz will plead for an alliance with you after the Turks attack them. I usually ignore the Byz by this time, and maintain my alliance with the Turks. The Byz are pretty powerful in this period, notwithstanding your conquest of Naples, and the fewer friends they have, the better it is for you. You do not want to get sucked into Byz politics and wars, nor do you want to have to choose between others and the Byz. The Byz will typically try to stop Crusades coming through Constantinople, causing conflict with the Pope and Christian factions. You want to stay totally out of this.

    The Almohads in Tunisia and Algeria are your early targets of expansion. You can connect to Tunisia with just one additional boat. The Spanish will go to war with the Almos, and you will want to have strategic pieces around to let you know how this war is progressing. Also, you will want to ally with Spain so that you can vacate any alliance you have with the Almohads.

    When the Spanish start to attack the Almos, at least successfully invading Cordoba, you want to stab the Almos in the back by buying up as many mercs as you can and sending your merc+FMAA army into Tunisia. Tunisia is typically poorly defended, but it is not worth much in terms of income, either. Your main goal is to push westward into Algeria, where the Almo king will usually be located. Bear in mind that, once you attack Tunisia, you are unlikely to find more mercs to hire at your inn, so load up on mercs first, before you go to war.

    By successfully invading Tunisia, you likely cut the Almo lands in half. Now their king is isolated in Algeria. Send your army of mercs+FMAAs+princes to capture Algeria and any other western Almo provinces. Either you will get a king’s ransom for your efforts, or you will destroy the Almos. You may not have the opportunity to bribe/invade Cyrenicia before the Egyptians grab it, in the latter case, but that’s OK, because it is one of the poorest provinces.

    Your merc war with the Almos will give you at least 4 provinces to work with. I usually build Tunisia to emissaries and missile troops (although you can’t get better than archers until High period), while I build Algeria to bishops and feudal sergeants. Sicily continues to pump out dromons—you will not be able to build better ships until High period—while I develop RKs in Naples so that I can replenish my prince units.

    With such a quiet beginning, about the only trouble you will have is marrying off your princes. Apparently your boys are an ugly bunch, with lots of warts and body odor. Virtually nobody wants to marry them. I have had good luck marrying them to French princesses, typically found in Flanders or Normandy. It seems the French don’t mind the body odor.

    In fact, loss of the game due to the lack of an heir is about the only risk you run in the Early Sicilian game. (The others are an attack by a naval power, or a revolt due to poor loyalty from your mercs.) If all else fails, marry your eldest prince to his sister. Their sons will be genetically challenged, but at least you will have a king to survive your current monarch. Needless to say, you must keep your king and eldest son out of battles until the line is secure.

    Sicilians get up to 15 GA points for Crusades, to 4 different provinces. This means you will almost certainly have to go to war with the Egyptians. It is best not to rush to this war. If the Egyptians are well-fortified, and no Western Crusades are near success, there is no reason to disrupt your trade with Egypt, which likely includes 6 ports of call.

    Build bishops and emissaries, and put one of each throughout the Egyptian lands. Keep an eye on the Turk-Byz conflict. This last can go on, back and forth, for a long time, or the Turks can get crushed, then resurge a few turns later. If the Turks resurge, the days of the Byzantines are numbered. If the Egyptians spot a weakness in either side of this war, they will invade Asia Minor. This action on the part of the Egyptians usually signals a good time for you to Crusade to Palestine.

    Don’t build just 1 Crusade. You need a minimum of 4 for your GA points alone, so build 5 crosses, if you can, before you start a war with the Egyptians. That way, you have a backup ready and waiting to go, should a Crusade fail. I build Crusades on Naples for the zeal bonus. Malta gives a valor add to Knights Hospitaller, but your Crusades will contain Knights Templar, so it’s useless to you in that regard.

    It’s pretty simple to build up a stash of over 100,000 gold in your treasury by 1150. Assuming you have not been unlucky and had a ship sunk every few years, you should be able to cover the entire Mediterranean with your dromons by that year. I typically expand to Tunisia, the Ligurian Sea, the Adriatic, the Egyptian lands, the Black Sea, and Northern Europe, in that order. You want this huge treasury, because your long trade routes are very fragile. The first ship that attacks you in Sicilian waters will completely cut off all trade.

    AI ships are all noticeably superior to yours, even though they may have the same valor and ship type. If you are attacked, you should immediately draw back all of your trade routes and gather your dromons into packs of 4 or 5. 4 or 5 dromons have at least a chance against a single Italian galley. Anything less, and you will just lose the battle.

    (In one war, I matched 16 of my dromons one-on-one against 16 Byz dromons. Despite my being the attacker in all 16 battles, and dromons have attack 1/defense 0, I won only 9 of the 16 battles. On the other hand, I have attacked a single 0 star dromon with 4 of my dromons, and lost all 4, while the enemy gained 2 stars. Hence, my assertion that the AI gets an advantage in ship combat, at least on expert.)

    Dromons are best at running away, anyway. Without a large fleet, you will not win a naval battle, so just move your dromons back and forth between sea sections. Their speed will usually keep them safe. The AI attackers will usually follow, and you can set up an ambush in this way, by placing one of your flotillas a square away, then running your single dromon to it. Ships cannot attack adjacent squares, but must occupy that square at the beginning of the turn, then attack. So, when an enemy enters the square containing your flotilla, you will get the chance to attack them. This is the one instance—ambush flotillas—where galleys may give you a slight advantage over dromons.

    Send your Crusades in a series against Egypt, while attacking at the same time with your main army from North Africa. Ideally, you want your Crusades to have 1 year of seasoning at home in your most zealous province, to increase their numbers, then they should arrive at their target on the same turn that your main army invades there.

    Once your serial Crusades have ripped through the Egyptians, it is often best to sit back and play opportunistically. You should have a cadre of bishops and emissaries that you can send throughout the world looking for rebellions. Always likely prospects are Livonia, Lithuania, and Norway. Whenever you find a rebel state, you should gang-bribe each stack of rebels with 2 or 3 emissaries. Cost is basically no object for you here, since your treasury could be as much as 200K by this time. Make sure you have plenty of troops ready to ship, though, so you can shore up the provincial loyalty once the bribes are accepted.

    Sooner or later, someone will get excommed or fall into civil war. You can grab a number of provinces this way. Use your bishops, since they are much less apt to get assassinated, to scout the interiors of the mainland—you should have a province dedicated to building only bishops. I suggest Cyrenicia or any other low-income province for this purpose.

    Once you have built all the applicable economic development, including at least 60% agriculture everywhere, continue to develop your provinces to build advanced units. Even though you receive no obvious benefit at this time (It’s not directly stated in the game what sort of bonus accrues, if any, for building master spearmakers and the like that are more advanced than the type of troop you can build during the Period.), you will have the jump on your opposition when the High Period begins. You will then be able to immediately start building advanced units.

    I usually end up with a patchwork of possessions in western Europe, while the Byz successfully expand throughout Asia. Sooner or later, you will be attacked, most likely by one or more western powers. To survive this sneak attack, you will need to have built large numbers of troops in your disconnected European provinces. Since you cannot get to them directly, these provinces need to repulse the first attacks all on their own, so you need a lot more than a mere garrison in each, and an inn is useful also.

    The AI will also seek to cut off the line of supply to these isolated provinces by attacking your ships. Pay close attention to provincial loyalties here, because the lack of communication by sea can dramatically drop loyalties by 100% or more. It’s also a good idea to relocate your king to the mainland, because if your enemy occupies the Straits of Sicily, your king has no communication whatsoever with the rest of your lands. It’s almost as bad as getting your king stuck in a siege. I usually move my king to Cordoba or Algeria.

    It’s usually a lot easier if a western nation (other than the Italians) attacks you, instead of the Byzantines. You are primarily a Mediterranean naval power, so loss of ships along the northern European coast will not affect you drastically. In war, try to maintain control of the Straits of Gibraltar, since this will keep enemies out of the Mediterranean, and will allow you to readily ship troops to western Europe to prosecute the war.

    It’s not that hard to wax all the western nations. After all the AI Spanish and Almohads frequently invade western Europe through the Pyrenees. You have all that they typically have, plus your land and sea holdings around the Mediterranean. Oftentimes, the Christian West will attack you sequentially as you finish off the previous enemy. In effect, they draw you into a sweeping conquest of all of Europe.

    In most games, you will have to go to war with the Byz before you can claim victory. On the one hand, this is not easy in the eastern Mediterranean, because the AI will build to be a naval power in this region. However, the Byz are strongest around their center of Constantinople. You can usually push strongly into their Asian holdings from the west without much difficulty, while applying the squeeze via land reinforcements in Asia Minor and around the Black Sea. Your west European holdings, and your trade route to the Baltic Sea are invaluable for attacking the Byz from the west.

    In the east, you will frequently have your naval routes disrupted, but then, you are also disrupting the Byz lines of communication in a series of naval contests. Unless and until you can capture Georgia, much of your warfare against the Byz in Asia Minor will be the equivalent of holding actions and raids. Once you take Georgia, you can zip around the Black Sea, while continuing to press from Asia Minor. Combined with your pressure from western Asia, this three-pronged attack will be enough to force the Byz to fold, and you can claim your Sicilian victory.

    The Sicilians (High)

    The start for the High Period Sicilians is significantly easier than the Early Period. You start with Naples, and you already own two shipyards and 3 ships. The Byzantines, so strong in the Early game, are significantly weakened here. The High Sicilians are still nearly a pure mercantile play, though.

    Build border forts in all your provinces. You will either have high loyalty, or good governors in your provinces (but not both, on expert). If you need more loyalty, spend one turn building cheap units, otherwise start on ships and bishops immediately. You need bishops because the Pope starts out with inquisitors—and guess who they visit first? Additional bishops can be sent to other lands to gather intelligence.

    Your emissary will soon need to spend all his time marrying off your ugly progeny. It’s a good idea to put bishops in Toulouse, Aragon, Flanders, and Normandy to spot princesses for him. Once you have eyes in place in those provinces, send your bishops to Asia Minor and Egyptian lands to preach and observe.

    The Middle East will be hopping with activity. There’s the 3-way war between the Byz, Turks, and Egyptians. There’s Crusades passing through to the eastern coasts. And then the Mongols invade in 1230. You don’t want any of that. Just post a bishop in each square so you can see what’s going on, and stay the heck out of there until much later.

    One area that is ripe for the plucking is southern Europe. All of the provinces between Trebizond and the Hungarian lands is rebel territory when you begin the game. You can’t afford Constantinople, and Italy will probably beat you to Greece, but Serbia, Wallachia, and Bulgaria are up for grabs.

    Personally, I prefer to bribe Serbia. Bulgaria and Wallachia are a bit far away, and also close to the Turks and Mongols, so trying to hold on to them is a lot riskier. Serbia, however, is right across the Adriatic. You will need to send troops to reinforce when the bribe is taken. But then you can build a port, and you will be sitting pretty. Serbia has no trade, but it does have gold and, more importantly, it allows you to build Slav warriors instead of peasants for your domestic police.

    However, the timing is delicate here. If you bribe too early, you will not have enough money to jumpstart your trade income. If you bribe too late, another faction will invade and kill all the rebels. I prefer about 5 years in, after I have built border forts and trading posts, and am starting on advanced shipyards. This means your emissary has a few turns to look for alliances before he must report to Serbia.

    Build advanced shipyards in Malta and Sicily as soon as you can, so that you can begin building firegalleys. Firegalleys are a bit more expensive, but they are significantly more powerful than any other option you have. Aggressively expand your trade routes. The AI builds ports rather rapidly in High period. Your best trade route, after connecting to the Adriatic and Ligurian Seas and the Gulf of Gabes, is to the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Connect these areas, build trade and agriculture, and you will soon have the highest income of any faction.

    Send your bishops into Central Europe to scout for rebels. Often the French or HRE, or both, lose their grip and have provinces slip away from them. You can carve out a space for yourself by bribing big stacks of rebels. (You need fairly large stacks, or a means of reinforcing, if you are going to hold on to the province.) Occasionally, your ally will invade just as your bribe goes through. Usually this means the province will go to the ally, who almost certainly invaded with superior numbers. If you have no means of escape, your lovely ally will now claim the province, and then offer to sell the men you just bribed back to you. Galling as it may be, it’s probably best to pay the ransom, since you have not devoted any effort up to now on increasing your armies, and therefore could use the extra men for defense.

    One consequence of this patchwork strategy is that you must very obeisant to the Pope. Central Europe is surrounded by Christians, and if you get excommunicated, it will be open season on you. You must maintain high troop numbers on your interior provinces, in any case, because you must keep the loyalty up. Most of the time, the AI factions will not attack you while you are maintaining large armies in your landlocked territories, and you can try to stay allied with as many neighbors as possible to further your safety somewhat.

    But if you get excommed, all bets are off. You are then likely to be attacked by the Italians, Hungarians, English, and Poles all at once. Even the Pope may get involved and invade Naples. Plus, He will soon be calling for Crusades against you. If you can pull everything back to Sicily, you have a chance to survive and rebuild using your naval and trade resources. More than likely, though, the game is lost.

    As an alternative, you can purposefully attack the Pope, just as the AI does when playing the Sicilians. The operative factor in this case is speed. If you attack all the Papal provinces on the same turn, then assault the castle containing the Pope on the very next turn, your lands will not react in the short time you are excommed. Delay for an extra year between your first attack and capturing the Pope, and you will see a large loyalty drop.

    You can still build Crusades in High period, but there are no GA points for Crusading. This is yet another reason not to fear attacking the Pope in the right circumstances. It makes little difference in your point total if there is a puppet Pope.

    Your general strategy should follow roughly that of the Early period. Except, I never seem to find the right time to attack the Almos early in the High period game. The detour to Serbia occupies my time and money, and the Almos are already bashing the Spanish by the time I can stick my head up and look around. Every time I get ready to build some troops and prepare an invasion force against the Almos, another province in western Europe goes rebel--and it’s a lot cheaper to bribe rebels than to start a war against another faction.

    So, typically the Almohads own everything from Cyrenicia to Cordoba—and the Egyptians attack me. If the HRE and French have been falling apart, it is likely you have been posting your bishops mostly in western Europe, so you don’t know a whole lot about the interior Egyptian lands. This is not really a problem, though. Just clear away the Egyptian ships protecting their shores, then pile a big merc army on the province of Egypt and march north.

    On the way, I like to build only a fort and an inn on Sinai, and use that province as a merc attractant. Mercs show up less often in provinces with developed castles. Sinai isn’t good for much else anyway, and I can afford to use mercs with my huge trade income. Note that you will need to upgrade all your merchant buildings to offset the income loss due to conquering provinces with a port.

    After the Egyptians are gone, I prefer to maintain peace across my northern border with whoever is in power in Asia Minor. Continue to grab whichever provinces go rebel, and stake out Norway and Livonia, which are almost always rebel. When you have enough ships to reach those territories, send your emissaries in to bribe them.

    I prefer to continue peacefully and let everyone else fight amongst themselves. However, if one faction starts to gain the upper hand, you will have to go to war with them, or face a gotterdammerung later. This also applies to the Almohads, if they start building lots of ships.

    You can’t afford to let the Almos become a naval power, which would prevent you from potentially transporting troops to North Africa. If the Almos start building ships (and the AI does this with surprising regularity if the Almos have beaten the Spanish), then you need to attack them as soon as you can.

    Try not to attack the Almos in a straight line from Egypt to Cordoba. This will allow them to throw everything they have at you. You will be forced to attack into the teeth of their defenses for the entire war. Instead, build up a naval superiority of firegalleys along the N. African coast. Then, on the turn you invade from Egypt, attack the Almo ships and take them out.

    With their naval protection ripped away, you can attack behind the main army fielded against you coming out of Egypt. Split the Almo forces, corner their king, and get a ransom. It’s not that you need the money so much as the fact that a king’s ransom will put the Almos in the red economically, and they will not be able to build replacements or ransom any soldiers for the rest of the war.

    Once you own all the former Egyptian and Almohad lands, it’s a fairly straightforward project to win the game. Continue to bribe the odd rebellious province. Smash the factions that have been splintered or, like the Spanish, reduced to a rump state by a war. The Russians, Turks, and Mongols will be battling it out in Asia, but this should not concern you much until the very end. You will need to conquer all of Europe and North Africa to win. Once you have those lands, prepare a simultaneous attack on one of the Asian factions. A surprise invasion should net about 4 provinces immediately, and that is often enough to immediately claim your Sicilian victory.
    Last edited by Sir Adrian; December 07, 2013 at 06:54 AM. Reason: fixed author hyperlink

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